Has anyone gone on a cruise before?

My wife and I are leaving May 11th to go to Long Beach to go Carnival's Mexican cruise to Ensenada. What all should we expect what should we do to prepare?

Nope, and won't. I keep my behind on land. Forget the sea, lol ..

No but I'd like to experience it one day.

Nope.

Yes. It's just like being in a hotel only it floats.

only suggestion i would say is if you're looking to do a lot of excursions try to book them quickly as some that are popular or limit the # of participants can fill up fast.

No, and I can't say I want to be trapped on a boat with a bunch of old people for a week either.

Do you feel the rocking at all? Ive been out on the ocean on a much smaller boat and I got super sea sick.

The cruise I went on was in the Nile so there wasn't any rocking. I assume there will be some in the ocean.

Longest have probably been the overnight ferry to Denmark.

the cruise i went on it was smooth every day except for the last when we were travelling much slower. that day you could feel the ship rocking

Okay good to know. How was the food?

very good and the all you can eat buffets were a plus

Sea cruises are very relaxing. Personally I enjoy the larger ships with more activities like Royal Caribbean offers.

I didn't notice any rocking, but it varies from person to person. Some, like the person I was with, can be very sensitive to the motion.

The food varies. There are multiple options, the two big ones being the formal nights and the all you can eat buffets. I took advantage of them both. Basically, I pigged the **** out. There was no self control.

Make sure you sign up for some worthwhile activities for your stops. Snorkeling and especially parasailing were a blast.

Not really...no. There is a small percentage that feels it but overall most people don't notice a thing.

Not exactly but a relative took me for a ride with his Navy ship around the bay. I had sea motion sickness at first but it subsided afterwards. I wouldn't want to go on a cruise though. I would rather just spend more time on the destination than being stuck on a ship.

I took one of those. It's great. The ship stops in Encinita ( I won't spoil the fun for you), and also, there were some gambling tables and slot machines on my ship, but they only open after 4 I believe.

The food was okay nothing special but no complaints. Many activities to do.

Cruise....I thought you meant hopping in a car and driving with no particular destination in mind lol. Cause I was about to say I would often if I had a car...

No, I never went on a cruise before. Only been 2 times I've been on a boat, which was fishing and canoeing...

Not since 2004, used to go on cruises a lot more in the 1990's - early 2,000's. Seems like cruises have gone downhill and certain ones have been having more strange misfortunes occur on board. Course, its quite possibly just the news media just making cruises one of their many targets these days, on finding negative stuff about them, and giving scares, making going on cruises sound worse than they actually are.

Also, I've been on a boat ride once, sadly, being on a boat can make you seasick more easily than I thought, I definitely consider myself having a strong stomach, but being out on that boat for only like, 15 - 30 minutes, I did start getting nausea. Fortunately it never got bad enough where I actually threw up though. Lastly, I think that boat ride lasted no more than an hour.

my friend got caught in a storm on a cruise. long story short, he felt the rocking.

No but I would like to go but me and my wife can't afford to go on an expensive vacation.

i'd pack a pirate suit if i were you, if they board the ship you can go full action hero and safe the day

@sukraj: Make a kickstarter it seems to help...

okay bro

Expect the hot tubs to be filled with fat old hairy men.

yes, AND IT WAS $@!%ING AWESOME!

oh, wait, you picked carnival? good luck with the dysentary while you put out the fires on an aimlesssly drifting powerless norovirus factory.

no... seriously... i'm sure you will be fine.

Is Carnival really that bad? Ive heard that they have smaller ships compared to Royal Caribbean which said they could feel rocking more but nothing like diseases or anything lol

I went on one Cruise, it was by Norwegian Cruise lines in 2008. From what I heard the cruising experience does differ by cruise line. The big thing with Norwegian is that their brand is based on "Freestyle Cruising" where you get to go out to eat when you want and sit where you want and with whom you want at the restaurants, whereas in many fancier cruise lines the cruise line assigns people times to eat for certain meals and picks where they sit in each restaurant.

My Grandmother has been on many cruises and I think she says her favorite is Royal Caribbean. Some of my cousins say that their favorite is Celebrity Cruise Line. One of my cousins says that Carnival has a younger (college-aged) crowd. A family friend that we ran into when we were on the Norwegian Cruise back in '08 says he doesn't like Carnival cruises, he called them "coco cruises" and says that a lot of black people go on that cruise line.

So from what I gather, the big take away for you is that cruises differ depending on what brand you sail: Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are higher-end, Norwegian is mid-level and has a lot of families, and Carnival has a younger crowd and more of a party atmosphere.

When I was on the cruise, I didn't get sea-sick, but a couple of my aunts and a few of my cousins did and they were sick for about 3 days. The big factor here was that most of the ones who had gotten seasick were wearing some kind of medicated patch that is supposed to prevent sea sickness but the ships doctor told them that the patches actually make seasickness more likely and they felt better after getting rid of the patch.

I liked it. There were a variety of different food options on the ship: we had Ruffle's which was a buffet (good stir fry) The Blue Lagoon which was a lot of bar food (my family and I particularly remember the buffalo wings there), and an assortment of restaurants some of which were free and some charged (usually a certain amount per person depending on the restaurant), and room service was free (you just place a call and order from a menu and the people will deliver what you ordered). Since most of the restaurants were free I often ended up ordering 2 appetizers, 2 entrees and 2 deserts (one of my cousins did that as well), to this day my family talks about how much I ate on the cruise (though I didn't actually finish all the food I ordered, I probably wouldn't be able to eat that much now, I think my appetite isn't as big it was then).

i really was just joking.

all the stuff that i mentioned has happened to all the cruise lines.

@whipassmt: Thank you very much for such a detailed post. I am really looking forward to our vacation now!

Yes. Went to the Caribbean. It was incredible. The best part about the cruise was the food.

I'd like to go on one eventually, but they're really expensive, so it probably won't be until I graduate from college.

I think I'd get bored within a day.

Carnival ships are where CDC and the US Military test their latest bioweapons.

Yes. Take sea sickness tablets just to be safe. I didn't and on day 3 we had 10m swells and I was sick constantly for about 7 hours. People were just walking around and throwing up on the floor.

Saying that, I was fine until the seas got rough. I didn't feel the rocking while we were still in the harbour but could barely stand once we got to international waters because of the swells. Hopefully you have good weather :)

You're welcome. Happy to be of help to you. That being said I've only been on one cruise, so I don't know too much about cruises.

Same, water gives be the jeebies.

@Sa1nT_Ch3wy:

Buy trip insurance.

Nope. But does anybody know if some tours on ghost towns exists? I've seen this post http://paradoxoff.com/top-10-ghost-towns.html and i want to visit these places

There's that but you could also just go hang out at a cemetery for a while, one that allows it after dark. You'll see or hear something eventually.