Joanandjoe

We might consider using ship recommended stores for a "serious purchase" if we ever contemplated making one; but the most expensive think we've ever bought on a cruise was a semiprecious stone necklace. Certainly we've never bought an individual item costing as much as $150. Joan does internet research for things we might buy on the trip before we leave home, so we have a good idea of values. Sometimes she buys our "souvenirs" months in advance of the trip. For example, a majority of our purchases for our Alaska trip this May and June were made last winter, when prices were low and merchants were anxious to get rid of stock. We've just received some Turkish soup, but we won't leave for Turkey until late next October. As for familiar stores, the only port we've been to more than twice is Boston (and that was three times): not exactly exotic and prone to special bargains. So for us there's no such thing as stores "we like and have done business with in the past". Our next cruise will be 100% to new ports.

If there have been freebies for going to cruise line recommended stores, I've never noticed them. Maybe the lines we've sailed on don't have them. In any event, we try to do our homework, and visit local stores recommended by guide books, not ship recommended stores. In many ports, the local tourist authorties often give out books that have coupons for low cost (but not free) T-shirts or trinkets. We do sometimes use those coupons.

We occasionally watch a DVD in our room. It usually takes two or three blocks of time before we finish it. We've never seen a movie in a ship's theater, and rarely (if ever) seen one on TV in our room.

So did I. Thanks. Joan

Not even close. Of our 12 cruises, only two were on ships less than five years old: the two year old Avalon Poetry in 2007, and the eight month old Noordam IV in 2006. The closest we came to a final cruise was the Zenith in 2006, a few months before it was removed from the Celebrity fleet. However, the subsequent removal from the fleet had not been announced when we sailed on the Zenith (although it was rumored). We did do one cruise before drydock, on the Wind Surf in 2004. With the crew making obvious preparations for changes in the ship, that was something like a final cruise. Does that count as a last cruise? We also had the results of a final cruise, on the Radisson Diamond. We weren't on the Diamond; instead, we were on the first cruise on the Radisson Navigator that had a massive crew infusion from the Diamond. That included transporting the Italian steakhouse theme restaurant (Portofino?) from the Diamond to the Navigator, complete with the waiters from the Diamond.

May we assume from your post that SOS will be leaving the fleet? Is it going to another RCI cruise line, such as Pulmantour?

I know absolutely nothing about the ships mentioned in your post; indeed, I don't even know what cruise line you're talking about (probably Carnival, but might be RCI). However, if the idea of an aft cabin intrigues you, why not try it? On the cruise lines I've been on that have aft cabins with balconies (HAL and Regent), people tend to love them. You'll probably have a great experience. Go for it!

Knowing this board, someone will probably sail on the ship soon, and give us their opinion. I'll admit that the idea doesn't sound good; but ship designers usually know what they're doing. If this is the worst thing that Jackie and Tony have to worry about, they're very lucky people.

Most favorite and least favorite shore excursions. Most favorite. It's hard to pick just one. For example, the stingrays in Grand Cayman were fascinating, but they don't even make the top three. Neither did a ferry trip through half of the Panama Canal, although that was a close fourth. At best, I can narrow the field down to three: Anne of Green Gables and Delray by the Sea. Joan dressed up as Anne of Green Gables, complete with red pigtailed wig, calico dress, and basket of goodies to give to "the poor", then we took a small bus from Charlottewown, PEI to the Green Gables House. After Joan was photographed by a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls (Anne is very much a heroine in Japan), we toured the house and grounds, then were driven to a mansion, Delray-by-the-Sea, where we were served a lobster dinner. Fantastic. St. Paul de Vence, France. We weren't even scheduled to go to Villefranche, but we couldn't get to Corsica due to high winds. The cruise line was able to arrange some spur of the moment shore excursions for this unexpected port stop, and we chose to go to St. Paul de Vence. That was a fascinating medieval walled city, and we visited Chagall's grave in (of all places for a Jewish artist) a church graveyard. We placed a stone on his grave, then bought scented soap and herbes de Provence. Memorable. Catamaran tour of Tracey Arm, Alaska. Fantastic scenery, plus whales, seals, and other wildlife. The 23 year old captain was showing off, and brought us within 18 inches of a rock wall. The glaciers were amazing, the humpback whales even more so. Worst. Before we took one of our Caribbean cruises, we knew that, in some ports, transportation was through "open air safari buses". These essentially are open sided sets of passenger seats set in a truck bed. We were afraid we'd hate it. Unfortunately, we were right. Too many people crowded onto a bench, bad roads, no seat belts, and a general feeling that we about to fall out of the so-called "bus". By the time we got to the Coral Gardens in St. Thomas, we were so dizzied by the ride that it could have been the best place in the world and we wouldn't have noticed. Safari buses: never again!

We're option E. We weren't figuring on making cruise plans; but with the bad economy, we figured we ought to make some plans while I'm still employed and not retired. We can always cancel later if things look bad. If the economy were better, so I'd be sure of still having my job next year at this time, we wouldn't have booked something 13 months in advance. As with the Caribbean, which most Crazies love and we don't, we seem to be the contrarians on the board.

We prefer booking midship, since the ride is smoother there. On Regent, we get the lowest, least expensive room; again, for a smoother ride. On mainstream lines we usually end up pretty hight, because the nicer cabins are usually higher.

We ended up putting our money where our mouth is, and booking an Eastern Med cruise at about the same time as the CC group cruise--and very much at the end of the season in late October, 2009. We did a post trying to get this as a group cruise, butr only got one possible taker.

Our first cruise on Regent (which was still Radisson at that time) was three years ago, September 2005. from Montreal to NYC. It was a jazz cruise, and the jazz was unbelievably good. See our review in the ship reviews section of this web site. Our 2006 Noordam cruise technically had a food and wine theme, but the theme was not much in evidence. In both cases, we signed up for the cruise before ot became a theme cruise, In appropriate circumstances, a good theme could be the reason for choosing a particular cruise.

We scheduled river tubing on a stop a few years ago in Dominica, but it was cancelled due to swollen river conditions. It was a disappointment, but this tragedy makes us aware of how lucky we were to have a responsible tour operator. Poor woman! Poor family! Just awful.

Both James and Boba are right. It's a ridiculous system that makes these hardworking people depend on tips (prepaid or otherwise) in order to make what is a decent living in their home countries, but a terrible living by US standards. That, however, is a fact of life. People who stiff the workers on tips are beneath contempt: it's a mean, petty thing to do. When we're on a ship that has tipping (i.e., not Regent, where tips are included), we always tip more than the standard amount, unless (as only happened once) the service is really bad. Even for the really bad service on Zenith, we didn't reduce the standard tips.

Have a wonderful cruise, Cheryl. You deserve the break. Hopefully, you're already getting ready to board.

Knowing your name, being friendly despite the awful working conditions, keeping the room neat, responding to requests, and occasionally anticipating needs (such as the aforementioned corkscrew for the wine bottle). Most of our stewards and stewardesses have met these criteria, so we've had some great ones. What makes a bad steward or stewardess? Refusing to clean out the minibar. (We don't want to get charged for anything, so we always clean it out.) Not getting us a foam pillow when I can't sleep with a feather one - despite the fact that there's supposed to be a pillow menu. Being unfamiliar with the special concierge class room service menu. Failing to clean the room when we were out of it. Never smiling or calling us by name. Responding slowly or not at all to requests. As mentioned on another thread, a clueless stewardess can (and, in the case of Celebrity, did) turn one off from an entire cruise line.

We were thinking the same thing. 2-for-1s were common on Regent, but they almost disappeared. Now they're back. We think they raised the prices to much, then had to make good offers in order to get people to book. At about $4,000 including tips, booze, and air, plus around $700 in fuel surcharges and miscellaneous charges (for a 300 square foot room), this 9 day cruise compares favorably in cost to 10 day cruises on the mainstream lines such as HAL or X.

The cruise line guidelines result in much smaller tips than we gave before there were guidelines. Where there is tipping (which Regent doesn't have), we've always given individual tips in excess of the guidelines, directly to the waiters and cabin stewards. The only exception: the clueless stewardess on the Zenith who is largely reponsible (anong with a bad stateroom and mediocre food) for my inability to persude Joan to try X again. We didn't give her an extra penny. Nonetheless, if the lines made the standard tips significantly larger, more people would drop them. Therefore, they probably should stay where they are, or a buck or two higher.

Joan is a great cook, but, like Rogue, we already have too many cookbooks. Most of them are for low fat cooking, which is not what you'd expect in a cruise line cookbook. Not only have we never purchased a cruise line cookbook, we've been unaware that they existed. I've never seen one.

If the cruise has formal nights (which has been awhile, since my last three cruises didn't), I usually pack two ties. If there's no fomal night, I pack one, in case I feel like getting dressed up. I usually buy a tie during the trip: the last two were a Titanic tie in Victoria and a blue tulip tie in Holland.

For our 30th anniversary 10 years ago, we decided to see if we could find an alternative to the Type A (always doing something) vacations we had gone on previously. My brother, who didn't like his only cruise, described it as "boring - nothing to do", and that actually sounded relaxing. As it turns out, our cruise to Alaska wasn't boring at all, and we were hooked. Not counting our one night cruise in 1973, we've had 12 cruises, and booked lucky # 13 yesterday.

Have a great dance, and congratulations. Once the docs have arrived, you know that the wait for the cruise is nearly over.

We couldn't resist an offer of two-for-one fare with free airfare, and booked a nine day Eastern Mediterranean cruise from Istanbul to Civitavecchia (Rome) on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator, October 30 to November 8, 2009. We received our confrmation a few minutes ago. We hope that some Crazies will join us. The two for one ends on October 15th. We know that the cruise is about the same time as the Connie goes Crazy group cruise; but we can't be the only ones who perfer the Mediterranean to the Caribbean.

We must take the wrong (or, maybe for us, right) cruise lines. I can't remember anything really silly. Maybe the silliest we've seen are the cruise shows on HAL and Windstar - a bit of Philippine and Indonesian culture, a bit of silliness. HAL had a silly dinner promotion with dancing waiters and giant salad bowls - I forget what they called it - and we chose to go to the Pinnacle Grill instead. Dutch night was a bit silly, but fun, with the Dutch hats and food: to0 bad they've mostly discontinued it.