Grammyluvs

I am almost as sorry as you are that your trip is over. I have really enjoyed your reviews.

We did a 28 day transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale. Included northern Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltics. It was in 2013 on the Emerald. We flew home from Copenhagen. Best trip ever!! but very port intensive once you cross the Atlantic.

I guess I stand corrected :o. I have never been on a ship that did not change its clocks if necessary to be on local time. I learned something new today :)

I’m with you. Every ship I have ever been on was local time, even when at sea we were told to adjust to the time zone we were passing thru.

We take our fur baby over to the sitter’s to begin his vacation and then go home to pack. He gets so sad when he sees us packing; knowing he is being left:(

Then we either fly or drive to the port a day early and vacation begins.

We were on a Carnival cruise with a tattoo convention. They literally took over the ship. We had a couple who were on their first cruise and they said they would never cruise again and haven’t been on another one. The tattoo people weren’t rude but they were loud and there were a lot of them.

We had the Caribe balcony 402 on the Ruby. Loved it. I liked the part where it is half shade/half exposed. We used it every morning for bkfst and every evening for happy hour and times in between. It was our first balcony and we have had Caribe ever since.

We booked a Caribe balcony portside on our cruise of the Med on the Ruby. Cannot say enough how much we enjoyed it. We had coffee every morning on the balcony, watched sail-a-ways from the balcony, had happy hour on the balcony and loved looking at the stars on the balcony. The cruise is very port intensive but the balcony was the first thing we went to upon awakening and coming back from port excursions. We loved it. The views arriving in Istanbul alone were worth it. We also went to Monte Carlo and I will never forget pulling the curtain back that morning and seeing all the yachts, etc. It was breathtaking. If you can afford it without skimping on your excursions, I say go for it.

Rick, thanks so much for answering all my questions so thoroughly. Your review has really excited us. Hopefully, we can learn from your mistakes. ;)

If you do a Princess partial transit, once you go thru Gatun locks and are in Gatun lake, you can take an excursion and do the full transit by ferry. We will be doing it in Feb. and from the reviews on the Princess thread, everyone highly recommends it. If you wait too long to do it, they may have the new locks ready and you might miss going thru the historical ones. But, this is Panama so who knows when it will be finished. ;)

I’m curious about the helicopter and the posters. If you do a poster and are lucky enough to get filmed from the helicopter, do you need to buy the CD or is there a photograph you can purchase? Should you be on your balcony or somewhere else? It sounds like they fly by early in the AM (I know it is early in the AM when you go thru the Locks). BTW, how early should you be up for going thru the locks? We changed our excursion from the Embera Indians to the one you took. How do you get to be on one of the smaller boats to get a seat? Are the boats air conditioned? I have asthma and I am worried about the humidity causing problems!

Lucky you. Enjoyed hearing your opinions of the different cruise lines. Thanks for posting.

Is there a website for the water taxi tours? We are interested in doing one the day before our cruise but were wondering what the hours were. After reading your review, we can’t wait for ours in Feb.

I just love your reviews and this one may have been the best. So looking forward to your pictures. You may have said this and I missed it, but when is your next cruise and to where?

Thanks so much. I just downloaded it.

I serve individual Beef Wellingtons every year for Christmas as different members of our family prefer med, med. rare, or rare tenderloin. My recipe is very, very old and uses prosciutto and mushroom with shallot duxelles. I believe making mass beef wellington on a cruise ship would have to take away from its awesomnist (my word) LOL So I never order it for fear of being disappointed.

So sad your cruise is over. I have really enjoyed your “live” review. Thanks for taking the time.

Sorry to hear you had such a terrible cruise. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Emerald in the past but I do think changing staffs, CD and etc. can make a big difference in the quality of your tour. Port of Houston has also had several bad reviews. Seems your cruise was doomed from the beginning. I noticed you sail with Carnival a lot, so maybe you will be happier there.

I am so excited to know this. I have asthma and if I get hot/humid, it brings on my asthma. We are headed to the Panama Canal this Feb. and all I have read is how hard it is to keep the cabins cool because it is so hot. I am definitely going to take one.

Do you put a luggage tag on it and check it or take it thru with your carryon?

We are doing Trikes in Aruba. It is a 3 hr. tour. to tour the Island. While you have seen the island, seeing it from a trike might be fun.

One of the most comprehensive reviews I have ever read. Thank you so much for the time it took to write this. It was so complete I have no questions! Now I can’t wait for our cruise on Feb. 5th.

Did you bring the materials for your Panama Canal poster or can you buy it onboard?

I didn't know this. Do you know what time yet?

No, not sure of the time. The reason I know is we have reservations that AM with Trikes of Aruba and they said because of the parade our route would be revised.

Thanks so much for the updates. Very interesting about Aruba on Sundays. We dock on a Sunday and there is suppose to be some kind of festival going on.

Looking forward to your review as we are doing the same cruise in Feb. Have fun!