Cruise planning with confidence!

The best vacation is a well planned vacation. Have the confidence you’ve chosen the right one for you out of the myriad of options, itineraries and destinations. On every island stop there are many adventures to choose from, and shipboard activities mirror a small city.

Knowing you’ve made a smart choice for your one or two week luxury getaway takes the stress off your shoulders so you can start planning your shore excursions and getting excited for the fun you'll have.

Take for example our recent cruise! We decided together what we wanted to do … in our case fewer days at sea with more islands to see. And we wanted a range of activities from zip-lining, mountain biking to tripping the light fantastic til late in the evening.

With that in mind, we chose the Southern Caribbean – hot tropical and sandy. Then came the choice of cruise line. The following links will take you to the destination pages of each of the major cruise lines we considered and some of the site features to help you navigate.

Royal Caribbean
Choose the advanced search option (where a few of the parameters may be known) or use the calendar option to narrow your choices to a particular time window. You can also call and speak with a Certified Vacation Planner at 1-866-562-7625.

Celebrity Cruises
Refine your options on the left panel or by search criteria or along the right navigation panel. You can also call and speak with a Certified Vacation Planner at 1-800-647-2251.

Carnival Cruises
A unique sorting box narrows ports of departure options appropriately for your preferred month of cruise and then duration. You can also call and speak with a Certified Vacation Planner at 1-888-CARNIVAL.

Norwegian Cruise Lines
Begin by answering the question: “Where in the World would you like to go?”  Then choose your itineraries and watch the world of cruising through their search portal. Norwegian has a Personal Cruise Consultant on call to assist you at 1-866-234-7350. 

Princess Cruises
This cruise line also uses a sorting box that narrows as options are chosen from destination, ship by name, duration, disembarkation point and month of travel. Travel assistance for Princess Cruises can be reached at 1-800-PRINCESS.

Disney Cruises
Begin choosing your dream destination (Caribbean, California, Mediterranean), then narrow your options by how long you'd like to cruise. Search within the itineraries or begin selecting by dates and ships. If you'd like to speak to a Disney Consultant, call 1-800-951-3532.

Marella Cruises - Looking for a UK jumping off point to begin some European travels, Marcella Cruises is a British cruise company sailing to over 120 destinations around the world.

Using this process, we logged the number of options open to us in our travel window. We then narrowed by looking at cruises that offered islands new to us and excluding ones that had more sea days. We also shrank our departure options to drill down even further.

We were down to 5 final options as we look at amenities and flight arrangements to assist our finalization process. Stay tuned for the big announcement – where GoGirlfriend is traveling to this winter!

Don’t neglect your local travel agent for advice on early booking specials, flight co-ordination or other tricks of the trade you may not be aware of.

Blogs and forums for island highlights from previous cruisers and locals are another great source of free information. More on these informative sources to follow as we build our own travel plans for the upcoming cruise season.

What's your favorite cruise destination? Are you a Mediterranean, Alaskan, or Caribbean cruiser? We'd love to hear. Drop a comment below and connect with us of Facebook and Twitter!