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About Me
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Location
Chicago, via NJ, via Miami, via London, via Northern Ireland
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Interests
Opera, theater, ships,driving in Germany, all things French including fries,drums,sailing.
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Favorite Cruise Line(s)
Any line not featuring Joe Farcus "designs"
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Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
Alaska and hopefully the Baltic
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how Many People Started Cruising Before 1995
Bimmer09 replied to mcrcruiser's topic in Holland America Line
My introduction to cruising was flying from London to Miami to replace another drummer in one of the bands on Song of Norway in summer 1985. I returned for 32 more weeks in March 1986 when Labadee was added to the Western Caribbean run of Ocho Rios, George Town and Cozumel. SON was a boatload of fun. I used to play until 3 a.m in the Land of the Midnight Sun disco! (posing on NCL Starward) After working for RCCL I came ashore and married my American sweetheart. We did Carnival cruises in 1990 and 91. One was on the Celebration (?) from San Juan to ABC islands and Venezuela. I was a child of the midnight buffet.... I only snapped one HAL ship back then... Nieuw Amsterdam 1986 My favorite eye-candy SS Norway Norris -
Thanks Joe. We've visited Seattle twice before , each time for a week of attending the Opera there. I've always had a rental car so we could visit Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier and Dungeness. Snowsqualmie Falls too. We'll just do a day or two either side of the cruise, I imagine without a car. The last time we were there was 2001 and the environs were taking a downturn due to people sleeping rough. We always stay at the Inn at the Market hotel by Pike's Place Market.It has a great deck with fire pits overlooking Puget Sound. Good eats nearby. Chihuly gardens is a must. We always stay at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and Chihuly is part of the draw there . We've done 3 Alaska cruises so far. One from Whittier to Vancouver and two from Vancouver to Whittier. We've never been tempted by a Seattle round-trip.We'll look forward to Ketchikan again in 2026 on Noordam and we'll do a cruisetour some year that will hit Skagway and Juneau too. We've landed on a glacier in a helicopter, flown over Misty Fjords in a float plane, sailed Misty F in a fast boat, seen bears up close in Ketchikan, seen eagles from the Chilcoot river near Haines, enjoyed whale watching with Harv N Marv twice, sled dogged in Juneau, done the White Pass railroad in the luxury car and regular cars. We've been to Butchart Gardens near Victoria. Alaska is our jam. I learned to ski on Grouse Mountain in Vancouver and spent a day on Whistler Mountain I'll never forget. I'm very British Columbia friendly and have friends there. We are never tempted by Hawaii or the South Pacific-we're not beach lovers really. I would dream of Norway before I'd dream of Bora Bora. We will next cruise the Caribbean-this Christmas on the Rotterdam which is our HAL tester. It will be much warmer than Chicago and the cruise will be as much about the ship as the islands.I have a good feeling about the prospect. Thanks for the helpful links. Norris
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Thanks Jim. We were in Amsterdam early June 2023 to join the Celebrity Apex to Iceland. We had 4 great days of being tourists and dining around the clock. went to the Opera, Rijksmuseum, Rembrandt Square, Flower Market etc. We stayed in the Centrum district on a canal. In a Radisson. We'll do 4 more days split around our NS sailing June 15 2025. We've already picked out a different hotel which overlooks our favorite eatery seen above (called De Jaren cafe). It's next to Hotel de L'Europe which you must have seen on your visit. Thanks for the consideration! Norris
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April rain in AK was a record 3.4 inches in 2017. In 2023 it was 2.0. As I have a vested interest I will check the rain this April in Ketchikan and also Prince Rupert, rainiest place in BC. It's always worth taking an umbrella of course-including in the toasty Caribbean. I can easily cancel as it's 2 years away if it seems there's a high chance of rain as you feel. I'll post the rain results on this thread between April 19 and 26. Norris
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Joe, I see that I already followed the Nieuw Amsterdam. I'm reading it again. I see they moved you from the deck 5 Neptune to 7132 on your second week. I booked the equivalent on Noordam which is 7142 and on this December's Rotterdam have 7130 Aft Wrap Neptune. The only non-Neptune I've booked is the Arctic Nieuw Statendam as we have a Vista instead- didn't think we'd spend much balcony time there. Rudi Sodamin has been moved to Princess to help rescue their food-that's the reason we didn't book another Princess cruise after our past 2 Christmas sailings. It was the food vlogging videos that got me interested in trying HAL Pinnacle Class. Did you buy the Canon D90 for the 4K video? Norris
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We're all different. We couldn't do 36 days on any ship going anywhere-because we have cats at home and to date our longest trip has been 16 days. If no cats then we could be more flexible- but one of us has a company to run. We canceled 14 days on the Nieuw Statendam going to Turkey, Egypt and Greece, September this year because we were excited to have a musical reason to go to Europe 6 weeks before that cruise and once to Europe is enough per year. Airfares are brutal. The Great Bear cruise couldn't hold a candle to that nor to our Iceland cruise or our Cuba cruise, nor any of our Med cruises . However it doesn't need us to fly to Europe. It gets us cruising in April which is a first, it gets us back to Seattle where we used to fly to the Opera and drive up Mt St. Helens and Rainier. It gets us on another HAL ship but only if we enjoy the first one this Christmas (Rotterdam.) We like Victoria for the gardens, enjoyed Ketchikan for Misty Fjords and the bears/eagles. We've liked the Inside Passage scenery from Ketchikan to Vancouver. We also have two friends we seldom see in B.C. who might come to Nanaimo or Victoria to see us. My partner runs a company that writes financial reports on many businesses and Carnival is one such and it was she who found out about this new itinerary in a press release. My mail found out from HAL a couple of days after I had booked our sailing at her urging . The weather won't factor much for us. We've done Norway, Iceland and have Nieuw Statendam to the Arctic Circle in June 2025. Where do your 36 days begin and on which ship? I've enjoyed reading your reviews. Norris
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I Googled a couple of ports for average rainfall... Victoria 3 inches of rain in April, 8 inches October Prince Rupert 8 inches in April, 16 inches October (wettest town in Canada) I've done 3 Alaskan cruises. The first from Anchorage to Vancouver had 5 days of rain and fog then 2 days (Ketchikan to Vancouver 70F zero rain) That was mid August 2011. Following year same time 7 days of sunshine/cloudy no rain Vancouver to Anchorage. It's a different itinerary with only 2 sailings and weather isn't guaranteed. I'm looking forward to it! Norris