Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I've been on RCI and Carnival.  No discernible difference to me.

The Carnival ship was one with the big waterpark on top, which is why we chose it, for the kids.  A Disney cruise would have been cool too, but they cost considerably more and my parents were footing the bill anyway, for their 50th wedding anniversary.  We had a great time, ate formal dinner at the same table every night with the same waitstaff, who were awesome.

I'd like to go on one of those super fancy ones around Europe, but I also enjoy spending many days in one location at a time in Europe, too.  So far, the latter has won out every time.

We do both, but then again, I get 7 weeks of PTO and my wife is retired. Even before that, she also got 7 weeks.

IF we do 2024, and it's a big IF, we'll do a week in Germany and then fly to Barcelona for a few days there.

We were supposed to go from Lima, Peru to Miami - through the canal, which is high on my bucket list.

That cruise got cancelled, and the people who were on the ship from Argentina to Peru were not allowed to get off in Lima.

They got our cruise for free, minus the other stops or course. Bastages.

Oh, and they landed in Miami, tested everyone, and were ZERO Covid!!

no way!!! that totally sucks!!! Not for the people that got your free cruise.

So dumb it down for me. What's the big appeal of the cruise. I get the stopping at multiple locations, which would be awesome. My turn off was also the time stuck on the boat, rather than being longer periods of time at the places i would want to be.. I also always get nervous i would miss getting on the boat in time and be stuck somewhere.

I have seen so much of the world, yet never been anywhere in Europe so when it's deemed I'm safe to fly, I eventually want to get over there and I've had a couple suggest mediterranean cruise, which I clearly wouldn't do with this state of the world over there, but I'm not sure that's the way i'd want to hit up some of those locations. 

I've been on RCI and Carnival.  No discernible difference to me.

The Carnival I was on was ca. 1996, it was a LOT different from NCL, mostly the screaming hoards of kids.  It was fine for us as I had a screaming hoard of kids.

I also note significant differences between an NCL cruise in the Caribbean and one in the Med or Europe.

So the Thursday night college football announcers have a season long match play, playing the best coach near the location, and then picking one hole to count?  Dan Mullen should never come back to coaching, that is the dream job

Yeah, that's a major deal for us as well, the unpacking part.  My wife hates it, and won't let me do it for some reason.

I try and star 3-4 days in a hotel if we go to Europe, or with friends, and of course it gets pricey.  Of course a cruise with a nice balcony cabin isn't cheap either, about a grand a day for the two of us.  

I figure by the time I rent a car, get a hotel, and feed us, it's a grand a day just to travel on our own, or close to that.

We usually have to rent a car given the places we're going, in France at least, and often in other countries.

They aren't all that pricey relative to here.  We're headed over in February as part of a symphony trip (which we'll extend on both ends).  I don't think we'll need a rental car, but I don't have all the details yet.

Delta has a nonstop now from here to Nice, which I guess is nice, but a bit obscure relative to places like say Vienna which they don't service nonstop.  We discussed flying to Nice and renting a car but decided that isn't really the better plan than just flying to Marseille.

Our last trip summary:

We flew to NYC and then Gatwick, the cruise line makes the air reservations.  Arrived two days ahead of time and took private transportation to South Hampton and hotel near port.  Discovered hotel had one elevator down and we were on the 8th floor, kind of a bummer, it was full of cruise goes, another cruise left the next day.  Toured SH on our own, was "OK", had an excellent Indian meal for dinner and lunch at a pretty neat pub for fish and chips.  My wife wanted to take a cab to the ship, so we did, it was drizzling a bit, and the ship was maybe 200 yards away, cab ride was 4 pounds plus a tip.  Boarded ship no incident.  Ship departed, rainy weather which we expected.  That night was the roughest I've experienced on a cruise ship of that size.  Slept OK anyway.  Had a full day at sea, explored ship, ate food, did not have the beverage package, so didn't drink alcohol.

Tour of Edinburg - walking tour of "hidden E", good guide, most folks on tour could keep up, interesting and nice city, would like to go back.

Bus tour of Loch Ness out of Inverness - OK guide, we visited some castle ruins on the Loch, nice scenery, not really our thing.

Orkney Islands - Kirkwall - Walked on our own, small town, fairly neat, wife bought some clothing, wouldn't go back, but a decent visit to a place I'd never have seen, would have liked to have toured Scapa Flow but didn't.

Belfast - bus tour of Ards Peninsula, with stop at pub and old monastery.  The pub visit was great because we met some locals, the owner took us across to visit the Copeland distillery.  Scenery was OK.  Got a feel for the place, wife would like to go back, not me so much.

Isle of Mann - Dropped anchor there but captain said waves were too rough for getting everyone on the tenders, so we left.  I noticed we were heading SE at speed which was not in the direction of Dublin, our next planned tour.  Captain came on and said a bad storm was brewing and Dublin was out.  They showed the weather radar on the TV, it was a bad storm with 100 knot winds, the ship was heading away from it.  That night was pretty bouncy.

Cork - The weather broke, we had an overnight in Cork, and the ship docked (no tendering).  We walked off and about the port town known as "Cobh" apparently pronounced "Cove".  Pretty nice town, sat outside a pub and had a Murphy's stout, sun was out, it was reasonably warm.  This was the last port for the Titanic and they had a major deal about that which we ignored mostly.

Second day had bus/walking tour of city of Cork.  Decent guide, some folks struggled to keep up which slowed us some, sat cathedral which was not Catholic, walked about town.  Get a feel for the place, saw a large protest about "Free free Palestine" walking down main street hollering.  OK then.

Portland - Ship docked, had bus tour to Stonehenge, 2 hour bus ride, really not worth it to me, wife liked it.  Scenery.

South Hampton - Had to get up early for 6 AM bus ride to Heathrow which went without incident.  Had 11:45 AN flight direct this time.