Cruise for a honeymoon

You may get a bottle of sparkling wine and strawberries. All cruise lines have a romance package for purchase so you are not going to get a lot of free shit

We are doing a cruise on Oceania. Honestly, Carnival would not be my recommendation for a cruise honeymoon. Have you done your research about cruiselines so you know what you are getting into?

I am NOT a travel agent however I help plan all my family's and friends' vacations. One of the things that I see is people saying they'll try Carnival because it can't be that bad, then they go, and they never want to cruise again. If you choose something mediocre, it's not going to wow you.

What do you want in a cruise honeymoon? What are your priorities?

We are taking a Norwegian cruise for our honeymoon. I am looking into purchasing one of the "romance packages" they offer just as a little something extra for FH and I.

I'm also inclined to agree with @Susan and @Kate about Carnival. I would definitely recommend Royal Caribbean or Norwegian if you haven't booked already.

Agree about Carnival, that would be my very last choice. We also went on an 11 night Norwegian cruise. If you're not embarrassed, try and get picked for the newlywed game. My DH and I did and we actually won. It was hilarious.

@Kate, no, we left 10/31 out of NYC. We were on the Gem, who had a mechanical issue with a propeller and had to be flown home from Barbados. The last 3 days were a shitshow!

@Kate, yeah it was insane. We found out on Wednesday that the boat wouldn't make it back to NYC in time so they were getting charter planes. Said we'd have letters to say when we were leaving. First, they put me and DH on seperate flights. Then, once it was fixed, he had TWO hours to have our luggage packed and out in the hall. Plus, we were drunk-ish. So we had customs at 1am and to the airport at 3am, flight at 9am, to Newark and waited three hours for luggage. Got to hotel at 9pm and then to JFK the next day. We were up for 36 hours. Can you say nightmare? lol

Thanks so much for the help! We did book Carnival with a $100 deposit so if we end up booking a different cruise line its not the end of the world. We looked at other cruise lines like Royal Carribean and Norwegian but we are wanting to leave on 3/25/18 so it was more difficult finding a cruise departing on that date!! I will look right now again and see what i can find!!

Ladies, call me a cruise snob, but I don't think Norwegian is much better. I'd do Princess, Celebrity, or step up to Oceania or Azamara.

We took a cruise for our honeymoon (and did Carnival...yes, it was more family oriented). I don't think DH put on our reservation that we were on our honeymoon, but we were asked once on board if we were celebrating anything. I think DH said there was a questionnaire he filled out in our room when we first got there and he put that we were celebrating our honeymoon. Our servers also asked about celebrations the first night at dinner. We got a gift card to the spa and the photo shop left on our bed, free champagne and a special, extra dessert the night we went to the steakhouse, and one night at dinner, our servers brought us an extra dessert, sang "happy honeymoon" to us, and I think the MC at dinner that night also gave us a shoutout.

It's not the family oriented I think is bad about Carnival. There's nothing wrong with cruiselines being family oriented. Disney does it very well, for example.

Carnival is cheap. The food budget pp/pd is somewhere around $6- the lowest among any of the mass market cruiselines. The ships are tacky. There's nothing in the way of good service anymore because the employees have too many guests to cater for. The passenger to space ratio is poor, and the passenger to staff ratio is even worse. It's not in any way luxurious.

Norwegian is only slightly better when measured on those fronts, but I give them big demerits for charging the gratuity on their "free" drink package- the only cruiseline to do so. I also think that Freestyle isn't in line with cruising in general, and while some of their pay restaurants serve at least acceptable food, their free dining rooms are abysmal.

I havent been on a cruise for a honeymoon yet but I went earlier this year for my bday on Carnival to the Bahamas. They have tons of things you can purchase to make it special. I even got a $50 Certificate for the spa for my birthday.

@Kate I missed your bam :-( I stalked WW for like two days looking for it #StalkerLife

We looked at Celebrity but it is a significantly older crowd than FH and I. They do have really great itineraries though on Celebrity.

ETA- we also didn't find the food on our Norwegian cruise to be "abysmal" and FH liked that we could pick a time to eat whereas on Royal we had a set dining time.

I feel somewhat entitled to call myself that. I have taken more than 20 cruises dating back to 1992, with the most recent being this past May, so I've seen how things have changed over time with various lines.

My main point is that for just a little more money most of the time, you could have a much, much better experience. But people don't do their research on vacations, which is a pet peeve of mine. When you're spending more money than you are on your wedding dress, put some time into learning about the line and even more so that specific ship, since experiences can vary wildly based on the age and quality of the ship. Figure out what your wants are in a vacation and look for a line that markets to that, instead of looking at ports or price or dates.

It's worth it to have a better experience.

The older crowds on cruise ships do not bother me, but I also do not party so meh. Royal Caribbean is my go to line but NCL offered a drink package so we are using them for the honeymoon. I find my cruises based on ports first then the line. However, I refuse to take another Carnival cruise. I had fun cause it was vacation but it was not my cup of tea. Royal has some newer ships that are amazing

@Keisha I also prefer Royal Caribbean but FH likes NCL and since our last cruise was on Royal I figured it was fair to trade on and off.

We did a Mediterranean cruise on RC for our honeymoon last year. There was a bottle of champagne in the room when we arrived and an invitation to some party with other couples that were honeymooning. That was meh, but they did have cake

@Susan Prices and dates are often a deciding factor when planning any vacation, cruise or not.

I didn't find the food on NCL anywhere close to "abysmal." I wouldn't even call the food on Carnival abysmal, just boring.

@Katie- check out Vacations to go for help finding cruises leaving on your date, at great prices/

http://www.vacationstogo.com/ticker.cfm

Also check www.cruisecritic.com

You can search for a cruise, but also more importantly, check their forums for helpful discussions on Cruise LInes, their individual ships , cruise itineraries and ports.

Don't make any decision based on any one person's opinions. Just like reviews on any other travel destination, remember that people who weren't happy are ten times more likely to post than those who had a great time. There is a cruise and a cruise line for everyone. Some people couldn't have a great time no matter where they are.

We cruise with Norwegian, often. For our honeymoon we went the cruise route. It was not our first choice, but with FH's work schedule it worked out best! So, we added a romance package and have a suite to add to the spice!

@Elayna what romance package did you get?

So I just had my honeymoon on a Carnival cruise!!!!! We also marked that it was our honeymoon because they ask why you're taking the cruise. During our first night in the diner we had finished eating and declined dessert that day. Before we could get up and leave, a group of waiters came to our table and told everyone around us that we had just gotten married. They sang a song to us and placed a dessert in the table. It was really sweet and we were definitely surprised. The cruise itself was amazing and we had a balcony room so that was even more amazing. I had no complaints about our cruise on Carnival so I guess you have to decide for yourself what you'll enjoy.