Joanandjoe

Cathie, 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!

aquagirl, 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!

justcruizin, 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!

ready2gotravel, 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!

Oquawkalvbirds, 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! Please explain your name. Are you in Oklahoma part of the year and Calif. the other part?

habitualcroozer, 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!

Henderlight, 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!

NLB1050, 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!

We can't help you, but it sounds like a good idea. Considering your CC name, Tracy, lucky Tony! Welcome to Cruise Crazies!

Mebert and DaCruzNut were both on the ship last year. Why not send them a personal message? We were on the ship, too, but it was back in 2001, under different ownership; and, anyway, after five years we don't remember details about formal night.

Just make sure that you can book the Euro fare from the U.S. It would not be unusual for you to have to book a dollar fare, and find that it's much higher than the Euro fare. BTW, welcome to Cruise Crazies, Tigersrq! Are you rooting for your namesake in this week's Masters Tournament?

Iberia lists the fare, via Madrid, at 132.51 Euros, via Madrid . SAS lists it as much more: $297. You may be able to do better on a search engine, or there may be a high speed train (but there apparently isn't). A Royal pain, but shouldn't be a deal breaker. To be honest, it does seem odd that Princess will get you to Copenhagen from FLL, but not from Barcelona. They're probably punishing you for not using a cruise line owned by Carnival.

Have a great trip, Popsec. Obviously you're an X fan: two cruises on Celebrity in consecutive months. How did you like the Zenith? We'll be sailing on her next month. Karen, you've pointed out a basic difference in the way men and women prepare for a trip. If Mr. and Mrs. Popsec are anything like us, she's already packed, but he hasn't even started to think about it. LOL.

Bon voyage! Have an enchanting time on Enchantment.

Exactly! We're glad to see that someone agrees with us.

Crown Princess Breezes Through First Sea Trials Princess' 113,000-ton Crown Princess, scheduled to launch this June, completed its first round of sea trials on March 9. Sea trials, a series of tests that gauge the operating efficiency of a vessel's equipment and engines, are the first major "outings" for a cruise ship. Crown Princess aced the early tests of its maneuvering and propulsion machinery after leaving its construction dock at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard for the first time. Crown Princess will depart on its maiden voyage on June 14, launching a series of nine-day Caribbean sailings from its homeport in New York -- the brand-new cruise terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In the fall, the ship will relocate to San Juan for a season of Southern Caribbean itineraries.

Too bad they didn't have a Brooklyn cruise ship terminal when we were living in Brooklyn a long time ago (1969-74). The terminal is within 2 miles of where we lived after I got out of law school.

Welcome back. We're glad your trip was so wonderful that your major complaint was inability to put lime in your beer. (Since neither of us drinks beer, that sounds like a very minor thing; but maybe it's a big deal to beer drinkers.)

We don't see the big deal, either. We are somewhat amazed that two ships are identical; but, then, we've never sailed on Carnival. None of the nine ships on which we have sailed, or will sail on this year, is identical to any other ship; althought the differences between Horizon and Zenith are pretty minor (such as hot tubs on Zenith but not Horizon). Even our HAL Vista class ship, the Noordam, is different from the other three Vistas.

Here is the buffet portion of the poll.

Jeff, Da Cruz Nut, had a comment that the food on Carnival wasn't as good as Celebrity (AKA "X") or Princess, but far better than Holland America (HAL), RCCL, or other lines. Of the lines he mentioned, we've only tried HAL and X, and liked the HAL food much, much more than the X food. As we stated on our welcome back message, food tastes are very subjective. We're starting two polls: which line has better dining room food, and which has better buffets. Specialty restaurants, room service, and bar food are not included in the polls, but feel free to comment. Consider hamburger grills, pizza stations, ice cream, etc., to be part of the buffets. This is the dining room poll. The buffet poll is a separate thread. P.S. I goofed in my vote. My vote for HAL didn't register the first time, then I accidentally clicked on the wrong button. If possible, my vote should be changed from "equal" to a very strong vote for HAL.

Everything in moderation, Shari (and Joey as well). This may be a once in a lifetime chance to go to the Med.; but it's also a once in a lifetime chace to live the Mediterranean lifestyle. By that I mean relaxed and laid back. The cruise lines schedule back to back days at Livorno and Civittavecchia, and it's a temptation to go to Florence from Livorno and Rome from Civittavecchia. If you do it, you'll barely skim the surface of both cities, and you'll be exhausted. Do, at most, one or the other. Those itineraries are very port intensive, and you can get exhausted if you try to do everything. Relaxation, rather than collecting cities, is the point of a vacation. (Sorry to sound preachy, but I've seen too many people develop a dislike for cruising because they try to do too much.) As for the Caribbean, we're doing a later than usual trip on 11/25 this year, my first vacation ever (including when I was a kid) between Thanksgiving and April 15th. CPA son of a CPA. We'll see how we like the Noordam, which has 500 PAX (1,918) more than the largest ship on which we've ever sailed. For the lines that we would sail on (Celebrity, HAL, Regent, Windstar, Sea Dream, Seabourn, and Silversea), the Noordam is the ONLY ship that sails to the Caribbean in 2006 during our normal time frame of mid-May to late June (excluding Memorial Day) and the second and third weeks of November.

Go for it, Shari--but be sure you also consider other cruise lines (unless you're an "X and nothing else" fan), such as HAL, Windstar, Princess, RCCL, etc. I've been to Europe on business a lot (about 3 dozen times), and been there with Joan close to 10 times; but, with one exception, we never had more time than "a week plus a weekend". Our one cruise was in a year when almost all of my vacation got cancelled, and we had to use up more than two weeks of time. We'll probably not be able to take two full weeks until I retire (hopefully about 5 years); so the long X itineraries (and most others) are out of the question for now. Oddly enough, with all of those trips to Europe, I've only been to the Caribbean 6 times (4 on business), and Joan has only been there once (and that had 1 day at a Caribbean port, 5 in Central America). Since our cruise windows of May, June, and November are not during the main Caribbean season, that won't change much.

Thanks, Joey. Don't panic, Shari. This is obviously only partial information, with one ship and no prices. Presumably more info will be coming soon. 5/3 is a bit early for our cruise window, and 12 days in Europe, plus the time getting there and back, is more than we can fit in. Let's hope they have some shorter cruises. However, based on past years, that seems unlikely.

We're early birds, and our only cruise in Europe was on a ship, the Wind Surf, that had open seating, with dinner starting at 7:30. That was very late for us, but we ate lots of bar food until it was time to eat. We've also had trouble oon our many (approx. 40 for Joe, 10 for Joan) land trips to Europe--dining hours are much too late for us. Based on our experience, it's safe to say that most Europeans do eat late. Keep trying for your preferred sitting, and maybe you'll get it. If not, you'll probably be back to the ship in time for early dining on several days. On the other days, make do with the alternate restaurants and room service. Good luck!