Arlene and I were just chatting about our "best cruise ever." We both agree that our recent B2B cruise Athens to Monte Carloe surpasses all of our previous cruises including Hong Kong to Singapore which had held that title. The combination of friends, ship, and touring on B2B (inclouding pre- and post-) was just fantastic.

A question....what was your "best cruise ever?"

I would have to say LAMB. If the weather had been a bit better, it would have been a perfect 10!!

PANDA. Everyday was more amazing!

That's tough one - for ports probably pick 2 segments of WC 2005 Sydney to Singapore - we LOVED B2B and Lamb maybe give the edge to Lamb as we loved the seadays - too hard to not mention all three -

I guess we'd have to say the first two segments of Voyager's 2004 World Cruise - LA to Melbourne - another Ngaire Special - the 2nd segment actually ended in Perth, but Ngaire had a contract for the 1st and partial 2nd, only as far as Melbourne. After the cruise, we stayed on in Australia and drove from Melbourne to Brisbane – in just over two weeks - before flying up to Carnes for a delightful couple of days at the Sebel Reef House in Palm Cove - THE most romantic place we've ever stayed, far and away - and then a short Capt. Cook cruise on the Great Barrier Reef before flying home. Wonderful memories of our best vacation ever!

But we'd have to mention at least three runner's up: the Voyager's shakedown-Christening-maiden cruise in 2003, PANDA in 2007, and Mariner's circumnavigation of South America in the fall of 2003. We really feel RSSC peaked as far and away the world's best cruise line in the 2003-'04 time-frame, and hasn't been quite the same since, although there have been some wonderful moments, like PANDA. We second Lauri’s feelings; China was so exciting and dynamic last year!

EDITING TO ADD: Ngaire made the special contract arrangements for our top pick, and traveled with us, at least in part, on our three runners-up! Coincidence or causal factor - the latter I believe!

Marc, you ask such a hard question. It's difficult to choose just one favorite cruise.

Probably our favorite was the first two segments of the 2006 World Cruise (LA-Sydney-Hong Kong). There's a special energy on a World Cruise that makes it very exciting, especially at the beginning of one. This was our introduction to French Polynesia plus it included the exotic ports of Bali and Kota Kinabalu. I smile just thinking about the fun we had.

Having siad that, usually, my favorite cruise is the one I'm about to go on.

No contest...had to be CAMEL. Now, how about your worst cruise....... :rolleyes:

Best? For a good time on the ship, the Song Swan Song. For ports, my birthday-with-a-zero cruise from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

Worst? No contest--my very first cruise. A miserable HAL cruise to Alaska. It took me a lot of time to try cruising again after that.

B2B without a doubt. It was magical.

I'm with you, Crystal, SSS was my favorite cruise, too. What a great group!! :3smile: For the best ports, it would be Song of Flower Hong Kong to Bangkok cruise in '94.

Hmmm...great question, Marc. For me it's PANDA. Every port was a great new adventure, and it was unique for us starting and ending with visits to Grant's brothers and their families (in Tokyo and Hong Kong). What better local guides can there be? Combine that with our new and old friends in the B&K group, and it was a fantastic trip.

Dena

Crystal and Beth, my best ports so far was my first cruise on the Song with off the beaten track Greek ports. I miss her :mecry:

Definitely, the 2005 World Cruise. It was an experience we will never forget! As for which segments on the 2005 WC....the Sydney to Singapore because we were with our best buds, the Mondaes !

A very close 2nd choice is definitely the circumnavigation of South America on the Mariner in 2006. We really loved that too!!!

Gary: Baltics 2003; close second ICE to Antarctica 2008.

Anne: San Francisco to Lima 2003; close second PANDA Hong Kong to Singapore 2007.

Best crew? it's unanimous - ICE to Antarctica. I will never forget Junior, the origami masters, our delightful captain, Suzanna with her 'liquid sunshine (ie, pouring rain)' mantra, the incredible deck crew guys who got us in & out of some bouncy situations and our delightful dancing penguins and bar maids.

worst cruise?

Gary - Norway 2007. Too much gloomy weather; no chance to go to Wimbledon that year and not enough time to get off the ship and run around.

Anne - the one and only trip on the Diamond Caribbean 2003 5 night cruise. I did learn everything I never wanted to know about tires, though, from all the folks aboard who worked for a new-to-me tire manufacturer.

Cheers, Anne

Can't have a favorite until I've don more, however Grand Citcle South America is at the top since I've done it in 2003, 2005 & 2007. Antarctica is also a real spendor. The Discovery this year looks to be a winner also.
Jim

I agree with Gary, FJORDS in 2007, worst cruise ever. I was so bored I played 'hit the ball in the hole' with pre-teens everyday, took long naps and checked into AA when I returned home...(kidding) Two events saved this from 'woman overboard', meeting new and old re-unions with LCT'ers AND, adding 40 tokens to my collection.

Anne, we agree 100% on the best crew ever. The ICE crew was fantastic. Everyone you mentioned was top-notch and I'll add the band who were so excited to have "action" in the lounge and indulged all our requests (We are LCT! FREE BIRD!). The head chefs and the almost-daily sausage cookouts were memorable along with the ever-growing Sambuca glasses for "Sir Grant." On top of it all, they put on the best crew show ever!

Dena

Agree Suzie and Gary - more I think about it I think Lamb gets the vote from me as it was VERY reasonably priced and they threw in 2 nights pre Auckland - Fjords was very expensive and we had lousy weather (but nice LCTers which helped) but 3 days Venice on B2B was pretty nice!!! You can't help but love some more than others but LCTers make such a difference - we won't go on one without you wonderful folks! editing to say we spent week in Rome after Fjords with Matassas and I think that incredible week dulled our memories of Fjords trip -

ICE ICE it is for moi. Loved the ulitmate trip into photography heaven :) Absolutely agree with Anne/Gary & Dena re: the best crew....oh, & let's not forget O's & my heartthrob, Captain Giovanni....Antarctic sunset with him (& Don, of course) on the bridge with champagne & opera music blasting...well, the best.
Camel was a close 2nd. Would have loved spending more time with everyone. Loved the unusual ports.
I was right thar with ya, Ms.Suzie, recovering from Fjords...'cept mine was AA AND sick bay; editing to add: but the white nights were absolutely spectacular.

NINJA (the 20005 version of FJORDS, with fantastic weather) stands out as #1 for me. Many others right behind it! Agree with the assessment of crew on ICE. Their show at the end was the grand finale!

The best was pre=Ngaire knowledge.
Baltic 2003 on thr Voyager.
Close 2nd Home Lines Atlantic, October 1984 (different era of cruising, so #1 for the old fashioned cruising style)
Lynn

All my trips were with Ngaire - only way to go -

We've only been on 4 cruises. 3 were great - all RSSC. The best was our first booked with Ngaire: our b2b Society Islands on the PG in 2004. So romantic and relaxing even with including a wonderful excursion almost every day. Favorite places: Motu Mahana and the Bora Bora motu.

Hmm .. now you've got me thinking. How could I omit the trip down the Nile on the Triton? I think of it as part of a land trip. That said, it is the most memorable cruise, ever, and for all the right reasons.

The reason CAMEL doesn't make either of our short lists is that awesome Egypt/Jordan trip.

There are still major places to explore - South America, USA, Australia/New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Central/Eastern Europe, Madagascar (an undeveloped Galapagos re: only certain species found there), yet Egypt/Jordan, Turkey, Peru, Chile, Hawaii and Bali call me back. Those are, for me, some of the most magic places on earth

As the grandkids say "Again! Do it Again!"

Cheers, Anne

For me it was our first PG trip in 2000, with the 3-night precruise at the Pearl on Manihi.

David's undecided--there's our 10-night Voyager MC-Dover. With Kathy and Frank, Fred and Pat, and the wonderful private excursions they organized, it was an ideal trip. We called it WAVE. That's definitely vying for top spot.

Our Diamond 7-day of the Black Sea was amazing too, with our stays in Istanbul and the Peloponnese post- and pre-cruise.

Anne, I'm with you--places keep pulling me back. Greece, FP, Turkey, Portugal,... Want to do SA for sure, wondering if we'll make it to Asia. Want to do Egypt as well.

For me "LAMB"
For Jan B Segment #1 "AMAZON"
2nd for both of us was Paul Gauguin
Worst was NCL Dream out of NOLA.

WHAT makes a cruise better or worse? I am curious. I'm sure it will be different for each person.

Best cruise for me? 1995 on HAL because I was with Stan for the first time and we had just discovered each other.

Worst cruise? 1976 on NCL. Kids everywhere. Staff bragging in public about taking teenagers to bed. Shore excursions manned by rude people.

Ardis

Wendy,

Tell David, Frank and I think of WAVE as being one of our best too. But we really have loved all of our cruises...there is only one that disappointed me because of it's finish. Frank asks all the time what cruise I liked best and I say all of them.

Kathy, you and Frank are so right! We are so lucky, all of us.

Ardis: 1995 Hal with Stan that makes sense a very happy memory for you

BAD cruise .. ill mannered complainers and very poor weather...

GREAT cruise (most of ours) - wonderful ports and wonderful people you meet who can roll with the punches - you may miss a port or be late arriving but good attitude helps -

Well with the grand total of three cruises to choose from, I'd have to say my first is up at the top. It was from New York to Montreal on the Navigator. Although having now been on the Voyager and it's my favourite ship, I thought the Navigator was great. The thing that made it so special though was meeting up with Suzie and Marilyn - they really made us feel welcome. We had so much fun and laughed ourselves silly. Lee

Thank you for the compliment Lee and we did have a fun but short cruise. I remember the expandable fork Marilyn bought in Boston to spear a lobster tail off Michael's dinner plate :D

Loved all my cruises but the best was the last Diamond crossing with 150 passengers and taking the longest time. Then on to Barcelona.

So miss the Diamond.

I agree with Olivia. For me NINJA ( Norway fjords/ Iceland) has been the best , even with the disastrous "tour" of the rockfield. A close second was CROSS, the TA last November.

We MUST have had a great time on NINJA -- it's our favorite too. That's followed closely by an unamed cruise from Singapore to Sydney on the Mariner--we loved the ports (Bali, Darwin, the Great Barrier Reef, etc)!!!

POP on the Hanseatic in Antarctica was our favorite, without even a close second. Perfect weather (thanks to Ngaire's famous weather juju), hundreds of thousands of beautiful penguins, some of the most glorious scenery on the planet, superb cuisine (including the fantastic European cheeses which so delighted Leslie and me, fellow cheese-addicts, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner), 18 exciting Zodiac landings or cruises, wonderful English-speaking travel companions, dreadful (but humorously memorable) German-speaking travel companions - who will ever forget the bloody Battles in the Boot Room??!!, and sipping vodka chilled in ice just chipped from an iceberg. This was a cruise so special that we will not likely repeat an Antarctica cruise because it would be so difficult to approach the marvelous experience of this one.

Second choice: Hard to say, as we've enjoyed every cruise. However, perhaps our first cruise on Regent - Baltics on Voyager in 2003, which hooked us on luxury cruising - or CROSS last year - with the 8 intensive days of great ports followed by 8 languorous days at sea - would be at the top of our list.

Worst cruise - As "worst" is the superlative form of "bad", we don't have a worst cruise. We've been fortunate not to have had any cruise which we considered bad or regretted taking. If the sense of the term is "least favorite", ours would be MUSH, because we'd been on an Alaska cruise previously and found little new of interest and because the rotten weather prevented us from flying in to see the bears nabbing salmon in the river (the one "new" experience we'd hoped to enjoy). That said, however, we loved the extra day on the ship that was due to the engine problem. After all, a day on a Regent ship (in that case, including another marvelous dinner in Signatures) is a pretty good day in almost any event.

Enormously grateful that we are so blessed to be able even to indulge in such an exercise as "Best Cruise Ever" - (see, you cynical readers, Freddie does have a soft side) - I remain, eagerly anticipating our next cruise adventure, whether it be best, worst, or who-the-hell-cares-if-it's-fun-and-there's-lots-of-booze, your humble servant, just back from CAVIAR and still completely jet-lagged (as if you couldn't tell that from the incoherence of this post), Fred

So what IS your next cruise, Fred? Cheers, Anne

Anne, dearest - We're now looking forward to a week in the Galapagos next spring, followed by a week in Peru (Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and Cuzco) - all based on your good counsel. We will see whether that land-sea combo may displace POP as "favorite" cruise ever. Hmm, a pisco sour anyone?? Cheers, Fred

Alaska was not one of our favorites - LOVED the extra day and the people on Mush so NO regrets - MUSH was our first time in Alaska and once was plenty for me -

This is such a great topic I have to ring in too. We've never had a bad cruise. We loved them all. Our first was Alaska on the old, tired Island Princess. We took that cruise because it was end of season CHEAP. We thought we wouldn't like cruising. Boy were we wrong! Our second cruise was on the old aging tub Stella Solaris (now junk metal)in the Greek Islands. A blast! I'd rank our 11-day Baltics cruise on Voyager as our second favorite since it hooked us on luxury cruising and a certain luxury cruise travel agent. But all of them after that have them are tied, to me, in third place. I know, I'm a chicken. But they have all been great and special for different reasons. My most special "people moment" was on WAVE when our wonderful friend David Harrison (of Wendy and David fame) took time to fetch me from the lounge late one evening to experience the Rock of Gibraltar. I would have missed it without David and Wendy. Of course Kathy and Frank were dear friends even before our cruise with them on the PG because of our mutual devotion to Cairn Terriers and Kathy's help in our adopting our beloved Cairn. We treasure so many other new friendships we have acquired in the last five years of cruising I won't try to list them here. I really do mean TREASURE. But first place in the favorite cruise department is the Antarctic. Fred has told you why.

Pat