NavyVet1959
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Posts posted by NavyVet1959
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On our 2/13/15 Equinox cruise there was a group of about 20 riders who unloaded their bikes every morning in port and returned late afternoon after touring the island. Cool!
We took a Med cruise a few years ago and one of the stops was in Greece. My wife and I rented a scooter and drove to Olympia (ancient Olympic site). Two people on a low powered scooter that only really had room for one person made for an interesting trip. Those scooters really handle strangely and the don't have enough power to keep up with traffic. Combine that with not being able to read a single sign nor having a GPS and it make finding the site and getting back to port before the ship sailed a bit "interesting". Nice scenery though -- I would have really liked to have had one of my motorcycles with me instead of being on that little 49cc scooter.
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I stumbled across the listing for this cruise on VTG on 3/23 and figured to give it a try, not really knowing what I might be getting myself into. I figured for $119 per person, it couldn't be *that* bad, as long as the air fare wasn't ridiculous. The port charges and taxes ended up being more than the actual cruise, it still seemed like a good deal. Decided to make it more of a real vacation by arriving in Santo Domingo a week early and leaving Barcelona a week late, so it'll be a one month vacation.
The return flight goes through Istanbul, but there's probably not enough of a layover to actually both with going through customs and leaving the airport. I wish I could have had a couple of days layover and the flight price would have been the same. :)
I was surprised when the booking email arrived telling me that it was going to be all-inclusive for soda and alcohol. I normally avoid sodas and alcohol on cruise ships since I don't like their inflated prices.
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Several specialty cruises do exist, even on various Celebrity ships.
Interesting... It would be nice if that was a standard option on cruise ships though instead of only for certain specialty cruises.
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I would like to see the cruise ships go back to being a means of transportation instead of just ending up back where you started from.
I don't want any sort of formal dress code. Why should I dress up just to go on vacation? Being on vacation is where you are supposed to be able to relax, right? I'm retired and my everyday wear is a colored t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The only time I dress up is when I'm going to funerals (and that seems to be happening all too often as I get older). As an engineer, my idea of "dressing up" is "business casual" at best -- khakis, casual shoes, and either a polo shirt or button down. Ties? We don't need no stinkin' ties!
One thing that I would REALLY like would be to have the capability of transporting a motorcycle with me on a cruise so that I would have immediate transportation wherever I ended up. It wouldn't be that big of a design change for new ships to have a deck that had tie down spots for motorcycles so you could just drive off when you hit port. We're not necessarily talking about that much weight either. For anything other than the large cruiser bikes, you're only looking at 400-500 lbs per bike. So, how many spaces would the ships really need for this sort of thing?
2006 Data
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohim/hs06/htm/mv1.htm
6,634,506 motorcycles
134,012,369 cars
So, you're looking at around 5%. Assuming one of the "mega" cruise ships with 5000 passengers, that's maybe only 250 passengers that might own a motorcycle. If you were to assume that each motorcycle might take up 4'x8' of space, then you're looking at about 8000 sq-ft. Considering the size of these ships, that's not that much.
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Do people just blindly book and pay for things without knowing anything about it?
If it's cheap enough... Well... Yeah... :)
It might be a good experience... It might be a bad one... Either way, you'll probably remember it... :)
I figure that no matter what, it's got to be better than when I was at sea in the Navy... Of course, back then, we were actually getting PAID to be miserable...
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I recently stumbled across the repositioning cruise on this ship on VTG (for some reason, if I put the actual travel agent company name here, it gets ***ed out). It was listed at a very low price ($119 for 14 nights), so I thought I would give it a try. Once I called VTG, I learned that the port charges and taxes were more than the quoted price for the cruise, but it was still a good deal (even with having to fly to Santo Domingo for the start of the cruise and back from Barcelona after the cruise), so I decided to go for it. The total for the cruise and port charges for two people ended up being $717.50 -- still a good deal.
One of the things that I hate about cruises is that you don't get to spend any significant amount of time in the ports. Very seldom do you even get to overnight in the port. So, I decided to arrive in Santo Domingo a week early and then leave from Barcelona a week late. Unfortunately, my wife has a prior engagement in May, otherwise I would have scheduled a longer time in Europe. I don't have any definite plans for Europe yet other than to drive from Barcelona, eventually going though Monaco and Paris before ending back up in Barcelona a week later.
I don't speak French and my Spanish vocabulary consists mainly of:
"Dos cervezas, por favor"
and
"Banos?"
I should be fine... :)
I discovered that the cruise is "all-inclusive" (i.e. sodas and alcohol included). I suspect that I'll end up drinking my way across the Atlantic.
Burrrrrpppp...
I wish Celebrity would:
in Celebrity Cruises
Posted
Not all of us who own Harleys chant the "loud pipes" mantra. Mine has the stock mufflers on it and I try to keep the RPMs down low so to not make noise. It's basically a "ka-thump... ka-thump..." sound.
I don't think the sound would be that big of a deal though. It wouldn't take long to unload everyone and depending upon where your cabin in located, you might not even hear it.