If You Lived In/Near Embarkation Port?

[COLLEYBERRY]

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Can only wish for the day Hal sails out of Toronto:)
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[GmaPajama]

[quote name='COLLEYBERRY'][SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]Can only wish for the day Hal sails out of Toronto:)
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[SIZE="4"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Ohhh - if they can get that far, perhaps they can mosey on to Chicago![/FONT][/SIZE]

[Randyk47]

Five to six years ago things looked really promising for cruises out of Galveston. It's only about a four hour drive for us and certainly, from that aspect, a whole lot less expensive than flying to Florida or California. We were really excited about the opportunity and, in fact, did a Celebrity cruise on the old Galaxy out of Galveston in 2005. Unfortunately the potential growth in Galveston didn't pan out and today there's only Carnival and Royal Caribbean sailing from there with very limited and mostly duplicate itineraries. Causes two problems for us. One, we don't prefer either line. Two, we're destinations or itinerary cruisers and are still working on visiting new and different places so repeating the same cruise frequently does not attract us. I imagine, since there are a few places we've not been in the Caribbean, we'd initially cruise more if we lived in Florida until we filled out that "bucket list". Hard to say what would happen after that.

[billroddy]

We live about 50 miles from SD and have taken HAL to four Mexico cruises, one Hawaii and one Panama Canal. It is a great port with inexpensive parking and free shuttle to pier about 3 miles away.
Bill
Ancient Mariner

[irishjim]

[quote name='COLLEYBERRY']

[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]Can only wish for the day Hal sails out of Toronto:)[/FONT][/SIZE]
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That would be great for me as I am only just over an hour to Toronto from
home.I am thinking;) Toronto to FLL. Toronto to Boston,TA to ROME ECT,ECT,OH WELL WE CAN ONLY DREAM .
Jim.

[babyher]

[quote name='suse']and I cringe lately at the hold hands thing during prayer. Ah. Well, I hope to meet you someday on the Maasdam when outta Boston. That's how we say it. Outta heah and all that. What fun. I am so boring on cruises though. Head in a book and all that. Fun for me though!;) Have a good night, Sail, ttyl.[/quote]



*LOL*

Laughing at the "group hug' thing :)

My uncle (who can be a real card sometimes :)) always says "No way .....I had my wallett stolen during a group hug once ...NO MORE!!!!!" *LOL*

[suse]

You can catch a lot of germs with group hugs. Ick.:eek: Alot of churches are now discouraging it and I say yay for them. About time. Seemed fakey anyway. Hugging people you hardly know.
Well, back to topic..................:)

[CDRMark]

It would certainly make us think about it. HAL sailing from Norfolk got us interested in cruising, but ONLY after researching HAL and seeing that it seemed like a good fit for us.
That said, not even a great deal on some lines would make us look twice.
So, maybe.
Cheers
Mark

[NMLady]

If we lived near a port we'd do a lot more cruising but it would still depend on itinerary and price.

[sail7seas]

[quote name='babyher']*lol*

laughing at the "group hug' thing :)

my uncle (who can be a real card sometimes :)) always says "no way .....i had my wallett stolen during a group hug once ...no more!!!!!" *lol*[/quote]


rofl ..... :d

[celyvabeach]

[quote name='hal lover']How I wish that Holland America would come back to Norfolk, VA! Only 2 times had that happen! Both times were on the MS Maasdam. Short 3 hour drive from home and it was great! Now it's RCL and Carnival-YUK!
A lot of money was put into the Norfolk terminal and now it's really a waste. If HAL is viewing this, PLEASE come back.[/quote]


Right on! We sailed the last round trip southern Caribbean cruise on the Masdaam 3 years ago. It was so neat to get to the terminal 20 minutes from home. Hope HAL will come back.

[sail7seas]

[B]That itinerary was very ambitious and hard for Maasdam to do cruise after cruise. Conditions often made it very hard to stay on schedule and I can't imagine if it was really hard on the ship. It doesn't seem likely HAL will do that again.
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[babyher]

Last year we did do a cruise out of NYC. A last minute trip to Bermuda we wanted to do with the kids.

[I]It really was nice not to have to deal with flights and hotels and all that. Just a little over an hours drive .[/I]

[I]On the last day we were off the ship at around 8:30am and walking in our front door at 10:30am.[/I]

[Two@Sea]

[quote name='RuthC']...

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#4169e1]Much as I hate the ordeal of flying these days, I tell myself that, since I take longer cruises, it reduces the "ordeal per cruise day" factor. :D [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/quote]

"Ordeal per Cruise Day" factor... :D:D:D LOVE it!!!

[mudscraper]

[quote name='GmaPajama'][SIZE=4][FONT=Comic Sans MS]Ohhh - if they can get that far, perhaps they can mosey on to Chicago![/FONT][/SIZE][/quote]
Unfortunately for you and me it`s the Wendella boats and their exotic cruises on the Chicago river and Lake Michigan.
(No formal nights)

Rich

[cruisinjudy]

Well out of Portland we have jet boats and dinner cruise. So we do the 2 1/2 flight to San Diego for Mexico or Hawaii or we do the drive or train to Seattle or Vancouver for Alaska. Then every so often we just make that decision to fly and go to the east coast or Europe. 2009 it was Europe. 2010 it is Canada New England. Then we do the west coast departures in between. I really do like to avoid those flights but sometimes you just can't.

[Nancyquilts]

We're not doing long flights any more, so yes, I'd take just about any cruise - okay, any cruise - out of San Francisco. I'm not so much into itinerary as into the cruise experience. I'm not loyal and I'm not proud. Besides, HAL hasn't come here in years - caught the Prinsendam to Alaska a number of years ago. Actually, I'd fly a distance to take Prinsendam again.

[Gablin]

I live near Seattle, but I've only cruised once out of Seattle and once out of Vancouver. Also, I had two returns to Vancouver, BC.
I am more interested in new places than in convenience, although I recognize how great it is to get convenience.

[JDinWA]

We took our first cruise soon after we moved to the Seattle area, a round-trip out of Vancouver. I'll only cruise RT out of Seattle or Vancouver, because flying is so unpleasant. So, that's limited us to Alaska and Hawaii. (One year, HAL did RT Seattle-Hawaii, and it was wonderful!)

There are other itineraries I think I would enjoy, but not enough to fly.

[Tamaracboy]

Many who live in or have retired to FLL do so because of cruising.
I had been coming here every year since I was 5 years old, yet did not start cruising until after moving here.
So cruising was not part of the equation for the move.
Now, since I have started cruising I really love the short (20 min.) drive with only one stoplight to Port Everglades.
An additional side effect not mentioned, is that since FLL is a relatively small town compared to the amount of cruising that passes through here, cruising is a frequent topic of conversation with friends, neighbors and new meets. Since almost everyone here has at least "dabbled".
However it does quickly become more and more of the same old Caribbean.
When I lived in Barcelona I only took one quick cruise. (working then without the free time) Don't think I would now want to do Ocean cruises anywhere around southern Europe since I have spent so much time in all the ports during ground travels. Perhaps river cruises when I am over there already for other reasons.
I would do Baltic and North Sea and even put up with the flight to get there.
Especially now, every day flying gets less and less attractive.
So, my solution will have to be to find the $$$ to do longer cruises out of FLL with more interesting itineraries. Possibly with only a one-way flight home.
That being said, the idea of getting away anywhere on (almost) any ship is always tempting and far too easy from here, budget allowing. ;)
r.

[bob brown]

I do both. I am flying to Seattle for the first 14 day Amsterdam sailing round trip to Anchorage. I have flown to Fort Lauderdale to sail on the Ryndam one way to San Diego. I have flown to Montreal to sail the Maasdam one way to Fort Lauderdale. I have also flown to Fort Lauderdale to sail the Maasdam one way to Montreal.
I have sailed the Noordam round trip 11 days Caribbean from New York. Like others, I wish HAL would return to New York all year round. I'd like to try it again. Perhaps, they could vary the itinerary more than just 10/11 day as in the past. Run a short Bahamas and Bermuda intermixed with a long Western Caribbean or even a New York to San Diego and return. Lot's of possibilitied.
In the past three years, I have also sampled three NCL cruises primarily because of their extensive presence in New York. Their low fares were an added incentive.

[cruisecrasy]

[QUOTE=Cruisin'Lady;22580569]We would love to take a cruise from Anchorage/Seward ports round trip...but the fact is it would cost us about as much (if not more) for an inside cabin to do a b2b 14 day in AK as it does for us to fly to Ft. Lauderdale and take a 14 day in a veranda to caribbean ports. Our flights are always free (helps to have a cc from alaska airlines and put all our charges through it) and I do enjoy the warmth in the winter. Makes the winters shorter.

Thought of taking a transit cruise from florida to ak...but it would still cost two cruises to get all the way home. I may live in Alaska but have never been to Juneau, Sitka or Stagway and would like to see how the 'southerners' live!:D[/QUOTE]

I definately do take the same cruise over & over although not always on the same ship or cruiseline..10 x to Alaska out of Vancouver with 11th comin' up!!

Cruisin'Lady - just luv your home state - such a majestic, wonderful place and those 'southern' places are great & Alaskans u haven't visited yet are such colorful & warm folks - well worth a visit!! :)

Happy cruisin'!

[sevenseasnomad]

[quote name='hal lover']How I wish that Holland America would come back to Norfolk, VA! Only 2 times had that happen! Both times were on the MS Maasdam. Short 3 hour drive from home and it was great! Now it's RCL and Carnival-YUK!
A lot of money was put into the Norfolk terminal and now it's really a waste. If HAL is viewing this, PLEASE come back.[/quote]

Couldn't agree with you more. HAL did sail out of Norfolk before the new terminal was built. At the time HAL wasn't registering on our radar. We had yet to cruise with them. We never considered cruising out of Norfolk since most of the itineraries & Carnival didn't appeal to us.

A month after Half Moon Terminal opened, we sailed 7-day Bermuda [I]on Empress of the [/I]Seas. Next year RCCI only offered 5-day Bermuda out of Norfolk. I also [I]took Grandeur of the [/I]Seas on a 8-day New England/Canada. This year that cruise was completely cut from Norfolk & now sails from Baltimore. We can't figure out why RCCI cut back so drastically, as our TA told us those cruises sold extremely well from what she heard. We were onboard those ships and they were packed. It doesn't make a lot of sense to cut a market where the product is selling well. Can anyone here shed any light on that RCCI decision?

We noticed the 2010 offerings from Half Moon are slim and not very interesting (at least to us). So, no, we won't be using that terminal at all in the near future. IMO, Holland America should just take over that terminal (hey, guys, I know they can't), but with a terminal named Half Moon, wouldn't it be great? Sail out of Half Moon terminal, first port HMC!

Since we are so sold on HAL, we're willing to fly or drive a distance to cruise, but wouldn't it be fantastic if they sailed out of our backyard (Norfolk)? We'd be first in line. HAL, please, please.

[NiceFLGuy]

We live about 15 minutes from Port Everglades and have taken every cruise from there. We'd drive down to Miami if there was a cruise we really wanted to take, but we probably wouldn't fly to California or Seattle...

[kyriecat]

I live about an hour form Galveston but have only sailed from there twice. The itineraries and ships are so limited. I was considering sailing on RC's Voyager for my next cruise since I'm going with my mom. She's in a wheelchair and it makes it so much easier to travel if we don't have to fly. However, she wanted a southern Caribbean itinerary and not a Mexico one so we're flying to San Juan next weekend. Plus she was on a Voyager size ship a few years ago and thought it was too big. She'd rather have a smaller ship with a better itinerary.

The other problem with Galveston is there aren't any longer cruises - only 7 night or less. I'd rather take a 10 night or longer cruise so I don't feel like I just got onboard and already have to leave.