I can’t say that we have ever had a series of cruises like this before… First, the largest Cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas, in November. The ship was huge and it felt like it: 226,000 gross tons and up to 6000 passengers. We got the once in a lifetime chance to duel with Allure for the press.
Then, we followed that up with the inaugural cruise of Disney Dream in January. The ship is a technological marvel with the way the ship interacts with the passengers and still manages to give you the full Disney vibe. Being among the first to try out the AquaDuck, the first watercoaster at sea, was a blast. The fine dining of the specialty restaurant, Remy, is something that should be enjoyed by anyone who loves food. Prior to the cruise we spent a few days in the parks of Walt Disney World to get us in the mood; that place really never gets old.
What could we do to follow those two cruises?? How about going to the opposite end of the spectrum in size (from Oasis) and pomp and circumstance (Disney Dream Maiden Voyage) to Seabourn Legend. This ship is 10,000 gross tons with a maximum number of 208 passengers to 168 crew. The ship is so small that you can see over the port side of the ship while standing on the starbird. The service? All I can say is WOW. This was a cruise that forces us to break our standards of cruising into two categories: mass market and small, ultra luxury. They made every attempt to get you anything you could ever want and more. One thing about the ship being an all inclusive ship is the fact that you never have to sign a drink bill. Just order and they deliver. By the end of our 7 days in paradise, we had gotten to know a majority of the crew and a large chunk of the passengers. This was the first time on a cruise that we really spent a lot of time with people we didn’t bring with us. If you can swing the price, this is a cruise line that has to be experienced.
I know it has taken a LONG time, but finally have pictures out there soon for last spring’s Solstice cruise, fall’s Secrets Maroma and this past winter’s three cruises. Click on the various links in this post to see them
I will put more of an update out here shortly, but wanted to make sure that I got the video shown below out there as soon as possible. Basically, the second ship of the Oasis class, Allure of the Seas, has recently crossed the Atlantic to its new home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. When we left on our November 13 cruise on Oasis, we were fortunate enough to meet up with our sister ship for press and marketing photos. Because of the size of these ships, they will probably never be in the same area at the same time again. Any time a video of the Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas is shown where they are together, we will know that we were up on deck in those pictures. It was amazing.
We just returned from about a week at Secrets Maroma Beach all-inclusive resort and it was truly amazing. We thought that the wonderful service we received when we visited Secrets Capri a few years ago was just a fluke until we visited their newest Mexican resort. The people were friendly on all levels and made a point of remembering you every time they saw you. The food was great, especially at el Patio (Mexican Restaurant); I had the flank steak there and it was one of the best steaks I have had in a long time. The weather was perfect for the middle of hurricane season with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 80s F (about 29C) for all days but one. On that day it rained on and off, but was still warm enough to swim. Our room for the week was one of the swim out junior suites near the front of the resort and seemed to be in an ideal location. We were close to the food and bar, it was quiet because the main pool was a 2 minute walk away and gave us evening shade in the pool we shared with 5 or so other couples. Laziness has been the keyword when it comes to our ability to get the pictures on the web site, but hopefully we will have some good ones out there soon.
Because this was our 2nd great experience with the Secrets brand, we WILL end up going back to to one of their properties again.
OK, we made some changes to our vacation schedule…. It wasn’t easy to do, but we managed to find new vacations to fill the old spots…
We had to cancel the Silhouette Inaugural cruise in July for personal reasons, so we had an opening in the fall of 2011 (bummer). Around the same time we found that the September Celebrity Millennium wine cruise had opened the Concierge Class 1 rooms so we swiped room 6143… We thought that the fall cruise was better for the weather (warmer), the itinerary (one more port in Monterey), the time of year (vineyards are doing their wine making thing) and flights (flying home from Vancouver can be a pain). So, we canceled our May wine cruise. This created a serious gap in our vacationing….
Well, for the longest time I have wanted to try one of the small ship, ultra lux lines (Crystal, Seabourn, Regent or SilverSea) so I started doing some research. I found that, even though they are rated the highest in customer support, Crystal is not all-inclusive. That brought it down to Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn and SilverSeas lines. In the end, we decided to go with a 7 day St. Thomas roundtrip on Seabourn Legend for early March 2011. The itinerary is amazing and the ship is truly a departure from anything we have ever done (10,000 gross tons). We shall see how things progress..
Soon, we should have my parents’ Celebrity Millennium Alaska cruise pics online; these pics are amazing.. Stay Tuned
When I moved our website from the old setup to the WordPress setup, the cruise ship list didn’t exactly migrate well. There were errors such as wrong maiden voyage dates and gross tonnage. Well, I finally got around to totally redoing the tables with a new method and I must say that I am pretty impressed. Take a look at the “Cruise Ships” under the “Cruising Documentation” tab at the top of the page (or click the link below) and let me know what you think. All I ask in return is: if you notice an error, reply to this post with what is wrong. Enjoy.
We really only have good things to say about Celebrity’s Solstice and the ship felt like home. There were a few changes such as the Gallery Tastings bar has been changed to the Molecular Bar and the anytime dining in Blu. I do have to say that I was a bit annoyed by having to do anytime in Blu, but it turned out that we really liked it. I don’t think that I would have been as happy about it if I had to stand in ANY line to get in; we walked up and were seated.
Well, we went a bit overboard and booked TWO new cruises. We just put a deposit down on the May 3, 2011 Wine Cruise on Celebrity Millennium and, while onboard, booked the Celebrity Silhouette inaugural. We may end up canceling the inaugural, but we have them booked out there for now.
About 2 more weeks before we board Solstice for our second voyage on the ship and we are really looking forward to seeing one of our favorite ships again. Just to see the differences between the room layouts, we decided to get the AquaClass room immediately nextdoor tot he one we were in last time so that we can see if we like the bed near the doors or near the bathroom better. This time around, however, we are going in with quite a bit of OBC from booking credits and price corrections. We really can’t wait…
Since my last post on here, we booked 6 nights at Secrets Maroma Beach in September.. Yes, I know it is hurricane season, but we bought the “cancel for any reason” insurance that Apple Vacations offers so I believe we are safe. We have only heard great things about that resort so it will be a wonderful way to spend a week in the fall. Later.
Well, we’re back from the canal and, well, we’re cold… The Panama Canal is everything that we hoped it would be; it is simply amazing that this engineering project was completed 97 years ago. Even by today’s standards it would be a feat. Next on the agenda: back to Celebrity Solstice..
We are still putting together the pictures from the cruise (Emily shot WELL OVER 1000 pics), however I have created a page for our cruisemates, Sydney and Jim. Here is the page SYD AND JIM’S PAGE.
Make sure that you check out the Karaoke links…. Trust me, you have never seen someone Karaoke like this before; I really was not prepared for what I witnessed.
The countdown is less than 1 week until we are in WARM weather. Acapulco is our first stop and we will end up in Fort Lauderdale a week and a half later. While I really don’t like packing, it is a means to an end (getting there.) We will probably have a really large number of pics so stay tuned.
This is great….. Our swim up junior suite at Excellence Playa Mujeres is amazing; I am sitting on the day bed on our patio to do a quick post to our site. The temperature is somewhere in the 80s and our piece of the pool is about 20 feet away. It doesn’t get much better than this… Actually, the scene would be complete with the pets hanging out next to me.
Nick, Donna, Nadia and Marcos, email to our tnewebmaster@gmail.com account and I will get you our personal email addresses. By the time you read this you will probably be back home as well…
