JoeyandDavid

is that the reason you switched!

Thanks steve ...that means we have to pass your door to leave deck 8!!..

Nice features indeed...

how does it look? anyone with a scanner?

The world's top cruise lines rely heavily on North American passengers, but will not let the recession keep them from scouring Europe, Asia and Latin America for new customers and destinations. Instead of cutting costs by easing away from markets outside North America, which accounted for 10.2 million of the 12.6 million cruises taken in 2007,cruise executives said on Tuesday the fast growing leisure segment was looking far beyond its mainstay Caribbean and Alaskan routes. "There's a 100 percent chance that the trend of global expansion of the cruise industry will continue," Royal Caribbean International President Adam Goldstein said at a conference. "This isn't made easier by current conditions, but it isn't going to be stopped by them." Goldstein, whose line is a unit of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd said a sure sign of the sector's future beyond North America came in the last three weeks, when neither a Royal Caribbean ship nor a Celebrity ship could find an open berth at Sydney, Australia, a city that once saw few cruise liners. Some deployments away from itineraries favored by North American passengers were meant to offset soft U.S. pricing, according to executives, but the overarching reasons are strategic and have to do with segment growth. "Most of the other markets are virgin, in a sense, compared to North America," said Richard Sasso, president of privately held MSC Cruises USA Inc. Executives at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping conference said yearly cruise penetration, even in significant markets such as Britain and Germany, was much lower than North America's 3.5 percent and was lower still in other regions. "If the United Kingdom and Germany had the U.S. cruise penetration of 3.5 percent, there would be an additional 2 million (cruise passengers a year), just from those two countries alone," said Stein Kruse, chief executive of Holland America Line, a unit of Carnival Corp . Australia's cruise passengers would double to about 1 million a year, if the 3.5 percent penetration rate was met there, Kruse said. Cruise lines were being welcomed in many Asian destinations, where officials were investing in ports and other infrastructure, according to Goldstein."It's very refreshing to see these beginning to happen in Singapore, Hong Kong and other places. That will allow the biggest and greatest cruise ships in the world to frequent those destinations," Goldstein said. Cruise operators, including giants Carnival and Royal Caribbean, are caught up in the global recession, even as they are scheduled to add 11 new ships in 2009, according to Chris Hayman, chair of Seatrade Communications Ltd. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have suspended quarterly stock dividends and reported drop-offs in fares and on-board spending by passengers, but executives on Tuesday pledged to keep advertising heavily as a way to build repeat customers. "It's the biggest mistake we could make, to cut marketing, in this environment," Carnival Cruise Lines President Gerard Cahill said.

That is the biggest piece of BS marketing spin I have heard since President Ford came out with the WIN button

One option would be to give the victim a report number that is in turn generated when the report is processed on line from the ship directly to law enforcement agency.(U.S. Coast Guard and FBI) Then once home the victim could contact that local office for followup

I believe only half of what I read on ANY message board to begin with regarding no matter who or what is the subject...and that is on a good day.. I have never been one that tends to follow others.. I consider the source and take a look at the posters other posts .... if they are consistently all negative or all positive i have take that into the account.. if they are a person that historically gives honest evaluation regarding incidents that they felt were important then i tend to take what they say as face value knowing that even I can over react to something small..

LOL!! I guess I'm dragging my feet. I'm still waiting until I can see what tours are being offered from the ship for the places that I've made no plans. I would love to see the excursion lists as well....maybe John knows when they will become available to browse on line...

hi Marylou... no we too have ports to decide..l in our case its st john, st lucia and aruba....... in Curacao we will stroll to town for lunch and lite shopping..

hope it helps...

So any noise at night from next door can be contributed to???????? either me banging on the wall asking Ursula to keep it down...OR Ursula banging on the wall tell me to keep it down!

Byron.. Hi there.. Personally I would opt for super shuttle.. you can hire the van exclusively for just you guys for less than 15 dollars a person http://www.supershuttle.com/

I believe we did pre dinner drinks in the martini lounge on the Millennium..

make sure to save us a seat

warmest part of the day ...most days

Again...Great Post! thank you...

Jenn not really when you read the qualifying statement... it makes PERFECT since... I didn't say it made good sense just perfect sense!

don't forget about the cova cafe either .. coffees ...bottles of wine ...live entertainment.. I love the Cova

maybe they were talking about the cruise!...jk

James.. Thanks for taking the time to express your observations with your review.... Donna wins champagne!.. nice indeed...

wow the martini's are flowing i see..

Really??? wow KEWL

and right now is an EXCELLENT time to visit canada... 1.25usd to the cad

I did want to point our that although Crazie on occasion has a wild side she did ask me on serveral occasions to stop calling her crazie and call her by her chosen name...Ursula