RMLincoln

This problem may have occurred no matter which cruise line and cruise ship you were on.

 

Much of that travel was in uninhabited areas of the Pacific Ocean where satellite coverage needed for WIFI may not have been available.

I thought that too, but we had no issues, or almost no issues on either of the other ships, especially considering that the Ocean Princess started out in Tahiti and went nearly due north across a lot of open water, across the equator to Hawaii for 4-5 days and we had no problems with the internet. So I really do think HAL can do better.

I enjoyed your review.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, you've helped us along the way many times. Sorry this took so long to get finished, but there's been a lot of catching up to do. All good! m--

It is great to see a post by your Maureen!! I had not realized (or just plain forgot in my old age) that you were on a cruise or 3:) Better than what I feared, Firefighting!!

 

I hope hunny reads your review after I point it out to him because they way you did it is what I wish to do, but my wish is 4 legged, no air for me at all.

 

Again, Welcome back to HomeDam!!!

 

Joanie

Thanks so much Joanie, always good to be back to HomeDam! Our brutal fire season has been tempered briefly by the rain over the weekend. But we're hoping for El Nino to set up and bring us the deep relief of long term moisture that we need to break this very long drought.

The long trip was very special; we met up with Australian friends we had met on a cruise in 2010 and stayed with each couple a few days in different parts of OZ. Plus we finally met wonderful CC friends from the boards and from the roll call who spent time with us on Volendam giving us very helpful information for our visits to their countries. It was a grand opportunity and truly a trip of a lifetime.

I doubt we'll go to these places again, we may try to go to Europe, maybe UK, Norway fjords, maybe a river cruise and a transatlantic home later in 2015... may share part of the trip with my Italian cousins. It was a cousins trip to Italy in 2010 that put us on the transatlantic where we met the Australian folks, so it's a small world! The Ozzies have been here to NM and plan to return to this region in the spring, so we just hope we can all stay healthy to enjoy it. You and DH too!

Blessings, m--

PS No cruise booked now but a different type of "cruise" a Grand Canyon raft trip for my big number birthday in September! We'll see what else comes up... every day is a gift and treasured.

Maureen,

I appreciate you taking time to write this report of the three cruises.

Thank you.

 

It is good to "see" you back on the boards.:)

You were the inspiration for the comparison review :) so I thank YOU for that! And all your support and ideas that encouraged us along the way. m--

We embarked on a 4 month odyssey to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific islands last September. Because we would rather cruise than take long flights we used three cruises to transport us part way around our circuit and give us the luxury of cruise pampering in between some arduous touring. Generally we are value cruisers, and in this lengthy trip we looked for good deals and as usual found some.

Our cruises were on three different cruise lines and we were carried by three different sized ships. Our first cruise was out of Los Angeles to Sydney for 21 nights on Holland America’s Volendam, a mid-size ship of about 1250 passengers. After spending about 6 weeks in Australia we boarded Celebrity Solstice, a large ship of about 3000 passengers, for a 12 night cruise to New Zealand. Our last cruise was a back-to-back out of Tahiti, first with 10 nights of visiting the Society Islands and then 11 nights from the Society Islands to Hawaii, from which we flew back to the continental US. I will try to recount the pros and cons of each experience.

Volendam: We have cruised HAL several times, we are 3-star HAL cruisers and had been on Volendam before. We find it to be a pleasant traditional cruise experience. No surprises. We were glad that HAL worked into our plans.

· We find the rooms are more accommodating than some other lines, for example our inside room had a couch in a Category K room, nice to have for a 21 day crossing. Nice plus.

· Evening entertainment was varied; we had two long sets of 4-5 sea days and the entertainers, though not inspiring, were, well, nice. For classical music, what used to be the standard quartet, then a trio, is now a duet of piano with violin. We were glad HAL maintained the classical option in some form and in a decent venue. We noticed that the ship had excellent separation of venues so no noise spillover from the casino or the piano bar for example. Weak plus.

· Our guest lecturers were high quality speakers with interesting topics; these sessions were quite well attended, so kudos to HAL for continuing with that. The Microsoft classes were usually overwhelmed with interest, teaching us “old dogs” the new tricks of surviving in the modern era. Later in the cruise it was much easier to attend and excellent for those many sea days. Again kudos to HAL and big plus.

· Library! Well few ships can compete with HAL libraries with their beautiful sea views, extra comfy chairs, recliners and music stations. Wonderful variety and an excellent librarian to help us. And the complimentary DVD library had an amazing stock, over a thousand movies, plus they will happily deliver movies to your room. How can you beat that? Big plus.

· Our MDR dining on HAL was high quality as expected but their open dining system is a bit difficult. They are good about taking reservations from 5:15 to 5:45 or after 8:15 but it’s hard to get a table at an intermediate time of say 6:30. After the first 2 nights at the same table at 5:30 we were offered it for the entire cruise, so we wound up with the equivalent of early dining but with the advantage of being able to skip that time (they would hold our table for 15 minutes or we could tell them ahead of time that we would be eating at a later time) if we anticipated being late coming back from a shore excursion for example, or just wanted something different for an evening. For us this is a better option than the rigid traditional early dining option and we enjoyed it. The dining room is roomy and the tables are spread out enough for the wait staff to serve guests with ease, though lighting could be better. Overall, I give dining a weak plus, would be stronger if they could improve their open dining and lighting. Their very liberal room service menus also helps save them. The buffet is pretty neutral.

· The internet was abysmal with multiple days of no signal for us to use with our $100 package. Poorly done and very frustrating, especially as we left a friend in grave health and needed updates. Big minus.

· Shore Excursions were the usual and as expected a bit pricey but not shocking. We purchased on board, no problems. Neutral.

The Celebrity Solstice cruise was short, only 12 days. It wasn’t what we consider a particularly good deal when we booked (3 months out); insides were sold out so we reserved a guaranteed OV, from which we were upgraded to an obstructed balcony, so it became a better deal!

· Our balcony looked across a lifeboat which was almost as high as the rail level so that part was fully obstructed, poor for picture taking but otherwise lovely for distant views and certainly no complaints for an OV price! And again our room had a couch for us to spread out, nice! Plus we had a frig which we missed on HAL; otherwise quite similar room amenities, baths, closets, robes etc. Celebrity does provide umbrellas to use which was nice but we used our own in windy, wet Wellington (ours were easier to put in our packs). But Solstice had no self-service laundry which I dearly missed with our long travel schedule. Oh well. Still a Plus for Solstice rooms.

· Entertainment on Celebrity is, well, different and varied. It was nice to have variety and the flying acrobats are amazing to watch. The Hot Glass Show is up top and outdoors; it was rather cool and windy to stand there for the entire show; seating is extremely limited but the show is captivating and so different that it stands out as a plus. I was glad we got to enjoy it. Music venues are more varied on the larger ships and we liked that part. Entertainment venues included a smaller lounge with shows and we liked the option of that variety also. The venue for the classical strings was in a horrible spot but at least they had classical strings, a music option that is getting harder to find, so a negative for venues but kudos to Celebrity for keeping classical music. Overall entertainment I think is plus on a large ship because they have the room to work in more options.

· Our lecturer was a very dynamic science speaker whom we enjoyed on our one previous Celebrity cruise and enjoyed again. The computer classes were Apple oriented and we didn’t participate. The library was ho-hum and no complimentary DVDs… so neutral on these topics for us.

· One MDR dinner on Celebrity was momentarily disappointing when I had the absolute worst prime rib ever, just unbelievably tough, but there were other options and other meals were quite good, (so maybe it was a fluke) and it did not ruin our cruise. Overall though I think the budget cuts have hit the tables. Their room service menu is lacking protein for breakfast so it was up to the buffet for us. With 3000 passengers the buffet is necessarily quite large and dispersed, but even more crowded than I remember from our previous Celebrity cruise on Constellation. The best part about dining on Celebrity is that they have open dining down to a science! One can get a reservation for any time desired…. 6:30? Of course…. a table for two, no problem! NICE! Just call a day ahead or early that morning to be assured of getting what you want. The dining room was more crowded than on the HAL ship, the tables very tight, and the servers have a harder time serving but the job gets done and the guests get what they want. Open dining definitely a plus! The rest neutral.

· Downside of the large ship: there were often lines, or if not lines then the issue was no available seating. The passengers were often in groups on this cruise and that made for more issues of loudness and reserving seats, neither of which we wanted to deal with, so time for us to move on to a different plan for the moment.

· The internet was more functional than on HAL but we paid $50 for our 12 day cruise, so not a bargain but at least it worked well, even with 3000 passengers. A plus there.

· The shore excursion we took was well done and not extraordinary on price. On and off the ship was not difficult even with 3000 passengers. I give a plus for this topic.

Our last cruise was a two cruise back to back on Ocean Princess out of Tahiti. She carries about 670 passengers, but one leg was only 570 guests, so we had a very different experience on this small ship.

· We wanted a room low and mid-ship to avoid sea sickness while crossing the Pacific in a small ship. We had a porthole room on deck 3 and happily, it too had a couch for us to spread out and enjoy during our 21 days aboard. Ocean Princess was one of the original R ships from the Renaissance line which went bankrupt in 2011, so she was not built by Princess who usually only puts a couch in mini-suites and above, so this was a big deal for a Princess ship! Big plus here!

· Entertainment was presented in a “cabaret” lounge which had terrible lines of sight. The ship’s band kept shrinking due to personnel issues and the entertainers and venue were very disappointing to us. And very few venues or options, so more entertain yourself opportunities. For us, this is a negative of being on a small ship.

· There was an excellent lecturer who specialized in the South Pacific history and culture and although his presentation style was often difficult to follow we still felt he added to our experience. Internet was free for us as Platinum Captain’s Circle members and quite reliable; the library was lovely with views of the pool area and very well stocked, very quiet but no librarian, oh well, again it’s a very small ship. These add up to plus.

· Dining on Ocean Princess is only traditional. We requested a table for two and were seated at a table for eight. We enjoyed our tablemates but for our second cruise we asked the Maître d’ for a 2-top and he met our desires. Service and food were both very good to excellent. The buffet on OP has a notably tiny serving area and comparatively limited selections, but we gladly accepted this in exchange for never a line for anything! We had no problems finding enjoyable choices and they frequently made special themed spreads. And the buffet experience was graced with lovely outdoor seating and exceptionally attentive service, all making it a big plus for us. This made the buffet area an unusually comfortable zone.

· We had some good and one terrible shore excursion. The prices were pretty high but if you got a good one, worth it. Our bad experience was very high priced and really should not have been offered this time of year because we were literally going against the current. We tried to get to the Na Pali coast of Kauai but the boat operators told us they hadn’t been able to get up there for at least 6 weeks, so they first proved to us that it wasn’t possible by driving us into the waves and soaking us with deluging waves and stinging spray before they turned around and substituted a short snorkel and a visit to a gift shop… $210 each. I was extremely disappointed in Princess and told them so but they really didn’t care to make any offer of amends. Although this isn’t a ship-size issue it did impact our experience. Many excursions were canceled apparently due to lack of numbers, and that may be a reflection of a small ship experience, so negatives for this topic.

Overall we found our choice of using cruises as transportation and relaxing pampering interludes during our long odyssey to be an excellent choice for our sanity and good value compared to land touring. I would neither avoid nor seek any of the ship-size choices we had singularly based on ship size but I would anticipate the pros and cons of each type of experience and enjoy them for what they are.

We embarked on a 4 month odyssey to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific islands last September. Because we would rather cruise than take long flights we used three cruises to transport us part way around our circuit and give us the luxury of cruise pampering in between some arduous touring. Generally we are value cruisers, and in this lengthy trip we looked for good deals and as usual found some.

Our cruises were on three different cruise lines and we were carried by three different sized ships. Our first cruise was out of Los Angeles to Sydney for 21 nights on Holland America’s Volendam, a mid-size ship of about 1250 passengers. After spending about 6 weeks in Australia we boarded Celebrity Solstice, a large ship of about 3000 passengers, for a 12 night cruise to New Zealand. Our last cruise was a back-to-back out of Tahiti, first with 10 nights of visiting the Society Islands and then 11 nights from the Society Islands to Hawaii, from which we flew back to the continental US. I will try to recount the pros and cons of each experience.

Volendam: We have cruised HAL several times, we are 3-star HAL cruisers and had been on Volendam before. We find it to be a pleasant traditional cruise experience. No surprises. We were glad that HAL worked into our plans.

· We find the rooms are more accommodating than some other lines, for example our inside room had a couch in a Category K room, nice to have for a 21 day crossing. Nice plus.

· Evening entertainment was varied; we had two long sets of 4-5 sea days and the entertainers, though not inspiring, were, well, nice. For classical music, what used to be the standard quartet, then a trio, is now a duet of piano with violin. We were glad HAL maintained the classical option in some form and in a decent venue. We noticed that the ship had excellent separation of venues so no noise spillover from the casino or the piano bar for example. Weak plus.

· Our guest lecturers were high quality speakers with interesting topics; these sessions were quite well attended, so kudos to HAL for continuing with that. The Microsoft classes were usually overwhelmed with interest, teaching us “old dogs” the new tricks of surviving in the modern era. Later in the cruise it was much easier to attend and excellent for those many sea days. Again kudos to HAL and big plus.

· Library! Well few ships can compete with HAL libraries with their beautiful sea views, extra comfy chairs, recliners and music stations. Wonderful variety and an excellent librarian to help us. And the complimentary DVD library had an amazing stock, over a thousand movies, plus they will happily deliver movies to your room. How can you beat that? Big plus.

· Our MDR dining on HAL was high quality as expected but their open dining system is a bit difficult. They are good about taking reservations from 5:15 to 5:45 or after 8:15 but it’s hard to get a table at an intermediate time of say 6:30. After the first 2 nights at the same table at 5:30 we were offered it for the entire cruise, so we wound up with the equivalent of early dining but with the advantage of being able to skip that time (they would hold our table for 15 minutes or we could tell them ahead of time that we would be eating at a later time) if we anticipated being late coming back from a shore excursion for example, or just wanted something different for an evening. For us this is a better option than the rigid traditional early dining option and we enjoyed it. The dining room is roomy and the tables are spread out enough for the wait staff to serve guests with ease, though lighting could be better. Overall, I give dining a weak plus, would be stronger if they could improve their open dining and lighting. Their very liberal room service menus also helps save them. The buffet is pretty neutral.

· The internet was abysmal with multiple days of no signal for us to use with our $100 package. Poorly done and very frustrating, especially as we left a friend in grave health and needed updates. Big minus.

· Shore Excursions were the usual and as expected a bit pricey but not shocking. We purchased on board, no problems. Neutral.

The Celebrity Solstice cruise was short, only 12 days. It wasn’t what we consider a particularly good deal when we booked (3 months out); insides were sold out so we reserved a guaranteed OV, from which we were upgraded to an obstructed balcony, so it became a better deal!

· Our balcony looked across a lifeboat which was almost as high as the rail level so that part was fully obstructed, poor for picture taking but otherwise lovely for distant views and certainly no complaints for an OV price! And again our room had a couch for us to spread out, nice! Plus we had a frig which we missed on HAL; otherwise quite similar room amenities, baths, closets, robes etc. Celebrity does provide umbrellas to use which was nice but we used our own in windy, wet Wellington (ours were easier to put in our packs). But Solstice had no self-service laundry which I dearly missed with our long travel schedule. Oh well. Still a Plus for Solstice rooms.

· Entertainment on Celebrity is, well, different and varied. It was nice to have variety and the flying acrobats are amazing to watch. The Hot Glass Show is up top and outdoors; it was rather cool and windy to stand there for the entire show; seating is extremely limited but the show is captivating and so different that it stands out as a plus. I was glad we got to enjoy it. Music venues are more varied on the larger ships and we liked that part. Entertainment venues included a smaller lounge with shows and we liked the option of that variety also. The venue for the classical strings was in a horrible spot but at least they had classical strings, a music option that is getting harder to find, so a negative for venues but kudos to Celebrity for keeping classical music. Overall entertainment I think is plus on a large ship because they have the room to work in more options.

· Our lecturer was a very dynamic science speaker whom we enjoyed on our one previous Celebrity cruise and enjoyed again. The computer classes were Apple oriented and we didn’t participate. The library was ho-hum and no complimentary DVDs… so neutral on these topics for us.

· One MDR dinner on Celebrity was momentarily disappointing when I had the absolute worst prime rib ever, just unbelievably tough, but there were other options and other meals were quite good, (so maybe it was a fluke) and it did not ruin our cruise. Overall though I think the budget cuts have hit the tables. Their room service menu is lacking protein for breakfast so it was up to the buffet for us. With 3000 passengers the buffet is necessarily quite large and dispersed, but even more crowded than I remember from our previous Celebrity cruise on Constellation. The best part about dining on Celebrity is that they have open dining down to a science! One can get a reservation for any time desired…. 6:30? Of course…. a table for two, no problem! NICE! Just call a day ahead or early that morning to be assured of getting what you want. The dining room was more crowded than on the HAL ship, the tables very tight, and the servers have a harder time serving but the job gets done and the guests get what they want. Open dining definitely a plus! The rest neutral.

· Downside of the large ship: there were often lines, or if not lines then the issue was no available seating. The passengers were often in groups on this cruise and that made for more issues of loudness and reserving seats, neither of which we wanted to deal with, so time for us to move on to a different plan for the moment.

· The internet was more functional than on HAL but we paid $50 for our 12 day cruise, so not a bargain but at least it worked well, even with 3000 passengers. A plus there.

· The shore excursion we took was well done and not extraordinary on price. On and off the ship was not difficult even with 3000 passengers. I give a plus for this topic.

Our last cruise was a two cruise back to back on Ocean Princess out of Tahiti. She carries about 670 passengers, but one leg was only 570 guests, so we had a very different experience on this small ship.

· We wanted a room low and mid-ship to avoid sea sickness while crossing the Pacific in a small ship. We had a porthole room on deck 3 and happily, it too had a couch for us to spread out and enjoy during our 21 days aboard. Ocean Princess was one of the original R ships from the Renaissance line which went bankrupt in 2011, so she was not built by Princess who usually only puts a couch in mini-suites and above, so this was a big deal for a Princess ship! Big plus here!

· Entertainment was presented in a “cabaret” lounge which had terrible lines of sight. The ship’s band kept shrinking due to personnel issues and the entertainers and venue were very disappointing to us. And very few venues or options, so more entertain yourself opportunities. For us, this is a negative of being on a small ship.

· There was an excellent lecturer who specialized in the South Pacific history and culture and although his presentation style was often difficult to follow we still felt he added to our experience. Internet was free for us as Platinum Captain’s Circle members and quite reliable; the library was lovely with views of the pool area and very well stocked, very quiet but no librarian, oh well, again it’s a very small ship. These add up to plus.

· Dining on Ocean Princess is only traditional. We requested a table for two and were seated at a table for eight. We enjoyed our tablemates but for our second cruise we asked the Maître d’ for a 2-top and he met our desires. Service and food were both very good to excellent. The buffet on OP has a notably tiny serving area and comparatively limited selections, but we gladly accepted this in exchange for never a line for anything! We had no problems finding enjoyable choices and they frequently made special themed spreads. And the buffet experience was graced with lovely outdoor seating and exceptionally attentive service, all making it a big plus for us. This made the buffet area an unusually comfortable zone.

· We had some good and one terrible shore excursion. The prices were pretty high but if you got a good one, worth it. Our bad experience was very high priced and really should not have been offered this time of year because we were literally going against the current. We tried to get to the Na Pali coast of Kauai but the boat operators told us they hadn’t been able to get up there for at least 6 weeks, so they first proved to us that it wasn’t possible by driving us into the waves and soaking us with deluging waves and stinging spray before they turned around and substituted a short snorkel and a visit to a gift shop… $210 each. I was extremely disappointed in Princess and told them so but they really didn’t care to make any offer of amends. Although this isn’t a ship-size issue it did impact our experience. Many excursions were canceled apparently due to lack of numbers, and that may be a reflection of a small ship experience, so negatives for this topic.

Overall we found our choice of using cruises as transportation and relaxing pampering interludes during our long odyssey to be an excellent choice for our sanity and good value compared to land touring. I would neither avoid nor seek any of the ship-size choices we had singularly based on ship size but I would anticipate the pros and cons of each type of experience and enjoy them for what they are.

We embarked on a 4 month odyssey to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific islands last September. Because we would rather cruise than take long flights we used three cruises to transport us part way around our circuit and give us the luxury of cruise pampering in between some arduous touring. Generally we are value cruisers, and in this lengthy trip we looked for good deals and as usual found some.

Our cruises were on three different cruise lines and we were carried by three different sized ships. Our first cruise was out of Los Angeles to Sydney for 21 nights on Holland America’s Volendam, a mid-size ship of about 1250 passengers. After spending about 6 weeks in Australia we boarded Celebrity Solstice, a large ship of about 3000 passengers, for a 12 night cruise to New Zealand. Our last cruise was a back-to-back out of Tahiti, first with 10 nights of visiting the Society Islands and then 11 nights from the Society Islands to Hawaii, from which we flew back to the continental US. I will try to recount the pros and cons of each experience.

Volendam: We have cruised HAL several times, we are 3-star HAL cruisers and had been on Volendam before. We find it to be a pleasant traditional cruise experience. No surprises. We were glad that HAL worked into our plans.

· We find the rooms are more accommodating than some other lines, for example our inside room had a couch in a Category K room, nice to have for a 21 day crossing. Nice plus.

· Evening entertainment was varied; we had two long sets of 4-5 sea days and the entertainers, though not inspiring, were, well, nice. For classical music, what used to be the standard quartet, then a trio, is now a duet of piano with violin. We were glad HAL maintained the classical option in some form and in a decent venue. We noticed that the ship had excellent separation of venues so no noise spillover from the casino or the piano bar for example. Weak plus.

· Our guest lecturers were high quality speakers with interesting topics; these sessions were quite well attended, so kudos to HAL for continuing with that. The Microsoft classes were usually overwhelmed with interest, teaching us “old dogs” the new tricks of surviving in the modern era. Later in the cruise it was much easier to attend and excellent for those many sea days. Again kudos to HAL and big plus.

· Library! Well few ships can compete with HAL libraries with their beautiful sea views, extra comfy chairs, recliners and music stations. Wonderful variety and an excellent librarian to help us. And the complimentary DVD library had an amazing stock, over a thousand movies, plus they will happily deliver movies to your room. How can you beat that? Big plus.

· Our MDR dining on HAL was high quality as expected but their open dining system is a bit difficult. They are good about taking reservations from 5:15 to 5:45 or after 8:15 but it’s hard to get a table at an intermediate time of say 6:30. After the first 2 nights at the same table at 5:30 we were offered it for the entire cruise, so we wound up with the equivalent of early dining but with the advantage of being able to skip that time (they would hold our table for 15 minutes or we could tell them ahead of time that we would be eating at a later time) if we anticipated being late coming back from a shore excursion for example, or just wanted something different for an evening. For us this is a better option than the rigid traditional early dining option and we enjoyed it. The dining room is roomy and the tables are spread out enough for the wait staff to serve guests with ease, though lighting could be better. Overall, I give dining a weak plus, would be stronger if they could improve their open dining and lighting. Their very liberal room service menus also helps save them. The buffet is pretty neutral.

· The internet was abysmal with multiple days of no signal for us to use with our $100 package. Poorly done and very frustrating, especially as we left a friend in grave health and needed updates. Big minus.

· Shore Excursions were the usual and as expected a bit pricey but not shocking. We purchased on board, no problems. Neutral.

The Celebrity Solstice cruise was short, only 12 days. It wasn’t what we consider a particularly good deal when we booked (3 months out); insides were sold out so we reserved a guaranteed OV, from which we were upgraded to an obstructed balcony, so it became a better deal!

· Our balcony looked across a lifeboat which was almost as high as the rail level so that part was fully obstructed, poor for picture taking but otherwise lovely for distant views and certainly no complaints for an OV price! And again our room had a couch for us to spread out, nice! Plus we had a frig which we missed on HAL; otherwise quite similar room amenities, baths, closets, robes etc. Celebrity does provide umbrellas to use which was nice but we used our own in windy, wet Wellington (ours were easier to put in our packs). But Solstice had no self-service laundry which I dearly missed with our long travel schedule. Oh well. Still a Plus for Solstice rooms.

· Entertainment on Celebrity is, well, different and varied. It was nice to have variety and the flying acrobats are amazing to watch. The Hot Glass Show is up top and outdoors; it was rather cool and windy to stand there for the entire show; seating is extremely limited but the show is captivating and so different that it stands out as a plus. I was glad we got to enjoy it. Music venues are more varied on the larger ships and we liked that part. Entertainment venues included a smaller lounge with shows and we liked the option of that variety also. The venue for the classical strings was in a horrible spot but at least they had classical strings, a music option that is getting harder to find, so a negative for venues but kudos to Celebrity for keeping classical music. Overall entertainment I think is plus on a large ship because they have the room to work in more options.

· Our lecturer was a very dynamic science speaker whom we enjoyed on our one previous Celebrity cruise and enjoyed again. The computer classes were Apple oriented and we didn’t participate. The library was ho-hum and no complimentary DVDs… so neutral on these topics for us.

· One MDR dinner on Celebrity was momentarily disappointing when I had the absolute worst prime rib ever, just unbelievably tough, but there were other options and other meals were quite good, (so maybe it was a fluke) and it did not ruin our cruise. Overall though I think the budget cuts have hit the tables. Their room service menu is lacking protein for breakfast so it was up to the buffet for us. With 3000 passengers the buffet is necessarily quite large and dispersed, but even more crowded than I remember from our previous Celebrity cruise on Constellation. The best part about dining on Celebrity is that they have open dining down to a science! One can get a reservation for any time desired…. 6:30? Of course…. a table for two, no problem! NICE! Just call a day ahead or early that morning to be assured of getting what you want. The dining room was more crowded than on the HAL ship, the tables very tight, and the servers have a harder time serving but the job gets done and the guests get what they want. Open dining definitely a plus! The rest neutral.

· Downside of the large ship: there were often lines, or if not lines then the issue was no available seating. The passengers were often in groups on this cruise and that made for more issues of loudness and reserving seats, neither of which we wanted to deal with, so time for us to move on to a different plan for the moment.

· The internet was more functional than on HAL but we paid $50 for our 12 day cruise, so not a bargain but at least it worked well, even with 3000 passengers. A plus there.

· The shore excursion we took was well done and not extraordinary on price. On and off the ship was not difficult even with 3000 passengers. I give a plus for this topic.

Our last cruise was a two cruise back to back on Ocean Princess out of Tahiti. She carries about 670 passengers, but one leg was only 570 guests, so we had a very different experience on this small ship.

· We wanted a room low and mid-ship to avoid sea sickness while crossing the Pacific in a small ship. We had a porthole room on deck 3 and happily, it too had a couch for us to spread out and enjoy during our 21 days aboard. Ocean Princess was one of the original R ships from the Renaissance line which went bankrupt in 2011, so she was not built by Princess who usually only puts a couch in mini-suites and above, so this was a big deal for a Princess ship! Big plus here!

· Entertainment was presented in a “cabaret” lounge which had terrible lines of sight. The ship’s band kept shrinking due to personnel issues and the entertainers and venue were very disappointing to us. And very few venues or options, so more entertain yourself opportunities. For us, this is a negative of being on a small ship.

· There was an excellent lecturer who specialized in the South Pacific history and culture and although his presentation style was often difficult to follow we still felt he added to our experience. Internet was free for us as Platinum Captain’s Circle members and quite reliable; the library was lovely with views of the pool area and very well stocked, very quiet but no librarian, oh well, again it’s a very small ship. These add up to plus.

· Dining on Ocean Princess is only traditional. We requested a table for two and were seated at a table for eight. We enjoyed our tablemates but for our second cruise we asked the Maître d’ for a 2-top and he met our desires. Service and food were both very good to excellent. The buffet on OP has a notably tiny serving area and comparatively limited selections, but we gladly accepted this in exchange for never a line for anything! We had no problems finding enjoyable choices and they frequently made special themed spreads. And the buffet experience was graced with lovely outdoor seating and exceptionally attentive service, all making it a big plus for us. This made the buffet area an unusually comfortable zone.

· We had some good and one terrible shore excursion. The prices were pretty high but if you got a good one, worth it. Our bad experience was very high priced and really should not have been offered this time of year because we were literally going against the current. We tried to get to the Na Pali coast of Kauai but the boat operators told us they hadn’t been able to get up there for at least 6 weeks, so they first proved to us that it wasn’t possible by driving us into the waves and soaking us with deluging waves and stinging spray before they turned around and substituted a short snorkel and a visit to a gift shop… $210 each. I was extremely disappointed in Princess and told them so but they really didn’t care to make any offer of amends. Although this isn’t a ship-size issue it did impact our experience. Many excursions were canceled apparently due to lack of numbers, and that may be a reflection of a small ship experience, so negatives for this topic.

Overall we found our choice of using cruises as transportation and relaxing pampering interludes during our long odyssey to be an excellent choice for our sanity and good value compared to land touring. I would neither avoid nor seek any of the ship-size choices we had singularly based on ship size but I would anticipate the pros and cons of each type of experience and enjoy them for what they are.

Is there an additional charge for Afternoon Tea in the dining room?

Do they offer any caffine free teas, herb teas?

Thanks, n--

I am thinking about trying a Princess cruise, but I am very concerned about what I read about the uncomfortable mattresses that cruisers describe on Princess. When I sailed NCL, I was miserable, because the mattress on the Sun was lumpy and uncomfortable. I tried Carnival and their beds were awesome! I don't want an egg crate to compensate for a lousy mattress. What's the scoop?

If you prefer sleeping on a less-than-firm mattress, I'd request a pad just in case. I've needed them on Diamond and Ruby. Didn't know any better when we sailed on Regal Princess, Ha!

I can't speak on the Coral's situation but we were on the Star in March and they were changing out mattresses, then we were on her again in september and they must of changed out 1,000 mattresses in San Diego including our.

 

It is an ongoing process.

 

I find the beds to be comfortable, not GREAT, but I sleep fine. They use to be worse. this is just my opionion.

 

Now it is a personal opinion on how you like your mattress, kind of like the food offerrings.

Vickie, We're booked on Star Nov 20th and glad to hear the mattresses are getting upgraded, hope we get a new one but have ordered a pad anyway:)

Loved following your blog, thanks so very much. m--

We had Barry from Boston on Maasdam last spring in the Caribbean and he returned To Maasdam for the Voyage of the Vikings. he was wonderful and packed the place every night.

I was on Celebrity Constellation and was one of many who did not enjoy Perry Grant but many did, os to each their own. m--

I never pay extra for food on a cruise ship.

I had repeatedly whined about the lack of deck chairs along the covered outside promenade decks on Carnival ships. I swear there were NO chairs out there on ANY of them!

 

Then I started reading reviews and people talking about sitting out there. So, when I sailed Glory last October, I went out and, voila, there they were!

 

Unfortunately, they only had them on the shady side on our way to Bermuda and it was mid-October, so quite cool. The one day they had them out on the sunny side, I was just starting to sit down and a worker came around telling us we had to leave because they were going to clean the decks.

 

:mad:

 

But, yes, apparently the do have them. Sometimes. On the larger ships at least.

This is at least encouraging:) Thank you for sharing your experience. m--

Check out this link...

http://beyondships.com/CarnivalSplendor-Tour-1.html

Thank you for this link, it's helpful and a bit hopeful. It does show a picture of one of the outside lower decks with two lounge chairs, maybe others stacked up in the distance. It's the only picture I've seen showing this deck.

This ship lacks a library or lounge with ocean views for quiet time on sea days. There are booths in the "oceanview promenade" next to the windows but when you sit in them they face away from the sea. Outside loungers looks like the only possiblity. And maybe the Lido buffet if the weather is poor.

This is going to take some more research and rethinking if we want to be on board for so long, 48 days. Thanks for your help. m--

Does this mean that there are no chairs on the lower outside decks that have an overhang? And the only chairs we'll find are on the open decks up around the pools and above? Thanks for the help, m--

I'm wondering if there are deck chairs, lounge chairs, on the exterior decks on Splendor that are shaded. I was on Carnival Liberty which had some lounge chairs on the exterior deck off the atrium plus some off the upper buffet that were shaded but I haven't been able to find any photos of Splendo showing loungers that overlook the sea.

Even if the loungers aren't shaded, it's an important part of cruising for us to be able to sit with a book and enjoy watching the sea instead of the swimming pool. We're booked on the 'round the horn South American set of cruises and will have an inside cabin so I'm very concerned about being able to enjoy the many sea days. Thanks to those who have cruised on her for sharing your experiences. m--

For us, the greatest attraction of an interior cabin is the $aving$ :) When we have time to do longer itins, and more exotic itins, I'm pretty sure Mr. Frugal and I will be choosing interiors. If it is "get on the ship and have an interior cabin" or "can't afford a cruise" we will choose interiors every time :D

Same here.

I'm sure if we had a balcony I would spend more time in the cabin and enojy it a lot:). But we'd rather take longer cruises with our dollars. We don't go unless it's a really good deal partly becasue we have to factor in the costs and drudgery of travel to ports so we won't cruise for just a week and probably not even for just 2 weeks anymore, it's just too much hassel vs. cruise time.

But when I get onboard I feel like royalty even in my inside cabin. We have bought some OV rooms plus gotten a fabulous OV upgrade a time or three and enjoyed the windows but we will only pay a small increase for the benefit. Usually the cost of a balcony is way more than we will consider, especially on the smaller ship which have a high premium on their few balconies.

Funny story: Early in our cruising I found an offer for $399 a week Inside, $699/wk balcony. I thought it would be good time to try a balcony, but DH suggested that for only $100 more than the balcony we could go for 2 weeks! Yea to that! And that's been our mode of operation since.

I get the same food, the same entertainment, the same ports, and the fabulous service or at least mostly the same (I realize there are perks for the suites etc and you deserve them for what you pay and I truly hope you enjoy them to the hilt!) so "thank you" to all those who pay far more for your cruise experience and help keep my costs down, and I can keep the ship filled up so you can enjoy your excellent cruise service too. I think it's a win-win. :)

We're heading out soon for 35 days on Massdam at the super flash fare of $2299 inside guarantee! (Minus some OBC bonuses too.) And wherever they put us I'll be a happy cruiser. All this detail about where is the best room, what noise will I hear, how high is the this or that doesn't enter our planning; thankfully all we need to worry about is getting to the ship on time! The rest of it is all good! We've never had a bad room, all locations have pluses and minuses.

PS: You may laugh but I wear an eye shade even in an inside cabin... there's all those little lights you know, on the smoke detector, the chargers, the TV, the light under the door... I like it really dark! :D m--

This has been a wonderful cruise for all of us! Thank you so much for your dedicated efforts, time and the expenses to keep us along. Blessings for a safe return home for both of you. We'll await our turn to board Maasdam on March 23rd, now with repaired engines (again!) with a new level of excitment and menus to drool over:)! Many, many thanks! m--

Great to have you posting the daily events. Too bad that menu is making my meatloaf look mighty unappealing:( Can't wait to board Maasdam again! Have a fabulous cruise. Many thanks to you. m--

I use Sea Bands. i noticed several crew wearing them when it got rough so I tried them and they work for me. i put them on when it starts to get rocking a bit and i don't have tohave drugs in my system.

Notes of using wrist band: They have a small hemispherical bead in the inside of the band that puts pressure on an accupressure point. You must get them on the correct spot, so follow the directions carefully - place the button 3 finger widths up form the wrist crease.

As a current EMT, I can tell you that we are now allowed to use wrist pressure to alleviate nausea for our patients. It doesn't matter what the casue for the nausea is, motion sickness, morning sickness, illness, side effets from drugs, chemo etc. It works for most people but some people may have their accupressure point located a little off from the normal spot so I can't help you there.

m--

Thanks for doing this blog Dave. We will be on this as part of our extended B2B2B March/April and want to learn all I can. We've never been to St Vincent or St Croix. Tell us about enteerainment on baord, shows, muscians, any comedians worth seeing... I read that the cast shows are down to two dancers... seems like a dratic cutback to me. And of course, how the food and service are now. Thanks for taking us along. Safe and healthy sailing to you all. BON VOYAGE!!

Wishing you a fabulous time and hoping we get to see the sailaway today! :) m--

Sorry to hear this event has been discontinued. We're always in the crowd cheering for the creativity and efforts of the entrants. I look at the artistry and DH looks at the engineering but we cheer for all because we appreciate them. Sounds like they're not filling the gap yet and that is a loss, IMHO. m--

There's a lot of that sickness going around! m--

The doors are magnetic. I have put holiday decorations photos on the outside of the door I think you could use the inside of the door but it's not a very broad surface. Blue tack would be better than tacks.