BluesCruise

I'm considering a solo European cruise on Avalon in early September 2020, to celebrate my 60th birthday. If I want to be on a cruise on my actual birthday, the pickings are slim (for no single supplement). Does Avalon do anything special to celebrate birthdays? I'm wondering if I should expand my search and cruise the month after my birthday. October has more options. I'm not that particular about where I cruise, except not the Danube, because I've toured that area recently. Any opinions?

P. S. This will be my first river cruise, but I've done many ocean cruises and escorted tours.

I'm considering a solo European cruise on Avalon in early September 2020, to celebrate my 60th birthday. If I want to be on a cruise on my actual birthday, the pickings are slim (for no single supplement). Does Avalon do anything special to celebrate birthdays? I'm wondering if I should expand my search and cruise the month after my birthday. October has more options. I'm not that particular about where I cruise, except not the Danube, because I've toured that area recently. Any opinions?

P. S. This will be my first river cruise, but I've done many ocean cruises and escorted tours.

So, how was the cruise?? Were you on your own? Any reason you left out of NY rather than Miami or another FLA port? Just getting into cruising and want to find the best ones! I am from MD, also.

Sorry, I'm just now seeing this. The cruise was GREAT. I was only on my own for about an hour, and then I met up with people from my CC roll call. There were at least 70 solos on board, because there was no single supplement. We had a solo cruiser's dinner organized for every evening, but after a while, I found a smaller group and went to dinner with them. (It took over 2 hours to have dinner when there were 50+ of us to feed). I met some great people.

The reason I left out of NYC is because of the itinerary and the price. I booked the cruise about a month ahead of time. I like sea days and longer cruises, so flying to Florida wasn't necessary. Now I'm trying to find another great solo cruise, preferably somewhere in Europe.

I did the Marriott day pass in early December 2017. The wave activity was too much for me to really enjoy my time in the ocean. I had to be vigilant to prevent being smacked by the constant, high waves, and to prevent drifting far down the beach, away from my cabana. There was seaweed, but not so much that it mattered. In the future, I would definitely opt for a beach on the Caribbean side of the island, where I could swim, float, and snorkle in calm water. Just my 2 cents.

OP here, post cruise. I ended up traveling by Greyhound bus from Baltimore to NYC on the day of the cruise. I was supposed to leave at 7:00am, but didn't leave until 7:50am. Arrived at Port Authority by 11:30am. I got to the cruise port in plenty of time, so it worked out okay. I wouldn't take Greyhound again (because they were late and didn't care, and there were too many weirdos), but I would take another bus service. I spent $40 R/T to Uber from home to Baltimore, $36 for the R/T bus ticket, $20 R/T to Uber from Port Authority to the Port. So, about $100 total. Much cheaper than driving, tolls, parking, hotel, etc.

St. Thomas will be our 4th port day in a row, so I think I'd like to skip the beach and do something else. We're only in port from 7am to 1pm, so it's a short day. I'm considering just staying on the ship, but that wouldn't help contribute to the economy of the island, post-hurricane. Most questions I'm seeing in this forum seem to be about beaches, but what other tours or activities will be up and running by Dec. 9th?

Drive to Brooklyn and park there. Then take the subway to Manhattan. Brooklyn has a lot of streets where you don't pay for parking and some streets never have cleaning. Meaning you can park your car on a street and never move it and it will never be towed.

I'm not parking my new car on the street in Brooklyn. My parents once had a car broken into while visiting family in Brooklyn back in the 1970's, and I guess I'm still scarred, LOL.

I've just booked the Authentic Southern Tour of Martinique from Beyond the Beach. (martiniqueexcursion.com). I initially tried to book the Karambole Tour, but it was full. Leslie let me know that, and suggested either the Northern or Southern tour. She assured me it would be in English, and she was very easy to work with via email.

I've always preferred to have most of my meals in the Main Dining Room while on a cruise. This is the first ship I've encountered that had more than one MDR. Is there a difference in the menus? Any reason to choose one over the other?

A bus into Manhattan early on the day of the cruise might be the way to go, and then a taxi to the port. There are numerous bus companies that make the trip from Baltimore to NYC, multiple times a day. I worry that if I take Amtrak, if there's a problem on the tracks, I might get stuck.

The cruise is in early December, but hopefully there won't be a blizzard. Eek!

I'm considering a 10 night cruise on the NCL Gem out of Manhattan. I'd be driving up from MD. The cost of the cruise is < $700. The cost to park at the pier is $400, which is hefty when you have no one else to split it with. So, I'm looking for someplace in NJ to park, perhaps spend the night before, etc. I'd probably find an AirBnB, try to arrange a parking deal, and take the Path train and/or Uber/Lyft it to the port. Just wondering if others have found a thrifty way to get to the port in Manhattan.

I'm not looking for a specific cruise. I want to know which cruise lines people had used for this area and their experience was more positive than "meh".

I've seen "meh" ratings on some of the eastern Canada cruises. Which lines do it better?

I purchased a "Tour of Tulum with Beach Break" for Cozumel through the ship (Grandeur 11-16-13 sailing). The ferry to/from Playa del Carmen was not a problem. We had it all to ourselves, and it wasn't a rough ride. Once we arrived, however, we had to walk quite a few blocks to board our bus. Some of the older and less able-bodied people had a hard time with the walking, and it was unexpected. Our tour guides were friendly enough, but once we got to Tulum, things went bad. We were told that the guided tour would be about 30-45 minutes, and then we would have free time to walk around the site and take pictures. The tour guide named Patricio was TERRIBLE. We followed him to the site, and he had us stand in the shade just inside the gate, and he talked on and on about the Mayans in general. He pointed to nearby stones and talked about what used to be on that spot. He was sweating profusely, and while other tours were walking around the site, from building to building, we seemed rooted in our shady spot. We finally started walking, and he stopped again, and talked a long time, but didn't really say much about the main buildings there at the site. Finally, someone mentioned that we needed to get back to the bus soon. He had talked the whole time, so we never got time to walk around and take pictures. Poor time management! He briskly led us past the major buildings, still didn't tell us ANYTHING about them, and continued walking, out of the park, and back to the parking lot. Most of us were on the bus on time, but the tour guides and a few passengers remained in the gift shop another 20 minutes or so. We were late leaving, so we were late to our beach break. We had a decent buffet lunch, and some people spent about 30 minutes on the beach. Then, we got back on the bus. The bus driver couldn't maneuver the bus out of the parking lot into the narrow street. He went back and forth, trying different angles. About 25 minutes later, we finally got moving. We had to park the bus where we had boarded, so some people paid for pedi-cabs back to the ferry, and the rest of us had to follow the tour guide, briskly walking the several blocks pack to the pier. The ferry was waiting. We arrived back at the Grandeur an hour after it was supposed to leave, and had to endure the walk of shame, with other passengers jeering at us about being late and holding up the ship. Thank goodness it waited for us. What a lousy tour! I had to go home and Google "Tulum" to find out what the major buildings there were. I complained at the shore excursion desk, and was given a 30% refund, but what a waste of my day in Cozumel that was.

I have about 10 of them from winning at trivia, $5 each (for shipping and handling)!

I recently shaved my head, but...when I had hair...it was natural and just past my shoulders. I wore it in individual twists, and that worked well for traveling, including lots of swimming. I could wear it up or in a ponytail, as well as down. The twists keep it neat and you don't have to brush and comb it everyday. About halfway through the cruise I would comb out and re-twist around the edges and along the part, to keep it neat.

Now that I have almost no hair, I've been wearing synthetic wigs. I have 4 of them, in different styles and colors. I can change my hair as often as I change my mind. It makes getting ready in the morning a lot quicker. I'm going to let my hair grow out a little more and then color it to get rid of the grays. Wigs are too hot to wear outside in the summer, in my opinion. Luckily, I'm cruising to Alaska this year. :)