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SS Jeremiah O'Brien (WWII Liberty Ship) on the North side of Pier 35 in San Francisco, Celebrity Solstice on the South Side.
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They Just Keep Making Them Bigger and Bigger
- Thread starter John Turney
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YakkoWarner
Jedi Warrior
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The modern cruise ships are very nice on the amenities and interiors, but I don't find them to be particularly appealing visually on the outside. And without active stabilization those upper decks would be a really rough ride.
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gak - floating casinos with all you can eat buffets. An embarrassment of affluence, and not my idea of a vacation at sea.
The O'Brien - a ship that served a serious purpose, with honor, including the 1944 Normandy Invasion.
en.wikipedia.org
The O'Brien - a ship that served a serious purpose, with honor, including the 1944 Normandy Invasion.
SS Jeremiah O'Brien - Wikipedia
mikephillips
Yoda
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Yea, just what I look for, vacation with 6,000 total strangers...
mikephillips
Yoda
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I'll be there when mine does, just in time to see the waves lapping over the mastheads....
OK... I similarly never understood cruising, as I (thought that I) inherited my mother's terrible seasickness and I just don't like the water (classic Scorpio, never learned to swim, don't see the appeal to sitting on the beach). My wife (typical Cancer, the water is her happy place) LOVES cruising. Over the years I've grown to enjoy it. My experience so far has been limited to Celebrity (yes I've been on the Solstice above) and Royal Caribbean.
As one tour guide put it, it's a vacation sampler platter. Not sure where to go? A cruise ship takes you to several different ports so you can get a taste of each. Our next trip leaves from Miami, then stops in Bermuda (never been there) before crossing the Atlantic (another first) to stop in Cork (Ireland), Portland (Dorset UK), and Le Havre (France), before landing in Southampton. One big thing that a lot of people miss (even experienced cruisers) is that the point of cruising is not being on the boat. The whole point is to get off at each port and do something.
From the outside they look like the biggest, ugliest sardine cans you could ever imagine. Inside, at least on the lines we've been, there's plenty of room to stretch out. If you want to be in the crowd, you can go join the crowd. If you want peace and quiet, there are literally hundreds of small alcoves and hidey-holes you can go and sit and read quietly. Or you can do any of the dozens of activities available each day. And no, it's not the scavenger hunt silliness that they showed on The Love Boat. I've been to fascinating history and nature lectures, I've watched artists create blown glass sculptures, I've taken an art class, and I've attended more wine tastings than I should admit -- all without leaving the ship.
There's much more to them than buffets and casinos. Yes some people go exclusively for that, but then again some people drive cars simply to get from point A to point B while listening to podcasts! On every ship that I've been on, the casino is just one separate room, smaller than the theater and in a couple of cases, smaller than the pool. The buffet -- again an incidental, not the focus -- is there in case you slept the day away and missed lunch in the dining room. Nobody is expected or even allowed to spend all day there stuffing their face. The food in the main dining room(s) and specialty restaurants is world-class, and the portions are not gluttonously huge. (My fellow Americans tend to complain about how small the portions are, until they get to the third course and they're too full to continue.) The wine, particularly on Celebrity, is insanely good. Solstice-class ships (Solstice, Silhouette, Eclipse I think... ) have a huge brass-and-glass sculpture in the main dining room, 2 stories high, which is the main wine cellar. And that only holds a fraction of the wine varieties actually on board the ship.
Every ship I've been on has had active stabilization. I recall one cruise our departure was delayed several hours while a dive team replaced a damaged stabilizer. I sat out on the deck and watched, it was pretty interesting. Which brings me back to seasickness: Modern ships are incredibly stable (when everything is working properly). There's some rocking which of course is dependent on weather and the ship's speed. I have been on 2 cruises where you really had to concentrate on walking. The first was due to bad weather, the other was when the captain was full-throttle to make up time (I believe it was the stabilizer cruise). I have found that I don't even need seasickness meds on a cruise ship.
Environmentally they have come a very long way. The ships are now designed to minimize disturbance to marine animals. The diesel engines do not run the screws directly, instead they run generators and the screws are spun by electric motors. IIRC something like 90% or 95% of the nonmetallic solid waste collected on board is incinerated to generate power (I think they said that 2/3 of the power above the water line comes from waste). This was all learned on a behind-the-scenes tour, another fascinating way to spend a morning at sea.
You will meet people, but you don't have to spend any time with them if you don't want to. We've made great friends and we've met people who we'd have liked to chuck overboard (on the same cruise, in the same group). We've also gone on week-long cruises without saying two words to anyone but the crew. We've met great people in port towns -- the person who described cruises as a vacation sampler platter was the captain of a sailboat we had chartered in St Thomas. She was retiring and asked us in all seriousness if we would be interested in taking over her business.
I'm not insisting that cruising is or should be everyone's favorite vacation (I still have other things I'd rather do), but if you get a chance to go, try it once or twice. It can be a lot of fun, it can be educational, it can be relaxing... or it can be miserable if you really want it to be.
As one tour guide put it, it's a vacation sampler platter. Not sure where to go? A cruise ship takes you to several different ports so you can get a taste of each. Our next trip leaves from Miami, then stops in Bermuda (never been there) before crossing the Atlantic (another first) to stop in Cork (Ireland), Portland (Dorset UK), and Le Havre (France), before landing in Southampton. One big thing that a lot of people miss (even experienced cruisers) is that the point of cruising is not being on the boat. The whole point is to get off at each port and do something.
From the outside they look like the biggest, ugliest sardine cans you could ever imagine. Inside, at least on the lines we've been, there's plenty of room to stretch out. If you want to be in the crowd, you can go join the crowd. If you want peace and quiet, there are literally hundreds of small alcoves and hidey-holes you can go and sit and read quietly. Or you can do any of the dozens of activities available each day. And no, it's not the scavenger hunt silliness that they showed on The Love Boat. I've been to fascinating history and nature lectures, I've watched artists create blown glass sculptures, I've taken an art class, and I've attended more wine tastings than I should admit -- all without leaving the ship.
There's much more to them than buffets and casinos. Yes some people go exclusively for that, but then again some people drive cars simply to get from point A to point B while listening to podcasts! On every ship that I've been on, the casino is just one separate room, smaller than the theater and in a couple of cases, smaller than the pool. The buffet -- again an incidental, not the focus -- is there in case you slept the day away and missed lunch in the dining room. Nobody is expected or even allowed to spend all day there stuffing their face. The food in the main dining room(s) and specialty restaurants is world-class, and the portions are not gluttonously huge. (My fellow Americans tend to complain about how small the portions are, until they get to the third course and they're too full to continue.) The wine, particularly on Celebrity, is insanely good. Solstice-class ships (Solstice, Silhouette, Eclipse I think... ) have a huge brass-and-glass sculpture in the main dining room, 2 stories high, which is the main wine cellar. And that only holds a fraction of the wine varieties actually on board the ship.
Every ship I've been on has had active stabilization. I recall one cruise our departure was delayed several hours while a dive team replaced a damaged stabilizer. I sat out on the deck and watched, it was pretty interesting. Which brings me back to seasickness: Modern ships are incredibly stable (when everything is working properly). There's some rocking which of course is dependent on weather and the ship's speed. I have been on 2 cruises where you really had to concentrate on walking. The first was due to bad weather, the other was when the captain was full-throttle to make up time (I believe it was the stabilizer cruise). I have found that I don't even need seasickness meds on a cruise ship.
Environmentally they have come a very long way. The ships are now designed to minimize disturbance to marine animals. The diesel engines do not run the screws directly, instead they run generators and the screws are spun by electric motors. IIRC something like 90% or 95% of the nonmetallic solid waste collected on board is incinerated to generate power (I think they said that 2/3 of the power above the water line comes from waste). This was all learned on a behind-the-scenes tour, another fascinating way to spend a morning at sea.
You will meet people, but you don't have to spend any time with them if you don't want to. We've made great friends and we've met people who we'd have liked to chuck overboard (on the same cruise, in the same group). We've also gone on week-long cruises without saying two words to anyone but the crew. We've met great people in port towns -- the person who described cruises as a vacation sampler platter was the captain of a sailboat we had chartered in St Thomas. She was retiring and asked us in all seriousness if we would be interested in taking over her business.
I'm not insisting that cruising is or should be everyone's favorite vacation (I still have other things I'd rather do), but if you get a chance to go, try it once or twice. It can be a lot of fun, it can be educational, it can be relaxing... or it can be miserable if you really want it to be.
YakkoWarner
Jedi Warrior
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I've only been on 2 and enjoyed them both. I'm perfectly content to sit on the back deck and watch the waves go by. The first one was a Celebrity ship in the 1990's - it was a very old ship that was originally an Italian cross-Atlantic liner - an actual steam turbine ship and not stabilized (Celebrity Meridian; I was on its next-to-last voyage with Celebrity before they sold it to a line in the far East that somehow managed to catch the engine room on fire and subsequently sank..I was really sad to see that on TV). Second was on the Carnival Triumph about a year after its refit following the infamous voyage where it lost power and had to be towed in. The Triumph was stabilized and took some getting used to because it really felt unnatural at first, the Meridian had a 30+ foot draft and rode the waves so smoothly you hardly noticed it - you could see the horizion moving up and down very slowly out the portholes just like the old 1930's-1940's movies that look so fake but it wasn't. Can't say I spend more than a hour in the casinos of either ship - could have gotten just as much joy out of taking the quarters and skipping them out over the waves (and possibly had better odds of winning that way). On neither ship did things feel crowded or cramped, there was plenty of room for quiet and solitude when desired. Food was excellent on both, I'd go again if $$$ and time off allowed. The ammenities on the Triumph were much more up to date than the older Meridian but I really liked the older ship - it had some class and style and even though it had been refitted more than once there were still bits and peices of its original design in use - the cabin bathrooms were tiny but you got the most righteous hot water out of the shower - almost think they just tapped the boilers or something.
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More like a floating Petri dish.Never quite understood "cruise ships." Trapped with hundreds of strangers in a floating Uber!
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Echoing all sentiments above. I have been on one cruise, and wonāt do it again. It was wonderful, we went to many places in the Caribbean Iād otherwise never get to. It is a great place to go with extended family; there is something for everyone.
But it just isnāt āmy thing.ā Maybe a boutique cruise on a small boat in Alaska, but you know, money (expensive!).
But like the craftsmanship of hot rods and slammed cars, I get that folks like it, even though it aināt āmeā.
And yes, the ships are growing like crazy!
But it just isnāt āmy thing.ā Maybe a boutique cruise on a small boat in Alaska, but you know, money (expensive!).
But like the craftsmanship of hot rods and slammed cars, I get that folks like it, even though it aināt āmeā.
And yes, the ships are growing like crazy!
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And some cars are also getting bigger. Remember this Fiat commercial from a few years ago?
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Done 3... but not my thing (having been on a sailboat for months in the South Pacific - now THAT'S cruising).
1) St. Lawrence - first one. Was OK but learned that there are about 5 archetypal people on such things (slobs, geezers, gamblers and more - nothing I cared for).
2) Alaska - the best part was the train from Anchorage northward (i.e., off the ship)..
3) Panama Canal - doing it again I'd do something more intimate (and not a 9 hour zip through the thing).
When I get on these behemoths I can hardly wait to get off. All were on Holland.
1) St. Lawrence - first one. Was OK but learned that there are about 5 archetypal people on such things (slobs, geezers, gamblers and more - nothing I cared for).
2) Alaska - the best part was the train from Anchorage northward (i.e., off the ship)..
3) Panama Canal - doing it again I'd do something more intimate (and not a 9 hour zip through the thing).
When I get on these behemoths I can hardly wait to get off. All were on Holland.
OP
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I had several Pacific cruises over a four year period. The view at sea was poor, the ship was crowded, the beds weren't very comfortable, and not much fresh food. I can't talk about the port visits. Seasickness was not a problem.
Since then I've been on river cruises in Europe and enjoyed them immensely.
Since then I've been on river cruises in Europe and enjoyed them immensely.
YakkoWarner
Jedi Warrior
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I could see myself living on a sailboat cruising from island to island - very much in tune with that mentally. My bank account on the other hand sees me as working post-mortem from the grave for at least 10 years, so regretably the island/sailing lifestyle is (along with flying and other things) clearly in the pipe dream category...
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Sailing (living on a sailboat) in the South Pacific is a bit romanticized. Everything is always damp, and as they say "there are flies in paradise." Still, it's a much better way to live at sea (given you'd spend most of your time inside island reefs - so sea-sickness isn't a problem). Otherwise, in my opinion, the open ocean is a desert.
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I've never had the resources to afford a cruise. Closest was taking the milk boat from mainland to Monhegan Island in Maine.
Here's one of the things that turned me off of "cruises" -
A cruise ship delivering thousands of tourists to Venice for a few hours. Sad.
Fortunately, Italy has recently barred large cruise ships from the area.
Here's one of the things that turned me off of "cruises" -
A cruise ship delivering thousands of tourists to Venice for a few hours. Sad.
Fortunately, Italy has recently barred large cruise ships from the area.
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I had several Pacific cruises over a four year period. The view at sea was poor, the ship was crowded, the beds weren't very comfortable, and not much fresh food. I can't talk about the port visits. Seasickness was not a problem.
Since then I've been on river cruises in Europe and enjoyed them immensely.
Not what you had in mind when you signed up for a "Free Cruise"?