Running Bear's April 2025 Coffee Shop

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Status
Not open for further replies.
migalyto said:
It took my wife a lot of convincing to get me to go on one. I finally agreed and we have been on 5 total now.

All this cruise talk has me thinking its time to go for #6.
Click to expand...

She says she'd be walking around with a life vest on the whole time and not enjoying herself. Also, as a nurse, she's afraid of the communal sicknesses you get in "closed"* spaces with lots of people.

* meaning you are on the board with everyone sharing the space.

I know which battles to fight and which to accept. This is one I accept. Though I'd love to do a cruise. A Baltic/Scandinavia one or a Mediterranean one or one in Asia.

My mom's been on a bunch with my sister and her family (Alaska, Mediterranean a few times, and a few others) but my dad wouldn't go. But he wanted to see the Panama Canal so he want on a Panama Canal cruise with my mom. He didn't do many shore excursions and like to just stay on the ship but he enjoyed it I think. (He passed a few years ago so it was his one cruise).
 
Wow. Big change in the market today. We'll see if it sticks. I have a small amount of money to put in on the 401 side (wife's 401 is partially self directed so we get new money every two weeks and I've not invested the last 2 inputs). I thought about it yesterday but ran out of time as I was busy.

No big hurry as I am pretty sure the market turmoil is not over yet.
 
chadbag said:
She says she'd be walking around with a life vest on the whole time and not enjoying herself. Also, as a nurse, she's afraid of the communal sicknesses you get in "closed"* spaces with lots of people.

* meaning you are on the board with everyone sharing the space.

I know which battles to fight and which to accept. This is one I accept. Though I'd love to do a cruise. A Baltic/Scandinavia one or a Mediterranean one or one in Asia.

My mom's been on a bunch with my sister and her family (Alaska, Mediterranean a few times, and a few others) but my dad wouldn't go. But he wanted to see the Panama Canal so he want on a Panama Canal cruise with my mom. He didn't do many shore excursions and like to just stay on the ship but he enjoyed it I think. (He passed a few years ago so it was his one cruise).
Click to expand...

To enjoy a cruise and not have the crowded feeling, go for a balcony, that way you have your privacy.
Try to plan your own tours, not the ones offered by the ship, therefore less people.
Make sure you have a dinner time and show up 8-10 minutes late, therefore no waiting line.
I guess, we learn from experience...lol
 


migalyto said:
We have done 2 Carnival cruises, I agree nothing good about them.

The 2 Royal Caribbean cruises we have done have been fantastic. Much better dining experience and far fewer kids running around. plus the ships were much nicer on royal Caribbean!
Click to expand...

We did 10 Royal and 10 Celebrity, the only other was Carnival and never again.
It's a party ship (Carnival), lots of young drunken kids and I personally don't like the serving staff in the dinning room dancing on tables...lol

My favorite cruises were in Europe for the sightseeing and for heat (40 degrees C in Greece)
 
chadbag said:
She says she'd be walking around with a life vest on the whole time and not enjoying herself. Also, as a nurse, she's afraid of the communal sicknesses you get in "closed"* spaces with lots of people.

* meaning you are on the board with everyone sharing the space.
Click to expand...
That's why we're doing a Viking river cruise. No more than 200 passengers and the majority of the 100 rooms have balconies.
 
Hawkesburytrain said:
Make sure you have a dinner time and show up 8-10 minutes late, therefore no waiting line.
I guess, we learn from experience...lol
Click to expand...
That's a great point on dining.

Another is, if you go on one that does have a lot of kids. Pick the late seating dining option, and not go till 7:30 or so.
If you get hungry at 5:00 just go to the pizzeria and grab a slice of pizza or split a calzone.Try to plan your own tours, not the ones offered by the ship,
Hawkesburytrain said:
.
Try to plan your own tours, not the ones offered by the ship,
Click to expand...
Got to be careful with that one. From my understanding, if you go on an excursion that is not organized thru the cruise and you are late
and the ship leaves you. Its your expense to get to the next port to catch it. If its sponsored they will hold it up if some unforeseen set of
circumstance happens.
 
migalyto said:
Got to be careful with that one. From my understanding, if you go on an excursion that is not organized thru the cruise and you are late
and the ship leaves you. Its your expense to get to the next port to catch it. If its sponsored they will hold it up if some unforeseen set of
circumstance happens.
Click to expand...
Viking actually offers a free excursion in every port, on the river cruises. There are 3 per port you can pay for.
 
chadbag said:
Wow. Big change in the market today. We'll see if it sticks. I have a small amount of money to put in on the 401 side (wife's 401 is partially self directed so we get new money every two weeks and I've not invested the last 2 inputs). I thought about it yesterday but ran out of time as I was busy.

No big hurry as I am pretty sure the market turmoil is not over yet.
Click to expand...
"permanent" tariffs on hold.
 


1744237032975.jpeg

My only cruise...Tug Philadelphia, Captain Bull out of Cape Charles, Va to Little Creek, Va. across the Chesapeake in a near Gale. Actually a highlight to my railroad career. BTW I had the Helm most of the way across, towing a car float. Great experience done once back in 1974.
This photo shows the tug after it was laid up when Conrail discontinued the Float Operation on the Delmarva.
 
Marlin39 said:
Viking actually offers a free excursion in every port, on the river cruises. There are 3 per port you can pay for.
Click to expand...

Viking is on our bucket list, but....
- I don't get up until 10 AM, therefore I would miss the excursions and breakfast.
- I'm a very picky eater, I'm a meat and potato guy, no fancy stuff, so with no buffets and no pizza joint, it might loose a lot of weight.
- No casinos.... what am I going to do .... lol

Like I said, it's on our bucket list, especially the Christmas one.
migalyto said:
That's a great point on dining.

Another is, if you go on one that does have a lot of kids. Pick the late seating dining option, and not go till 7:30 or so.
If you get hungry at 5:00 just go to the pizzeria and grab a slice of pizza or split a calzone.Try to plan your own tours, not the ones offered by the ship,

Got to be careful with that one. From my understanding, if you go on an excursion that is not organized thru the cruise and you are late
and the ship leaves you. Its your expense to get to the next port to catch it. If its sponsored they will hold it up if some unforeseen set of
circumstance happens.
Click to expand...

Yes you're absolutely right.
When I book outside excursion, I always make sure to be back 3 hours before departure time, that way I can also take advantage of the ship while everybody is out.
 
Marlin39 said:
Agree 100%. RC, Celebrity, and Holland America were outstanding as were the passengers.

The one bad cruise we went on was around the Hawaiian Islands. It was either Princess or Carnival, but there was nothing nice about the trip.
Click to expand...
I took a 16 day cruise to and from Hawaii on Carnivore. It was the worst cruise we ever took. The main problem was that most of the passengers were old farts. Some of the most intolerant people I have ever encountered. An example, they were doing a demo of Hawaiian drinks in the atrium, and some old fart, came out of the card room, and screamed, "Can you turn down the Microphone, were trying to play cards in Here". That was the last long cruise we took. It seems like the only people that have the time for long cruises are retired old farts. We stick to 7 day cruises now, people who just want to have fun.
 
and now we're looking at cruising Italy/Greece next spring.

Sounds morbid, but we need finality on Mother In Law. We know it's the twilight year for her. That's obvious with her heart, but there's a lot of unknowns yet.

Right now is a great time to book, since April is the BIG sale of the year. But, with final payment due 4 mos before sail date, we have to be careful about what happens IF....?
 
JimKrol said:
I took a 16 day cruise to and from Hawaii on Carnivore. It was the worst cruise we ever took. The main problem was that most of the passengers were old farts. Some of the most intolerant people I have ever encountered. An example, they were doing a demo of Hawaiian drinks in the atrium, and some old fart, came out of the card room, and screamed, "Can you turn down the Microphone, were trying to play cards in Here". That was the last long cruise we took. It seems like the only people that have the time for long cruises are retired old farts. We stick to 7 day cruises now, people who just want to have fun.
Click to expand...
Good to know. Some "old" people are very intolerant of everyone but themselves. Noticed that in the Doctor's office this morning...(I'm not exactly a spring chicken myself). The people at the local "Senior Center" are so rude and self centered that they are admonished to be kind and to behave themselves. I avoid that place also. Crazy world.
 
Another fix some of you may be interested in. A new battery I had just put in a year ago in my 2013 Kia kept going dead for no reason. I thought it might be a fuse or something running when the car was turned off. I was about to start testing the fuses when I read it may be the car's computer needed to be reset. The car guy on YouTube Scotty said. if you need to reset your car computer without any type of diagnostic tool to take off the battery terminals and put a 10W 1 ohm resistor between the cables without the battery being connected and leave them that way for 20 minutes. It will safely drain all the compositors, and all the computer values will be reset. You need the 10W 1ohm resistor to protect the transistors from spiking and damaging the computer. I did this and at least for the last week there has been no battery drain. You can watch the video below.
Swal


10W_1Ohm.JPG
 
Last edited:
Marlin39 said:
Willie - I've been meaning to ask where you get the interior photos that you use?
Click to expand...
Marlin - I do a google search for specific images for say "bookstore interior images". Then I copy them to my computer and use a document writer or spreadsheet program to make them an appropriate size and print from there on 65# paper. I'm sure that a photo editing program will do the same thing.
 


Status
Not open for further replies.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top