Mike981

Our first cruise was on the Mercury and was everything quoted above. It was supposed to be a one and done forever cruise, but we were/are hooked.

Very nice job! I absolutely love all of the smiles!! My wife and I will be on the Silhouette in January, it will be our first cruise in four years. You make feel very comfortable that we will have an enjoyable time, thank you.

Glad it worked out so well for you Gentlemen.

Wife and I sent ours to Texas and it took eight weeks.

Jim, I'm wondering if you notice any difference in passenger types between Celebrity & Ponant? I have to say your food pictures sure seem to say the food is better than Celebrity. Brother I am really enjoying this review. Growing up in Wisconsin, our yearly summer trip was to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where my mother grew up (Iron River). Your beautiful pictures are bringing back some great memories, thank you Sir.

Boy, you sure do have good taste. I'm sure lain would agree. 😉

It was just over $1 when I started driving, but you could still get smokes for .75 a pack. I had an OLD 1970 Cadillac that if you ran out of gas it took over a gallon to get from the tank to the carburetor. Many of us changed our own oil and there were some guys with such oil burners/leakers that they would take our old oil and use it for their cars.

Isn't it fun watching the little humans become such cool big humans? I have a friend that only drinks Amaretto and root beer. 🥱

I am interested to hear if there is much of a difference to your ride on the great lakes vs on the ocean. I have been told that it is a different animal. Enjoy your time with your daughter! As a father of two, I can't imagine going through that. My son had open heart surgery when he was five months old and that was hard enough. Now he is 30 years old, just picked up his masters in education and loves teaching.

Agree that there are a few who enjoy stirring the pot and harming some folks enjoyment. I have built up quite a list of people that I have blocked, it is a very useful feature here on CC.

Thank you Jim. I shared the link with my wife and she is excited.

Do you happen to know the name of the new buds? My wife purchased Bose Sleep Buds (because I told her you liked them) and she loved them, but they stopped working. Seems to me the biggest issue is battery life. I would love to get in on the pre-order. BTW, I was born in Milwaukee and raised in Madison. I also did radio in Oshkosh for a while. The Fox Valley is an interesting place. Since you love your long walks, you might have walked over a few man hole covers over the years, just up the road from Milwaukee are the cities of Neena/Menasha and MANY man hole covers are made there. And while we are at it, man hole covers are round because it is impossible for them to fall down the hole. I will let myself out now.

Dang, Jimmy. RIP

Agree, I wouldn't expect anything less and looking forward to it. That makes two of us.

I hope you find a good alternative for you two and have a great trip. And I get your apprehension to try another line, but for some of us it just makes too much sense.

He sure did. This was at Sandals Negril, so they probably see it more often and can sense it better. The first time I saw the Northern Lights, I was on a fishing trip with a friend, we were driving from Iowa to the UP of Michigan. On I-35 in Minnesota we both saw them at the lights at the same time. I pulled way off the highway and we just laid on the hood of my truck and were in awe. They just kept going and going, but sadly it was late and we had to get back on the road.

We have been cruising on Celebrity in January, dates will vary from year to year. We also do ten day cruises, so we rarely see kids. On 'winter weather', I hear you coming from Minnesota. We always fly in a day or two to our destination and we also get a hotel near our home airport the night before in case of a storm making travel hard the day of our flight. There have been a few times over the years that it would been tough to make our flight if we were driving the same day. Plus, I recently got a nice room at the Hilton with parking for 14 days, for not that much more for a park and fly. I believe park and fly was $150-$170 and I got a room with parking for $200, not much of a difference.

You could check out Etsy. That is where we got our sign (something like), "Watch out! We have the drink package."

100% agree. I have looked into a viking Caribbean cruise for January 2025 and the only one that could work for us is out of San Juan, that adds quite a bit of money for a flight from Minnesota. I hear that you can get some money for air, but I do not really understand how it works. That said, I hope to give them a shot in the future.

Only time we have seen the 'flash' was in Negril Jamaica, it was fantastic. One of the staff was running up and down the beach yelling, "get out your cameras, it's going to happen." Unfortunately we were on our way to dinner and our camera was in our room, just glad to have seen it. As for flying fish, I believe we have seen them every cruise. BTW, we only cruise the Caribbean. We have been very fortunate over the years with all of the wildlife we have seen on our trips.

Some kids get all the luck! 😆

I wish you the best.

My DW and I talk about all the quality time parents are losing when they are driving and talking/texting on their phone and not connecting with their children. They will even sit in our driveway for an extended time making their child wait to go play with their friends before they make the effort to bring them to daycare. BTW, we are going to pick up a rescue dog tomorrow. Very excited! That is why I added what I did at the end of my post.

Has she ever had any other skin issues? 20 years ago I got repeated infections of poison oak and it messed me up. My doctor told me that it was in my blood and bad enough that it can rear its ugly head at anytime and that is the truth. If I just sit on the edge of a hot tub or a pool, I will certainly get a rash on my legs, even if I rinse off right away. Or if I am working outside in the heat and get very sweaty, it can also happen.

@lisiamc very good point.