sandravb79

Never been on AIDA, but when we were next to one in some port, I saw they had hammocks on the balconies!!!

Now that is something I could live with, spending my day at sea in a hammock! :)

Also, they seemed to have bikes and segways etc onboard, for use in ports.

We're booked on a Panama Canal cruise in April 2014. Our capable, competent, generally wonderful Travel Agent said that RCCL cannot book us for early seating, and they would not even put up on a wait list.

 

Coming from the USA's West coast, we'd be finishing dinner very very late, and with several health issues, that just will not work for me. I dread having to eat every dinner in the Windjammer, to eat at a semi-reasonable hour!

 

Do I have any other options here?

I don't understand why your location has anything to do with finishing dinner late... :confused:

I just wear my Crocs flats and flip flops etc, because they are comfortable in the heat, and suck it up when my feet hurt because of the plantar fasciitis.

Hello Ricardo!

Only catching up on your trip report now (and mine isn't even written, ugh... but my review of the Mariner has been published on CC now)

Good to know what we missed during the Suez canal transit... we never saw those other cruise ships?? I think we were too exhausted from our 2 days in Cairo :)

I am enjoying to read your LIVE report. And I love your packing-picture!

However, it doesn't look nearly as bad as my pre-packing "scenery", lol

See you onboard next week!

BTW: Istanbul is my favourite city in the world. Where will they stay at a hotel?

No butler on our cruises, but in May we'll be staying at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, and the room comes with butler service.

Now I have to think of something I will "need"...

When I was a student, I travelled by myself, an dhad absolutely no issues with that. usually, it's the other people around me that have the most issues with it :rolleyes:

Now, I travel with my mother. My dad doesn't like to fly and would rather slice his throat than go on a cruise, so mom and I cruise together. We share a room, go together on excursions, but on the ship, we often do our own thing. I like to swim or go to cooking demos and the shows etc, she doesn't. I don't mind doing it by myself :)

Do you realize that you resurrected a thread that was four years old?

I'm very glad that poster resurrected that thread.

Got off the ship a week ago.

From the moment my feet and ankles notice that I'm going to board a ship, they swell :( I also havd DVT, so I really have to be careful.

I wear special stockings a lot, even when it's crazy hot. The uncomfortable-ness of the stockings is less bad than the one from the swollen feet (+ the risk of ending up in the hospital or 6ft under :eek: )

Next cruise, I'll ask for extra parsley :)

Oh, for formal night, I bought a pair of Crocs ballerinas, with some "patent leather" (I guess patent rubber, lol) accents. Really cute, wide enough for my swollen feet and no one noticed that I was wearing Crocs and I was comfortable all evening long!

Just remembered something else that happened 6 years ago. It's not cruise-related, but in the same subject as this thread anyway.

I had booked a trip to Disneyland Paris (DLP) with my mom to celebrate my 25th birthday. We had booked way in advance, because we wanted some particular dining reservations etc. A couple of months before my birthday, I end up in the hospital with a thrombosis.

When I could go back home I got instructions and what to do, absolutely not do and avoid, in order to not drop dead on the ground.

A couple of weeks before my birthday, I go back to doctor and ask about going to DLP. He tells me that it is not the best idea in the world because in the summer it's usually pretty warm there + involves a lot of standing in line etc.

We really didn't want to cancel, so we went anyway, and just sat a lot on benches in the shade, enjoying the views and the music etc instead of doing rides.

The numbers of remarks I got of (older) people about me sitting down when my mom was standing up (if there weren't enough free seats for both of us) etc. About how I should pay respect to my mom who is older and have her sit down etc etc etc.

At that time, I was very emotional because of all the misery I had gone through trying to get better + I suffered a lot because of my medication (was allergic to it, but there was no alternative for me, so I just had to suffer a lot), so I barked at some people to just mind their own business.

And they should have minded their own business, because what did they care that I sat and my mom stood up? It wasn't their feet. And no, I wasn't getting up for them. If they had wanted to sit there to watch the parade, they just had to arrive 2+ hours in advance, as I did to be sure to have that spot :)

Off my soap box now :)

There are some people in the world who forget that you can't always judge a book by it's cover.

 

My husband and I were on our honeymoon in our mid- 30's and got seated with an older couple dressed in their best at breakfast on the day of disenbarkation. We wanted to be comfortable for the long wait we had in the San Juan airport so looked a bit disheveled.

 

At first they tried their snobbish routine but their tune quickly changed once we started talking to them. Their tone was initially very snobbish in the way they were initiatiting conversation. I guess our career choices and places of employment were acceptable to them:D They were tolerable after that:rolleyes:

We had the same thing happen last year on the Splendour. Breakfast at the MDR, asked for a table for 2, wasn't available, so we were seated at a bigger table.

We were not dressed in bathing suits and coverups, but we weren't dressed up either, just regular decent vacation clothing. We were clean and showered, but not wearing make up or having elaborate hair does or whatever.

When we (mom 60 yo and I 30yo) were seated, the others looked at us as if we were some hobos being seated. They ignored us except for giving us dirty looks. I recognized someone of the Meet & Mingle so I asked her how the cruise had been until then, blablabla. Someone else noticed our accent and asked from where we were and what we did for a living. Ha! Being a manager at one of the Big Four and speaking 4 languages seems to make a big difference, lol. All of a sudden we were interesting enough to talk to, lol.

Last year on Celebrity Century: when we got to our balcony on day 1, we were talking to each other in Dutch (because I see no reason at all to speak to each other in English, duh). Our neighbours were very quick in determining that we were dirty foreigners :rolleyes: It is not because I speak one language at a certain moment, that I don't understand what you are saying! ha! But since we were in the US, we just swallowed it, and laughed with their constant remarks.

OTOH, last year on the Splendour, in Europe, when we got called again a dirty foreigner just because they heard us talking in another language, I pointed out to them that we were on our side of the Atlantic, so technically, they were the "dirty foreigner".

One other time, don't remember on which cruise, at the buffet, the lady in front of me barked her orders to the crew member. After every bark, I said "please". Since she obviously had never gotten any proper education and felt the need to bark at the crew members, I felt the need to make up for her lack of manners, so I added the "please" for her.

This thread got me wondering about that. I didn't cruise for the first time until 2006, but I traveled heavily by air since the 80s. I was wondering how hard it was to rent a car one way with so many people stuck away from home. Many times rental car companies don't want to rent to one way customers. I wondered how many cruisers had to find busses or pay for expensive rental cars to get home.

 

In April, because of the volcano ash and so many flights being cancelled, getting a rental car was very difficult. Getting one from Brussels to Spain: no problem, getting one from Spain to Brussels, big huge problem!