Finally...It's Here!
 

Nope, it's not a new bike, or bike parts, or bike accessories, or bike specific clothing. It's also not the day that I ride my age or my first Century.
It is a day, however, that I've been waiting nearly 365 days to arrive and it'll be here on Friday, 10/20/06.
It's the day of our yearly cruise which will be the tenth for the wife and I. We enjoy going in the Fall for two reasons: there usually are few kids on the ship and it coincides with our wedding anniversary which is October 22nd. For those of you who have cruised before, and since this is the 50+ Forum, I'm betting that the percentage is pretty high, you know why I'm looking forward to the trip. It's a vacation where, in my opinion, you get the best bang for your buck. Heck, I don't even care anymore which islands the ship stops at. We've seen them all several times over already. I just love the romance of the sea, the food, and, of course, being waited on hand and foot for ten days. Where else can you throw your towel on the bathroom floor after a shower, come back to your cabin and new ones are hanging on the rack? I try doing the same thing at home for a few days when the trip is over but it doesn't seem to work.
We actually got turned on to cruising ten years ago when my father in law treated my wife and I to our first cruise and we've been hooked ever since. We've been to just about all of the Caribbean islands, east, west, and southern, several times each. And the absolute best was the cruise to Hawaii, the most beautiful place I've ever seen and a place I've promised myself to return to some day. But for now it'll hopefully be nine sun filled days at sea with stops in St Thomas, St Maarten, and San Juan. Bon Voyage...in less than four days. I'll miss you guys. :D

Not being 50 yet, but very close, it's on my list of things to do...very soon. I also want to see the northern lights before I move on to my eternal rewards. :D

Do they have a place to ride? ;)

Cruising's not for everyone but I think that everyone should give it a try at least once. Some people just prefer to fly somewhere and lay on a beach sipping cocktails. Some feel couped up on a ship at sea or get seasick if the water's a bit rough. Others enjoy touring foreign countries and seeing historical sights. At this time in our lives my wife and I enjoy our yearly cruise so that's what we do. Not to say we wouldn't enjoy those other vacations as well and hopefully in the future we'll be able to do those things too.

Do they offer spinning classes on board? Will you take any? :p

Yes they do DG. In fact they have a huge gym with state of the art equipment. Also a track on one of the upper decks for jogging and rollerblading. Got to work off all of that food somehow. :D

Phew!

I thought perhaps they could hook up some bikes down in the boiler room and you could provide a little extra horsepower for those times the Captain wants to waterski!

Have a blast. I'm envious -- never have been on a cruise but I've wanted to for a long time. Say hi to Doc, Issac, Gopher, and especially, Julie -- at one time, the love of my life.

Trivia: remember the network announcer who said, 'The Looooooooooove Boat" ? Well, he cut his teeth in TV as the Friday night monster movie host in Cleveland, Ohio, going by the name Ghoulardi. Earnie Anderson was his real name.

Anyway, have a GREAT CRUISE!

Thanks DG, I appreciate the good wishes. But I did forget to mention something very important, something near and dear to your heart and just another great reason to take a cruise...PIE, PIE and more PIE! Any kind of pie you can imagine. All of the old favorites plus Keylime and Kiwi and others I can't even remember right now...all day, every day. So "Get Out There" and book that cruise. :lol:

We greatly enjoyed our first and only cruise, about 10 years ago.

We anticipate another one sometime in the future, but that must await knee replacements, etc.

Have a blast!

I've never done one. Everyone in my family including my wife and kids and immediate relatives have but not me. Maybe one of these days when I get a huge food attack........

I hope you have great cruising conditions and enjoy the destination.

Which cruise lines and ships do you prefer?

We've been on Carnival once, Celebrity once and Royal Caribbean eight times. As the numbers suggest we prefer Royal Caribbean. They just always seem to go that extra mile for you and we also prefer their ships to those of the other lines. The last two we were on (known as the Voyager class) actually had an indoor mall about the length of a football field with shopping, cafe's etc.
Also the fact that some of RC's ships now depart from Bayonne NJ is an extra bonus...no need to fly to get to the cruise port, no security rigamarole and no worry about lost luggage.

I had a very nice cruise back in 1972 in the South China Sea, Gulf of Tonkin, the Mindanao Straits and a few other places around the South Pacific It was lovely. Somehow, I've not taken another just yet....

I'm sure that it wasn't a Royal Caribbean ship. Glad you made it home OK.

Thanks. At the time, I was employed by "D" Company, 1st Battallion, 9th Marine Regiment. It was one of those little Battallion Landing Team things that were so popular then. Most of the time I was on the U.S.S. Denver, when I wasn't on the Denver, it was the U.S.S. Mobile. No pie on either one.

That's surprising for a U.S. Navy ship. My father in law was in the Navy and always raved about the food and the bread. Of course he never mentioned pie but I would have thought that pie would be on the menu daily.

I did a Carnival cruise once.... it was the worst 7 days of my life.

>shudder< never again........

Well, like I said, it's not for everyone.

I did too. We gave them a chance 10 years later and it was better but we've been spoiled by Celebrity and Princess. Since then we found a line (only cruise line that does Hawaii ) that makes the recent Carnival look almost good.

DG - they all have gyms, steam rooms, saunas, hot tubs ...

My wife and I went on a cruise a few years ago. I had a total blast the whole time, except my wife was sick the whole time even after taking dramamine (sp). She said after the trip was over, she would never do it again, guess if I want to go on another cruise, I'll have to go alone.:D

To be fair, it was the fact that it was a Carnival cruise far more than the fact that it was a cruise in general. They really went out of their was to make the whole thing an ordeal.

But I must confess I didn't like the "couped up" feeling of being on board - I'm a roamer....... :-)

Got some last minute packing to do and then just have to wait for the Limo. See you all in ten days.
Be safe.

Got back from my cruise around noon yesterday. Great trip and great weather every single day except the last one. By then we didn't even care since we were just exhausted and wanted to chill out for the day. We attended one of those auctions at sea by Park West and actually had the winning bid on a Thomas Kinkade lithograph...a fun day even though the weather was stormy.