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First Cruise: 2000 Holland America's Ryndam Alaska - to this day my favorite destination ? OK - here we are....what do we do now?! Of course now, after our 26th (28th?....something like that) cruise, we know exactly what to do and that feeling of crossing the gangway onto the ship just keeps getting better and better!

Can't wait to sail on this brand new ship! The itinerary is Western Caribbean for 7 nights.

Love, love, love the Brothers. Now that would be an awesome cruise. Hmmmmmm.

How many of my fellow cruisers would like to see Princess Cruises, start sailing from Port Canaveral? If so write or email Princess Home Office, and say you would like to see service from Princess out of Port Canaveral!!

I’ve begun an album for photos from our April 10 Crazies Panama cruise. If you were on this cruise - @AndiD @deb1220 @Miranda - feel free to upload photos. I’ve posted a few to get started, but there’s more to come! You can find the album here: CruiseCrazies Panama Coral Princess Group Photo Album

I do know that Royal is building the Quatum Ultra class ships which will be a tad larger than their current Quantum class but a significant amount smaller than the Oasis class. Carnival is keeping their ships on the smaller side as is NCL. Even though we have these 200,000 + ton ships coming out from alot of cruise lines they will continue to build small as well!

Wonderful to have all these new ships coming out. It must mean that the cruising industry is doing very well. The larger ships will be so great for many, but just wondering if cruise lines are considering going back to making a few smaller ships. Not small, small, but smaller than the giants that are coming out.

Hello all my fellow cruisers, It's been awhile since I was last heard from 2-3 yrs have passed, I was absent for many Health related Issues. Hope all is well with everyone, I'm doing OK now with the help of my Doctor's. So please feel free to bring me up to date on what's happening!! Thank You... J & J

Don’t watch much TV so wouldn’t recognize them, but it does sound like a lot of fun!?

Shari - Ask @RayColey. He did a Christmas Markets cruise on Viking and loved it.

I agree @Reneej1059 especially about the drinking and people doing dumb things. The ship and crew and can only do so much though. In the end, its the guest’s responsibility to behave appropriately, stop climbing over rails, stop disregarding the rules, and know when it’s time to say no to the next drink or seek out help when they feel like ending it all from the deck of a cruise ship.

Love, Love LOVE Sea Days! My routine is pretty much the same, Andi, except that I will stake out a spot in the SHADE, usually do a few laps around the Promenade after lunch, grab a frozen mocha latte, and head to my balcony and watch the world pass by (or doze is more like it) journaling or reading on the iPad. Late afternoon, we'll go grab a drink before dinner and the evening's entertainment. I do have friends who dislike sea days - they say they're bored - and specifically look for itineraries with NO sea days. I can't imagine - I would be exhausted without at least a day or two to break up the busy days in port.

This will be our first river cruise - doing the Paris/Normandy itinerary on the Viking Rinda! Anyone doing the same? Would also love to hear from others who have been on the Viking Rinda before!

I am SO jealous! I want to hear all about it, and maybe you can convince my husband to try one.

A girl can dream .... ?

Good idea about the Tums, or whatever people use for acid reflux...and the Airborne...sometimes it works and sometimes not...being together with so many people is just asking for a cold it seems, and especially so close on the airplane. I'm with you also on not lugging all the soda...we Minnesotan's call it pop...LOL

I must say .. that is pretty cool .. I've seen this on yachts here in South Florida where a part of the yacht folds out over the water for a relatively small outdoor sunbathing area .. but nothing like what Celebrity has done with the Edge. Here's what I saw here in Fort Lauderdale at the 2017 Boat Show. But again, nothing like a restaurant!!

Isn't that the coolest thing you ever saw? AND - we booked one of the infinity-edge veranda staterooms! Can't wait to see how that enhances (or not?) our stateroom!

Love it. Here's mine @sunluva7 -

My first cruise was in 1979. It was on the SS Carnivale. I was a new widow, and only a few months till I turned 30, when my first husband died from a car accident, in 1977. My mom wanted me to come with her and my step-dad, and some friends, on a Caribbean cruise. I had been watching, "The Love Boat" and was crazy about that show, and about going on a cruise, so I said yes. My in-laws were very happy to have their granddaughter come and stay with them for a week...she was 5-years-old then. When I first stepped onboard the ship and got to walk around a bit I was a little disappointed at first since it didn't seem like on the Love Boat...haha. Also, we had to check in for our dining tables back then. I was told I had to sit at a long table behind my parents and friends and I could not figure out why they didn't let me sit with whom I came with. So, I was a little upset at first about that...later on I realized why they did that. The table that I sat at had a lot of single gals, and it was fun getting to know everyone, and sometimes we would go up to the disco together. They were younger than I was, and after just losing my husband I felt that I was way older than they were and I was not looking to have fun, but just enjoy the cruise. I really did have fun with them, but, still went into the ports with my parents and their friends. The ship was an older one, but I grew to really like it. In one area it had a closed in promenade which was nice on hot or windy days, but also was great to be outside and walking around the whole ship. After that cruise I really had a love for cruising, and the sea. Our ports were St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, and Samana, Dominican Republic. Funny little story...got a little pickled the night before we came into Samana. Totally didn't want to get up early and go on shore, but knew that I would. Didn't want to miss seeing everything. My mom came and said that I had better go, or else...haha She was actually funny about it and was "the best mom ever." She just didn't want me to miss going into port. We took the bus into port and there was only one place that we stopped, and I got off the bus and was so sick from drinking too much the night before that I felt dizzy and nauseated. I just sat there and didn't even care if they left without me...LOL One really nice lady from the bus, and ship, came by me and thought that I was sea sick, and she gave me a sea-sick chewable...it was amazing since by late afternoon I was feeling great...LOL I learned a lesson on my very first cruise...don't drink too much, and don't drink late at night if you want to get up early for the ports...the times after that that I went cruising I only had a pina colada in the afternoon, or one drink before dinner. Learned my lesson. Fell hopelessly in love with cruising back then, and have been on 10 cruises all together. It would have been 12, but had to cancel two cruises, one when my beloved mother had her heart attack, and one when my dear hubby fell out of a tree that he was cutting on and broke his foot. Ya...he doesn't climb trees anymore...LOL

Oh yeah, we need to bring the mega bottle of Tums to handle all that food!?

August 2002, 20th Anniversary Cruise (Wish I had started cruising much sooner!) Grand Princess (Princess remains my favorite cruise line to this day!) Western Caribbean (Cozumel, Grand Cayman, etc.) First Reaction on Boarding:

We haven’t done the Panama Canal yet – really need to work it into the schedule soon! Happy cruising!

Welcome aboard, JSinapiJr! See you around!

Jason...yes...it really was on some cruise lines. Jan...sorry...I looked back at your post and saw the "were we," as "we were" denied...still having troubles with my left eye. Yes...things have really changed.