Cruising

[Moemg]

I hear people remark that when they are older they will do guided tours . They are brutal . A did a few when I was in my late 40's . I am 71 and would no way consider it . All day touring without a break , a different hotel almost every night , dinner at 8 ,breakfast at 7 , luggage outside your room by 6:30 and then rinse and repeat .We like to do independent travel with day tours at our destination with plenty of time to just watch the world go by .

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister I can't stand being herded on and off buses and moved around in a group like a flock of sheep.

+1
I once sat down and figured that if there were 40 people on the bus, and each one takes an average of 30 seconds to get on or off, you waste 20 minutes each way!
That also does not count the idiot that holds up everyone by talking to a friend at the front of the bus after they board.;.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef +1 I once sat down and figured that if there were 40 people on the bus, and each one takes an average of 30 seconds to get on or off, you waste 20 minutes each way! That also does not count the idiot that holds up everyone by talking to a friend at the front of the bus after they board.;.

We just took a group bus tour this spring with some family in their 80s (and yes, being on a tour did make the travelling much easier for them). It was fine. I'd say it took less than five minutes to empty the bus. You know everyone else doesn't remain seated while the first one gets off in 30 seconds, and then the second one gets off, and then the third one gets off, right? It's actually a continuous line.

Not my preferred way to travel, but whether people were with tours or on their own, every single attraction was jam-packed anyway.

[braumeister]

I recognize that I'm an outlier, but for me there is only one real advantage to cruising: your hotel room moves with you.

That is offset IMHO by a major disadvantage: you only get as many hours in a city as the cruise line wants you to have.

Other than those two considerations, everything is a wash for me.

[FUEGO]

Oh man, all these recent negative comments about Princess have me a little scared We just booked a last minute 10 night cruise leaving in about a month from Ft Lauderdale on the Caribbean Princess. Only $650/person plus tips.

And it's just me and the lovely wife. Our pretext for gifting this vacation to ourselves is that we are celebrating 20 years since we first started dating. At least that's what we told our poor, forlorn kids who will be staying at home because they have school!

[sengsational]

Most of my Princess cruising was pre-Carnival, and a bunch of it as early as Sitmar, which transferred the loyalty points (so I get free wifi, free laundry, etc). I've never had anything happen to me on Princess that was any worse than any of the other mass cruise lines; I've had great, good and not-so-good experiences on the half-dozen lines I've used.

Carnival Corp owns AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Fathom, P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia,Cunard, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Seabourn. They don't all operate at the same price point, but the ones that do, I'd expect the same basic results...none too much worse than the next.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational Carnival Corp owns AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Fathom, P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia,Cunard, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Seabourn. They don't all operate at the same price point, but the ones that do, I'd expect the same basic results...none too much worse than the next.

I've been on Carnival many times and Costa once and I was very happy with all ~5-6 cruises. I don't really expect less of Princess, and I understand bad stuff can happen on any cruise line (or at least people perceive bad stuff to happen).

[ohyes]

In my 62 years on Earth, I have only been on five cruises: 2 Carnival, 2 NCL and 1 RCCL.

Months ago DH and I booked a cruise on RCCL for January 2019 for Eastern Caribbean. Originally, it was a 10 day cruise to Panama that got cancelled.
The OBC deal offered by RCCL meant we "had" to book another one to save money.

When I asked our adult offspring for Christmas 2018 ideas, they mentioned a cruise.....sounded like a great idea to me. We now have a Carnival Dream cruise booked three weeks after we return from the RCCL cruise. We vowed, back in 2010, to never again cruise on Carnival but Dream looks nice.

While we are always ready to get off the ship/get home at the end of a cruise, we enjoy much about cruising.

[gayl]

I am doing 'guided tours' in 2 ports each cruise but not with the ship. Each is limited to undrr 7 + driver. Usually my crew is the 7 this time it includes others but still maxed at less than a herd

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohyes In my 62 years on Earth, I have only been on five cruises: 2 Carnival, 2 NCL and 1 RCCL. While we are always ready to get off the ship/get home at the end of a cruise, we enjoy much about cruising.

In my 80 years on earth, I have been on 46 cruises, none of them being the Florida 7 day booze cruises

I understand completely about getting off the ship.. One of our last cruises was a 32 day cruise from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles. It was a thoroughly enjoyable cruise, and we did a lot of private tours,but we were really happy to be on dry land after that.
The best part was we did not have to fly home

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawman My wife and I are considering a round trip cruise from Vancouver to Alaska through the Inside Passage..Wondering if anyone here has taken that cruise and would appreciate your trip review and suggestions..

We just got back from a Holland Land and Sea trip Vancouver cruise to Seward then over land to Denali and then Fairbanks. If I do it again, I will fly to Vancouver not just one day but several days earlier to see more of this lovely city. We rented an air bnb which I also recommend. I also would not take the land portion of the tour as a group. Cattle on a bus all day. Too much ground to cover. Bags out night before, load at 0630, out late trying to see some of the area, rinse and repeat. And the Fairbanks hotel needs to be torn down. I would drive or fly nearer Denali and then rent a car and do it at my own pace. I did like seeing Jeff King's sled doghomestead (do read Cold Hands Warm Heart beforehand). And we had fun on an ATV tour near Denali. Needed more time and more sleep there.

[gayl]

Lawman, if the ports are Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan then I've done it 2×. In Juneau we walked up to Roberts Tramway took it up the hill & great hike. Did Adventure Park too .... love zip lines Skagway you can either walk to town or rent a 4wheel. Used a cab in Keychikan but Uber could work too ... went to an island 1st time & gold panning 2nd time