BumperII Posted July 24, 2008 #876 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Rev Neal, Add our thanks and we look forward to your formal review. We plan to cruise on the Eurodam in February, and we greatly appreciate the sharing of info and experience!! Sir PMP << Sorry about that,having done over 20 cruises on the HAL and going over 300 days, I believe that the service is going down, less public spaces and more people on board is the wrong direction and most of all: a brand new ship christened by the queen should be 100% ready to go with everything prepared to perfection, that has always been the HAL's signature. But I hope that this ' Euro ship' will have a lot of fans, it just won't be me and I do not think that the Rev will be back on it!>> You are a nice guy and I like you, but anyone with enough management talent to organize a sock drawer knows that you are wrong.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaofami Posted July 24, 2008 #877 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Greg, thanks so much for your very informative and descriptive reports from the Eurodam. As always, they are a delight to read. Your photos have been wonderful and I can't wait to see the rest. Have a safe flight home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruising Illini Posted July 24, 2008 #878 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Greg -- It has been such a joy to read your wonderful reports. I have often meant to write to you re. a good friend (since passed away) who I feel you may have met in Texas. His name is Charlie Shedd (wife Martha) and many years before retirement had a Presby. church in Texas. His son is like a son to us - even better - and he has succeeded my husband in writing textbooks for the Univ. of Georgia (Law in the Bus. School). One of Charlie's books was "Letters to Peter" and that would be "our" Peter. My husband started the Law books but since retirement has had Peter take over for him. He and his wife Margie will be at our house in Sarasota this weekend before they head back to Athens, Ga. after some travels. We have 300+ on HAL but prefer the smaller ships due to my bad knees -- our favorites are the Amst. and Rott. Just took the Shedd family on the Zuiderdam from Venice to Barcelona in June and a great trip. They have 3 wonderful college-age children that we are privileged to treat like grandchildren. Have a safe trip home and will look forward to your final pictures and review. Elinor and Bob - Illinois and Georgia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Ball Posted July 24, 2008 #879 Share Posted July 24, 2008 I have read all your posts and enjoyed every single one of them. The pictures were wonderful and I am anxious to see the rest of them. Many thanks for your posts and the pictures. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taxguy7 Posted July 24, 2008 #880 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Thanks. That's interesting.According to our tour guide in Sweden the lowest tax rate on income in Sweden is 45% and the highest rate is 89% (I had to dig it out, but I wrote it down when she said it); it's factored into brackets. This doesn't include the VAT (25%). She did seem surprised that people at the upper end of the income scale would protest paying 114% in combined income and VAT tax. :eek: I have not researched the issue, so maybe our guide was lying to us about taxation rates in Sweden. Or, it may be that she's not up on the current factors ... though, given that she lives there and has to pay taxes, too, I'm not sure how that could be. We did ask her point-blank if we had understood her correctly, repeating back to her our interpretation of her statement, and she said "yes." But they have "free health care":rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammybee Posted July 24, 2008 #881 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Thank you for letting us ride along. Have a safe trip home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cusyl Posted July 24, 2008 #882 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Safe journey home...thank you for taking us along with you on the boards.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcnvcanada Posted July 24, 2008 #883 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Dear Rev. Greg, Thanks so much for taking us along on your holiday. The posts have be most informative, and the picutures were just delightfuly. Thanks again, for taking time out of your holdiay to share with us. Do have a safe journey home and looking forward to future posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Gal Posted July 24, 2008 #884 Share Posted July 24, 2008 I too would like to thank you for your very informative posts and wonderful photos. I have enjoyed reading the four different postings of the Eurodam - Copper, Ruth, Brian and your good self. They have made great reading and yet are so differerent in the way each one writes their experiences. Thanks for taking the time and effort. Safe travelling home. I know it is a long flight but nothing is ever as long as the flights we take from Europe - anything from 24 hours to 36 hours so a 10-12 hour flight is nothing to us. Jennie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted July 24, 2008 #885 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Thank you so much Greg for taking us along on your 23 journey on the Eurodam -- The Good!! The Bad!! and The Ugly!! I have loved it all!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted July 24, 2008 #886 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Praying that you shall have a safe journey home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4hami Posted July 24, 2008 #887 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Rev Neal; Thankyou for taking you valuable time and money to share your cruise with everyone . You made us feel like we were along with you on the Eurodam. Your reports were a wonderful service to the Cruise Critic family. God Bless;:) :) :) and have a safe trip home!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherInFlorida Posted July 24, 2008 #888 Share Posted July 24, 2008 The end of the story:) ... many thanks again, Greg. Have a safe journey home and I hope it isn't too arduous. Now I can't wait for the pictures!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladychar Posted July 25, 2008 #889 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Rev. Greg, I have so enjoyed reading of your cruise. It helped me cheer up because my own wonderful Alaskan cruise on the Volendam was over. Safe travels back to Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babyher Posted July 25, 2008 #890 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thank you again for taking us along with us. God these 23 days have gone by fast (like I need to tell you that :)) I've enjoyed your pics and reports and looking forward to seeing the rest once you get home and settled. Have a safe trip home and again thank you so much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristiano Posted July 25, 2008 #891 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Greg, Your reports from day 1 have been descriptive and informative and from what I can see you have given a well balanced view of the Eurodam. With both positive and negative reports it enables those who have not been on her to see what life on board is really like. Anthing new has teething problems and I am sure that the people at HAL and even Pam the Captains wife :o would be reading these boards and taking all comments on board. We all learn from problems encountered in whatever we do and hopefull address those problems to ensure they will not occur again. I for one am grateful for the time and effort taken by yourself to provide us with all your reports and photographs. As we will be spending 28 days on her next April it has given us a clearer insight into what for my mind seems a beautiful ship. Thank you once again God bless and safe journey home. Cristiano. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruznon Posted July 25, 2008 #892 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Greg, Adding my thanks for sharing the happenings on this special cruise. It's been great travelling with you! Have a safe trip home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomica Posted July 25, 2008 #893 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thanks so much for all your live posts! It was great to follow along virtually with you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big Booper Posted July 25, 2008 #894 Share Posted July 25, 2008 I have been following the good Rev's trip report with great interest since we plan on doing a Northern Europe cruise in the next couple of years. I would tend to agree somewhat with Sir PMP that this new ship is the Noordam with a few hundred additional people added. Carnival has been doing this with all their different brands (Carnival, Costa, Princess). As an aside the Grand Princess worked fine but the Caribbean and it's stablemates are way overcrowded at peak times. So if we use our half million available Marriot miles to do a 10 day European cruise it would not be with the E-dam type but the Noordam type. Now on to my professional comment as a CPA with 45 years of tax experience in the metro NY (as in overtaxed) area. Here is a link to a Wikipedia table of comparative tax rates around the world. The top Swedish marginal rate is actually roughly 60 %. Which means that once you get above a certain point of income the federal Swedish government takes 60 cents on the dollar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world By comparison, the US federal tax rate tops out at 35% marginal. However, in the US the states and many localities levy their own income taxes (the table doesn't show if there are local taxes in Sweden). If somebody is lucky :eek: enough to live in NYC, the top marginal bracket is roughly close to 50%. And based on Obama's campaign talk, if he wins expect the top federal rate to jump to the Clintonian 40% which will bring the combined rate to close to 55%, just below the oppressive Swedish rate. The Swedish vat rates are way higher than the US sales tax rates. Another link to those who want their heads to spin, an article discussing the Swedish tax system. http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/Papers/sweden/sweden.shtml Anyway, good night to all and hope the Rev has a safe trip back to DFW. The Europe - US flight is a killer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikjr Posted July 25, 2008 #895 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thank you for letting us ride along. Have a safe trip home. Yes... thank you... but when do we get the "rest of the story" :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coastalbreezes Posted July 25, 2008 #896 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thank you RevNeal for taking time from your cruise to continuously post. I absolutely loved your commentary as well as photos, and took many notes about this ship. Two questions for you (and I know I will probably get flamed for one of them, but I will ask anyway!;) ): 1) I am a smoker and am aware that HAL has changed their policy regarding where you can smoke. Are there any bars where I can enjoy my pre-dinner martini AND a cigarette at the actual bar (not some table in a corner)? On Westerdam last December, we could actually sit at the Ocean Bar and smoke or at the Sports Bar. 2) My mom and I are booked on Eurodam for this December. She walks very slowly and her concern is that, because of the size of the ship, she may not be able to walk great distances to various venues. Your thoughts on this, please? We may end up reconsidering Eurodam if this may be a problem for her. Hope you had a smooth trip home and thank you again for all you wonderful posts. Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maninmontreal Posted July 25, 2008 #897 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thanks Greg from me too. Really enjoyed all your posts and being able to tag along on this incredible journey. God bless. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue's Mom Posted July 25, 2008 #898 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thanks again for your valuable time and energy in reporting about your voyages. I truly will miss reading your informative and entertaining messages. I hope you have a safe and pleasant journey home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouff Posted July 25, 2008 #899 Share Posted July 25, 2008 I'm yet another one who has been following this blog from day 1 but has not posted. Thank you Rev Neal for your excellent posts. I almost feel as if I have been along on the cruise! It has helped me relive the delight of being on board a ship! We are doing a Baltic Cruise next May and the insight into the ports of call are very helpful. Have a safe journey home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireman845 Posted July 25, 2008 #900 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Thanks Greg for taking us with you on your incredible journey!! You brought be back to CC many times a day and I can't wait for your great pics! I have truly enjoyed your writing that I am looking at purchasing one of your books. Again thanks for the ride!! Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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