Star Cruise vs Royal Carribean

[Boringchap]

We have cruised quite a lot and we are still cruising.

 

We like cruising because, as my nick implies I like boring stuff.

 

I let my reviews and posts speak for themselves. Check them out if you are interested.

 

This review, I posted on Cruise Critic forum, Singapore to Shanghai on Voyager of the Seas

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1656116

 

This was a 14N out of Sydney to Australia and New Zealand, on the Voyager of the Seas. We flew to Sydney and back for the cruise. One highlight of this cruise was the NZ Sounds.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1754553

 

This is the blog landing page for a cruise out of Rome on the Celebrity Silhouette. Highlights include an overnight in Venice.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/celebrity-silhouette-med-and-adriatic.html

 

This is the blog landing page for a cruise out of Southampton, UK, on the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas to Iceland and Norway. Rather exotic, Iceland.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/adventure-of-seas-iceland-norway-cruise.html

 

And this was on the NCL Jade, out of Rome, to ports in Greece and Turkey.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/norwegian-jade-ncl-cruise-greece-turkey.html

 

We love cruising because we get to see many ports in a short period of time. We only unpack once, as the hotel room moves with us from port to port. We love to chill out and slack on the ship, and eat plenty.

 

If you are the type that must maximize all your time and want to spend a lot of time exploring a destination, then cruising is not for you.

 

This was a video I made of the 2 bedroom suite we enjoyed on the Norwegian Jade. We squeezed 6 pax into this suite, 4 adults and 2 kids! Very cosy.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Boringchap

[Yuan]

go for royal Caribbean.

ship is bigger with more facilities.

very kid frenly.

for food, there is kids menu in the fine dining and there is a buffet style restaurant if you fancy Chinese food.

there is a kids club and many parent leave their kids with them, they will dress them up in pirates costume and parade around the ship, very nice.

use the daily planner to plan your activities. and you will be spoil for choices.

the on board staff are asian and they assign cleaners to probably 10 cabins and your fare include their tips so they are contactable anytime and frenly too, they will fold the clean towels into shape of animals and leave them on your bed, got rabbit, monkey etc etc

disembarking is the best part, the ship will dock at 7am and then you take your own sweet time to get off the ship not like SC, when everyone is gather in the theater and all disembark together, very stressful if you have kids with you.

the cabin is also bigger as it is designed for ang mos.

there is 2 swimming pools 1 indoor and 1 outdoor.

overall, it is a cruise ship and not a gambling ship.

but take Mariner of the Seas and it is almost twice the size of Virgo, esp oct period is the start of Monsoon period, bigger the ship the more stable in the rough seas if you happened to encounter high seas.

but if you take Legend of the Seas then it is roughly the same size as Virgo

lastly at high seas, not mobile connection. escape from work and bosses.

my 2 cents contribution as i have take SC 5 times and Royal Caribbean 4 times as my kids love cruises.

 

I had similar experience with RC. Took both star cruise and RC on separate occasions several times but my experience with RC has always been better than Star Cruise.

 

RC is always very kids friendly and family oriented on board.

 

Yes. To be on board the ship and not able to go anywhere is pretty much boring but it is family bonding time if you look at it from a different perspective.

[Voodooman]

We have cruised quite a lot and we are still cruising.

 

We like cruising because, as my nick implies I like boring stuff.

 

I let my reviews and posts speak for themselves. Check them out if you are interested.

 

This review, I posted on Cruise Critic forum, Singapore to Shanghai on Voyager of the Seas

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1656116

 

This was a 14N out of Sydney to Australia and New Zealand, on the Voyager of the Seas. We flew to Sydney and back for the cruise. One highlight of this cruise was the NZ Sounds.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1754553

 

This is the blog landing page for a cruise out of Rome on the Celebrity Silhouette. Highlights include an overnight in Venice.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/celebrity-silhouette-med-and-adriatic.html

 

This is the blog landing page for a cruise out of Southampton, UK, on the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas to Iceland and Norway. Rather exotic, Iceland.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/adventure-of-seas-iceland-norway-cruise.html

 

And this was on the NCL Jade, out of Rome, to ports in Greece and Turkey.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/p/norwegian-jade-ncl-cruise-greece-turkey.html

 

We love cruising because we get to see many ports in a short period of time. We only unpack once, as the hotel room moves with us from port to port. We love to chill out and slack on the ship, and eat plenty.

 

If you are the type that must maximize all your time and want to spend a lot of time exploring a destination, then cruising is not for you.

 

This was a video I made of the 2 bedroom suite we enjoyed on the Norwegian Jade. We squeezed 6 pax into this suite, 4 adults and 2 kids! Very cosy.

Which cruise you enjoyed the most?

 

Any tips on picking a cruise? ie. no of port stops, best region, type of ship and package, where to buy discounted package (especially for Alaskan or European cruises), etc. My friend told him European cruises are better as mostly angmos and they are usually very friendly and not so kiasu like Asians. True?

[Boringchap]

Which cruise you enjoyed the most?

 

Any tips on picking a cruise? ie. no of port stops, best region, type of ship and package, where to buy discounted package (especially for Alaskan or European cruises), etc. My friend told him European cruises are better as mostly angmos and they are usually very friendly and not so kiasu like Asians. True?

 

We enjoyed all our cruises.

 

We picked cruises based on cruise line, ship, itinerary and price. All the factors are considered. Sometimes we want to see certain destinations, other times we just want to enjoy the 'switch-off' time so where the ship sails, we also don't really care.

 

You have to do some cruise price shopping. Sometimes, we purchase from overseas travel agents, sometimes direct from the cruise website.

 

In our opinion, it is true that sailings out of Europe and Australia, the crowd is friendlier and the atmosphere more laid back. Sailing out of Singapore is still ok. I wouldn't advise sailing out of China. I have heard that the Chinese crowd can get rather unruly at times.

 

Have you cruised before? If not, I would suggest you try a short cruise from Singapore first, to test whether you like this type of holiday or not.

 

Before we started, I was also apprehensive. But there was an opportunity to cruise from Singapore to Shanghai a few years ago and the cruise line (Royal Caribbean) was running a very good promotion, so I brought my family plus parents. After that, we got hooked.

 

I must say it is because of cruising that we have been able to bring parents or in-laws on quite a number of trips. This is because cruising is easy for older folks. More relaxed, no rush, food is taken care of. Cruising is also fun for my kids because they enjoy the kids' club activities a lot.

 

Cruising has brought us to destinations whereby I wouldn't ordinarily go, or it would be too expensive or impractical for my family just to make a special trip. Give you a few examples.

 

NZ Sounds - to get there, you have to fly all the way to NZ and then probably do a land tour or self-drive. Takes a lot of time and effort (and I am lazy). So the alternative for us was to take a cruise that covered the Sounds.

 

This is the view from our aft balcony, enjoying the Sounds.

 

Another exotic cruise was to Iceland and Norway. Ordinarily, I wouldn't go to these destinations either. Iceland is far away and Norway is very expensive. So we jumped on a cruise that brought us to these exotic places. Iceland was breathtaking. This is Godafoss, a 45 minute drive from Akureiyi.

 

Norway - one highlight was renting a car during a cruise port stop and driving to Trollstigen. (Troll mountains)

 

Here was the drive down the Troll Road.

 

All said, cruising is not for everybody because many people I talk to do not like the idea that they are so constrained while cruising. Typically the ship will arrive in port in the morning and you have to get back on board the ship by mid to late afternoon. There is not enough time to do a lot, so some say that it is touch-and-go. This cannot be helped, as the nature of cruising is such. The good thing, however, is that for some itineraries the ship will call overnight at certain ports. E.g. our previous cruises, Sydney, Venice and Istanbul were overnight calls.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Boringchap

[Thaiyotakamli]

Disney cruise?

 

https://www.facebook.com/channel4dubai/videos/10153551210438223/

[Snookium]

Sorry to hijack this thread.

 

Anyone knows which cruise operator have schedule and criuse from Friday nite to Sunday. Looking for a short trip.

 

I had check out leisure world btw the way , timing is out.

[Kar_lover]

 

Actually the purpose of going on a cruise is to put down ur heavy stress load and do nothing..let the sea breeze carry the stress away.

 

We locals are used to fast paced life..so even relax days also wan to chiong.

 

Ya man, Mariner of the seas got 24 hours café with free flow coffee, tea and snacks along the indoor shopping strip. I just go there and chill....

[Boringchap]

 

Ya man, Mariner of the seas got 24 hours café with free flow coffee, tea and snacks along the indoor shopping strip. I just go there and chill....

 

Yes, the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas is a Voyager Class vessel which has the Royal Promenade, and there is the 24 hour Cafe Promenade. Great place to chill. Here is a video I made of the Promenade Cafe, on the Adventure of the Seas. (Also a Voyager class vessel)

 

[Voodooman]

 

We enjoyed all our cruises.

 

We picked cruises based on cruise line, ship, itinerary and price. All the factors are considered. Sometimes we want to see certain destinations, other times we just want to enjoy the 'switch-off' time so where the ship sails, we also don't really care.

 

You have to do some cruise price shopping. Sometimes, we purchase from overseas travel agents, sometimes direct from the cruise website. a

 

In our opinion, it is true that sailings out of Europe and Australia, the crowd is friendlier and the atmosphere more laid back. Sailing out of Singapore is still ok. I wouldn't advise sailing out of China. I have heard that the Chinese crowd can get rather unruly at times.

 

Have you cruised before? If not, I would suggest you try a short cruise from Singapore first, to test whether you like this type of holiday or not.

 

Before we started, I was also apprehensive. But there was an opportunity to cruise from Singapore to Shanghai a few years ago and the cruise line (Royal Caribbean) was running a very good promotion, so I brought my family plus parents. After that, we got hooked.

 

I must say it is because of cruising that we have been able to bring parents or in-laws on quite a number of trips. This is because cruising is easy for older folks. More relaxed, no rush, food is taken care of. Cruising is also fun for my kids because they enjoy the kids' club activities a lot.

 

Cruising has brought us to destinations whereby I wouldn't ordinarily go, or it would be too expensive or impractical for my family just to make a special trip. Give you a few examples.

 

NZ Sounds - to get there, you have to fly all the way to NZ and then probably do a land tour or self-drive. Takes a lot of time and effort (and I am lazy). So the alternative for us was to take a cruise that covered the Sounds.

 

This is the view from our aft balcony, enjoying the Sounds.

 

Another exotic cruise was to Iceland and Norway. Ordinarily, I wouldn't go to these destinations either. Iceland is far away and Norway is very expensive. So we jumped on a cruise that brought us to these exotic places. Iceland was breathtaking. This is Godafoss, a 45 minute drive from Akureiyi.

 

Norway - one highlight was renting a car during a cruise port stop and driving to Trollstigen. (Troll mountains)

 

Here was the drive down the Troll Road.

 

All said, cruising is not for everybody because many people I talk to do not like the idea that they are so constrained while cruising. Typically the ship will arrive in port in the morning and you have to get back on board the ship by mid to late afternoon. There is not enough time to do a lot, so some say that it is touch-and-go. This cannot be helped, as the nature of cruising is such. The good thing, however, is that for some itineraries the ship will call overnight at certain ports. E.g. our previous cruises, Sydney, Venice and Istanbul were overnight calls.

Thanks Boringchap for sharing.

 

I am more of a road trip person but in recent years, a beach holiday is becoming more and more appealing, so I might try out an Alaskan and Mediterranean cruise in the near future. Had a short cruise holiday many years ago but didn't like it as I was younger then and prefered a more activities filled holiday. I will probably choose a cruise with a few exotic port calls, maybe 5 out of 8 days cruise.

 

I understand you cruised with 6 pax in one of the video, did you book a suite that can accommodate all or it is 2 or 3 separate cabins?

 

Lastly, can you share your overseas travel agent contacts? I have a specific cruise in mind and would like to make some enquries (to check if they are cheaper than booking direct).

[Tayspiderx]

Disney cruise?

 

https://www.facebook.com/channel4dubai/videos/10153551210438223/

Just a theory...hopefully Disney will send one of their ship over once Shanghai Disney park open next year...probably linking Hong Kong Tokyo and Shanghai parks

[Dleodleo]

Hi!

 

Just to share. If you are keen, you can drop by NATAS Fair for comparism.

 

31 july to 2 aug 2015

Spore Expo Hall 4

 

Saw these cruise exhibitors in the papers:

Citystate cruises - Royal Carribean & Costa Cruise

Princess Cruises

Royal Carribean

Star Cruise

 

See got promotion or not.

[S4vtec]

just came back from an RC cruise. 70% of the passengers are made up of either PRC or Indian nationals.

 

The Indian nationals decided to play running man on one of the days and they hijacked the stairs, lifts , running and shouting all over the ship.

 

The Chinese nationals are better , only participated in queue cutting and food hoarding.

 

Was going crazy after 2 days when I refused to participate in K pop line dancing , origami classes... Its a good place for kids though. The activities are more catered to them

[Wt_know]

join the cruise in europe

perhaps, majority passengers are angmoh

not that AMDK but at least get a break from PRC?

 

just came back from an RC cruise. 70% of the passengers are made up of either PRC or Indian nationals.

 

The Indian nationals decided to play running man on one of the days and they hijacked the stairs, lifts , running and shouting all over the ship.

 

The Chinese nationals are better , only participated in queue cutting and food hoarding.

 

Was going crazy after 2 days when I refused to participate in K pop line dancing , origami classes... Its a good place for kids though. The activities are more catered to them

 

Edited November 29, 2016 by Wt_know

[S4vtec]

might try the princess next round

[Ktglfc]

Booked a cruise trip under RC next year March holiday :)

Junior suite :)

 

Hopefully able to enjoy though expecting lots of children runnng around since it's 1 week holiday ...

[Jman888]

might try the princess next round

princess won't have those people?

 

actually thought of joining a cruise in Jan, think i better go somewhere else.

 

do they have the love boat version? no children allowed.

[S4vtec]

Booked a cruise trip under RC next year March holiday :)

Junior suite :)

 

Hopefully able to enjoy though expecting lots of children runnng around since it's 1 week holiday ...

you wont be disappointed , especially with the children part. Do note of the hygenie at the pools though , I saw kids, toddlers in the pool with their diapers on

princess won't have those people?

 

actually thought of joining a cruise in Jan, think i better go somewhere else.

 

do they have the love boat version? no children allowed.

no children ? Try the casino ships .

[Kusje]

I would like to try a cruise with my 1 year old daughter but seems like all those ships departing from SG during the school holidays are damn expensive! 

 

2 nights for 1.2k plus..... For this price, I think we can do a lot more elsewhere (which I would do if my daughter could travel).