luvs2travl

Warren & Nancy from Louisiana are sailing on the Diamond Princess leaving Auckland on January 25,2013 and arriving Sydney February 6, 2013. We have 3 days pre-cruise in Auckland and 4 days post-cruise in Sydney. We can't wait to get going!!

Smooth Sailing! :):)

Thanks for all the responses. I am concerned because I have Diabetes and my husband has Asthma. I think we will get Hep A&B and use lots of Deet. Is Deet repellent enough? or do we have to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts. Thanks.

You will be miserable in long-sleeved shirts and long pants. The climate is extremely hot and humid, with little to no breeze. You might pass out from the heat if you dress like that! :eek: We saw no one in anything other than shorts, bermuda shorts or capri pants and s/s shirts.

My DH is also a diabetic and had no issues of any kind. What are you concerned about specifically? We took our "DEET" with us at each port stop & never had to use it even once - not even on our Forest Canopy Ride in Costa Rica!

Have a wonderful cruise & Smooth Sailing always!

we had to have yellow fever, hepatitis, polio for a cruise up the Amazon. We were also loaded down with antimosquito drugs (which I eventually threw away as they made me sick!) plus sprays etc. Perhaps we were lucky but never even SAW a mozzy, let alone got bitten by one. Get more bites here in my own backyard! still I guess it's better to be safe than sorry

Totally agree with you for an AMAZON cruise where you will be deep in the jungle for several days. The OP was asking about a cruise through the Panama Canal. Two totally different types of cruises and lengths of times in jungle areas.

We are just off a 19-day full transit of the Panama Canal (FLL - San Diego) where we stopped in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and many stops along the Mexican Riviera, etc - no vaccinations needed or required for those areas. And we didn't even use our recommended high-Deet "OFF" spray once! ;)

If we were to take a cruise down the Amazon, we would most definitely get all the recommended vaccines for that area. :)

None needed. I guess you could always get them if you wanted to, and if your doctor is willing to give them to you, but they are not required as you will not be going into the "wilds" of the jungles for days & days. We are a couple in our late 60's and have never gotten any vaccinations or inoculations for any of our cruises, and have never had one sick day at sea or when returning home.

Smooth Sailing! :)

Hey all. I realize that cruising is a very popular family vacation choice. I love to cruise but am not exactly "kid friendly". My question is when and with which cruise line would be my best option to maximize the amount of adult guests and minimize the number of child guests. Every time I cruise there are a gazillion kids on board - even in the adults only areas of the ship which is annoying.

 

Any help would be apppreciated.

 

BTW - I am not a mean person, I just prefer my vacations to be quiet and relaxing without unsupervised children being allowed to galavant all over the ship.

Carnival, Disney, NCL and RCCL are the most "kid friendly" and you will have the greatest chance of having the most kids on board these lines. Also - during holidays (Easter, Spring Break, Thanksgiving, Christmas) and of course, the summer months will also be peak times for kids.

Generally, the 7-day cruises will have more children as well. Longer cruises tend to be less cost-effective for families. There will always be a few kids on board any cruise. But, if you try to limit your sailings to "off-peak" family months & holidays, you increase your chances of having fewer children on board.

We had a wonderfully relaxing cruise on HAL's Oosterdam in November of 2009. We took a 19-day repositioning cruise from FLL to San Diego through the Panama Canal. We saw maybe 10 to 12 children on board.

However, by contrast, our annual "Family Cruise" was on NCL during the Christmas holidays where well over half the passengers were children. Even our family (which had 3 kids under 10 along) said they would NEVER do NCL again - ever!! It was pure bedlam, believe me! "Gallivanting" doesn't even begin to describe what many of the kids on board were doing!! :eek:

HAL, Princess, Celebrity & Cunard would probably be to your liking. Of course, you can always call the cruise line & find out how many children (and the age groups) are booked on your cruise.

Yummm. This may have just made it on the menu for this weekend, and I'm thinking that enough for 40 might just take care of DH and me with a little left over for my mother (hee, hee). The only difficulty would be a blender and container big enough to hold the 40 servings... I'll try your pared down method.

 

Thank you SO much for this! CC is so great.

I know what you're saying. I cut it down & made just 2/3 recipe for our gang for Christmas (we had 16 for dinner). There was none left - not a drop!

I'm sure you could cut it back to any proportion that suits your needs - but I'm thinking that it would probably keep for at least a day or two!! (IF it lasted that long!)

Glad to be of help. :D

Like you, the Chilled Coconut Nutmeg Soup was one of my favorites. The wonderful chef on the Oosterdam gave me a copy of his recipe. You will have to adjust the proportions accordingly, as his recipe below serves 40:

1 US quart Coconut Ice Cream

24 oz. Canned Cream of Coconut Milk

1 US quart 1.5% Milk

32 oz Plain Yogut

1 1/2 Quart Lowfat Milk Tetra Pack (My DIL who is an RDN says this is the same as evaporated milk so that's what I used with no problem)

3 oz pure vanilla

2 ounces ground nutmeg

1 1/2 lbs flaked coconut

Combine all the above ingredients into a large blender except the nutmeg and flaked coconut. Blend well until smooth. Remove and place into the refrigerator and cool well (at least overnight).

Ladle soup into chilled soup cups and garnish with coconut and nutmeg.

I cut this by 1/3 and it tasted wonderful.

Hope this helps and enjoy! :D

Well, duh - since I'm on vacation, it isn't MY idea of a good time to do hand laundry in the bathroom sink. Not everything goes out to the ships laundry. :rolleyes: Yes, even when in a suite or with 'unlimited' laundry, there are still some things that I don't trust to the ship's laundry that I'd rather just throw in the washer myself. What you do is up to you, but no need for snide comments about those who do things differently. It doesn't affect your vacation if others prefer to wash some things themselves. :rolleyes:

PS: I wish you only the best in all of your future travels, and I hope that we get the chance to meet and become friends one day!

Well, duh - since I'm on vacation, it isn't MY idea of a good time to do hand laundry in the bathroom sink. Not everything goes out to the ships laundry. :rolleyes: Yes, even when in a suite or with 'unlimited' laundry, there are still some things that I don't trust to the ship's laundry that I'd rather just throw in the washer myself. What you do is up to you, but no need for snide comments about those who do things differently. It doesn't affect your vacation if others prefer to wash some things themselves. :rolleyes:

Mary Ellen,

In no way did I intend my remarks to be snide or offensive to anyone. I sincerely apologize if I have offended you in any way. It was a totally tongue-in-cheek comment, kind of like the thing one of my grand-kids says to me from time-to-time, when they believe they are stating the obvious and I have missed their point.

I also have a sweater and a blouse that I normally cruise with, that I certainly do NOT send to the laundry as they are "Hand-wash Only". I only meant that I would rather not spend a day in a laundromat versus a day doing something relaxing & fun on the ship.

Please accept my sincere apology. :o

My husband uses V-neck white Tshirts as undershirts. When we were on the Zaandam and used the bag special to send our clothes to the ship's laundry, all of his undershirts came back, ironed, on hangars. They'd never looked so good. :)

We plan to use the 'unlimited' laundry special on our upcoming 14 day Alaska cruise on the Amsterdam even though there's a self-service laundromat aboard the Amsterdam. On a port-intensive itinerary I don't want to be trying to get a machine.

I quite agree. Why take up a lovely sea day in a laundromat? And on a port-intensive cruise, it would be very difficult to try to fit in doing a load or two of wash. And ...why would you even want to?? :confused: You are on vacation, after all! :)

The wonderful service from the folks in the ship's laundry is one of the (many) reasons we don't mind the automatically-added gratuity on our ship board account. I know some of that pooled gratuity will find it's way to those great folks working in the laundry & other areas of the ship that provide that wonderful Holland America "touch" to all us lucky passengers!

Ironed your hubby's undershirt's, did they? Why am I not surprised?? ;)

Have a wonderful Alaskan cruise. You will love it! Smooth Sailing!! :D

We had the unlimited laundry service on our recent 20 day Noordam cruise. It was either $120 or $140 for the 20 days. Not per person; but, per stateroom.

Agree 100%! I still have my shipboard account statement from our November cruise on the "O", and we were charged $120.00 TOTAL for the "Unlimited Laundry" package. Since we incurred just the singular $120.00 charged to our cabin, and I sent both hubby and my laundry - usually on a daily basis- I would have to assume that this was a "per cabin" charge.

All the laundry was done for both of us with no questions asked and no problems whatsoever. And - it was done extremely well with no shrinkage, no fading and no wrinkles. The 'unmentionables' came back neatley folded in a lovely basket covered with tissue paper and closed with a little gold seal; everything else came back pressed and on hangers - even my nightgown!! :D

On the HAL ships we have been on in the past two years, the Environmental Officer offers a slide presentation and lecture during the cruise on all environmental and safety issues and policies aboard the Holland America ships. My husband and I are both retired from the safety/environmental profession and enjoy these presentations immensely.

There is a Q & A session at the end of the officer's talk. The day & time of the talk is listed in the ship's daily program, and is scheduled to last about an hour. They are scheduled on sea days to maximize passenger availability.

Unfortunately, most of these presentations that we have been to have not been well attended, in spite of all the talk we hear on the ship voicing concern for the environment and speculating about what actually does or does not occur on board.

It is an excellent opportunity to see the lengths that these cruise ships go to in protecting our oceans, become acquainted with the overwhelming number of E & S regulations that differ from port-to-port, understand the concern for passenger safety and all that is done to assure your safety, and much, much more.

We would highly recommend attending one of these Environmental and Safety presentations if they are offered on board your ship. They are extremely informative and the Q & A session afterward will give you the opportunity to voice your particular concern & have it addressed by the man in charge.

Smooth Sailing! :)