Cruising with the Halls

CRUISING WITH THE HALLS

Our 32nd cruise On Royal Princess to the Med, Holy Land, and Egypt! November 2007	Our 33rd Cruise Rounding the Horn Of South America On Star Princess.
We are just back from our 34th cruise on Crown Princess to the Baltic and St. Petersburg

Cruising is a wonderful vacation and the ONLY way to relax! We have created a cruising page that we hope will be useful to you, whether you are an experienced cruiser or a newcomer to cruising. We hope it shows how much we love to cruise. See you at sea some day!!

THIRTY YEARS OF CRUISING
We began cruising in 1972 on the RCCL Song of Norway. Here are the cruises we went on in those early days:

#1 RCCL Song of Norway Eastern Caribbean 1972

#2 Matson Mariposa from Hawaii 1974

#3 Chandris Amerikanis Southern Caribbean 1976

#4 RCCL Song of Norway again 1977

#5 HAL Veendam Inside Passage 1978

#6 RCCL Sun Viking Western Caribbean 1982

#7 Mississippi Queen Steamboatin' 1984

#8 HAL Rotterdam Inside Passage 1986

To see our pictures and read our comments about those early cruises, CLICK HERE or on the picture of those two kids on the Kon-Tiki!

OUR RECENT CRUISES Click on thumbnail picture or ship name to read our review.


#9 RCI Viking Serenade December 1995 Baja California	#10 HAL Westerdam January 1997 Eastern Caribbean	#11 Carnival Holiday December 1997 Baja California	Sun Princess May 1998 (Renee only) Voyage of Glaciers	#12 Celebrity Zenith November 1998 Panama Canal

Globus Travel to Europe May 1999 A land trip, but we cruised the Canals of Venice!	#13 Sun Princess September 1999 Voyage of Glaciers	#14 Pacific Princess March 2000 Africa Safari Cruise Safari review	#15 RCI Viking Serenade June 2000 Group Cruise Baja	#16 Royal Princess February 2001 Amazon River More Pictures

#17 Radiance of the Seas September 2001 Pacific Northwest More Pictures	#18 Regal Princess February 2002 Australia and New Zealand Review and pictures	#19 Radiance of the Seas May 2002 Pacific NW again The pictures	Not a cruise, but here we are cruising through the Vieux Carré of New Orleans by mule power September 2002 Pictures	#20 Royal Princess July 2003 around the British Isles. Review and pictures Precruise trip to Iceland

#21 Rhapsody of the Seas Feb 2004 to Mardi Gras and Cozumel. Review and pictures.	#22 HAL Zuiderdam Eastern Caribbean for Mike's birthday! May 2004	#23 Sapphire Princess to Alaska September 2004	#24 Serenade of the Seas Southern Caribbean January 2005	#25 HAL Maasdam Canada and New England May 2005

#26 Oberoi Shehrayar on the Nile River with a tour of Egypt October 2005	Then we cruised on the "Ship of the Desert" in Morocco October 2005	#27 Grand Princess Grand Mediterranean cruise May 2006	#28 HAL Zuiderdam Alaska Inside Passage July 2006	#29 Grand Princess Western Caribbean December 2006

#30 HAL Westerdam Southern Caribbean March 2007	#31 HAL Volendam Alaska and Hubbard Glacier September 2007	#32 Royal Princess The Med, Holy Land, and Egypt November 2007	#33 Star Princess Round the Horn of South America March 2008.	#34 Crown Princess to the Baltic with St. Petersburg May 2008.

IN MIKE'S HUMBLE OPINION There are many subjects regarding cruising on which I have strong opinions. Click on the title above if you would like to read what I think about tipping, shore excursions, embarkation and many other controversial subjects!!!

Top | Our Cruises | Pics & Reviews | Opinions | Links | Cruise People | Contact Us
cruising whale---------------------------

CRUISE LINKS

First some basic FAQs:

Cruisingfanatic has a good page for all those Frequently Asked Questions such as hurricane season, motion sickness, and whether there are safes in the cabins.

Cruisemates is a great page of information on all aspects of cruising. It is unfortunately filled with advertising of questionable value, but that is the price you pay for all the great information here.

Shipstips is dedicated to those forum posters, photoclub members and personal website creators who share their information with others.

Now the things people want to know most:

Shipboard Activities are many and varied. Here is a sample daily schedule showing just a few of the things you can find to do aboard!

There are many types of staterooms available at different prices. Select A Cabin will help you decide which category of cabin you want. Virtual tours of cabins and public rooms on many ships can be found here. Deck Plans for many ships are also available. When you are down to making a final decision, it might be worth while to pay the small membership fee at Cruise Staterooms for the most detailed information and diagrams of every category of cabin.

Here is a typical cruise ship dinner menu from HAL. In fact Sample Menus for most cruise lines can be found here. Enjoy!!

Specialty restaurants are becoming common on many cruise lines. Here are sample specialty menus from Royal Caribbean and Princess.

Room service is another great option. Here is a sample Room service menu as well as a beverage menu.

Lots of people ask about bar prices aboard so here is a bar menu.

The spa on the ship is a great place. Here are some of the spa treatments available.

Some people prefer to book independent shore excursions or private tours. Shoretrips is a place we have found reliable..

Kid's Programs are very important. There are also special Teen Areas. One parent has written a very interesting report on the Teen Clubs aboard and gave me permission to post it.

There are a great many fine cruise lines. We will start off with our three favorite ones:

Princess Cruise Lines.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.

Holland America Line.

Links to all CRUISE LINES and almost all cruise DESTINATIONS can be found on this comprehensive page.

Cruise Reviews are very interesting, but must be taken with a grain of salt!

Seacruise Reviews is a good page for unbiased cruise reviews, many from followers of the rec.travel.cruises message board. Check it out!

Cruise Opinion Database is a numerical database of Cruise Ship Ratings. If you prefer quick numbers to long evaluations, go to this site.

And here is a lot more general information about cruising:

Cruise Critic is an excellent site for beginners or experienced cruisers alike. It offers excellent cruise bulletin boards (moved over from AOL).

CLIA is the Cruise Lines International Association. It certifies travel agents as Accredited or Master Cruise Counselors. This page provides access to lots of unbiased profiles of Cruise Lines and ships.

If you still haven't found what you want, Cruise Related Links is a HUGE listing of a great many links both commercial and amateur.

Cruise Clues by Diane and Buil gives a lot of good links to things like packing lists and currency converters.

Complaints!? I hope you don't have a single complaint about your cruise. However, if you do, Passenger Rights will help you submit your complaint to the appropriate authorities at the cruiseline and DOT.

If your browser has newsgroups capability, you can join the discussion about cruising on the Cruise Newsgroup (or set your news program to rec.travel.cruises).

CRUISE PEOPLE'S PAGES

Here are some great pages maintained by cruise enthusiasts:

Pat Brown and his family are long time friends. He has some great pictures on his Cruise pages.

Voyagers Anonymous by Dennis Marks has a lot of really good stuff on it and usually an interesting survey to participate in!

Tom and Mary are our favorite "Honeymoon" cruisers!

Morrica's Cruise Page has to be the most beautiful personal page I've ever seen! It features personal reviews, sample menus, and a sample kid's schedule.

Parnami's Cruise Page focuses on ships instead of ports. It has a great deal of good first hand information.

Tim's Cruise Tips, or What Travel Agents Don't Tell You, were prepared for the Cruise Forum on AOL but he has given permission to share them here.

The Cruise Diva is Linda Coffman and she has lots of personal opinions and information to share. Especially helpful are her Cruiseline Profiles in a few words.

Email us at TheHalls@bully4.us.

Visitors since May 10, 1998

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