Want To Hear From You

[Luanne Russo]

The boards are new, and maybe so are you, to cruising.

Why don't we take a minute to get to know each other.

This is a great time for those of you who have been reading the boards, but have yet to post.

Maybe you have a question, but have yet to get the nerve to post.

I remember those times when I just hoped some else would ask it.

This is also a good time for those of you who post, and answer those

questions, to let people know something about you.

Come on guy, let's fill this thread.

Hi my name is Luanne

I have a hubby, and two sons. We have been cruising since 2005. In Dec. will be my 9th and in June our 10th, all on Carnival.

Now what about you?

[Paul Motter]

Easy for me - I am the editor and one of the founders of Cruisemates, Paul Motter is my real name.

I just got back from Carnival Dream yesterday and I have to say it is one of my favorite Carnival ships yet. This is an active ship for young people - no string quartets or fencing lessons. The bands ROCKED and the casino is huge. The nighttime laser light show to Pink Floyd and other bands is "awesome" as the kiddies say ('ahem)

[Aerogirl]

My name is Robin I live in Chicago. I will be leaving for my third girls cruise in 27 days!
My hubby and son don't like to cruise and that's fine by me. Were already planning our fourth cruise for 2011.

[Michelle1959]

Hi, I'm Michelle. I have cruised once so far (Sensation in 2007 with my then-14 year old son) and am booked to sail Imagination in March 2010 with my Mom. I can't wait as I spent most of that first cruise either in the cabin with my son (he loved watching movies) or watching him play arcade games, or playing mini-golf or on excursions. We didn't watch any shows, or eat in any dining rooms, etc.
so you can bet that this time around, I will experience ALL that a cruise ship has to offer!

[nlb1050]

Hi, I'm Nancy. Been on 9 cruises since Jan 2005, 2 on Carnival and our 10th overall and 3rd Carnival set for Jan. As you can see once we took our first we were hooked. All have been with just my husband.

[Phil&Liz]

We are Phil & Liz. We live in Houston, Texas.

We have been on 9 cruises together (all Carnival) with our 10th coming up January 2010 with the Cruisemates group cruise.

We would like to try other lines and probably will do a RCI ship when they change ships in Galveston next year, unless the Port of Houston gets its act together and brings the ships there.

Phil & Liz

[ttam]

The name is bob, sometime referred to as boB. live in Chesapeaek, VA , and work in the health field. We have made 6-7 cruises on CARNIVAL, , from miami, cape canaveral and norfolk, Va. We have enjoyed all . We are booked out of port canaveral in NOV 2010 on the DREAM and looking fwd to it.If you have any questions about tidewater VA, just ask
other wise will be checking every day, IF you are booked on the dream NOV 2010, drop me at line.
HAVE A GREAT AND A SAFE WEEK
boB

[katlady]

My name is Sherry I'm from California. I have cruised 4 times on Carnival including a cruisemates transatlantic cruise on the Freedom. 1 time on Princess, 1 time on Celebrity to Alaksa, and 1 time on RCL in 1994 for my honeymoon. I have cruised out of San Francisco, San Diego, Long Beach, San Pedro, and Miami. I have a hubby, 2 cats, and 2 dogs. I know a lot about cruising out of California asked me anything what I don't know I can find out.

[skymaster]

Hello! The lovely Mrs. Jones (Vita) and I have been on something over 100 cruises total since 1975. We're just getting ready for #24 on Carnival, and will probably do 5 or 6 next year. We truly LOVE cruising, and are lucky enough to live in Central Florida, within easy driving distance of 5 different cruise ports, so it makes it much easier for us to catch those last minute "deals". We've done almost all the lines at one time or the other, and have cruised on many, many long gone ships and cruise lines.

See y'all aboard,

Ken
"SKY"

[airforce95]

Hi Mel and Kim here. Started cruising in 2002 and just got back from cruise #11 all with Carnival. Living here in central Florida is great. Easy to get to the ports. 2 more years and we will be taking multiple last minute cruises also. Man you got to love it its great.

[Ron]

My name is Ron. I live in central Ky. in the heart of the Bluegrass country.
My wife and I have cruised some 30 odd times, first time was on the Carnival Mardi Gras back in '83. We've sailed more times on Carnival than the other lines, although we have been on Princess, HAL, Celebrity and RCCL.
Our last Carnival cruise was back in Jan. on the Glory ( 5 times on the Glory ) and our last cruise was in October on Freedom of the Seas.
We have upcoming cruises on the Dream in Feb. and again on the Mariner out of L.A. in April.
I'm retired from the insurance business, my wife works in the jewelry business.
Our two sons are grown and we are empty nesters except for the other lady in my life, my calico cat!
We, as you can see, truly enjoy cruising but do like to take other vacations from time to time.
That's about all I can say about me/us-- just ordinary folks that love being on a ship.
Happy sails to all.

[green_rd]

Yet another Bob - I'm in Indianapolis. The DW and I have taken 3 Carnival cruises from Port Canaveral, San Juan and Long Beach. We are planning on cruising the Med next summer but haven't picked the cruise yet, and put down $100 bucks for our "next" Carnival cruise, maybe the new Southern Caribbean route to Aruba.

[GaryI]

Hello to all. My name is Gary, my wife Roxie and I live in the Middle of Kansas. we did our first cruise in 96 aboard the Fantasy. It was a four day, and got us hooked. Unfortnately we were unable to go again until 07. We have been on a total of 3 cruises so far. Our next is a B2B on Ecstasy in Feb. of next year. There are no ports close for us so it is either drive to Galveston, or fly. We are driving to galveston in Feb. After that I think we want to do a cruise out of Florida in 2011.
I will retire in 2012, and then probobly move to somewhere in TX. Looking for ideas if you have any. Got to get away from the cold, and snow.
We enjoy all of the people, and info available on Cruisemates.
Thanks To All
Gary I.

[kerenegade]

Hello everyone,
My name is Kathy and we have been on 6 cruises. My husband is Alan and we both love the time we spend on ANY cruise. Husband is a truck mechanic and I am an office manager at a trucking company-so I work with 34 men! You can bet when we get a chance we leave the phones and the guys and head for a cruise. Any cruise will work. We have 2 grown kids -a boy and a girl and a spoiled cat named Shadow. I would rather be on a cruise that anything in the world. I think just getting away from the demands of 34 men who I sometimes have to baby sit is just what I need every year for a vacation. Haven't been in 2 years -am having withdrawal but I have parents that aren't well and I am afraid to leave right now. MY dream vacation is an Alaskan cruise. Hope for this chance soon.

[HoustonTodd]

I'm obviously Todd, and my lovely wife Jeanette and I have been married for 15 years and have 3 kids, 16, 11 and 9 years old. The sixth member of our family is our beautiful German shepherd, Layla. I work as a training spe******t with the FAA, and my wife is a business analyst working in the oil and gas industry.

We love cooking, running, reading, camping, and are fanatical soccer fans (all three of our kids play at a high competitive level). The kids and I also love gaming, which my wife attempts to put up with We've been on a couple of cruises, with two more coming up next year.

I would actually like to try out Princess or Celebrity but we're probably going to go for Platinum on Carnival first because we are having a blast cruising with them.

[Luanne Russo]

It is so good to know all of you. I'll bet there are plenty more of you out there. Here is your chance. Remember, we don't bite.

[big apple]

My name is Penn and wife is Ginny. Started cruising in the 50,s out of Miami to Nassau and now have over 40 plus cruises on most of all the main line cruise lines and did take the 49 day Carnival Splendor around SA last Feb. Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco. For those of you that have not done SA put it on your future list. My other advice and that is all it is try different lines and you will find something to your liking that beat your last cruise. Since we live in South Carolina we will now be looking at Celebrity,s Mercury which will be doing cruises out of Charleston the first quarter of the year and Carnival will also be doing year round cruises beginning 2010. Have never had a bad cruise and sure beats staying at home.

[PartyAnimal]

Hi Linda here, I live in beautiful Northern California with my husband and two children. My son just returned home from the Navy and my daughter is a Medical student. I have been on twelve cruises with eleven being on Carnival. My next cruise is in January with Snoozeman and then I have Aruba in 2011 to look forward to.

[Chris M]

Chris here.

This Saturday will be the 25th cruise (milestone) with Carnival as we sail on the Liberty.

Started cruising back in '84, first sailing on the "small" BIG RED BOAT - the Royale out of Port Canaveral.

Been on many other cruises on many other lines but Carnival is the favorite.

As others have said, it's great to live in FL where you are about 45 mins (Port Canveral) to 4 hours (Miami) away from the best cruise ships in the industry.

I want to retire so I too can sail like others who have posted as such.

[LGriggs548]

Hello,
Guerry and Linda here. We have been cruising since 1977 and have no plans on stopping as long as the time and money allow us to continue. I don't post often but have been around with Cruisemates since it started and even before. Have done many Cruisemates cruises and have never been disappointed. It really is a good group with the nicest folks. If you're new to the site, welcome and enjoy and we hope to see you on a future cruise

[fourxbusymom]

Hi everyone! I'm Terri and I live in Virginia Beach, VA with my husband Jon and our 4 children (16, 12, 11 and 9). Since 2005 I have done 1 "girls only" cruise with family members, then we did a Disney cruise as a family, hubby and I did a Hawaiian cruise to celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss and we did 1 cruisemates cruise as a family. We are going on another cruise as a family with TONS of our friends out of Baltimore in August. We haven't cruises a whole lot due to life, but we look forward to doing several more in the future. We find it to be the best family vacation we've ever taken!

[MajorDewey]

Have you ever cruised on Royal Caribbean? If so, can you compare the two? We are thinking of a cruise on the Carnival Liberty. We've never done Carnival before only RCCL.

[Ford_Racing_Ron]

My real name is Ron and I am a cruisaholic that lives in Downey California. My first cruise was in 2004, a cruisetour of Alaska. In Jan of 2004 I was diagnosed with kidney cancer and knew I would be dead in a year no matter what the doctors told me, so one place I needed to see was Alaska. So when I recovered we took a 13 night cruisetour,,4 nights on the ship. I was hooked. I didn't know if I would like cruising and I decided I didn't like it,,I loved it. Can't afford to go as much as I would like though because of the economy but if things pick up,,and they seem to be,,,I will be going more in the future (I am retired so have to watch the money as I retired pretty early in life). I do have a 4 nighter on CCL coming up,,because I've heard a lot about this line from the good, bad and ugly,,so I decided to see for myself. I am hoping for the good because it would be nice to take close loop cruises right out of my own backyard. Oh,,ps,,I am in complete remission and have been for over 5 years now.

[Ron]

First of all , from one Ron to another Ron, it's the best news about your medical problem being in remission -- and too, the economy will eventually swing back--it's already started but it'll take a little time----you'll have a lot more cruisin' to do-- secondly, It doesn't matter a lot which line you discuss--you'll have some folks that think it's great and others that don't-- I think you'll be very happy with Carnival-- It's a very good value for the money--go--relax and don't worry about the nay-sayers !!
I'm bettin' you come away saying--that was a fun cruise !!

[bahamamomma]

Hi all! I'm Cathy from Eastern Kansas - have been cruising since '03. My 1st cruise was a short one, and after that I said we only do 7 days and longer. I cruise with family members, and if I had to go solo I would do it in a heartbeat!! My next cruise is coming up in Jan 2010 out of Galveston and I am really looking forward to it! I am hoping to get my dd and her family to go on a cruise with me when the grandsons get a bit older and easier to handle!

[misguidedangel]

Hi my name is Jeanette and I am a cruise addict! NO 12 step program for me, I like my addiction

My stats are easy:

8 cruises--seven since Jan 2007
40 and single (40th was on the Splendor)
No two-legged children, but four four-legged feline children

As it stands, 2010 will be my last year of being able to afford two cruises a year. I'll be down to one a year cuz my bank account will be drained, and not just from cruising but from pricy TMJ dental treatments!!!!! I'll be Platinum for my planned Sept 2010 cruise, so that was my goal, and I shall meet it..Now, should I win the lottery, and a nice amount, I'll be plantinum before the year is over...

[Thoth]

I'm Wayne and 45 years old. I have one 4 legged child ( a cat).
I bored people in that ALL I ever talk about is travel. Others can't stand my good attitude. I'm attempting to be more grumpy but I fail due to too many cruise vacations.
I started cruising in 2000 as a one time thing....that was 11 cruises ago.

[Cruznut2]

Hi Cruisers!! My name is Laura. currently located in Lakeland Florida. I moved here from my beloved New England in 2007. It was time for me to thaw out.
I have been cruising since 1983 when I first cruised on Carnival Festivale. At the time I thought that the 38,000 tons of ship was huge. I can look back at that an it makes me smile. I have 11 cruises to my credit most of them Carnival.
I have been around here since 2003 and have enjoyed meeting some of the good people here in CruiseMates. Everyone here is friendly and nice. I used to sit in NH and read of the dinners the CruiseMates had in Florida. I made up my mind I would someday be part of the fun. I have been to quite a few dinners now and it is so much fun to meet everyone. Gotta love CruiseMates!

Laura

[purpledevilduck]

First, I must say I feel young based on the posts so far. My name is Jonathan, I am 24- will be 25 in December. I live in Bothell, WA-in the trifecta of Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett. I have been on one cruise-The Carnival Valor Sept/Oct 2007 from Miami- as single. I have sail on my second with my younger brother Jeremiah-22 will be 23 in December. It will be his first. We will be sailing on the Freedom-funny enough I will be one stateroom to the bow from when I was on the Valor- out of Ft Lauderdale in less then 60 days. Thank you all to have helped answer all the questions.

[Dotte]

Hi, my name is Debbie and I'm from Kansas City. DH and I took our 1st cruise in 1986 on the Carnival Carnivale and loved it. Didn't get to go again until 1997. Took the kids with us in 2000 and now they're hooked. Went with DD and her DH in 2007. DH, myself, DS, DD and her DH and son are planning on going on the DREAM in 2011 (they will paying their own way this time )