Anybody here do Cruises?

[Cthulhu]

Heh...I cruise around the pacific on a commercial fishing vessel.
They have really good catering! Ravioli in a can under the exhaust manifold! 

College Cuisine on the High Seas. Shuffleboard anyone? 

[gunnss]

Actually the wife and I prefer to get a room on AMTRAK. ABQ to CHI and return is good times....
Last year we went from Albany NY to ABQ 2 days no teens.... priceless (Grin)

Regards,
Kevin

[Rondar]

We've talked about doing a train trip sometime as it sounds like fun to do that.

This will be our 4th cruise.  We know about drinking the water and watching for surroundings like we would do in any city, and to stay on main street, so to speak.  We've never been to California though, so we are going a couple extra days early and going to see the queen mary and some other stuff, then go on the cruise.

So..     See y'alls in  "TWO WEEKS"

[Rondar]

Well, seems we got lucky on this cruise.  3 couples went from our town.  One couple won a few hundred dollars on a penny slot machine.  My wife and I went to the "art auction"   ha ha and all that, and she won a painting that will be sent in a few weeks, also won a 500 dollar art certificate if you bought a painting 1000 or higher, and also got free art that everyone gets if you stay until the end of the auction.  Anyone going to a cruise art auction knows  things are terribly overinflated pricing, and we sure werent going to spend 500 or more to use the 500 dollar certificate.  Pretty lucky getting her name pulled out of a raffle basket.

We thought we were really doing well and we were.  I even managed to bring home 61 bucks more than I spent in the slot machines myself for 3 days.  Ahhh what could be better?  Wife spent 20 dollars on a raffle tickets for a free 7 day cruise since another couple from our town won one last fall on a cruise.  Yep..  wife almost wet her pants when they called her number out on the last night of the cruise.  So our next one is free free free....  (almost... we have to pay fuel surcharge and taxes).  We were very lucky indeed.

[SSgtHam]

I went on a week long cruise with the family up to Alaska this past August.  Flew from here in LA to Vancouver where our ship was.  Ship took us up through the panhandle making some stops along the way, eventually ending up in glacier bay.  Went up to Anchorage, flew back home to LA.  Best trip I've ever been on...made me want to move to Alaska.  It was with Princess Cruises, BTW.  I got (some) pics if anyone's interested.

[rpm]

I've been on 2 cruises. Both on Royal Caribbean, both fantastic.

[Curval]

Rondar you lucky sob you.

Sounds like you had an awesome time.

We leave Thursday to head to Miami and then off on our cruise on Sunday.

  <- For good weather.

[Marauding Conan]

Flew to Athens then cruised islands in the Aegean till eventually flying back from Instanbul. That was about 15 years ago. Not sure I'd want to do it again in today's political climate.

As far as Mexico goes, prepare to be molested incessantly by street vendors and guys pushing time shares. The bit about the water is mostly true. It's probably ok at the larger hotels, but elsewhere beware.   One word... cerveza.

There be dragons there, mate!... Of course not, it is a perfectly save area. In fact, far safer than Mexican water.

[Rondar]

Curval what cruise line and ship you leaving on.  All 4 of our cruises have been Carnival and all have been great so far, no complaints.  Always something to do and always somewhere quiet to go to also whenever we wanted that. 

I liked to stay up late after most people went to bed, and just walk around outside and find a cozy spot behind a glass/plexiglas shield and smoke a cigar.  I always carried a bunch extra and whenever I would spot one of the crew somewhere grabbing a smoke, I would go and offer them one.  It really made their day and mine also.  Some of those guys get treated like crap, and I like to try and make a difference back to them.  A lot of them cant or wont speak english but they sure do smile like we do when I gave them a couple of cigars.

[Curval]

Norweigan...we are on the "Pearl".  Last one was Royal Caribbean. 

We had looked at a Carnival cruise but the timing wasn't right.  One thing though...they talked about "Freestyle cruising" on the Carnival website...being a concept that, for example, you eat when you want to...not at set times.  But then when I started to read the detail I noticed that dinner had two seatings and was from X.XX o'clock to Y.YY o'clock.  (don't remember the exact times)  I thought that was a bit misleading.  What do they mean by free style cruising then?

I'm beginning to get pretty psyched for our trip now, up until now I had such a long "to do" list at the office that I was pretty stressed and unable to get excited.  I have one day left but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel as far as what I need to get done.

Actually I have every reason to celebrate as well, just got some great news...so it is gonna be a fun trip.

[rabbidrabbit]

Good news?  You can do better than that...  Did the latest boatload of pink shorts come in?

[Curval]

hehe

Nope.

Yesterday a Supreme Court judge here signed an Order we sought on March 18 to dissolve 8 of 9 companies my partner and I were appointed to liquidate.  The one remaining company could not be dissolved because we were waiting to get a tax clearance from the Russian tax authority.  We actually received it on the 18th but too late to include that company in the application.  In April we will dissolve the last one.  It is the largest (to date) court ordered liquidation to have been conducted here and will be a career building feather in our caps.

Back on topic though, last night I went upstairs to watch a little tv before crashing and there was a show all about the Norweign Pearl on.  I very quickly discovered that my last post showed how confused I was.  Freestyle cruising is a Norweigan line thing and frankly it is no different than Royal Caribbean.  The Freestyle eating is available at the specialty restaurants, not the main dining rooms and of course the specialty restaurants cost.  It is purely a money making concept.

But, who cares...I'm going to have fun with the family.  We leave tomorrow morning for Miami and then jump on the ship on Sunday.

[skullman]

rondar you lucky tard glad it was a good trip bud

[Rondar]

Thanks Skullman.  Surre hope things are looking better for you also.

Curval, we had assigned seating if we wanted to eat in the nice dining room.  There was a supper club on board that you made reservations for if you were so inclined.  It would have cost us 30 bucks per person per day to eat there.  We are plenty happy with the dining room food which is included in the cost of the cruise, so we dont even think of spending another 60 bucks plus tips on one meal which we have already paid for lol.  There is no cost reduction if you eat in the super duper supper club and dont eat in the regular dining rooms.  Anyway, have a great time.  I know you will because I dont know how u could have a bad time on a cruise, really.

[CAP1]

ya,,,,,i used to go to the local webers drive in, with some buddies, back when i had my 67 stang. they were some fun curise nights.