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Welcome Patrick!

Hubby & I will be onboard Jan.25 for only the 1st week! It too will be our first time on the NA. Looking forward to eating in the Tamarind again (did it on the Eurodam) and enjoying the thermal spa and the lovely ceramic thermal chairs. We've done all these ports of call before so I booked this cruise pretty much to see the NA.

Judy (and Jim)

What about the 15% gratuity on the bar drinks? Included as well on the Explore4 card or will I see it added to my cabin tab?

Add: Maasdam January 13, 2015 - Phil Coulter's 19th Annual Tranquility Cruise (Irish Music Group)

Two vacation rules:

1: Something can and will go wrong on your vacation...get over it. ASAP. Vacation time is precious.

2: If there is something you want to go, see, do or buy (and it's within reason), then go, see, do or buy it. No regrets! There's nothing worse than arriving back home and wishing you had gone, seen, done or bought something.

Once, as part of a group, we were assigned a cabin under the lido deck (by the pool area). All day and into the night, we could hear chairs scraping the wood deck over our heads. Like fingernails on a chalkboard!

For our upcoming cruise, I had originally booked a balcony cabin that overlooked the lanai deck on the Dream and it was near one of the hot tubs that hangs over the deck below. The more I thought about it, the more concerned I became about the noise factor possibly ruining our cruise. Rebooked another cabin in the front with the Spa overhead (closed at night) and cabins under us.

Bottom line: if you are concerned about noise/privacy/etc...rebook another cabin. Vacation time is precious!

I've lately gotten in the habit of having several memory cards for my digital camera. And each is at least 1GB. Change them daily or frequently just in case something happens to the camera, then not all pictures from trip are lost.

Memory cards are cheap compared to the memories those pictures are worth!

I look forward to playing craps on cruises because it's usually the same crowd of people playing all week - mostly friendly and fun-loving people!

Encountered a nasty guy once who snapped at me when I nicely asked if he was playing or watching (no chips in front of him) "they're all on the table!!!" "Not for long if you treat lady luck (me) that way..." and I moved to a spot on the other end of the table. Nicer guys there.:) And yes, the nasty guy was busted shortly thereafter and gone.

I may play with $5 chips, but I still have fun. Love watching people play with colored chips I have NO idea what they're worth...I don't wanna know!

Rich,

Please add the Phil Coulter Tranquility Cruise (irish music) to sail on the Zuiderdam on January 12, 2010.

I'm not sailing with them this year but thought others might want to know.

Thanks!

Okay fellow tightwads,

On another board on CC earlier this year I posted about one cruiseline that was charging for ice cream on the pool deck and for pizza in the evenings in the buffet and I took a lot of heat for complaining! We had cruised before on another lines and these things were free! But people replied that the ice cream (gelato) was fabulous (for $2) and so was the pizza...so if it's crappy, it should be free and if it's good, we should have to pay for it?!

It just didn't seem right.

Sorry for the rant but it's so amusing to come to this board and hear how people save $ and then you go to another where people don't care about it.

Oh, if you want to know the cruiseline that we won't be sailing on again...it's MSC.