This banner ad on the FT site keeps offering me the chance of being treated like a queen. I'm not sure if this is a threat or a promise: do any other FTers have any cruising experience to hand?

Hi Embuexpat,

There is a Cruises forum here on FT.;

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cruises-179/

You may want to look at that forum if you do not get any responses here on the BA forum

( I have not been on a cruise)

Regards

TBS

PS Hopefully not treated like Mary Queen of Scots ( who was beheaded!)

None. I'm allergic to boats.

Wrong forum for comments but ....
Have been on three cruises. Loved the experience and would happily go on more but we find it expensive. Not the cruise itself but the on board purchases of Art.

First cruise - 1 week in Junior Suite on Carnival - Cost of Art: 1 x 2 pax fares
2nd cruise - 1.5 weeks Suite on Princess - Cost of Art: 3 x 2 pax fares
3rd cruise - 1 weeks Balcony Room - Cost of Art: 2 x 2 pax fares (managed to curtail purchases slighty)

Its not the number of pieces artwork since we only bought about 4 major pieces each time (with various freebies throws in)

Why cruise? You get to see different places every day but you do not have to pack and unpack. And you get to dress up "like a queen" which we also like to do. Sadly, the days of no mobile phone/blackberry signal at sea (main reason previously) is no longer an excuse since most ship now have satelite communication. Also guaranteed decent entertainment everynight. Good food and loads of it. We do not drink alcohol so do not complain about the expensive drinks.

Oh wake up and smell the poppers people - Embuexpat was alluding to a cruising that is always fun but doesn't always involve ships; and there are a large number of Grande Dames on the BA forum who would just LOVE to be treated like an (old) Queen ;-)

Sounds like a lot of fun to me Sweet Pea x

This is severe innuendo territory

I did one cruise when I went to Hawaii for the first time. It was a good opportunity to see an albeit brief glimpse of the different major islands (we did two nights on each of the larger ones) so we knew where to go back to next time. It works well for something like that but you are very much working by the schedule of the cruise ship, something I didn't really like. I'm someone that prefers to do all my holiday research and booking independently so for me it wasn't the most enjoyable aspect. Hawaii was great though...once you got away from Honolulu!

I think there is a time and a place for a cruise, I know some people who plan all their holidays based around where the cruiselines operate, that seems dumb to me.

What would you like to know? I have been on dozens of cruises, including 3 on Celebrity. Every cruise line is different and has its pluses and minuses. Celebrity is big on dining and entertainment and in the past has been attractive to a more formal (read older) patron than say Carnival. It is also more expensive. I really liked Celebrity due to its emphasis on food quality and presentation.

Other cruises such as Princess are good because they offer good value as stated above. I like Princess because they have a laundry (self-serve) which allows me and my wife to travel with roll aboards and wash our clothes as needed, saving much distress and time especially on international trips.

Foriegn cruise lines such as Costa are fun because the clientel is so diverse and it makes for a very international flavored trip. The food tends to be pretty good as well. However, be prepared for lots of smokers!

If you want, feel free to PM me and I will try to give you any relevent experience I may have with a particular cruise line.

BTW, if we are talking about any other type of "cruising", then I am not the person to ask. I have been drydocked for decades.
Radonc1

Actually, my partner was chatted up heavily twice by crew on the Carnival cruise; once at the gym and once on the top deck under the moonlight (I was at the casino tables).

Princess Cruises put a notice for "Friends of Dorothy" to meet at xxx at a specified time in their daily newsletter from time to time. Mind you the notice for for "Friends of Dr Bob and Bill W" appears on a daily basis given the amount on alcohol on offer everywhere. [i] And there was another post complaining about being FAs being too familiar".

have done Celebrity the last four years - Mexico and Caribbean, Alaska, Western Med and Scan/Russia with my three children. I think it really depends on what type of experience you are looking for. We thought it was very good for families, some of the food was good, other average and i would recommend using outside vendors for shore excursions unless you like the tour bus thing. If you are serious, feel free to pm me with details.

Other the ads are being clever in their targeting. No queen like treatment offered for this married man. Only opportunities to fly to Oman, or a chance to win a trip to Estonia.

Disappointing lack of innuendo for both of those

Hi,

I have had Muscat up for the past few weeks ( recently Estonia too) and only today has Celebrity cruises appeared.

Regards

TBS

I've just started to get the Celebrity Cruise leaderboards just now, along with Royal Caribbean skyscrapers. Might be a good time for Oman Air to up their inventory bid via Google site targeting to knock the Celebrity adverts off...

So is this about being a gay or wanting to take a Celebrity cruise? I'm confused.

We took Celebrity Century around the Med last September. We had a very nice time and I can recommend X unreservedly. If anyone has any questions about my experience, I'd be happy to respond.

Our next cruise is a Holland America Scandanavia and the Baltics in June.

You can find me on cruisecritic.com way more than you find me here.

Hmmm--My answer is that I have been on one Celebrity cruise--in a suite--and thought it was just fine. No real need to do the Caribbean again--it is too Americanized nowdays--but I would go on a cruise elsewhere. Were ther gays on board? No idea. I did not notice--but was not looking for--any special accomodations and assume , if anything, that eveyone met up with the type of people they were most comfortable with.

Just got off a Celebrity cruise yesterday. I was wondering what "friends of dorothy was" - now I know Anyway, we loved the food in the dining room, all the staff was wonderful EXCEPT the people behind the counters at the buffet. The buffet was pretty bad and I've been on QM2, RCI and HAL and enjoyed the buffet for lunch and b-fast very much. Now the people on the floor (drinks people, etc.) were very nice. I say the people behind the counter were bad but I think it was more training and no supervision. I said that I couldn't find a tray (very nicely BTW) and the guy shrugged at me and turned away, etc. etc. etc. Happened in a lot of cases and alot of people were saying that it has gone downhill lately. As this was our first Celebrity I have no idea. We were in a Sky Suite with a butler and he was absolutely great as were our 2 room attendants, our waiters and sommelier at dinner, casino staff, etc.