Love to cruise, hate to fly?

[Juanita462]

sailorgirlseattle - yes, it is nice to finally have a cruise that goes out from our home port. Hopefully there will be more. Other than Alaska we have always had to fly somewhere to cruise. We can always bus to Seattle so it would be nice if there were more cruises out of there.

 

I remember our first flight in 1980 on Wardair - no longer in existence of course. They started by passing out hard candies for takeoff to help with ear popping and from then on we seemed to snack or eat the whole time. If it wasn't meals it was drinks and snacks - and the flight staff were up and down the aisles all the time seeing to people's needs.

When we flew back from Australia last year we were given dinner and then a goody pack for the night and then the staff disappeared and we were left on our own until breakfast - this on a 13 hour flight. One woman was very ill and someone vomited down the aisle - I didn't know and put my hand in a puddle of vomit on the back of one of the seats. yech. The staff were not there to deal with a screaming, yelling woman or clean up the mess of vomit. The pax finally dealt with everything themselves. Is this the wave of the future? Must say this was a first for us.

[kryos]

Speaking only for myself.......

 

I find that flying has become a totally miserable experience in all respects. I hate it. I do as little of it as possible. I have refused exotic vacations because it required a long flight. I'd rather stay home than put up with the unpleasantness of air travel.

I'm in total agreement with you on that one, Sail. Flying to me is the same as riding a city bus ... a totally uncomfortable experience and one where I am made to feel more like a head of cattle than a human being. But at least the city bus is certainly bearable ... because the ride is relatively short. A flight could last forever ... especially a coast to coast one. I certainly have no fear of flying ... heck, I used to jump out of the things ... I figure I've gotta go sometime and if it's the Lord's will for me to go in an airplane, so be it. But, I absolutely hate every aspect of the flying experience and will only do it now if absolutely necessary (i.e., to get to the pier for an awesome cruise).

 

To show you how much I hate flying, I gladly parted with close to two grand to take the QE2 back to the States after my Veendam cruise in April ... rather than deal with the horrors of a long international flight that would have cost me less than half as much.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[debsjc]

Hi Karin

From what I hear some of the Gulf flights are still a lot like that, almost drinking the bars dry. I do work for a British carrier, and gradually the service on our short flights is changing to less hot meals, and more snacks. Luckily though longhaul it's still quite good. :)

 

diboja - I think the police at Heathrow might have machine guns as well, they have some big guns and bullet proof vests anyway!

Thank goodness HAL provide things like hairdryers, robes +toiletries in the cabins, it sure helps me manage with that one case :D

 

sab490 - Just to clarify, I'm not saying you should enjoy security checks, and I can totally understand it is a minus point against air travel.

However, you described the checks as 'degrading' where as I think there is some middle ground, I would be more likely to call them a necessary inconvenience.

Obviously no one thinks *Whoooo Hooooo now for some real fun, its security time* ;)

 

 

I actually really dislike long flights in economy, just becuase they are so cramped and uncomfortable.

[Golfette]

To those of you on the West Coast who have traveled on Amtrak to Seattle or other cruiseport destinations, what was your impression of Amtrak? Are small private sleeping quarters too expensive to be considered? Are they halfway decent? What do you think?

[kryos]

To those of you on the West Coast who have traveled on Amtrak to Seattle or other cruiseport destinations, what was your impression of Amtrak? Are small private sleeping quarters too expensive to be considered? Are they halfway decent? What do you think?

Depending on where you are traveling from, I think AmTrak will cost you double or triple ... sometimes even more ... than a flight would ... especially if the trip amounted to a longer one where you would need to rent sleeping quarters. But, if you're talking about a shorter distance, where sleeping quarters were not necessary, then it could be worth it to take the train.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Sailorgirlseattle]

Amtrak is pricey. I just spent about a grand to go from Seattle to Toledo later this year, round trip. That's sleeping car for two nights, each way, and all meals ... but still, a heck of a lot of money. My hubby on the other hand, will likely fly into Cleveland for about 300 roundtrip and a few hours of travel time. For me, my stomach would be in such knots at even the thought of flying, that it would cancel out any enjoyment of the vacation. What to do?

 

We have done two cruises to Alaska already ... one in August of 2005, the other in May of 2006. We hadn't really planned on that, it just kinda worked out that way. They were almost identical itineraries, except for swapping out Skagway for Sitka. We had fun, but it did feel a bit like a rerun. I'd certainly like more options out of the West Coast .. cicumnavigate Vancouver Island, with lots of stops, maybe. Or roundtrip vancouver-astoria, san francisco, victoria ... just something to get out there, travel up and/or down the coast and visit a coupla cool cities along the way.

[sgttami]

We probably flew more in the months following 9/11 than ever. We had a 10/01 cruise booked from Miami and then the airfares went SO LOW that we traveled everywhere we wanted. (Cruise and Air/ Land trips for ridiculously low prices.)

 

In recent years we started sailing from NY/NJ when the ports were to the Caribbean/Bermuda. We're an hour drive away so thought it was the best option rather than flying to cruise to ports we've seen numerous times. It is nice to get in the car and go right to your ship and begin your vacation without the aggravation of airport security.

 

In '05 we flew to Vancouver for the Alaska cruise. We weren't driving from NJ for that one!!

 

I'm not afraid to fly. The new restrictions at the airport have just made it such that if I can go away without flying, I'll do it. It's almost like I feel violated when they search all my personal things during screening. I have nothing to hide but it just gives me the creeps when all our "stuff" is scrutinized in public.

 

However, if we HAVE to fly, we deal with it but if we can cruise/vacation to where we want without flying....I'm IN!!!