UkuleleCruiser

We had that on the Liberty.

I won .15 once. They gave me a keychain. That's about it for my high roller experience! Good luck!

I'll take that! Cheers and cheap champagne to you!

I would love that! There's also a re-positioning cruise to Barcelona. It's just that I can't be gone more then 7 days at a time. Hello, Retirement? Can you hear me calling?

This will be a useless post because I've never cruised with that big a group, but my wife and I rarely pay for excursions. We get off the ship, wander amongst the little trinket shops, find a place to get local fried seafood and a local beer, and get back on the ship. We are exciting people.

I don't understand the strategy of keeping Liberty there year after year. There's only so many ports, so the ship has to be part of the attraction...

That's frightening!

Never experienced a cancellation, but the cruise last year we spent the first night at the dock in Galveston. I didn't care as long as I was on the ship! However, being able to drive instead of fly means we will probably always consider Galveston and New Orleans as a possibility. If I had to fly, unless it was a lot cheaper, I'd probably hit somewhere in Florida...

We drive! Seriously, as the bus pulled away to take us to the port, other folks on the bus were getting alerts from Carnival about the delay. We didn't get any alerts for quite some time. Live and learn. If we had a way to ditch the luggage, we'd have had a ball on The Strand while we waited. Or just drank coffee in the hotel.

We have wound up never buying the photo package. As a frequent cruiser, we get a "2nd picture half off" deal or something like that, which we almost always use. If I had a group of 4 or more in our travelling party, I'd consider this package. But for the wife and I, we use or phones for most of our photographic needs. (Note: I am imagining myself 20 years ago, hearing the phrase "we use or phones for most of our photographic needs" -- freak out) (2nd Note: On our just concluded cruise, they were training Chinese photographers on the ship. They always insisted on taking individual pictures of just me or just the wife. Does anyone ever buy those?) (Final note: here's an example of my poor photographic skills for your consideration and support or abuse)

Doesn't always work. On last year's Liberty of the Seas cruise, we arrived early to board the ship.... Only to find out they were delayed by fog, and wound up sitting on the cold pavement for hours because Galveston Port Authority has no provision for storing luggage for us. The lesson learned is we don't leave the hotel unless we see the ship. But the line wasn't awful, either.

I'm "sure" it's safe if it's an RCI excursion -- I think it's a great idea.

It's always such a mob scene. My wife's primary reason for advancing in Crown and Anchor is to skip some of these lines....

Nothing wrong with a little male-bonding brawl... Unless you have to figure out how to get home from a secluded port!

It looks gorgeous!

One of the things we are looking at for 2019 (and possibly 4th of July this year) is doing two "shorter" cruises instead of our standard one 7 day. So, this could be a three-day, but I'm ideally hoping for two 5 day cruises. I am looking for departure ports that are fairly inexpensive to get to, but also which have enough ships to offer somewhat reasonable pricing during those particular high traffic weeks. I have noticed Miami and Fort Lauderdale seem good. There's even an option out of New Orleans and Long Beach. Any ideas?

I like that option a lot!

I am very interested in the Empress, as my wife wants to visit Cuba. What was your favorite thing about the ship? If I were to be so bold, what was your least favorite? Love this picture. Where was this on the ship?

Yeah, yeah, yeah: All the usual. What I did notice was a very unusual repositioning cruise coming out of Galveston and winding up in Barcelona. If I had the time, that would be tops on my list. You'll have to fly home, yes. But if you normally drive to Galveston, you can still do that.

We didn't have that experience. Now, granted, we didn't go out and explore on our own: The "shopping" was done in a protected "ship village" kind of area. But we were driven out for the the rum tasting, and had a chance to at least see the town from the bus. Lots of run-down tin roofs and expensive tourist resorts.

Here I am enjoying the best pizza in the world!

um, no comment?

Since I do everything you suggest, I will go buy the luggage tag holders. I do sometimes learn from others. I don't always have to pee on the electric fence for myself! :-)

We wound up ditching Bamboo Beach Club, and going with the Appleton Rum Factory experience instead.

By the way, we ditched the bamboo beach club and did the Appleton Rum Factory experience instead.