Weather

Bob & Nancy on October 27th, 2011

The specter of Hurricane Rina and the fact that she’s disrupted more than a few cruise-ship schedules this week is a reminder about the approaching end of Hurricane Season. Excepts…there’s still a month to go. As Hurricane Seasons go, this one has seemed rather tame. Nobody even showed up until Irene, and that was the [...]

Continue reading about Rina and Friends, Just as Expected

Bob & Nancy on October 11th, 2011

Friends of ours were on a cruise ship in rough weather in August and the environment was an education. They learned about the Beaufort Scale, a 200-year-old measurement used for storms at sea. It goes from 1 to 12 and, somewhere between Antwerp and Bergen in the North Sea, their Princess ship was in an [...]

Continue reading about Freedom Stifled by a Storm

Bob & Nancy on June 8th, 2011

One day last month, passengers on a cruise ship named Boudicca went to bed one night expecting they would wake up in Liverpool and be properly disembarked. They woke up in Dublin. They were blown away. Literally. High winds forced the Boudicca, from the Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines fleet of four, to delay and eventually cancel [...]

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Bob & Nancy on June 1st, 2011

Today is the official start of Hurricane Season and the worst thing about that is for many parts of the continent it’s still Tornado Season. Mother Nature can sometimes be restless, can’t she? Every year at this time, people who like to go on cruises wonder if they should. Every year, people who write about [...]

Continue reading about Hurricanes Above Normal Again

Bob & Nancy on May 11th, 2011

Over dinner on Monday night, our daughter and son-in-law were asked by friends of ours if they’d ever been on an Alaska cruise. Their demographic was the answer, because thirtysomethings often view cruises as floating retirement homes, but the subject became more interesting. “I’m told that if you go on an Alaska cruise,” our friend [...]

Continue reading about Alaska: North-South or South-North?

Bob & Nancy on April 15th, 2011

As we embark on our inaugural Transatlantic cruise tomorrow, on the Celebrity Eclipse, we have some questions about being in the (for us) unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean… Like, do we need warm-weather clothes or cold-weather clothes at this time of year in the middle of the ocean? Will there be icebergs? Will we [...]

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Bob & Nancy on March 1st, 2011

News item: A blanket of fog kept 60 vessels from moving in or out of the Houston Ship Channel… If you haven’t heard, the vessels included cruise ships. If you haven’t heard, some passengers were livid. And if you haven’t heard, the only time fog is generated by anything or anyone but Mother Nature it’s [...]

Continue reading about So Who’s Really in the Fog in Texas?

Bob & Nancy on December 23rd, 2010

The ice and snow you’re looking at in this photo is on a cruise ship. A cruise ship that made a wrong turn perhaps? Don’t they all follow the sun, or at least the warm? The ice and snow you’re looking at in this photo is on a Disney cruise ship. Okay, who said Snow [...]

Continue reading about Br-r-r…the Frigid Side of Cruising

Bob & Nancy on December 6th, 2010

Just over six months ago, we posted a blog during Hurricane Preparedness Week. Three months ago, we posted another one, at the beginning of Hurricane Week. Today will be our last reference to hurricanes this year, because it’s now Hurricane Over Week. This season came to an end (officially) on November 30, as decreed by [...]

Continue reading about Cruise Ships, Hurricanes: Game Over

Bob & Nancy on September 8th, 2010

Just as we were putting the finishing touches to today’s blog, our tech-minded son who has a sense of humor that is…ah, unusual…fired off an email about what can happen on a cruise ship in rough seas. Allegedly. Real or not, it’s too good not to share with you. Start by going boing-boing — that’s [...]

Continue reading about Question: Who’s Rockin’ This Boat?