thetexasaggiecruiser

My wife and I just returned from a 12 day Cuba Cruise with Peal Seas and were very impressed. There were 150 on the ship and the guest lecturers’were outstanding, both in presentation and knowledge. All of the tours were included as well as lunch at private restaurants on many of the tours which were all very good. Drinks on the ship were included and plentiful and the food was some of the best we have had on a ship. Here is a link to a short video slideshow we put together after we got back plus the daily blog we posted while on the trip. http://tomjed.com/index.php/cuba

Tom

Great overview, thank you so much!

Hi all, thanks for the information! The reviews of this cruise are really improving. I'm looking forward to this cruise next year. On that note - I had not visited the Pearl Seas Website in a while and noticed a price drop. For those of you who pay more attention to that than I, feel free to ignore but if you haven't checked in a while, might be worth it!

Congratulations and sounds like it was a wonderful evening. Thank you for these wonderful updates and hope you stay well.

Hi,

 

I remember meeting you two at the Meet and Greet. Have you heard from Jo? I wanted to thank her but do not have her e mail address. I wonder if she has seen this thread?

 

Regards,

 

Howard

Her email is on the roll call thread I think.

Yes, it is. Depends on which berth you get, we were the furtherest away from the central area and I would say it would be about 15-20 minutes if you ambled, 10 of you walked a bit quicker. It's all downhill from barrachinas to the pier so pretty easy.

Sorry about the Ducks. But a great season nonetheless. Thanks for the update on the demographics and for the great updates!

Edited to add: I hope to be cognizant at 96, much less on the world cruise. Pretty amazing.

Just caught up on this - and thank you for the wonderful review. As has been mentioned, many of us in Texas no longer travel to Mexico, but I really like that itinerary, so it was very nice to see your comments on the area and the tours. Sounds like you all had a great time.

We just took that (nearly the) same cruise on the Westerdam, and if you like Half Moon Cay, you'll love it. Here is a great trip report of that itinerary on the NW from a few weeks ago:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2132818

It just depends on whether the menu items that get repeated are ones you like, or not!

On our b2b over christmas, the production shows were different the second week. So they may not exactly the same. The menus did repeat a little. That may not always be the case, but it was for us. Apparently Fort Lauderdale has changed its policies for turnaround day - in transit passengers are cleared onboard in the lounges, if you aren't planning to leave the ship. If you have an excursion on shore, you can debark to clear though, to get done earlier.

Sorry about the embarkation - ours on the Westerdam was very smooth and I truly don't recall if they did the even/odd line. I think we hit a lull in the boarding process, ours was so quick.

But sounds like all is great afterwards - thanks for taking the time and Internet minutes to post from the cruise - and enjoy the rest of your two weeks!

Thanks for the review! We left just as you boarded, and I agree that happy hour was very efficient - though we were in the Ocean View bar, not the Crows Nest. But I agree with your feedback on the HALcats - though I thought the lead singer was a little weak. However, I keep reminding myself that these entertainers do not have the luxury of using Autotune devices in concert like many performers do these days.

Thanks for coming back and updating us! The information is always relevant, and entertaining.

I have not heard of the President's Club before. Can anyone tell me what it is & how you qualify? I couldn't find anything about it on the HAL site. Thanks.

As I understand it, it is the non-published level for some travelers whose 5-star level is well in their rearview mirror. A truly special status.

Congratulations on the President's Club status! Well-deserved, for sure.

As an idea, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But practically, it seems there are a lot of things to consider, outside the price of the cruise - the planning of the trip, the planning of making sure things at home are settled, meds, insurance, etc. One thing that wears me down on cruises is constantly keeping totally picked up and organized and making sure I don't inconvenience the room stewards too much with STUFF everywhere.

I'm hoping we can cruise more over time, and I think the Grand Voyages are a great way to start, because you get to see more of a particular part of the world at a time.

But full disclosure - I've run numbers to see what the total, real cost would be and put a plan together to save for it, with milestones when we hit Grand Voyage level. So we'll see!

Great thread, and great input. I'd still have to figure out how to deal with missing football games...

That's really a shame that such a significant number of passengers cancelled their service charges. These folks work SO hard.

Sounds like you had a great day reconnecting with friends. Off you go - have a great cruise. Thanks again for taking us along!

The piano bar entertainer was Damien (I'll look up his last name). I would say that he is quite possibly not the top HAL piano bar entertainer vocally, but he was really good with the crowd.

Michmike2 - great job in the bowl game - what a comeback! Very nice to meet you all onboard - we had a great time.

Just wanted to check back in and add my rave for Marmalade - it was an absolutely exquisite dinner - and, even though we took a cab back, it's definitely walkable back to the pier. We were a bit pressed for time so just cabbed it back.

Worth every penny/minute.

They also have showers inside the hydropool room on the Westerdam, but I don't remember seeing any soap/shampoo in there.

We were there with you - it was a great week, wasn't it. Kudos for you getting your trip report up! Mine is still in my head, but reading yours, I might just go ahead and post it later today.

Glad your bag joined you! I hope the rest of this cruise is smoother, maybe all the bumps are out of the way.

Looking forward to reading along, and I wish you the smoothest travels possible when you get to the birthday segment!

So exciting to read about your travels once again, I truly enjoy them. Glad you had a wonderful Christmas with family, and that the duffels arrived safely. Have a wonderful time!

And we got 8 toots again.