Marriott Hotels, Pre and Post Cruise.........

[michmike]

sail - thanks for the kind words..and I can tell the rest of you who haven't yet had a chance to sail with judy and robert that they are very warm and welcoming folks with a wealth of knowledge to share re crusing (as you can certainly tell here on the boards) not to mention they know the good places to eat ashore.. they gave us a wonderful recommendation for lunch in curacao last trip..

 

btw sail, we are finally going to try one of the vista class ships.. Ed and Carol found a heck of a deal on a balcony on Westerdam in Oct and the itinerary included a couple of islands we've not yet been to, so it didn't take much arm twisting to convince us to join them again.

 

Valerie and Jean - I'll be watching my mailbox for cookies.. shortbread eh?? I'll have to make sure I get to those before my wife does... they're her favorite.

 

Now to get back on track with the original premise of the thread - the no smoking I can live with.. they start messing w/ my bourbon and they could have serious problems.. *L*

 

Have a great weekend, ladies... Mike

[hammybee]

Back when I had a real job, most of my peers and I had serious collateral with the Marriott Awards Program. Several were and remain substantial smokers. Given the recent announcement, they have written Marriott off and need to dispose of a lot of points. Can you guess where this is going?

 

They are going to dump their points into a few cruises and HAL is the cruise line of choice. They are, btw, considerate smokers and while they often blow smoke, it's not from exhailing tobacco.

[iceman93]

Here's an interesting article about the economics behind Marriott's move: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_4112110 .

[Tricia724]

Last night I finally got a hotel room through Priceline for our cruise next month. I got the Westin Long Beach, which immediately notified me about the hotel being a completely smoke free facility. (Although there *may* be a smoking area available outside away from the hotel.)

 

After reading this thread about all the Marriott properties changing to smoke free facilities, the thought occurred to me that for a smoker, Priceline is going to be a much less attractive option.