Hlitner

DW and I are still in mourning about the death of the Prinsendam (our favorite HAL vessel). We spent exactly 200 days aboard that wonderful old ship and loved every day. Hank

A decent bagel is something we have never found on any cruise ship/line! This topic was actually discussed in the Cruise Foodies blog :). Hank

Crew including Senior Officers, can (and do) often change during a cruise. Crew changes are not limited to embarkation/debarkation ports and can happen at many intervening ports during a voyage. Officers come and go based on their contracts. We have even had Captains, Chief Engineers and Hotel Managers change during our cruises. Hank

We were on a Princess cruise when DW had a cap fall off. The ship's staff was not helpful and did not have any recommended Dentists in our next port (Greenock). So, it was Google to the rescue as we found a Dentist within walking distance of the tender pier, telephoned from the ship, and got an appointment. A Dentist friend of ours used to work, as a Dentist, onboard some cruise ships. He and his wife would get free cruises and he primarily would treat the crew. If a passenger needed emergency dental work he would handle it for a fee. But most (if not all) ships stopped doing that many years ago. Now, we know of some ships that arrange for crew appointments ashore and even provide them transportation. Hank

We still have some psetas and French Francs at home. Maybe some day they will have value as collector items :). Hank

I hope you realize that "pesetas" and "Mexican Pesos" are two different things. Pesetas used to be the currency used in Spain, but they were replaced (years ago) by Euros. Hank

Done over 2 dozen TAs and somehow survived (truth is that we love all those sea days). Internet on Princess is hit/miss. Most of the time it will work, but Princess Internet is generally slow. We have also had days when there was no Internet. Bottom line is that if the Internet is very important than stay on land. As to TV you will usually have a few news networks such as CNN International, BBC, Foxnews, etc. As to advice, I can only offer that there are many cruisers (including us) who love lots of lazy sea days. And we have met others who hate any sea days. We recently did another TA cruise (different cruise line) where we had 9 straight sea days and we were actually disappointed when we finally reached a port and had our relaxing routine interrupted by a port. Hank

Am watching this thread with a lot of interest. I cannot imagine trying to plan anything with a group of 20 which is why this sounds fascinating. But I will agree with CruiserBruce that you will generally not be able to make group arrangements (for 20) when you get off the ship. If you want to stay together as a group you will need to pre-book (well in advance) private tours. What gets complicated with groups is whether they all want to do the same things For example, when in Naples some might want to spend time going to ruins like Pompeii. Others might prefer to spend the day taking a fast jetboat over to Capri. You might even have a few who would prefer taking the train up to Caserta. Whatever you choose to do we wish you a great cruise/trip. Hank

We have long had a favorite Plaka area dinner restaurant which is called Daphnes. We think it has some of the best seafood in Athens and is well known (your concierge can get you reservations. The one downside is that if you want a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Acropolis...this is not for you, Daphnes is simply about good food. Daphne's Restaurant – Daphne's is a classic in every sense of the word located in Plaka (daphnesrestaurant.gr)

If you are simply embarking at the local port, just grab a taxi. It will be less expensive than a HAL transfer and much faster. Hank

My goodness, you could not be more wrong. When on cruises we almost always do our own thing at ports, but that is just a small part of the story. We routinely use long cruises (Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific) as a fun means to get to and from places where we stay for extended trips. So, for example, in April we took a 27 day Seabourn cruise from Miami to Monte Carlo. Once off the ship we spent a few days in Nice and than flew to Prague where we spent 3 weeks exploring the Czech Republic and Poland via a rental car. We have an upcoming cruise from Japan to Seattle (42 days). But we will fly into Japan about 2 weeks prior to that cruise and do our own thing before we make our way to the cruise port. Even when we cruise the Caribbean out out of Miami we often fly-in several days early, rent a car, and drive down to Key West for a few days. We sometimes joke that cruises are where we get some rest and relaxation before/after doing extended land trips. I should add that we have met many other cruisers who follow a similar pattern of combining extended land travel with one or more cruises. Hank

I get it although we seldom to never use cruise line transfers. Same ole reason which is the usual waiting and often ridiculous cost. Just consider Port Everglades where we hop into a taxi or Uber and are dropped (less than 10 min later) at our desired airport terminal. The cruise line transfers means getting on a bus, waiting until the bus is full and luggage loaded (by which time we would be at the airport and checked -in) and it costs more than 2 persons in a taxi. And the transfer buses drop folks at a common area which can be a long distance from one's desired terminal. The last time we had an included transfer was a few years ago on a Celebrity cruise from Buenos Aires. We booked their pre-cruise package (hotel and transfers). When we arrived at EZE we were met by the transfer folks who told us to relax in the coffee shop for about 1 1/2 hours since they were waiting for other folks coming in on a later flight. We immediately grabbed a taxi to our hotel, checked-in, went out for a nice breakfast, and when we returned to our hotel about 2 hours later that transfer van was just arriving! ARGH! Celebrity did refund some money for that situation. In the case of European/Asian cruises we always fly-on days in advance and have no use for cruise line transfers. Hank

LOL, we hear you on the Shorex issue. We have HIA on a long HAL cruise ($500 each) and despite having numerous ports we really have to hold our nose to choose any excursion. Our norm is not to even consider a cruise line excursion unless it does something we want to do that we cannot possibly do on our own or with a small private tour. In most parts of the world that means we are interested in no cruise line excursions. For folks that might wonder why a frequent cruiser would not like excursions I would offer the following. Shore Excursions generally involve large groups (60 or so per bus) being herded around (like cattle). Lots of time is spent just waiting for other folks to go to the rest rooms, finish their shopping, get back on the bus, etc. But the worst part, for us, is the inability to do one's own thing. For example, when DW and I are in many ports we will often choose a decent restaurant/cafe to enjoy a long relaxing lunch. We do not generally need to be concerned with time and can do things at our own pace. If we happen to go to a museum that catches our interest we can simply opt to spend more time in that place. If something is not of much interest, we can either skip it or quickly move on to something else. Just yesterday, DW and I spent more than an hour looking at all the HAL excursions that are offered during a 14 day crossing from Japan to Seattle. We did not see a single excursion of any interest but HIA means we have $200 (each) to spend or lose. So we will make a choice to take an excursion, out of desperation. I would prefer if HAL would let me use that $200 (per person) money on a couple of decent bottles of wine :). Hank

Most of the ports are well documented here on CC (just do a search) and many other sites. They can all be done on your own or with tours (simply your preference). Zakynthos is one you may not see mentioned on a lot of sites. What we enjoy on this island is going to Shipwreck Beach (via boat) which is a picturesque beach that lies just below a very high cliff (there is a viewing platform on top of that cliff that can be accessed via land). We once went to Shipwreck on a small yacht trip (20 passenger) and dropped anchor about 100 meters off the beach. Most of us jumped in the water and swam to the beach where one could look at the rusting hulk of a freighter (it was smuggling cigarettes). If you do not want to book a cruise line excursion you can usually find some small boat tours from the port. Hank

Terrific question. While there are some excellent web sites/data bases owned/operated by a few major cruise agencies, we have never seen an App that does a competent job monitoring cruise line price cuts. And the reality is that "price cuts" have become very complicated and usually involve more than simple price cuts. We are in a ear of "smoke and mirrors" promotions. So just consider a cruise line that has a "Sale" that includes various amenities (tips, drinks, etc) at a certain price. A week later then end the promotion and offer a major drop in the price of the cruise, but while you are paying less, you are also getting a lot less. One of our favorite cruise agencies has a booking engine where one can look at a specific cruise and actually see multiple deals (all on the same cruise) at different prices. Even that data base may not show all the options. To further complicate things, the cruise lines will often over value their perks and use that value as part of the price. So, for example, you might have a cruise line that "includes" a drink package that is valued at $130 per person/day! Very few cruisers will ever spend $130 a day on drinks over an entire cruise. We think that the valuation of drink packages has become the biggest "con" in the cruise world. Several years ago when all these drink packages started becoming the new norm, I went back and looked at more than a dozen of our prior cruises to find out just how much DW and I spent on drinks (we like adult beverages). I discovered that our average was about $70 per day (total for the two of us) which was much less than I had expected. Why? We took advantage of Happy Hours, free drink perks (because of our status), and the amount spent on drinks during long port days was actually pretty minimal. The cruise lines also did their own research, and for a while would not sell drink packages on Transatlantic cruises (because they knew that passengers would drink a lot more on all those sea days). So, before even designing a data base to track price drops one would first need to clarify what constitutes a price drop. Hank

Anytime dining means just that! Show up any time during normal dining hours. The concept is quite unique in that folks can actually dine when they please 🙂 When we get to the door we simply tell the host if we want to share a large table or perhaps something smaller. The best fun is that with sharing we meet many other cruisers and have lots of interesting dinners. Hank

I can think of some questions that would help. What kind of budget? How many days? Do you have preferred ports? You also need to consider that there can be huge variances not only between ships and cruise lines but within a ship. Many of the cruise lines have some "ship within a ship" optionso which can offer a completely different experience than being in a normal cabin. For example, Celebrity offers their so-call "Retreat" Suites that come with many amenities. It is similar on many other lines. Choosing a cruise has actually become a lot more complicated because can of the various amenities that are attached to certain categories. You mentioned Norwegian and NCL now has a "ship within a ship" experience called Haven Suites. The differences between the lower category cabins and the Haven Suites are quite dramatic with separate dining venues, private sun/pool deck, private lounges, etc. Hank

Isn't it amazing how gamblers always win (or so they say) and also manage to finance countries, cities, etc. Puzzling! Hank

Not exactly accurate. With Flightease you can change your "home" airport to just about any airport. So we will often price-out options from MDT, BWI, IAD, EWR, PHL, and JFK. No problem, There are also multiple options for Europe and other parts of the world. So, for example, on a recent Seabourn cruise that ended in Monte Carlo, we used their version of Flightease to book return Business Class air from Prague. No problem and we got an amazing Biz Class fare. Hank

We have had awful Internet on just about every cruise line. At best, cruise ship Internet is hit/miss. On Princess we have actually had excellent Internet until we didn't :). Just when everything is working well the entire system might come crashing down. As to HAL, prior to COVID we thought that HAL had the worst Internet service in the industry. We have not been back aboard HAL in the past two years (HAL cancelled 4 of our cruises). My best advice for cruisers is have decent worldwide cell coverage (such as you get with T-Mobile) so that you can, at least, rely on Internet coverage when in (or near) ports. Hank

I do not think there is a one size fits all answer. For example, while we might suggest Rick Steves for some European cities, that does not work for Asia, Africa, South America, etc. There are also some cities that have their own (often done by a Visitors Bureau) walking tours that are quite good. We are lifelong independent travelers and always suggest there is no substitute for doing pre-trip homework. That includes looking at various walking tour options and downloading the most desirable. Hank

My answer is "it depends" on a few factors. Since it is madness to rely on a single device I would preface my comments by saying we would sometimes be comfy with only electronic docs if it was on two devices (such as DW's and my iPhone). And the docs should be stored on the device, not on the Cloud since WiFi and cell connections can fail (especially inside buildings. That being said, we often find that hard copies are much faster when it comes to dealing with various formalities. When a document is very important, I do like to have a back-up hard copy. And when it comes to cruises we always want hard copies of docs that relate to On Board Credits. On many cruises we have had issues where we did not get our promised OBCs, and having a hard copy to give Guest Relations saves time and hassles. Having a copy on a device is not as convenient as it will still need to be printed at Guest Relations. Hank

Nah, but we do see them on Seabourn :). Do you think you would ever find those folks in an "pay for" alternative restaurant where a "Starter" and "Salad" means paying an extra fee! Hank

Geez, so many rules. Guess I will just have to go on a budget line like MSC where they have no idea about 15 drink limits! or Go on any of the luxury cruise lines where drinks are included with no limitations. But no, my next cruise is on HAL, which I guess wants to be the budget line with all kinds of limits (especially on Production Shows and drinks) and a 9pm bed time! And just imagine a cruise line where a "can" of water or a shot of espresso is just as valuable as a glass of scotch or bourbon. Kind of gives me the idea that HAL does not want anyone to sober-up with coffee or water! Just use your imagination about all the high powered "suits" in Seattle, that sit around their offices (with cup of free coffee) and come up with these crazy ideas. No wonder Arnold Donald decided to go back into retirement :). Hank

As a frequent flyer I have long wondered about folks that push and shove themselves to some kind of "magical" luggage carousel position :). We generally stand back about 5-10 feet where we can see the luggage as it comes onto the carrousel. When we spot our pieces it is usually easy to work up to some spot and grab the bag. I guess some think that if they are up front it will make their luggage show-up faster. It is the same logic where folks who have Fixed Sitting and a reserved table on a cruise ship will wait in line (sometimes for more than 15 minutes) for the MDR to open! On some ships we have sat at a nearby bar and entertained ourselves (with a nice cocktail) people watching folks who seem to live for their ability to spend part of their day in lines. I assume those standing in line at the MDR are the same folks who fight to the front of the luggage carousel and likely join every other line in sight. Go figure. They can hang a sign around my neck that says, " I practice queue avoidance." Hank