Maeshel

Just got back from a cruise. I would not do the balcony on this cruise again. I don't believe it was worth the extra money. I believe it was smaller than other ships I have been on.

Like it was mentioned all ports are commercial ports. Not much to see.

Get rid of it all. I have to fly out Thurs. for a Sat. cruise. I will test Before I leave, but probably won't get the results until I am in Seattle. 

First time on NCL in July. We were on the Jewel.

The food was awful and left me not wanting to go back to NCL. My sister is sold on NCL and couldn't believe our dissatisfaction with the food.

We were planning on a Hawaiian cruise for 2020 aboard Pride of America. I don't know now.

I had talk to several passage about the Pride of America. They all said that the Jewel food was less than NCL usual standard and The Pride's food was great. I just read some reviews from July and Aug of this year on the Pride of America and the majority of them mentioned the food be less than great.

Have they had a change in their culinary department this year?

2003 on Majesty of the Sea. The kids, hers, mine and ours, presented us with a cruise for our 25th anniversary. We flew down to the port and unbeknown to us the kids took a different flight. We all met up aboard. WHat a wonderful gift. Eight cruises later we still love cruising.

I have been looking at a Panama Canal cruise and backing it up with a Hawaiian cruise, So far, I am looking at a Norwegian canal cruise and a Norwegian Hawaii cruise. It would disembark in LA and I would book a flight to Honolulu to pick up the Hawaiian cruise.

If I were to find a cruise line, for discussion sake lets say, Princess gets in Sat. morning from the Panama portion and Celebrity goes out of the same port for Hawaii that evening. Would Princess transfer my baggage to Celebrity? Like flying Delta with a Continental connection to your final destination. Your baggage (hopefully) follows you.

I have not research Hawaii out of a west cost port yet.

We did a partial transit that we enjoyed very much. We book a stateroom with balcony that we used every day.

 

During the "partial" transit part of the cruise, we stayed aboard and got out to see the operations from forward and aft as well as from our balcony. It was fascinating. We plan on doing a full transit in the future.

 

If you have time, you might enjoy viewing my wife's photo journal at the link below

 

Panama Canal Partial Transit

Thanks for the photo link. Beautiful pictures and great work on putting the album together. I will have to view her other travel logs.

Now you have me confused. I received the quote from the travel agent on doing back to back (Panama Canal and Hawaii). A little more than I wanted to spent but still doable. It was in voicemail so I don't know what staterooms she was quoting. Will have to research and decide on Full transit, full transit with Hawaii, Partial transit in the spring and a fall Hawaii cruise.

Thanks to all that have replied so far.

My wife wants to do a Hawaiian Cruise and I would like to do Panama Canal.

Pretty much settle on a Hawaii cruise with Norwegian, but a good possibility of combining it with a Canal cruise out of FL. to CA and book a flight to Hawaii. Maybe a win win solution. I will have to see if I can book back to back cruises and do both. A real possibility.

I have been on 6 Caribbean Cruise, 2 balcony and 4 inside. On those cruises, I felt the balcony was not worth the extra cost. Not much to see when on the sea.

Spent some time viewing the different cruise lines sites with not a lot of success on back to back cruises. Called AAA and gave them my criteria. We are retired and flexible. They said they will get back with me tomorrow. Might as well use my membership fee.

Thanks to all that have replied so far.

My wife wants to do a Hawaiian Cruise and I would like to do Panama Canal.

Pretty much settle on a Hawaii cruise with Norwegian, but a good possibility of combining it with a Canal cruise out of FL. to CA and book a flight to Hawaii. Maybe a win win solution. I will have to see if I can book back to back cruises and do both. A real possibility.

I have been on 6 Caribbean Cruise, 2 balcony and 4 inside. On those cruises, I felt the balcony was not worth the extra cost. Not much to see when on the sea.

Just started looking at Panama Canal cruises for spring of 2017. Is there much to see from the ship while in the canal? ie canal operations and scenery.

I have cruised in both inside and balcony staterooms. Trying to determine if the scenery and canal operation is worth the up grade to balcony..

I did a similar tour twice on RCL and enjoyed both tours. Looking forward to it on Valor.

What is the cuisine on the Empress?

We took a cruise out of New Orleans aboard the American Queen. The cuisine revolved around Cajun and Creole flavors. Is it the same on Empress?

Just retired and looking at trips for 2016. Empress would be high on the list.

I had looked at American Queen before and felt it was a little pricey. My sister proposed that we take Mom on a cruise and they were offering a deal at the time. What the heck. We will splurge and go. We had a wonderful trip. With what was included, I probably spent less money than an ocean cruise. Definitely had a better time.

Mary was our riverlorian on our American Queen cruise. She was great. SHe said her normal boat was the Empress.

Was on RCI website and looking for a retirement cruise 2016 or 2017. Saw a cruise that went from Italy, Spain, Portugal and ended in New Jersey. I don't speak a lick of Italian and very very little Spanish. Had some French in high school and spent a summer in Quebec in my younger years. Wouldn't consider myself fluent in French either. Would I have trouble on this cruise as far as communications? Same questions with ship shore excursions?

There was another cruise that I looked at that went from England to USA by way of Ireland and Iceland.

There was a temporary fix done to the wheel that the Coast Guard allowed, so she'll finish the 2014 season with a gusset placed on the cracked shaft to hold it together. During winter lay-up a new shaft ,being made now, will replace the old shaft.

That is great news. We are scheduled for the New Years cruise.

Thanks. It would be great to watch the game in the Engine Room Bar with fans of both teams or my stateroom TV would be fine by me. I briefly thought about abandoning ship New Years Eve and attending the game, leaving Mom, wife and sis to complete the cruise.

If the Bucks show up like they did last weekend, we may well have a great game.

We are scheduled to cruise over New Years. What for TV channels will I receive aboard? Want to watch the Sugar Bowl.

Yes, I am from Ohio. Don't know if they have a chance against Bama, but go Bucks!

Like the original poster, I have been to Alaska many times. 7 to 10. I agree with most of the OPs list, but would like to take the other side also. If it is a limited time, once in a lifetime trip I can see an argument for a Cruise/Tour.

1) You are not limited to paying attention to the road and can rubberneck at the wonderful scenery all you want. Would be more relaxing. After all, is the point of vacation to relax.

2) You will probably see more of the Alaskan highlights than you would by DYI. I say this if you don't have family or friends that live there.

3) Cheaper? Probably not, but it is a once in a lifetime trip.

The guide knows the area. As an example. South of Anchorage along the Seward highway the are cliffs that you often times see Dall sheep. I have see tour buses pulled over at the turn out letting the tourist out to photograph them. DYI may well miss the place.

One poster mentioned "Milepost". By all means get one. It is the traveling bible of the north country.

I have never cruised to Alaska ( if you don't count the Alaskain Marine Hiway system), but have a sister that has lived up there for 25 yaers. I have been to Alaska 9 times now. The state is big, I believe 10x the area of Texas, that it is hard to see everything in one trip. I still find things to see.

If it is once in a lifetime I would definitely check into a one way cruise with a land/sea option.

If you are planning a few days in Alaska, check out Alasaka Railroad. Take the train from port to Anchorage. Next day take it from Anchorage to Denali. If time permits you can take it up to Fairbanks and explore that area. Fly back home from there. You will see a lot of the country that way.

If you port at Whitter there is a Glacier boat tour, I believe it was called 21 Glacier tour, which was great.

I keep thinking of other things. If you are going to rent aa car and drive your self you may want to buy the Milepost book. They have a website. The book has routes mapped out. As the name implys, it list milepost enroute with things to see and do.

We've been cruising since 2003.

I am a foodie and the highlight of my day is MDR. I feel the food has definately gone down hill in the past few years on RCL. We were on Carnival Victory last year and I felt the meals were awful in the MDR. Only one good one in 5 days. We use to do formal night, but in the past several cruises we haven't. The airline charges me $25 each way for bagage. Can't see paying them $50 for garment bag for my suit and the wife's dress. I would welcome no formal night or at least confine it to one dinning room.

Beverage Packages: On our first couple cruises the soda was included. When we went 3 years ago you had to eaither pay for a drink package or by the pece at the bar. My wife decline. I am partial to my beer and an occasional cocktail and looked with intrest at their adult beverage package until I was told that I had to buy one for my with also since she was over 21. My wife doesn't drink and there was no way I could drink her share also. Needless to say, I told them what they could with the package.

Some changes are good others not.

Looking forward to a river cruise on American Queen this winter. A little more pricey than an ocean cruise, but they had a 2 for 1 offer. We'll see how they do things.

Just booked a round trip New Orleans. Now on to working on airfare. How much time to allow to get off the boat and travel to airport? Don't want to book a flight out to early. According to the itineary disembarkation begins at 9am.

We are planning a river trip in Dec. Does American Queen use on board credit like the ocean ships? Don't kow if I have to take a wad of cash or could just put it all on plastic at the end of the trip.

Will be the first time on a river cruise.

Thanks all. The Dec. Pride cruise is looking a lot more likely. I'll give Carnival another go. Love the news on dry dock.

I see you were on Grandeur last year. I was on Grandeur last May then Oasis in September. I would loosely compare Pride to Grandeur. Smaller, older ships with less dining and entertainment options then the newer larger ships. Rccl maybe having a better dressed( don't flame me,they do have a stricter dress code)sometimes older more sedate crowd, although each cruise is different.

Granduer was the least favorite of the RCL ships I have been on. Been on Majesty twice and loved her. Unfortunately her itinerary is the same POCs every cruise. Really liked Navigator.

You are correct in "older more sedate crowd" especially on Granduer which was a repo cruise. OK with us. The wife is older than me and I will turn sixty in 2 months. So, I guess we fit into that "older more sedate crowd."

Have only been on thePride. Just off on Sunday. This was my 20th cruise, 2nd onCarnival. I have been on almost every mainstream line and this was the best MDR food I have had. Not many dining choices compared to bigger, newer ships. The 24hr pizza made as ordered was also the best I've had on any cruise. Loved the 24hr ice cream and frozen yogurt. Just wish they had the good cookies like on RC and Princess.

 

The service was very good. Kind off slow at dinner. Our waitress had a newbie assistant and 4 large tables. Didn't meet any crew that weren't friendly.

You were on the same cruise as my co-worker. Like you, he raved about MDR and the pizza. That is the kind of imformation I am looking for before I give Carnival another chance.

Maybe it was just the ship we were on or they have have made changes. I would like to think it was just the ship. Keep the postings coming.

I would be interested in hearing compare and contrasting views of these two ships.

We had been on 4 RCL cruises and then cruised with Carnival with my son last Aug on Victory. I didn't care much for the ship, The food in the main dinning awful. Out of 6 days, there was only 1 meal that was memorable. I left most of the others on my plate. The staff's attention level was not up to what I have experienced on RCL. This was my sons second cruise with Carnival and his opinion of the ship was much the same as mine. He has been on more cruise than I have.

A co-worker, his 2nd cruise, just returned from Pride. He couldn't stop raving about the cruise. It seemed like everything that I thought was bad on Victory he raved about Pride. Food and everything.

We are considering a Dec cruise on Pride. I would like members who have sailed on both ships to compare and contrast their experiences before I give Carnival another chance.

Thank you.

Majesty would be the last ship I would recommend to a first time cruiser and I too have sailed her many times. She is the oldest RCI sailing. If your friend is coming to Florida to board a ship, there are so many better ships that offer so much more.

 

For a first time cruiser on RCI, I would recommend one of the four nighter (if you feel a shorter cruise is best -there are many Thurs to Mon). With all the redeployment I'm not sure if a Freedom class is still sailing from Port Everglades. If Liberty or Independence is sailing during their timeframe that is best.

We will check them out. Want to advise a 1st timer good.

Majesty: loved

Navigator: loved

Granduer: I wouldn't reccomend. By far, my least favorite RCL cruise