elfed

Good for you. It's nice to anticipate a new cruise isn't it? Although our next one is in 83 days time, I am greatly looking forward to the Crazie Cruise next November and meeting some of our members. Regards, James.

Never heard of it. But it's a great idea provided the price is reasonable. Wish most popular cruise lines offered this option for everyone not just groups of certain sizes. Regards, James.

Hi All, finally found this thread! This is Elfed's (James) better half here, and glad to be booked on the Connie Goes Crazy cruise in 2009. I have never done such a long cruise before, my tops has been 8 days. I'm gonna love this one! donna

Lucky them! Although many people might find year round cruising too monotonous, I myself would probably love it. Regards, James.

You will really like the Sapphire Skipper. They have a great Cruise director's staff. Have a wonderful trip. Regards, James.

I enjoyed your review Howard. We have been on the CP twice in the last 3 years. The first time we thought the entertainment was mediocre with the exception of lounge entertainer Bert Stratton. For us he carried the lounge entertainment on his back!! Our 2nd time on the CP was to see Bert's last show before retiring into the studios in Nashville to write music. Again Bert was outstanding. The main shows were fine when we went but sadly I think Princess must improve their lounge entertainment in a very big way if they are to compete with the big Carnival ships. Our latest cruise on the Sapphire Princess again showed how lacking the quality of their lounge shows. The musical groups were simply dreadful and the ship virtually shut down by midnight as the bars and lounges were empty of people. Regards, James.

If it ever reaches the St. Lawrence here in Canada I'll pick it up for you!!! Big fear of mine is losing one of my caps at sea. I do a lot of video taping early mornings and sometimes the winds are very strong especially on the lido,star and sky decks. I make sure my baseball cap is very tight and pulled low down close to my eyebrows just leaving enough vision to film!! Regards, James.

The craziest thing I've done on a cruise was taking part in a deck party blindfolded!! I was wearing a very colorful blue shirt that attracted the attention of the cruise staff. Before I knew it, they blindfolded me along with about 4 others and asked us to do some crazy dancing!! Now that was bad enough but the ship's video guy filmed me and it was put on the Memories video of the week. Talk about making a klutz of oneself at the age of 62......! So the moral of the story is never wear anything in a bizarre color if you don't want to be singled out on a deck party.LOL Regards, James.

To answer the 2nd question first and I realise some folk may vehemently disagree with me,but I would ban smoking virtually anywhere inside the ship and private balconies. Casinos to have a seperate closed off smoking section.Also on the outside, a top deck area-way up on the star or sky decks- another smoking section. Nothing annoys us more than to be sunbathing near one of the pools and smelling cigarette or even worse cigar smoke. Question 1 now I've got that off my chest!!!! My first cruise and I think I have mentioned this before, was with my son on the now scrapped Costa Riviera in 1990. We went to the Eastern Caribbean. We sat at a table for 10 for dinner and I thought the whole experience was wonderful. We bought the movie of our week and I often view it as I looked so slim in those days!!!LOL. Regards, James.

Well I usually take a book or two but rarely read them!! I'm a sunbather! On deck I have my towel,sunglasses, headrest,sun tan lotion and baseball cap!!I do occasionally, prior to dinner, whilst my wife is getting ready sit on our balcony,read maybe a chapter or two. At bedtime I usually watch the in cabin T.V. or read the plans for next day from the ship's daily.Oh the luxury of it all!!! LOL Regards, James.

This trip is now cancelled. Please see new posting. Regards, James.

On a previous post I mentioned we were going to the Southern Caribbean in March. This date is now changed to the 28th of February and Princess are calling it the Eastern Caribbean Voyager. This is the other long distance cruise to the deep Caribbean. Originally we were going to Aruba. This one we are going to Barbados.Love to meet any Crazies who may be on this cruise. Regards, James.

Hi Mary Lou, Donna and I would love to take Crazie along with us next year all the way to Aruba! We leave on March 30th out of Ft. Lauderdale returning on the 9th April. Regards, James.

Would love to meet anyone from the Crazies on this exiting trip to Aruba next year. Regards, James.

Lovely pictures. I hope your Captain gave you a firmer handshake than the Captain we just left off the Sapphire Princess!! It was like shaking hands with a wet tea bag!!!! LOL Regards, James.

Because I'm somewhat a bit of a 'lurker' I don't visit many sights other than Forums. However this evening I have a little more time on the computer as my wife is at a Pilates class!!! A lot has happened in my life today and when I read The Dock, I thought that would be a wonderful place to open one's thoughts. I can't really say what is my favourite section as of yet, but I would like to see cruise and ship reviews in a better format with comments underneath the review from other Crazies-if any. I know I have learn't so much from other cruise site ship reviews-most of which were very interesting and informative Regards, James.

Hi jbond, Thank you for your reply. Yes, we too have heard how lovely downtown Puerto Vallarta is. And I agree-the approach into Cabo was wonderful. By and large I think the trip to Mexico was something of a learning experience. I won't go into details, suffice to say that for my wife and I,other places appeal more. Regards, James.

Hello Joan and Joe, We booked our shore ex: before leaving home as we always have done. We were hoping after 2 "stony" beaches the 3rd would be better. No such luck! We have never been disappointed over the beaches in the Caribbean. Regards, James.

Hello folks once again. My review of the Sapphire Princess is now posted under Ship Reviews. I hope you all enjoy it. Regards, James.

Click here to view the cruise review

Oh, don't get me wrong hazelson,we did have a good time despite what I wrote. It was just the differences in the beaches and real blazing hot sun that shocked us. (We also witnessed incredible poverty on one of our excursions with the locals throwing angry looks at us) We were hoping for similar conditions (sea and beach) as the Caribbean but it wasn't to be.Ah well it's only one opinion. Regards, James.

Hello Skipper. Please see my review on the Sapphire later this week. Regards, James.

Hi Folks,We came home yesterday off the Sapphire Princess after 7 very hot days in Mexico. It would be extremely unfair to judge a country on just 3 excursions in 3 towns but it was enough for us not to want to go back We, by far prefer the Caribbean. We visited Puerto Vallarta, Mazatalan and Cabo San Lucas We took three different beach excursions. We found the sand very pebbly on all 3 beaches and painful to walk on without some kind of foot wear. The sea of course had been churned up by the recent visit of Hurricane Norbert and the color was of a murky blue for the first few days There also was a tremendous undertow that pulled you back out to sea if you were not careful.We were constantly badgered to buy things from the beach sellers who didn't want to take "no, thank you" as an answer. I thought Jamaica and La Romana were bad for this but this was worse. The 5 hour 45 minute flight to Los Angeles was awfully long. We came in one day early and stayed at the Marriot Hotel. That was very nice with good food. On the subject of food, I have to say that all food and drink on our excursions was excellent with no resulting stomach problems.The Mexican people on the shore ex: were great. I will do a seperate short review on the Sapphire later. Regards, James.

Most enjoyable. Thanks for the info: Am using one of the ships' photos as my present desktop. Regards, James.