burm

Night time:

I love this thread....I'm having a crappy year at work (I am a Financial Advisor with one of the dreadful companies on WS) and I have Grand C753 booked for next March and I CAN'T WAIT...so this thread makes me smile as I can look at our cabin all I want! THANKS OP and all the rest! cruise on. Donna

Know that you are a financial advisor I can appreciate how much you need this cruise.

Having just got off the Grand a couple of weeks ago, I thought you could use this photo of sunrise from C753. It should give you something to look forward to.

I have never seen/found one on a Carnival ship. Though I have heard that they used to have one a few years back.

I have heard there was a topless area years ago on Carnival but never "totally natural".

European lines are far more likely to allow topless.

I love to go out on the balcony, late at night right before bed, and listen to the water against the ship and stare at the jillions of stars. You feel like the only person alive... it's so incredibly peaceful out there.

I agree. Also love to watch sunrise from balcony, then go back to sleep. :)

Saturday April 25th one night

Started bidding at $100 3.5 star.

At $120.00 won the San Juan Water and Beach Club.

Not quite what I expected. had to go and check it out on tripadvisor. It is a very trendy boutique hotel. Haven't heard it mentioned on this board. Hope it's not too noisy for us old folk!

It sounds wonderful. You were lucky.

Thanks for sharing your memories Burm, that was a lovely diversion off down memory lane.

Hopefully both you and I will get to make lots more cruise memories.

39 days to go 'til we leave on the Grand Princess! 14 glorious days in the Caribbean.

Thanks burm, we too will have been in the absolute cheapest cabin available. My parents paid extra to take the Achille Lauro so that we could say that we had been round the world by ship - our route out to Australia was on the Castel Felice (Sitmar) via Cape Town and we definitely didn't have a bathroom on that - and there were six people in our cabin! I know that the Canberra was going the other way round but also heading back to England, but don't know about the Angelina Lauro. The Achille Lauro was positively palatial compared to the Castel Felice.

 

No wonder you are hooked on cruising today. You had such wonderful adventures as a child. If you made the same trip today you would have been sent to the childrens' programs every day and enjoyed a completely different type of cruise. You must have terrific parents. They had a real sense of adventure.

My first ship was the P&O Arcadia. We started our trip by flying to Oahu and spending a month there walking entirely around the island (sleeping on the beach) then catching the Arcadia to Sydney, Australia. The ship was filled with young adults, most traveling to Oz on assisted passage.

We had a ball with so many young people. I shared my cabin with 5 strangers, one a woman on her honeymoon -they couldn't afford a cabin for the 2 and the husband was in a cabin of 6 men. Every afternoon we abandoned the cabin for a couple of hours to give the newlyweds some privacy. ;) This was not a hardship. We wouldn't have wasted time in the cabin anyway.

The bathroom and showers were down the hall. :p

First and second class were totally separated on the Arcadia. Of course all the young people were in second class. The few who were in first would crawl around the barrier to get to where the fun was!

We stopped in Fijii, Samoa, Auckland and spent wonderful days exploring those ports with our new friends from the ship.

Those days form some of the best memories of my life.

Our first port was Sydney and that was very exciting. We moored up near Sydney Harbour Bridge. Because it was still the days of assisted passage to Australia, there were plenty of other ships in port that day. We were in dock alongside the Angelena Lauro and the Canberra.

Sally, thank you for sharing your wonderful memories with us. What a great trip you had! Eight glorious weeks!

I sailed from Sydney, Australia to Durban, South Africa on the Angelina Lauro in April, 1971. Perhaps you were in the ship next to us in the beautiful Sydney harbour.

We had a cabin for for 4 (I was billeted with 3 strangers) and to my delight we did have our own bathroom so I expect you did as well, considering that I had the cheapest possible cabin on the ship.

The swimming pool was absolutely wild. The rocking motion of the pool would slosh you from one end to the other. My brother and I had more fun getting washed out of the end of the pool and on to the deck.

 

In those days you knew you were on a ship. The tables, dressers, beds, all had railings so things wouldn't fall off. Today ships are so smooth you seldom know you are on water. I miss the jelly legs when you tried to adjust to being on land again.

Sorry to hear that. It's so easy to screw up like on that Priceline (they really ought to add a "confirmation screen" of some sort before your pickings become finalized), and I make boo-boo's like that all the time. There's no way to retract your bid as far as I know, is there?

I am afraid I'll get the wrong date.

burm: let me help you out...IF you are looking for a hotel in FT LAUDERDALE this is not the thread to look at There is a miramar in san juan (which is what all of these people are getting) This is the san juan puerto rico thread.

Thanks. I just got lost doing a search.

Priceline are still offering the Courtyard by Marriot Miramar for $45 on March 6th and $88 March 7th secured it on Friday foir a friend of ours who booked a cruise with us at the last minute .

Happy bidding

What area did you ask for? Unless I am mistaken (always a distinct possibility although it hasn't happened yet :D ) that hotel is 28 miles from the airport! As we will not have a rental car I would want a hotel preferably with free shuttle or an inexpensive taxi ride. I would not be happy if I said airport area and was stuck with a hotel 28 miles away.

Priceline are still offering the Courtyard by Marriot Miramar for $45 on March 6th and $88 March 7th secured it on Friday foir a friend of ours who booked a cruise with us at the last minute .

Happy bidding

Is that 3 star? I am looking for March 26.

Does anyone know what hotel this 3 star in the Fort Lauderdale beach area might be? I wanted a lower priced hotel for just one night before cruise and am concerned about possible taxi costs to/from airport and cruiseport.

silkHotRefNo:Ref No. 5301735808

$106

per room, per night

3-star hotel in Fort Lauderdale Beach Area

Hotwire Hot Rate

No, you are not weird. I was rocked to sleep on my first cruise onboard the Norway. The second cruise was so smooth that I complained to my friend ... I miss being rocked to sleep!

I love to feel the rocking of the ship as well. For me it is disappointing that modern stabilizers make ships feel almost like they are standing still.

This trip will be my first balcony experience.

You are so going to love having your own balcony. I know exactly how you feel.

Another cdn seeking heat

Earplugs are great for dances or shows where the music is so loud it hurts your ears. They just take the edge off a bit so you don't hurt your ear drums. They take up so little space in a purse but can really come in handy.

You really take flowers with you? I love the idea of thank you cards, I'm gonna pick up a pack for our next sailing! Thanks!

 

p.s. if i dont quit reading this board i wont have room for my clothes...lol

If you carried the suggested inflatable mattress, pillows, coffee maker, flameless candles, power bar, hangars, flowers, shoe holders, hair dryer, curling iron, night light, flashlight, duct tape, etc, you could easily forget your clothes and not notice until you were on the ship. :D

You gotta love this thread. It is fun to see how different other people's priorities are. Maybe they should have a hardware store on every ship. :p

I just wanted to thank everyone for the great "packing list" I took a little from everyones top 5! :D

 

Going on our first cruise in December on RCCL, the entire family is going 10+!:p

So that'll be mean 10 air mattresses, 10 pillows, 10 rolls of duct tape.........

Have a wonderful cruise!

- Watching people rush back to the ship before we depart from a port. A cruise director clued us in to this and it's hysterical. We get back a bit early to get a good spot to watch people make a run for it.

I have heard so many people mention this lately. Guess this time we will have to pay more attention. Usually when we get back to the cabin we are too busy showering and organizing wet and dirty clothes and purchases before watching the ship pull out and then going to dinner. 201 days to go, sigh. :o

Burm~You know it could very well have just been our particular room steward....but I had the feeling that they(RCCL) were being very careful about all the "extras"....we had one small, what became sliver of soap for most of the cruise...he noticed that I had brought my own Oil of Olay for the shower, so nothing was provided in there....it was just little things...only 2 bath towels provided... I requested a couple extra towels one evening which he left, but then never again.... everything is getting tight everywhere I guess & we're not wasteful people at all....but I always enjoyed feeling pampered on cruises.

Interesting. I have never sailed with RCCL and have never experienced such stinginess on other lines. Have others had the same experience with them?

Five things we DIDN'T need on our Grandeur cruise 7/24/08:

 

Duct tape

Outlet strips (there were three outlets, 2 at desk & 1 in bath)

Insulated cups/mugs (unless ur into just sitting for hours on end)

Bug spray

Hangers (there were lots & plenty of shelf space)

 

What I wouldn't leave without next time:

 

Case of bottled water (they'll just put a luggage tag on it, our room steward was so kind as to bring it into the cabin as soon as it arrived so it didn't get "picked" up by anyone)

Soda

Snorkel gear

Soaps & lotions (RCCL very stingy with soap & zero lotions,shampoos etc.)

Ipod

For me you could just about reverse those lists. Funny how different people's priorities are.

I have never understood the need to take hangars. True, there are not enough when you board, but the steward will quickly bring you as many as you wish. Same with shampoos and creams.

1) wife

2) wife

3) wife

4) wife

5) wife

Can you tell that she makes every cruise very special!!!

:) ;) :p

You must be my DH - at least I hope so. :p

When asked how to contact me for emergencies, I always tell my boss and my secretary to act as if I died. Handle it however they would handle it if I got hit by a bus.

No! No! Don't say that. They'd replace you. :eek:

DH and I are very excited to cruise for the first time w/a balcony. We're off on our honeymoon in TWO Weeks!!

Congratulations! What a great honeymoon you will have. The Caribbean Princess is a lovely ship and you have some interesting ports to visit.

Best of luck.