Family Vacation 2013: Retrospective

This was my seventh cruise in the past five years - six of which have been "adult" charter cruises. So, it may be fitting to compare and contrast my cruise line experiences. While there is no way to actually compare apples to apples, I now see what I am getting for the extra money spent on those adult cruises: nightly theme parties, top-notch entertainers, and relaxing quiet time by the pool.

For this cruise, I really enjoyed the three days at sea - particularly the last two days spent slowly sailing home. This provided a nice vacation for the body allowing time to just sit in the sun, read, chat, laugh, and spend quality time with my sister. It has been some time since I have spent an entire week with my biological family, but seeing everyone at dinner each evening allowed for relaxed conversation as we all told stories of how we spent the day. 

My date and room mate

Although there were roaming packs of teenagers everywhere, my nieces chose to keep each other company during the day. In the evenings, I had the exquisite privilege of escorting my 18 year old niece, Kristin, to late night stage shows, competitions, disco parties, and strolls through the casino. To others, I may have appeared as a creepy old man hanging out with a very young woman, but I was overjoyed to spend my evenings squiring her around the ship before she heads off for her first year of college. We were also sharing a room for the week; it was like the best slumber party ever!

Apples and Oranges

I have now cruised on 3 different cruise lines: Holland America, Star Clipper, and Royal Caribbean. Each has advantages and disadvantages:

Royal Caribbean: 

Dad and Linda

The Good: Spacious rooms with lots of storage, efficient boarding and disembarkation process, all-you-can-drink premium passes for $55/day, family oriented activities, excellent specialty restaurants, friendly event staff, international staff mainly of Hispanic and Caribbean origin, family-oriented.
The Bad: Tiny verandas due to larger rooms, inefficient tendering process, serve-yourself buffets, average food quality, limited food service times, pedestrian entertainment options, the adults-only pool is under glass and allows 16 years and up (those kids never get out of the hot tubs), ice buckets are by request only.

Star Clipper: 

Kaitlin

The Good: Romantic sailing adventures in tall masted sailing ships, dining room tables are all eight-tops requiring you to meet and greet your fellow passengers, small friendly staff, more exotic destinations since the ship does not require a deep water harbor.
The Bad: As you can imagine, the rooms are quite small, the amenities are limited, dining is during specific hours (no sleeping in), food is of average quality (lunches were outstanding), limited entertainment options, days tends to be early-to-bed and early to rise - unless there is a party! 

Holland America

The Good: Large verandas (chaise lounge size), cook to order breakfast, the buffet is not serve yourself and is open from 6:00 AM to 3:00 AM, excellent specialty restaurants, room staff is efficient and friendly, ships are designed to accommodate both the sun lover and those who prefer the shade, private poolside cabanas for rent, international staff mainly of Filipino descent, affordable bottle service in your room, ice buckets are always full, very relaxed atmosphere.
The Bad: No all-you-can-drink passes, $0.75 / minute internet service

Full Disclosure

I have been on five Holland America cruises and my opinion could be influenced by the fish bowl nature of an all adult cruise experience as compared to the kid-friendly atmosphere of Royal Caribbean. I mean, clothing optional decks are out of the question with so many free-range children and herds of impressionable teenagers roaming the ship.

Additionally, I am booked on another Star Clipper cruise in February 2014. With these trips there may not be the hotel feeling of a large cruise ship, but the romance of boarding a sailing ship with 200 potential new friends is irresistible.