Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Karen and I leave on our long awaited 25th anniversary cruise on Carnival Spirit San Diego to Acapulco, Ixtapa, and Manzanillo tomorrow, Monday Feb 18. It will be the 9-day honeymoon we never had. The kids are staying home (18 and 16 years old). We were supposed to go on our actual anniversary, Oct. 30, but San Diego was on fire that week. Carnival was nice enough to let us cancel at the absolute last minute and give us a voucher for travel at another time.
I'm taking my GPS and plan to set waypoints for Cedros Island, Turtle Bay, Bahia Magdalena, Cabo, and of course all the ports on the mainland for when I sail down in a few years.
Congratulations on 25 years! We had our 30th in September and were in the middle of selling our house and moving to a newer and smaller one. So we were too tied up to do anything special. We are headed for the Napa valley in March. We have a balloon flight and champagne brunch booked as part of the celebration. It won't be on the water, but we sure are looking forward to it.
My best guess would be that you could present yourself as a captain who wanted to see the bridge such that you could see what they see when encountering a sailing vessel such as the one you are in command of. (Don't say C-25) talk about radar returns and radar reflectors and AIS. They will let you in Captain. You know enough. Congrats and good luck "getting in."
Sten
DPO C25 #3220 "Zephyr", SR, FK SV Lysistrata - C&C 39 - St. Augustine FL, heading south to the islands in a week after the canvas guy finishes! Yippee!
Give you joy! Bahia de Zihuatanejo at Ixtapa is beautiful. If you have a chance, do the catamaran/snorkle dive on "Picante". We are Crusing to Barbados on Princess Line soon to celebrate the admiral's ___ birthday. Going on the bridge would be a treat. Thank's for the idea!
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">My greatest wish? That they would let me on the bridge for a few minutes.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
This past summer we cruised the med and a retired USN admiral requested permission to enter the bridge and was courteously refused permission citing some-such company security regulations. I don't want to sail on any ship that would allow visits to the bridge, unless they were considering me
I spent most of my time one deck below the bridge deck where there were two compasses and my Walter Mitty ego took over. Entering and exiting ports made the trip livable.
It was really wonderful but I am not sure we would do it again soon. If we do, we'll take the girls.
The ship, the Carnival Spirit, was 86,000 tons, 960 feet long, 105 feet wide, and 190 feet from keel to the highest point. She was powered by 6, 9 cylinder diesel generators. These feed electrical power to two Azipods - which are basically electrical motor driven sail drives hanging below the hull. The Spirit could cruise at 22 knots and top speed was 24. We did 22 to 23 all the way down and 20 to 15 on the way back. The Azipods eliminate the need for stern thrusters since they can be steered though 360 degrees. There are big bow thrusters. There are no propeller shafts, no tranmissions.
This was like taking a Las Vegas hotel, laying it on its side, and cruising it down to Mexico.
On the last day at sea, from Isla Cedros to San Diego we had 35 knot NW winds (at times down to 20 - 25) and 10 foot + seas. San Diego was being torn up by 20 foot surf. There was over 50 knots of wind over the deck. Still the ride was surprisingly smooth. I'm not sure they ever put on the stabilizers because, with the winds and seas on the nose, it was mostly pitching. But the entire ship was groaning when pushing thousands of tons of water aside when it hit a big sea.
What I didn't like was the relentless but subtle pressure to sell you things you didn't need (photos, jewerly, gambling, videos, gifts, etc.) I also did not like the fact that we only had 7 to 12 hours in a port and that the cruise ship culture so disrupts the people - there were no bargins in the seaside markets. Also there are a lot of guests that do nothing but really heavy drinking the whole time. Mexican people must think we are all loud, rude, fat, pale white, rich, and drunk all the time.
What I loved was the non stop entertainment, the wonderful people on board (both crew and guests) all the games, the fun, being 100 miles out to sea. I loved watching every detail of the professional crew handle this massive ship. I really enjoyed the tours, especially the last one where we went about 100 miles inland and got away mostly from the people catering to the tourist culture.
We both really enjoyed the Las Vegas style shows every night and the fanstatic meal service. We did two behind the scenes tours (the theater and the kitchen). The bridge and engine room had video tours which I watched. In another life I would welcome the experience of being a professional bridge officer on a big ship.
Congratulations on your 25th Wedding Anniversary ! A cruise is a great way to celebrate - Going to places afar and at same time living it up in luxury as you transit.
Every 5 years we get together with two other couples we have known since the beginning of time and celebrate our anniversaries. This past summer, we celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversaries. We also took a cruise. We were onboard the 12 day Celebrity Millenium Meditteranean Cruise to various ports in Italy & Greece with a stop also in Croatia. It started in Barcelona (we were there three days early) and then went on a one way trip ending in Venice.
"the cruise ship culture so disrupts the people... "
Unfortunately true. There is massive disruption to the communities. The people like the revenue, but a huge collective sigh of relief goes up when the ship leaves so life can go back to normal for a few days (or hours).
"...nothing but really heavy drinking the whole time. Mexican people must think we are all loud, rude, fat, pale white, rich, and drunk all the time."
Sadly, I've observed that is also the image projected by a lot of Americans living in the 'gated retirement communities' that are springing up in Mexico and Central America. :>( There are lots of exceptions, of course... but the negative experiences tend to stick in people's minds.
WELCOME HOME KAREN AND BILL, THANKS FOR THE PHOTO-OP, ALMOST AS GOOD AS BEING THERE. I'LL SHOW THE ADMIRAL. BET IT GOES ON HER LIST OF CRUISES TO DO'S...
VAL ON THE HARD, DAGNABIT, # 3936, PATCHOGUE, N.Y.
I'm into biotech not computers per se. Is marlinspike seamanship for geeks? I think not!
I bet it's work with "systems" in general that make sailing a fun hobby for people with a technical bent, but not only computers. Then again, others just grew up on boats.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.