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Talk to me about cruises
DH and I have never been on a cruise. We are thinking of going away for the week of our 5th wedding anniversary, October 2012. Avery will just be turning 2 years old the week before. We like the idea of a cruise since you can make some cool stops at different places, tons of stuff to do on the ship, and I hear the food is great. My two worries are that I get motion sickness (mostly flying, randomly in the car) and I'm afraid of heights. I don't know how I would feel walking around up high on a ship. The combination of those two things happening could suck. Is there a lot of movement on the ship when you are sailing? Anyone else have a stupid fear of heights, but did fine on the cruise? What liner did you cruise on and where did you stop? We are wanting to do something out of Galveston so we don't have to pay for plane tickets. My other vacation option is looking into some really nice resorts that have lots included. Any recs on anything like that would be great too. 
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Re: Talk to me about cruises
We did a Mediterranean cruise for our honeymoon on Princess Cruise Lines. I can't recommend the cruise line enough, they were -amazing-. My luggage was lost in Civitavecchia for almost 2 weeks (airport's fault, not Princess's) and they gave me $500 to spend in the stores onboard to buy clothes and toiletries, a girl at the front desk loaned me her digital camera, and they burned all of the photos to a DVD at the photographer's booth onboard for free. They also washed and pressed my clothes ever night, and delivered them before dawn. Seriously, without them our honeymoon would have totally sucked. Even beyond all of that, their customer service was stellar every step of the way.
I get pretty bad motion sickness and never had a problem on the ship, but we got stuck out on a tender boat because the sea was too choppy for them to approach the cruise ship. Everyone was pretty green by the time we got onboard.
I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't think you'll have a problem. If you do, just stay away from the edge. The ships are so huge it wouldn't be a problem to avoid the outer walkways.
Depends partially on where you are cruising. Last year we did a Mexican Riviera cruise, and all of the ports of call were on the outbound trip, so on the return, we were further out in the Pacific and it was bumpy. I was 3 months pg and got very sick (like, couldn't even keep down water). Didn't help that our cabin was towards the front of the ship, and of course, since I was pg, couldn't take anything for the motion sickness. I would think that with a combination of a cabin in the middle of the ship, calmer waters (like, Caribbean), and motion sickness meds, you'd be ok.
We were on Norweigan, and for a variety of reasons, I was not impressed (for one, construction on the cabin balconies all day long while at sea). It's supposed to be one of the nicer lines though, so maybe it's just that I'm not a fan of cruising to begin with. Lots of people love it though!
I've been on 2 Carnival cruises. I don't get motion sick, and I'm not afraid of heights, so I can't really speak to those issues personally. But I can tell you: my first cruise was from NOLA to Cozumel/Playa Del Carmen, in Sept 2002, and we sailed RIGHT THROUGH Hurrican Isidore (Cat 3 hurricane). It was rough as rough could be. 25-ft sea swells (average/normal is 2-4ft). People were sick for days, including crew members, waiters dropped trays of food every meal, etc. I went with a big group of people, and most of them wore the Dramamine patch that you wear behind your ear, and they were fine (only one girl in our group couldn't get out of bed until we were out of the hurricane, like 2.5 days later).
My second cruise was this past Feb from Galveston to Cozumel and back, and it was perfect. I don't remember it being rough at all, even though the weather was cold and rainy in Cozumel.
My overall perception of cruises: I had fun both times because I was with a large-ish group of friends (DH didn't go on either one, and will probably never take a cruise - it's totally not his thing), but it would be okay if I never went on another one. There's nothing specific I disliked about it, except the cost of drinks which is ridiculous, but overall I find cruises a little cheesy. Of course, that could be because I've only cruised on Carnival, which is dubbed "The WalMart of Cruising". There are lots of activities every day that you would probably find plenty of fun things to do. The food was pretty good, especially in the dining room. The buffets I thought were kind of "Meh". The sandwich counter was awesome, though.
I actually prefer going somewhere on land, taking a 1-day sailboat cruise or something, and spending the rest of the week exploring our destination/city, etc. We went to Roatan, Honduras on our honeymoon and did exactly this, and we had an absolute blast! And it was MUCH cheaper than a cruise!
When 3 Became 4
We went on the same cruise as Sandie.
I agree that the onboard activities weren't really enough, but DH and I are movers on vacation- like up at 8am exploring, hiking, etc. Bingo and charades in the theatre were not our game, neither was gambling, which is the prime attraction at sea. And eating. If you're chill-out kind of people, it may be the perfect activity level.
It was nice going to the three places, but it felt more like vacation previews- you can't thoroughly enjoy a location in 6-8 hours.
The thing that made it fun for us is that we went with a large group of firefighters- that's the only way we'd cruise again.
As far as heights, it's like walking on a football field- you don't see down unless you go to the edge (with large railings), and there's a great view far enough back. For motion sickness, be sure to get a cabin in the middle of the boat (end-to-end) to minimize movement.
I have been on a couple of cruises in the past, both on Carnival cruise line. I know it is not the best line to cruise on so take that into consideration. I probably wouldn't do one again unless it was somewhere like a Mediterranean cruise. It is nice to get to see several different places on one trip, but I think we did a 7 day cruise and only went to 3 destinations. Thats 4 days on the boat and it gets old kinda quick. We left out of Galveston and went to Belize, Cozumel, and Progresso. The first two were great stops, Progresso not so much. The food was good. My other con to cruising is added expenses. Yes you can get cruise tickets for pretty cheap but you have to add on gratuity, all alcoholic drinks (we like to drink), and any excursions. Most of your stops you will want to do an excursion.
I love, love, love the all inclusive resorts in Mexico/Mayan Rivera, so that would be what I recommend over cruising. My fave was the Excellence Riviera Cancun (not actually in Cancun) or the Royal in Playa del Carmen. You could get flight and hotel for about $1000-1200 pp and that includes all food and alcohol. Food is awesome there!!! Great beach and lots of activities around the resort. We only did one full day excursion while there. Otherwise just hung out at the resort or went into town.
All in all, cruising can be a fun vacation, especially if you have never done one before, but me personally, I would rather spend a week on the beach at an all inclusive.
I'll be able to give you a better review once I'm back from my first cruise, but I can offer the advice of checking out Cruise Critic. There is a ton of info on that website, from destination reviews, ship reviews, excursion reviews, etc.
My BF's family loves to cruise. I think his dad has probably been on 10+ cruises. His favorite cruise line is Royal Caribbean, and their favorite cruise area is the Carribbean. For his 60th birthday, a big group of extended family (like, 20 people, including a less than 1 yr old baby) cruised the Western Caribbean and they still talk about how much fun they had--five years later.
It seems like a cruise is as much fun as you make it. Want to relax? Find some chairs in the shade or by the pool and read or play. Want to do stuff? Tons of choices on board. Want to do group excursions? Lots of choices. Want to plan your own time while you're in port? Do it!
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i've been on three cruises and have had a great time each and every time. i love the days on the ship where i can just lounge by the pool! there are plenty of activities to keep you occupied and i really love how you don't have to worry about anything.
i've never traveled with DS so i'm not sure how that would work. there are pools that you could take your DD in. some ships have services with kids clubs (not certain of the ages though) and you can get babysitting services on some of them as well.
one of the cruises we took was out of galveston, it was on the carnival conquest (i think they have a new ship for the 7-day cruise now). i think carnival is just fine -- it's pretty family friendly. i have taken a cruise on royal caribbean and loved that even more -- but i'm pretty sure royal caribbean doesn't cruise out of galveston anymore.
the carnival ship out of galveston went to ocho rios, jamaica, cozumel and grand cayman. all of the stops were great and there is a lot to do in each one. in jamaica we went to an all-inclusive hotel for the day and lounged around there and drank a lot of pina coladas. in cozumel we took a ferry over to cancun and took a tour to xcaret (which was so fun we ended up going back to xcaret for a vacation later). in grand cayman we went swimming with the stingrays and then went and played at 7-mile beach.
check out cruisecritic.com for lots of input/feedback regarding your cruise.
oh -- when we went on carnival they allow you to bring on your own wine. we brought about 6-7 bottles and that got us through the week. we took one to dinner each night and were never charged a corking fee. it saved us a lot of $$ on drinks.
ditto the pp who mentioned that sometimes the costs of activities can add up. a lot of the excursions are a lot of $$ and can add hundreds of dollars to your trip so you'll want to research that first.
eta: i forgot to mention -- i've never gotten sea sickness on a cruise. you will feel the ship gently rocking sometimes, especially at night when you're sleeping. usually when you're heading back to port (at the end of the cruise) the ship goes a lot faster so sometimes you'll feel the rocking then. you could always take an anti-nausea medicine and you should be fine. also if you have a tendency to get motion sickness you would probably be better off with an ocean view or a balcony room so you can see what is going on.
I've only ever been on one cruise (carni-val), and it was meh for me. Our boat was kinda small and older, there was only one very small pool and it was filled with kids so we didn't even try to get in it.
The food was alright, not great, IMO.
We went for 5 days and I recommend going longer. We had 2 days at port and 3 on the water, and with a so-so boat, we didn't find there was much to do during the day that we wanted to do. If the boat had more/bigger pools I think it would have been more fun.
We left port with TS Dolly in the gulf, and EVERYONE on our boat was puking. The sea was so rough, and looking out the windows you saw the horizon going up and down, up and down. There was A LOT of movement, more than I even thought there would be on such a big ship. I was fine, but most everyone else was not. I have a stomach of steel though, so take that for what it's worth.
Overall, I wouldn't do that particular cruise again, and I would pick a more upscale cruise line. I think they can be quite a lot of fun. And make sure it's not during hurricane season.
Not sure when Balihai last cruised, but this past Feb, Carnival's policy was only 1 bottle of wine per person could be carried on. We had 4 people (we all shared 1 room), so we had 4 bottles in our room and I think we only drank 2 of them. We were too lazy to bring it with us or go back to teh room to refill so we bought our ($8) drinks on deck.
Also, just so you know - Carnival told us when we cruised thru the hurricane in 2002, that they will almost ALWAYS still sail even if there's a terrible storm. We'd been hoping they would re-route us to Grand Cayman/Jamaica or something, but no dice - they said they'll usually go through it unless it's just too bad, then they'll do their best to skirt it but will always do whatever they can to stick to the schedule.
So a big ditto to the pp's advice to not go during hurricane season!
When 3 Became 4
OK I'm back. We just got back Sunday from my 3rd cruise. It was on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, which is the largest cruise ship at sea right now. We took DD and she's still napping 2x/day, so it made it hard to do a lot, but we still enjoyed it. I've only ever cruised RC, so take that FWIW. In my opinion, cruises are a great vacation for the money. You have your room, food, and entertainment all for one price, except for the liquor as above poster mentioned, but we are not big drinkers, so that's not a problem for me.
I've always heard that the lower you stay in the ship, the less motion there is and after 3 cruises, I can say that is true. I'm not prone to motion sickness at all, but on this cruise I had some. The ship was 17 decks tall and we stayed on deck 14, so the motion was a lot more obvious than on my previous cruises where we stayed on Decks 3 and 6, respectively.
I agree with the previous poster that said you can pretty much do whatever you want. If you want to lounge around and do little, you can. If you want to go, go, go and be busy all day and night, you can totally do that. You can't beat the food on a cruise, either. Many nights, I ordered 2 appetizers or desserts or whatever just so I could try them. The food is amazing.
Good luck with your decision!
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i love cruises! I've been on at least 15 and, to me, they are the perfect vacation. My mom is deathly afraid of heights and for some reason the cruise height above the water doesn't bother her. Go figure. I also haven't noticed too much movement when I'm on board. I feel like you get more sick on a small vessel than a larger one. That's just my personal experience.
The great thing is that you don't have to worry about what restaurants are good or where you're going to stay. All of that is taken care of and you get to go to several different destinations in one trip without the hassle of driving or flying all over the place.
My mom is a travel agent and she specializes in cruises....she tours most of them pretty frequently as part of her job. She doesn't charge for her service to you but the cruise company gives her commission for the booking so its a good deal both ways since you can give her an idea of what you're looking for to get a more personalized recommendation that just online. Here's my email if you're interested... martinirossijuly5 at gmail dot com.