I had two vastly different experiences cruising and now I don’t know whether to try again
My first cruise was last year with my mom, and it was probably the best vacation I’ve been on. We sailed on Liberty and did a weekend cruise to Nassau/Coco Cay. The weather was perfect, seas were calm, and the ship had such a relaxed vibe. Sure it’s an older ship, but with it being my first cruise, I didn’t know any better and thought it was amazing. The food was great and we really enjoyed the entertainment. We had such a relaxing day at Coco Cay. We still talk about how much fun we had.
I had such a great time that I decided I needed to get my husband on the cruise train since he'd never been on one. We did the same route that I did with my mom, just tried Wonder instead so I had a little different experience. We even sailed on the same weekend that I did last year (January). The weather ended up being terrible; crazy cold for Miami. Nothing you can really do about that... The first full day, we woke up to the captain saying that all our stops were canceled and we were just doing two cruising days instead due to a hurricane on the coast. SUCH a bummer since that meant we wouldn't get off the ship literally at all... leaving Miami Friday and coming right back to Miami Monday... The ship was beautiful and had so much to explore, but it really felt like everywhere you turned someone was trying to sell you stuff. They did a good job trying to get activities onboard to fill our time, but I was frustrated that so many of the activities had an extra price tag; Bingo: $50 to play. The Price is Right: $15 minimum to even be in the audience. It would be different if there was other stuff going on, but because of the cold/wind, so much on deck was closed. No rock climbing wall, no zip line, etc. Solarium was PACKED. We couldn't find a spot in a hot tub, and it was so cold that even the indoor pool was unappealing. And honestly, the food wasn't that good. I don't know why it seemed better on Liberty because it's like the same stuff. It just maybe seemed fresher? I don't know. The water ended up getting rocky, and I was seasick for the entire last day. We really tried to make the best of it all and we enjoy spending time together so it wasn't a total loss, but I was just so disappointed after having a great first experience and knowing that my husband's first time was a bust.
How do I decide whether it's worth it to try again? I'm really torn because it was so incredible that first year, and the major thing that mucked up the second time was the weather. It's hard to spend all that money to not even know whether you're going to have a good time due to something out of anyone's control when you can plan a vacation that's more "sure." I'm asking here because so many of you have been on tons of cruises and I'm sure have had experiences all across the spectrum. How do you decide it's worth it to go on another one after one goes poorly?
Posted Mar 1, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC