Joanandjoe

Today is sailing day. Have a great trip!

Thanks, Joey and jason. We never travel by plane or cruise ship without travel insurance, and insure my trip seems to be the best way of comparing policies.

As has been pointed out on another thread, it remains to be seen whether this was really started by a single cigarette, or whether something else (such as a huge electrical malfunction) went wrong. We're both very much anti-smoking; but we're also against cruise line coverups. It will be interesting to see what the investigation uncovers.

Welcome to CC, Colorado. Your thoughts are the same as ours: cruising is basically safe, but nothing in life is completely safe.. Humor your DH, and promise that you won't take any unlicensed tours on winding mountain roads when you take your next cruise. LOL.

The more I read about the fire, the more I wonder how it became so widespread. Even if the fire started because of a careless smoker (and that's somewhat in doubt), why did it spread to so many cabins? The answers should be interesting.

Welcome back, 007. Your tale of weather woe reminds us of our first 6 years of marriage (1968-74, the entire period before we had any kids), when our vacations had something like 60 days with rain (including one hurricane and the worst April storm in the Yucutan in over 50 years), and only about 15 days without rain. Despite that, we had some wonderful vacations to places like Bermuda, Benelux, and Mexico. We're glad the rain didn't spoil your trip. Write a review when you've recovered from the trip.

The tragedy has hit here very hard, since 12 of the 14 passengers were from an adult community in central New Jersey. All 14 passengers were B'Nai Brith members, and six of the dead, plus the two survivors, belonged to the same synagogue. Articles on the crash took up half the front page, plus 3 1/2 inside pages, in today's Newark Star Ledger, with pictures and articles about each of the deceased. A truly sad day for the New Jersey Jewish community.

The Barcelona subway system is so easy to use that even Joan and I, who speak about 10 words of Spanish between us, were able to use it. Nonetheless, Joey and David will be tired and jet lagged, so they should take a cab. 200 Euros is pleanty for two days if you use charge cards; but most of the trip will be in Euro territory, so they'll need to use an ATM a few times during the trip. Have a great trip, Joey and David, and don't get "blinded by the light" in the Med. That golden sun will have you wanting to return to the Med. ASAP.

Mary and Andre, I'd be worried about a cruise in the next month or so, but not for December. The ship will have to undergo repairs, but it should be good as new long before December. While I'd like to see a total ban on smoking, it won't happen. It's one thing to ask people, many of whom are flying on business, to stop smoking for a few hours on a plane. It's something else to tell people that they can't smoke for most of their vacation. If cruise lines did that, smokers many smokers would swithch to land vacations. Apparently the person who started the fire left a lit cig. on the balcony, and went inside. The cig. smoldered, then started a big fire. Pretty dumb! It's about equal to the morons who through lit cigarettes out their car windows, thereby starting brush fires.

That's reassuring to read. As terrible as the Princess fire was, it would have been much worse without trained personnel.

Enjoy your scooters. Even on our honeymoon in Bermuda in 1968 we weren't brave enough to drive uunfamiliar vehicles (scooters) on the wrong (left) side of the street; so we can't give you any information about them. Then again, neither of us has even been on a (non-motorized) bike since we got our driver's licenses. We understand that if you can ride a bike, are careful, and don't drive your scooter in the rain, you can have a lot of fun.

Welcome to Cruise Crazies, and congratulations on getting your docs. Now you have three weeks before your cruise to get lots of useful information from the crazy cruisers on this board!

We couldn't agree with you more; but it won't happen. One of the Carnival ships (it may even have been the Paradise) started out as nonsmoking, and they couldn't fill it. They ended up abandoning the no smoking policy. What a shame! We can't wait until NJ bans smoking in restaurants. The law was passed in January, so it probably will go into effect next month (90 days until most laws become effective.) How horrible it is that one thoughtless passenger ended up killing another passenger, injuring several others, costing 550 people on this ship their vacation, and probably cancelling a few future cruises. We're all quick to blame the cruise line when something goes wrong--give us our money back! What can the cruise line do when a passenger causes millions of dollars of damage to the cruise line?

We don't have any fancy animations, just simple good wishes for a great cruise. Please leave Bermuda in tip top shape for our 5/13 cruise on the Zenith!

Between the fire on Princess, the fatal bus crash of Millenium passengers, and the sinking of one of the BC ferries--an awful day for the maritime industry. Our hearts go out to the passengers and crew of all three ships.

We've had that problem: sometimes it takes awhile to get our "land legs" back. Welcome home! Hope you enjoyed the cruise.

While I can't give specific information on those two airports, in general European airports handle immigration and customs better than the U.S. Expect to clear immigration before your bags arrive, and to zip through customs on the green line (nothing to declare) in no time at all once you get your bags. If the plane is on time, you might be on your way by 8 p.m. Try to get a small supply of Euros before you leave (say, 100 Euros or $100 worth of Euros) at AAA or your bank, and find out whether your bank has correspondent banks in Europe. That will save you from having to go to banks or ATMs in the airport--and banks probably will be closed at 7:30 p.m. (They'll be open in the London airport, but that will be useless, since the U.K. uses the pound, not the Euro). If you are a Bank of America customer, there's a Barclay's bank branch near the pier in Barcelona, and others in town. Use of the ATM will not incur any charge. Ditto Paribas banks in France (but there is no Bank of America correspondent bank in Italy). Let CC members know whether you'll be at Gatwick or Heathrow in London, since security may be different at the two airports. I've been at both, but never changed planes in either.

What we find interesting is that we can't seem to avoid notices of bargains. We get them from cruise lines (HAL, Celebrity, Windstar, Regal, Oceanea, Royal Carib., one or two others), online cruise discounters, general travel discounters, and cruise boards (including this one). Our next cruise, 5/13 on the Zenith to Bermuda, came about as the result of an email from a cruise discounter (but we ended up getting a better deal from a different discounter). I guess you need to get on some more email lists.

It's nice that NCL is helping reduce unemployment. It remains to be seen whether U.S. based crews can be trained to give the type of service that we've come to expect from the east Asians and eastern Europeans employed by most cruise lines. We are very much in favor of employing Americans (we've never even owned a foreign brand car), but NCL has had mixed success, at best, with its Hawaii based crews.

Welcome to Cruise Crazies, Angie. Your initial cruise has two interesting parallels with our first two cruises. Our first, on the old Noordam to Alaska, was eight years ago, in celebration of our 30th anniversary. Our second cruise was a Canada/New England cruise on the Regal Empress. As Jeff points out, the Regal Empress is a grand old lady that is unlike today's ships. There's lots of wood, very little glitz, and the staterooms are smaller than on most ships. On the other hand, the public spaces are gorgeous, the crew is freindly, and the food is good. Two days will only give you a small taste of cruising. Hopefully you'll become hooked, and will try longer intineraries on newer ships. Smooth sailing and calm seas to you!

Welcome to Cruise Crazies, Mama Lady. We hope you'll love this Crazy Board as much as we do, and will be a frequent contributor. It's good to see someone sailing on the grand old Regal Empress. We'll respond to your question on the cruise discussion board.

Jeff, I'm glad you noticed what I said this morning: any cause of action has to include Steiner. Once both the cruise line and the spa operator have been joined, neither of them will be able to say; "it's the other company's fault. Also, it's possible that Steiner won't stonewall as much as the cruise line. Best of luck, Lola.

Good for you. Guarantees are a roll of the dice, so we're glad you rolled a seven. Enjoy the Connie, and let us know how you liked sailing out of Bayonne. We sail from there on the Zenith, on 5/13.

We hope to sail May 13 on the Celebrity (aka "X") Zenith from Bayonne to Bermuda and on November 25 on the new Noordam to the Caribbean. If we pull it off, it will be our first two cruise year. We had two scheduled in 2002 (also one on HAL and one on X), but had to cancel the second one (X) due to illness.

Mazel tov. Since your next two cruises are on a new Carnival ship and a middle aged Celebrity ship, it will be interesting to see how you think the two lines compare with each other.