Joanandjoe

We're Maya buffs, but we can't help you. We saw our Mayan ruins, all over Yucutan, on a land based trip where we stayed at the ruins overnight. When the tour buses full of people from the cruise ships or from the shore resorts were at the ruins, we were either at more remote ruins (Labna, Sayil, Xlapak, one or two others) or taking a siesta. From what we've heard, the ruins you can get to from Belize are better than Tulum (the main ruin you can get to from Cozumel), unless you relish the ferry ride. Otherwise, you're better off seeing the very modest Maya ruins on the island, and doing something else that doesn't involve a ferry ride. What we did was walk three or four blocks inland, to get away from the tourist area, then visit non-tourist shops, play a round of mini-golf!, and eat at a local restaurant. If you're a "beachie", there are good beaches. There are also things such as ATV rides. Of course, if you really want to splurge, and your cruise line offers it, you could take a plane ride from Cozumel to either Uxmal or Chichen Itza, the places where we stayed overnight (3 at Chichen, 2 at Uxmal). Those are the most popular large Maya sites. We also spent 2 nights in Merida and 3 in Mexico City.

And, of course, you have as much money as Steve Wynn - NOT!

We've only been in a casino once (out of about a dozen cruises). Joan decided to play blackjack until she won or lost $25, It took about 10 minutes to lose $25, and that was it for our casino experience. I've never gambled a penny at a casino, whether on land or on a ship. I might add that I've had about 10 business trips to a hotel with a casino (and two tryouts for Jeopardy in a casino, but never got on the show), but have never been tempted to bet.

C'mon, everyone, it's time for another question of the day. Does anyone have a good one?

The front page of CC has a news story indicating that Princess will have the ultimate tour on the new Ruby Princess, at $150 per person. At that cost, I would definitely pass on the "opportunity" to go behind the scenes.

We've actually had tours of several of these areas: bridge, galley, officers' quarters (but not crew lower than officers), and a breif glipse of the laundry on a housekeeping tour. It's always interesting to go behind the scenes.

My crystal ball is rather cloudy. However, cruise lines are quick to add charges, slow to drop them. IMHO, if there are price decreases, it will be due to falling demand, not falling oil prices.

We haven't seen your posts for awhile, and miss them. Have a wonderful cruise. We hope to see your posts when you return.

Interesting. I don't know how Joey posted his map, but it keeps updating. Now it shows Gustave, Hannah, Ike, and Josephine. It seems as if we have a ways to go before the threat of tropical storms is over.

Today's question is a rare post by Joan, so I think I (Joe) will put in my two cents. Normally, the main way we decompress is to plan our next vacation. Unfortunately, in 2007 and 2008, that has been very difficult. Two of our three vacations were done on three weeks notice: we left for vacation three weeks after I was given permission to go on vacation. The third was booked nine months in advance, and was nearly cancelled. Right now I'm back in the "not allowed to take vacation" category, so we can't plan anything. Howard's solution doesn't work when you don't know when or where you'll be able to go on vacation again. Joan is more upbeat than me. My question would have been "how do you keep from going nuts when you're not allowed to plan a vacation?"

Today's topic: "How do you decompress after a cruise? I have lost most of the weight I gained on our May 27- June 8 Alaska cruise-and-tour combination. But I still find myself comparing reality to our cruise. I go down to the kitchen in the morning to make breakfast and think "Why can't I order room service with salmon omlettes?". I see my messy kitchen and think "The staff should clean this.". I walk into my closet and think "I only unpacked once.". Is there a support group called : CRUISERS ANONYMOUS? I miss cruising on the Regent SO much. Every day had a new and exciting adventure: embarking and seeing the scenery, getting off at a port and walking around in a new city, having somebody else clean your room and serve your meals, days at sea with interesting people, and a week of no worries. How do YOU adjust? (by Joan)

That pretty much sums up our feelings. If we're not sailing from the NYC area, we try to arrive at the port at least a day early, then get onto the ship as soon as it's cleared for embarkation.

In a new post on the original thread, Jason stated that the thread was cleared by him in advance, and that he has asked the OP for more information. If you're interested in the contest, I seuggest that you send a message to Jason, who can probably give you (or get for you) more details.

Sadly, the same situation as ours.

Bon voyage, Joey. We hope you enjoy Alaska as much as we did.

We Carzies seem to have dropped the ball on cruise question of the day, so this thread covers the small remaining portion of August, plus September. Today's question is about a thread purporting to show a contest in which a family will cruise in Europe, and be filmed by the Travel Channel. For reasons stated on the thread, I have my doubts as to whether it is a real contest. For this question, let's assume it is, and that you can sign up on a reliable web site or email address. Does your family qualify for the family travel in Europe contest? If so, would you enter and try to win the contest? With no children who like to cruise, and no grandchildren, we don't qualify: we're not a multi-generational cruising family. Even if we did qualify, we're not sufficinetly outgoing to want to have a portion of our lives filmed for dsiplay to millions of people. Leave that to the extroverts!

I'm a member of three forums: this one (the friendliest), the critical board (for practical information and roll calls), and Luxury Cruise Talk. I joined the last one because, out of 5,000 Crazies, we seem to be the only ones who have sailed on Regent. On Luxury Cruise talk, we're the poor relatives: most of the people there take multiple Regent trips in high end suites. We need the practical information they can give. I tried the cruise boards on Frommers and Fodors; but they're basically useless.

When Joey last posted his map, Gustave was a tropical storm. Now it's a category 1 hurricane, which is expected to be a category 3 hurricane before it has a U.S. landfall. Ouch! Yes, the track as of now is similar to Fay, but the storm is expected to go to the west of Fay's storm track.

Exactly: the links for X have disappeared. I tried getting X web cams in several different ways, and couldn't do so.

Celebrity seems to have disappeared from KroozCam and other cruise camera web sites. Other lines seem to have the sites in operation.

We've had several bad winds on ships. On our Rotterdam Canada/New England cruise, we had a force 9 gale (47 to 54 MPH), and the ship really was rocking and rolling. We also got caught in Mistral winds in the Med. that prevented us from sailing into Minorca. That was on a small ship (the Wind Surf), and it was really rough. Joan had sea bands, and took some bonine, both times. I didn't take any medicine; but Joan insists that my skin turned a lovely shade of green.

What's interesting is that, on my work computer, the only pictures I can see are posted by Joey. Did anyone else post pictures? If so, they're invisible.

If it had been like that, instead of the hour we spent on line (until both of us were exhausted), we would have been able to do something with our first day in Vancouver, instead of collapsing when we got to the hotel.

I've been telling her that for more than 40 years. Our Alaska cruise was the main celebration for our 40th anniversary (6/16/68).

There were no formal nights on six of the eight cruises we've had since 1/1/04 (3 Windstar, 2 Radisson/Regent, 1 Avalon, 1 HAL, 1 X). On the two cruises (HAL and X) where we've had formal nights, I wore a dark suit and Joan wore a caftan. (She has three or four lovely caftans, 2 of which were bought in Morocco.) I guess that counts as a gown for purposes of the poll. Until I either cruise more often on ships with formal nights, or have a wedding for my 33 year old son, I'm unlikely to buy a tux. Joan is wearing one of her Moroccan caftans in our avatar picture. That was taken on the Wind Surf, which does not have evening dress codes. We were dressier than usual for the captain's reception.