FredT

Star Clippers are a WONDERFUL option to the large ship insanity, their product is similar, and their pricing is not "over the top" like so many of the other "small ship" cruise lines.

Considering how beloved that ship is to everyone in the HAL universe, you can be assured that her last cruise is going to be sold out with passengers who love that ship, and will be determined to celebrate her and make the cruise memorable. If my take on the HAL crew's is right, they will be working hard to do the same. (See Captain Alberts blog on the ships celebration when she hit her 30th birthday)

She was one of the old Seabourn sisters & has had her problems in recent years

Thats putting it mildly.... Just after Windstar took her over from Seabourn they ran her aground on a coral reef in Central America. Everyone had to be taken off, and it took MONTHS for them to get all their belongings back. Tore up her hull pretty badly

Having seen the results of lost luggage, my cruise partner and I always pack half our clothes in each other’s luggage. We watched one poor couple wear the same shirts and shorts for 7 days due to lost luggage. Hopefully, the airline won’t lose both our bags ! Oh, and we always get trip insurance, just in case !

 

Go ! Have a great time ! Stop stressing !

I'll take this a step further... We take all our clothes, put them on the bed. Then take both our large cases, AND both our carryons. Split everything up among ALL FOUR cases. So if anything goes missing, you are only out a bit of your stuff. Happened to us in Valpariso. (Luggage caught up to us in Puento Arenas believe it or not.......

By the way... My point on the above post was not to brag about how wonderful we are, simply to point out that if you want it bad enough, there ARE alternative ways to fund a cruise. Our home credit card has a $5000.00 limit, and we pay it off 2 times a month. (kids tuition, check. Heating oil, check, gasoline, check, groceries, check. Cable bill, check.)

Get a "miles" credit card... Become FANATICAL about putting every bill, every expenditure, EVERYTHING on the card. Do that for a year and you have paid for a couple tickets on a 7 day cruise. (Or more) We use ours for airfare, and have paid for DW and my RT airfares to Singapore, Sydney, Buenos Aires, and Hong Kong, all to get to cruises, all in the past 6 years... You CAN DO IT

ANY cruise line that calls on Port Stanley..... Whole we loved Antarctica, the day in the Falklands turned our to be the high point. NOT "touristy", NO tourist stores, friendly people, and oh my if you get the opportunity to go out to Volunteer Point (It will turn out to be one of the most memorable days of your life)

MS Astoria of Cruise & Maritime Voyages. The ship was launched in 1947 as the Stockholm, survived a collision at sea which sank the Andrea Doria in 1956.

Our interest was mainly in that my parents went on her a number of times in 1948-49, and had always raved about her.

Out trip was a "Around the British Isles" in March of this year..... From that we CLEARLY saw the reason she is still afloat... (4 days of 30' seas and 40 mph winds....)

We have found that we REALLY like open seating. As we enjoy people, we simply ask for a table for 8 each night... New people each seating. If (when) we find really interesting people, we simply arrange to arrive together and then ask for a table for 4 (or 6) and often eventually for 8... Works for us! (AND we are not tied to one particular seating time)

Of course the OTHER side of the coin with booking last minute is airfare. You may save $500.00 an a couple cruise tickets, but find that last minute airfares are $700.00 higher.

Star Clippers is more 'adventure sailing'. The experience is less luxurious but equally nice. The folks you'll meet onboard will have more likely visited many national parks rather than big cities for fun. They enjoy helping the crew hoist the sails and/or climbing out on the bowsprit or up to the crow's nest. Wet landings? Can't wait for the next one. They too are upper middle class or better and typically in their 40s/50s and are a well traveled, well educated and social crowd.

My biggest concern with Star Clippers would be their Breakfast and Lunches. As both are "preset buffets" there is not a lot of opportunity for specially prepared meals. Over all though, I did find their food a BIG step up from any of the main stream cruise lines...

PS... Aside from the meals issues, I would vote for Star Clippers, simply because it is far more than a small "upscale" ship... it is a massive EXPERIENCE that you simply have to do once in your life if you have any adventurous bones in your body. (And before I get trashed by the Windstar folks, our next cruise is a TA in April on Windstar...)

We have flown Norwegian a couple of times in the past, and were very satisfied.

Having said THAT, There is no way I would book them on a flight to meet up with a cruise. The reason is simple. As a "discount carrier" they have NO interline agreements with other airlines. So if YOUR flight gets canceled for ANY reason (weather, mechanical, strike in Europe... ANYTHING,) the only recourse you have is to be booked on the :"next available" Norwegian flight. (You and every one of the other passengers on your flight.) As Norwegian typically has one or possibly two flights a day on any given transatlantic route, it may take them DAYS to get you to your destination.

Is this probable? No. But to my personal knowledge, this exact thing has happened three times last year on their service from Newburgh New York to Edinburgh. One one of those occasions, it took five dayus for the last passengers to find a seat on one of their flights.

Our favorite in Cozumel is the "Cozumel Bar Hop" A small bus takes you to the (uninhabited) far side of the island and stops at all four of the (few) permitted bars over there. Great sightseeing, great places, and a fun afternoon.

As said above, older ships (But well maintained, Smaller ships (All under 1000 pax) aimed "mainly" at the British market.....

BUT Some absolutely GREAT itineraries, Many of which you cant find unless you spend 4 to 5 times as much (on the "elite" cruise lines!) Yes, many older passengers. On out last trip we were VERY concerned at how many canes and walkers we saw, but then were astounded at how unbelievably mobile and active those same passengers were. Food was fine, (If not a bit "British") and crew attentive (Mostly eastern european) Dont let the negatives stop you if the ports are what you want... It IS an adventure!

Maybe whatever replaces the P-dam on world cruises will have a Rock Climbing Wall and a Surfing Wave Machine!

 

-Paul

LOL... and then there would be ANOTHER ship I would never set foot on! I for one hope that they hold out a few more years. While I am close to retirement, we are still a couple years away from the time we could take some of the more interesting Prinsendam itineraries

To get this back to where it belongs.....

Take a couple days to simply watch your fellow passengers. Sooner or later you WILL notice one with a gleam in his (her) eye.

Approach him (her)... Make the deal.... Have him(Her) approach your target with a hearty "HEY!!! Long time no see", followed by enough personal information of the target to REALLY confuse them.

Keep feeding your accomplice information for a few days, just enough to drive your target crazy...

Works like a charm... (Trust me on this)

One more comment to make.... Remember that September is in the height of the hurricane season. While there is nothing to work about "safety" wise, many MANY cruises find their itineraries changed every year to avoid the part of a hurricane.

PS:

And add me to the "why the heck do you WANT to fo to the Bahama's? Not much to do, pushy aggressive people around the ports....

Soooo..... If tipping in advance is a "crime"... Is telling a waiter or bartender on the first day that if he gives you EXEMPLARY service you will tip him really well at the end of the cruise also a "crime"?

You can be sure that if the crew took care of your nieces [sic] husband before me because he had bribed the waitstaff, this would have a very negative impact on the size or the tip or the possibility of an end-of-the cruise tip from me.

 

DON

I can just report on what I observed.....

(Like I said, I'm too damn cheap to play that game)

Not really "negative"... but more sort of passive aggressive "Boy they must LOVE you!" and "Maybe we should move to YOUR table!"

Like it or not, it works.

FredT

PS: As for me, I am simply too cheap a bastard to go that route. Dont get me wrong, once we find a good bartender or waiter on a cruise, we treat him like gold, and tip well (and privately) at the end of the cruise, but with my luck I would do the "pre tip" and get nothing return (Which would bug the daylights out of me the rest of the trip)

The last two RCCL cruises we did had Indian chefs... (I know as one of our family is of Indian heritage). Once they found out about our guys background we got "crew meals" added to our table almost every evening. GREAT Indian food........

About 5 years ago we took a RCCL cruise with family. Our nieces husband introduced himself to our waiter in the MDR, and slipped him $50 while telling him that if service was "exemplary" more would follow at the end of the 7 days.

Say what you will, but our service was the best we have ever seen, (food, wine, and bar service) to the point that people at the surrounding tables commented on it.....

How about Star Clippers? Their smaller ships are about 140 passengers, they call on small islands, their service is certainly up to snuff, their cabins and facilities on board are superb, and their food is better than most of the large ship cruise lines I have been on.

Americans the loudest? Guess you have never met a bunch of Brazilians! (But they have more fun than most other nationalities!)

I will also agree with the poster above about Swedes and other Nordic countries, they are ALWAYS on time, and would never THINK about cutting in line.

Well, my son (Who is a very experienced traveler) JUST got off a flight from Sydney today, and could not stop raving about the comfort, service, and spaciousness of their A380 out of Dallas. Cant speak for their other aircraft, but if this picky flier was impressed......

PS: and yes he was flying tourist........