cruznchris

Thank you for your response, I enjoyed writing it and tried to think about things that might be of interest to other fellow crazies.

A new Cruise Review is now available: Ship Name: Westerdam Sailing date: Nov 1 2009 Author: cruznchris View Review

Click here to view the cruise review

welcome back. did you get to sail out going by the statue of liberty? bet that would have made for some nice pics if you did?

have a great time!!!

Personally I love to dress up, I really feel good all dressed up in my tux. It makes the nights extra special. It kinda reminds me of my wedding or other very special occasions. BOO Carnival

my favorite cruise was on the sun princess it was a 10 day, by far the best weather and the best cruise tablemates we had ever had. we even went on the same excursion and we were in the back the whole time laughing it up. it was truly a time to remember.

OOO, We are gonna be so close but yet so far away... We will be in Ft. lauderdale on the 8th it will be the day we get back from our cruise. ooo well maybe next time.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one out there like that. On our first cruise we went with my mother and father in law, so for the whole cruise it was just us 4 buddies hangin out. I never met a single person. The next cruise the wife and me went alone and the whole experienced changed. We would even sit with our table mates at the show after dinner and save them seats. I havent heard from HAL yet but I hope they give me good news.

I understand what your saying about change, but when your asked to change something that I find to be one of the shining pinnacles of our vacation cruise experience I disagree. The wife and me have dined alone together on many other ships. For us the dinner connection was what has made the cruise experience "special" gives it heart. So I've decided to contact the cruise line to see if there was something they could do for us. Hopefully thy can find a way to get us in.

OOO the style of clothes I cant help you with that for sure. Just give me a tacky touristy flowered shirt and a hat, a camera around my neck and I'm good to go... hehe

Well, We just booked a cruise on the Westerdam last week. Since we booked so late there is only "open seating" left. We were put on the wait list for traditional. We prefer traditional dining, for us its easier we know where to go, what time to go, who we will be sitting with, it is in sync with show times. So far in the 8 cruises we have been on we have never experienced "open dining". For us usually by the 2nd or 3rd night we were past the small talk conversation with the people and the wait staff. Quite a few times we got to know our fellow passangers and wait staff so well that they shared there family pictures and future plans and many things you just wouldnt share with someone your having dinner with you for one night. Having different people sit with us every night and different wait staff will seemingly take the "HEART" out of dining experience, for me. My other big concern is I'm not certain how open dining works. Is it more like a resturant where you show up and wait till a seat becomes available? Any thoughts? Chris

I would bring at least one set of warm clothes just in case, for me warm clothes are a long sleeve shirt and pants. We usually cruise the last week of October every year and have never experienced any cold, below upper 60's low 70's before the sun came up. I guess it depends if you run a bit hot or cold what you might bring...

the carribean princess and the carnival valor. Both were cheap for us so we gave them a shot. we were told later that the caribean princess only differnce from other ships in her class was they added and entire addtional floor of cabins. The public rooms and space was the same, i dont know if that is true or not didnt really look into it. But the food area and public area were always so full that it made me upset, there never seemed to be a downtime. past cruises we had been on there was never an issue of finding seats or feeling like i was crowded. On the valor we experienced some of the same issues difficult finding seating. people would go out and put there towel on chairs at 6 am and it seemed like alot of people would ignore lines or casually make there way to the front. To me the bigger ships are just a way to corral more people onto one boat so they can increase their profit margins and dont get me started on those pay - to - eat restaurants. It just another way for them offer lower grade service in the main dining room and make you pay for the premium, which they used to offer in the dining room. But I believe the "big ships" are just part of the bigger picture of the changing culture of the cruiselines. But lets save that for a differnt topic...

We have been to everyone but, if we thought we could get out of it we would. It is usually the most stressful part of the cruise besides debarkation. Where we go its usually warm and stuffy no air moving and being shoulder to shoulder and front to back gives me that closed in no escape feeling. There were a couple we went on that did some type of counting system. They knew people were missing and kept making announcements until all had showed up. They announced the boat wouldnt leave port till it was done. we were there a good 45 min before the last stragglers showed...

Hey we are considering taking a cruise on the Los angeles side, has anyone cruised over there lately? Also I have heard with issues in mexico about safety so we have been avoiding mexico cruises any info would be great. We have found a great cruise but are a little concerned about the stops: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Mazatlan, Mexico Cabo San Lucas, Mexico I dont think I could go the whole week without doin some excursions. What do you think?

Well, if you just plan to shop running into towns, it will be a breeze for you, if your doing excursions or tours well, I would suggest being careful. We typically just like to book thru the cruiselines, we had a bad experience where our bus broke down. Thankfully we booked thru the cruiseline we were over an hour late returning to the boat. But becuase we were on a "cruiseline tour" the boat waited for us. If it wouldnt had been cruise ship tour the boat would have left and we would have had to pay the expense to get home. I know a vacation is about having fun and getting the best deal for your dollar. But for me its also about being safe.

awesome We have been down there quite a few times and just usually chilled out. but that sounds like an awesome ending to a vacation we may try it this nov if we port out of everglades. thanks yes we have not picked a cruise yet for the first week of november hopefully today!!!

Good choice Always wanted to karoke that one with my wife on the ship. Another song that makes me think of cruise is Little River Band, Cool Change.

That is good for a laugh. A few cruises we have been on the cruise director has made a list of dumb questions asked. It always gets a good laugh

We have had our share of good and bad some of the worst, was due to the weather, we were between 2 hurricanes on the valor. Rough seas and just a sense of unrest among the people knowing what had happend to miami as we left. when we got back into port there were boats up on the ground, houses covered with tarps just kinda sad. I guess the worst on boat experience was with a stateroom attendant on the carribean princess. He was like the soup nazi from Seinfeld. When we arrived to our room he came to our door and knocked he walked in introduced himself and them said, " If you do not put the sign on the door to make up room I willl not make up your room. So put sign on, do you understand?" I was like aaaa I guess? Then by the second day of the cruise we were almost out of toilet paper in out stateroom, to the point we had to ask for some. I found our attenedant and asked him if we could get some toilet paper. He said not joking with confusion on his face, "I will have to see if we have any?" Me and my wife were laughing thinking wow there is gonna be about 3000 unhappy people if he cant. All the other people at our table were braging about the interesting towel animals and how they recieved one every night. The entire 7 days cruise we didnt get one single one nor did he pick up our room as others had done in the past. This was also our first balconey suite so we assumed the treatment would be considerably better. Guess not... lol. We removed our room steward tip and wrote on the comment card our level of unhappiness with our steward. I dont believe we ever heard back from them about it. Kinda tainted the whole trip for us. I know for us, if it was to happen again, we would immeditely take care of it by talking to the pursers desk. I wont let somones bad attitude ruin my vacation again.

Our first was Keywest, it was amazing we had the best time. We took a city tour got to see all the cool sights.

Good to see you guys are carribean weather bugs like me. hehe, I look daily at the National huricanne website for updates and position changes of the storms. Our fear of the storms increased after we got stuck between Wilma and Beta when we were on the Valor at sea, we saw only 1 good day of 7 and while on the ship we often thought about what had happen to miami just as we left port. Kinda hard to leave your troubles away when you knew the tens of thousands were without power and cleaning a big mess. When we came back the top floor of our hotel was gone, they had just got power back the day before we got there. Rough trip and a rough hurricane season... Hopefully this season will be a bit more forgiving...