Nebr.cruiser

I don't like the Island because of this and other reasons. Older Princess ships do have a wraparound promenade deck, although usually you have to go up and down stairs to make the complete lap. I really miss the classic promenade decks that are no longer on most of the newer ships.

I've never been on a cruise (we've done about 50) where orange juice wasn't included with breakfast. If you want fancy fresh squeezed juice, then you do pay extra. I'm assuming it will be included in the package you bought.

We book cabins near the stairs/elevators on purpose! So much more convenient than traipsing down the long narrow halls, and so far no issue with noise, and it makes it easy to catch an elevator or go up or down the stairs. I'd say we've tried to get close to the stairs a dozen or more times.

For private tours in Europe (and by private I don't mean just us, I mean a smaller independent tour, not a cruise tour) we generally tip $5 to $10pp (or equivalent in Euros) depending on the length and quality of the tour.

I haven't looked at the particulars recently. As I remember it is probably not enough for really good evacuation, major medical etc. costs. We usually buy an annual policy, such as Geo Blue, for that kind of extreme costs. We are late 70's now. We had Platinum insurance for our South America cruise last December. We had to cancel three days before due to a health problem. It covered everything it was supposed to and, after sending in all the required documents online, (mostly Dr. affidavits) we had our money back within a week. Since we are Elite, the cost was very good. We were also lucky that all of our independent excursions were refunded quickly (if we had put deposits down), even the one that was supposed to be non-refundable that close to sailing.

And, in my experience the shampoo-conditioner doesn't 'condition' at all. I'm not picky and use cheaper conditioners at home, but after using the Princess combo my hair actually felt crunchy and stiff. I just bring a travel size bottle or two; I don't need much. The lotion is fine.

I use them but they are not very powerful and take longer than at home for my shoulder length hair. But I deal with it, partly because I don't want to haul my own along and partly because I just air dry my hair quite often. I also don't like that you have to hold the button down the whole time.

Thanks for the input. We have done one cruise on the Oosterdam and somehow it just felt flat. I know HAL is a much more traditional line, but this one was really, really old school. We have cruised about 50 times on many different lines, mostly Princess. I can't put my finger on the reason--it wasn't a bad cruise (we've never had a bad cruise) just somehow lacking and probably our least favorite cruise. This cruise was about 10 years ago. We understand the sea days from California to Hawaii, as we did a Hawaii round-trip. The sea days were surprisingly cool with wind and some rain. So we do get that will most likely happen again.

Only you can figure out if it is 'worth it' to you--it totally depends on your drinking habits and the cost and also what is included in the package. So far I've never been able to make it work for us, but then we rarely drink alcohol. It might come fairly close on packages that included wifi, gratuities and some other perks, such as on Princess.

Please don't cut your reviews too short--I love every word. So much humor and great information.

Thanks so much for the report--always so entertaining. We are seriously considering this cruise or a similar one on HAL but wondered if it was just too many sea days--even though we love sea days.,this seems like a a bit much. The big draw to us is not having to fly, after the terribly long flight on our trip to Australia last year. Plus Tahiti, of course.

I know-- I mean, I walk, I hike, I swim a lot, I have snorkeled for many years, I paddle board almost daily in the summer, etc., etc and yet I can't ride a trolley? Or go to a beach? Arrgh!

Well, that's good news. Last year it took almost 4 months for my sister's expedited passport--she would have had to cancel the cruise. Unfortunately, it turned out she had to cancel anyway for health reasons, but nevertheless 4 months is horrible.

Oh-my-gosh! Unbelievable.

It is annoying. I understand the insurance issue. Of course there are plenty of us older travelers who are in better shape and health than younger ones, but I guess they have to go with the averages. So far I haven't encountered even a ship tour (on the rare occasion we do one) that I have aged out of, but since 79 is only a week away, I am sure it will happen, especially once I hit 80.