geoherb

I believe all of these small ensembles play primarily cruise ships. They are on long contracts on one ship like the other musicians, singers, and dancers, unlike the comedians and other special performers who are on shorter contracts and frequently change ships. None of them are famous quartets like the Borodin String Quartet or the Julliard String Quartet.

As for the caliber of the musicians, most of them are very good. Unfortunately, a lot of what they play is fluff. I have talked with several on different cruises. On one cruise (Golden to New England), I talked the young quartet into playing Schubert's Death and the Maiden. Listen here on You Tube to the beautiful slow movement.

The best idea before spending much money is to know what you want and what it would cost you at home. If you have an Internet package, you may be able to check out prices while on the ship.

I've frequently booked right after the final payment date--within a couple of weeks--and gotten good prices. Generally, I track prices for several cruises that fit the period when we can go.

Our next cruise is one month away--Sapphire Princess to Alaska. I booked it three days after the final payment date. Prices dropped for some categories of cabin. Prices then went back up a couple of days later. Currently, some of the balcony cabins are at a low prices. Insides, obstructed views, and unobstructed views are almost sold out. Princess does not seemed to have discounted the suite prices.

Unless you are going during a break time for schools--either fall break or Thanksgiving--I'd go with Princess. HAL tends to attract older folks. We have noticed even on holiday cruises that there is not a lot of nightlife on their ships.

As for the Ruby, we've sailed on the Emerald and Crown. We never felt crowded on them. There are lots of different activities going on every evening.

This happened to me--and unnerved me at the time. I was reassured here that the extra booking would go away. And it did.

I have stopped giving my Captain's Circle number when requesting quotes. I put in a note that I am a past passenger and will supply it when booking.

We had an obstructed view cabin on our Alaskan cruise. We did not look over the lifeboat very often, but occasionally we would see enough to know there was something we'd like to see closer--and then we'd grab our binoculars and walk downstairs one deck to the Promenade Deck.

There's only been one cruise where we had an outside cabin without an obstruction. We did not sit looking out the window very much on that cruise either.

Thanks for posting. We'll be onboard next week. My co-worker did your itinerary three weeks ago and loved it and the ship.

The questionnaire we've had to fill out has always been just about gastro-intestinal illness. It's great that the cruise lines try to keep these off of ships--but a lot of people probably don't tell the truth.

I'd love a ship that went to sea somewhere warm and did not stop in any ports--but only if it had half the passengers. Some of our favorite times on the ship are on port day mornings when half the passengers have gone ashore.

Seeing a family with young children in the dining room at lunch one day reminded me about the children's menu on last month's cruise on the Sun. I remembered someone mentioning the chocolate chip cookies. And since no other dessert appealed to me that day, I ordered them with vanilla ice cream.

We climbed the falls in 1989. It was nowhere as crowded as the photos posted previously.

I climbed it barefooted. My DH wore old sneakers. I've read suggestions that say to bring an old pair that you plan to throw away.

We avoided western Caribbean itineraries for 14 years because we did not want to go back to Jamaica. The ironic thing is that in 2003 our ship (Grand Princess) ended up stopping off the shore of Montego Bay to medevac a passenger. Seeing the lights of Montego Bay from a safe distance was the best way for us to see Jamaica again.

If we happen to book a cruise that goes to Jamaica, we will be spending that day on the ship.

I haven't played in any sanctioned games on our Princess cruises--just informal games. I played in a sanctioned game on the Century a few months ago. It was wild. The directors were a married couple. They were very nice. When I first showed up, the wife said she would play with me if no one else showed up without a partner. Unfortunately, a woman came in a few minutes later wanting to play. She had played party bridge but never duplicate--and it had been a long time since she had played any bridge. On the very first hand, she opened 1 diamond, 1 responded a heart, our opponents got into the bidding with spades, my partner supported my hearts, and I bid game. She raised me to five, thinking hearts was a minor suit instead of a major suit. When dummy came down, she had 4 HCP. Down two.

At another table, I was playing in a club partial. When she put down the dummy, there were only 11 cards. My RHO had the two extra cards. The director took the board back to the table that had played it right before us to fix. We ended up in the same contract after he brought the cards back. We miraculously had a 48 percent game that afternoon.

Late seating for us. We like to have time to enjoy the pools and hot tubs before dinner. Plus we like having afternoon tea, and would be too full if we ate early. When we had "Personal Choice" on one Princess cruise, we usually ate after 9 p.m. One night, we arrived after 9:30.

I was disappointed in the entertainment on the Century last week. My biggest disappointment was the lack of options each evening. I guess I got spoiled by our previous four cruises on Princess--where there were a couple of different types of shows in the theater and main lounge most nights. On the Century, it was just one type of show per night--a comedian, the production shows, the ladder guy, a magician, and a couple of singers. There were other things--like karaoke and the newlywed game--but not real options. Also, the duo playing in Rendezvous Square was not great. I never saw a big following for them like I've seen for groups on other ships. And the pool band had a great lead singer--and a guy who was worse than most of the karaoke singers who sang and played the keyboard. The quartet who played in the dining room (violin, clarinet, bass, and piano) was very good.

I've never lost weight on a cruise. To me, the food on Princess is better than RCI but not as good as Celebrity. (It's also a lot better than Carnival or NCL.) The best thing about Princess is being able to have a shrimp cocktail every night. The desserts are also very good--better than the ones on Celebrity.

I had lox and bagels almost every morning on our last cruise (Grand Princess). I usually had a bran muffin, too, and some fresh melon.

The last cruise was the first where we ate most of our breakfasts in the dining room. We had room service one morning so we could eat on our balcony before tendering to Grand Cayman. The other mornings, I never knew what time we'd be ready to eat so I did not leave an order card.

Yes, you can carry unopened bottles of wine in your carry-on luggage. I got a great padded bag as a freebie for subscribing to a magazine. I never thought it would be useful until I remembered it when packing for our last cruise. It holds two bottles.