disneyfan1313

^ Wait - I am confused.. is it your one year anniversary of you splitting up? If not... how can it be an anniversary?

My personal fave is http://www.vacationstogo.com for comparing prices. I also would then check the normal Orbitz/Expedia/Travelocity although I think Expedia has the best engine for searching cruises. It is rare that one site will offer drastically less than others - most often there will be a small variation in the on-board-credit that is offered. Once you get the cruise/price that you want - book it DIRECTLY though the cruiseline unless the price is more than a few dollars lower elsewhere. If it is lower elsewhere - try asking the cruise to match it. Booking directly with the line really helps if you need to change something, the price drops, etc.

Looks yummy! I love to cook but have never made a Shepherds pie - what recipe did you use?

Thanks for the TR! I really enjoyed my time at Blackpool - I agree about the dark rides... so much fun! Is it possible that the bench with the date is only gone temporarily? It seems like a very strange decision to remove such a popular photo op.

^^^ The only ship that was due to dock in Hawaii was NCL's Pride of America. They stayed out of the port originally and docked later in the day when the Hawaii warning was lifted.

I realize that it is different for grad school but USF does have a really bad reputation in Florida. Also - I would imagine that it would have very little name recognition outside of Florida. Are you planning on going into Academia? Would the reputation be a concern?

I hope the video tribute to the trainer is just before the first show - otherwise that could be a little awkward if you are still sitting through that 6 months from now. Believe already tries to push that fake "emotional response"... I can't even imagine this on top of the rest of the show.

There seems to be a rash of cruise ships (mostly Carnival!) hitting peers recently. This one is especially tragic since crewmembers died.

^^ I am guessing that its a 4 day with Carnival out of Miami? The 3 and 4 days are on *really* old ships and on Carnival that means you will feel like you are stuck in a 1980's Atlantic City Casino. Are you really stuck on going to Cozumel? For your first cruise I would focus on the cruise experience and not on the destination... I would honestly urge you to book anything but Carnival. Not sure what date you are leaving but there are 4 and 5 days that go to Cozumel on Grandeur of the Seas (a RCCL Ship) out of Ft. Laurderdale which is very close by. If you do end up with carnival I wouldn't blow the $$$ on a suite - can you use the same amount of $ from the cost of a suite and go on a longer one? Some great deals on 7 days on nicer / newer ships in August. Also - for Cozumel there are some great independent tours of the ruins that will save you LOTS of cash over booking through the ship. I can point you in the right direction if you are interested.

Forget about Team Jacob or Team Smoke Monster... its all about...

^ Sigh. No Polk County - no one is going to "Stay a few extra days" to experience your marvelous nothingness. Sure Bok Tower Gardens is beautiful but its a 3 or 4 hours trip at the *most* and the average age going there is 70-80. It blows my mind that they think that Legoland will "change" them into a tourist destination. Sigh.

So NCL is STILL losing money - sure they are doing better (loss of ONLY 39 mil!) but it remains to be seen if Epic will keep them afloat or sink them. With prices still ridiculously low - it isn't looking great. On other "not-so-good for NCL news", Conde Nast magazine released their 2010 cruise poll of their top 90 ships and NO NCL ships made it in the rankings. For those of you keeping tabs - Robb's B-day ship, the Mariner of the Seas was ranked #7 in the list of Megaships!

Legoland Florida launches its web site! www.legolandfloridaresort.com/ There is press info and even some jobs listings. Looks like they are hiring for a few positions already! It is interesting that the url is the "Legoland Florida RESORT" - I wonder if they are really trying to make it a resort destination.

This announcement from RCCL came out today.. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but up until this point on Oasis you had to have their special hand held device to access these features...right? It would be awesome if you could just use an iPhone app to communicate and receive the info. Hopefully they deploy this fleetwide!

^ I really thought NCL nailed the entertainment piece. Could you throw together a photo trip report for us? We would love to see some pics!

Thanks for the TR! That walk-thru of a pregnant woman looks uber-creepy! Was it guided or did you walk through on your own like a fun house?

I know something I have always been fascinated with is the life of a crew member. I found this great interview on Cruise Critic in which an American worked in food service for a few contracts on Carnival. This is especially fascinating because not only is it rare to have Americans in shipboard jobs because of the long hours and low pay, it is even more rare to have a server from the USA. Some interesting tidbits... Really worth a read.... The life of a Carnival employee. So what do you think.... would you ever try working on a cruise?

Some photos have just been released of the Norwegian Epic undergoing sea trials. This is done quite a bit before the actual first cruise and before it is really painted or finished. It gives you a chance to see the rough shape of the ship in the ocean and how it is coming along. What is especially interesting about these photos is it looks like the Aqua Park is almost all done! Cool stuff to see... Photos courtesy of cruisecritic... It looks like an old, falling apart ship...but its brand new! Looks like a lot of the stuff on the top deck is actually finished. Aqua Park and pool deck area

Very cool! Thanks for the photos.. It looks pretty small - does it get busy in the Summer or is it mostly a family tradition in the area to come at Christmas?

Wow. That is really scary - I am glad you guys are OK! Did it make the news?

Ahh - the old "official" cruise line of Walt Disney World and later Universal. They went bankrupt - here is the Wikipedia history on them.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_Cruise_Line

How about some more photos.. These include the crappiest private island in the world... Great Stirrup Cay! I know it might seem like I had a lot of complaints...but for the price we paid - we had a really fun time. Some of the Hawaiian details in the lobby area. Then for some strange reason the theming felt like you were in a mall in the 1980's! More 1980's mall. This is their coffee bar with the shopping area nearby. Best themed area on the ship is the Outriggers Lounge. While it is dirt cheap out of Miami - it was quite pricy in Hawaii. The level of detail is quite surprising. Even a coconut plant! NCL has great 24 hour food options. Hot wings at 3am in a white suit.... sure! The next day was Great Stirrup Cay... bye bye pretty ship.. .... hello third world island! This place was REALLY ghetto compared to the other private islands we have been to. It looked like a shanty town that they just happened to dock at. Food options (once again) were REALLY BAD. The only free thing to drink was foul tasting water. Yummy! We decided to explore more of the scenic island. And its rocky and painful "beaches" We decided (for some reason) to walk down a random path.. after 20 minutes we passed another couple walking back. We asked them where it went - they told us they gave up. For some strange reason we continued on.. it had to lead somewhere... RIGHT?!?!?!? There was a nice view of the ship.. which was getting further away! Finally.. a rock pile! We eventually found a little outcropping with a great view of CoCo Cay - RCL's private island. We wish we were there.. See ya Great Stirrup Cay... we won't miss ya! We did get a great view of the bow coming back. One neat touch on the carpet is the fish swim to the front of the ship The ship was very nice... this was the 24 hr food/sports bar area. I'm glad they haven't cheapened the look yet. Best part of the food.. PRETZEL BREAD! Tonight...we decided to go to the main (free) restaurants.. Food was about the same quality - looks pretty but bland tasting. Are we sailing from CA to HI? They had a quarter pusher machine that kept letting me win.. I seriously was raking in the change! In it I also won a token for $5 in free slot play. ...and on my first pull I won $42! Love it when you come out ahead in a casino! Best part of a cruise.. 2ND DINNER! This time in the other restaurant. ... with a cheese plate! Thanks NCL - we will probably give you another try. We know what you are good for... and what sucks..

Here is the first photo TR of the Cruise Ship Thread! So in late November of '09, I got an AMAZING deal on a 3 day Norwegian Sky cruise out of Miami. How amazing do you ask? $119 a person amazing. Our first try on NCL on the Norwegian Spirit about 4 years earlier didn't leave the best taste in our mouth, but for $119 a person what is the worst that can happen! We decided to give NCL another chance with an open mind and knowing what we didn't the first time. A few days before the cruise there was another price drop and for an extra $15 per person we upgraded to an oceanview... what a deal! NCL as we discussed earlier in the thread is really a different product than the other lines out there. They push the freestyle cruising concept where you really can do "what you want... when you want". There are no set dining times and more speciality restaurants than the other lines. The downside to this.... service SUCKS in most cases and the overall quality of the food is generally lower as well due to their lower than industry average pricing. Norwegian Sky is an interesting ship with an interesting history. It originally set sail back in 1999, but in 2004 it was re-purposed over to the new branch of Norwegian that was made to sail in Hawaii and renamed and rethemed as the "Pride of Aloha". The Hawaii market didn't do as well as Norwegian had hoped and in 2008 it returned to the normal NCL brand as Norwegian Sky with 3 and 4 day Miami sailings. What is fun about this is most of the Hawaii theming (much of it is very detailed) still remains. NCL pushes the ship as the youngest ship out of the S. Florida market to do 3 and 4 day cruises and its demographics make it very much a "party" atmosphere. Anyways... enough talking and onto the photos! Sailaway time out of the port of Miami. Not the most scenic port.. They do a pretty nice BBQ poolside for sail-away. It is rare to see real fire on a ship! Our first dinner we decided to do the upcharge Italian restaurant. Very disappointing lower quality than Olive Garden. This is the worlds saddest antipasta plate. Our first indication of quality issues. The S and P were written on in SHARPIE! It was so disappointing that I couldn't be bothered to turn around for the picture.. I just thought this sign was funny.. I really like this touch - they have monitors all over the ship telling you the aprox. wait time for the dining locations. Our first stop is Nassau -its our 10th or 11th time there so we debated even getting off. On our walk to the church where we got married we found some funny graffiti. K.K. Drugs - is that a K.K. Slider song? Hey sexy mermaid... move that arm! I love Ting - its a delicious Jamaican grapefruit soda. Back on the ship we watched them repaint the neighboring Carnival ships funnel. It was actually very entertaining. I thought it was funny the way it looked like the sign could be changed at any time. As I mentioned before there was LOTS of Hawaiian touches all over the ship. Stacey decided to try out the driving range.. One interesting thing they have is a poolside casino set up at night. NCL does a great job at branding. The White Hot Party is a PHENOMINAL South Beach style party. We decided to try the upcharge steak restaurant that night and were dissapointed again. This is Staceys salad which was basically Hamburger toppings. I've seriously had better steaks at Dennys... Do NOT go on NCL for the food. It was "White Hot Party" night so we dressed in the closest to white that we had. VOLCANO! I'm having my themed drink in a glowy cup....exciting! Hard to get good photos of the white hot party - but it was fun.. Snow, Angels, great DJ. Entertainment and events really is where NCL nails it.

Princess Cruise Lines announced today that they will let non-cruisers on board for embarkation day to visit with friends and family that might be sailing. Apparently this used to happen years ago (long before I started cruising) but stopped with security concerns. Details are in the article below but it will cost $39pp and include food, wine a tour and picture. I personally think its a great deal, especially since it includes priority embarkation.... what do you think? Article courtesy usatoday.com

Many of you might not realize this...but the Coaster Expedition series has "special" qualities... some might even call them Magical.... I decided to do a series of experiments when I received my DVD in the mail.....I wanted to see if the rumors were true and Coaster Expedition 13 could actually cause miracles. Below you will see the photographic PROOF of this. Make sure you get yours soon, so you can experience this for your self.. IT HAS ARRIVED! Note the fact I am wearing special "CE Proof" gloves. I am not sure what the results might be on humans.. I decided to take a normal glass of tap water... ...and it turned into wine before my very eyes! An ordinary tea light.. it couldn't possibly have an effect on this.. IT HAS THE POWER TO MANIFEST FIRE! I wonder what will happen if I place it in water.... OMG IT FLOATS! I decided to see the effect it would have on the living.. an ordinary housecat will do well. This cat has been fixed for years and it brought its sex drive back! .. and unfortunatly it had its way with it all night....Bye-bye DVD....