CrossBluePerchance

I have enjoyed this thread. Lots of fun and has kept my mind busy. Thank you Albingirl and of course Franco.

Sandra

Careful, or the Society for the Perpetually Offended will be on your case for endorsing whimsy & frivolity.

After you have finished eating, you have the beck left, in case you are out of toothpicks.

Sandra

If there's a "beck" I guess there has to be a "call"?

We've been on (at least) three Horizon trips......(when she was part of CDF)...always loved it!

According to the ADA...

 

To determine if an animal is a service animal, you may ask two questions:

 

1. Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
   
2. What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
   

"What was that whoooshing sound that just went overhead?"

But I'll bet he has lovely plumage!

Blue.....of course.

Your peg leg and hook, however, will be subject to intensive x-ray scrutiny.

Done a bunch of them, both ways, during different months....never a problem.

therefore less likely to get a hangover

Avoid hangovers - stay drunk.

Limit your alcoholic intake to a reasonable level.

I hate rationality! :D:D

. He said a lot of the guys he works with (ford motor co.) have been saying our dollar is going to tank even more. .

You only have to look at our, (cough, cough), 'leaders' to take that as a given.

the primary value we see in cruising is a comfortable way of getting back across the ocean after a trip to Europe.

We use ships (almost exclusively) to get to Europe before taking a land based trip, or to get back from Europe after taking a land based trip - certainly beats flying, either direction. :D

Transportation.

And always bear in mind Air Canada's motto - "We're not happy until you're not happy".

Here's a happy elephant:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/adorable-baby-elephant-rolls-mud-tourist-53896568

Personally, I do not believe in "dual citizenship." Citizenship implies more than just having a passport or paying taxes.

+1

I travel on a Canadian passport, am likely eligible for a UK one, and could have obtained an Australian passport at one time - it'll be 53 years next month since I came to Canada, this is where I am and, I guess, what I am........not interested in "One from column 'A' and one from column 'B'".

We don't 'cruise' - we like to be at sea, (but wouldn't set foot on one of the behemoths), and ships are a great way to go to somewhere or to get back from somewhere. The thought of going around in circles in the Caribbean curdles our blood.

We don't like to play 'dress up', we don't focus on food 24/7, and the idea of being 'pampered' we find to be invasive and irritating.

But we do like smaller vessels.

Suggest a map and a bit of an adventurous spirit, you don't need to waste money on a guide, just walk and enjoy what you encounter

+1 Rocket Surgery it ain't - uphill is away from the port, downhill back to the port.

The biggest difference between the small and mega ships are several more decks of passenger cabins.

I'll stay on the small ships

And the fact that one is a ship, while the other is a floating mall/amusement park. ;)

In 1985 I visited the Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka - walked in amongst the elephants, who were very relaxed, and accompanied them to the river where they bathed.

I don't know about other venues, (never had one iota of interest in going to Thailand), but these guys appeared quite comfortable.

Can any other nation claim a higher proportion of cruisers who bring and wear any traditional 'National Dress' than my fellow Scots?

A psychological 'Cry For Help'? ;)

Fun thread, so much better than the incessantly bellyaching threads so common nowadays.

 

The NZ ship history was interesting, I have friends who were "Ten pound Poms".

The Patris, the other ship I posted, broke down in the Red Sea on my second trip from Oz to Greece, 1966.......floated around for a day or so while they tried to get the engines operating.

As a 'diversion' the Captain announced that the crew were going to demonstrate Life Boat lowering......except the one they tried to lower got stuck at a 45 degree angle and wouldn't move.......so the demonstration devolved into hosing down the decks.

Following that, a group of us noted the location of the life rafts, on the very possible chance that an "Every man for himself" situation arose. :D

Anybody who started cruising that many decades ago understands how staterooms have evolved. Some of my first cruises were on ships like the Victoria (built 1936) Carla Costa (built 1952) and I even had a chance to sail on the Dolphin IV (built 1956) when she spent her last few years of useful life doing short cruises out of Port Canaveral.

 

Back then, having a porthole was a luxury and cabins didn’t follow the cookie cutter design where all cabins within a category pretty much look identical as in modern ships. I even remember the bunk beds equipped with belt buckles to keep people from falling off the bed in rough seas since they were small ships (around 10,000 tons) without stabilizers.

Never experienced the buckled in bunks....most of the ships I sailed on were around 24K GT.......but I do recall, on the Patris, being one of the few who made it to dinner after we encountered the tail end of a cyclone off the Whitsunday Passage. :)

Also took this one, the Northern Star, across the Pacific from Melbourne to Southampton....arriving Southampton on Feb 01, 1963:

http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/nstar.htm

I sailed on this one twice......Australia to Greece...in the 1960s:

No balconies......no ensuite bathrooms...bunk beds.

I also love the smaller ships, and prefer them over the latest group of mega-ships. Less people, less fluff. Less activities = more time to enjoy being on the ship!

+1

90K GT are the biggest we'd travel on, and we're not overly enthusiastic about them..........rather have half/a third that size or less......as for the monster ships.....they'd have to pay us, and even then I doubt we'd board them..yuk.

Ships vs Floating Hotels?