Cruises stacked

On Tue, 04 May 2010 11:11:31 -0400, Sue Mullen
wrote:

D Ball wrote:
Thanks, Tom, Rosalie & Sue, for the valuable lesson on how best to do
Bermuda! I have to say, I'm as resistant to HAL as Tom is to Carnival
(oh my!), so I may have to look at doing something altogether different
in the short June window for R&R I'm working with. Although, part of the
point of coming up to sail out of NYC was catching a show before and
after the cruise, so you never know....

Diana, DO NOT give up on Bermuda because you don't want to do HAL!! Yes
the HAL itin. is better, but you can still enjoy Bermuda from Summit.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Bermuda sailings are less formal
and the nightlife is on shore, not on the ship.

I agree - do Bermuda. If they have the high speed ferry running to
St. George, you can do that. If not - take the bus. Just because we
would prefer to be docked right in town does not mean that Kings Wharf
is bad - there's quite a bit to do out there too.

Once you;ve done Bermuda, you will want to come back.

Although I don't know why you are resistant to HAL. It isn't as good
for kids as some of the other lines like maybe Disney, but it is still
a nice line.

On May 2, 11:35�am, Charles wrote:
I have so many cruises stacked right now I am having problems keeping
track of the travel arrangements---flights, hotels, insurance,
excursions, online check ins.

Friday I booked the HAL Veendam to Bermuda in June. I am cruising in
Alaska on the HAL Volendam in August. Then there is the MOAGC on Oasis
of the Seas in October and the Vikings cruise on Carnival Valor in
December. And tomorrow I will be calling Susette to book the Vikings
December 2011 cruise on Allure of the Seas. That will be five cruises
to look forward to at one time. I have never done that before.

I am sure though that some of you have me beat and have more stacked
than I do!

--
Charles

WOW look at all the "V" ships you have Booked Volendam Veendam and
Valor

On May 2, 12:48�pm, "Jean O'Boyle" wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message

d...

I have so many cruises stacked right now I am having problems keeping
track of the travel arrangements---flights, hotels, insurance,
excursions, online check ins.

Friday I booked the HAL Veendam to Bermuda in June. I am cruising in
Alaska on the HAL Volendam in August. Then there is the MOAGC on Oasis
of the Seas in October and the Vikings cruise on Carnival Valor in
December. And tomorrow I will be calling Susette to book the Vikings
December 2011 cruise on Allure of the Seas. That will be five cruises
to look forward to at one time. I have never done that before.

I am sure though that some of you have me beat and have more stacked
than I do!
Charles

Sheesh, Charles! You better be careful or you'll have Tom saying things
about you and HAL that I hear from him whenever I mention going on HAL...
Good for you! How in the world did you manage to get all that time off from
work?
Since we have already taken three cruises this year, we just have the NCL
Gem Mediterranean cruise in September and the Oasis in October...still
mulling over the idea of the Vikings Carnival Valor in December...we are
going on a " land cruise" to Las Vegas next week for four days, though.;-)
That is great...I'm happy for you!

--Jean

Jean We would love for you to go with us IN December! We love you
guys!

We now have the Allure held for the 2011 14th annual VIking Group
4Dec11 We have almost half of our allotment sold.
and KERRY will be there! YEAH

Susie

On May 2, 8:39�pm, "Jean O'Boyle" wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message

d...





In article , Jean O'Boyle
wrote:

Sheesh, Charles! You better be careful or you'll have Tom saying things
about you and HAL that I hear from him whenever I mention going on HAL....
Good for you! How in the world did you manage to get all that time off
from
work?

I have five weeks vacation now every year and I can't save it. Use it
or lose it. As far as booking HAL, the only reason is that their
Bermuda itinerary does St. George and Hamilton and has almost an extra
day in Bermuda. At first I was going to do the Celebrity Summit until I
saw that besides the docking at Kings Wharf it had an extra day at sea
getting to Bermuda. I would rather be at Bermuda even though the one
day at St. George is tendering than an extra sea day in the Atlantic
sailing to Bermuda. The pricing was about the same.

Since we have already taken three cruises this year, we just have the NCL
Gem Mediterranean cruise in September and the Oasis in October...still
mulling over the idea of the Vikings Carnival Valor in December...we are
going on a " land cruise" to Las Vegas next week for four days,
though.;-)
That is great...I'm happy for you!

Hope you decide to do the Valor with us.
--
Charles

I would really like to...we have not been on Carnival since 2006 and would
like to see what changes have been made. The problem is that it is so close
to Christmas and it's such a busy time at our house!
I see Carnival stock is doing quite well.

--Jean- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

AHh jean its 3 weeks before Christmas not like you can cook that
Early! We put up the Decorations ahead of time... and sing carols..
When we get back you feel so good rom a cruise and the cruise all
decked out in its Finest...and the pricing for that time is so good
Come on jean! LOL we will do that Gift exchange agai and this Dec
too I had a blast with it

On May 2, 8:39*pm, "Jean O'Boyle" wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message

d...





In article , Jean O'Boyle
wrote:

Sheesh, Charles! You better be careful or you'll have Tom saying things
about you and HAL that I hear from him whenever I mention going on HAL....
Good for you! How in the world did you manage to get all that time off
from
work?

I have five weeks vacation now every year and I can't save it. Use it
or lose it. As far as booking HAL, the only reason is that their
Bermuda itinerary does St. George and Hamilton and has almost an extra
day in Bermuda. At first I was going to do the Celebrity Summit until I
saw that besides the docking at Kings Wharf it had an extra day at sea
getting to Bermuda. I would rather be at Bermuda even though the one
day at St. George is tendering than an extra sea day in the Atlantic
sailing to Bermuda. The pricing was about the same.

Since we have already taken three cruises this year, we just have the NCL
Gem Mediterranean cruise in September and the Oasis in October...still
mulling over the idea of the Vikings Carnival Valor in December...we are
going on a " land cruise" to Las Vegas next week for four days,
though.;-)
That is great...I'm happy for you!

Hope you decide to do the Valor with us.
--
Charles

I would really like to...we have not been on Carnival since 2006 and would
like to see what changes have been made. The problem is that it is so close
to Christmas and it's such a busy time at our house!
I see Carnival stock is doing quite well.

--Jean- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

come on Jean We want you!!!!

On May 4, 1:13*am, D Ball wrote:
On 5/3/2010 12:35 PM, Charles wrote:

I had the Summit in mind but when I looked at the itinerary the Veendam
was better in my opinion. The Summit has two sea days to Bermuda, then
three days docked at Kings Wharf and a sea day back. The Veendam has
one sea day to Bermuda, one day at St. George...tendering, three days
docked at Hamilton and a sea day back. So there is more time in Bermuda
on the Veendam and I prefer Hamilton and St.George to the Dockyard even
though St. George is tendering.

We like sea days. It'd be our first time in Bermuda. Are you telling me
Kings Wharf is the least desirable of the three pier locations?

You need ten cruises not 11. *That is 10+. It has to be ten on
Celebrity or 10 on Royal Caribbean. Not a combined number of the two.

I was sloppy when I talked about the magic number being 11. What I meant
was, because you have to complete cruise 10 to earn the next level,
cruise 11 would be the happy cruise!

the combination of RCI and Celebrity status credits, you got my
attention! I've definitely messed up my calculations on that. I confused
equalized status with credits counting toward the next level. Bummer! I
will now have to re-think my strategy....

Thanks for saving me from myself, Charles.

Speaking of loyalty programs, you are racking up quite a bit of credit
with HAL.

--
Diana Ball
Austin, TX

I tried to send this to you Diana and had issues with sending so if
you get it more then once I am sorry!!

Diana bermuda is so beautiful.. But the ships are just too big to get
into some of the better ports. St Georges is the best like a
Williamsburg type seaside town. Love it over there.and we found a
great little tucked away jewelry store with great pricing.
and a nice artwork watercolor store... Hamilton was the town in its
day but i hear they have revamped the town but its really not what we
all remember from the past but the location is good Kings Wharf is top
far from everything BUT still doable I think Bermuda is like 15 miles
long. You do not need excursions here, Just a Bus pass will do.... But
the 5 day is just not long enough.... and more time in bermuda is
optimal and HAL has a great Itin! But Celebrity comes in 2nd!

Susie

In article , D Ball
wrote:

Speaking of loyalty programs, you are racking up quite a bit of credit
with HAL.

HAL has got to have one of the worst loyalty programs. It appears to
take twice as many cruises with half the perks as other cruise line
loyalty programs.

I don't think my HAL bookings are a trend on my part. They just
happened to have the right itineraries at the right time. I would
rather book Celebrity but HAL has the much better itinerary for Bermuda
and for Alaska I want to do Glacier Bay. Celebrity does not do Glacier
Bay. The destination won out over the ship and cruise line in those two
cases.

--
Charles

Diana bermuda is so beautiful.. But the ships are just too big to get
into some of the better ports. St Georges is the best like a
Williamsburg type seaside town. Love it over there.and we found a
great little tucked away jewelry store with great pricing.
and a nice artwork watercolor store... Hamilton was the town in its
day but i hear they have revamped the town but its really not what we
all remember from the past but the location is good Kings Wharf is top
far from everything BUT still doable I think Bermuda is like 15 miles
long. You do not need excursions here, Just a Bus pass will do.... But
the 5 day is just not long enough.... and more time in bermuda is
optimal and HAL has a great Itin! But Celebrity comes in 2nd!

Susie

Hey, Susie girl, I am so appreciative of your expert insight, and I must
admit, I am quite amazed by how much you all like Bermuda. I would never
have imagined it to be so beloved!

I almost always choose for itinerary, but the one and only time I sailed
HAL for itinerary (Baltics), I swore I wouldn't go out with them again
until I was ready to step into Heaven's Waiting Room, which is what the
CD's staff called the ship. Rude!

Thanks, again.

--
Diana Ball
Austin, TX

(D*Ball) wrote:

I almost always choose for itinerary, but the
one and only time I sailed HAL for itinerary
(Baltics), I swore I wouldn't go out with them
again until I was ready to step into Heaven's
Waiting Room, which is what the CD's staff
called the ship. Rude!

When I wrote my review of our HAL cruise, I started by saying that I had
expected a much older set of passengers. There was a reply, I believe by
Jean, that said that HAL passengers were always older was a myth
perpetuated by someone who had been on a particular HAL cruise that did
fit that description.

A 7 day Bermuda cruise would tend to have a younger set of passengers
than the 10 day Baltic cruise you took.

Remember the good things about HAL like the fresh flowers, the
Exploration cafe, and the very attentive staff.

And one of the disadvantages, the relative lack of activities especially
at night is negated by the fact that you can find things to do at night
on Bermuda.

And St. George and Hamilton are definitely better and more convenient
ports than King's Wharf.

On May 5, 12:55*am, D Ball wrote:
I almost always choose for itinerary, but the one and only time I sailed
HAL for itinerary (Baltics), I swore I wouldn't go out with them again
until I was ready to step into Heaven's Waiting Room, which is what the
CD's staff called the ship. Rude!

Diana,

I'll probably be the first one in the thread to suggest that if you
want a cruise to feel like a cruise - and by that I mean time spent at
sea - then book Summit. Cruises to Bermuda for me have always felt
like I've booked a floating hotel rather than a cruise.

I'm also going to commit the heresy of saying that IMHO, the
advantages of docking in Hamilton and St. Georges over being at Kings
Wharf are a bit overblown. Yes, it is nice to just walk on/off the
ship to explore, return, go back out but it's not as if there's THAT
much to see and do that you can't cover it all by taking a 30-60
minute ferry ride. Most of the places and beaches that you'd go to
from Hamilton are as close to (or even closer to) Kings Wharf. And
really, one evening in Hamilton and you've covered all the nightlife,
which again is just a ferry, bus or cab ride away. You don't strike me
as someone who would mind this. I personally feel that navigating the
ferry system adds a bit of adventure and nautical flavor to being on
Bermuda.

Finally, having done 2 HAL cruises (one on Veendam's sister ship
Maasdam the other Noordam) and 1 Celebrity cruise (Solstice) in the
last 3 years, IMHO Celebrity provides the superior product overall.
And that opinion comes from someone who wasn't impressed with
Celebrity the first couple of times I sailed with them, FWIW.

Warren