Dan

When you are in Halifax, you likely won't notice any difference in the weather than at home in NJ. Any time I've been to Halifax in the summer months, it's been hot (mid 80's usually). They don't have the length of hot seasons as areas to the south (like NY/NJ) or even central Canada, but they still get hot in the summer. If you are only going to Halifax, you probably won't notice much difference in sea conditions along the way. If you were heading up to Sydney, or around to PEI, or Quebece, you may notice more rough conditions as noted above by Lisa. One thing that may or may not affect your cruise, is how bad and how early hurricane season starts. Typically, the tropical depressions head up the coast, and bring bad weather to Canada's east coast. We had that in 2001, when we caught the tail end of a hurricane and couldn't get into Sydney due to the winds. Didn't really give us any trouble with rough seas though.

Sorry to hear about the cruise being cancelled. Found out today we had friends also booked on this one. Not sure what they are planning on doing.

Then you'll like this pic. See if you can find your balcony. We are booked in A746, which is the top deck in this picture, for next January. Our TA tried to warn us off of booking an aft cabin, saying there would be more movement. I said that I had read so much about how high demand was for aft balconies, that we had to find out for ourselves why. It's just a regular balcony cabin, but our first time with a balcony, so I think it will be great. The pool is right outside our door almost, and the food is up a flight of stairs.

It's actually the bow. The stern is the back of the ship :). I have heard that those cabins, while having larger than average balconies, are kind of windy at sea. But I think it will be a great place to be when cruising in the area, and while in port. Almost anywhere you are outside when the ship is moving you'll feel the wind. This isn't the Caribbean after all LOL. I would keep it, especially for the cabin itself, but also for the large balcony. You can see a pic of B107's balcony here http://www.cruise-forums.com/gallery/galle.../1945/37066.jpg

Ixtapa?

Amazingly, I have heard this is legit. I can't remember what I have heard about it though. I should be just about due for my bi-monthly envelope from them LOL. I do beleive that part of it is that it makes it sound like you are getting all this stuff for free (a $1600 value), when in fact it's $1600 off the cost of all that. But I could be wrong. And if you don't live in Florida, you have to get there.

Uh yeah, that should read 900 staterooms with balconies LOL

That was my first thought too, Jeff. But then, they all look like St Thomas to me LOL

The board is being subjected to spam lately. This post and the ones Jason has to keeo removing in the general forum about free smilies and ipods. Everyone, just please ignore, and DO NOT click on any links you may see before Jason gets rid of them. I'd hate for Jason to have to do more work with the board with his already busy schedule, but maybe some type of moderation on new members might be in order.

That's one of the consistent complaints I've heard about RCI is how late they are with opening up new booking periods.

When we went to a Princess info night hosted by our TA a few weeks ago, the Princess rep said that advance bookings have really improved in the last year or 2, and that Princess is already past 90% booked for the next year. It is also possible, probable in fact, that certain cruises over a year away are almost booked solid by seminars and large groups. It could be the one you are looking at might be almost full, while the one the week before has lots of availability.

Went to the one site, and it was overloaded, and referred to another site. Looks like it's missing a couple of the public decks. Guess they want to keep a couple things secret, or they haven't figured it out yet LOL.

I love Princess, but if I was looking at Western Caribbean in the time frame you are looking at, I'd be all over the new Freedom of The Seas. It will be the largest passenger ship out there when it debuts, and I think this is going to be a very sought after ship for a while.

St vincent.

Find out the hard way, Jason? LOL

Hi and welcome. Not been on the Inspiration, but have done Carnival a couple times. You don't have to eat everything they throw at you, and I find at dinner, the portions are on the small size, so you can feel like trying other stuff off the menu, or saving space for food in other places. Plus, you do a lot of walking, and you can use stairs instead of elevators if you feel the need for some extra exercise. Plus, they have a gym on board. Tips are either automatically added to your shipboard account, or you pay the service providers on the final night. They aren't expecting you to pay them on a daily basis or anything like that. Drinks have a 15% tip added on to the bill. No, you don't have to use a Carnival credit card. Your room key will be your shipboard account card, and you use whatever credit card you wish to guarantee this account. or you can go to the pursers desk and put cash down on it. Your dinner dress suggestion will be fine. Have a great time on your first, and surely not last, cruise.

Yes, earlier is better. If they have May 2006 open for booking, you have better cabin choices by booking early. You can use online sites such as cruises only or cruise411 (or a myriad other choices), or a local TA. Online agencies aren't neccesarily cheaper than a brick and mortar TA, although both are usually cheaper than booking through the cruise line itself. To get the lower price, should there be one, you would call your TA and ask them to check when they get a minute. You could do some online research yourself, but you'll usually find the price of the lowest grade cabin in your category when you might not be in that lowest grade, so it's hard to actually find out what your specific category is selling for. Some TA's will automatically keep on top of the price for you, and get you the cheaper price if it goes down. I beleive in most cases that this applies only upto when final payment is due. If you see your cruise on sale 6 weeks before you sail, you won't get the lower price, since you have no leverage with the cruise line at that point.

2 weeks before or 2 weeks after Christmas.

Which begs the question. I wonder what kind of long term deal the cruise lines would make on some sort of lease on a cabin? Those assisted living facilities run into the 3 or 4 thousand a month range, or more, so it could be feasible to go live on a ship. At least if and until you need more attention than the ship can provide. To take this a step further, look how much corporations spend a year on luxury suites at arenas and stadiums. They average 3-5 thousand a week. How about a company using a cabin on a cruise ship as a corportate entertainment perk?

We were about as far forward as you can get on Victory, and we were assigned to the back dining room. Of course, so was everyone else, since the forward dining room was closed on that voyage. We were originally assigned the forward one though.

For formal night, that dress you describe will be fine. Typically, the short Carnival cruises are a little more casual then the week or longer cruises. For the excursion, if this is something you booked on your own, you should call them and find out where to go. If you booked this through the ship, they will tell you either on your tickets or in an announcement where to meet.

Are you talking air temp or water temp? To me, a pool warmer than the mid-70's is too warm. I used to swim in Lake Huron as a kid, and it was a lot cooler than the 70's, until later in July and August.

St Kitts?

St Barthelemy

Actually, I googled the ship, and found a ton of pics. Turns out that if you didn't know there were cabins to the sides of that pool, you wouldn't know they are there. The steel wall around the side of the pool area goes right to the stern, so the side of the balcony is solid, and our balcony is inside the superstructre, where the balconies below stick out from the back of the ship. Our TA kept saying "Are you sure you want to be back there? It could be bumpy" Yeah yeah, it could be bumpy anywhere LOL. The front of a ship moves more than the back anyway LOL. We figure it's private, no hallway noise, close to the buffet, and we can just go outside to watch the wake instead of going up to the top deck like we usually do. In this picture, there are 2 balconies at the top left of the ship, and ours is the one on the right of those.