Roll Call- Gay NJ Cruisers

If you love cruising and reside in NJ; then give a shout out.

If we get a nice group response, we can have a Meet & Mingle somewhere central (Asbury Park?) and share cruise memories.

Hello there! My wife and I live at the Jersey Shore and love cruising.....in fact, it's probably our first choice in vacations!! We're leaving Wednesday on Carnival....and again in October for the Western Med on NCL. Hopefully you'll get a nice turnout for this board!!

Jay

Hello there! My wife and I live at the Jersey Shore and love cruising.....in fact, it's probably our first choice in vacations!! We're leaving Wednesday on Carnival....and again in October for the Western Med on NCL. Hopefully you'll get a nice turnout for this board!!

 

Jay

Jay- I have to echo the sentiments. We have not gone on a land vacation in 8 years (except for family eventslike weddings/funerals).

I favor Royal Caribbean for their fleet and diverse customer base. My first 2 cruises were on Exploere of the Seas when she was still Empress. And have been on Adventurer of the Seas 3 times (all southern caribbean itineraries.

I have never been on a Norwegian cruise. How does it compare in your opinion?

Fidel

Hi Fidel,

Honestly, we prefer RCCL as well. We took EOS out of Bayonne last September....and AOS out of San Juan last August for our honeymoon. Our first cruise was NCL...which I LOVED until we sailed Royal. I must say, I do like the Freestyle Dining...and if they introduced that on RCCL, I think that would be the ONLY line we'd use....however at this point, we're still sampling what's out there! :)

We have a Carnival cruise leaving out of Tampa Thursday....we chose that soley on price and date....we wanted to be away to celebrate our first anniversary...and we didn't want to take vacation days to do it. We work 12 hour shifts, so we were able to re-arrange our hours so that we don't miss time from work....and we still get to cruise! I'm watching the weather pretty closely....and I don't think it's looking good for us!! Our flight leaves Newark Wednesday afternoon....:confused:

At the end of October, we'll be trying NCL again when we do a Western Med cruise out of Barcelona. I think the Freestyle Dining may be right up our alley....especially for this cruise because it is so port intensive....and I am sure we'll be exhausted each evening....deciding when we want to eat and having so many options appeal to us....especially with this trip.

I still think though, at the end of the day, we'd always choose RCCL over any other line.

Take Care!

Jay

yo - North Jersey here and we have a house down the shore too. I LOVE cruising - my S.O. is not convinced yet LOL. We're going on our 3rd cruise in a few weeks - Can't wait. We're also big Disney vacationers....

Hey guys, Josh and Dennis here from Bergen County, NJ. We love cruising, have only done RCCL so far and are looking forward to Celebrity in late 2009. We are trying to pick up the pace and do two cruises a year! :) We have a quick four nighter coming up on Labor Day weekend out of Fort Lauderdale and then an 11 nighter out of Miami going through the Panama Canal.

Hey guys, Josh and Dennis here from Bergen County, NJ. We love cruising, have only done RCCL so far and are looking forward to Celebrity in late 2009. We are trying to pick up the pace and do two cruises a year! :) We have a quick four nighter coming up on Labor Day weekend out of Fort Lauderdale and then an 11 nighter out of Miami going through the Panama Canal.

...that's how the cruising addiction gets started. Have a great trip.

Fidel

Jack and Andy here from southern New Jersey outside Philadelphia. We took our first cruise on Princess back in May out of FLL and fell in love with it. My SO too had been aprehensive, but has been converted. We're on a repositioning cruise out of NYC in late October again on Princess, and extending the cruise with the Chumley Bear group on a 7 day southern Caribbean cruise. Should be fun

Jack and Andy here from southern New Jersey outside Philadelphia. We took our first cruise on Princess back in May out of FLL and fell in love with it. My SO too had been aprehensive, but has been converted. We're on a repositioning cruise out of NYC in late October again on Princess, and extending the cruise with the Chumley Bear group on a 7 day southern Caribbean cruise. Should be fun

Please let me know how you like Chumley's when you get back. I have co-workers who recommended it highly; but never having been with a gay group before, I was hesitant.

Jack [Cornus] and Brent [tricyrtis] here, but Brent seldom posts. Keep us posted if a meet up is scheduled...if we're around, we'd like to join you.

We enjoy cruising and have been scheduling at least two each year. In just over a month we'll be sailing to Canada/New England for the Splendours of Autumn cruise on the QM2, and in mid-Oct. we'll take the last ever trans Atlantic on the QE2.

Hello Everyone,

My Partner Barry and I are from Staten Island (but I'm from NJ origionally) and we fell in love with cruising 4 years ago. Since then, we've been on 16 cruises and will be sailing out of Barcelona on Sept 9 on Celebrity Constillation TA back to Bayonne with the Pied Piper group. We are Loyal to Royal (Diamond Plus Members) and also love Celebrity. We did Carnival once and probably never again. Not that they were that bad, it's just that they were not that good. We were on the Triumph when it was only 5 years old and it looked older that RCCL Majesty of the Seas at 18 years old. Very poor maintanence. We've never done NCL because we really enjoy the set dining. We have met many great people that we still keep in touch and travel with because we sat togeather at dinner. I think you lose that with the freestyle dining. I would like to try Princess though, just to see what they're like. But like I said. We're loyal to Royal, they have the best fleet out there and their servece is good.

Bob

Hello!

Live on the other side of the GW bridge in Manhattan. Going on the NCL Gem in November, 2008. Will be going with my sister.

Enjoy NCL, this will be the 5th time we've sailed with them, not the best but not bad either, it has worked out for us based on the availability of places/dates we would like to go to more them anything else.

Prefer Celebrity or Princess when possible, but for the dates we had available NCL was the best option. Would have liked going on the Celebrity Summit Transatlantic departing from Rome to San Juan, Puerto Rico and stay in SJ to visit family but it was leaving 3 weeks later, when we return to NYC, and we couldn't get Christmas time off.

Was on the Celebrity Summit before on a 2 week West coast Transpositions Cruise from San Diego to Alaska/Canada and adored the ship! Too bad the dates couldn't work out for us this year! So the only alternative was the NCL GEM.

Getting ready, planning, shopping, packing, reading about the ports, etc.... seems like we have been waiting for this cruise for such a long time, almost a year! And we still have 2 months before we depart!

We will be taking 2 separate cruises a one week first, roundtrip from Barcelona then a 2 week Transatlantic cruise sailing back to NYC and celebrating Thanksgiving on the ship returning to NYC the following Saturday.

Departing NYC Nov 8th and arriving in Barcelona, Spain on Sunday, Nov 9th, sailing that night, the beginning of our 21 day vacation.

DOING a Back to Back (B2B) was the only reason I agreed to do this trip. The Ship will be Home for us for the next 3 weeks until we dock back in NYC, a short cab ride back home.

It meant going to 13 ports but 4 of them we are doing twice. So Barcelona, Rome, (Civitavecchia), Livorno (Piza/Lucca) and Villefranche (Nice/Monaco) twice, but that was also one of the main reasons for doing it as a B2B!

Will be buying lots of wines and other liquids such as aged vinegars back for gifts that I could not have brought back otherwise! Not going back home on a plane, getting to the airport and dealing with all the weight, getting from the airport home and getting an extra hour of sleep the last 6 days means no time zone nightmares when we get back and arriving back to NYC on a Saturday means 2 days before going back to work!

On other cruises we have departed from Bayone, NJ on the RCCL Empress of the Seas and with Princess from Red Hook, Bklyn. This will be our first sailing back to Manhattan and a short cab ride back home.

Anytime anyone wants to get together let me know, I'm willing, will have lots of Digital Images to Show!

hey guys, NJ cruiser here too.

My partner is not too keen on cruising, goes sometimes but not really his thing.

Big Celebrity/RCCL fan here, but will do any line as long as the itin and the price is right :D

so what happened to all the NJ cruisers

South Jersey here. Cruise as often as I can. Single, hitting the big 40 next week and will celebrate it at Gay Days in Aneheim with my buddies.

Have cruised over 50 times and have 3 more to sail in the next 6 months. Great way to meet others and make great memories.

Upcoming cruises:

NCL Sky 10/27/08

Disney Magic 12/6/08

Atlantis Solstice cruise March 2008

Have a great one!!

Hi there!

I responded to this board back in August right before we left on our Carnival cruise. We're from Monmouth County....and gearing up for our Wester Med cruise out of Barcelona. We're pretty excited about that one!

Our favorite cruise line, without question, is Royal.....and we're really looking forward to Oasis! Our cruise agent sent us a rather large brochure with deck plans etc....she looks amazing! We think that will be our next one!

We were very disappointed with Carnival....it was our first time trying them out....the price was right and we didn't want to be close-minded and form an opinion before sailing with them. We're glad we did it....but will NEVER cruise with them again!

We actually got engaged on an NCL cruise....and the Western Med one will be our second Freestyle. We like that option too....and are looking forward to seeing Europe next month! :)

Have a great day!!

Hello all

My SO and I live in NJ also, central. We love to cruise,whenever we get the chance. We enjoy Carnival, have taken a few. We took Princess to Alaska in July, fantastic time but still prefer Carnival. We do want to try other cruise lines I especially would love to try celebrity!!!

Mel n Melissa

Hi there Mel N Melissa!!

I love your quote that says you work to pay the mortgage....AND vacation! That's hilarious! I think we pretty much do the same....OT, second jobs...doesn't matter....as long as we get on a ship at least once a year....preferably twice!!

Have a great day!

Hi there Mel N Melissa!!

 

I love your quote that says you work to pay the mortgage....AND vacation! That's hilarious! I think we pretty much do the same....OT, second jobs...doesn't matter....as long as we get on a ship at least once a year....preferably twice!!

 

Have a great day!

lol it is the truth!! I see your off to the Med soon, I am jealous, we have one planned for next Oct..cant wait..You have to give us a full review with pics...What itin are you doing

Mel

We were very disappointed with Carnival....it was our first time trying them out....the price was right and we didn't want to be close-minded and form an opinion before sailing with them. We're glad we did it....but will NEVER cruise with them again!

I've only sailed with Royal and was thinking about trying Carnival so I'm just curious what you didn't like about it.

Dear all New Jerseyans:

I would like to host a get together for cruise critic members. Maybe a Friday night or Sunday brunch. I am in Middlesex County (pretty central); and would like you to email me directly if interested garciafa@optonline.net

Thanks.

Hi all,

Bergen County NJ here too.

Me and my girl are planing another cruise againnnnn. We are hoping to do or to "try" the Western Carribean. After the hurrican's we had the beginning of this September 2008.We has to be redirected to the East Carribean (we went there 2wc before) but safety is first.We had hurrican Gustof and ike on our tails.So i'll have to have another surprise bday cruise for my sweetie.:D

We left already from the ports in Port Canaveral and Miami as well from NY ( which i will never do from NY again) Florida ports are clean and easy to find your way around.

Bob and I love ships...

But we just bought an old house we're fixing up, so we won't be at sea for a while and our days are kind of busy. Let us know what your plans are and we'll see if we can make it.

Jeff (Also Bergen County.)

Hi There Mel!!

Our Med trip is creeping up on us....slowly but surely!! We've had the reservation since September 2007....and back then it seemed like forever! Now, the closer we get, the further away it feels!! We do have a pretty cool itinerary.....starting off in Barcelona, going to Malta, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and Nice, France. We're pretty stoked!

Sube....I think we've just been spoiled by Royal. We sailed the Inspiration...and we experienced an overall rudeness of passengers. I love children....but alot of them were terribly misbehaved....and their parents had no problems allowing them to run rampant all over the ship. They put their hands in the buffet food....took food from their plates and put it back into the chafing dishes....the pool was too small for the amount of people and at times you couldn't even see the bottom because there were so many people in it. It really looked like a safety hazzard. Some parents bought their children pool floats and inner tubes while in Cozumel and allowed them to play with them in the pool. I was hit a few times by empty beer cans from the young men who were shotgunning beer at the bar and then playing soccer with the empty cans. I could go on.....but I won't. I know there are die hard Carnival fans out there.....and I respect that. It felt like the Carnival staff had either completely lost control of or simply didn't care about the behavior of their passengers. Perhaps this was an isolated incident.....but T and I just feel that if we're going to spend our money on a cruise....from now on, it's going to be a line we're familiar with. We had no problems being a couple on board....and we felt safe in that aspect....we just don't think Carnival is our cup of tea.

We are up for a Jersey Cruiser meet and greet!! Fidel and George, we email you soon!! Have a great day everyone!! :)

would definitely love to meet up with other NJ cruisers.

Let me know if you guys come up with a date and place.