cherole

This was forwarded to me. Thought this would be a good place to share it. No Nursing Home for Me... About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western Mediterranean aboard a Princess liner. At dinner we noticed an elderly lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady. I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told that she owned the line, but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the last 4 cruises, back-to-back. As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to say hello. We chatted and I said, "I understand you've been on this ship for the last four cruises." She replied, "Yes, that's true." I stated, "I don't understand" and she replied, without a pause, "It's cheaper than a nursing home." So, there will be no nursing home in my future. When I get old and feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day. I have checked on reservations on a Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for: 1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day. 2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast-in-bed every day of the week). 3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free washers and dryers, and shows every night. 4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo. 5. They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you. 6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days. 7. T.V. broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience. 8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don't even have to ask for them. 9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare; if you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life. Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama Canal, Tahiti , Australia , New Zealand , Asia , or just name where you want to go? Princess will have a ship ready to go. So don't look for me in a nursing home, just call shore to ship. P.S.: And don't forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side -- at no charge. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm guessing that late night snacking depends on your dinner hour, right? We would have late afternoon snacking (on Celebrity) between 3-5 p.m. such as sushi, tea snacks, hot dog bar, spa food snacks, etc. and then have dinner at 9:00. After that, no need for additional food. We skipped the nights when they had midnight chocolate and grand buffets. One really disgusting moment for me was after dinner, at 10:30 p.m., they had a pool party buffet with a Tex-Mex theme. I went out and ate tacos, etc. *after* my dinner !! What a glutton. But, I'm guessing that if you have a early dinner seating, the late night snack might be more interesting.

I haven't been on Princess, but asked a friend who really like Princess. Here is her response to the original question: 1. A BA vs. BF is a huge difference. BA is the ONLY category that we would book but it is balcony only, not service. The balcony on a BA is approximately 4 times larger than that of any other balcony cabin (other than suites) so well worth the larger price. The only issue is there is little to none regarding privacy because of the way the ship is built. I believe there may be privacy close to the door but the remainder has none. Also, there will NOT be chaise lounge chairs (they only have high back chairs), nothing to recline in. 2. The specialty dinner we always do at Sabatinni's. It is a fun place to go, a little up scale but nothing like the Normandy. It's the fantastic food that we go for! Something like 17 courses (just a little of each) served like 3 at a time. It's a must do! We find the food on Princess a tad better than Celebrity, especially the desserts! Must always order their souffles when they offer them! We have sailed on the "Sea" and the "Dawn". There is also a sister ship called the "Sun". All are the same, rather old, not too large.

YIKES, I guess the site is set up to block email, so I'll spell it out. cheinla at americaonline dot com got it??

OK, I'll be happy to, but I need your actual email address as I have to do it from the site. You can email it directly to me at cheinla######. I don't know of an easier way to do this. I'm not that technical. -Cheryl

We took an Acapulco Bay Cruise to see the cliff divers. It was good, although I think I mentioned in my prior post about what a "show" it is. I don't know how to put my pictures on a website to link for you. I have them on Kodakgallery.com. Let me know if you want me to email you the link.

Christmas ornaments for me. They're easy to pack and inexpensive. Although they can look tacky overall while decorating the tree, it's always a memory... "oh, here is the the lace ornament from Brugges, Belgium" and so on. BUT, the only think I check is they MUST be made in the place I am visiting. If I'm buying an ornament in Norway that is made in China, fuhgeddaboutit. Also, I like baseball caps. Again, cheap, easy to pack and I wear them year round for golf and stuff.

Never had anything lost in a cabin. The candle story does make me think, however. I always take my travel iron which I know is verbotten in cruise cabins due to fire hazard. And I assume they want to make their $$ in pressing garments. I have left it out while it's cooling off and fortunately they never took it and left me a note about fire hazards!

I concur with Joey that my Summit experience fell slightly short of Millennium. But, all was still great and I wouldn't hesitate to choose Celebrity in the future. One thing I have to mention, but unlike Joey, didn't have the nerve to complain about. Now, I'm not trying to sound bougeois here, but I had a problem with our stateroom attendant's body odor. I realize they work hard and we're in a warm climate, etc. But after he'd come and go, the odor would linger in the room. Thank goodness we had a veranda to air it out. I'm not sure if it's lack of deodorant, or just plain hard work, but it was a little annoying. One area where we got a lot of attention was at the main dining room, excellent on all fronts. One night, I posed the question (not complained mind you) about why they go to all of the bother to have Sommelier's, but don't use proper wine glasses for particular wines. You know what I mean?? They could just have the waiters serve the wine. But, a sommelier is pretty upscale to me, so I expect a proper glass for whatever I'm drinking. OK, maybe a little bougeois here, but I do live near wine country and it's a hobby of mine. Anyway, after making the comment, I had all of the appropriate glasses my heart desired and a lot of attention for the supervisor of Sommeliers. Ciao for now.

Hello, I can chime in a little bit as well, just back from Summit PC. Enjoyed meeting Joey and David and their friends. so whats tours did you guys do?? (1) Aruba: We did snorkeling/sail. The sailing was fun, but the snorkeling not so good. Wind stirred up the sand and visibility was not great. Also the equipment they give you on those things is inferior with no defogger. I didn't stay in the water too long. Nevertheless, saw some interesting coral and fish. They provided a BBQ lunch for us at an outdoor waterfront casual place. It was fine. Not a lot of time for hanging on beach. did you see the cliff divers?? tour or taxi ??? Acapulco: I also avoid taxis as my prior experience has been that it's easy to get a cab out to some place or another, but much harder to get one back to the ship. We did an Acapulco Bay cruise which included the cliff divers. I found it to be quite the racket! The cliff divers go on cue and then they swim out to the boat and walk around looking for gratuities. At any rate, it was interesting and the bay cruise (AKA the real estate tour as to who owns which cliffside home) was interesting. The tour guide was funny and interesting. And the food they provided was good - especially the guacamole. I do not recommend setting off on foot from the ship. You have to walk a long distance to get someplace you would feel comfortable. which port did you enjoy... Huatulco was very nice and quaint. We had booked golf which was really, really good. However, I regretted also that I had no time to do beach and shopping there. was it cheaper to take taxi's Same answer as Joey, no taxi unless I know I can get one back! did you do any rain forest tours In Costa Rica we did Manuel Antonio Park. I DO NOT recommend this one. It was too much bus time for quality time at place. We only had time for either beach or nature walk, not both. On the upside, we did see monkeys! The lunch was a "bait & switch" on Celebrity's part and everyone on the bus complained. We got a partial refund. Nevertheless, the lunch they did provide was yummy. And, I have to say that the tour guides were excellent! so you guys enjoyed the beaches in the ports We didn't have hardly any beach time with other activites, unfortunately. Cabo San Lucas: We just walked and did our own thing. I refer to it as the United State of Cabo. Of notable interest, we had lunch at Cabo Wabo and the Carmarones (Shrimp) Sammy was excellent! As were the Vampiros. They are open face beef tacos. They are appetizers but it was ample food. The Canal day was exhausting, but of course the reason for going. You get up at 5:00 a.m to start watching everything and pretty much do that for 9 hours. Let me know if anymore questions.

OK, see y'all on Friday.

Beats the heck out of the weather at home! OK, Joey, you fly out on Wed., right? I guess our pre-cruise Craziness is coming to a close! Have a great flight and we'll see you Friday night at the Quarterdeck providing there are no flight surprises. (Well, good surprises are OK - such as we get our upgrade).

I'm with you guys with the excitement. The formal wear is all packed and ready to go in the garment bag. The other stuff is mostly organized. I found some mini travel speakers @ Target for my iPOD for our cabin, so I'm getting music together like Buffett, UB40, you know-vacation stuff. I even downloaded Van Halen's song Panama & Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat song. OK, I am a vacation geek!!! Sourdough toast for me!

Yes, Avie, correct! My Cruise Crazies cabin is now ocean view. Ole and I are working hard to get the house in order. Exhausted, need a vacation. OH, yea, I have one coming up.

Yea, guess I kinda blew that one. I thought all was OK, but evidently not. Hard to find cruise attire this time of year. I think my cabin got a slight promotion on the site!

Ole is a big wet blanket when it comes to packing wine. He whines about no room in the suitcase, etc. Haven't thought about it. Need to. Actually I'm in huge trauma over some of my summer clothes not fitting!!! Who's idea was it to travel right after the holidays? Crap!!

My suitcases have come out already! Partial lot of clothes are stacked on the bed. I have to finish packing this weekend because Ole's sister (retired) and a friend are coming from Toronto to house sit and cat sit. To them, coming to CA in January is like us going to Mexico (LOL). They arrive Monday. Since they will fill up our guest rooms, I need to be packed, as that is my staging area for packing. Don't want that mess in my actual bedroom!! And, most importantly, got the hair trim and pedicure today! Having more dreams nightly of being on ship!!

I think everyone hit the nail on the head. The key is to know your friends! We traveled once (and will again nxt week) with the same couple. We are close enough to know that we don't have everything in common and that it is OK to verbalize that. We did some activities ashore with them and others apart based on interest. We did dine together, that was all fine. As well, I think it's important to have that discussion with your SO. There are times when I want to go off and leave my DH to go to spa, gym, pool (I'm the lone sun worshiper in ou group), or off to play trivia games or shop with the other wife. My DH is fine with that also. He just sits on the veranda and reads or watches the ocean go by. We have taken land vacs together with other couples and found that we will never do it again!! There is much more to be concerned and tense about such as spending expectations, restaurants to chose, who cooks in the Hawaiian condo and so forth. The good thing about cruising is that all of that is pretty much taken care of.

I just booked a cabin for my mom to accompany me and my husband for a cruise. It is nearly double. We're hoping she'll find a friend to come along. You pay for the cabin as double, but not some of the taxes & port charges, so it's about 80% more in cost vs. 100%. Definitely not like a hotel.

Yep! I've been monitoring the ship (well, all of the ships). Warm weather, here I come!!!!!

Oh great, now I really have to be nervous!! Thanks, Avie Joey, we leave at 7:35 a.m. from SFO. We have to wake up early enough that we'll be on East Coast time already. Are you from D.C? You have a lot of reminiscing.

Funny, Joey!! Ole checked the 10 day forecast for Dulles. Supposedly clear weather for us to have minimized chance for flight delays. A Canadian cold front has come to Northern CA. Coldest day in 8 years! As I'm driving to work in my hat, gloves, scarf (rare, of course), I am warmed by thoughts of Aruba-Panama-Mexico!!

Thanks for sharing! Can't believe I'm heading out for the same experience in 9 days!!

Hey Joey- It's a nice idea, but then I would have to clean the darned thing out. I'm on vacation afterall

Obviously, I struggle with the darned formatting! The x site really is more user friendly. Anyway, that was supposed to say READY!!