Lisa63

My 20-year-old son agrees, also. He's spent every one of his nights on HAL on a sofabed, most of which were in suites. (The others were comfortable, as well, he says.)

Take a look for a children's book called "My Ocean Liner: Across the Atlantic on the Great Ship Normandie," by Peter Mandel. It was published more than 10 years ago, so I do not know of its availability. It tells the story of an ocean crossing, though the eyes of a 9-year-old. It was wonderfully done, IMO.

We wanted to try something different in Bar Harbor beside the Acadia tour. Booked with Oli's Trolley the Northwest Harbor tour. It is 21/2 hours to Seal Beach and Northwest Harbor and another fishing village along the coast. In the past it included a stop at some gardens that they no longer have access to so they changed the name of the tour and changed the route a bit. Has anyone done this tour (in either it's previous or current incarnation)?

Was it worth the time? Would you recommend it? We are pretty easy to please. 4 history buffs that are happy to see the landscape

We are strongly considering this tour, as well. We live in New England and have visited Bar Harbor by cruise ship many times, yet would like to see more of the Island. I have the same questions as the OP: Is it worth it? Recommend? Thanks!

Mrsfrz, what are some of your interests? We've done this itinerary numerous times and there are various options for history (this part of Canada has a lot of it), nature, sailing, etc. Also, is touring by foot an option?

We've done a combination of cruise line tours (and are doing two such tours this summer) and tours by foot that we have planned ourselves.

We were offered upsells on two of our HAL cruises. Both times, our travel agent was notified (I do not know how) and she then called us. I don't know the process if you booked with HAL directly.

One Hotel Director asked my DH to be best man at his wedding.

 

Curious... did he accept? What a great honor to be asked.

I agree with Mickie. The obstructed view cabins are below the other oceanview categories in price.

Yet, you've stumbled on one of my little secrets -- the obstructed view cabin. We book these whenever we are able, for those times that we would rather spend $ on shore excursions or that we have to spend a lot on airfare. (In the case of Europe, that's both!) We like them as they are usually just as spacious as the regular oceanview cabins and still let in light.

JMHO.

I agree with the comments on the NCL suites. We had a two-bedroom villa on Norwegian Jade as well as suites on an NCL ship that has since been sold and suites on two of HAL's S-class.

NCL does a fantastic job with suite pax. We were offered a smaller venue for breakfast and lunch (no extra charge), a reserved seating area in the show lounge, concierge escorts at embarkation and debarkation, and -- of course -- an enormous cabin. Cabin amenities on Norwegian Jade were spectacular and included four TVs, two bathrooms (a total of two showers and one tub), and a master bedroom that was separated from the living area by sliding doors.

The villa level (now called The Haven) also gave us access to a pool area and a large outdoor deck for the shared use of other villa passengers. Coffee, tea, and light snacks were available here, too. Yet, unlike HAL's Neptune Lounge, the concierge desk was not located here. She was, however, available by phone and had a desk set up in the breakfast and lunch area I mentioned above during dining times.

We had a full breakfast in our cabin a couple of times. The table was large enough for all three of us. The butler prepared the table nicely with linens and place settings, which was a nice touch. Yet, as stated previously, I do not think this would have worked on the balcony. The balcony was not small, yet was also not large enough to accommodate a table of that size. HAL and Princess would be good options for balcony dining, IMO. (I do not know about Princess' suites, though.)

Our Norwegian Jade cruise was in the Med and we found the demographics similar to that of HAL -- in fact, I caught myself trying to identify our ship by looking for HAL funnels!

I hope this was helpful. Enjoy narrowing down to your selection...that's part of the fun for me!

I believe the policy has changed, and pre-ordering vegetarian dishes is no longer required...

I am glad to hear that, GoHoward. Thanks!

Thank you for posting the menu, Krazy Kruizers.

To the OP - I found the menus more extensive than I had anticipated. My main disappointment was having to order the night before. (In addition to not knowing what I'd be in the mood for, I am pescetarian, so a fish course on the following night's regular menu might have appealed to me.)

What I ended up doing was to ask to see both the vegetarian and regular menus for the following night. I still had to deal with advance ordering, but at least I could see if something on the regular menu might be to my liking before placing an order from the vegetarian menu.

By the way, we had as you wish dining (or whatever the open seating dining is called) and it worked well even though we did not have the same table every evening.

Oh... I don't remember if I indicated vegetarian on the reservation. Chances are that I did not, as I'm not fully vegetarian. I did not make the vegetarian notation for my current reservation.

I have a 1996 issue of Cruise Travel Magazine in front of me that shows the cruise calendar at the time.

Leeward was doing alternating 3- and 4-night cruises on three different itineraries: (1) Nassau-Out Island, (2) Key West-Cancun-Cozumel, and (3) Playa del Carmen-Cozumel-Key West. Back then, Playa del Carmen was likely a service stop for those passengers on shore excursions to Tulum. It does not state whether the Out Island was included on itineraries (2) and (3).

Do you recall how long the cruise was? Was it a full week, or shorter?

Azure Seas, which was originally built as Southern Cross, eventually became OceanBreeze, which sailed for Dolphin, Premier, and finally Imperial Majesty. Imperial Majesty replaced OceanBreeze with Regal Empress a couple of years ago.

Sadly, Azure Seas/OceanBreeze is no more. She was scrapped about a year-and-a-half ago. I loved this ship -- we were onboard in the mid 1990s and had a wonderful time. The food was also magnificent then. She was truly a classic.

Here's a wonderful history of the ship, from Maritime Matters:

OceanBreeze history from Maritime Matters

Dolphin remains my favorite cruise line of all time. Few have come close. I regret having never sailed on Dolphin IV... she was eventually transferred to Cape Canaveral Cruise Line, and we were in the process of booking when the line went out of business.

Lucy: "Wow, you can see a lot from up here. Look at that cigar floating in the water."

Helicopter Pilot: "That's no cigar, lady, that's your ship!"

The Ricardos and Mertzes were sailing to Europe on Constitution, although I think aerial shots of Independence may have been used. IMO, the funniest bit on the "ship" (sets were used) other than Lucy's arrival was when she got stuck in the porthole. :)

Let's restart it, then.

My favorite is An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, and SS Constitution.

Next...

There is wonderful artwork throughout the ships -- and if you want to know more about them, go to the Front Office for a pamphlet with a detailed walking tour. :)

Its official name was Salt Cay, and is better known to cruisers as Blue Lagoon Island. It was beautiful -- we were there a couple times in the early 90s as well.

It's still in use today as a shore excursion out of Nassau.