BS: Won a free cruise!

Subject: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: number 6
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 04:19 PM

My wife Ann won a free 5 day cruise for us on Carnival Cruise lines. But ... here's the catch ... you gotta pay for your own air fare, and food and drinks ... free just means you get one of the cubby hole room about 5 fathoms below the water line. Checking out the cheapest 'free' cruise the cost would be about $1200 cdn.

Hell if it was free in total I don't think I'd go ... something about spending 5 days those mega 'fun' boats just doesn't seem attractive to me. I can hear it now ... I'm sitting on a deck chair trying to enjoy what little solitute one can get on a carny when I hear ... "come on sIx, don't be a big pooper come on and join in on the afternoon rhumba dance around the ship !!" .... yeah right, jeeeesh!

Anyone like these kind of cruises?

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 04:54 PM

Everyone "wins" those.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Beer
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 05:22 PM

Be more fun sipping beer on a one lunger (make & break).
However if we all chip in it could help. I know your not asking but it would be fun. I'll send a few bucks
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: number 6
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 05:45 PM

Thanks Beer!

Cluin ... not everyone wins one .. Old Louis next door didn't, the guy at the corner vairiety store didn't, my son's wife's parents didn't, the girl's at the Tim Horton's drive thru window didn't, Stephen Harper didn't, not one councellor on the Saint John city council didn't, my daughter's babysitter didn't ......in fact I dunno anyone who has won one .. who cares, because you don't really win anything anyway.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:03 PM

Well, the public library where I work has won several. We thought about sending the library, but it said that it's foundations were in Idaho and wouldn't leave for any old cruise. Maybe a tornado....

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:11 PM

Some guy in Nigeria wants to give me $5 million. That sure beats a free cruise. He even wants my bank account number so he can deposit it for me. That sure makes it easy. You see, some things in life really are free.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:15 PM

That's right, 6. It's a come-on. Get 4 or 5 phonecalls a year advising me of my big "win" and about 10 times that many e-mails.

Ah, but the dream costs nothing and we're ALL eligible for that one. See ya there!

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:28 PM

We won a holiday for two, totally free, no catches, no hard sell... trouble was, we would have to upgrade the room and pay the air fare for Limpit. We worked out that the baby actually cost more than an adult! Needless to say, we didn't go.

And as for cruises - I'd rather have my toenails pulled out with rusty pliers than sit on a boat for 5 days staring at the sea.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:32 PM

. I can hear it now ... I'm sitting on a deck chair trying to enjoy what little solitute one can get on a carny when I hear ... "come on sIx, don't be a big pooper come on and join in on the afternoon rhumba dance around the ship !!" .... yeah right, jeeeesh!

Anyone like these kind of cruises?


Hmmm, that's a little tricky. I do enjoy cruising and have been of quite a number. But one where someone demands I join in any specific activity? Never been on one like that, and I'd hate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:34 PM

And here's the real kicker, sIx... The...



































1099 yer gonna get so yopu can pay taxes on yer winnings... O, BTW, they always inflate 'um so a trip you would have booked for $800 will have a "value" of, ohhhh, a couple grand so you'll end up payin' the $800 anyway...

Bon voyage, brother...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: bobad
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:41 PM

Don't bite sIx, if it goes through the Bermuda triangle we may never see you here again, 6-6=0.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: number 6
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 07:44 PM

Bobert ... did I say we actually won anything ... I didn't say that ... didn't win anything.

bobad ... yikes, no way, now that you mention that.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 07:57 PM

I don't know about 'winning' a cruise but if you're hankering for one, there are some really cheap ways to go. Especially if you're impervious to the blandishments of the staff as to onboard drinks (expensive), onshore dinners and tours (expensive) onboard laundry service (expensive)... The charges for those things bear no resemblance to the cost of providing it. If you resist them you're home free, so to speak.

If you are willing to travel in Alaska in June, especially early in the month, or in late August and in September some 7-day cruises are available for $600 a pop. I've been told of even less.

You have to get yourself to the embarkation point, of course. Most of these cruises originate in Seattle Washington, or in Vancouver BC.

Alaska is still a kind of specialized destination. I would imagine that you'd find the equivalent or better in trips to the Caribbean.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 12:21 AM

I have a friend who is a naturalist on some of those Vancouver/Alaska cruise ships. It's a great way to make a living.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 03:21 AM

I just got back from a cruise †o the Caribbean on the Carnival ship "Legend", where I was performing with 7 other great Irish/ Scottish acts - Cathie Ryan with Hannika Cassell (Fiddle) and Greg Anderson (Guitar & Bouzouki), Ed Miller (brilliant Scottish folksinger), the Irish Balladeers from Scranton, PA (coal-mining and Molly Maguire songs), the Dady Brothers (multi-instrumentalists from Rochester, NY), Guranteed Irish (trad session band from Pittsburgh, PA), my old partner Tom O' Carroll from Dublin (Banjo, guitar, mandolin, whistle, bodhran and expert on the Irish Travellers), his wife Debbie (magician/storyteller), and the Alannah Boyle irish dancers.

We had a concert each night at sea, and workshop/lessons during the day.
The first workshop, all the musicians sat in a semicircle in front of the audience and, unplugged, talked, sang and played, songs in Gaelic, various county styles of playing. the history of the songs and more. The audience did not want the workshop to end more than 2 hours later.

The teacher of the Irish dancers taught simple set dances like the Walls of Limerick, which the "students" performed at the big session finale/concert on the last night.

I hosted a whiskey-tasting, as well as 2 pub quizzes.

The Balladeers did a fascinating workshop illustrated with songs about the Pennsylvania mining community and the Molly Maguires.

Cathy Ryan gave a talk on St. Brigid (the REAL patron saint of Ireland!) with music and song; Tom O'Carroll gave a talk on the Travelling community in Ireland complete with songs and stories, and Ed MIller gave a brilliant lecture on Robert Burns and his poems and songs.

All this was in the afternoons. After the concerts at night, we'd head to the top deck, break out the instruments and have a mighty session. Great craic was had by all.
So much so that we're doing it again in January 2007!
So don't tell me you can't have fun on a cruise.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 11:48 AM

My aunt and uncle won a cruise through their grocery store. They loved it and want to do it again someday.

Are you sure you have to pay for food? I bet not. I bet you just have to pay for drinks.

I think that if it's legit, you should go. It sounds to me like you need cheering up.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: tarheel
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 11:57 AM

LIVE and LEARN...There's No Such Thing AS A Free lunch!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 11:58 AM

I've never heard of a cruise where you paid for your own food. That comes with the ticket. The food is the one thing that people mention and agree upon- it's rich, there's lots of it, it's available somewhere on the ship 24 hours a day nnd everyone has to go on a diet when they return home.

Hmmmmm. Maybe they ought to sell cruises where you bring your own foodstuffs and cook it yourself!

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: tarheel
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 12:01 PM

ONE MORE THING...If it sounds too good to be true...it usually is!!!
and,another thing if i may,if it cost you one red Dime outta your Pocket,then it's not FREE!!!!!!Free means Free and Nothing else!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: number 6
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 12:01 PM

Nope leenia ... have to pay for the food (and it's legit too) ... and the food it aint gonna be a bargain prices.

Actually we'd much prefer to have won a trip to India .. which we intend to visit the year after next. Partys in a carnival atmosphere are not quite our 'cup of tea'.

Cheering up ... I am a cheery person ... I just turn into a grump thinking about how horrific this cruise could be.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: number 6
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 12:04 PM

Good one Tarheel!!

I know what your saying Ebbie .. I thought so too, but with this 'win' you have to ... as I mentioned, we just won a cubby hole airless room 5 fathoms down below the water line ... BTW, thos Alaska crusises do intrique me.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 04:12 AM

All in the cause of educating Ebbie, try Cruise with Stelios

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 06:48 AM

read it again six. food is always free.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: jeffp
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 09:26 AM

From the above-mentioned site:

"8. The Price. All prices cover passage and accommodation on board the cruise ship and any port taxes. It does not include on-board catering or any other on-board service or excursions, all of which are available for separate purchase entirely at your option. Optional housekeeping is available for €15 per visit (approximately £10). All on-board services and excursions are priced in both €euros and £ sterling, and payment may be made either by credit or debit card at the time of purchase or by on-board credit account operated by the particular concessionaire. All such credit accounts must be settled in full before you leave the ship at the end of your cruise."

(emphasis added)

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 09:32 AM

I have been on cruises where food in the dining room was free but if you chose to eat at one of the many restaurants, clubs or pubs on board, you paid.

The worst cruise of my life was on Carnival. I used to take cruise vacations when my son was young so that he could be busy and I could rest. This one was a drunken orgy. Vomit in the pool. Several injuries when a drunk jumped into the pool and landed on some people. A free-for-all when EMPLOYEES stole the keys to a booze storage area and were caught helping themselves - they were drunk at the time. Blood and vomit in the pool that time. I could go on and on.

One woman called the harbor police in port because her two boys - the younger only ten - were beaten up in a men's room ( I saw them and they were beaten up) because some underage drinking white kids didn't like cruising with "spics". I witnessed a cat fight involving six girls that no one tried to break up. Kids as young as ten were being served liquor even though they had cards clearly marked as underage.

The high point for me was the last night when a well supervised group of 12 and unders were chaperoned at a midnight deck until dawn party. I checked in periodically and all was well. So I went to bed. At 3AM I received a phone call - my son screaming "Mom! They're hurting me. Help me". I went running on deck to find him - me and about five other parents in our night clothes who had all gotten the same call. It could only have been done by someone who knew all the room numbers for the kids, someone who worked for the cruise line.
I wrote Carnival and got a "none letter" stating that none of this was cruiseline policy. What the hell?

I was later told that that cruise was a Booze Cruise geared towards college students on their way back to school. Given the number of people who have "disappeared" recently on cruises I guess their policies haven't changed.

Celebrity, Regency and other cruises were perfectly enjoyable. Maybe a theme cruise on Carnival with a targetted audience attracts a different person.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 09:54 AM

I cruise on American Canadian Caribbean (ACCL) for several reasons, not the least of which is that a) you bring your own booze (except for the Captain's Party) and b) the ships carry a total of about 100 passengers, max.

If you want to visit Alaska, forget the bloody cruise lines!! Get to Bellingham and go up on the Alaska State Ferries. You can get a stateroom, you can bring your own car, you can sleep in the solarium in your own tent if want, or you can stake out a place in the lounge. Food is good and cafeteria style (you pay for what you get), there's a bar (you pay for your drinks), and there's no pressure to participate in anything at all (ditto for ACCL). The Blue Canoes put into places the cruise ships don't, like Angoon, and you can actually get to meet REAL LIVING BREATHING ALASKANS!! (mixed with real Germans, real Tlingit, real Aleuts, and others). Of course, you do have to do the planning...but there aren't many Carnival Cruises or Princess Line ships going to Unalaska or Dutch, I betcha!

Another note -- a few years back Princess and other lines got into DEEP TROUBLE in Alaska for dumping things like raw sewage and photographic chemicals into the harbors. And that doesn't even begin to deal with Cruise Flu....

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:27 AM

What Rap said. Juneau is deeply polarized in its view toward industrial tourism. A great many of our 't-shirt shops' have absentee owners and are boarded up over winter. The cruiselines now have their own shops that compete directly with locals. Our sidewalks (narrow) are clogged with thousands of swarming, jostling tourists that on any given day outnumber locals by three to one. They act as though they were in Disneyland and we were local color provided by their tour dollars.

On the other hand, there are also dozens of tourists who are genuinely interested and appreciative of this little town set in these mountains by the ocean.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 10:28 AM

There are probably as many ticket package options for cruises as there are usage plans for cellular phones. One option would be the "glutton package" where you pay a fat price up front but get unlimited amounts of whatever you wish to partake of at no extra charge. On the oposite end is the "mizer package" where you pay for a berth and everything else is extra. If a cruise is poorly booked, the cruise line is probably happy to give away a berth that would otherwise be empty in hopes that they'll make money from whatever other goods or services you purchase while on board. If you don't mind making your own bed and eating home-made bologna sandwiches, you could probably have some fun at very little expense. But I would expect some subtle pressure from the crew aimed at getting you to spend money.

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 11:14 AM

"on board catering" - What is that?

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: rumanci
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 11:20 AM

"on board catering" - What is that?


Surf'n'other sturf
followed by
Cabin ate pudding
and
Berthday Cake

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 11:37 AM

Good 'un, rum.

My point is that onboard catering sounds like some kind of specialized activity.

Many, many cruise passengers are groups traveling together, whether they are extended families or organizations or company-rewarded employees. Might 'catering' refer to them?

It's just hard for me to believe that food is NOT included in the purchase price of a cruise.

On US trains and maybe also in Canada, when you have a berth or stateroom food in the dining car is included in your ticket, but sometimes does not include the snack car.

(Train trip before last, our train ran uut of food. Not to mention water. And toilet facilities. At a certain point they freed everyone to go to the snack car and eat whatever they had there free of charge.)

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: number 6
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 11:48 AM

Ebbie ... you are correct ... when you purchase a ticket for a cruise, the price is usually 'all inclusive' ... the exception being with us, what we won, is quite different with what one purchases.

Sinsull .. our 'winning ticket' is with Carnival Cruises .. I think 'Carnival' is self explanatory in itself .. what you described is what I envision .. and it certainly isn't attractive.

One Big Floating Carny ... well, some peeple like that kind of stuff.

A big floating carnival

This is a pic I took of a Carnival Cruise liner in Saint JOhn Harbour.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 01:44 AM

The Irish Music Cruise I was on recently was on Carnival Cruise lines, and I have nothing but praise for the food, the service, the facilities provided for the musicians and the sound techs. etc. - sound equipment andthe sound techs. etc. and the sound techs. etc.

So good, in fact, that we had over 20 people sign up for next year's Irish Music Cruise before this one was over.

Some of you may have had bad experiences on cruises - we certainly didn't.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Won a free cruise!
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 23 Feb 06 - 07:54 PM

Seamus, does this mean you are going to miss another beautiful Alaskan January?