ontheweb

And just another reason to use a TA. They might very well not listened to a single customer, but paid attention when a TA who might very well do a lot of business with them called.

Our TA once tried to talk us out of a sailing on an older no new frills and not many bells and whistles ship. But we liked the itinerary and also had a use it or lose it airfare discount coupon that we could use to go to the port (San Juan). And we had a lovely time meeting very nice people and enjoying the ports. Those were the important things, not the new amusement park like frills.

And to make our cruise ship line (HAL) excursion with the rug shop even worse, IIRC there was no shopping stop listed on the tour description.

In Tallinn we followed a Rick Steves tour out of his Scandanavia book we had bought used on Amazon. One suggestion for Stockholm is the Vasa Museum. I think a 12 year old as well as adults would enjoy it. The Vasa was a ship that basically sunk as soon as it left the harbor. Everything has been preserved. I am sure you can google Vasa and get more specific information, but let me just say it was fascinating.

LOL, we did a British Isles cruise and there was the remnants of a hurricane, a horrible weather day the day before when we were in London and some rough seas on our first day of sailing. But this really has no relevance to your sailing.

I will wholeheartedly agree with that one. In Kusadasi, Turkey we took a ship's excursion because the one on the roll call specifically said not to go to the Virgin Mary's house while DW definitely wanted to go there. It was a nice excursion until we were locked in a store selling rugs.

I can't comment on those new ports, but I do agree that Helsinki was a port that we found less fascinating than the others on the cruise. To @Stellamom, I hope whichever cruise you pick has Tallinn, Estonia. That is truly a gem, a fascinating port.

Stockholm was the one port on our Baltic cruise in which there was not nearly enough time to do the things we wanted to do. Another day would have been wonderful. Weather is unpredictable. I will say on our cruise (August 2007) it was warm. Even St. Petersburgh had temperatures in the high 80s.

Yes, I can see the difference you are pointing out. One of the great things we have found about cruises is that DW and I get to spend a lot of quality time together, especially in the posts. And yet at the same time onboard we also get to do our own thing, especially swimming for her and trivia for me.

Ditto on that having been at the dentist yesterday, and then told I needed new appointments. 😢😢

I'm with you on based on our past experience, NCL is not our favorite cruise line. Also, I was the one that started threads asking about sharing tables, and was just as annoyed as you about the general attitude. However, we now have an NCL cruise booked, and it was because both DW and I were blown away by the itinerary which starts in London (Southampton) and ends in Reykjavik with ports in Belgium, Amsterdam, 3 in Norway, and 3 in Iceland ending with an overnight in Reykjavik. Despite, some misgivings about NCL we intend to have a wonderful cruise including celebrating an anniversary on a sea day.

The cruise was in 2009, an Eastern Mediterranean cruise. I don't remember it being staffed, but it was still a great library including a book exchange.

Our first HAL cruise was on the Noordam, and the library was one of the things that impressed me the most.

But there can be a charge after that to get to the city center. The OP might find this helpful. Queensferry Edinburgh Scotland United Kingdom Cruise Port (whatsinport.com) Actually when we had Edinburgh on our British Isles itinerary, we had Rosyth as a port and had to take a train into Edinburgh. And even though we had round trip tickets, it turned out the train was no longer running when we got to the station after attending the Scottish Military Tattoo. We had to take a taxi back to the ship.

🤦‍♂️, so the doctor was a veterinarian. 😉

You wanted quintuplets? Was it a fertility doctor you saw?

The show has also been deleted (except from the pay site Paramount +) so your comment of deleted is spot on. 😉

Thanks, we have been on ships where you pretty much have to go through the smoke filled casino to get to the main dining room. And that sucks.

Good advice. Is it easy to avoid that area?

We all know that everything knew and improved is just wonderful. The New and Improved Real Love Boat will surely grace out tv screens longer than the original. Oh wait, CBS already cancelled it. 🤦‍♂️🤣

I believe I had previously put you on my ignore list. I don't know why I undid that, but now I will restore that.

And yet another condescending post to anyone who makes a different choice.

We could try face to face. 😉

And as one former school board member to another---I wonder if we are now educating a generation that does not have critical thinking skills. And is the latest generation able to communate face to face without a phone or a social media site between them?

Yes, if one wants to shoot up a school, or a church, or a synagogue these days technology allows you to do so shooting hundreds of rounds a minute. And if our politicians really, really screw up there exist the weapons to end the human race. I believe it was Kurt Vonnegut in one his novels who wrote that technology should have ended with the invention of the electric guitar.