Joanandjoe

Gail and Paul, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest. (You'd have to go pretty far off before your post was removed, as happened to Joey on another board.)

Welcome back, Marylou. We're glad you had a great cruise.

teacha50, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

Bon voyage! Have a wondeful time on your cruise.

Bon voyage. have a wonderful cruise!

Welcome home, and congrats on getting the docs for your next cruise. We hope nyou had better weather in Bermuda than we had on the last two days; and that, unlike what happened on our cruise, the ship got to go to St. George.

sashapoo73, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

Jfamily, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

I think the real sadness came when Crown was removed from Orient Lines. After that, it was clear that the ship wouldn't be sailing for the American cruise market for much longer. I'm not familiar with the other ship.

Have a great cruise! Where does the cruise go?<]

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming. Is anyone familiar with the synagogue in St. Thomas? This is a real test for us. After avoiding both islands and large ships for so many years (in 38 years we've never had an island vacation other than our honeymoon, or a beach vacation of more than two nights), we're hoping that we love both. the ship and the islands That would open up a lot of vacation doors for us. If we can't take the heat, sun, and/or a ship as gigantic (to us) as the Noordam, it will limit our future vacation choices. We chose this itinerary because of its NYC departure port, and becase of the mix of islands, large and small, overdeveloped and fairly pristine.

Our TA also watches for price breaks and specials: that's how we moved from a mini-suite to a full suite on the Noordam for only $205 extra per person for 11 days. However, if the price drops once you've paid your final deposit, the cruise line can give you nothing, a shipboard credit, or cash back. I would think that cash (or credit) back is unusual. Congrats on your shipboard credit. Use it in fun and in good health!

Friendship Teacher (nice "handle") welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

That's wonderful, Cheryl. Have a fantastic cruise.

jlee2070, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

maggie4219, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

jafguard78, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

Laurashelby, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

Now that we're back from Bermuda, it's time for us to start thinking about our next Cruise, the Noordam to the Caribbean on 11/25/06. Unlike most Crazies, the Caribbean is unknown territory to us, largely because neither of us likes heat, we can't take vacation time between December and May due to Joe's business (indeed, this will be our first ever vacation after Thanksgiving!), and redheaded Joe has to avoid beaches between about 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Other than business trips to San Juan (where we'll meet friends and walk around Old San Juan, so we don't need any help), we've never been to any of the ports in our 40 years of knowing each other, and Joe's only trip to any of the ports (St. Thomas day trip from St. Croix) was in 1958. Your thoughts on what to do, assuming we can't be on a beach in mid day, would be appreciated for the following five ports: Tortola, St. Thomas, Dominica*, Barbados, and St. Maartin. Thanks. *That's the small southern Caribbean island, not Dominican Republic!

bandara, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

Thanks, Lisa. We went over the revised Century configuration and rooms in great detail with the cruise planner. A room with 170 square feet, plus a 40 square foot balcony, would (when you're not on the balcony) be even smaller than the room without the balcony, since space must be made for getting onto the balcony. For Norway in mid-May, a balcony would be usable only if you're wearing a heavy overcoat: daytime highs are under 60 in Southern Norway, under 50 in Northern Norway. Balconies would not be of much use, but they add to the price. We did consider the refurbishment.

Cabin size and all, it was still a great cruise. For people who just sleep and change clothes in the room, it's probably more than adequate. Celebrity rooms are BIGGER than those on most ships going to Bermuda, which we think is scary.

mbuchner, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.

Thanks, all. Our problem is that we DO spend a lot of time in our cabins, especially on sea days; so size does matter to us. Our review of the sister ship, Horizon, was more favorable because we had a suite with extra room and a bathtub. Then the price difference was small, this time it would have been large. Also, we wanted to see if we could be comfortable in a standard Celebrity cabin, since all Celebrity standard cabins are 170 to 175 square feet. Unfortunately, the answer is no--we need more room. That meant that we did not sign up for some wonderful Norway and British Isles itineraries on Century next May, 2007--we just didn't think we'd be comfortable. A real shame! As for Zenith, we saw no problems with this supposedly aging ship, other than cabin size. The staff was friendly and (except for the cabin attendant), wonderfully helpful. If we would sail Celebity again on any ship, we certainly would sail Zenith. We don't know how we can escape the cabin size and lack of bathtub problems: suites are simply too expensive.

jmastron, welcome to this crazy board. Post often, and soon you'll go from inside to outside, to balcony room. This isn't the biggest cruise board, but it's the friendliest.