Taxguy77

- I went to Peru in 1953, and visited Macho Pichu, which I had never heard of before I went. The experience was MUCH different than now.

7 AM, wake up and wash in cold water (water heater was turned on in best hotel in town at 7).

Breakfast and walk to train station.

Tour ruins.

Train to Cusco, arriving at hotel, which had water heater on from 6 to 7 PM.!

Not the cleanest day I've had.

Sail Seven -

Shoes would set it off well.

:p

Hop over to the River Cruise Board and ask there. Focus on the time in Bruges rather than the cruise line. [YOUTUBE][YOUTUBE] You want info from people about that city, you don't need the hear opinions about cruise lines, :rolleyes: and you might get unsolicited and uninformed opinions. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=191

 

 

 

In Belgium, never ever have the same beer twice, and never have the same beer your dining/drinking partners have! Never! :D Sample widely.

My thoughts in Belgium also, but the first was always so goood I ordered the same thing! Saw a sign on the door of a restaurant that said "Over 50 draft beers"

Be sure to go to the market in the town square if you are there on market day! Interesting, and some good finger food to try.

Hop over to the River Cruise Board and ask there. Focus on the time in Bruges rather than the cruise line. [YOUTUBE][YOUTUBE] You want info from people about that city, you don't need the hear opinions about cruise lines, :rolleyes: and you might get unsolicited and uninformed opinions. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=191

 

 

 

In Belgium, never ever have the same beer twice, and never have the same beer your dining/drinking partners have! Never! :D Sample widely.

My thoughts in Belgium also, but the first was always so goood I ordered the same thing! Saw a sign on the door of a restaurant that said "Over 50 draft beers"

I'm prone to motion sickness and Dramamine (non-drowsy) seems to do the trick for me. I normally take it an hour before leaving a port and on Sea Days, first thing in the morning and again that evening. The mistake I've made is forgetting to take it on the Sea Day morning and around lunch time I'll feel like I've just gotten off a spinning ride at an amusement park. This seems so trivial though, so I can't wait to see what others (are willing to) share. :)

NEVER go on spinning rides after age 15.

Never had seasickness; thought I was getting "woosey" a couple of times, but forgot about it as soon as I've seen the ocean,. Worked for me on a 500ft. Jap freighter and a 35 ft. fishing boat.

I don't mean to sound dismissive or flip but we have the choice to not cruise a particular cruise line or, indeed, to not cruise at all.

 

No one is forcing us to book and sail a HAL cruise.

 

You convinced us! ;)

We will vacation by car. "See the USA in your Toyota"

?:confused::cool:

I don't mean to sound dismissive or flip but we have the choice to not cruise a particular cruise line or, indeed, to not cruise at all.

 

No one is forcing us to book and sail a HAL cruise.

 

You convinced us! ;)

We will vacation by car. "See the USA in your Toyota"

?

The weight is gain is a sure sign that you have enjoyed a relaxing cruise with good food and drink to be had whenever you want. IMO, people who do not gain weight during a cruise are doing it wrong.:p

I already have enough weight, thank you. I'm not going to stuff myself to show a clean plate, nor do I order double anything.

On one cruise, I ordered the cheese plate appetizer one night, and told the waiter which cheese I really liked best, the following nights that was the only cheese on my plate any time I ordered it.

Warning to all new cruisers; Salt air can shrink clothes, especially in the evening right after dinner!

Being US Navy retired I know a thing or two about potable water on board a ship. On board cruise ships all water goes through a sophisticated Evaporation process. After that process the water is basically the water you would get out of an under the counter Reverse Osmosis system for your home. Virtually pure with a maximum of 45 PPM total dissolved solids, which is as close to zero ppm as you can get with water. The ships water is, without a doubt, more pure than any bottled water on earth. :)

Absolutely! :)

At home, I have a reverse osmosis installation which costs me about $100.00/year for maintenance; on ships, it's FREE! :D I only buy water for long car trips, and take a cooler.

If you are worried about the water (on board or in ports) drink beer!:p:p

I guess not!

Metal in knees may or may not trigger alarm, depending on the machine setting, since the metal is near the skin. Replacement hips are far less likely except with machines at the highest settings, since the implant goes down into the femur while the metal cup is deep in the pelvis (deeper for some of us than others!). In either case, TSA will just laugh at the MD notes or ID cards made by implant manufacturers...just tell them you have an artificial joint and they'll do a quick pat down and send you on your way. If you have a choice, use the full body scanner instead of the metal detector...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Just returned from my first trip flying after getting a pacemaker. They glanced at my card and said "The other machine" to go to the full body one. On the way back, a smaller airport and one glance at the card and they took me around the scanner and used the wand and an explosive swipe.

Much less stress than when I just had a hip replacement.

4 of us toured Europe after college, many years ago. We had bought a VW and brought it home with us, so we came on a Japanese freighter. We gave a bottle to the purser and one to the Captain before we left port. The first night we were invited up to the bridge to observe the complex trip out of port (Belgium) with all the ships in the area.

I sat at the Engineers table and had purchased the same camera in Europe he had just bought, but I had sent some pics home and had a good critique from a camera shop, so was able to help him learn his faster. He gave us a very complete tour of the engine room.There were several men wiping the metal, keeping it clean.

There was never a crewman on deck that was not wearing a white T shirt that looked new. Boy are they clean! The ship matched any cruiseship I have been on in that area.

When I was in Hischool, a group of us went to summer camp for a week. One friend took 9 Hawaiian shirts!!:eek: For a week?, most of us took 3 T-shirts and called it enough.

I do not like wearing a tie, but admit seeing men in tuxes makes me think I should dress up a bit.

When I was growing up, our family vacationed in Mexico a lot! The most important thing to remember there is don't drink the water and avoid the ice. The one and only time in all of my trips to Mexico that I got sick it was at a resort we were staying at in Puerto Vallarta.

On my most recent trip to playa del Carmen with my husband, we decided to stop and have some drinks at Senor frogs. I had a bottled beer, hubby a mixed drink. He was sick for two days. I'm guessing it was the ice.

I've eaten from street vendors, Mercado's and hole in the wall restaurants and have enjoyed some of the best food. I love to experience new cultures through food. I can't imagine going to a port and not at least sampling the local cuisine.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I traveled in Mexico as early as the late 1960s, and stayed in a hotel in a small town that had a water purification system that worked perfectly. They made their own ice with it. I just didn't trust the tap water in my room as well.

DW and I like to eat off ship and have enjoyed eating at places where no one (guests or employees) spoke English or Spanish. Never a problem.

Queen Mary is in Long Beach. Next to the Carnival (formerly Spruce Goose) Dome. ;)

The QM suites are almost all wood. Very Beautiful.

 

The USS Midway is berthed in San Diego. Not much pretty wood on that ship.

We stayed one night on the QM and I don't remember much wood in the stateroom (Only 1st class have been made into hotel rooms).

I do remember the portholes (NOT windows) were too high to see out of, and the bathroom was as large as some staterooms I've been in.

I had my son-in -law and his brother on my fishing boat when we had a WWII carrier in a dock nearby while some tried to get funding to preserve it. We could not believe it was so small!! How did they ever fly off and land on that deck??

True heroes in WWII! Thank you!!

Why do I think most of us with this attitude have gray hair. :D

 

I think a problem with some kids today is that their parents have kept them so busy with planned activities that they never learned how to keep themselves entertained.

 

When I was in grade school our family would spend a couple of weeks in the summer at my great-aunts place on a lake in northern Michigan. I was an only child and had to keep myself busy. I still remember those trips as some of the best times of my childhood.

Activities planned by parents are the only thing worse than no electronic device in hands or ear today.

When I was a kid, we found scrap wood (hard in built-up neighborhoods) and used worn-out roller skates (No longer available. Today kids don't wear leather shoes, and street skates??) Are they still around?:confused: And we made scooters. After building one, if you ever got a new store-bought one for Christmas, you really took care of it! (Even though I broke my nose on mine one time).

I used a highly reputable local TA once after years of DIY. Never again -- I essentially told them which flights to book and not what they wanted me on. They never told me of a major flight change --I had been monitoring so knew it was there. I had to tell them about a sale on our cruise itinerary so that they could take advantage of it. Not what I expected from an experienced cruise agency.

Frustrating, isn't it?:confused:

I DIY quite a bit, but compared an agency in Boston (Sorry they won't let me use the name) to the best price I could get from the cruiseline directly, and found a 3 day hotel stay-fantastic- in addition to the cruise for the same money! Wish I had found them before! :rolleyes:

I visited Machu Pichu in 1953, long before the term "Sacred Valley" was used. The Hotel Tourista was the only one recommended for travelers, and featured personnel who spoke English and other languages. They turned on the hot water at 7AM and again (off during the day) at 5 but off at 7PM. The train left at 8Am and returned at 7PM, so you had the choice of using lots of deodorant or showering in a very cold room in cold water. Winter at that height is COLD!

I still remember the ruins, though: amazing enough to never be forgotten.

If your cruise starts or ends in Lima, add this, not through the cruise line. Wife, daughter and family went there a few years ago. DD researched Cusco and found a very reasonably priced hotel run by some Dutch people, just a couple of blocks from the plaza. It was extremely clean and very comfortable.

Altho we prefer X and Princess, we have chosen the Ryndam to do a port intensive cruise around Spain. We will be off the ship all but two days. So I think we will be happy as this ship will be our transportation, more than source of entertainment.

We have cruised enough that we make that decision first....are we looking for an interesting itinerary that keeps us going every day or a resort experience? On a slow R&R Caribbean cruise, we are using the ship as the resort as we have visited the islands many times.

Sorry, but a port-intensive cruise around Spain will not be as good as a road trip around Spain!

Easier, yes, but not as good.

Computers! How did we ever live without them. :eek:

Or with them??:confused:

We have done both and had good weather every time. Both are interesting with interesting ports.

If you have done one way before, choose the other next time.

I bring along a small plastic pill bottle with instant coffee of my choice and then

I can add a spoon or so to the weak ships coffee or just fill the cup with hot water

like you would for tea and add what works for me.

 

On the drastic side just pour a jigger or two of Irish or Scotch in the coffee and

problems about taste become non-existent.

How you get alcohol past security is a non-discussion issue !

I've bought cheap sand toys from the Dollar Store and Wal-Mart for my kids to take to the beach at various ports, and then, upon leaving the beach, given the toys to a local child or left them with the beach bartender to give to whomever he so chooses. He said he knew some kids that would be happy to have them.:) Very little money spent (about $4 total), my kids got to play with the toys while we were there, extra room in the luggage coming home, and another child gets gifted practically new toys. A win, win, win situation. I'll continue to do this as long as my kids are still in the 'sand toy age range'.:D

I'm sure many kids and their parents have prayed for you in various religions.

On one cruise many years ago, our waiter saw us as we debarked at a port in Chile. He was standing in a line of crew members waiting to use a phone, but told us there was a less expensive place in town. That cruise he had some time to make the call home, but not enough time to go to town.

Today's extra tables for the waiter's to work has spoiled one of the highlights of cruising; Being treated like a king and queen and still being able to talk to the crew. On Azamara I didn't see a crumb cleaner or even a wine steward!

15-20 dollars for a taxi. A little less for a shuttle, but a taxi is as easy as it gets. happy cruising

Usually!!!

We had reservations in a hotel, but didn't know they had 3 hotels in the area. Since there was a parade going on, the cab driver let us out and we crossed the street through the parade, and then found out we were in the wrong one!

People were very nice, and gave us a good room and cancelled the other hotel. After touring some other islands for a week, we stayed in the hotel we had first booked, better view but no beach.