A YouTuber boarded a Princess cruise expecting four days at sea and a stop in Cozumel. Instead, the ship never left port — and within hours, a decision involving $3,400 split viewers straight down the middle. Some called it empowering.…
Carnival Cruise Line is trying something new—and it could change how cruisers plan their onboard spending. For a limited time, the line is rolling out two bundled add-on options for 2026 sailings, the Essentials Value Package and the Ultimate Value…
Carnival Cruise Line has quietly increased WiFi prices across nearly all of its plans. Instead of a formal announcement, cruisers began noticing the higher prices in their Cruise Manager accounts and sharing screenshots online as the changes rolled out. On…
Ever noticed how one passenger can wreck an entire deck without breaking a single cruise rule? No shouting. No drama. Just annoying passenger habits that take over shared space, encroach on private time, and leave everyone else quietly annoyed. The…
Cruise lines don’t usually police what’s on your face—but MSC just did. In a quiet policy update that’s now getting a lot of attention, the cruise line has banned smart glasses in public areas of its ships, a move that’s…
Adults-only spaces on cruise ships are meant to be exactly what the name promises: quiet. They exist so passengers can step away from the noise, crowds, and nonstop activity elsewhere on the ship. When people pay extra for access to…
Be honest—who hasn’t watched a cruise director work a crowd and thought, “Now that’s a dream job.” It probably happens on every sailing. You see them glide through the atrium, pure energy, while passengers whisper, “Imagine getting paid to have…
Star of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s second Icon-class cruise ship—and it’s not just a repeat of Icon of the Seas. While the two ships share the same jaw-dropping scale, neighborhoods, and headline attractions, Star quietly fixes many of the…
I still remember that sinking feeling when I slid my luggage into the hallway. The cruise was basically done, but there were still a ton of things I had wanted to do that I somehow didn’t find the time for.…
Mega cruise ships spark fierce opinions. Some cruisers call them loud, crowded, and way too much—usually the same people who happily sail on Silversea or Seabourn without a second thought. But for another tribe of cruisers, seeing a waterslide over…
Nearly 100 passengers and crew aboard AIDA Cruises’ AIDAdiva fell ill with norovirus during a long international voyage, marking the 21st cruise ship outbreak reported to the CDC this year. The ship left Hamburg, Germany on November 10 for a…
People claim holiday cruising is “too untraditional.” But let’s be brutally honest—traditional holidays aren’t exactly working. They’ve become a pressure cooker of stress, family meltdowns, burnt food, and forced smiles. That’s why Cruise Critic is full of people saying the…