Special Cruise Issue : The Right Ship For You : For first timers or veteran passengers, selecting a cruise that best suits their interests and tastes is the secret to a satisfying voyage.

During the last 12 years, we have taken well over 100 cruises on 75 different ships. Because our job covering cruising requires us to sample so many voyages, we’re often asked for our recommendations. But we’ve found too many people ask, “Which is the best ship?” rather than, “Which is the best ship for me?”

While Sea Goddess with its unlimited caviar and champagne and Seabourn with its sophisticated cuisine and service happen to suit us perfectly, the environmentally-aware young couple who live next door to us would be much happier on an eco-tourism ship like Salen Lindblad Cruising’s Frontier Spirit, or a Windstar, with its emphasis on water sports. We ran across a genteel dowager aboard Admiral’s Azure Seas who was horrified that a man at her dinner table had purple hair and a tattoo, and remember sadly the two young New York women looking for action who had been booked on the Royal Viking Sea, where the midnight buffet used to start at 11 p.m.

What we’ve noticed over the years is that veteran passengers eventually find the ship that’s a right “fit.” Certain people gravitate to certain ships because they find their highest level of personal satisfaction there.

The lucky ones find their first cruise so pleasant that they go back again and again with the same line, and they are rewarded by more enticing offersand perks for frequent cruisers. The less lucky may try several ships before they get one that clicks.

A good travel agent who specializes in cruises can be a successful matchmaker when he or she knows both the passenger and the ship well enough. But alas, even the most experienced travel agent doesn’t know every ship. And all of them need more direction from the potential passenger.

Cruise line brochures and deck plans (available from travel agents or the cruise line itself) can answer a lot of questions. Look at the pictures to see what sort of passengers they depict, what activities they emphasize and which ports they visit. Then pore over the deck plans and cabin diagrams until the layout is clear enough to mentally walk through.

Here are some tips that should help in choosing the perfect cruise ship, whether you’re considering taking your first cruise or are a more experienced passenger:

CHOOSING A CABIN

Cabins come in all shapes and sizes, most of them distressingly small to the novice cruiser. Although travel agents always tell clients they won’t spend much time in the cabin, we’ve found that the older the passenger, the more time he spends in his private quarters. So cabin size, decor, layout and comfort can be strong factors in choosing a ship.

Some of the largest cabins are aboard the newest Princess ships (Regal Princess, Star Princess, Crown Princess), Admiral’s Emerald Seas, Costa’s Daphne and Fantasy’s Britanis. Some of the smallest are on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and the bottom-price categories on American Hawaii. Of course, if cost is no object and you prefer many hours of private relaxation, most ships also have suites, some with their own private verandas (prices are generally twice as much as a standard inside cabin).

Storage space can be limited as well; most shipboard closets remind passengers that they should have left half the clothes they brought at home. Again, the newer Princess ships have some of the largest.

Claustrophobics should always book outside cabins, the ones with windows. Inside cabins have draperies, pictures or mirrors masking windowless walls, but usually cost one-fourth to one-third less.

Some cabin windows have views partially obstructed by hanging lifeboats. Most deck plans show the locations of the boats, and some cruise lines, such as Princess and Crystal Cruises, reduce the prices of these cabins.

As a rule, the higher the deck location, the higher the price, but the smoothest ride is amidships (in the middle) on a lower deck.

The “promenade” deck is the outside walking deck circling the ship, and has traditionally been considered the plum. The downside of premium-priced promenade-deck rooms is that their occupants are often admired by passers-by who glance into the windows. On some ships, the glass is covered with a special tinted film, so outsiders see only their own reflections in the daylight. (After dark, when the situation is reversed, a wise cabin occupant closes the drapes when turning on inside lights unless he wants to feel like he’s on TV.)

Each cabin on every cruise ship (except for a few on P & O’s British-based Canberra and a few on Soviet-operated ships such as the Alexander Pushkin and the Ivan Franko) has a private bathroom with tub or shower, miniature toiletries, wash basin and a vacuum marine toilet, which flushes with a loud “whoosh” that startles many first-time cruisers.

Naturally, the higher the cabin price and category, the more space and amenities are provided. But watch for misleading descriptions that can be mean big differences aboard--”sitting area” instead of “sitting room,” for example, or “junior-” or “mini”-suite instead of “suite.” These days, top-of-the-line cabins may contain mini-refrigerators, terry-cloth robes, hair dryers, wall safes, walk-in closets, bathtubs and stall showers, stocked mini-bars, TV with remote control and VCRs, and all the comforts of home. (Note: Royal Cruise Line is the only major line that has no TVs in any rooms in the hope that passengers won’t become shut-ins.)

Cabin walls on all but the newest ships can be very thin, an entertaining alternative to a TV set or radio talk show. The most successful insulation we’ve found is aboard RCCL’s Sovereign of the Seas and the new Princess ships mentioned above.

Light sleepers should study a deck plan carefully before choosing a cabin to avoid being over, under or near the disco or galley (the kitchen adjacent to the dining room). Being near elevators can be noisy as well, with late-night goodbys echoing down the hallways.

On some ships, ironically, expensive forward cabins under the bridge--the officers’ command post--can be noisy because of the activity overhead. Some passengers have complained of vibrations in rooms near engines or exhaust funnels (generally near the stern). However, engine locations are never pictured on deck plans, so it’s impossible to know exactly which rooms to stay away from. You might try asking your travel agent to request rooms away from these areas.

Bottom-priced cabins on older ships may offer upper and lower berths instead of two lower beds, a consideration for less-than-agile travelers. Most ships have cabins with third and fourth upper berths available for children, friends or family members; third and fourth occupants travel for a reduced fare when sharing the cabin with two full-fare adults.

FOOD

Forget “The Love Boat” TV plots of falling in and out of love at sea. In our experience, most passengers bound up the gangway anticipating a tryst with a tournedos of tenderloin Rossini instead of an affair to remember.

But while cruise brochures entice us with color photographs of voluptuous midnight buffets and centerfolds of sensuous bananas flambes, we’ve learned over the years to take menu prose with a grain of salt. However copious and well-prepared it may be, the cuisine on any ship that has two meal sittings or carries more than 200 passengers is going to resemble hotel banquet food more than restaurant cuisine.

Ships that tool around the Caribbean on year-round seven-day cruises--notably those from RCCL, NCL, Dolphin, Commodore, Regency, Admiral and Carnival--are terribly enthusiastic about theme dinners. If it’s Tuesday it must be French night, when the waiters don striped Breton shirts and serve escargots , frogs legs and rafts of cheese-covered bread afloat in onion soup. If someone has tied palm fronds to the deck railings, it’s Caribbean night, time to line up on deck for roast suckling pig and steel-drum music under the stars.

Many of the large ships these days have food catered by outside companies, much like the airlines (although it should quickly be pointed out the similarities stop there). But the nationalities of the ship’s officers, the dining-room staff and the chefs have a bearing on the quality and type of food. Traditionally, the Italian-staffed kitchen has been a favorite, but some of the top chefs these days come from landlocked Austria: Crystal Harmony’s Gottlieb Oberweger and the Vistafjord’s Karl Winkler are two of the best.

In large-ship dining rooms, table sizes rarely come in twos, but most often in fours, sixes, eights or even 10s. Couples who worry about being bored (or boring) are safer at tables of six or more. After dining together throughout the cruise, passengers usually wind up sending Christmas cards to each other.

Meal sittings are the arbitrary times the cruise line has decided passengers will eat. The main or first sitting offers lunch at noon and dinner at 6 or 6:30, but breakfast is at 7 a.m. Second- or late-sitting passengers dine fashionably at 8 or 8:30 in the evening, breakfast at a comfortable 8:30 or 9, but can’t have lunch until 1:30. Hence three-hour deck buffet breakfasts and lunches were invented.

Some cruise lines allow passengers to request a specific sitting or table size in advance through their travel agent. But there can be foul-ups, so it’s an excellent idea after boarding to immediately check the cabin desk or dresser for a small card indicating the assigned table number and sitting. Passengers should present this card to the maitre d’hotel the first evening.

More commonly, especially on cruises of seven days or less, ships require that passengers line up and make table reservations after arriving at the vessel. Anyone set on booking the popular second sitting in the Caribbean (or the equally popular first sitting in Alaska) should run, not walk, to the maitre d’hotel at the spot designated by the daily program sheet and get in line.

Romantic couples who want to dine alone, or those who dislike regimented mealtimes and assigned seating, should choose one of the smaller upscale lines: Seabourn Cruise Line, Cunard Sea Goddess, Windstar Cruises, Renaissance Cruises, Salen Lindblad Cruising, Society Expeditions’ World Discoverer, the Royal Viking Queen, Oceanic Cruises or Seven Seas’ Song of Flower. Here passengers arrive when they please, sit where and with whom they wish, and are served dishes that are usually cooked to order.

Less formal, less expensive vessels that also offer open seating include the Polaris, Sea Lion and Sea Bird of Sven-Olof Lindblad’s Special Expeditions, the sailing vessels of Star Clipper, the Club Med 1 and the small, casual ships of Alaska Sightseeing.

Alternative restaurants--those offering dinners by advance reservations in smaller, more intimate settings, include NCL’s Seaward and Royal Viking Sun (which charges extra for the service), and the Crystal Harmony, which provides a chance to dine in an Italian or Japanese restaurant at no extra charge except for waiter tipping.

Dedicated dieters will find low-calorie, low-salt, low-fat dishes indicated on virtually every menu at sea these days. Best of the lot are the Royal Cruise Line ships, Crown Odyssey, Golden Odyssey and the new Royal Odyssey, with recipes created around the American Heart Assn.’s guidelines and a color menu card in each stateroom listing the full caloric, fat, cholesterol and sodium content of each dish.

Ships that serve midnight buffet at 10:30 p.m. rank high on the seniors circuit. Night owls should seek vessels such as Carnival Cruise Lines’, where the midnight buffet is followed by another at 2 a.m.

Regarding room service, upscale cruise lines such as Sea Goddess and Seabourn, as you might expect, serve not only breakfast in bed but full dinners selected from the dining-room menu and served course-by-course in your cabin. A few moderately priced lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean offer 24-hour room service with complimentary sandwiches. But we found the best aboard Crown Cruise Line’s Crown Monarch, freshly made club sandwiches served while the toast is still warm and available 24 hours a day. Norwegian Cruise Lines charges $2 for the service, but the food is free. And on the Club Med 1, passengers get room-service breakfast free, but pay for room-service sandwiches and snacks.

ENTERTAINMENT

In the daytime, the large show lounge toward the front of the ship can be the scene for lambada or cha-cha lessons, bingo games and port information lectures. At night it becomes Broadway and Las Vegas with musical extravaganzas or, all too often, the last refuge of magicians, jugglers and ventriloquists from the Ed Sullivan Show. The best shows are aboard the Norway, Nordic Empress, Crystal Harmony and the Princess ships. Carnival’s Ecstasy recently added a trendy new show that looks like a Madonna video, down to dancers with pointy bras.

The disco is the place to meet junior officers in white uniforms late at night. On older ships, such as the Dolphin IV and the Azure Seas, it is located deep in the bowels of the vessel, by day looking like the spot in which Dracula would sleep. On newer Carnival ships, it flashes with neon and rock videos and throbs with amplified sound.

Shipboard movie theaters screen fairly recent films, with a few old classics thrown in for good measure. The best cinemas, such as the one aboard Royal’s Crown Odyssey, may be wired with Dolby sound and top-of-the-line projection equipment and furnished with cushy loge seats. Others, such as the Seawind Crown from Seawind Cruise Line, may use video equipment similar to that used on airplanes.

But we’ve also enjoyed video screenings after dinner in the dining room aboard Clipper Cruises’ Yorktown Clipper, complete with bowls of fresh hot-buttered popcorn, and wildlife films in the lecture rooms aboard expedition ships.

A few lines, such as Carnival, have dispensed with the cinema entirely, instead feeding several channels of films to cabin TV sets all day and evening.

The cinema on ships such as Royal Viking Line and Cunard’s Sagafjord and Vistafjord, with their preponderance of older passengers, also doubles as an ideal spot to nap after lunch.

For those looking for a little more action, gambling casinos, which were rare aboard the old ocean liners, are commonplace (and very profitable) on today’s superships. The only Las Vegas-run casino at sea is Caesars Palace at Sea aboard the Crystal Harmony, where veteran gamblers claim the odds are in line with those in Vegas and complimentary drinks are served to the players. Whereas most shipboard casinos are run by outside concessionaires, Carnival Cruises operates its own, many of them among the largest at sea. Aboard the line’s newest ship, the 2,600-passenger Ecstasy, are 228 slot machines, 20 blackjack tables, three poker tables, three roulette tables, three dice tables and a “Big 6” wheel.

For those who would rather put their noses in a book than their money on the table, there are well-stocked libraries on Princess, Seabourn, Cunard and Royal Viking, among others, their shelves always open and free to passengers. Norwegian Cruise Lines and Paquet are two lines that charge a cash deposit for checking out hardback books (though paperbacks can be taken out free).

Card rooms are more heavily used on cruises that run 14 days or longer. On long sailings, lines such as Royal Viking, Cunard and Holland America bring aboard bridge experts who teach lessons and conduct duplicate bridge games. On world cruises, many veteran passengers spend more time in the card room than ashore when in port.

SPORTS AND ACTIVITIES

The swimming pool on more than one ship has been mistaken for a foot bath or an ornamental fountain. But no one can complain when a world-class swimmer like Esther Williams seemed perfectly happy paddling in the pool aboard Royal Cruise Line’s Crown Odyssey on a transatlantic crossing last year. Good lap pools can be found aboard Princess’ Royal Princess and the Royal Viking Sun.

Some ships have a children’s wading pool, which can be distinguished by its singular lack of children, who prefer to spend their time belly-whopping into the adult pool or sliding down the water slide on the Carnival ships. This is not the fault of the cruise lines, which provide activities and separate play areas for children, but of the parents who either don’t care or don’t properly supervise their children.

Modern ships offer much more than shuffleboard and skeet shooting. Rubberized jogging tracks, golf driving ranges, basketball and volleyball areas, deck or paddle tennis and Ping-Pong tables are commonplace on top decks at sea. A few ships, such as the Royal Viking Sun and Crystal Harmony, carry a golf simulator that lets passengers play a big-screen version of Pebble Beach. Every ship has a gym of some sort these days, even if it’s only a stationary bicycle. Carnival’s Fantasy and Ecstasy have the largest fitness centers at sea, each encompassing 12,000 square feet, while NCL’s newly renovated Norway has the most hedonistic, a 6,000-square-foot Roman spa complete with statuary.

Lessons range from dance classes to napkin folding, tossing fettuccine Alfredo to wine tasting. And language classes can range from picking up a few Norwegian, Italian, Greek or Indonesian phrases to intensive French conversation with a Berlitz instructor on Paquet’s Mermoz.

ITINERARIES

Sunbathers, readers, veteran travelers and escapees from high-stress jobs looking for total relaxation usually prefer itineraries that tend to offer more days at sea than in ports-of-call; Panama Canal sailings usually fit the bill. Transatlantic and South Pacific voyages also offer more lazy, relaxing days on the ocean.

Avid shoppers should look for port-intensive itineraries, especially eastern and southern Caribbean cruises calling at ports such as St. Thomas, St. Martin, Martinique, San Juan, Aruba and Curacao, which are loaded with duty-free jewelry, electronics, clothing and perfume outlets.

Swimmers and snorkelers might prefer western Caribbean sailings that stop at Grand Cayman, the Bahamas and Cozumel. But active sightseers are probably better off with cruises to Alaska, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.

FELLOW PASSENGERS

More families with young children are traveling now than ever before, but a curmudgeon wanting to avoid children should look to some of the following lines: Seabourn, Windstar, Royal Viking, Crystal, Cunard (except the Cunard Princess and Countess), Renaissance, Royal Cruise Line, Society Expeditions, Special Expeditions and Salen Lindblad.

Older women traveling alone or in pairs especially enjoy Royal Cruise Line, with its attentive gentlemen hosts (who are usually retired widowers traveling free). Upscale older couples also seem to prefer Royal, Cunard’s Sagafjord and Vistafjord, Royal Viking, Crystal and Holland America.

The “fun ships” of Carnival, as any TV owner in the United States knows, offer nonstop action in the disco, bars and casino, along with lively deck games, bingo, flashy shows and Las Vegas-style entertainment. These ships probably carry more first-time cruisers than any other.

We’ve noticed a great many young couples on Norwegian Cruise Line ships because of the well-handled water sports programs, while thirty- and fortysomethings flock to RCCL ships for polished food and service at moderate prices.

The Italian-accented dining rooms on ships of Princess and Costa draw a high level of repeat female passengers, some of them in love with the pasta and some of them in love with Giovanni, who serves it. Hard-partying singles, on the other hand, can find action aboard the tall ships of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, where free Bloody Marys are served begining at sunrise.

Itineraries Sunbathers, readers and escapees from high-stress jobs might prefer voyages that offer a maximum number of lazy days at sea, such as Panama Canal, transatlantic and South Pacific routes. Avid shoppers should look for port intensive itineraries, such as eastern and southern Caribbean cruises. Swimmers and snorkelers will find happiness on western Caribbean (Grand Cayman, the Bahamas, Cozumel) sailings, while sightseers prefer Alaska, Mediterranean and Northern Europe itinerareies.

Cabin Tips A. Some ships have large, pricey suites with private verandas and luxurious amenities: mini-refrigerators, bathtubs, TV and VCR. B. Inside cabins are smaller and have windowless walls, but are far cheaper than outside rooms. C. Some cabin windows are partially obstructed by hanging lifeboats. Check cruise-line brochue deck plans for locations and possible discounts.

More Tips The higher the deck location, the higher the price. Promenade deck is considered a plum, but the smoothest ride is amidships on a lower deck. Cabin walls can be very thin. Light sleepers should avoid cabins near discos, the galley, elevators, show lounge. Most ships have cabins with third and fourth upper berths available for reduced fare.