STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

e_doli · Dooney & Bourke

more cruise info

Mia · Kate Spade

This so depends on her personality. Is she an outgoing person who loves socializing? Or more interested in eating gourmet food and being entertained by proper classical musicians?

Most cruises sound like nightmares to me...but that's just me being anti-social and misanthropic.

Ally S · Kate Spade

I'm not a cruise person either, the sheer thought you might have to socialize with people you never would sort of freaks me out.

I had a friend and her hubby that went on a Carnivale cruise (why, oh why?) they were given the tickets and they went to the Virgin Islands. They had a horrible time, and found it difficult to just hang out they said there was a lot of pressure to *participate*.

bumblebee · Dooney & Bourke

i was afraid to post this before, but now that ally has broken the silence...i went on one cruise and HATED it. i had a bad time. my friends and i were the only people on the boat under the age of 60 (yet over the age of 12). the food was AWFUL and institutitional (and in complete over-abundance). we hid out in our shoebox room and thanked the heavens that we only signed up for the three-day-er.

e_doli · Dooney & Bourke

yeah, i'm not really into the cruise thing -- just trying to be a supportive and helpful bridesmaid. if anyone tried to make me "participate" i think i would probably end up throwing them overboard. and bumblebee, "awful", "institutional", and overabundant are all exactly the words i would expect to hear in a cruise description. anyway ...

i think the thought behind it is that she wants something tropical and her fiance's side are pretty cheesey so a cruise would be right up their alley (otherwise i'm sure she's going to get all kinds of grief about it). also, it's going to be a small, more friends than family wedding so if we had a group of cool people to hang out with (and plenty of alcohol) i'm sure we could make the best of it.

i guess this was my disclaimer ... if anyone still has recommendations we wont' hold it against you..

bumblebee · Dooney & Bourke

gosh, i sound like such a brat--i didn't mean to. i actually had expected that i would like a cruise because my parents have been on several and they have really liked them--and they aren't cheesy at all. they are both pretty sophisticated travelers who have been just about everywhere. i think the difference is that they usually went with big groups of people for my dad's industry events, so they were busy and interacting with lots of people the whole time. part of the problem with ours is that it was taken over by this giant group of elderly women (literally, like 80% of the passengers were part of this group), and so my three friends and i didn't really have anyone except ourselves to talk to or interact with. with a big wedding party, i think this situation would improve 100%--you'd probably have a really good time.

i think also that the longer cruises, like to the caribbean, etc. have much higher quality in terms of food and entertainment than the little 3-day mexico cruise i did. and actually, a friend of mine who is much more of a "joiner" than i am went on a carnival cruise to the same location that we did, and he had a blast. so there you go--i think it really depends on where you go, who else is on the ship at the time (this, to me, seems to be the key make or break it element), and how long the cruise is.

-- Edited by bumblebee at 13:21, 2005-01-12

valenciana · Dooney & Bourke

My future in-laws have taken a couple Celebrity Cruises and really liked them. I got the impression from them that they weren't as cheesy as I would have suspected. And if I recall, they have "private" dining available, or at least, the option of sitting at your own table and not with a bunch of strangers. Of course that wouldn't be much of a problem in your friend's case, since there would be people they know there with them. As others said, I can imagine that would be 100 times better.

And yeah, this is exactly why I have since crossed cruises off the honeymoon idea list:

"Most cruises sound like nightmares to me...but that's just me being anti-social and misanthropic."

Elle · Hermes

I would advise your friend to contact a travel agent. Even if they aren't planning on booking through them, they can offer helpful insights. For the anti-socials, most cruise lines offer privat dining as well as traditional seating (you can walk into one of their restaurants and be seated alone, as well as reserve tables, or you can be seated with the same group of people at a large table each evening). Different cruise lines also attract different 'crowds'. Celebrity, while one of the pricier cruise lines, draws a much more sophisticated group than carnival (elderly, children, and teen/college partiers) or God forbid Disney (fams w/lots-o-young-ins). A travel agent should be able to give your friend valuable insight and hopefully match her and her wedding party with a cruise line and destination to suit them.