Dan

On many cruises, you can mail them from the ship at the port of departure, and they get taken off the ship before it leaves. You can check at the purser's desk. This pre-supposes of course, that when you write that you are having a blast, that you will later LOL.

Actually, houses selling more than asking are pretty common around here lately. If you live in a desireable area, with a nice house (not talking mansions here), people commonly get into bidding wars. When we sold our last house in 2002, we got our asking price before the sign went up. We debated seeing if we could play the game, but since we wanted to firm up on our new house, we took that deal. As for annoying commercials, I don't know who it's for, but it's the one aimed at the "everyday" woman who isn't a model. They are showing off their jelly butts and flabby thighs. I much prefer to see Victoria's Secret models on TV LOL. Not sure how the woman who this is aimed at feels though LOL.

I'm assuming you aren't able to pick your seats online now, due to the fare you paid. So, you should be able to get both legs picked on check-in for your first flight. They should give you a boarding pass in BUF for the ATL-MCO flight. Same should work on the way home.

LOL, yes it would be a good idea to make sure the person you hand your luggage over to is somehow affiliated with the port. It won't be cruise line personnel, it will be port personnel who deal with the luggage. They should have some form of identification on them. It's also good to tip them a couple bucks (I call it insurance LOL).

Well, they do have only so many seats, and if they have a single cruiser, they have to put them somewhere. It may feel uncomfortable for the single person to sit with a family of 5, but I'm sure you will make that person feel welcome.

It would be nice if it worked that way, but from what I've read on several reviews of the Sapphire in the last few weeks, they've been handing out cards and calling you by number. Debarkation actually sounds easier to me now. Sounds like you actually clear immigration in the terminal, instead of on board the ship. Sure you end up lined up, but this is how us non-Americans had to do on board previously anyway, and we had to do it verrry early LOL. Now it sounds like they don't hold up the whole ship while waiting for those last 3 people to get their a$$e$ out of bed

I think part of it depends on port city. I've only boarded at Port Everglades and Boston. Carnival from Boston and Port Everglades were both checkin and go directly onto the ship. Same as Princess in Port Everglades. HAL for our first cruise out of Port Everglades, we checked in and were given number cards, and we had to wait upstairs for our number to be called to get in line. This is the process I'm led to beleive happens for our Sapphire Princess cruise out of San Pedro.

Do you have a cell phone? If so, just use it, it's not that much. I used mine from Boston and the charges were hardly any different than if I used it back in Canada. What do you need the transportation for? To a hotel, to the airport, some place else? You can buy airport shuttle tickets on the ship.

I also find it hard to beleive that 900 people a year die because cruise ships are burning trash.. I would guess this is a very small amount of the total air pollution on the west coast. It's not like the skies over LA will all of a sudden brighten because ships aren't burning garbage.

I'll be keeping on eye on them for something new later on too. One of our former TA's had a group cruise on them a few years ago, when they were stll just called Mediterranean Shipping Co. I don't know that the fact these new ships are French built means much though. The Island/Coral Princesses, the Celebrity Millenium class, and the Queen Mary 2 were also built at this yard. I think it has more to do with the creative minds at the cruise line, not the yard they are built at.

So, burning trash 3.1 miles off shore is better? How about just dumping it in the water? LOL

Welcome home guys.

Wow, 600 tourists? Seabourn must have a lot of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th berths on the 104 cabins on board that ship LOL.

Hard to beleive that ship is 9 years old now.

Funny, since it's usually us Canadians bringing liquor back from the US, since it's cheaper. Now, if you were bringing back Canadian beer, I'd understand LOL.

2 things may or may not apply here. First, one might be cruise ship time and the other might be local time. I don't know about time zone differences in the area off the top of my head, but sometimes the ships stay on Florida time instead of changing to local time. The other thing could be the cruise line saying arrival time is 7am, but that doesn't mean that's when they are ready for passengers to go ashore. First they have to be cleared by the local authorities. Then they have to set the ship up for tendering operations. If they are using the ships' own tenders, they have to be put in the water, and get the dock on the ship set up.

Well, we're getting close now. Made final payment today, so I guess we are committed LOL. Technically, we had another 10 days or so, but my TA likes to make sure things run smoothly and nothing hiccups to mess up our plans, so she wanted it for the 1st. Went to the passport office today to take care of that, and the flights are booked. Have to talk to the other 3 couples in our party on a hotel, but that won't be a big deal. So, now all we have to do is get that Christmas thing out of the way, and we are all set LOL.

Upgrades from inside to outside, or outside to balcony aren't unheard of, but very rare. Generally an upgrade is within cabin type. I would ask my TA about paying for an outside now. if this matters to you that much, rather than waiting till you get to the pier. But having been inside, I didn't find it bad at all.

I filled out as much of the online stuff as I could several months ago. We need new passports, so I haven't filled that part in yet. We usually book shore trips onboard, if we take any.

Wow, 14 already Chris. Good for you. Why, I remember way back a couple or 3 years ago when you were just a fresh faced newbie at this LOL. Good to see you back around.

You know you are welcome back. I also have a few places I regularly hang with. I just can't get into the critic thing like I used to. All I read there now is the cruise air board and the news LOL. I'll pop into the Princess board every once in while, seeing as they are my next cruise, but I'm just not into it. I had well over 2000 posts before they changed formats last year, and I have about 300 now LOL.

Looking to go all the way through, or partial round trip? We were about 3 hours from approaching Gatun locks, to getting up to Gatun Lake. Then we sat there for a while, as they offloaded some shore excursions, then were another couple hours going back down. I think the full Atlantic-Pacific (or reverse) transit is something like 8 or 9 hours. I wasn't bored, but I can see how some people could get that way in a hurry. Definitely a lot fewer people out on deck for the trip back down the locks. But, it also gets hot thee, and you burn really quickly, so this chased alot of people indoors for the afternoon. I love watching the details of how the thing works, so I was back and forth across the ship checking out the "mules", the locks themselves, and any ships in the other channel. Definitely an older crowd, as are most longer cruises, but I wouldn't say it was all old people.

Thanks for the review. Just goes to show how different people have different experiences on cruise lines. I gave Carnival 2 shots to show me the "fun ships" and still thought Princess did it better LOL. Of course, I have heard west coast cruises have a different atmosphere than Caribbean.

116+ my 4=120

We generally pick our cabin. This time we got an aft balcony, and specified no upgrades, unless it's to a suite LOL. We did an inside guarantee last time, since we chose to cruise only months after our last one, and really couldn't afford it (but we had to get one last one in when my wife got pregnant LOL). We did get an awesome upgrade, but that was because of 9-11 keeping 75% of the people away, so I doubt we would have upgraded much if at all otherwise. But I wouldn't be averse to booking a specific category guarantee again.