Which cruise?

[jbrinkm]

We're looking at cruises for Spring Break next year and I'd love opinions to help us decide which one! A few details - we are a family of 2 parents and 2 teens and will try to book 2 connecting rooms. We need Oasis, Quantum or an amped older ship. Favorite activities are 1. snorkeling, 2. active/fun/thrill activities (i.e. zip lines, ATVs, water slides, etc... - at the very least, a beach with kayaking or paddle boarding). We did Allure this past year to Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan and had a blast.

Our options with prices as they stand right now - prices are a little high for that week so I'm only pricing connecting interiors at the moment:

1. Allure again, same itinerary, except from Galveston instead of Ft. Lauderdale. (Cozumel, Costa Maya, Roatan) 7 nights $3,415.16 USD

2. Voyager leaving from Puerto Rico, St. Thomas + St. Croix + St. Maarten + St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts $3,793.00 USD

3. Oasis, CocoCay + P.R. + St. Maartin, leaving from Miami 7 nights $4,138.72 USD

4. Odyssey from Fort Lauderdale, Grand Cayman + Jamaica + CocoCay, Bahamas 6 nights $4,964.68 USD

Airfare is a factor, but not sure what to say about it. Puerto Rico and Houston and Florida all look like the same price right now (expensive, lol) right now. Thoughts? 

[Swar]

It really is an individual choice. Saying that, if you want island intensive go with #2 - we basically did that setup in March on the Explorer (lots of fun, but intensive). If you're more about the ship, I would do #3. Getting to Miami has to be somewhat cheaper and easier than getting to PR. #1 would be out since you've been there, done that.

[AshleyDillo]

You may also want to consider not looking for connecting rooms and go with neighboring rooms or something like an interior across from an oceanview. I'm not sure what the maturity level of your teens are, but if there isn't a necessity to have the connecting door between the rooms, you often can find the rooms at cheaper prices.

Keep in mind that cruising out of Galveston is going to have the added cost of getting from Houston to Galveston.  It's 45 mins to an hour depending on which airport in Houston you are flying into.  It's a much more expensive Uber ride than flying into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale or even San Juan.

The San Juan itinerary is great.  I think that alone is engaging enough to make up for the smaller ship.  Plus leaving from San Juan is almost like having another port to explore for your pre- or post-cruise stay.  That being said, you have already experienced an Oasis class ship with the Allure.  It's the same ship with the same activities you had on Allure but add in slides (water slides and a dry slide) and some different dining and shows to experience.

[ChessE4]

I would favor #1 or #2.  My son sailed on Voyager in May, and he found it OK but of course smaller than Oasis-class and showing its age.  We are sailing out of Galveston in December on the Allure.  Cozumel is interesting if you are willing to take the ferry to the mainland and try the Amazing Secret River (wading through a cave system in swimsuits) or cenote excursions.

[DMLM]

Any of the selected cruises sound great.  The experience will largely depend on what you make of it.  The ships are different, the ports are different, but they all offer the backdrop for what can be a great adventure.

A few thoughts regarding activities.  Jamaica has Dunn's River Falls (which can be fun to climb) and I believe a different trip we did the horseback ride that also went into the water which was fun (caution on horse poop in the water), Grand Cayman is supposed to have amazing scuba and snorkeling (we have done the sting ray sand bar excursion and that was fun), Coco Cay has Thrill water Park, and most islands will have the beaches to get the Kayak/Jet Ski type activities. 

I think you will find what you are looking for on any of these trips.  Enjoy your planning, but more importantly, have a great cruise on any of them!   

[jbrinkm]

15 hours ago, Swar said:

It really is an individual choice. Saying that, if you want island intensive go with #2 - we basically did that setup in March on the Explorer (lots of fun, but intensive). If you're more about the ship, I would do #3. Getting to Miami has to be somewhat cheaper and easier than getting to PR. #1 would be out since you've been there, done that.

7 hours ago, ChessE4 said:

I would favor #1 or #2.  My son sailed on Voyager in May, and he found it OK but of course smaller than Oasis-class and showing its age.  We are sailing out of Galveston in December on the Allure.  Cozumel is interesting if you are willing to take the ferry to the mainland and try the Amazing Secret River (wading through a cave system in swimsuits) or cenote excursions.

I think my teens are more about the ship. That's what they said they enjoyed most about the cruise we took this year. My husband and I are more about the destinations, but hopefully we'll have plenty of years of cruising without the kids to see yet unexplored destinations... I probably should rule out #2, especially with what @ChessE4 said about Voyager showing its age. I thought the teens might enjoy the amped features (slides and something else, can't remember...)

15 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

You may also want to consider not looking for connecting rooms and go with neighboring rooms or something like an interior across from an oceanview. I'm not sure what the maturity level of your teens are, but if there isn't a necessity to have the connecting door between the rooms, you often can find the rooms at cheaper prices.

Keep in mind that cruising out of Galveston is going to have the added cost of getting from Houston to Galveston.  It's 45 mins to an hour depending on which airport in Houston you are flying into.  It's a much more expensive Uber ride than flying into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale or even San Juan.

The San Juan itinerary is great.  I think that alone is engaging enough to make up for the smaller ship.  Plus leaving from San Juan is almost like having another port to explore for your pre- or post-cruise stay. 

That being said, you have already experienced an Oasis class ship with the Allure.  It's the same ship with the same activities you had on Allure but add in slides (water slides and a dry slide) and some different dining and shows to experience.

OK, I'll consider the rooms next to each other. Especially if we end up doing interior rooms. We were nervous about having balconies last time (our first time) and really needed the connecting rooms to keep an eye on them, but prices, alas, have gone up... I'm not sure our flight to Houston would be more expensive than Florida - as I said, all prices are about the same right now to Houston, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and Puerto Rico. The cruise from Galveston is priced enough lower that it would make up for the extra travel costs, so I'm not worried about that. My son is only 13, so if there's only a slight increase for connecting, it might still be worth it to connect. We were back and forth to each others' rooms all the time with the connecting rooms.

We really enjoyed Allure and would love to go back to Roatan in particular. Probably wouldn't go see Mamma Mia again, but there's so much more to do on that ship.

I'm a little confused about your sentence - "That being said, you've already... Allure". Were you talking about Oasis here? That would be the biggest draw for #3 - an Oasis class ship, but with just a few more things to do. I'm sure teens would love Coco Cay - we've never been - but not sure about the snorkeling in PR or St. Maartin. Probably I'm going to rule that one out, as well. I think we'd do just as well on Allure. It's not like we'd enjoy CATS on Oasis . I'm hoping that the Mayan waterpark in Costa Maya might be back open by April 2023 so kids can get their water slides fix there, off the ship, instead of needing them on the ship!

Thank you! You've all helped me narrow it down between #1 and #4. Odyssey would be really fun and exciting to see new places (never been to CocoCay or Grand Cayman, @DMLM thanks for suggestions!) and a new ship but comes with a higher price tag... Would love any additional thoughts between those two!

[Allen2]

Not necessarily a bad thing, but often the groups in the lounges (#2, Puerto Rico) perform in Spanish.

[Linda R]

I just booked a cruise on Oasis the beginning of June next year.  And we are taking our 3 grandkids.  They will  be 11, 11 and 14 next June.  They have never been on a plane nor a cruise.  And only seen the ocean once.  They do not know yet, but will be so surprised  when they are told a few weeks prior.  Plus one is celebrating a birthday.

Anyway, we picked  Harmony  with 2 connecting balcony cabins.  Those were the last connecting cabins available on that ship and sailing.  The total for all 5 of us was $7,304.   It is expensive, but also a once in a lifetime thing.  They live in another state than we do, and we don't get to see them much.

I would recommend the Oasis ship.  They are my favorite class.  I personally would not want to leave from PR or Galveston, more of a hassle to get to and from.  I also expect PR the flights would cost more?  Voyager  is smaller, and not as much to do.  I would book asap if you are looking at spring break. Have a great time!

[jbrinkm]

1 hour ago, Linda R said:

I just booked a cruise on Oasis the beginning of June next year.  And we are taking our 3 grandkids.  They will  be 11, 11 and 14 next June.  They have never been on a plane nor a cruise.  And only seen the ocean once.  They do not know yet, but will be so surprised  when they are told a few weeks prior.  Plus one is celebrating a birthday.

Anyway, we picked  Harmony  with 2 connecting balcony cabins.  Those were the last connecting cabins available on that ship and sailing.  The total for all 5 of us was $7,304.   It is expensive, but also a once in a lifetime thing.  They live in another state than we do, and we don't get to see them much.

I would recommend the Oasis ship.  They are my favorite class.  I personally would not want to leave from PR or Galveston, more of a hassle to get to and from.  I also expect PR the flights would cost more?  Voyager  is smaller, and not as much to do.  I would book asap if you are looking at spring break. Have a great time!

That sounds amazing, and so generous of you @Linda R! I'm sure that your grandkids will have an absolutely wonderful time. You may already be doing this, but I made some connections beforehand in the roll call forum and found some other families with nervous teens for mine to hang out with so the teen space and trying to make friends wasn't so overwhelming. Your younger two will be together in the organized kids club if they do the program at all, but the 14 year old might feel a little unsure by themselves on the ship. Just a thought!

We have airports nearby and airlines that have decent prices to Puerto Rico. I know Voyager is older, but she IS amped with slides and VR and there's a port stop every day. But I think my kids would prefer to have more time on a cool ship this next cruise based on their comments about the highlights of our last one. I think my husband and I can wait until we're cruising without them () to visit all of those Southern Caribbean islands. Oasis is cool and has the slides but it is $700 more, and I'm not thrilled with the ports at all. CocoCay would be fine but I don't think the snorkeling is that great at either PR or St. Maarten (my absolute favorite activity in the Caribbean). We really enjoyed Allure and the itinerary: the snorkeling is always good at Cozumel, we absolutely LOVED Roatan (our first time) and I'm hoping the waterslide park will be back open again in Costa Maya. Galveston might be a pain to get to the port but we'll save enough money on Allure to balance it out.

Prices on flights right now are almost the same for all of the places I listed. I've been tracking them and they're supposed to go down for that week (theoretically) towards the end of the month. That may be the deciding factor. If I can get really inexpensive flights to Miami for that week, I'll splurge on Odyssey. We've never done a Quantum class ship and I love that itinerary. But if flights are about the same, we'll probably go back to Allure again and be happy to do so!

 

[Linda R]

17 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

That sounds amazing, and so generous of you @Linda R! I'm sure that your grandkids will have an absolutely wonderful time. You may already be doing this, but I made some connections beforehand in the roll call forum and found some other families with nervous teens for mine to hang out with so the teen space and trying to make friends wasn't so overwhelming. Your younger two will be together in the organized kids club if they do the program at all, but the 14 year old might feel a little unsure by themselves on the ship. Just a thought!

We have airports nearby and airlines that have decent prices to Puerto Rico. I know Voyager is older, but she IS amped with slides and VR and there's a port stop every day. But I think my kids would prefer to have more time on a cool ship this next cruise based on their comments about the highlights of our last one. I think my husband and I can wait until we're cruising without them () to visit all of those Southern Caribbean islands. Oasis is cool and has the slides but it is $700 more, and I'm not thrilled with the ports at all. CocoCay would be fine but I don't think the snorkeling is that great at either PR or St. Maarten (my absolute favorite activity in the Caribbean). We really enjoyed Allure and the itinerary: the snorkeling is always good at Cozumel, we absolutely LOVED Roatan (our first time) and I'm hoping the waterslide park will be back open again in Costa Maya. Galveston might be a pain to get to the port but we'll save enough money on Allure to balance it out.

Prices on flights right now are almost the same for all of the places I listed. I've been tracking them and they're supposed to go down for that week (theoretically) towards the end of the month. That may be the deciding factor. If I can get really inexpensive flights to Miami for that week, I'll splurge on Odyssey. We've never done a Quantum class ship and I love that itinerary. But if flights are about the same, we'll probably go back to Allure again and be happy to do so!

 

Sounding good.  I am sure whatever you chose everyone will have a fabulous time!  I was on Odyssey in May for the first time.  A great ship.  Thank you for your comments.  Enjoy

[jbrinkm]

Shhh... I'm throwing NCL Breakaway into the possibility mix as well. Hard to know the exact price on that website, but I think I can get connecting balconies for less than $5000, and that includes the beverage package AND excursion credit AND wifi credit. Plus a really great itinerary. But goes from New Orleans so I'd have to get a good flight deal to make it happen. I'm surprisingly nervous about the thought of trying a cruise line that isn't RCCL - we've only ever done Royal since we had kids (Princess, Carnival and Celebrity before kids, never Norwegian).