jacketwatch

I spoke to her yesterday and she is now a convert. She, hubby and friends took the CCL GLory out of FLL and loved it. But we knew that. ?.

I have heard some say that there is nothing to do on board too. I got a copy of one Princess daily patter and sent it to her just to show her what can be done. She just took her first cruise so I have to buzz her to see how it was. I've also heard some say that you must get off the ship in port and that you must do an excursion that the ship has. Holy cow such misinformation!

I hope your therapy works! If its physical therapy it can help a great deal. Been there. Just follow the plan for best results. Good luck!

Ok and Ill lift a VB (Victoria Bitter. Much more popular in Oz than Fosters) to you. ??

Also if you can go off season. We've done three Med cruises and the first was in July. Well it was hot, packed and expensive. The other two were in October. Way better weather, less crowded and less money. For me it's a no brainier. Go to the Med in the fall.

Well how about Dec. 7th on the Ovation of the Seas out of Sydney? ??. its 10 days and goes to NZ. No stops in Oz except disembarkation in Sydney. First drink is on me. ?

This was a great cruise. It was our 2nd time on this ship. The first was 2005 when she was fairly new and then we thought she was huge though now as we have been on the Oasis and the Getaway the Sapphire seems small now. However she is well maintained and Princess hasn't lost their touch for CS. The other ports were Brunei, Sihunaukville Cambodia, Saigon or HCHC, Na Trang and Koi Samui. These were all cool too especially HCMC. The five days in Singapore were amazing. This was by far the most delightful embarkation port we've ever been in. It is clean, well laid out, virtually litter free, great shopping and restaurants and very polite people.

Actually its an all wooden temple. I would post more pics but it looks like I am not allowed to as it seems I have reached my limit. .

This is me in Singapore.

This is us about a yr. ago on or SE Asia cruise out of Singapore. We are in the temple the Sanctuary of Truth in Pattaya and on the ship the Sapphire Princess with the port for Bangkok in the background.

Totally amazing pictures!

Hi guys. Its been a while but time to be more active I think! I hope all has been well. We are fine and I am fully retired now and loving it! We have a cruise planned out of Sydney in Dec. to the New Zealand Sounds and several port stops there. Its on the Ovation of the Seas. Has anyone ver done anything like this? I assume the sounds are scenic touring sort of like the Norwegian fjords. We also plan to stay in Sydney and Brisbane before our cruise so we are looking f/w to that too! I found that hotels in Sydney are pretty high though not so much in Brisbane. Anyway our niece is there so as its been about 7 yrs. we are looking f/w to seeing her. Cheers! Larry

Wow! Do you have a link to the list?

Complaints do help. We had an issue once on the Connie and calls post cruise to X proved fruitless until I kept going up the ladder and finally got a hold of a gal who was astounded by how I was treated and as it turned out was the supervisor of one particularly negative guy who I called "Mr. No." She nearly flipped nd gave us $240.00 OBC for a future cruise. I wonder what Mr. No got??? Had 2 other issue with RCI and was dismayed with the initial "no" culture from the first people I called in CS. Again push it up and I did. I did find the supervisory follow up to be everything the initial response were not. I even sent a certified letter to Michael Bailey. I did not rant or rave. The letter I thought was objective and offered a calm view of how I perceived I was treated. So far we have $220.00 OBC, three bottles of wine and two boxes of chocolate covered strawberries and a # to call to Mr. Baileys asst. for any other problems. BTW my letter included praise aplenty for those who were helpful and hopes that front line responders achieve the level of CS that the supers have. I have found that C and A are way better than front line CS.

I agree. More apropos for a true tragedy. AFAIK no one was injured so hey now let CCL"s insurance clean it up. I wonder what happened to the Capt?

Wow! Thats a better video and the music is better than Mr. Holy sh!t. those perhaps a bit too maudlin.

http://www.foxla.com/news/national-news/204360742-story

I too have read great reviews about Viking Ocean cruises. The river cruises seem to be plagued by water level issues which at times turn the cruise into a bus tour as some stretches of rivers are not passable.

I read that Crystal announced it was abandoning its plans to renovate the SS United States. It would simply cost too much. . Too bad. what a story it would have been. http://www.torontosun.com/2016/08/05/crystal-cruises-ss-united-states-ocean-liner-restoration-too-pricey

Our cable provider recently added the Smithsonian channel to its line up and I think its a great move. Tomorrow evening there is a show all about the building of the Quantum of the Seas. If I can't watch it I will record it. Bet it will be interesting!!

Have they raised the price?

Lets see how this unfolds as more ships will follow. I wonder how long it will take for Havana to become more like a regular port stop on the Caribbean route. I also see that the Fathom is one of the old ships from the Renaissance line and there are many of them around. We were once on the Tahitian, now Ocean Princess. Its too small for our taste however. Its more prone to rocking vs. the goliath ships to there today.

Not me, not until the prices go down. However what an experience it must have been to be the 1st US passengers to be on that ship. Ill bet the greetings and over all feelings will last a lifetime.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/02/first-american-cruise-ship-pulls-into-havana/