jbond

Can't help you too much, I'm having trouble negotiating the boards. They seem to be overcomplicated and not as user friendly as they used to be. With your font question, I think the problem in your signature is that you have no message. It's just [/size] Try this Type your message, highlight it, choose fonts, re-highlight message, choose size, re-highlight message, choose colour. It should work. For images, click on the immage icon, fourth from the end, and you should get a separate window that prompts you to enter the http location of your image. Enter the location and click OK. You should get an image like this one. Hope this helps.

No. you don't have to be off the ship by a certain time, you can stay onboard all day if you wish. Many people stay on board because the ship is very quiet and relaxing when most of the other passengers have gone ashore. I don't know about NCL, but some cruise lines only have a buffet lunch available when the ships are in port, no dining room service for lunch. Welcome to CruiseCrazies.

In the past 18 months we have done 3 cruises around South America. A B2B on Splendour of the Seas in 2008, that sailed from Valparaiso, Chile, south around Cape Horn and visited Argentina, Brazil and then across the Atlantic, ending in Lisbon, Portugal. It was 29 days at sea and with a pre and post cruise stay, it was a total of 33 days. This year, on Radiance of the Seas, we sailed north from Valparaiso, visiting Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica. We should also have visited three ports in Mexico, but because of the swine flu scare we spent those days at sea. I have photo albums posted that also include some narrative to explain what the photos are about. The Splendour cruise is at http://family.webshots.com/album/564695088icbspV and the Radiance cruise is at http://family.webshots.com/album/573020830PUcOMc Hope you get a chance to view them.

We stayed at the Sheraton in 2008. We enjoyed it, we had a meal in Caruso's and it was excellent. This year we stayed at the Grand Hyatt, it was a beautiful hotel, very impressive. In 2008 we had friends who had their camera snatched quite close to the Sheraton and this year a lady on the city tour with us had a necklace snnatched in Plaza de Armas. We don't usually feel unsafe, but in Santiago and Buenos Aires we were extra precautious. Did you go to a show at all in Santiago? We went both times and really enjoyed the dancing and the food. Hope you get a chance to look at the photo album, it may bring back some memories for you. I agree with you about enjoying Costa Rica. We have visited it several times and always enjoyed it. Away from the port it is a beautiful country.

Of course it's never their fault. It looked a good idea at the time, but the downturn in the economy and the taxes and regulations cutting into the profit margin has caused the cruiselines to look for more profitable waters. It's like looking for a new job, once you start looking, you forget why and keep looking until you find something.

We did a similar cruise in April of this year, Santiago/Valparaiso Chile to San Diego on the Radiance of the Seas. Unlike your cruise, we didn't leave Valparaiso until April 26th and so we missed our Mexican ports because of the swine flu. It was our second time in Santiago and we spent two days precruise there. It was not my idea of a great city. We both felt unsafe and on both occasions that we have visited it, we met couples that had been mugged. This last visit we toured the city one day and on the second day we visited Portillo, high in the Andes. We got to see Anconcagua, the highest peak in South America at 22,700 ft. We visited La Serena, Chile, Lima, Peru, Manta, Ecuador and Puntarenas, Costa Rica. CR was our favourite port of call. Lima was an interesting city and La Serena was also interesting. In Ecuador we saw poverty that was only equalled by what we had seen previously in Brazil. It will be a long time before we go back to South America. Did you stay at the Sheraton Crown Plaza in Santiago? I think I recognized the photo of the church close by it. I have our photo album posted at http://family.webshots.com/album/573020830PUcOMc

Jamaica Mistaica by Jimmy Buffet, Hot Hot Hot by Arrow, Love Boat Theme by Jack Jones, Red Red Wine by UB40. Anything by Ricky Benn.

It's not so much a record as a project. To try and make better photo albums, albums that are not just a collection of photos, but tell a story. Unfortunately I'm struggling.

I'm surprised that RCI is pushing South America. We cruised Splendour twice last year in SA and Radiance earlier this year. My impression from the crew was that SA was a poor market. We would absolutely never take a Brazil based cruise again. Argentina and Chile were OK, but we would also probably never revisit Ecuador and Peru. South America is not for us.

Booked on Radiance of the Seas out of San Diego for next February. It's a 12 nighter, down to Acapulco and back.

Our first cruise was in 1977 on NCL's Skyward. First port of call was San Juan. We got of the ship and walked along Calle Forteleza, drinking the complimentary Piña Coladas that they served in every souvenir store. Can't believe that it's so long ago.

Sorry to hear that the Mexican Riviera was a little disappointing for you. We love it. We have cruised down there six times and we are going there again next week for El Dia De Los Muertos. I agree that the beaches are not as good as the Caribbean, but where is? We've been on beaches all over the world and we have found nowhere to be as consistently good as the Caribbean. We go to Mexico for the ports, the people and the food. We enjoy just walking around in Puerto Vallarta, the Malecon is so interesting with lots of bars and restaurants. I can't wait to have a cold, cold Corona and some octopus ceviche. Cabo is one of our favourite ports. It's changed over the years, but a trip out to Playa de Amor is always fun, even though the water is a lot cooler than the Caribbean. I think sailing into Cabo is spectacular. At least you were on a really nice ship and you could get away from the heat once back on board.

An interesting new area to cruise, but I don't see us travelling all that way just to do a seven day cruise. I'll hold off on judgement until I see more details on the itineraries.