Where is everybody?

[Forty Two]

Not sure, sharing my room is something I stopped enjoying long ago, especially with another guy... I brought plenty head meds in case of cabin fever and anxiety from being cooped up with people 24/7, if only for a tenday. I sure will enjoy some of it, likely not all.

Well, the cruise ships I've been on have been huge. You can use the cabin just to sleep. Get up early, enjoy the morning, get a nice breakfast. Find a place on deck to read and enjoy the view and hang out. If you're in your cabin for reasons other than sleeping (or other bed-related activities) or using the bathroom, you are not doing it right.

If it's anything like the cruise ships I've been on, there are activities dawn to long after midnight. Games, drinking, carousing, girls, and the like.

The ships I've been on had a "serenity deck" in the back, where only adults are allowed, and you can get some good relaxation in by the pool or hot tubs.

there are bars and clubs, sports and other amusements available, if your ship is like the ones I've been on.

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

[Hermit]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

[rachelbean]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

$10 for a litre of absolute. Not going to find that anywhere else!

[Brian Peacock]

Ah, but is it absolute heaven or absolute hell? That is a question.

[Svartalf]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

Actually, I've heard of ships with airport like embarkment procedures where your bought on land booze is confiscated till the end of the cruise...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

Actually, I've heard of ships with airport like embarkment procedures where your bought on land booze is confiscated till the end of the cruise...

And I've worked on boats in the Med where the bar prices are higher than the ports they visit! Duty free ≠ profit free! And when you have a captive market...

[Seth]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

Actually, I've heard of ships with airport like embarkment procedures where your bought on land booze is confiscated till the end of the cruise...

Of course, how do you expect them to sell you booze on the cruise at an outrageous per-drink price? Same thing as movie theaters who post the popcorn police at the door.

[Forty Two]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

Well, the cruise lines I've been on will sell you the duty free bottles, but you can only pick them up when you're leaving the ship. You cannot buy a bottle of booze on the ship and keep it in your room or sit with it on the Lido deck. The drinks themselves can be pricey, when ordered from the bar, which is like $6 for a beer, and $8 to $10 and up for a mixed drink.

If you smuggle a couple of water bottles full of vodka, or an iced tea bottle with whiskey in it, you can discreetly add some vodka to some juice or whiskey to some soda and none would be the wiser.

On one cruise I bought the "beer and wine" package, which is a per day charge for all you can drink. It was impossible for me to drink enough to make it financially worthwhile. It worked out to something like 10-12 beers per day just to break even. On a 7 day cruise, that much beer or wine every single day can really be hard to manage. It is harder than you think, especially when three days are spent off the ship in a port, meaning you now have to drop those dozen beers after you get back on the boat (and you've usually been imbibing off ship already...).

[Forty Two]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

$10 for a litre of absolute. Not going to find that anywhere else!

Indeed, but when you buy it on board ship, they hold it for you until you disembark (that's the way it was on both Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruise lines, at least). Oh, they're glad to sell you that liter of absolute, but if you want a vodka drink, they direct you to the bar....and that weak Cosmo will cost you $8 to $10, depending on how much you tip.

[Forty Two]

Smuggle booze on. You can fill water bottles with vodka and ice tea bottles with scotch. :-)

Why would you? Once the ship is in international waters the bars and bottleshop on it will happily sell you any quantity of duty and excise free alcohol you wish to buy, and at low rates you could not hope to find before embarkation. That is my experience anyway.

Actually, I've heard of ships with airport like embarkment procedures where your bought on land booze is confiscated till the end of the cruise...

That too is true -- if you come back on board with a bottle you picked up in port (doesn't matter where, whether duty free or in town, they hold it for you until you leave.

True story: I was getting back on the ship from Cozumel, and I put my bottle of absolut in my back pack. As I was going through security to get back on the ship, they saw the bottle in the scanner and the bloke sort of half-heartedly directed me to the table where they were taking people's stuff to hold. I pretended not to hear the guy and I just said, "Thanks, you too!" as if he had wished me well or something and I high-tailed it up the stairs. Nobody gave chase, and I had full access to my bottle for the remainder of the trip!

[rachelbean]

Ah yes, now that you say that I can remember. I too managed to sneak a couple bottles in though, which I forgot until your post

[laklak]

I can't imagine an Earthly Hell worse than an 800 foot floating Petri dish stuffed full of drunken holiday makers.

[Forty Two]

I can't imagine an Earthly Hell worse than an 800 foot floating Petri dish stuffed full of drunken holiday makers.

A floating island, with all the food and booze you can consume, ambling through the Caribbean?

I think they're what you make of them. Give me a balcony to sit on, and a nice cigar with a drink to sip, and I can definitely enjoy the evening listening to the water, and watching the horizon in the distance lit up by moonlight......

[laklak]

Ah, I have my own floating island stocked with booze and food on which to amble through the Caribbean, or Keys, or Panhandle. Best part is there are no fat people from Arkansas wearing Speedos or bikinis, and I keep the galley clean.

[Forty Two]

Ah, I have my own floating island stocked with booze and food on which to amble through the Caribbean, or Keys, or Panhandle. Best part is there are no fat people from Arkansas wearing Speedos or bikinis, and I keep the galley clean.

Well, the trouble with owning your own boat is, well, owning your own boat, and unless the boat is huge, it's not really apples to apples in terms of experience. I like private boats too, but I find most of them to be too small to really enjoy for long periods of time. Even 20+footers get a bit cramped. I like the idea of a deck chair with some bikinis to look at and the wide ocean all around, someone serving drinks, etc. It's just a whole different experience.

Yes, there are fat people. And, folks eat like they've never seen food before. Yes, there are often rednecks around, especially on the less expensive cruises. But, like I said, they are what you make of them.

My only complaint with Carnival Cruise is that they took away the cigar bar that used to be towards the back of many of their ships. There was this awesome bar that you could go to and light up, inside, right at the bar, or in a comfy leather chair and have a stogey while watching a game or something. Now, they only allow smoking on deck outside, and they are effectively relegating it to only designated areas. On my last cruise, you could still smoke on the Lido deck, but 1/2 was for smokers and the other half was for nonsmokers.

Oh, the Casino can be fun too. Nice to go and play some blackjack or Texas Hold Em for a few...