Hey Hon! Baltimore Cruise!

June 9, 2009 5:32 PM

Hey Hon, I want to cruise!

We've taken Caribbean cruises out of Baltimore twice, but the last one was in 2003. It was great!...

...as was (in romantic retrospect) the super bargain cruise on a horrible small ship with The Temptations as the premier onboard entertainment.

I want to wow my wife and surprise her with a September five day cruise to Bermuda.

I'm looking for pro or con suggestions for online booking agents.

I know that this time frame is arguably in the height of hurricane season, but we have been to Bermuda before, and as five time cruisers we have enjoyed the shipboard experience so much that we'd have a great time even if the ship never leaves the dock.

posted by imjustsaying to travel & transportation (2 comments total)

Take a look at Cruise Critic.

They seem to have lots of recommendations and discussions about all aspects of cruising.
posted by mbarryf at 7:08 PM on June 9

I just looked at the NCL website and, while there aren't any Bermuda cruises out of Baltimore during September that I found, there were five and seven day cruises to Bermuda leaving from Baltimore throughout August (on the Norwegian Majesty, or on the same ship you could leave from Philadelphia to Bermuda in October). My husband and I have cruised with NCL four times, most recently to Bermuda leaving from New York. We were on the Norwegian Dawn, which is a larger ship than the Majesty, but doesn't really have any of the exciting things that the newer ships have (bowling, etc.). On the other hand, we had excellent service from everyone we encountered from room stewards to restaurant staff, etc.
One of my favorite things about cruising is just bumming around the ship, going to shows, what have you. Also, the thing that's different about NCL is the "freestyle" cruising where you don't have a set dinner table or time, rather they have at least two main dining rooms, a buffet and specialty restaurants that you can choose from. Norwegian Majesty is a smaller ship compared to the newer ships in the NCL fleet so it has fewer specialty restaurants, but it looks like it has at least two. Also, I haven't cruised on it so I can't make personal recommendations for or against it, but you could search cruise critic for Norwegian Majesty which brings up a whole list of reviews specifically for that ship.
I feel like I could babble about cruising and NCL on and on, so I'll just stop myself. If you have any NCL specific questions, I would be more than happy to babble on some more, so feel free to memail : )
posted by zorrine at 10:01 AM on June 10