UlvaZell

I was just thinking of some of the weirdest, dumbest, or most funny complaints I have heard while on a cruise ship. It was on Princess in the Caribbean there was this one lady. We were standing in line at the pursers desk and the lady in front of us finally had her turn. She walks up carrying two full pieces of paper that were loaded with complaints. One was they requested a table by the window and didn't get, amongst others I can't remember. The one that stuck with us was that she was complaining that she was having to wait 2 minutes for her toast in the morning at the buffet. The kitchen had placed a staff member at the toaster to help people, and most likely because someone burned them selves using it so someone else toasts your bread. She kept going on and on...to the point we couldn't hold it in and busted out laughing at her. Really complain about toast????? We were barely half way through our cruise and this lady had already accumulated enough complaints to fill up 2 pieces of paper. I guess paradise doesn't make everyone happy.:D

A Russian couple on our Alaska trip complained the ice water at the table was too cold... Ugh.

I plan on making a door decoration warning my fellow passengers that we are cruise novices (thought virgin might be a problem for some travelers) and might be caught ...

Taking too many pictures

Hoarding towel animals

having too much luggage etc.

Please help me add to the list things that scream first cruise! Please keep it clean.

Packing entirely too much junk. I mean really, some of the packing lists I have seen are insane. I have traveled two weeks at a time out of a carry-on...

I have never had travel insurance. Do we need it?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I always get trip insurance both for the possibility of cancellation and for overseas medical care. Usually I go to www.insuremytrip.com . They have various levels of coverage from many different carriers. Their site allows you to compare features between policies to get the exact right covereage for you...

During our Mediterranean Cruise I had to pay to use the bathroom in Istanbul and it was a hold in the concrete floor with a toilet seat over it. Now that was interesting.

A squatty potty...

What do you most look forward to doing on your balcony??

 

I probably have a list of a hundred myself but .. I really enjoy sitting on the balcony at night before bed and listening to the water crash against the ship & watching other ships that are going in a similar direction....

A cup of coffee and reading a book in the morning. Wine, cheese and crackers in the evening...

After all that great food and service during your cruise, it is a bummer to come home and face reality to have to fix dinner again. That first night, is the pits. Refrigerator is usually empty, snacks all gone, etc...

 

Do you usually order in, go pick something up, fix a frozen pizza?

 

I usually make a pasta casserole before I leave and freeze it. Pull it out when we get home and bake along with a loaf of garlic bread. Quick and simple.

Either Tex-Mex or Greek...

What is the best day in port you have ever had on a cruise?

 

I'm not asking for specific names of companies you went with on excursions with etc...(unless you want to) but I'm asking more for what the "experience" of it was like.

 

What port was it in? Did you go even go on tours or did you just spend the day relaxing in port? What made it so memorable?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who feels like sharing their nice memories and experiences (and thus wisdom) :) with me.

Renting ATV's on Mykonos and crusing around the island visiting various beaches and sites. What a great day!

What is something you make sure you do every cruise no matter what?

Spend time taking a steam bath or time in the dry sauna. I feel sooo great after a good sweat!:D

If you had to list your top 5 points/tips that you wish you had known before you went on your first cruise what would they be? Examples, like binder clip for the shower curtain or that the first drink is NOT free, etc.

 

My friend is going on a cruise for her honeymoon and neither have been on one before and she just doens't have time to read these boards, wedding planning and all, so I thought I might compile a list for her. I tried composing one myself but found that I just kept forgetting things. Thanks for everyone's help!

Backpack backpack backpack. I use mine as my carry on and as the bag I use in port. I can haul lots of swimsuits, towels, soveniers and keep my hands free...

Ok. I've heard that it can be crowded at the gondola when it's time to head back down to the pier for the tender. An there will be four ships docked at the same time.:eek:

 

If I decided to make my way back going down the stairs' date=' how long will it take me ? Is the path illuminated at night ? I am a fit 40 year old with no mobility issues.

 

Thanks for your input,

 

Lil' Baba[/quote']

 

We used the gondola and the trip was very quick (a couple of minutes) and the wait was not long (for us it was about 5 minutes going up and about 10 minutes coming down).

 

FYI - We were told by others that we should buy our tickets down at the same time we purchased our tickets up, but the people running the funicular would not let us do that...

Has anyone not had their luggage make it to their stateroom or even on the ship because the porter had misplaced it?

I had a bag that ended up in a pile of unidentified luggage because the cruise line luggage tag was ripped off during handling. I called about my "missing" bag and they informed me where to go to look for it...

If you had to list your top 5 points/tips that you wish you had known before you went on your first cruise what would they be? Examples, like binder clip for the shower curtain or that the first drink is NOT free, etc.

 

My friend is going on a cruise for her honeymoon and neither have been on one before and she just doens't have time to read these boards, wedding planning and all, so I thought I might compile a list for her. I tried composing one myself but found that I just kept forgetting things. Thanks for everyone's help!

I use a backpack/daypack as my carry on for the plane and in port. Its great for carrying anything we need for the day as well as carrying any purchases in port...

Has anyone experienced local currency problems in Dubrovnik. I will be travelling with euros and wondered if they can be used in Dubrovnik. I understand there are currency exchange places at the port but only intend to have change for walking the wall. Can I use euros for that?

We were told you had to use Kunas for everything, but the only place we encountered that required them was the walk around the wall. The vendors and cafes we encountered took Kunas or Euros. Get just enough Kunas from the ATM for the wall. Once you go through the main gate of the old city, we found an ATM a block or two down the street on the left...

I typically get baseball caps and polo shirts embroidered with the names of the places I visited. Everytime I put one of them on I remember vividly which cruise it was, which port it was, the weather that day... :p . Come on June 9th...

Actually it was post-cruise. We were staying at the Alaskan Millenium hotel in Anchorage and ran into Ben Stein.

My DW was sooo cool... She asks, "Hey are you him?" to which he responded, "Yes". We still laugh about that...

To help narrow the scope, what genre of books do you like?

I cruise with smooth jazz. The Rippingtons, 3rd Force, Boney James, Chris Botti, David Benoit, Fattburger, Euge Groove, Gregg Karukas, Marion Meadows, Mindi Abair, Peter White, Paul Hardcastle, etc etc etc

but on vacation I'm not. We don't go overboard, but we are much more lax. I budget a generous amount for spending money, and then we enjoy.

I have 51 other weeks each year to be tight. On vacation I'm on vacation from being tight as well...

Seasickness medications are basically antihistimines and as with other antihistimines they may make you groggy, but are out of your system fairly quickly.

Regarding your post cruise experience, I have noticed over the years that if we have heavy seas we are sailing through, that my inner ear must somehow compensate for the ships rocking, and when I get off the ship I feel like I'm rocking for some period of time afterward...

I'll go get a cup of coffee and walk around the ship in the early morning hours. The sunrise is usually spectacular and the the ship is uncongested and quiet...

Coffee in the morning...

Wine, cheese and crackers in the evening...

"Other" activities at night...;)

Regardless what the current rules are or when they expect them to change, the drop dead date for having a passport has changed multiple times in the last couple of years. You will need it eventually anyway. Go ahead and get it now...

There is a copy of that recipe on this site. I printed it out for my wife and she made it. It was great, but I think Carnival must cook it in a convection oven to get it come out right...

http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=494

The link above is on Cruise Critic. My wife has attempted making this with limited success. The flavor is perfect, but cooking it long enough to get the crispy top and yet still have the hot liquid center has proved to a challenge. I'm no chef, but my guess is they are cooking it in a convection oven...

Myself and a couple of friends from school were passengers in the summer of 1976. The ship sailed out of Miami and the ports were Nassau, San Juan, and St. Thomas. At that time they had a special singles fare. I think they reserved some percentage of the rooms for this fare, and the draw was that you could potentially end up in a suite. We did not.

Ours was an inside cabin on one of the lowest decks, as I remember down the hall from the main dining room. Our cabin had two lower berths on the floor and two upper berths that dropped down from the wall over each of the others. There was a bathroom and a closet.

I also remember the movie theater. The movie showing was "The Way We Were". There was a scene in the movie where Redford and Streisand were sailing on the water. Of course the ship was rocking and in the scene in the movie the camera was rocking. Almost too much.

The ports were fun. In Nassau and San Juan we simply wandered through town. In St. Thomas we rented motorcycles at some place near the dock and rode all over the island visiting the various beaches.

The booze flowed freely and the food was great. Its a shame she is gone. She was a good ship and it was a great first cruise...