buckirj1

Not at all. My sole concession to Elegant night is wearing black twill trousers instead of blue jeans, if I want to eat in the MDR. Black turtleneck remains the same.

I sure wish I had a quarter of Rosie's energy. Fire and Ice is the best musical act I've seen on any cruise ship.

I could have written the OP, though not nearly so well. I like inside cabins. I have little interest in a balcony, since I spend so little time outdoors anyway. In addition, IMO the offerings of outside cabins rarely justify the increase in cost. I don't care how small the cabin is, so long as the bathroom and/or shower are human-sized.

That said, I'm intrigued by the window suites on certain classes of Princess ships. I'd love to afford one of those to a cold weather destination with great scenery. That's probably the only way I'd sail Princess, given their tiny bathrooms and showers.

A pair of sneakers, and a pair of either oxford or loafer-type shoes. I wear one, and pack the other. Done.

Depending on the weather forecast of where I'm going, I might add another pair of casual shoes or sneakers in case one pair gets very wet and needs more than a day to dry out.

I appreciate the OP's bringing this up. I'd also be peeved if a cruiseline that offers self-serve laundries would close them down without prior notification (emergencies notwithstanding, of course). If nothing else gets resolved, I understand Skagway has a nice laundromat where one could wash a quick load of clothes. The topic comes up frequently in the Alaska forum.

The ankle rash can be caused by the sun's reflection off the surface of the deck/pavement/etc. I often get it when I walk on concrete sidewalks in the summer.

My ankles didn't swell on the last cruise: I chalk it up to staying out of the MDR, exercising a lot, drinking lots of water and tea, NO bottled water, having only a few sodas per day, and eating lots of fresh food and veg at the buffet. It was also cooler weather, which probably helped more than anything...hot weather is pure evil.

Thank you for the detailed review. You answered my big questions about the Epic studios: the shower and the bathroom. Your pictures helped a lot. It seems the shower is do-able, even for a fat ol' thing like me. And the bathroom looks a lot bigger than the Gem-type "toilet-in-a-cubbyhole." I'd like to take the Epic someday if it ever goes where I want to go. Thanks again.

I made reservations with a car service to pick me up at LHR and take me to Southampton, where I am booked at the Ibis hotel near the West Quay shopping mall. I plan to take a taxi from the Ibis to the cruise terminal. I hope it works out well for me.

I'm a big fan of automatic tipping. I used to find it awkward giving servers and stewards their tips personally. Anonymity suits me better, and I still get to feel like I'm doing the right thing for the folks who've taken such good care of me.

Well, that was an interesting exercise. Information obtained from a cruise fan board probably doesn't give the very best information, but it's what we have.

About a dozen reviews mentioned air conditioning problems during the period July 2005 through December 2009. I only counted those reviews that actually mentioned an a/c issue--a couple of reviews indicated that although *their* cabin's a/c worked fine, they talked to other passengers who experienced problems. I did a very cursory read, and could have missed some. However, there are enough reviews to draw some conclusions.

Over half of the reviews in this sampling indicated a Southern Caribbean itinerary; the remaining reviews were evenly split between the Eastern and Western Caribbean with one review each for Transatlantic and Canada/NE (which is an immense relief to me!)

Half of the cabins with reported problems (on the CC member reviews, anyway) were located way down on the A Deck, followed by 3 cabins on Lower Promenade and 1 each on the Main, Navigation and Veranda decks.

There's no consistency in particular cabin categories affected by a/c problems.

I hope somebody finds it helpful, or interesting.

It's too late to modify my previous post, but I'll read through previous reviews of the Maasdam in the CC members' review section to see if any patterns develop. Yep, I'm a geek that way.

I'm interested in this also. It seems air conditioning has been a persistent problem on the Maasdam for some years. I don't know if the problem is specific to a certain area or deck.

Thanks for the comparison. I've been considering a HAL cruise, so it's nice to read such good things about HAL. Pricing and airfare will have to drop, though. We'll see.

More proof that not all 1A's are alike! I'm recently back from the Triumph, where I stayed in 1A Cabin 6227. It had a twin bed, plus sofa, plus an upper coming from the ceiling. As above, the bathroom was the same size, but the cabin itself was a good bit smaller than a regular inside cabin: I'd estimate 155 sq ft versus 185 sq ft. Still perfectly adequate.

I'm making it a mission to stay in as many different 1A's as possible. I'm working up the nerve to try those big pie shaped Main Deck 1A's way up front on Conquest class. Maybe on the 5 night Canada cruise with only 2 ports...