A cruise is a cruise is a cruise!

I wonder if you can be addicted to cruising?

We seem to spend all our spare time hunting for cruise bargains and then working out whether we can a) afford them and b) get the time off work.

There's a lot of 'wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to work...' comments.

And so we have moved on to a potentially expanding market - the mini cruise.

Three weeks after our lovely two week cruise on Independence of the Seas, we sailed once again. A two night mini cruise from Dover to Antwerp on Fred Olsen's Balmoral. We knew the ship would come nowhere close to the Indy but we had a lovely weekend and made some fantastic new friends.

Relatively inexpensive, it was lovely being back on board ship again, particularly sitting on our balcony watching the sea go by. The weather was superb.

And now we find that P&O have slotted in a 3 night cruise on their ship Aurora in mid September sailing from Southampton. At a reasonable price, how can we say no? We have had to pre register. Supposing we don't get on it? We will have to book on another - how about the Norwegian Jade sailing in 3 weeks time? Yes, that will do!!

The travel agents don't help. The postman is suffering back problems created by all the cruise leaflets we receive virtually every single day from every travel agent imaginable. How many cruises do they think we can go on?!

Cruise blues

We have been back for 2 weeks now. Still buzzing but sad that we are not still on board that lovely ship.

Still going through the photos which I sort out and create slideshows on a dvd. It makes a lovely record of our holiday. Oh the joys of digital photography! I only took about 1800 photos in 2 weeks!

Our friends have started asking us 'Which is your favourite ship?' Without a doubt, it is Independence of the Seas.

In the meantime, both of us are still on board ship during our night time dreams. How strange! I wonder how long that will last?

Rough Seas

Well, that ship knows how to roll! The sea didn't look that rough! I have never felt queasy on board a cruise ship before.

I know it was the Bay of Biscay and it was April and I semi expected it to be rough. The Indy is very big and tall and I think she catches the wind.

Anyway, having discovered we'd left the Quells at home in the medicine cabinet (useless!), we wandered down to Deck 1 to the Medical Centre. They have a whole rack full of packs of 2 motion sickness pills, free and for the taking.

No queasiness after that!!

timetravellers

Independence of the Seas Western Med Cruise 2009

Hints & Tips from our Western Mediterranean Cruise 25 April 2009
This was Indy's first trip out of Southampton this season so I thought it would be useful to provide some hints and tips.
1. There are kettles in every stateroom. However, RCI no longer provide coffee sachets. If you want coffee in your cabin, then you will need to collect a mug of it from the Windjammer or from a cafe on the Royal Promenade and walk back with it to your room. Better idea, pack a jar of coffee.
2. Unless you are in a Junior Suite or better, then you will only get plastic cups for your self made tea. Being aware of this, we packed 2 mugs with our names on but you could also borrow a couple of mugs from one of the cafes.
3. When you go to Livorno, if you are not on an organised excursion, then the only way to get from the ship to the town is by shuttle bus or taxi. You are not allowed to walk through the port area. RCI charged us US$12 per person for day tickets. This was later reduced to $8 per person as the service was so poor. The previous port, Civitavecchia, provided free shuttle buses.
4. Be warned, alcoholic drinks are very expensive on board.
5. The water in the bathroom is drinkable. The ship has a water purification system on board and one of the programmes on the TV states that the water out of the taps throughout the ship is purer than bottled water. We took a couple of water bottles on board with us and refilled them from the bathroom tap and kept them in the fridge. This is the same water served from the jugs in the dining room! They were selling 1 litre of bottles of water at the gangway for $4.55 each!!
6. The fridge will be stocked with snacks. We asked the Steward to remove them so that a) we would not be charged for them and b) we had more room in the fridge
7. We ordered breakfast via Room Service every morning and sat on the balcony to eat it. Saved queuing in the Dining Rooms. Free service - very efficient but better to order by phone.8. You can ask for more hangers from the Cabin Steward.