outerspaceguy

We are Platinum on Princess and so get a few perks. We are looking at the Panama Canal in January 2016 and just cannot decide which would be best for us.

They are the same ships, going in different directions full transit. Princess makes less stops

Personally, I liked doing the Panama Canal in a Panamax ship (a ship that is about 91k tons should basically be Panamax). The memories regarding how we fit into the locks like an exactly fitted puzzle piece is worth it.

Hi everyone.

 

I'm considering taking my very first solo cruise this year. To help keep costs down I was planning to book with Holland America

I am also in my 30s and also recently cruised as a Solo on the HAL Noordam, and I now no longer recommend cruising as a 30ish year old solo on HAL.

I found them to be one of the most solo unfriendly cruise lines out there, and I've done a total of 12 cruises now on most of the major lines. I am not planning on cruising again with HAL.

My two cents...

I would love to hear any thoughts.

 

Thanks.

Unless you like to hang around with lots of other people's kids, I'd reco a different line for a solo....

I couldn't agree more. I am on the shy side so hopefully I will get the nerve to talk to some of those 2000 people.

The easiest trick I've found for this is to simply walk/run/jog the "wrong" way on the jogging track. (ie: on almost all the ships I've been on, everyone walks/runs on the jogging track counter-clockwise. You go clockwise.)

The other reason to do this is that you get to see a stream of smiling faces (as opposed to...)

The other thing I don't like about cruising with a singles group is that they tend to want to do the "single-mingle" dining (where you can sit wit whomever amongst the total group)... but (I've noticed... typically) at the LATE seating.

I'm a hard-core morning person: I start getting noticeably tired around 830PM.

Having late dining just. will. not. work. And I'm not much of a conversationalist once I start getting tired... ;)

I am afraid to book a ship other than Celebrity ... The other ships didn't really offer anything like that.

There are some of us out there.

I'm 33. I'm single. And I've cruised a bunch on Celebrity.

And BTW- IMHO- you are correct about Celebrity. You'll definetly have a better chance finding someone closer to your age on RCCL, but (even so) I also like Celebrity better...

It gets tossed overboard along with all the trash and leftover food during the next sailing.

I'm pretty sure the trash gets incinerated on-board (only when the ship is far away from land).

Am I wrong?

It's their policy.

I have had OBC credited back in the past as well. (2 excursions cancelled were the culprits: one on the account of safety, the other on the account of bad weather).

It does happen (especially to those of us who, as a policy, don't drink...)

-Doug

if you do have any left over, go to the casino and have them turn it into cash as a cash advance. I think there is a 3% charge, and a $20 min, but... it would better than losing it....

I honestly thought this was a joke when I read the title.

 

Wow.

First time I was in Alaska, I was sitting on the balcony in Ketchikan... late in the afternoon... and the walmart shuttle pulled up.

a] It was packed. Funny.

b] Watching what people bought at walmart was hilarious (as they unloaded the van). One guy bought a power drill... (this was before the days of fees for airline checked bags... I'm guessing walmart was running a sale on power drills that day??)

It was random enough to take photos of ;).