Nebr.cruiser

We live in a fairly rural area and 'sometimes' have good star gazing--even here it's problematic--but at times we can see the Milky Way .Western Nebraska is known for it's great star viewing, but we are in the north central area. On a ship I've had problems seeing many stars since the ships are well lighted at night, but maybe with some work you could find an area away from most lights. On a South America cruise one night they had a special time to view the southern cross and other southern hemisphere stars where ambiant lighting was shut off in the area the viewing was taking place. It still wasn't spectacular.

I was on the Discovery--new ship--I used this walkway for my daily walk when the walking track was too windy. Honestly noticed nothing but the sea. I've been on the Regal, but didn't go on the sea walk much there.

I walked over that view area many times on our last cruise and never once noticed the balconies below--just the sea view. I can't imagine anyone actually standing there trying to peer into people's balconies, but maybe somebody does? Really, you can't see much.

Is this true for packaged snacks? We are hopefully cruising Australia/New Zealand nexs winter and I always bring some packaged snacks, such as granola/energy bars in case my husband needs something for low blood sugar in ports and also packaged chocolates just for a treat during the day.

Any time at noon or later will be fine, and in some ports earlier will work too. They want everyone off the ship--often by 9 or 10--so that the ship can be readied for the next group. We usually stay as late as possible, just so we are not rushed, but have gotten off much earlier if we have an earlier flight.

This definitely has become a problem with some cruises--if you are not on a ship tour, you may have to wait a long time to get off the ship, which can be especially slow in tender ports. I find this practice to be unfair in many ways. If the ship tours were more reasonably priced and of better quality--not huge buses full of people (I am generalizing here; some are not as bad) it wouldn't matter so much, but to pay sometimes twice as much for an inferior tour borders on fraud.

Hey, big Yankee fans here in Nebraska--the whole extended family--go figure!

I get that entirely. It's not that we are teetotalers, it's just not something we enjoy or need. We are elite too, one more cruise to platinum, although that doesn't mean as much as it used to. I think on one cruise I was pricing it might have made sense, being only a few dollars a day difference, but we ended up not booking that cruise anyway.

Since we don't, or rarely, drink, the basic fare is the only one that makes sense. I've tried to see if the grats and internet make up for the drinks we won't use; so far it has never made sense. I suppose if there was only a small difference, then we might have a pop or two or coffee, even maybe a drink, but since we normally don't need any of that, or want it, we'll take the cheaper price.

Our longest flights (for cruises) have been to Rome and Santiago, Chile. We have two cruises to Australia/New Zealand next winte, so that will be our longest then. . That booking is by far the farthest away of any cruise/tour trip we have taken. We usually book at 3 months out or later. I am having a hard time waiting almost a year from when we booked to take the cruises!

Public transportation, except in Omaha and Lincoln, is mostly non-existant in our big, far flung state. I do envy people who can hop on a bus or train and be in one of the Northeast cities fairly quickly and easily. Sure easier than getting up at 2 AM (really, we don't even go to bed) for a 6 AM or 7AM flight out of Omaha. However, I'll take a little inconvenience (or a lot) to live in our peaceful rural areas. We can visit the cities and then get out of them! Easiest port, to me is Fort Lauderdale followed by San Diego.We seem to be finding more and more non-stop flights, often on the 'bargain' airlines, than we used to.

That's a great option! Of course won't work for us, but what a convenience.

We sailed from Manhattan but stayed in Brooklyn the night before. Partly because we found a great deal, partly because not familiar enough with the city to realize we were a ways from the port. Our little boutique hotel was in a fantastic location to see the downtown sites, but farther from the port. We are probably also not familiar enough with the buses--I mean, we live in the country, nearest town is 300 people! We could have figured it out--have in many other places--but Uber worked well.

We live 2.5 hours from Omaha. Flights are much easier, sometimes direct, to Florida ports and the same for the West Coast. We have only sailed out of Manhattan once. Flight to Philadelphia, smaller plane to New York, (quite the experience as we had to circle several times so got a great view of the city) Long commute (private car) to the city, hotel, Uber to the port in the morning. Our hotel was very near the Brooklyn Bridge and we enjoyed walking all around the area. We have flown out of New York several times to Europe, but it's always a process.

Well very true, we are near no cruise ports, but it is much easier with Florida ports or even west coast cruises due to flight schedules from Omaha, the necessity of often getting from one airport to another in the New York area, getting into the city for a night or two, expensive hotels, etc. Since we use mostly American airline miles, sometimes flights schedules aren't the best. We have only sailed out of Manhattan or any New York port once, for a Trans-Atlantic.

I agree with the magnificant sail-away, but far away, as we are, quite a hassle to get there, various taxis, Ubers, etc. Once at the port it was fine.

I'll be honest; we have not actually missed the ship, but came darn close (they were taking up the gangway behind us) in St. Kitts. I don't think we were even quite 'late' maybe 2 minutes before final boarding and a half hour before we sailed, but there was no wiggle room there at all. We were on a private tour with a welll-known guide there. It was a great tour, but he was so intent on making sure we saw everything promised in the tour info that it was literally touch and go getting back. He had advertised a tour that circled the island and made sure we did that. Since we did not know exactly how far it was to port from the last site, it made us pretty worried. He pulled up to a back gate after a rather wild ride where ship officials were actively searching/waiting for us. Whew! We almost always either do private tours or just do things on our own. We have been on several cruises where the ship waited for ship tours to return, often hours later. That's no possible in some ports though. We will still do mostly private tours and accept the risk and have a Plan B if the worst happens.

I don't think baked potatoes were on our MDR menu at all in March. I heard you had to ask for one, but don't know.

This is a great way to differntiate your bags. When my husband's bag was lost, we did both have colorful bows tied on the handle. Also, our bags were a medium gray with a slight pattern, so somewhat different from others. I still have the gray bag, his is now purple!

I didn't read the whole list, but after the disaster of either Princess losing, or someone taking, either accidentally or on purpose, my husbands suitcase, I bought some large neon green straps to put around our luggage--cheap at Walmart and at least makes it much more difficult for someone to take a bag by accident. We don't bring much of the other things, mostly a medical kit in case--which we have used on occasion and of course international plugs, if needed.

The steaks I had in the MDR were actually not too bad! And this from Nebraskans who have some of the best steaks around. Our prime ribs didn't even look good--so over-cooked and thin. i will say we ate late that day, maybe ten until nine or so. We even asked if it was too late--not wanting to make waiters, etc. stay over the 9:30 ending time, but they insisted not.

We found the MDR and the buffet food seriously lacking compared to other cruises. Lower quality meat, for sure. Our prime rib was so bad it was laughable. It looked kind of like shoe leather. Now I will say that our waiter, the head waiter, the head dining guy all came over and apologized for our maybe 1/4" prime rib and would have gotten us new ones, but it was fairly late, we were already full and it wasn't worth waiting. This was the Discovery Inaugural and why I understood the glitches with service and other things, food should have been similar to other Princess cruises we have taken.

The problem with shoe recommendations is that everyone's feet are different--what I can wear with comfort another person can't, and vice-versa. I really can't buy shoes that I can't try on (like on the internet) unless I have bought the same exact shoe before. And even if shoes feel great in the store doesn't mean they will feel great after a long day of touring/walking, etc.

Thank you--sounds like just what we are looking for. I'll check it out for sure.

I have several favorites, but the Eastern Med cruise from Rome with Greece and Turkey might be #1. So many great sights and so much history--and beautiful as well.