Tarpeian Rock

Sadly, to some people, "appropriate" just means "You can't make me".

Exactly! In our current Selfie-stick-wielding culture, it's all about I, myself, and me.

Interesting philosophical difference: Princess, also a Carnival Corp property, does require the life jackets be brought to muster drill, or certainly did as of last month on the Grand. I wonder why this is?

While in college I was in a 500+ person food fight. Now that was waste of food and not so good for the facility.

 

igraf

Toga! Toga!

It's been my opinion for a while that the mass market lines are keeping formal nights alive solely for the income opportunities from the photography department. I also wonder at what point, as the cruising demographic changes and some of us age out of cruising, the tidal wave of "selfies" will do in cruise photographers.

If the Kardashians were to design a cruise ship, it would look like that.

Regarding our January Valparaiso to Tahiti sailing: I'm aware that no landing takes place at Pitcairn, but we're getting conflicting information as to whether there will be a stop for a ship's visit by the islanders, or no stop at all. Does a possible stop become a function of captain's judgment as to sea conditions, or are January seas considered predictably bad so that the visit isn't even scheduled, or?

My first reaction to this is " heaven forfend." Hard to imagine a launch / retrieval site that wouldn't be considered a risk to other pax.

OK, having read both this and the linked thread: at the risk of seeming silly, where do bottled water and breath mints fit in all this? Or as a slight variation, a personal reusable water bottle filled from the ship's taps? Paranoia reigns......

Why would the cruiseline be fined? They only contracted the airline. Do you expect travelagencies or booking companies to be fined when an airliner crashes?

The responsibility lies with the commander of the aircraft. Only when his/her airline company committed negligence in for instance maintanance , it can be fined.

HAL contracts the airline , that's all.

You are perhaps unfamiliar with American personal injury and tort law. Holland America will most certainly be included in any legal action. In contracting with the air provider Holland has assumed the responsibility for assuring that its contractors act within all applicable regulations and safety parameters. In the case of an accident involving personal injury or death, everyone in sight is sued, including in this case, I'm sure, Holland, the air carrier, the pilot's estate, the plane manufacturer, and possibly even the agency responsible for providing the weather forecast and even the person who compiled the forecast. Trust me on this.

Unimaginably tragic, prayers and condolences to the families of all involved. One could hope that some good might come out of this tragedy, such as stricter pre-flight weather standards if that proves to be the cause.

Makes me laugh all the moaning about the new ship design before anyone has even had a chance to try it out. If HAL need any voluntary passengers to try it out more than happy to oblige lol

Except that an uninstructed wrap-around promenade deck has been a HAL signature item, and the loss of that is a significant deviation from the traditional HAL experience. One need not be a nautical engineer to draw conclusions from the HAL-provided artwork that this feature could well be missing. Since HAL has been silent on this score, people who loved this feature are entitled to express concern.

Don't recall seeing this in writing, but I'm with you. Would hate to hear someone's speaker while trying to enjoy our veranda.

I would hardly call excursions and alcohol "hidden charges;" where are those items listed when the cost isn't shown? It surely doesn't take much research to find the phone costs and as I recall the price for the daily paper is also prominently shown.

The only time I've ever needed a ship's doctor was on another line and my care was a one-time visit with antibiotics and much less than the costs described in the linked article. Since then my primary care physician is always willing to prescribe a broad-spectrum antibiotic for me to take along "just in case." Cover the rest of the bases with OTC items. We also tend to be over-cautious in terms of sanitizing, pressing elevator buttons through a sleeve, minimize handrail use, and live in an informal "bubble" the week before a cruise - avoid the mall, theatres, anyplace with crowds.

So this is the first big picture of the ship I've been able to study. Perhaps this has been discussed before, but the position of the lifeboats appears to block the view from virtually all the promenade deck. Could that be correct?

So my wife spoke to Princess and was told we may only bring onto the bus, and have access to during the day, one bag per person no bigger than 14 x 17 x 4 inches. We've laid out binoculars, camera, water bottle, sunglasses case, Kindle, a couple of energy bars, medications needed during the day, collapsible walking stick, sunscreen, foot care items for all the walking, hand sanitizer wipes, iPod and earphones, and clothing items for the suggested "layering." No way does all this fit into 14 x 17 x 4. I have a hard time going through that list of items and identifying things that wouldn't make sense to have during any given day or excursion for the 8 land days we'll have via the bus. Wearing all the clothing all the time obviously defeats the purpose of layering plus would be too warm on the bus.

Am I looking at this right? Can any land-sea Alaska veterans suggest a packing strategy that fits the limit we were told?

Is there now an extra charge for Alfredo's on all ships where there is one, or was that just a trial on one ship?

We were just in 6000 on Regatta, so same thing. The good thing was that we were transiting the Panama Canal, and 6000 was a spectacular location for that - our personal front seat for that experience. Outside the Canal, we did experience mechanical noise from the bow just below our veranda from early-morning port arrivals. Noise from the lounge wasn't too bad, we did hear rehearsal, but all was quiet after the show. The two days from Cabo to San Francisco featured quite heavy seas, the weather decks were closed, and we did experience quite a bit of motion. Finally, the shape of the superstructure in that location meant that there was little to no sun protection over the veranda, and I had the sunburn to prove it.

Bottom line: an unforgettable place to experience the Panama Canal. Otherwise, we wouldn't want that location again. Missed seeing the ocean go by under the veranda.

Thanks, all, for the feedback and suggestions!

Every overhead bin is packed to the nuts on every flight I've been on thanks to people too cheap to pay for luggage. I do bring formal just to throw that out there.

"Too cheap?" Must be nice to drop $50 - $100 per bag without resenting the fact that the airline is gouging you.

We're on an Alaska land/sea on the Grand in early July. I know that on ship-based excursions one has the opportunity to buy water on the way to the gangway. How is this handled on the land portion? Is potable water typically available on the land segments and excursions, or does one have to buy their own water supply for the day every morning? I have a medical condition that requires that I drink a lot of water during the day, and I'm not sure if I need to get one of those runner-type wearable water supplies or if Princess makes water available. (Don't get me started on having to pay for water to begin with.....)

1. I discovered that you can buy the package ANY TIME.. NOT JUST IN THE FIRST 3 DAYS but it must be for the remainder of the cruise from when you ou it.

 

2. There comes a time of diminishing returns after about 10 to 12 days, where you just get satiated with liquor and after 7 or so days I have observed, people start to drink less and less. Putting down 5 to 6 drinks a day, every day gets to ware on a person...and stops being fun or healthy..

THE CRUISE line factors this in... power drinking for the first 3 to 5 days begins to taper off with direct proportion to the "after effects"

 

More power to you if you can drink a liter of 80 proof ever 6 days..

Your point #2 is right on. We purchased the Prestige Package for our first O cruise, on Riviera, last year. While convenient, we definitely experienced the "taper" effect towards the end and probably succumbed to the temptation to "drink our money's worth" the last few days. On our just-completed 17 days on Regatta, we didn't purchase the package. We drank everything we wanted, when we wanted, including the Montadon champagne frequently. By the end of the cruise, our bar bill, including the 18% gratuity, was less than half of what the Prestige Package would have been. People tend to forget the impact of a port-intensive itinerary on alcohol consumption, as well as your so-correct observation that the "fun" tends to diminish after some number of days, and Diet Coke Lust sets in.

Politics: Met Harold at dinner one night, as he passed the bread, I noticed the tattoo of numbers on his arm. He saw the surprised look I apparently did not hide well and was not offended. He has written a book "The Last Sunrise" about the war and what he and his family went thru. Wonderful man.

 

Religion: Table for 10, and the ships chaplain, (a Catholic Priest) was seated next to me. What a hoot, that man could tell the most marvelous stories about his work, (brides fainting, children making faces during sermons and such). Wonderful dinner conversation.

 

Health: Broke my arm right before a cruise and many people asked how did it. Just for fun, because I'm a bit sassy, I answered, "I told my husband a trapeze over the bed was a bad idea". Some people faces were priceless before they broke into laughter. Do not think anyone was offended, and it was a great ice breaker for conversation.

 

My point: A couple from Turkey had advice for everyone at our dinner table, "If you are offended by something that was said or done, move on, it's not the end of the world, life is just to damn short." I love it, they had so much fun together.

Re: the priest. Yeah, but there's a difference between anecdotes and theology - which is what I think most people mean when they steer away from "religion" as a table topic. There be dragons.

a good reason not to book a GTY ;)

 

If you use the "search this thread" put in the cabin # it should bring up other posts

Well, yes, just did search. And now, after waiting a year for this cruise, we're quite unhappy based on the comments we found on the search. Not sure where to place the blame on all this, we don't understand why our TA didn't get us a cabin months ago instead of playing the GTY game. We always get a midships cabin with a clear balcony. Wife has motion issues. At our request the TA turned down all offers from O to change cruises, even with amazing inducements. We wanted THIS cruise. So I'm guessing 6000 is the O equivalent of punishing us and making us stand in the corner for being bad and sticking with this cruise instead of letting them sell our reservation to someone else. Apparently we should have taken one of their other offers. Cruise is next week, nothing to be done. This is the first - and last - cruise we've booked through a TA. The loss of control has been a harsh lesson.

The GTY for our cruise next week on Regatta turns out to be cabin 6000 looking forward. Not a site we would necessarily have chosen, but wondering if we've lucked into something, or not so much. We'll miss our usual ability to sit on the verandah and watch the ocean go by below, and that as a forward cabin it has a solid rail. We had also chosen a B-1 for its midships location, which 6000 obviously isn't, so we're going into this with some mixed emotions. Anyone else's experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Will not work. If you picked one charity, every charity that was not picked would go to court to get their share of the money.

 

DON

I tend to agree with this. Given our current hyper-polarized political environment, any one charity would find itself facing claims that it didn't adequately represent various gender, racial, sexual orientation, and environmental causes -- the point being that travellers whose change is at issue represent a spectrum of all those interests.