Leejnd4

I was the one in the wetsuit. 😉 haha We used to sail our boat over there for the weekend. Or, if I just wanted to do a few dives and not stay over, I would take the Catalina Flyer fast ferry from Long Beach just for the day. It's some of the best scuba diving in the world! Although it's challenging diving - cold water, lots of kelp. Not for everyone. And unlike so many vacation dive destinations, you dive on your own...there are no requirements to go with a Dive Master. Which is how I like it. 🙂

Our "dirt" home is in SoCal, and being scuba divers, we've dived at Catalina countless times. Did you ever walk over to Casino Point and see all the divers staging their gear there and entering the water from the stairs? That's the famous Casino Point Dive Park. You might have even seen me there. 😁

Nancy you will enjoy Windstar. Just keep in mind, it's not Crystal! 😉 It's a much more casual cruise line, heavy into a nautical theme. In our experience the food was very good, but didn't compare to dining on Symphony. And it's not all-inclusive, although fortunately we didn't feel "nickel-and-dimed" on our Windstar cruises, the way you do on the mass-market lines. I'm off to the South Pacific myself in November, but I'm going on the Paul Gauguin. They are a bit more upscale than Windstar, and all-inclusive. But you're probably right that they don't offer a good single supplement. You'll have a marvelous time. The South Pacific is truly magical!

I'm sorting through a lot of old photos now, and came across these photos from our 2009 Baltics cruise. Nobody's going to be getting any of these shots any time soon! These are all from our private tour in St. Petersburg. The first three were at the restaurant where we had lunch - our guide told us it was Putin's favorite restaurant. No idea if that's true, but it was a very unusual restaurant - taxidermy seemed to be a theme!

It's super easy to rent a car in Moorea. We spent several days there and rented a car. And it's super easy to take the shuttle to Moorea - and definitely easier to walk on rather than drive a car on. Plus, then you don't have to pay both ways for the car. The ferry terminal is next to the cruise pier in Papeete...you can just walk right over to the ferry. If you pre-arrange your car rental in Moorea, it will be waiting for you where you disembark the ferry. Price is about the same...maybe a tiny bit more in Moorea, but not by much.

Wellll…I’ve gotten into baking sourdough over the past year. 😁 I could always make a few smaller loafs and try the soup in that! I’m just not sure I’ll be able to find all those different mushrooms down here in Mexico. I might be able to find most of them at one of the wonderful Mercados municipales. The herbs will be no problem, they are plentiful and easy to find.

I am too…and this is the first time I saw the recipe. I love to cook so I’m going to try to make it! I can’t wait over a year until my cruise. 😉

Maybe we will bump into each other on your disembarkation day!

I'm with you! Hey, I'm all for creativity and innovation in dining, BUT...some of the classics are classics for a reason.

LOL you're right! We're arriving in Tahiti on November 4, spending a few nights in an AirBnb. So I got my dates mixed up. Thanks for pointing out my error!

I guess it's about time to post my upcoming cruise, since our final payment date is upon us! I'll be on the Nov. 4 Paul Gauguin 10-day Society-Tuomotus cruise. This will be my third PG cruise. Can't wait to get back to FP!

This is GREAT! Definitely one of my favorite dishes on Crystal. Second only to the Carpaccio. But...wait..... NOOO! 😭 I could have sworn I read somewhere in this forum that the Carpaccio WAS coming back. Did I imagine that? The Carpaccio on Crystal was the best I ever had anywhere...including all over Italy. And I loved the way they made such a production out of it. Mom loved it too - she would always insist we make additional reservations at Prego just to have it again. I'll be bummed if it doesn't come back.

Love your attitude! Cruising makes me happy too. 🙂 And I applaud your willingness to look forward not backwards with regards to Crystal. I didn't get burned myself, but I know many are still upset and unwilling to go back to them.

Yes, but the prices for those SGRs are great! I booked one for my Nov. 2024 cruise. Fortunately I got one as far back from the bow as possible. And I don't mind the additional movement that you experience forward. I live on a sailboat, so I sleep better when it's moving! 😉

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that the meals are not good. And people getting sick! No bueno. Hope you stay well!

And you have my apology that I misunderstood. My head is on a little backwards right now...

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm, but it comes across that way. I suppose if you hadn't seen my earlier thread, you wouldn't grasp the significance of this cruise to me and my Mom. Given that I was commenting to Keith (who did know, due to his participation in my my earlier thread), I didn't think about explaining it. But I see now I should have. My Mom's favorite cruise, of the many we did together, was on Symphony. And as she approached the end recently, we talked about how she would love it if I would spread her ashes in some of the amazing places we visited during our years of traveling together. I found two itineraries that would allow me to do that, and I posted a thread asking for opinions about which itinerary looked more attractive to other cruisers, given that some of the port stops I haven't seen yet. I got great feedback, made my choice, and booked the cruise. It gave my Mom great comfort to know that I will be bringing her back to some of the magical places we visited, on her favorite cruise ship. I do understand why this wasn't clear, and why my comment may have seemed bizarre. Now back to discussions of this amazing article about Keith. Sorry I brought this up.

Yes, but some of us really loved Crystal and are looking forward to cruising with them again. Sure, there are always other cruise lines, but some of us had our best cruise experiences on Crystal and are eager to experience that again. I totally understand Mr. Bluebird's impatience...I'm feeling it too.

After spending years as a tech writer and professional editor, bad grammar addles my brain too! My personal pet peeve: "For all intensive purposes." That one makes my brain hurt! But the WORST is when people who should know better use "I" instead of "me" at the end of a sentence, as in "They gave the award to John and I." AAAARRRGGHH! I swear I can hear the person being drilled as a kid, "Never say John and me! Always say John and I!" Which, of course, is correct when it's before the verb. I see this mistake in major publications, hear it from key-note speakers and high-level politicians - come ON people! And what's so infuriating is that it's so damn easy to know when to use I or me: just pluck out the other person's name and see what sounds right. HOW HARD IS THAT??? 😝

WOW! What a lovely article! And such a gorgeous family. Oh PLEASE @Keith1010, won't you book that November 8 2024 Symphony cruise so I can meet you in person? It looks like I'll be doing that cruise alone, and it's such an important one to me. It would be nice to know someone on board. By the way (and sorry to go off-topic), Mom passed peacefully yesterday afternoon. I'm so grateful I got to tell her that I had this cruise fully booked before she went. Anyway, I loved reading your thoughts on Crystal, and it makes me all the more excited to cruise on Symphony again. Like you, I've tried many other cruise lines and just never found one that ticked all the boxes and hit every mark the way Crystal did. I know I'll have a wonderful and very meaningful cruise whether I know anyone in advance or not, but...can I twist your arm? 😉

Ah, here...I found this video for you. This is a good depiction of what it's like. It's pretty bumpy! If you look at this video on YouTube, in the description it says: "The ride up the mountain was incredibly bumpy and the shakiness of the video does not do justice to how rough the mud roads were."

Hi, I would avoid doing either of those tours. I've done both, and they are definitely VERY bumpy. Especially the 4X4 tour. I don't think a lumbar pillow will be nearly good enough, and you could actually hurt yourself. You'll be in the back of a jeep, on HARD benches, with no cushioning, that will be driven pretty fast on very rough and rutted dirt/mud roads, up and down pretty steep hills, bouncing wildly. It's a lot of fun, but I really think it's a bad idea for anyone with back issues to do it. The ATV would probably be not as bad, as you (or your partner, whoever is driving) are in control...but they will still be rough dirt/mud roads. The piers at the islands are not going to be anything like you've seen in the Caribbean. These are pretty small islands and they don't get the mega-ships that you see in the Caribbean. I think you'll be fine. As for Papeete, as I recall, a taxi can drive you pretty close to the ship.

That's exactly why I'm doing a Paul Gauguin cruise in November. We'll still be living aboard our sailboat at that time (we have about a year left before we sail back to CA), but once we move back to dirt we will have way too much going on to be able to do that cruise. So I'm squeezing it in at the tail end of Mexico's hurricane season, before we begin our 5th season of sailing.

Well alrighty then! Here's Mom, along with our tour guide, in Red Square during our Baltics cruise on Symphony some years back. Nobody is getting a picture like THIS again any time soon! Crystal did an amazing job on our Moscow excursion. It was a loooong day - we were up SUPER early to catch a flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow, then we toured Moscow for many hours, then a flight back. I remember that the plane seemed straight out of the 60's - it was a little nerve-wracking! But everything went great. Then when we got back to the ship LATE, they had food out for us to bring back to our cabins for a very late dinner. Too bad we won't get to do that tour again. 😢 But for Mom, this was just such a huge deal. She grew up watching movies about Russian spies, and of course the many years of the Cold War...to be able to stand in Red Square just blew her mind.

Thanks, this is great information! I would have had to ask the question myself too, once my cruise is at the 60 day mark. Now I won't have to. 🙂