A "Birth-A-Versary" Cruise planned with HAL

[shuttlebuggy]

Hi Everyone -

Let me first say I have so enjoyed reading everyones threads and posts on HAL!

You all have so much helpful advice to offer!

 

My husband & I just finished fully launching our one and only daughter!

She was married on Oct 29th and we also finished the stint of paying for her college as well! In the midst of all the wedding planning and preparations we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with a weekend ferry over to Block Island, RI near us - a very small island do-able with just a bicycle and no vehicles. We stayed in a very lovely seaside B&B and were given wonderful service and food....BUT all the while we told each other this was just a stop gap of sorts and that once our daughter's wedding was over - we'd look into celebrating in a much larger way on a cruise!

 

So the very first thing we did after the wedding stress died down a bit and the dust settled was to book a cruise! What a better way to de-stress eh?:)

 

We have only cruised once - on a 5 Day Celebrity Century Christmas Cruise in 2008. It was awesome - a nice balance of celebrating the holiday but also finding the R&R we needed. For the ports we'd like to hit we did compare Celebrity to HAL for pricing and found that HAL had Celeb beat for that at this time.

 

We had also heard that HAL attracts the 50+ group and that now is us...I will actually be turning 51 on this cruise! So we have nicknamed this our "Birth-a-versary" cruise ;) As we'll have a lot to celebrate!:D

 

Question or maybe I should say concern we have is that though the Easter holiday falls on this cruise as well - it is the last cruise for the Eurodam in April - doesn't look like it goes out again - so with reading some of the cautions folks have written on when to go and not to go - like "don't go the week before drydock" - that makes us a bit nervous about our plans now...:confused:

 

Any thoughts??? On the positive side we are thinking well maybe with the holiday falling the second day into the cruise - they'll be on their game!

[sapper1]

Hi Everyone -

Let me first say I have so enjoyed reading everyones threads and posts on HAL!

You all have so much helpful advice to offer!

 

My husband & I just finished fully launching our one and only daughter!

She was married on Oct 29th and we also finished the stint of paying for her college as well! In the midst of all the wedding planning and preparations we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with a weekend ferry over to Block Island, RI near us - a very small island do-able with just a bicycle and no vehicles. We stayed in a very lovely seaside B&B and were given wonderful service and food....BUT all the while we told each other this was just a stop gap of sorts and that once our daughter's wedding was over - we'd look into celebrating in a much larger way on a cruise!

 

So the very first thing we did after the wedding stress died down a bit and the dust settled was to book a cruise! What a better way to de-stress eh?:)

 

We have only cruised once - on a 5 Day Celebrity Century Christmas Cruise in 2008. It was awesome - a nice balance of celebrating the holiday but also finding the R&R we needed. For the ports we'd like to hit we did compare Celebrity to HAL for pricing and found that HAL had Celeb beat for that at this time.

 

We had also heard that HAL attracts the 50+ group and that now is us...I will actually be turning 51 on this cruise! So we have nicknamed this our "Birth-a-versary" cruise ;) As we'll have a lot to celebrate!:D

 

Question or maybe I should say concern we have is that though the Easter holiday falls on this cruise as well - it is the last cruise for the Eurodam in April - doesn't look like it goes out again - so with reading some of the cautions folks have written on when to go and not to go - like "don't go the week before drydock" - that makes us a bit nervous about our plans now...:confused:

 

Any thoughts??? On the positive side we are thinking well maybe with the holiday falling the second day into the cruise - they'll be on their game!

Here is a link to Copper John's post where he says the Eurodam was in drydock April 3 to 11th of this year.

When the Eurodam finishes in the Caribbean in April she sails to Europe for the spring and summer season. You may have been looking at the Caribbean schedule. Try looking at the Transatlantic/Europe for 2012 and you will see what you are looking for. If you are talking 2013, the European schedule had not been posted when I checked about a week ago.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=27835019&postcount=2

[shuttlebuggy]

Thanks Sapper1!

You are right - I did read things wrong and assumed a dry dock - but when registering on the HAL roll call I realized when Carol the organizer of our roll call was explaining she would be on a B2B on the Eurodam that she would not be in dd :)

 

So feeling better about that piece of our having to choose the time we did - but still have few jitters about the Holiday week we'll be on!

[sapper1]

Thanks Sapper1!

You are right - I did read things wrong and assumed a dry dock - but when registering on the HAL roll call I realized when Carol the organizer of our roll call was explaining she would be on a B2B on the Eurodam that she would not be in dd :)

 

So feeling better about that piece of our having to choose the time we did - but still have few jitters about the Holiday week we'll be on!

I am sure you will enjoy the Eurodam. I would not hesitate to take another cruise on her. Have a great time.:)