Eric from San Diego

1978 Sitmar Fairsea from San Francisco to Alaska.

I never find the food on cruise ships good or bad, just weird. It is so different from what I eat at home that I don't know how to judge it. At home: 1. We don't have buffets. If I type "buffets near me" in Google, I get 5 Asian buffets. In my mind, I associate buffets with hospitals. 2. We eat pizza for dinner. I don't mean take out. I mean sit down table service restaurants that serve primarily pizza. 3. 50% of my meals out are Mexican. 4. We eat outdoors a lot. Some restaurants don't have any indoor seating. 5. We don't have many steakhouses. The steakhouses we have are mostly full of businessmen on expense accounts and old people. 6. We eat a lot of Asian food. Korean BBQ is really hot right now. 7. I can't remember the last time I saw a tablecloth. Or a sports jacket. When I eat in the MDR on a cruise ship, I imagine that this is what it must have been like to eat in a high class restaurant in New York in the 1950s. Gimlet anyone?

I have pretty much given up on the Carribbean though not because of the kids on board. There are so many ships there and they are so big that the ports are inundated. On CCer reported stopping in San Juan with six ships in port on one day. Her ship docked by the airport with a 30 minute bus ride to Old San Juan. When the biggest carnival ships are in Amber Cove and Half Moon Cay, the facilities are overwhelmed. It's like being at Disney World in August.

HAL is certainly going great guns with this program. Just checked the list and it looks like ALL sailings out of Seattle, Vancouver, Whittier, Boston and Montreal have been added from the summer season. The list is HUGE.

Travel agents get free cruises. Princess will run a promotion telling an agent or agency that if, for example, they book $50,000 per year, the agent or agency will receive a free cruise on select sailings. Agents can also be given free cruises to fill up a half-full ship and promote the line. I have read cruise reviews where the poster said the ship was "full of travel agents". Agents also get free cabins when they book a large organized group. The cruise line would like the free cruises to be used by the agents to familiarize themselves with the line and be a better agent for that line. But some agents sell the free cruises to their clients for money. If the cruise is free to the agent, then the client would pay the agency and the agent would not pay Princess at all, but book the available freebie. On a free cruise it would not be unusual if the cabin wasn't assigned until you check in at the port.

I have not cruised Celebrity because the presence on the west coast is non-existant. For me, my second choice is Princess. Their itineraries are nearly identical and both lines have a west coast vibe being headquartered in Los Angeles and Seattle.

So what happens if four weeks before sailing most of the triples or quads remain unsold? Does HAL then open them up so anybody can book them? Possibly at a discount to fill up the ship before sailing? Do all the GTYs end up in those triples/quads? Do they notify the PCCs that the T/Qs are available so couples can move if they want? How would you feel if you are a couple who books a year in advance and you meet a couple on board who booked three weeks before sailing and gets the cabin you wanted? The fact that HAL wishes to max out the ship doesn't mean that demand for T/Qs will equal availability of said cabins.

I would love to cruise on Costa. After all, if I travel to Europe to enjoy the cuisine and culture, then a European ship full of Europeans should be wonderful. But trying to schlep luggage and me from California to Marseille or Genoa or Savona (where is that? Do they have an airport?) does not seem practical. Plus I don't understand Costa's practice of embarking and disembarking passengers at every port they stop at. Having new people on board every day seems like it would destroy the sense of continuity.

Just my two cents, but i would avoid 7 day cruises. They tend to be filled with families, organized groups and children who stick together and don't mix much. I have traveled on these with my husband and we usually end up talking only to ourselves. When you take 21+ day cruises you'll find more singles and couples who are happy to mingle. They also have a lot more 4 and 5 star cruisers who love to talk about their past cruises (and how the cruise lines have cut back on everything and not what they used to be).

Since Rudi Sodamen become Head of Culinary Arts at Princess as well as Master Chef at HAL, I am seeing menu items from. HAL (such as Seafood Deviled Eggs) now appearing on Princess menus. I have a feeling that over time the menus at Princess and HAL will become more and more alike.

Sailing from San Diego, Vancouver and San Francisco are the easiest. Ships leave from downtown piers with many hotels nearby. Long Beach is next to the Queen Mary with some hotels and activities nearby. San Pedro is in a industrialized container port that is not near to much of anything that you would normally think of as part of Los Angeles proper. Both of LA ports are far from the airport with inconvenient transport.

Singapore is very far away - 17 hours from LA. The only American carrier that flys to singapore is United with one nonstop per day from San Francisco. Singapore Airlines flys nonstop from LAX, SFO and JFK. They fly to singapore from other cities, but the flight will stop somewhere. If you see a Delta or American flight to Singapore, it will be a codeshare on another airline .such as Korean, Cathay, Japan Airlines, China Airlines.

I have never understand the business model for cruise lines. A typical all inclusive resort in Cabo costs $500 and up per day for two. I have never paid more than $350 per day for a veranda cabin with the drinks package. Sometimes a lot less. Seems like a lot of people go on cruises because they are so cheap and then complain because they aren't treated like royalty.

It is interesting to note that both Seabourn and Holland America share the same address in Seattle. I don't know if the customer service at Seabourn is better than at Holland.

Like the airlines say "A seat (cabin) that departs empty is revenue that is lost forever." I live 6 miles from the pier in San Diego so I guess Standby is meant for people like me. But I've already done Mexico Riviera 3 times and I am not particularly interested in doing it again. Same with the California Coastal trip. I might do it for Hawaii, but 18 days in an inside cabin is something I would have to think long and hard about.

No cruise line can ever be a better deal than any other. A thousand lobster tails loaded on in Athens costs the same for seabourne, exploration, crystal or princess. This is true for 1000 gallons of bunker fuel or 100 Indonesian wait staff. If the food is better on explora then crystal, then they have to skimp on entertainment. If the alcohol is better quality on seabourne then explora, they will have to charge more for the cruise or skimp on something else. All cruise lines from carnival on up get their fuel, food, alcohol, staff and entertainment from the same vendors. None of them has a secret source for filet mignon or Moet Chandon that is any cheaper than the others. If they did, the other lines would soon find out and copy them. Different cruise lines emphasize different features, but they are all playing the same game with one set of costs.

25 years ago Las Vegas would charge $30 for a room and $7.95 for the buffet. The hotels made their profit on gambling. But too many people were going to Vegas and not gambling. So today rooms are $150 and the buffet is $39.95. The people who do gamble accrue points on their mLife account and get free rooms and free buffet.