WLHyatt

Slidell is a safe neighborhood on the "northshore", we usually stay the night in Covington before our November/December cruises so I don't blame you.

It is a pretty easy drive into New Orleans, especially Sunday Mornings.

In the winter you'll often have two ships pass in the river on a Saturday or Monday arrival of the Elation/Triumph. The dream and a Norwegian ship (I don't know which one).

We have been on the Elation when it was held outside of southwest pass to wait for the Dream and the other ship to exit the pass before we could enter.

On that occasion we were a little late getting back to port, got in around 7 and off the ship after 9.

WE HYATT that was an excellent and thorough post. Now I want to cruise down the Mississippi.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Well thank you!

(I at least assume you're talking about me, since I wrote that above)

Valor is getting:

Guy's Burger Joint

BlueIguana Cantina

Redfrog Rum Bar

BlueIguana Tequila Bar

Redfrog Pub

Alchemy Bar

Skybox Sports Bar

Cherry on Top

You can find all kinds of ship broker sites that have ships with the same GRT and room count as the entire fantasy class. I think Carnival has listed them just to see if there is any interest in their old assets, but any serious offers would be years out as they have to build capacity to replace those ships.

With such a large fleet in the Fantasy class, they'll need lots of capacity to replace it without disappointing many ports and passengers.

Or Galveston and Mobile, I believe.

As you exit southwest pass you'll see the water change from muddy, heavy, and brown to clearer, lighter, and blue-ish. The water will be different, after sailing in the river and seeing the wake just being ripples on the water you'll actually have foam on the top of the water.

There must be something different about salt water that makes it act different than the water in the river, but that's one of my favorite parts of sailing from New Orleans.

Also stay up late to watch and listen for the beacon at the end of southwest pass. It's an audible beacon with a light to go with it and something most people don't think about.

While in southwest pass stay on the starboard side until you can find the old lighthouse that is there. It won't be lit, as it was abandoned years ago, but you can usually make it out against the sky.

Can I sail with you? You sound fun!

It's a bit beyond 7 hours. If you search you'll find a list of things you'll see on the river as you sail that I put together for a cruise back in 2013.

It is absolutely worth the excitement, only a handful of cruises are in a waterway that long before getting to the open ocean.

I am 2 rooms forward of this on in 33 days!

I am interested in the roll out of this, hopefully they'll add it to some of the existing cruises.

Get the cheapest one that is UL listed, it will be safe and if it's under $10 will lack surge suppression.

I'd venture to say that a small closed loop power system (the ship's) is cleaner (electrically) in the grand scheme of things than a huge grid with open-air conductors that anyone including uncle grandad can work on (the power company).

The reasons for the restrictions on the surge suppressors is solid, and they're just not needed. Laptops run through a switchmode power supply that are very wide in both frequency and voltage ranges, and in that process the power going to the laptop is cleaned by default. People have ran laptops off of bad generators for years and there is rarely an issue with the laptop, usually if there is a problem it's a bad power supply quitting.

We'll be there June 3rd 2017, looking forward to it!

Yes, she is dead heading to Port canaveral.

I've heard they do quite a bit for the crew during these moves without guests.

Good, they can use a break!

Is she sailing empty today?

Some TA's can get you better deals and onboard amenities, they just are not allowed to advertise the prices which is why you'll never see a lower _advertised_ price.

Some TA's just don't keep up. It is challenging though, since they have numerous lines to keep track of rules from.

Where in the heck are you getting this information- a lot of ships are sailing one way, NCL, HAL, Princess, RCI and Celebrity- all have one way cruises.

 

What is in short supply is round trip Vancouver.

He did say Carnival sailings are round trip Seattle mostly.

Our sailing in Alaska last year (which I think you were on, Budget Queen) we did have moderately choppy water the first and last nights, but nowhere near as bad as some trips in the Gulf of Mexico. I think if a person can live with the motion of the ship in the Gulf, overall their experience in Alaska will be minimal movement at all.

I think everyone is saying the same thing, just in different ways. No one is here to bash each other.

Yep, that's the thing is it is all up to you and the way you like to cruise. Our cruise was the 8 day at the beginning of the season and we spent a day in Tracy Arm and a day in Glacier Bay. That factored into our decision to get the extended balcony.

We spent LOTS of time on the balcony, way more than we have on any caribbean cruise.

The extended balconies are great for alaska, but those vista suites sure did tempt me for a while.

Luckily my bank account came to the rescue and I booked an extended balcony.

Staying near the airport is no fun. You need to be in The French Quarter. Do whatever you have to do to stay there. Worth it.

During French Quarter Fest that is likely not possible. The hotels book up a year in advance for the festival, and the same for Jazzfest and Mardi Gras.

Taxi's the morning of the cruise should not be a problem, all the taxi drivers in Jefferson Parish will want to get down to the Quarter area to pick up new fares.

I like John, but I do think he needs a villain, and Cruise Critic fits that bill.

He's a showman who needs someone to stir up controversy on his page to build a following and taking posts from here out of context along with the folks that willingly go tell him stuff being discussed here as fact provides that bit of controversy without hurting any feelings.

It's a give and take thing here, but I think the average user on his page hasn't really gotten into the cruise critic community beyond the surface and feels like they are better off sticking to his page. There may be some "elitist" mentalities here, but for the most part everyone is down to earth and just wants to get on a ship. I've learned a lot from this group of people and it didn't matter if they liked john or not.

With that in mind there have been many many many things posted about here that he had no idea about, and at first denied only to come back later and confirm.

I Am still thinking it's "Panorama" or something similar.

It will be there.

Nothing bought from the "funshops" prior to sailing shows up on the cruise documents due to people buying gifts as a surprise for a passenger. They have a very established process for funshop/bon voyage orders, and I've never heard of anyone not getting things they ordered.