DeloreanGirl

Yep, I've seen that one. They're pretty nice!

My goal is to find this guy: http://images.cloud.worthpoint.com/wpimages/images/images1/1/0907/02/1_f7564cc0629de2e2e239702095e9d78d.jpg

:)

OMG you had Carl Strong!!!! We saw him on Royal Caribbean in January of 2009 and we were in tears with laughter. Man, that'd be awesome if he was on the Destiny in January. You lucky ducks!

You guys seem like such a sweet couple to sail with. I always love reading positive reviews from happy cruisers. :rolleyes:

Desperately looking for Caribbean Princess if anyone knows where to find it. I'm trying to hunt it down on eBay and asking people onboard. I sure hope they didn't discontinue all of these. :(

Jealous!!!

I have a small collection but I cannot find Caribbean Princess, arggg! Did they discontinue making and selling these onboard? :eek:

Holy wow!! Details!!! This is my kind of review -- and we're going on Destiny in January just like a lot of your other readers. YAHOO!! Can't wait for the rest of this review. I'm hooked! :D

Also, thanks for the shuttle info. We are staying pre-cruise in FLL and will need a shuttle to the POM and then back to FLL airport so I will keep SAS in mind.

 

 

.

We took SAS from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami for our RCCL Freedom cruise and they were great!

When are you goin in January? We're going on Jan 21

I'll be there with you on January 21st!

We are also going on our first cruise on the Destiny January 21, 2013. I was so excited when I saw your review with pictures! It makes the cruise so much more real! I'm also happy you wrote:) that the food was better than what you read. I was starting to worry at some of the things I had read online about the food.

January 21st cruiser here!

I too am guilty of thinking Carnival was nothing but a partying, Walmart of the Seas. For us it was RC or nothing. Then one of my friends thought it would be fun to do a short girl's cruise. At the time we were in our late 40's, and two of us brought our daughters who were in their early 20's. I told her to plan it and tell me what to book, and she chose a 4 nighter on Carnival Destiny. Oh the horror...Carnival and Destiny! :eek:

 

It turned out to be nothing like what I imagined. Yes, it's an older ship, and I had to get over the fact that it had no Promenade or Windjammer, but that would have been true of any other line. Sure, there were groups of people having lots of fun in the bars on board, but it turned out they were other groups of women, our age, having a ball! We sang in the piano bar, danced in the dance club, and sang karaoke. The food was very good and service exceptional.

 

Came home from that cruise and booked Dream, which was new at the time, for our family vacation that summer. Had a wonderful time. Again, never witnessed excessive partying; felt like any of our RC cruises, minus the Royal Promenade and WJ. :)

.

I used to be a "RCCL or nothing" gal so this review helped me, lol! Glad to hear Carnival is so upbeat. Can't wait to try it in January. :rolleyes:

*raises hand in shame* :(

I'm guilty of this.

We sailed every cruise line but Carnival because we heard they were mostly all big party boats. :confused:

HOWEVER, our friends want to "try out" cruising, and the only one that fit our budget with a beautiful itinerary was the Carnival 5-day'er. Hubby and I are giving it a shot because we're trying to be fair, would like to try a new line, and the price couldn't be beat. While we are the youngest ones on the boat with Princess and one of few non-kid famlies on RCCL and Disney, we think Carnival may be right up our alley as far as entertainment (though we aren't really the get wasted/gamble all day type). So dare I say I'm actually excited to try Carnival now. We chose January in hopes that kids and college folks will be back in school and the rowdy crowd won't be too extreme. :)

Thanks for your review! We will be on Destiny in January (it's our first Carnival cruise ever......yikes!) so I very much look forward to your opinion and photos! ;)

It was a real pleasure to help out someone who was obviously so keen to learn about the places she was visiting. I'm sure the others you mention felt exactly the same.:)

 

 

 

Here's hoping!;)

Don't worry, the hubby and I fell in love badly with the UK and were really bummed about flying home to California. We're ready to move to the UK ASAP! (In a perfect world, of course...) :rolleyes:

Heyyyy! Thanks for the advertisement, ha ha. What are the odds I just clicked on this thread today "just cause", too.

And yep, this is the Liverpool link although the pictures got messed up somehow:

Liverpool Review: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=34177791&postcount=84

Liverpool Photos: http://photobucket.com/cruiseliverpool

TowncarT gave great advice and Liverpool is an adorable city to visit. The entire city is within walking distance of the ship. The architecture is fantastic! Enjoy! :D

Please keep posting as we will be anxious to know if ya'll have a baby ~ if not keep cruising :) Karen

LOL. I'm hoping to start a family blog. I'll probably attach the address to it in my signature in the future. And if not, then yes, cruises are absolutely in the future! (I guess it's win-win? :rolleyes:)

Agreed..this is by far the best review I have read on CC. And all the additional questions and posts are a big help in planning our cruise on Celebrity (pretty much the same itinerary) next August. Thanks for posting.

Carolyn

Hi again Carolyn,

Hope the Word doc helped you. Lots of folks are doing the Celebrity cruise line version. The itinerary is still fantastic. I need to catch up on the trip reports from July & August folks. I think this will be it until 2013. :)

Having the Olympics in London did not help with my obsession/fascination with the UK. :eek: ;)

I'm just loving the 3 ring binder idea. I'm a Virgo and tend to obsessively plan out each port of call whenever we take a vacation. We don't leave for our British Isles cruise until next year and I'd already started trying to figure out how I was going to manage it all. Usually I just staple together a little packet of information for each port of call, but I could see that for a longer cruise the papers would be slipping all over in my suitcase. Your way is much better. I even went to the office supply store over the weekend and bought a binder, little tab dividers for each day, and some zipper pockets (they attach inside the binder) to hold smaller items like tickets. Our British Isles cruise next year will be so much more organized thanks to you!

That sounds perfect! Yes, with 9 ports it was a lot to plan. Since I started planning the cruise 13 months out, I pretty much dedicated a month to each port. One month I would research Guernsey and go to visitguernsey.com and print out their maps along with sites and how much it would cost to go in museums, etc. Then I would move onto Cork, then the Scottish stops, etc. By the time I was done, I had all sorts of fun stuff printed out and hole-punched in the binder. As long as I had that binder on me, I knew all my tickets and reservations and barcodes to scan were safe. :)

Happy cruising!

so glad the weather was nice for you in Greenock ( my home town)

 

Jay Leno's mother was originally from Greenock

I vaguely remember reading his book, "Leading With My Chin" and him talking about his parents. We are big Leno fans out here -- mostly because it's the west coast and also because he went to Emerson College, the same school as my husband. I have a framed photo of my hubby, his dad, and Leno with their arms around each other on my travel shelf! I will have to share that Greenock tidbit though, I never knew that!

Ha, thanks! And yes, we LOVED your country. Believe me, if it weren't for my mortgage, job, and family -- I would pack my suitcases tonight and move to the UK. (The beautiful Olympics isn't helping any as well!)

I'm starting a blog for the journey to the new addition in our life (if/when that happens) and will register a ".com", so I'll be writing in some form over the next year just for fun.

Anxiously awaiting the British Isles trip reports of the August cruisers! :rolleyes:

Greenock is pretty simplistic. There's not much to do but it's a cute town filled with nice people. We didn't have any interest in Glasgow so we stayed in Greenock and walked around that day. It's an easy walk from the ship.

Here's my review of it with photos if that helps any.... :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=34185163&postcount=115

Dear Emily,

I loved your reviews!! The enthusiasm you showed so overshadows those that post complaints about minor things.

I think your postings are great for any new cruiser to help them enjoy their first cruise!

I do have one question, however, unless you got a deal on American Airlines, I would fly British Airways direct from Los Angeles to London in 10 hours.

They are partners, and I think you can use your AA miles on BA.

Oh yes, I was really hoping to fly Virgin Atlantic or British Airways. The only reason why we used American is because we wanted to fly out of Ontario, CA (to have my parents drop us off and to watch our dog) and American has the side-by-side seats (2 seats) without a third person so we wouldn't be squished next to a stranger for 11 hours.

Thank you for your wonderful review. We are considering this cruise for next summer. Can you recall in which ports you tendered. We are trying to travel with my 80 year old mother. While she is able and mobile, I am concerned about tendering.

If you're going on the 12-day itinerary similar to mine, you will only tender into Guernsey and South Queensferry (Edinburgh day). Both journeys are short, but the process of stepping off the ship and onto the tender is a bit much for some. There are many crew members to hold onto you and help you. Your safety is their highest concern.

I saw many folks in their 70's and above get onto the tenders.

Hope this helps!

Just had to add my thoughts also. Emily, this is the absolutely best review I have ever read on CC. I logged on the other day to see what I could find out about the British ports and I found your review. I loved how detailed it was and it was SO amusing to read. I absolutely agree with everyone else that you should be a writer. You definitely have the talent. We have been to England, Scotland and Ireland before, but it was awhile ago and we have been really thinking about doing the British cruise. Hoping to do it in 2013 for sure and it was so much fun reading this review. I almost felt like I was on that cruise with you. We have been to Paris, so I had looked up other places to go and had read about Honfleur and had already decided that that would be a great place to visit, so was happy to see that others liked it. I hope that you are planning another cruise now. It helps so much to have something to look forward to. I also am planning to print this out so I can read it again before our cruise. Thank you so much. --Karen

Hi Karen,

Thanks so much for the kind compliments! I'm glad you liked the review. I never in a million years had writing come to mind as an actual occupation. I suppose the words flew out of my brain and onto the screen as quickly as I was re-living all of the memories of this trip. I typed it up so quickly that there are still spelling errors all over the place!

Yes, please do Honfleur! I really regret not going and would definitely go if I were to be back in that area.

If you want me to e-mail you the text (Word) file of the trip for easier reading without the photos, you can e-mail me below. Otherwise, enjoy -- and thanks again! *blush*

:D

Emily' date=' Thanks so much for your INCREDIBLE review. I found it right after you started it, read as much as was ready at that time, and then promptly got busy with other stuff and didn't get back to it until today. Thankfully, I had all kinds of time today and was able to read it all.

 

As others have said, you have a knack for writing and "bringing us all along." I never really had an itch to do a British Isles cruise, but I started looking up the Princess website as soon as I finsihed. I know we won't be able to do one for a couple of years yet, as we are taking my parents to Hawaii next year, but when I am ready to plan I will be returning to this post to figure out all the stuff I need to know. Thanks again....it truly was the best review I've read on cruise critic (no offense to others).

 

Take care and I'll be waiting for your next report....do you have any vacations in the hopper?[/quote']

 

Hi there,

 

Thank you -- wow! So glad you enjoyed it! That really made my day.

 

Unfortunately no vacations in the hopper just yet. Trying to start a family so that should take plenty of our time and money - ha. :rolleyes: But if that doesn't work out, then Hawaii or Pacific Coastal is on my list! :D

Oh, please! I'm sooo fed up of the rain. :)

And we're so fed up with the boring 360 days of sunshine (truly!) :o

Emily, have enjoyed your travelogue tremendously! Love your sense of humor and your gift with details and feelings.

Hoping you'll have another great adventure soon!

Debbie & Mike

Thanks, glad it could be of some help. :D

I am so enjoying your British Isles review and will be re-reading it again as our trip gets closer (June 5, 2013). I'm only up to Day 7 right now but wanted to just thank you for sharing your trip with us.

 

Sharon

Ooooo a whole 10 months to wait. Planning really is the most fun part. Despite some wind and rain, I promise you'll have a great time! :cool:

I just wanted to thank you for sharing your shutterfly book on here, it gave me the impetus to put mine together and I just received it in the mail today - it's beautiful and I love it!

That's great! It gets addicitive by this point.... ;)

I've come late to reading your review, but thanks for taking the time to do it.

It's always interesting to see your home country through the eyes of others; I loved your enthusiasm for our quaint little ways

(aside: I suspect if I ever came to California I'd be all "Wow! how cute, they're all wearing flip flops!" :p)

 

Glad you enjoyed it, hope you get to visit us again someday.

Ha! That is funny. We DO all wear flip flops! Okay, at least I do. Want to trade? I'd love to up and move to Ireland or England at a moments notice. One can dream... :o :rolleyes:

Thank you! Is that for anyone or just new Shutterfly accounts? I just ordered my free one, which I made from my trip to D.C. last year, but I'm working on my second one from my recent cruise photos. I wonder if they will let me get two free ones? I think I am getting addicted.

 

Nevermind, I just looked and it is for new customers only. Oh well, I still think Shutterfly is a great deal, and so much fun! I can't wait to get my book that I ordered yesterday!

Technically, yes, it's free for first time users. I suppose if you use another e-mail address they'd never know the difference. ;)