Dan

Looks just like Lake Huron LOL

Obviously a lucky guess LOL. Nice pic, John.

Micronesia? LOL

OK, now for my politically incorrect comments. This is stupid. From what it looks like, the ship left Baltimore, and Charleston was a port of call on the way to the Caribbean. Where is the security risk here? The Coast Guard screws up (granted, at the time, they probably didn't know it was their screw-up), and decides to kick a ship out of port a couple hours before it would have left anyway. All these passengers (most of them Americans anyway) would have already been subjected to security screening in the days before ever boarding the ship in Baltimore. The ship hadn't been outside the US at this point when it reached Charleston. If, for whatever reason, a security issue comes up from that manifest (that should have been caught in Baltimore anyway), then why force the ship out of port after it's already been there for 6 or 8 hours. Anybody that was a risk would have been long gone, never mind that anybody who's a risk who takes a cruise ship from Marlyand to South Carolina isn't that smart to be a risk anyway. This is clearly a Coast Guard screw-up. Never mind the computer screw-up. We all know how that happens with email. But, even if Celebrity hadn't filed the manifest until such time as the coast guard received it (7pm the night prior to arrival), then why did they allow the ship into port that morning? Forcing the ship out of port that afternoon was only an attempt by the coast guard to cover it's mistakes, and make it look like they are taking things seriously

Here's some more info from x's news page. Coast Guard Forces Celebrity's Galaxy To Depart Charleston In what appears to be the result of a computer snafu, 382 passengers on last week's 11-night Galaxy cruise from Baltimore to the Caribbean were ... stranded. In Charleston, South Carolina, that is -- a genteel port city where it is fair to say the concept of being stranded is an oxymoron. The ship was slated to dock in Charleston and duly -- as is required by post-September 11 law -- filed its passenger manifest to the U.S. Coast Guard via email somewhat in advance of its deadline. Alas, due to a boondoggle that, at this point is still not quite unwound, the ship's dispatch wasn't received in time. The ship arrived, as scheduled, in the relatively early morning hours of April 7 ... and began to disembark passengers for the day's excursions in Charleston. Alas, sometime around mid-day, the Coast Guard figured out that it hadn't received the manifest within the required time frame and so, at about 2 p.m., ordered the ship to head for international waters. Which Galaxy did indeed do -- sailing 12 miles out while some 382 passengers were still meandering around Charleston, completely unaware that the ship had, well, left. Galaxy staffers did remain at the port to alert unsuspecting travelers (and let's be honest, who wouldn't want the luxury of a few extra free hours in Charleston?). Ultimately, Celebrity Galaxy was permitted to return once the 24-hour mark had passed (about 7 p.m.) and it quickly picked up remaining passengers and headed out for two days at sea before its next port call at St. Maarten. The Coast Guard and Celebrity Cruises are still disputing the issue (Celebrity maintains, and according to a source has the records to prove, that it sent its list a full day and a half in advance of its arrival at Charleston). "We were able to show that our computers were speaking to the Coast Guard computers," says Michael Sheehan, a Celebrity spokesman, "and for reasons no one yet knows the transmission didn't arrive for 21 hours." This is the second instance in 2004 when the Coast Guard has played "tough guy" to ships not adhering to the 24-hour regulation (whether it was the fault of a computer connection, or manifests simply were ignored). Earlier this year, P&O's Oceana neglected to file its manifest -- at all -- and yet still assumed its scheduled anchor position in St. Thomas. Passengers were being readied for tender transport onto the island before Coast Guard officials ordered the ship to depart.

Martinique?

Five O'Clock Somewhere - Alan Jackson/ Jimmy Buffett No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem - Kenny Chesney The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful- Jimmy Buffett When The Sun Goes Down - Kenny Chesney/Uncle Kracker Two Pina Coladas - Garth Brooks Then What - Clay Walker Margartitaville - Jimmy Buffett I Can't Help Falling In Love With You - UB40 American Dream - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Live, Laugh, Love - Clay Walker Boat Drinks - Jimmy Buffett Love Boat Theme -Jack Jones There's a few to get you going.

Yeah, it's a nice picture. What threw me off was that I know the city is to the right of the picture, but the angle it's at makes it look like the pier goes to the left, and the channel is to the right of that RCI ship. I do remember now that when we docked there on Westerdam in 95, we were at the same pier as that RCI ship, and it was a decent walk from there to the shore. That day, we had the Fantasy at the vacant slot, and the Statendam was over at the pier that Carnival ship is at. I remember standing up on the top deck of Westerdam looking up at Fantasy, saying "Wow, look how big that sucker is" LOL

I'm gonna take a stab at Nassau, Bahamas. I'm a little shaky on this, since the picture looks reversed if it actually is Nassau.

Carnival Corporation & plc Realigns and Expands Its Capacity in the British Cruise Market * Cunard Orders New Enhanced Version of Queen Victoria for Early 2007 Service * P&O Cruises to Take Delivery of a New Ship, the Arcadia, Originally Scheduled to be the Queen Victoria, in 2005 * P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises Realign Their Fleets MIAMI, April 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) announced today that it is proceeding with a significant restructuring of its capacity in the British market. Cunard Line's Queen Victoria, a ship under construction in the Fincantieri Marghera Yard, will be transferred to P&O Cruises and renamed the Arcadia. The new Arcadia is scheduled to enter service in April 2005. Cunard Line also announced that it has ordered an enhanced Queen Victoria, also to be built by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A, which is now scheduled to enter service in January 2007. The new Queen Victoria will accommodate some 1,850 passengers and is expected to have an all-in cost of approximately euro 390 million. The new Queen Victoria will be more consistent with the grand ocean liner style of the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2, and will include more luxury suites and mini-suites, and more classic culinary experiences including Queens and Princess Grills, and an upscale Todd English alternative restaurant. Like the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2, the new Queen Victoria will be marketed to passengers in both the United States and United Kingdom, as well as to passengers in Australasia and Asia. P&O Cruises, the leading cruise brand in the United Kingdom, will take delivery of the new 1,968-bed Arcadia in April 2005. At 85,000 tons, with an all-in cost of approximately #225 million she will be the largest cruise ship built exclusively for the British market. The ship, with 677 balcony cabins and alternative dining venues, will raise the quality of the P&O fleet still further. Arcadia, which was ordered prior to the combination of P&O Princess Cruises plc and Carnival Corporation, was originally designed to provide a premium British cruise experience and is well suited to delivering the P&O Cruises product to its British customers. To provide an alternative cruise product for the British market and to satisfy the growing consumer demand for a more informal, upscale cruise experience, the Princess Cruises brand, renowned for its state of the art ships, informality, anytime dining and excellent American-style service, will allocate more of its capacity to the UK market. The 77,000-ton, 1,950-lower berth Adonia, currently sailing as part of the four ship P&O Cruises fleet, will be transferred to Princess Cruises in May 2005. This ship will reclaim the name Sea Princess, which she was originally given at the time of her delivery by Fincantieri to Princess Cruises in 1998, prior to her subsequent transfer to P&O Cruises. As the first Princess Cruises ship with itineraries tailored specifically to meet the preferences of British passengers, Sea Princess will spearhead an increase in Princess Cruises' capacity dedicated to the UK market. She will operate cruises from the UK in the summer and 14-day Caribbean cruises in the winter. These itineraries will also be attractive to North American customers. In May 2005, the Royal Princess, which currently sails for Princess Cruises, will be renamed the Artemis and join the P&O Cruises fleet, which will bring the number of vessels in the P&O Cruises fleet to five. Already a classic medium-sized ship with all outside staterooms, the 45,000-ton, 1,200- bed Artemis will be converted to a British-style vessel prior to entering service for P&O Cruises. The transfers of Adonia to Princess Cruises and the Royal Princess to P&O Cruises will further increase the capacity growth of the successful Princess brand to approximately 16 percent in 2005. The average age of the Princess fleet will be reduced to approximately four years, the percentage of the fleet's total number of cabins with balconies will increase to 54 percent and the greater consistency of the Princess fleet achieved with these transfers will further improve its ability to provide personal choice cruising and anytime dining. For P&O Cruises, the net effect of the transfer of ships will result in a 2005 capacity increase of approximately 8 percent and almost 40 percent of the fleet's cabins will then have balconies, a feature which has become so highly desirable by today's cruisers. "The tremendous success of the Queen Mary 2, and the potential to grow and offer further choice for UK cruise passengers, prompted these changes. We will now have brands and ships that cater to all the differing needs of the growing and diversifying United Kingdom passenger base," said Peter Ratcliffe, chief executive officer of P&O Princess Cruises International and an executive director of Carnival Corporation & plc. "Cunard Line, P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises will all benefit from these moves and the changes are a further fulfillment of the fleet optimization opportunities offered by the recent combination of P&O Princess Cruises plc and Carnival Corporation." Carnival Corporation & plc is the only company in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices and most recently was added to the NYSE U.S. 100 Index. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in the world, with a portfolio of 12 cruise brands in North America, Europe and Australia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, AIDA, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, Swan Hellenic, and P&O Cruises Australia. Together, these brands operate 75 ships totaling more than 123,000 lower berths with nine new ships scheduled for delivery between April 2004 and mid- 2006. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, Holland America Tours and Princess Tours. Additional information on Carnival Corporation & plc is available at www.carnivalcorp.com and www.carnivalplc.com. SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc

Wow, his classes must be long LOL

Making a link is easy on here. Just type it out, and the software automatically makes it a link. As for the pictures, unfortunately, most of these picture hosting sites don't allow remote viewing of their pictures. You have to see them at that site. You can however, save them, and upload them to your own webspace, or save them on your own computer.

I never knew they went down the river backwards before. That must be something to see, both from shore, and on board. I don't imagine they go very fast that way, since the blunt end of the ship is going first.

St Barthelamy San Juan (2x) Nassua Princess Cays St Thomas Aruba Panama Canal Colon, Panama Limon, Costa Rica Key West Boston Portland, Maine Saint John, New Brunswick Halifax, Nova Scotia

Is this the Grand Cayman one you just did a couple weeks ago, courtesy of Keith and Rita?

I've heard lots of good about it. I don't think they started using that island until the winter after we cruised on HAL. I loved Princess Cays, and have heard Half Moon Cay is much nicer.

Well, I'll start with an obvious guess (therefore, it's probably wrong LOL), and say Half Moon Cay.

Yep, that was my next guess (since all the other islands were taken LOL)

What I want to know, Jeff, is did you sail on both with your grandparent's, or just with one of them? :grin:

Tortola?

Limon is on the Caribbean side ( I think Caldera is Pacific, not sure though). You can see a list of tours Carnival offers in Limon, at http://www.carnival.com/ShoreTours/ShTours.asp and select Limon. Princess will more than likely offer the same type of tours. It's a definite "take a tour" kind of place. We did a private tour, and thought we were going to be robbed or killed when our driver stopped at the side of a road where 4 guys were standing, and started talking to them in Spanish. That was the height of stupidity, and we'll never do that again. Limon is a working-class city, and there isn't too much going on there, except for a straw market at the pier, and some bars in the immediate vicinity. I'm a big guy who can take care of himself, and I didn't feel very good walking around once we got more than 2 blocks in from the pier.

My other thought was St Maarten.

Just saw some recent pics of the Queen Mary 2 in Barbados, and it looks a lot like this picture. So that is my official guess.

Definitely a wide mix. Princess used to have a limit on the number of kids per sailing, but I'm not sure if that policy is still in effect. We were 30, and 29 on the Grand and definitely fit in, age wise.

Mahogany Run in St Thomas is the best golf course in the Caribbean, so I'm told. I'm sure Princess will have offer an opportunity to golf there. They have a golf simulator up on the top deck, and I'm sure they will have info there on golf tours.