Resource List for Cruisers: The Who, What, When, Where and More

The always needed resource page

When I began thinking about all that Cruising with the Family is going to be the first thing I knew had to be done was give you all some resources in one location. If you’re like me, a busy mom who juggles all duties including taking care of the kids, cooking, cleaning, working and chauffeuring, I prefer to get as much information from one source as I can. Now, we know that doesn’t always happen but hopefully this will be a great tool for your planning.

First things first, go ahead and hit that little star in the upper right hand of the toolbar that usually says ‘bookmark this page’. Then save it to your bookmarks or better yet to your travel folder if you have one for quick access in the future. When I plan for our trips I always have a ton of tabs open and am trying to find the sites I need. Lucky for you, below I’ve listed several resources that you can click on and it will open in a new tab for you so save this one site and not all the individual pages.

Looking to sail away? Not sure where to go or what line to book?

I’ve always been a firm believer in referrals. My husband and I when we speak to organizations (for our day job) we always make mention that some of the best sales and joins come from word of mouth, member get a member type campaigns. Not sure what I mean think of it like this: I was always a member of Costco for the longest time until my friends told me about B.J.s Wholesale and how you could use coupons. Well guess what? I joined B.J.s! The only reason I did was because of word of mouth and referral.

The same is true for how I feel when we travel. Let’s be real, we all go to amazon to shop and read the reviews, or look at Yelp to see what’s been said about a company. Why not do some research and reviews into your trip?

For me when I look to reviews I do the following two things.

1. Visit Cruise Critic

I have been a member of this community for years. Though it’s a bit outdated in the forum sense it’s got a wealth of information on all things cruising.

TIP: Make sure to read all the reviews and know when they were posted. Clearly an issue that may have existed for someone in 2014 hopefully wouldn’t be an issue now. Also realize there are going to be bad reviews. Personally, I like reading the negative reviews. Though it may be a red flag for me I won’t discount something entirely until I’ve done all the research to know who reviewed it and why they may have given it a bad review. Sometimes their situation may be far from why I’m looking into it.

2. Crowdsource

These days with social media it’s so easy to crowdsource friends, family and friends of friends! Did you know the best posts on Facebook are the ones where you ask for recommendations? Everyone LOVES to give their opinion! Seriously—go post now and ask your friends for a their favorite vacation destination, or favorite cruise line or favorite recipe for that matter! OMG-you will get a ton of responses and ones from ‘friends’ you haven’t heard from in ages.

There are so many options out there when selecting a cruise line. I have to be honest my first experience cruising with my family was when my mom was a travel agent and we went on the SS Bermuda Star. This was in the early 80’s and I think the ship housed no more than 700 passengers. Can you even imagine that today? The smallest mid-size ships now have at least 2,000 passengers. These are my favorites but more on that later! Since sailing the SS Bermuda Star I have gone on to sail the likes of Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

To help point you in the right direction, below is a list of cruise lines in alphabetical order. While these aren’t all of the cruise lines out there, they are the major players these days. Check out their sites and also look at their social media profiles. *denotes lines that are considered luxury

Not sure where to start and want some advice? Feel free to fill out our form and we can help give you some advice!

We are looking to interview cruisers who have cruised with their families! Doesn’t matter the size, makeup or location of where you have sailed! If you are interested in being interviewed for a future Blog post please fill out our interest form and we’ll be in touch!

Smooth Sailing