Cruisin'

eoe, the only cruise I've been on was a Disney cruise. Probably not what you're looking for unless you're bringing kids. (Though I do recommend it highly if you are.)

I was worried about motion sickness, too. I usually have problems on airplanes, and occasionally in cars and buses. But I never felt a thing on the ship. I wouldn't have known I was on the ocean if I didn't look out the window...

Geez, no one else on A2K has been on a cruise?

Last summer we went on a cruise from Boston to Bermuda on board
Norwegian Cruise Lines "Norwegian Majesty". I can't compare it to any
other cruise line (well, one other, but that was the cruise from Hell and
the line has since deservedly failed).

The Norwegian Majesty is relatively small as liners go, but it was well
appointed, had very good service and food, and plenty of activities.

The shows were good, but you probably wouldn't have gone to them if
they were playing at a local theater. There were various "games", often
based on TV game shows. Older son loves game shows, so I did the
good Dad bit and went to some with him. Hokey, but fun.

They ran a fitness program called "Motion on the Ocean." The best parts
of that were fitness walks on shore once we got to Bermuda. The fitness
director, an energetic young lady, new some great walking routes around
St. George's.

Food, food, and more food. Highlight: the Midnight Chocolate buffet. A
buffet in which all items were chocolate. Pastry, fondue, mousse,
candy, sculptures!

This line has a policy of "freestyle" dining. That means there are no fixed
seating arrangements. You pick your own restaurant and time to eat.
Dress was "resort casual", but there is one night that is formal in one of
the dining rooms. I avoided it.

I did one 7 day cruise of the Caribbean and Mexico and I doubt I will ever go on another one.
Now...cruising is a personal pastime and I'm not a cruiser. I felt claustraphobic in our little berth 3 decks down and without a porthole I had constant motion sickness. I really didn't enjoy the activities much except the Broadway type shows at night which were very well done.
The food was fabulous and I enjoyed meeting new people at our table. One night we ate with the captain and he was very gracious.
My most memorable event was learning to play duplicate bridge which I still enjoy.
The highlight of the cruise was the 2 days we docked in Cozumel...I had a blast.. off the freaking ship. Scuba diving, racing out to the ruins and bargaining with the diamond sellers( my g/f was a jeweler).
I think we went on the cheap...if I did it again I'd pay extra for an above deck suite.

Oh yeah, motion sickness.
The Lovely Bride is very sensitive to this, but she took some sort of pills
(not Drmamine, but I don't recall the name) that kept it at bay except for
one very choppy day. As bad luck would have it, that night was the
Chocolate Buffet and she had to pass. The boys were a little sick during
the day but rallied for the buffet. I don't know why, but I never get
seasick.

Thanks guys. That's good info. Keep it coming.

I'm leaning towards the Norwegian Cruise Lines but, not knowing the inside scoop on one cruise line to the next, I worry about being swayed by an attractive price and ending up on a cheap-ass cruise for our anniversary.

There are plenty of cruise lines out here and I've done some research but it's always best to get the 411 from somebody who's been there.

hamburger and mrs. hamburger have done a number of cruises. they just did Hawaii. I think the Caribbean one was the only one they wouldn't really care to repeat.

Maybe if this pops back up on the interactions, hamburger'll spot it and add some comments.

I know that they generally go Holland America, but quite enjoyed Norwegian when they did the Baltic cruise. Not as posh, but nice.

I'd love to do Holland but it is quite pricey. Worth every penny too, or so it looks.

ehbeth, can you ask hamburger to look in on the thread and advise me? I'd soooo appreciate it.

Note: because of the "freestyle" atmosphere, NCL does attract a lot of
families. On our ship there were two jacuzzis on the pool deck. One was
adults-only. The other was always filled with kids. It looked like the
wicked witch's soup cauldron before a party.

That's funny George!

I'll send an email to hamburger to ask him to pop by, eoe.

Much thanks!

CRUISIN
hi, eoe ! mrs h and i like cruise (and other) vacations. were on a 15 day hawaii cruise out of san diego in early december that we very much enjoyed. the weather was somewhat rough the first few days but we enjoyed the fresh breeze - wind was beaufort 9, waves 10-15 feet. after an episode of 'mal de mer' on an earlier pacific cruise, i now take a 'little pink pill' that keeps me from getting seasick. it has to be taken BEFORE getting seasick - it's of little use once one starts offering the goods to neptun. there are literally dozens of websites dealing with cruises and you may feel overwhelmed by the data. i'd suggest you pick up a few brochures from a travel agent and start having a look at them. basically you have to decide on such things as : lenght of cruise, destination, importance of entertainment and PRICE ! we have mainly cruised with holland-america cruise line - from 7 days to 27 days and enjoyed them all. for calm water cruising and stunning scenery i would recommend ALASKA !!! it's a little more expensive than caribbean cruising but worth the price. we usually take an(inexpensive) inside cabin on promenade or lower promenade deck in the aft section of the ship; we like to be able to step outside as quickly as posssible to enjoy the seabreeze. we don't like cabins "below deck" - stuffy ! for calm water cruising you might also consider missippi river and st. lawrence river cruises(we've taken one and enjoyed it - very laid back - make your own entertainment) . we travel off-season since holiday cruises are usually quite a bit more expensive and don't really offer anything extra. you can call up the cruiseline webpages directly - such as : holland america, norwegian, carnival (GREAT PARTY CRUISELINE !). don't book directly with a cruiseline; you should be able to get a better price through a tavel broker. btw. c.i. is the able2know CRUISE SPECIALIST ! i'll add a webpage or two so you can start looking. let me know if you need more specific info, HAPPY SAILING ! hbgVACATIONSTOGO SEALETTER CRUISE MAGAZINE JAZZDAGEN

We took a cruise a few months ago...went on Carnival expressly because of the kids' activities. I wouldn't recommend Carnival to anyone without kids, though.

According to my friends in the travel industry, NCL and Holland America are both very good for 30-60 yr. old couples without kids. The food's supposed to be great on NCL. If you're going to spend the extra bucks for Holland, you might want to look into some of the smaller luxury ships...even more personal attention and top-of-the-line gourmet cuisine.

Now...itinerary.

Where in the Caribbean are you thinking about going? I've been to a lot of the islands. The Western Caribbean (Mexico, Cayman, etc.) is flat and dry. Almost desert-like. But the water is beautiful. If you're seriously into water sports, this is the place to go. The Eastern Caribbean (Bahamas, St. Martin/St. Maarten, St. Barts, Martinique, Antigua, etc.) is much more scenic and features different European influences. The Southern Caribbean (Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, etc.) is the most scenic of all...very tropical.

Re: seasickness...

Spend a few extra bucks to get a cabin mid-ship on a deck ABOVE water level. Don't be suckered in by the low advertised prices...they are for cabins in bad locations. A good cabin location will minimize any motion you feel. We were one deck down from the entry deck and in the middle of the ship, and we hardly felt any movement at all. People who had cabins far forward or at the back of the ship had a lot more trouble. Get your doctor to give you a prescription for some TransDerm Scop patches just in case. They work fine for most people. For others, like me, Dramamine now has a non-drowsy formula that's OTC in most drugstores. I only had to use it when we tendered into a few places (that's cruise-speak for when the ship anchors out in the harbor and you have to take smaller boats from the ship to shore.)

Anything else I could answer?

We're looking at 4-5 nights which, out of Florida, limits us to the Western Carribean. But I'm not so much into water sports so...we'd prefer the Eastern Caribbean for the scenery but unless you're flying out of San Juan, it doesn't seem doable. Not in that time frame.

Now I'm really thinking 6 or 7 nights but that seems to be such a long time. Talk me into it. Please.

Mr. Hamburger, what do you do on a cruise ship for 27 days!!!

27 day cruise = this consisted of a combined mediterranian cruise and atlantic crossing to fort lauderdale. in the med we sailed into a new port almost every day : malta, tunis, naples, sardinia, livorno(for florence) ... the crosssing started from lisbon with stops in casablanca, 2 stops in the azores, 5 days at sea -which we needed to recover from the almost daily excursions, but also thoroughly enjoyed; talking to other passengers, enjoying terrific band music - we were on a " BIG BAND CROSSING" - and also just lazing in the sun. we've never been bored on a cruise; there are always people to meet and discuss anything under the sun with (somewhat like able2know under sail). we still hope to do a mississippi river cruise - people seem to enjoy them, and you can do a short cruise starting with three days. there are also cruises along the eastern seaboard - boston to quebec city/montreal. the choice is yours. hbg

Four or five nights really isn't long enough. You'll only get to see a couple of places. You'll board in the afternoon and the first day is nearly always at sea. So that's two nights right there before you even see anything, and you'll spend another night in your home port at the end of the cruise before you disembark. Besides, some of those days at islands you only get to go ashore for a few hours. A week is about right...you can see 4-5 places in that amount of time. Try to pick an itinerary where you only have one day "At Sea." You'll want to see the islands, not just the ship.

Our August cruise was our second. We also took a Caribbean cruise 20 years ago on our honeymoon. We found a special promotion on one of the cruise lines. They were promoting their resort hotels, too. If you bought a one-week cruise at full price, they'd throw in a week's free stay at one of their resorts. So we flew to San Juan, sailed to Caracas, Venezuela...Grenada (two months before the US invasion)...and Barbados. We stayed on Barbados for a week and caught the ship when it came around the next week and completed the cruise...St. Lucia...St. Thomas...and back to San Juan. It was a great trip. Have a travel agent look into special promotions for you.

Oooowee. Thanks guys. I've dreamt of a meditteranean cruise someday.

Another thing. Our anniversary is March 2. Is it too late to shoot for anything other than online specials or is that really the secret of it all? The later the better.

Mississippi River cruise? Now that's interesting. Do they play poker like in the movie "Maverick?" My husband would LOVE THAT!

Find an experienced travel agent who's a cruise specialist. There are plenty around. They're aware of both the online specials and other promotions as well. And they know how to work the cruise lines to get you the best deal. It's not too late, but I wouldn't wait any longer.

(A lot of the online specials are for less-than-desirable cabins and locations.)