Cruises......vacation or temporary hell......

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/18/17006526-coast-guard-finds-fuel-leak-caused-engine-fire-on-carnival-triumph?lite

I have taken three cruises in my life. The first two were pleasant, but the last one out of Mobile to Cozumel on Carnival......never going to get me on another cruise without some kind of family reunion, or large group of friends.....I just think there has developed too much down side to the concept.

2seaoat wrote:http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/18/17006526-coast-guard-finds-fuel-leak-caused-engine-fire-on-carnival-triumph?lite

I have taken three cruises in my life. The first two were pleasant, but the last one out of Mobile to Cozumel on Carnival......never going to get me on another cruise without some kind of family reunion, or large group of friends.....I just think there has developed too much down side to the concept.

I have been on several cruises all with Carnival and never had a problem on any of them. We have scheduled another one for this summer and it cannot get here fast enough to suit me.

2seaoat wrote:http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/18/17006526-coast-guard-finds-fuel-leak-caused-engine-fire-on-carnival-triumph?lite

I have taken three cruises in my life. The first two were pleasant, but the last one out of Mobile to Cozumel on Carnival......never going to get me on another cruise without some kind of family reunion, or large group of friends.....I just think there has developed too much down side to the concept.

What cruise line were your first two cruises and what happened on the cruise out of Mobile?

We took the Cozumel cruise out of Mobile a couple of years ago. We didn't have any real problems but many of the passengers on that cruise were loud and rowdy. I guess the best description of that experience would be "People of Walmart go on a Cruise". I tell you what....I wouldn't want to be stuck on any boat with the problems that boat had last week but I really, really would not want to be stuck on a problem boat with that group of passengers on the Mobile cruise. It was fine for what it was--we wanted to see Chichen Itza-- and that is why we went on that cruise. The price was cheap and I cannot really complain about what we got for what we paid for.

We both like cruises a lot but Carnival is not our cruise line of choice.

"People of Walmart go on a Cruise".

Bingo!

The Mobile cruise was just not enjoyable because we like shore time. We like at least two full days off the boat to enjoy places. Our prior cruises were to the Bahamas on smaller boats without the bargain basement mobile experience, and we got to spend time on the beaches......we want to spend much more shore time than the typical cruise allows.

Advice: Do not go on a Mediterranean cruise on anything other than an American branded liner. The European cruise liners have horrible food.

Ive only taken one cruise.

Took it out of miami, stayed a couple of days in the bahamas.

I got sea sick on the way there and drunk on the way back. Beause if im going to throw up, im having fun first.

I learned one thing from that cruise. Fly to your destination and enjoy. Theres not a damn thing on a boat but food, liqur and lots of bars and those stupid slot machines et al.

Id rather go to the local clubs on land and sight see.

To me cruises are over rated. A person should do them once to say they have done it. After that, just fly to greece or italy or where ever and get out and see, not sea. IMHO<

Bargain basement...exactly! Like I said, I cannot really complain because we paid a bargain basement price. Ship was just ok. Food was just ok. Cabin was ok. It's not that I expected a high class type of cruise, because I didn't. I knew it was Carnival. And I don't want to be on a hoighty-toighty type ship. It's our vacation and we just want to be comfortable and have a nice time. But it would be nice to go to lunch without having loud, half dressed, drunken rednecks running through the dining room. The time in port in Cozumel was fine but the time in Progreso was not long enough because we had to take a bus to Chichen Itzu and we didn't have nearly the time to see the place as we would have liked. I cannot blame Carnival for that because they were on a time schedule and had to leave port that evening. It was the best tour they could provide given the time frame they were working with. And we did enjoy Chichen Itzu very much, the time that we had there.

We have gone on a Princess cruise and the difference between Princess and Carnival is night and day. Although I believe they are owned by the same company.

I shop at Walmart. It makes me feel bad that people wouldn't want to be on a cruise with me.

Bob wrote:I shop at Walmart. It makes me feel bad that people wouldn't want to be on a cruise with me.

Hey, I shop at Walmart too. Would you really want to be stuck on a boat with those people? I am talking about the ones who wear their PJs to Walmart and get in loud conversations with friends they run into in the store where they tell intimate details of extramarital affairs or the recent arrests of themselves or their friends/family. Now, put those people and their friends/family on a boat with the booze flowing and all the food they can eat. lol.

My point is--I do not want my vacation to be like a shopping trip to Walmart!

I shop at Walmart. It makes me feel bad that people wouldn't want to be on a cruise with me.


I shop at Walmart too.....but as Groucho said.....I do not want to join a club who would take me as a member........its just when you see a bunch of drunks lined up at the free ice cream machine at 3am........well, then sit down next to that person at breakfast........the conversation is painful, and multiply that 100 fold and you have a cruise out of Mobile.......only a couple of rushed hours on shore.....and back to a Kmart blue light special......free nachos at 4am.........

2seaoat wrote:I shop at Walmart. It makes me feel bad that people wouldn't want to be on a cruise with me.


I shop at Walmart too.....but as Groucho said.....I do not want to join a club who would take me as a member........its just when you see a bunch of drunks lined up at the free ice cream machine at 3am........well, then sit down next to that person at breakfast........the conversation is painful, and multiply that 100 fold and you have a cruise out of Mobile.......only a couple of rushed hours on shore.....and back to a Kmart blue light special......free nachos at 4am.........

LOL! That's it!

Well you wouldn't have to worry about me being drunk because I could never bring myself to pay those prices for alcohol. BUT you might have a point when it comes to the free food. You would ALWAYS have me in line in front of you.
BUT, that's why I couldn't ever take a cruise. I can't afford to gain 50 lbs. That would put me back on insulin shots again.

Bob wrote:Well you wouldn't have to worry about me being drunk because I could never bring myself to pay those prices for alcohol. BUT you might have a point when it comes to the free food. You would ALWAYS have me in line in front of you.
BUT, that's why I couldn't ever take a cruise. I can't afford to gain 50 lbs. That would put me back on insulin shots again.

The one benefit of a Mediterranean cruise is that you can load up on good wine on the cheap in the port city....bring an extra suitcase!

We don't drink on cruise either. We might have one drink, each, the entire cruise. That is usually if we have a drink voucher or something. And I refuse to pay extra for sodas. We just drink tea and coffee which are free. I'd rather drink tea and coffee anyway.

I want to take a Med cruise. Would love to cruise around the Greek Isles.

I'll tell you something I told another person yesterday. And when I tell you this you're gonna think either I'm lying and I don't really believe it or I'm telling the truth and that makes me stupid and crazy.

If Carnival Cruise Lines offered me a ticket for the same cruise as was in the news, in other words they were gonna tell me in advance I would be experiencing the same thing as those passengers did, AND they said they were not gonna charge me anything for taking that cruise (same as the refund those passengers are getting), AND they were gonna give me a free cruise that doesn't experience those problems, AND they were gonna give me an additional $500 to boot;
I would sign up for that so fast it would make your head spin.

Bob wrote:I'll tell you something I told another person yesterday. And when I tell you this you're gonna think either I'm lying and I don't really believe it or I'm telling the truth and that makes me stupid and crazy.

If Carnival Cruise Lines offered me a ticket for the same cruise as was in the news, in other words they were gonna tell me in advance I would be experiencing the same thing as those passengers did, AND they said they were not gonna charge me anything for taking that cruise (same as the refund those passengers are getting), AND they were gonna give me a free cruise that doesn't experience those problems, AND they were gonna give me an additional $500 to boot;
I would sign up for that so fast it would make your head spin.

Sign up and take a suitcase full of snacks, hand sanitizers, baby wipes, and water bottles with you. Fill up the water bottles when you first get on the ship. Most importantly--don't let any of the redneck passengers know that you have any of that stuff!

Nekochan wrote:I want to take a Med cruise. Would love to cruise around the Greek Isles.

A Med cruise is great. Instead, my recommendation is to spend several days in Santorini and Mykonos. Best advice ever: Don't take the gondola up to Santorini....Take the donkey ride.

Margin Call wrote:

Nekochan wrote:I want to take a Med cruise. Would love to cruise around the Greek Isles.

A Med cruise is great. Instead, my recommendation is to spend several days in Santorini and Mykonos. Best advice ever: Don't take the gondola up to Santorini....Take the donkey ride.

All I can say is buying and selling stocks must be quite lucrative when you know what you're doing. lol

Bob wrote:

Margin Call wrote:

Nekochan wrote:I want to take a Med cruise. Would love to cruise around the Greek Isles.

A Med cruise is great. Instead, my recommendation is to spend several days in Santorini and Mykonos. Best advice ever: Don't take the gondola up to Santorini....Take the donkey ride.

All I can say is buying and selling stocks must be quite lucrative when you know what you're doing. lol

Donkey ride is 15 Euros.

Bob wrote:

Margin Call wrote:

Nekochan wrote:I want to take a Med cruise. Would love to cruise around the Greek Isles.

A Med cruise is great. Instead, my recommendation is to spend several days in Santorini and Mykonos. Best advice ever: Don't take the gondola up to Santorini....Take the donkey ride.

All I can say is buying and selling stocks must be quite lucrative when you know what you're doing. lol

I don't know...he rode a donkey up the hill. How expensive can that be?

Ha, ha....that's funny--I was wondering how much the donkey ride cost. How much is that in US$? $25 or so?

Hell.....you do not need to go to Europe to ride Donkeys....go over to Greyhound and play some poker.....there are plenty of Donkeys, and you leave with the Donkeys paying you......of course Greyhound is a little classier than a cruise out of Mobile.

Nekochan wrote:

I don't know...he rode a donkey up the hill. How expensive can that be?

That musta been a day when there was a down market. lol

Nekochan wrote:Ha, ha....that's funny--I was wondering how much the donkey ride cost. How much is that in US$? $25 or so?

I think it was ~$20 when I did it...2004.