Joanandjoe

We've done the ferry, not the train. It was an amazing experience going through the canal on a small boat. You could see the "mules" used to pull the ships, and still see the scars from cutting through the Continental Divide. An expensive, but awsome, trip. The down side to either the ferry or the train: the long bus ride to get to the start of the trip.

The Med generally is rainy in February, but I don't know about specific ports. Why not check weather averages on weather.com?

Our post on Glory Tours in Barbados was removed because it had a link. You should be able to find it without a link. Sarah, the owner, is great!

There's no way I would rent a car on Barbados - the roads are too narrow, and we're not used to driving on the left.

We enjoyed your rather unique perspective on Alaska. We're going there, for the second time, in late May, and you certainloy gave us some ideas on what to try and what to avoid.

We're excited about our upcoming northbound Alaska cruise, May 27, 2008, and are looking at the ship's excursions. We will also consider private excursions. For now, we're looking at excursions other than flightseeing, and would appreciate your thoughts. We also want to have at least one experience panning for gold, and one small boat excursion where we can see glaciers and/or wildlife (particularly whales). Victoria - I would think we can do this city on our own. Any opinions on this? Ketchikan. We'd like to see some totem poles. Should we take the ship's Totem and Town Tour, the City highlights tour, or a tour on our own? Can we do this on our own after taking in the logging tour, which sounds like fun? Has anyone done the tour? Juneau. We've done this city on our own before. The big question is whether to take the Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer, or one of the whale watching tours. While we could do both, we'd like some time on terra firma. Is the underground gold tour a good idea, or should we do our panning in Skagway? Can we get to the Mendenhall Glacier without a ship's tour? Skagway. We'll probably do the railroad, maybe combined with the gold dredge. Is that a good excursion? Sitka. We're thinking of doing this city on our own. Would we be missing a great ship's tour by doing so? Thanks for your thoughts.

Here are some pix of the event. http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjo...mediafilter=all

Do give us the name of your private providers, and what tours they give. In Alaska, as in most places, you should do research and then decide what you want to do. On our 30th Anniversary cruise in 1998, we were on our own in Sitka (not relevant for Country Lady, but relevant for others). We booked native dancing through the chamber of commerce, and went to the totem pole area on our own. In Ketchikan we walked around and had a great time. In Juneau, where we were docked for 11 hours, it was too rainy for the ski lift up the mountain (it was closed all day) or the glacier (flightseeing was canceled, and visibility was very low), so we took a wildlife cruise part of the day (visibility was OK out of the city) and walked around the town, with a long stop at the state museum, the rest of the day. In Valdez, we took a wonderful boat tour of Prince William Sound. We strongly recommend a mix of tours and doing things on your own. Having said that, if what you want most is expensive, do it anyway. Who knows when you'll be back. We can't wait to start planning the details of our May 27, 2008 40th anniversary cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner.

My company gave the thumbs up, so we're keeping our booking. Obviously, a lot can happen between now and when we cruise, but we plan on going. So, for now, our cruise cancellations will stay at two. Whew!

Welcome to this Crazy Board. It would be helpful if you gave your ship and itinerary, so people can make suggestions. Some things to do apply to a port in general, while others depend on the excursions offered by the ship.

I've never bet anything in a casino, on land or at sea. Joan played blackjack once on a ship, set herself a low loss limit of $25 or so, quickly lost that amount, and that was it. I'm not a Disney fan, but I love the fact that their ships do not have casinos. Bingo? No way!

Our first cruises were before we had the internet, so we didn't write any reviews. Starting with when we joined the "critical" baord, we've written reviews for all cruises. When we joined this Crazy Board, we posted all of our old reviews, as well as doing current ones. For most of our cruises, we've had the only Crazies review of the ship. Unlike most Crazies, we haven't sailed on Carnival, Princess, or RCI, since we like small ships; and not many Crazies have sailed on Windstar, Regent, or Avalon.

We've been in Boston on cruises three times, on three very different cruise lines: Regal (Regal Empress), HAL (Rotterdam), and Regent (7 Seas Navigator). In each case, the line provided a free shuttle back and forth between the ship and downtown. If the ship doesn't provide a shuttle, I have no idea how much it would cost to get to central Boston.

Then I'll stick to my suggestions. Based on my look at the Duck web site, the tour usuallystarts at either the Prudentrial Center or the Science Museum, and costs $29 ($24 if you're over 62). The ship's tour may start at the ship. If it takes you back to the ship, you'd need a shuttle to go back into town, mostly to see sights that you pass on the duck. When will you be in NYC?

Joan and I made opposite assumptions. I assumed you were in port for the day, while John assumed that your cruise was beginning or ending in Boston, and that you had some time in the city. Which is it? That makes a difference in what we recommend.

True, but you would have gotten very cold and very wet. Still, it's estimated that 100,000 people gathered in Battery and Liberty Parks to see the three ships go sailing out. (And it wasn't even Christmas Day in the Morning). First QM2, then the two queens that had docked in Manhattan sailed under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge (fascinating to see from underneath), then out to sea.

Correction to my initial post: QE2 apparently will visit NYC again before she is retired in November.

Howard, the picture was taken at night. I assume the QM2 is in the foreground, the Victoria in the middle, and the QE2 in the rear. Is that correct? Did you take this yourself, or get it off a web site? Great picture either way.

Boston is a wonderful place to visit. The three times that we were there on cruise ships, we took the shuttle into town, and then did things we never managed to do in the three years we lived there (the Constitution, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Art Museum, the ferry from the Constitution to the City, and the Science Museum) and things that were favorites (Back Bay, the Public Garden, the Museum of Fine Arts, Freedom Trail, Quincy Market, etc.). We know the city, so we didn't need a ship's tour. We understand that the Duck trip is a good way to see the city as first timers. If the tour leaves from the ship, that's probably all you can do, since there is very little to do near the ship terminal, and the terminal is distant from downtown. If the Duck loads, and then lets you off at the end, near the shuttle stop, and you know where it is, do some exploring near the shuttle. Perhaps shopping at Qunicy Market, walking part of the Freedom Trail, or walking to Boston Common and the Public Garden. On our three cruises, the shuttle stopped near Quincy market, but the stop was a bit hard to find.

As noted in another thread, yesterday we saw the Queen Elizabeth 2 docked in Manhattan on her last visit to New York. We never sailed on her. Joan's parents did, and had a wonderful cruise. The QE2 leaves service soon, after 41 years, a victim of new safety at sea rules. We'll never see her again, since we are very unlikely go to Dubai, where she will be docked as a hotel. Crazies, share your memories of this great ocean liner.

We were in NYC for the weekend. As our bus was rounding the Weehawken curve in NJ, on our way home, we saw two cruise ships docked on the West Side. One looked like a classic ocean liner: the QE2, making its last visit to NYC. The other looked like a carbon copy of the HAL Noordam: the new Queen Victoria, making its first visit to NYC. This was around 11 a.m. yesterday. At 7 p.m., the two ships were to rendezvous with the QM2, which was docked in Brooklyn, so the three queens could leace New York Harbor together. We wish we had known the ships were in port, so we could have gone to the docks for one last view of the QE2; but at least we saw the ships from the Jersey side. Did anyone else see them; or, even better, is anyone on the ships? Since the cruise calendar doesn't show ships that have already sailed, I can't look up whether we have Crazies on the ships.

Brave woman, Carmen. Since neither of us is a nurse, we wouldn't have known what medicine to take, and wouldn't have taken the travel risk. My stone was too big to pass, and the operation to remove it left me too sore to be able to travel. Joe BTW, Joey, in effect we rebooked the Volendam cruise. Our Noordam cruise in November, 2006 had almost the same ports as the Volendam cruise.

We've had to cancel two cruises after our initial deposit (one due to illness and one because we changed to a better cruise), and almost had to cancel our last one due to my appendectomy 5 days before we were scheduled to leave. We'll probably have to cancel our next one as well, this time due to Joe's company. That would make three cancellations, for three very different reasons. Has anyone else had to cancel a cruise? If so, for what reasons, and did you rebook? Our cancellations and possible cancellation: November, 2002. Cancelled 7 day Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Horizon due to a kidney stone. We took a similar cruise on the Horizon, but for 10 days, in November, 2003. November, 2004. We cancelled a 10 day Caribbean cruise on the HAL Volendam so we could take a two week B2B in the Med. on the Wind Surf. May 27, 2008. 90% chance that we'll cancel our 8 day Regent Seven Seas Mariner Alaska cruise, because we won't know, when penalties kick in late this month, whether Joe's office will allow him to go (and assume they won't). Despite the cancellations, our last five vacations, and eight of our last ten, have been cruises.

Have a wonderful cruise, Joey!

The docks are on the far west side (12th Avenue, at the base of the West Side Highway), and most touristy things are east of Eighth Avenue. Normally the main thing of interest near the docks is the aircraft carrier Intrepid; but that's now elsewhere in the harbor, undergoing repairs. The only other tourist attractions right by the docks are nautical: the Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan, and the ferry to NJ. All of Manhattan is just a short taxi ride away. Lincoln Center and the Theater District, for example, are less than a mile away, Times Square maybe 1.2 miles, Museum of Natural History a bit more than 2 miles, etc.