Boston Babe

There,,,There.  Everything will be just fine.  You're among friends here.  This is your safe space. 
Use wine and/or Jack and Coke to calm the symptoms.   

I'm pretty bad myself. I'm a routine lover so it comes as part of my morning routine. I have a problem but I also don't care - it's not hurting anyone.

My name is Emerson, and I'm a Cruise Pplannerolic.
I've just realised I have a problem. I find myself checking the cruise planner 2 to 3 times a day pretty much from the time I book my cruise. The symptoms seem to get a lot worse 6 months out and come 3 months out... well, someone please take my keyboard from me.
Am I alone? Do others suffer from this crippling condition? Is there any cure or should I just embrace my disease? 
If Royal Carribean comes out with an app that allows me to check cruise planner I may need to check myself into a treatment centre!
 
 
 

The points dont expire for quite a while, hence the 2022 date.  However, once you "redeem" them for various cruise rewards (OBC, upgrades etc. ) you must use that redemption within 180 days.  So if you convert your points to OBC and then you dont actually cruise and use them within 180 days you lose them

FABULOUS!!!! Thank you ellcee!!!

Recall though that people like us are the educated cruise minority, the majority of people (and Royal's target market) have never cruised and don't know better. This is just part of their ongoing realization that churning through a never ending stream of first time cruisers is vastly more profitable than catering to those of us that are savvy enough to know not to buy the pictures, how to work the system to wait for the sales and the discounts, that are comfortable booking private excursions instead of through the ship, etc.

Well, now that I won't be buying the package, which means they are out two packages, and I'll be buying my drinks as I go and therefore will be much more mindful of the $$ I'm spending, they actually will be losing out.  If there was a decent discount for both of us, I might consider it.  
 
At least now I'll be able to share whatever drink I get with my wife and not feel like the po-po are watching  and waiting.

No deals for me (March/April Eastern Caribbean). But if folks on February cruises are seeing some deals, gives me hope that next month (maybe Thanksgiving weekend?), my ship will finally come in.
 
See what I did there? 

Graduated from Boston University. I love doing the cruise on Grandeur and Explorer. Some of my friends met me at the pier. Love Boston!!!!!

I have been on Granduer twice years ago.  Great ship.  We did Canada/New England from Cape Liberty on Explorer about 6 years ago and that is probably my favorite itinerary of all my cruises.

I'm really not sure.  They do change things once in a while.  Grandeur OTS has a stream of regular cruisers in the Baltimore area who sail her often.  If they do change the menu, I'm sure it will be equally as good.

We had an amazing time.  I hope you will as well.
 
We ended up not scheduling any shore excursions & just walked around every port. 
 
Bar Harbor was our favorite.  In Bar Harbor, we found an amazing photo gallery (Katahdin Photo Gallery / https://katahdinphotogallery.com/).  The guy had some awesome photos that we bought.  He even takes care of shipping them home to us.
 
We also visited the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. 
 
If you like local t-shirts, check out Debbah’s Bar Harbor shop.  I’m a big guy & was pleased to find some 4XL shirts!
 
In Portland, I would recommend Gritty’s Brew Pub for lunch (http://grittys.com/).  One of the local shop owner’s recommended it to us.  My wife enjoyed her burger & beer, while I loved my fried shrimp basket. 
 
We found some amazing coasters with local photos from Peter Cordice (https://www.facebook.com/petercordicephotography/ ).  He was selling them on a street corner on Commercial Street (I think it was Commercial Street). 
 
Both Bar Harbor & Portland had local ice cream shops that my wife & I meant to stop in after lunch but we never got around to that.  Don’t make the same mistake we made . . . stop in!!!!
 
St. John’s was OK.  We explored there in the morning & went back to the ship to take a break.  We ended up staying on the ship. 
 
Halifax was our 2nd favorite port.  We walked all over the city.  We stopped at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic & had lunch at Salty’s.  If you go to the Maritime Museum, go up the second floor to see how crowded the Titanic exhibit is.  We made the mistake of exploring the main floor first.  When we were done with that a Titanic excursion group walked in & the Titanic section was crowded. 
 
We meet a couple who enjoyed their visit to the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site.  My wife & I are going to go there on our next visit.  Bring your jacket, that couple said it was extremely windy . . . I got the impression that it may always be windier up there than it is around town.
 
They also stopped by the Halifax Central Library that was just recently built.  They were really impressed with it.  We’ll probably stop there too at our next cruise.
 
Be prepared for evening fog.  We had 2 or 3 nights of dense fog at night.  I thought it was actually a cool experience.  We had fog almost the entire day on our first sea day. 
 
I hope you have as great of a time as we did!

And don't get overly excited when they start announcing release dates.  You can expect them to be delayed a few times.  The 2018/19 schedules that were released this year I'm pretty sure were initially supposed to be released in January, but didn't start coming out til March, and it took til June to finally get the Australia/south Pacific schedule I was chomping at the bit for.

I just read this over at Cruise Critic, very informative read:  https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8067&et_cid=3001988&et_rid=245092001&et_referrer=Boards - CC-US. 

Good article and makes you realize just how bad these 2 hurricanes really were.
 
But on a good note, sounds like that within the next 30-60 days most of these ports will be up and running and welcoming back tourists which will in turn help them recover!

HI everyone,  I was wondering if anyone has done the New England/Canada cruise from Baltimore? It really looks like such a nice and different cruise.  We are booked for Bermuda currently and then Bermuda in Sept 2018, the 2 Celebrity Eastern and Western in 2019 so thought this was nice. If anyone has done this I would appreciate any input. thank you so much!!

Also, they are on different schedules.  Don't expect them to open at the same time.

February/March is usually when they become available.

It really is one of the gems.  I thought you would say what you did, but wanted your opinion just in case and I take it you really like the Grandeur too? I like the size of the ship as well. I think I'm going to book 5 night again for July for our anniversary!
Thank you so very much!!

You just convinced me even more! We are like you, we don't need the bells and whistles either, we like to relax, read, have a few cocktails that's about it! Thanks so much Mark!!
Lorraine

It usually opens early in the year... could be expected around March/April 2018

Maybe the last weekend of Feb if someone gets really aggressive in the planning department but its usually a weekly dribble of new itineraries through march and into april.

Something we all need to know
If you want to keep that healthy glow
Remind your friends, in courteous terms,
Let's spread the words and not the germs.
Wash your hands
It's the right thing to do
It's easier when
You only have two.
Wash your hands
Keep them clean
Oh yeah, hey, hey,
Wash your hands.
But if you find you're not feeling well
Like too many trips around the carousel
Call the doctor, that's what you do
The doctor'll take good care of you
And you'll feel better too
Wash your hands and make your mother proud
And maybe you can join the popular crowd
Wash your hands, like fifty times a day
Oh yeah, hey, hey, wash your hands.
Wash your hands.
Wash your hands.
 
 

Thank you, and thank you son for his service. I have a nephew in the Navy and know the immense pride of having somebody in the family serving our country.

Haven't done Grandeur out of Baltimore, but Serenade out of Boston was a blast, I imagine they're not too different.