Old Thorny Posted June 15, 2011 #1 Share Posted June 15, 2011 :)My DW and I are booked on a Gaither Alaskan Cruise this coming July/August. This is on the MS Amsterdam and is organised through Inspiration Cruises. It is a fully chartered cruise and it is booked out. I have put our cruise on the Amsterdam Roll Call board here, but to date there have been no replies. I notice an old thread of folk like us going on their firat Gaither Cruise and asking many questions that we also would love to know the answers to. Even though the Gaither Cruises have been occurring annually for about the last ten years, no one seems to have survived to tell the tale! I imagine that the cruise would be heavenly, but I don't believe that they have all been "raptured" yet!!!:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted June 15, 2011 #2 Share Posted June 15, 2011 If you aren't getting any bites on your roll call, you might try the Holland America board here at CC. EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoghornLeghorn Posted June 16, 2011 #3 Share Posted June 16, 2011 I had the same problem last year when I wanted to find out more about the cruise you are on.....no responses. I didn't book the Alaska one, but have booked the Caribbean one in Feb 2012. I started a roll call here on Cruise Critic and had a couple of responses. I started another one on the Gaither.com message boards and have gotten more response. There is one about your cruise on there also. This will be my first Gaither Cruise, so I'm afraid I'm not much help. But feel free to read what people have said about the cruises over on the Gaither site. It gives a little bit of information. I will write a review here, after our cruise. I know a lot of people look here for information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Thorny Posted June 16, 2011 Author #4 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Thanks, Reba, I took your advice and joined the gang at Gaither.com. Nothing there for our cruise, so I started a group for it. (yet to be approved). Also joined the Aussie/ Kiwi group and the Johnny Cash group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy35 Posted June 16, 2011 #5 Share Posted June 16, 2011 I haven't gone on one of these cruises personally, but my mother and sister went on one a couple years ago (neither of them comes on here). If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to ask Mom and post the answer when I get it. BTW Both LOVED the cruise and came back with some great pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GORDONCHICK Posted June 16, 2011 #6 Share Posted June 16, 2011 I think the issue may be that Cruise Critic members are only about 2% of all cruisers, and there may be none other than yourselves that are booked on the cruise. I would think it would be very very common for charters - to not have many CC members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Thorny Posted June 17, 2011 Author #7 Share Posted June 17, 2011 I haven't gone on one of these cruises personally, but my mother and sister went on one a couple years ago (neither of them comes on here). If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to ask Mom and post the answer when I get it.BTW Both LOVED the cruise and came back with some great pics. Thanks Krazy, I'm interested to know how many concerts there are and when are they held? How easy is it to meet the artist? Also I'm reluctant to book any shore excursion now in case of bad weather. I heard that with the last Gaither Alaskan Cruise they had to cancel two port calls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoghornLeghorn Posted June 17, 2011 #8 Share Posted June 17, 2011 I had some of the same questions... here is a link to our Caribbean cruise roll call... someone gives a good explanation of how it works and what happens. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1383867 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Thorny Posted June 18, 2011 Author #9 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Thanks Foggy/Reba, Fantastic, just what I needed to know (Thanks also to The Sloop John B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy35 Posted June 20, 2011 #10 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Below is the answer I got from my sister when I forwarded your questions: We always had two concerts a day while the ship was moving. There was one in the afternoon and was usually just a few of the people scheduled on the trip. The other concert is at night. We could schedule our supper at either 5 or 6pm (or maybe it was 6 or 7, I don't remember). Anyway, the nightly concert was for the time you weren't at supper. Since we ate at the early meal, we went to the concert afterward. If you ate at the late meal, you went before. The nightly concerts were all of the people scheduled on the trip (unless they were seasick LOL! and that did happen a couple of nights). Most of the artists mixed and mingled around the ship and they also held autograph sessions. When we went ashore, we got to talk to some of them in the ports. For example, the first stop we went to the salmon bake and the Easters and a few others were there. I think we talked to some of them every place we stopped. The longest I talked to any of them was actually at the Vancouver airport on the way home. Mark Lowry was sitting waiting for his plane and me and Mom talked to him for about 15-20 minutes. I also talked to Bill Gaither at a refreshment stand because I was in line in front of him. I think I got a chance to talk to everyone who was there, but I didn't talk for long because I figured other people wanted to talk to them also. We had that happen with the excursions at one port (can't remember which one). They said we were going to an alternate port of call so they cancelled our excursion, but the ship ended up going there so me and Mom just saw the sites around town. Unless they've changed things, if you schedule an excursion and then they cancel that port of call, they refund the entire price for the excursion. They let us know far enough ahead and I went to one one of the desks (I guess the purser) and they refunded my money and I could schedule an excursion for the alternate port (which as I said wasn't necessary because we went to the other one anyway). I hope that helps. Be sure to tell her to take raingear and wear shoes she doesn't care if they get wet when they go into port. Even though it rained everyday and was chilly, we had a blast. Oh yeah ... chilly means wear a sweater and middle weight jacket or if no sweater, maybe a winter weight coat. You don't need a parka and eskimo boots, but something like for late fall early winter. Let me know if she has any other questions. Oh yeah ... one more thing. If she hasn't already, she might want to ask if she needs a passport now. We didn't, but I heard rumors you now need one to go into Canada. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwirsing Posted June 20, 2011 #11 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I am just jealous!!!! I would love to go on a Gaither cruise!!:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoghornLeghorn Posted June 21, 2011 #12 Share Posted June 21, 2011 cwirsing: The Alaskan cruise he's talking about is and has been sold out for quite awhile.... HOWEVER, the one I'm going on next February to the Carribbean is still open - come join us!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Thorny Posted June 21, 2011 Author #13 Share Posted June 21, 2011 :) Krazy, Thank you very much for your effort. Its very much appreciated. PS tell your sister that I'm a bloke from down under.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimnbigd Posted June 24, 2011 #14 Share Posted June 24, 2011 It is so sad that the great pianist Anthony Burger died on one of those cruises 5 years ago. Our loss, God's gain. http://www.anthonyburger.com/biography.html There are many more videos of him on youtube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Thorny Posted June 25, 2011 Author #15 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Yes, a tragedy. Have you seen Gloria's account of Anthony's passing on the latest Alaskan DVD's? Very moving.:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Thorny Posted August 29, 2011 Author #16 Share Posted August 29, 2011 As promised , I have writen a sketchy review of our recent Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alsaska. I'm not sure how to direct you to it, if interested.:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobiemom Posted August 29, 2011 #17 Share Posted August 29, 2011 Thank you for the review. One of these days I will make it to a Gaither cruise! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoghornLeghorn Posted August 29, 2011 #18 Share Posted August 29, 2011 Thorny! so glad you're home and did a review. It's the first review I've ever seen about the Gospel Charter on CC. Thanks so much. Great review. Here's the link to your review: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=87818 Once we get back from the Feb/March Gaither Gospel Cruise I plan on writing a review also. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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