posted
I have taken a couple of cruises myself and loathed them both. If God had intended us to float from place to place, why then did He give us wheels? :-)
I suspect that the average ages of cruise people and train people are close together -- 60s and up, largely retirees. We, after all, have the time and the money.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
Other than the Big Name actors who, for reasons unclear to me, agreed to play roles in this otherwise "low-bud" flick, "Out to Sea" does show ths "foibiles' of cruising - including the contrived merriment.
At times when you meet obviously wealthy people on board, you have to wonder "how did these so clueless people ever become so wealthy?".
This "romp flick" makes periodic rounds on the Starz and your cable/sat operator's on demand channels; if "nothing else is on' it's worth a view.
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: I suspect that the average ages of cruise people and train people are close together -- 60s and up, largely retirees. We, after all, have the time and the money.
You'd be surprised that the average age of most cruisers falls around the mid-30's to 50's. Lots of families with kids travel on cruises now as do business and religious groups, family reunions, and specialty interest groups like NASCAR. As the saying now goes 'It's not just for the dead and dying'.
Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Several years ago my cousin,his wife, and 2 other couples took a long looked forward to cruise to Alaska. On their return when I asked how it was his answer "never again. Most of the people sat around listening to their pacemakers" that should bring forth interesting complaints and comments!!!!!
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by dmwnc1959: You'd be surprised that the average age of most cruisers falls around the mid-30's to 50's. Lots of families with kids travel on cruises now as do business and religious groups, family reunions, and specialty interest groups like NASCAR. As the saying now goes 'It's not just for the dead and dying'.
This demographic could well apply to seven-day Summer season Caribbean cruises; otherwise, the longer the cruise, the more the demographic noted by Ms. Train Lady's friends will apply.
Additional caskets are part of a ship's inventory for the Round the World cruises offered by the upscale lines. I don't think how many of such are carried on board is "exactly" advertised.
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Several years ago I was on the California Zephyr and out of Denver we picked up a very large group of teenagers and travelling companions. A very large group. It was awful. A nightmare. And one one experience with a northbound Coast Starlight the patronage in my car appeared as (not to be mean) 'the smelly homeless' and grunge rockers. And yet another experience crossing on the Empire Builder I swear I was travelling with a group of backpacking Nomad vagrants. If I judge travelling by Amtrak by those experiences I too would say never again. But I was smart enough not to. And kept on travelling.
I've been on 5 cruises to Alaska: 2 on Princess, 1 on Holland-America, 1 on Cruise West and 1 on Celebrity. From 1983 to 2004 I have been on a total of 29 cruises, year-round; holiday sailings, mid-Summer and Fall sailings, off-peak January sailings, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Alaska, New England, and Mexico. I have also been on cruises that were as long as 11-days. I dont recall any of them having a majority of older pace-maker driven passengers.
But again a single vacation cruise experience, an experience where an individual has had only one sampling of what the cruise industry has to offer and on one cruise, and judging the entire cruise industry by the patronage on that one sailing, is a bit narrow minded to make such a finite judgment on. But people do. My friend did, about Amtrak.
-------------------- The best part of life is the journey, not the destination. Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
This IS tongue-in-cheek, but do the NASCAR folks spend their time jogging counter clockwise on deck the entire cruise?
Posts: 406 | From: La Grange, CA | Registered: Sep 2007
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quote:Originally posted by RR4me: This IS tongue-in-cheek, but do the NASCAR folks spend their time jogging counter clockwise on deck the entire cruise?
We can get to the port as long as the directions include all 'left turns'.
-------------------- The best part of life is the journey, not the destination. Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
What's so unusual about counterclockwise running?
Horse races are run counterclockwise. So are foot races (400 meters and up).
The geezers at the senior center I frequent, however, insist on walking the circular indoor track clockwise. It doesn't make sense. At our age wouldn't you expect them to want to turn back the clock?
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
Late to the topic; but, I would likely take the cruise if it's on the right ship and time of year. Not trying to bash any cruise ship company since each has their market and time of year is based on weather for the region of travel.
posted
Thanks for the link. I'm one of those guys who enjoys looking at other people's "slide shows" and there is certainly a lot to see here. It took me back to places that I have great memories of including Costa Rica and Scotland!
Frank in SUNNY SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Stourbridge Lion, looks like the Sun Princess (which I have been on twice, once in the Caribbean and once in Alaska) or the Dawn Princess which I also did in Alaska. I know the Ocean Princess and Sea Princess, all four of these being sisters, were both transferred to P&O a number of years ago.
Of the 5 times I made it to Alaska I also took the Yukon and Whitepass RR which was amazing. probably one of the best rail trips ever. This past Saturday I also took the New Tygart Flyer again, this time out of Elkins WV. Two of my clients went with me and had a freaking blast.
I am looking at a quick rail trip this fall to New York just to see the QM2, just to see if I still enjoy rail travel. It's been a while since my last train trip on Amtrak. Also looking at trying to connect a Silver Service trip with my cruise next year. Want to do the cruise, but to spend that long on a train again is going to be a real challenge since I'll have to do it in coach. Cant afford both 1st Class rail and a cruise with a balcony. It's a shame the cruise lines stopped marketing Rail/Sail combo's. I dont know if it was a good deal or not but it was always a fun option to try and sell my clients as a TA.
-------------------- The best part of life is the journey, not the destination. Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
For those concerned about the "contrived merriment" of a cruise, remember there are cruises and there are cruises. There is a huge variety of ships out there. I have no interest in "contrived merriment" and wouldn't take another Caribbean cruise if it was free - once was enough in this lifetime. Liner voyages are more to my taste. Of the 19 ocean trips my wife and I have taken since 1972, only five have been on cruises. Sadly, liner voyages (except for the Queen Mary 2 on transatlantic) are few and far between.
A tasteful cruise experience can be had on the P&O cruises from England. But since Carnival bought out P&O amongst other lines, there have been some mass market ships added to the fleet. The best cruise we had was a fortnight on P&O's late Canberra from England to Norway. The Queen Mary 2 is most likely the ship that offers the broadest range of experiences. There is casual dining as an option to the formal dinners, even the ubiquitous cafeteria that astonishingly seems very popular, an option of basic dining in a gorgeous dining room or more intimate one-sitting dining in the pricey Princess Grill or Queens Grill. In the latter two restaurants passengers can even order off-menu items. Entertainment covers the full range from the usual pop stuff to classical music, lectures, a planetarium and even plays performed by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In other words you can do as much or as little as you want and all tastes are catered for.
My next long-distance train trip will be to Halifax to again view and photograph the lovely QM2. Obviously it is impossible to get good pictures of a ship on a transatlantic crossing. The QM2 is calling in Halifax three times this year and twice in other Canadian ports, including Quebec City. I believe it was E.M.Frimbo who said: any excuse for a train ride is a good excuse.
Posts: 216 | From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:Originally posted by sbalax: Thanks for the link. I'm one of those guys who enjoys looking at other people's "slide shows" and there is certainly a lot to see here. It took me back to places that I have great memories of including Costa Rica and Scotland!
Frank in SUNNY SBA
Glad to share! It's my little "World Tour" site documenting the various places we have travled too outside the US. Awhile back we found this site called the Traveler's Century Club and they have broken out the world into a " List" and before you can join their club you have to reached 100 of their 319 locations on the list. Not planning on joining the club but it is interesting to us to see how our travels match up to the list and we have a long way to go to reach 100.
Allot of these places were reach via taking a Cruise...
posted
I've got no real excuse for not taking a blue water cruise; I practically live within walking distance of one of the world's major passenger ship ports. I'm early-retired, relatively healthy, etc. Maybe I can find a slow boat to China that would call at Shanghai; from there I can get back on the rails, and catch the new train to Lhasa (Tibet.) Well, it's on my "do" list for someday--almost made it there in 2007. In my younger years, I thought I wanted to 'crew' on a 'tramp steamer' in exchange for passage, but at this point would need a little more luxury than that!
Posts: 588 | From: East San Diego County, CA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Railroad Bob I love San Diego. I wish I lived there. I'd probably take the Pacific Surfliner literally every weekend to points north. I know when I lived in a town serviced by Amtrak I unfortunately took it for granted and used it only about once every other month.
You may have not known but during the recent Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico the cruise lines were forced to re-route all their Mexican Riviera itineraries north to ports of call in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria. Apparantly they were literally giving away 7-night cruises, in some cases on brand new mega-cruise ships, as low as $199 per person. Now THATS a deal too good to pass up. A WEEKS worth of food, 3+ square meals a day, entertainment, accomodations, and interesting ports for less than $200! Wow. That's less than $30 a day. Can't beat that.
Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by dmwnc1959: You may have not known but during the recent Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico the cruise lines were forced to re-route all their Mexican Riviera itineraries north to ports of call in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria.
Mr. DMW, did these Love Tubs call both at LA and SF, LA and Seattle, or all three? If any of such the case, interesting to learn that the Swine Flu outbreak rose to the level of "emergency" to allow suspension of the cabotage provisions within the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (Jones Act).
posted
Mr. Norman, back in late April the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the US State Department both issued proclomations stating that all unnecessary travel to Mexico should be avoided. Every cruise line took this quite seriously and cancelled nearly every single port call visit on every ship on both the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico sides of Mexico, in some cases as long as 6 weeks worth of itineraries. This was quite devastating to the local economy of these ports losing tens of thousands of passengers in these six weeks on dozens of ships. For instance in one case the Carnival Splendor, which carries upwards of 3000+ passengers, diverted for 6 weeks taking away 18,000 passengers worth of possible revenue from Mexican ports. And that's just one ship, on one side of Mexico.
However most, if not all, still included at least one foreign visit to either Canada or another Caribbean/Gulf non-US port. On the Pacific side, Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas visited SF, Seattle, and Victoria BC. The new Carnival Splendor visited San Francisco, Victoria and Vancouver BC.
Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and Holland-America also re-routed ships cancelling their Mexican Riviera ports of call extending port visits in San Diego and other ports into overnight stays, or adding ports further south in Central America. These were mainly westbound repositioning cruises that were coming up from Panama Canal transits.
A lot of people in the cruise industry always wondered what would happen if something like this occurred. It appears that this test quickly allowed cruise lines to divert Mexican Riviera ships northward and still maintain the Jones Act.
-------------------- The best part of life is the journey, not the destination. Posts: 497 | From: Clarksburg, West Virginia | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Yes, many of these ships passed through Panama as a Port of Call and/or ported in Ensenda Mexico which by defintion took care of the Jones Act requirements of visiting a foreign country.
posted
Our cruise on RCL's Radiance of the Seas was one of those that had to bypass three Mexican ports (Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas). While we were disappointed to miss these ports (especially Huatulco where we were scheduled to have lunch with a Peace Corps friend who lives in Oaxaca and has a beach house at Huatulco) we very much enjoyed the extra "sea days". We arrived in San Diego one day early and were given the option of disembarking (very few people did) or spending a night onboard. We had excellent seats for the Red Bull AirRaces!!
Although the situation was beyond their control, I thought RCL and Captain Trym handled things very well. Each passenger was given a "Future Cruise Credit" equivalent to 25% of the cruise fare for use on a future Mexican Riviera cruise. We are looking at Radiance again in February 2010.
Frank in overcast SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by RR4me: This IS tongue-in-cheek, but do the NASCAR folks spend their time jogging counter clockwise on deck the entire cruise?
Nope! Track isn't banked.
-------------------- Railrev Escondido, CA Posts: 99 | From: Escondido, California | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Our first cruise was a gift from our church (I'm a pastor). We cruised on HAL out of San Diego to Mexican Riviera. Loved every minute. Started planning a second cruise almost immediately.
Leaving Vancouver for Alaska in about three weeks. But, the land portion includes train from Anchorage to Denali and Denali to Fairbanks. Best of both, I'm told.
For me, two different experiences. Faced with a decision on a once in five years vacation, I'd pick the cruise for many of the reasons listed. Lots to do, or not do. Choices galore and lots of walking around room.
The train is fun, but is usually a way to get from one place to another that has more "personality" than a plane or a bus and allows time to read, relax and look at scenery.
I'd cruise the Panama Canal, but for the canal, not to go to Ft. Lauderdale. Likewise, I wouldn't do a "Great Circle Trip" on Amtrak just to ride the train, eat the food and end up back home in San Diego.
BTW, Ginger is my "cure all" for motion sickness. Take it in tablets starting as many days before departure as the length of the trip and take it every morning of travel. Had the wristbands, but never opened the package.
-------------------- Railrev Escondido, CA Posts: 99 | From: Escondido, California | Registered: Jul 2003
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I've found candied ginger works, too. Trader Joe's has a new Ginger Senbei snack that is VERY good.
Frank in Sunny SBA
Cunard leaves a silver bowl of candied ginger at the exit of the restaurants, but strangely only after dinner. We saw several passengers take extra so they could have some at any time. Our crossing was so incredibly smooth we didn't need it, but I always had a little after each dinner because it tastes good and is good for the digestion.
Posts: 216 | From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
as a warning as great ginger is likewise ginger tea if you are taking a blood thinner such as coumadin remember ginger shouldn't be eaten.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I've only taken a couple of cruises myself, so I don't have any strong opinions of the experience either way, but I have to say that the ships that are designed and built today are horrendous to look at. I understand that economics drives the design, but either the old France or QEII had far more grace and style than these floating boxes!
Posts: 518 | From: Maynard, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I hate to name drop, ahem, but I have experienced the pleasures of an around-the-world cruise aboard this luxury liner:
The cabin was rather cramped and the onboard activies left something to be desired, but you still can't beat the fare!
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
That would be the Big Mo, were you on deck force? from what I understand taking the varnish off was 23 licks a board. Mine was a river cruise on the My Tho. A Tango Boat that was eventually turned over to ARVN. I was then shipped up to Danang, I believe Mr Norman spent some quality time there.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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quote:Originally posted by cubzo: That would be the Big Mo, were you on deck force? from what I understand taking the varnish off was 23 licks a board. Mine was a river cruise on the My Tho. A Tango Boat that was eventually turned over to ARVN. I was then shipped up to Danang, I believe Mr Norman spent some quality time there.
Engineroom #3. Not a half a snipe—a HOLE snipe! (1985-88)
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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Got "popped at" from time to time - mostly around Tet.
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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