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Sail away


Newby58
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What has been your experiences with a sail away party?

My best was on Explorer. Great music and energy from the crew on the pool deck. My worst, Ovation. No space on the pool deck for anything let alone a party.

This is only about sail away folks. Not your overall enjoyment of the cruise. P.S. I have loved every cruise I have been on! [emoji4]

 

 

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Cruising out of Balt or Bayonne and being at the sail away party on deck. When the ships sails under the FSK Or Varrazano Bridges it is very close...especially the RSK. It looks like the stack is not going to clear that bridge. Of course...the bridge helps the celebration by sounding the "horn"! There is so much energy created...it really makes for a great start to a cruise.

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Muushka, why is it good?

 

 

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Energy. X 1000. Gather more than 1000 excited children, their also excited parents, Mickey, Minnie and the gang.

 

Throw in streamers and confetti and loud music and viola! A sail away that is a great way to start a cruise.

 

In fact when we started cruising on X we were a little disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm.

 

But now a quiet, calm and relaxed sail away is more appealing (with a rare DCL for fun).

 

PS We don't have kids and really appreciate the way DCL makes it desirable for people like us.

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We will be sailing out of Auckland at 9pm next February. I'm intrigued as to what might be played - perhaps Pokarekareana. If that be the case, I hope nobody will object to me singing along. So looking forward to it - the sailaway feeling is fantastic.

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Yes to Sydney and Venice, both very beautiful, especially if you get a nice sunset. Stockholm is also a beautiful ride out through the archapelago of islands. In Europe and Asia the sail away is more about the views than the party. In the Caribbean it is often about the party. That said, leaving San Juan and going past the castle/fortress is pretty cool too.

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The best for me was Disney (all of the Disney cruises for me) the happy atmosphere and happy people make it extra special. They played the horns "When you wish upon a star" very cool.

The absolute worst was on my last cruise on Celebrity Infinity this month. NOTHING going on at poolside, NO music Nada. They had a burger grill open but no drink station, everyone was crowded into the buffet. It was the most underwhelming sail away in my opinion. This was my first Celebrity cruise so wasn't prepared for the lack of enthusiasm for sail away.

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We will be sailing out of Auckland at 9pm next February. I'm intrigued as to what might be played - perhaps Pokarekareana. If that be the case, I hope nobody will object to me singing along. So looking forward to it - the sailaway feeling is fantastic.

 

I'll admit it, I had to look up Pokarekareana. I watched the video of Hayley Westenra singing it.

My goodness what a beautiful song and a great singer she is. Do you really know the words? Wow!

 

 

The best for me was Disney (all of the Disney cruises for me) the happy atmosphere and happy people make it extra special. They played the horns "When you wish upon a star" very cool.

The absolute worst was on my last cruise on Celebrity Infinity this month. NOTHING going on at poolside, NO music Nada. They had a burger grill open but no drink station, everyone was crowded into the buffet. It was the most underwhelming sail away in my opinion. This was my first Celebrity cruise so wasn't prepared for the lack of enthusiasm for sail away.

 

I agree. Disney does know how to whip up a crowd! As far as X compared to DCL, we had to get used to the difference. We took our first X in 2006 and we have done 10+ since and just 3 DCL. Out of all of our X cruises we just had 1 sail away the was similar to yours. But the ship was late leaving port so everything was messed up. All of the others have been pretty good. Not Disney good, but just pretty good. We don't have children but love the Disney product. But we also grew to appreciate the quiet, subtle atmosphere of X. Plus the price difference, well, X wins.

 

Sorry for changing the subject OP. By the way, great thread. Adds more bucket list items!

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I'll admit it, I had to look up Pokarekareana. I watched the video of Hayley Westenra singing it.

My goodness what a beautiful song and a great singer she is. Do you really know the words? Wow!

 

 

Hi Muushka. Yes, it is indeed a beautiful song, and I think probably most Australians do know the words - and love the song so much. I guess that the Australians and the New Zealanders are a bit like the Americans and the Canadians. The lovely thing is that what we find with the New Zealanders is that so often they have amazing voices, particularly the Maori. I love to hear them singing. On our NZ cruise last year we sat out on the balcony as the New Zealand coastline grew smaller and smaller and on my iPad I played the superb Maori farewell song:

 

 

They also can render old hymns in such a way that it just about brings tears to the eyes. For example:

 

Oops, I do seem to have led this thread into different directions, but I'm hoping for lots of lovely Maori music at the sailaway party from Auckland.

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gwsster-

I do not know where you sailed out of last month on the Infinity, but I do know from personal experience, that some towns like Seattle have very strict city ordinances that absolutely prohibit ANY music or noise of any kind at sailaway. Sailing out of Seattle was quite the letdown for us after experiencing sailaway in New York.

The citizens of Seattle who live close to the docks got together and it is not allowed. :loudcry:

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Hi Muushka. Yes, it is indeed a beautiful song, and I think probably most Australians do know the words - and love the song so much. I guess that the Australians and the New Zealanders are a bit like the Americans and the Canadians. The lovely thing is that what we find with the New Zealanders is that so often they have amazing voices, particularly the Maori. I love to hear them singing. On our NZ cruise last year we sat out on the balcony as the New Zealand coastline grew smaller and smaller and on my iPad I played the superb Maori farewell song:

 

 

They also can render old hymns in such a way that it just about brings tears to the eyes. For example:

 

Oops, I do seem to have led this thread into different directions, but I'm hoping for lots of lovely Maori music at the sailaway party from Auckland.

I hope you have Maori music for your sail away! A cruise in that part of the world (esp NZ) is on my bucket list.

gwsster-

I do not know where you sailed out of last month on the Infinity, but I do know from personal experience, that some towns like Seattle have very strict city ordinances that absolutely prohibit ANY music or noise of any kind at sailaway. Sailing out of Seattle was quite the letdown for us after experiencing sailaway in New York.

The citizens of Seattle who live close to the docks got together and it is not allowed. :loudcry:

OK, that explains a lot!

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We like Celebrity but they dont know how to do a decent sailaway. On our first Celebrity cruise we were on Silhouette on her first proper 12 night Med. Cruise when she was new. We left from Civitavecchia and were expecting a big send off ...... nope, just cocktails and not so much as a toot from the ship or any music. Had a great cruise though :-)

 

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