frangran

We had an ocean view room on the very back of the Inspiration a decade or so ago. It was very bumpy & we got seasick. We didn't cruise for years because of that & have gotten rooms mid-ship since then. You may not. Others will disagree. However, this was our experience.

One that carries a week's worth is usually enough but it's also a good idea to carry a few extra days worth in case you get delayed somewhere.

Yes, please do bring some extras!

I once saw a girl faint & fall down onto a subway track because her school group had been detained in France an extra day. She'd brought just enough medication for the number of days she'd expected to stay. (Fortunately, the train was stopped in time! And she didn't fall on the cable which would have electrocuted her!)

Funny, seems like half the people are raving about the "entertainment" - the other half find it obnoxious. I'm in the "I can't stand it" crowd. I'd rather the wait staff focus on serving customers and acting professional. And I feel uncomfortable as they are paraded around the dining room like court jesters. It's awful. I put up with it though as I generally like the MDR.

If you have a background in health and/or food service, it can seem UNSANITARY! They're flinging around those dirty wigs & things. Sometimes they drop them on the floor or a table. And they don't always seem to wash their hands before resuming service after the performance.

My DD & I have often skipped the MDR. Sometimes we dress in ballgowns & go to the buffet -- then go have our pix taken! It's just how you feel at the time.

I cover the tag with packing tape, then poke a hole in it & put a string through it. Then I tie it securely on the luggage handle, leaving about 3" of string as a "stem" on the tag. Several dock workers have thanked me for this, saying it's more secure than stapling the tag to the suitcase handle as per the instructions.

Lip sync??? Are you SERIOUS? I thought this was a bad joke! :eek:

I folded for over 50 years.

Then I saw this article: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/06/business/businessspecial/20100506-pack-ss.html?_r=0

Naturally I didn't believe rolling would be better, but I got out my carry-on & first tried folding my clothes. After that, I tried rolling them. A whole lot more fit in with rolling than with folding! Plus, rolling worked better with my packing cubes. So now I roll my clothes.

Give a comparison test & see what works for you...

Insuremytrip.com :)

I was living in Mobile at the time. I'm very surprised that they didn't make the decision earlier. We had watched her storm track pass over us from Apalachicola to NOLA in the preceding days, but by three days before she made landfall it was pretty obvious that she was going to hit east of Mobile (east side of a hurricane is always worse than the west side) and she that was going to be huge. Downtown ended up under 10 feet of water due to storm surge. Mobile Bay is bell-shaped, so surge like that has nowhere to go except into the city. I don't recall the boat (was it still the Holiday at the time?) being damaged so they had to have moved her away from the port.

Hope y'all were OK in Mobile during Katrina. A lot of our friends were hard-hit by it. We had moved from Mobile to Dallas just 2 weeks before.

They tend to group similar people. As a divorced mother & grown daughter, we're always assigned to tables of other single adult females. We prefer Anytime Dining or the Buffet.

Always champagne!

On our first cruise, the TA sent champagne & chocolate-dipped strawberries to everyone who booked with her. Since then, we've always ordered our own.

I'll give the Magic a 10 -- our Christmas cruise was not just our best cruise ever (of 6), it was my best Christmas ever & I'm nearly 70!

I use www.insuremytrip.com to find a policy for my cruises. My main concern is medical expenses and medical evacuation but it's nice to know if something happens and we can't go on the cruise we get that money back, too. We don't travel frequently enough to have a yearly plan but maybe someday:).

That's where I get mine, too. I highly recommend them. It's easy to compare coverage & find the best deal for your needs. (One company even includes up to 5 days of pet care if you're delayed -- I've seen people in a panic over their pets when they couldn't get home on schedule! Now that I have a dog, I understand!)

When we first cruised we did strictly MDR then we tried the buffet and it wasn't long before we were buffet for everything except formal night (or elegant night as they call it now). Now if I go without DH it's strictly buffet all week long.

 

To me the food is much hotter on the buffet than I get in the dining room. Anyone that thinks they are getting made to order in the MDR has never seen behind the scenes in the kitchen. Everything is sitting for extended periods waiting to go out in the MDR you are not getting fresh food, you are not getting high end dining. It's a mass dining of course it's sitting on a steam tables and hot trays, how do you think they serve so many at once. Doesn't mean the food is bad at all, just not fresh to order which is why it tends to be warm and not steaming hot.

 

I also don't want to sit 1.5-2 hours during a meal. Others enjoy the whole process, I thought it was cute at first but seeing the singing waiters a few times was plenty for me. I prefer to grab my meal and go do something else so buffet or one of the other stands is definitely my choice. That doesn't mean we don't dress for dinner given the opportunity. The girls and I may still do elegant night with nice cocktail dresses and get all prettied up and have some fun but we won't be sitting for hours waiting on our food during that time.

I agree with you entirely! Like you, I also dress up for Elegant Night, go to the Buffet -- then have more time for fun activities!

Take earplugs! We were over a nightclub on the Glory and it was awful . We could hear and feel the bass .Finally on the last night it was so bad we had to call guest services and have them turn it down.

I agree! We had the same experience on a different ship. It was very loud until at least 2 AM. Yes, we used earplugs. Could still hear & feel it.

We lived on the Gulf Coast for 20 years (Mobile for 17, Gautier MS for 3) but now are in TX. Have been on 2 Christmas cruises & decided to make it a family tradition in the future. The first was 2014 on the Magic -- BEST Christmas EVER! Last year on the Triumph, not quite as amazing, but still worth doing. If there is a willing clergy member on board, you might have a Christmas service in the chapel.

At the best (on the Magic in '14), it was fabulous! Beautiful lavish decorations, ship employees wished us "Merry Christmas" everywhere we went, "snow" in the atrium with everyone singing Christmas carols. They passed out Santa hats to all the passengers. There were special performances, including with passengers' kids performing songs they learned in Camp Carnival. A lovely traditional Christmas dinner. Christmas morning, we woke up to a surprise -- Huge tree by the pool, trimmed with towel animals! And there were also towel animals on many of the pool-side chairs. They also piped in Christmas music. There was a jolly Santa. It was really magical! It did not seem crowded & everyone seemed to be in good humor.

The Triumph wasn't quite as well done. I don't know if the cruise director didn't personally care for the holiday or if there had been cut backs fleet-wise on Christmas celebrations. But if we hadn't experienced the really great Christmas the previous year on the Magic, we'd probably have thought it was very good. Cutbacks included less caroling (one session instead of two & only a couple of songs), Santa hats for children only, no Christmas music, no tree with towel animals, fewer employees wishing "Merry Christmas", skimpy decorations compared with the Magic in 2014. I don't recall if there was a Santa or not. The ship seemed more crowded than the Magic -- or even the Fantasy class.

It's definitely worth trying a Christmas cruise. We booked ours for 2016 back in January!

"Tell them to bring a sleeping bag. And fishing pole"

Fred Astaire did something like that to Edward Everett Horton in a movie ( I think it was "Shall We Dance")

My grown daughter & I travel with just ONE carry-on each. We got 16" carry-ons this time. With handles & spinner wheels, they're closer to 19 inches. (EBags gives exterior dimensions.) These even fit the new size restrictions that the European airlines tried to impose last year -- who knows if they'll try again & succeed? We'll just have to learn to pack less!

Wear what you're comfortable in! My grown daughter (size 2) prefers wearing a one-piece in public.

Your age isn't a factor (remember Helen Mirren in that bikini in her late 60's).

One note on color: they say black is slimming -- and it is, AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND! But silhouetted against white sand & pale blue water & sky, black becomes very noticeable. A lighter color swimsuit blends in with the pastel beach. And a light-to medium print also works to blend in. So don't try to hide in a black suit. It just makes you more noticeable.

Remember, too, you won't be alone out on the beach or at the pool. There'll be many other people of all sizes, shapes, & ages, there with you. You won't stand out like you do in the store when trying on swimsuits. Try not to be too critical of yourself in the dressing room.

So choose something you like & feel comfy in -- and enjoy yourself!

I love packing cubes! I find that the TSA people have an easier time looking through my luggage -- and I can repack more quickly when they're finished. Added bonus -- my lingerie is not scattered about on the counter for public viewing.

I only wear perfume when I'm home alone. So many peeps, including my daughter, have allergies & I hate to see them suffer (& hear them sneeze as they glare at me).

Does anyone remember Evening in Paris Perfume? Gorgeous blue bottle! It was my first perfume back in the early 60's.

I love very heady floral blends -- orange blossoms, gardenias, roses, tuberoses, ylang-ylang, geraniums.

I usually wear White Diamonds, but my dream would be to have a fragrance custom-mixed for me from essential oils!

Most modern scents are fruit based. I've read that a fruit fragrance can make a woman look 10 years younger...

337 days left.

Booked this morning for Christmas!

People still get ice in their ice buckets????

There wasn't even an ice bucket in our (balcony) room on the Triumph at Christmas -- much less ice!!

We choose a 10:30 checking check in time and when the 10:00 slot became available we switched. We printed out our boarding pass and says on the pass “Check In Time 10:00 AM” .

Now I check my docs today and they say “Embarkation 12:30PM to 3:00PM”, since printing it has changed from a 10:00 check in to 12:30 to 3:00PM Embarkation. I not going to reprint and use my current ones with 10:00 on it so is there a list they go by or just look at your passes?

Thanks for posting. I leave in 2 days & after reading this, I checked mine, too. It had been 12:30-1, but now it says 12:30-3:00 PM.

Wonder if their check-in times idea didn't work out as they'd hoped.... Maybe everyone signed up for 10 AM. (I would have done that, too, if I lived nearby. But I have a late flight & then a transfer, so I can't get there before noon.)

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