<p>Romani, If and/or when you book a cruise, the way to interact with fellow passengers is by going to the Cruise Critic homepage, click on the tab at the top of the page that says “community”, then click on the drop down that says “roll call”. If you book way in advance, you might need to start your own roll call. Most of the time someone has already started one. have found that most “roll call action” doesn’t “heat up” until 2 to 3months before departure. </p>
<p>we went on epic summer of 2012 - 7 nights. was almost too short with all the excursions(private, not thru ship), so didn’t get much time on the ship except at night. booking early okay as long as you monitor the price drops - up until the “lock” day which is usually 75 days out, they refund your money or give you onboard credit or upgrade your cabin when they lower the prices or run specials. after the lock date, they will give you onboard credit(not as good as its not a 1:1 money thing, but better than nothing). barcelona was great - plan on a few extra days there if you depart or end there. Rome is hard to do in one day as far from port, so also look into itineary’s that can leave or arrive there so you could have a few days there. Dont go to Vatican on a wednesday - most crowded day. Cruise critic is great for information and roll calls.</p>
<p>Also, interacting with fellow passengers on the same RIVER CRUISE and week you depart, using the Cruise Critic Roll Call, is fairly unlikely since there are less than 150 passengers on any given week for the most part compared to 2,000 passengers on an ocean liner.</p>
<p>For the record, my company is way more understanding about weddings when you’re a new hire than they are when you’re an old one. Negotiating it when you have an offer is the way to go, and in our experience it’s not a big deal… my fiance has gotten three job offers and nobody has batted an eye, though unfortunately he wasn’t able to take those jobs for other reasons! </p>
<p>I’ll be eagerly awaiting photos a year from now. :P</p>
<p>Last July we did a short med (4 day) cruise on Disney with our daughters 21 and 16. While we were aware that there would be kids on board (Disney), we liked the itinerary and leaving from Barcelona. We had been on Disney years back found the service to be exceptional. However, we took that prior cruise in January, when there were not huge crowds. This time around it was summer and there was an overwhelming amount of kids with lacking parental supervision. The crew worked very hard to keep things under control and some stuff made us sit back in awe. The service was still very good even with the crowds. </p>
<p>Therefore, I would recommend a ship with an older crowd, such as Celebrity, HAL, Azamara and maybe Princess. In the Med, the Barcelona to Venice seems like a great itinerary, even better, if you can get Santorini in the mix. We enjoyed the Villefranche sur le Mer port last year. We booked a full day private tour to Nice, Antibes, Cannes and St. Paul de Vence, which is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. As others have pointed out, I highly recommend you check Cruisecritic and see what is available at each port. The ship excursions are not always the best or the cheapest plus you are stuck with 50 people for the whole tour. I also recommend getting to your embarkation location a day or two prior to tour and get rid of the jetlag. We rented a beautiful apartment in Barcelona, three days prior to boarding, so we could see the sights there. </p>
<p>Airfare can be expensive. Our cruise was actually really affordable, which is why we booked it and then we got hit with airfare. It almost made me want to cancel.</p>
<p>By the way, I have been on an Alaska cruise (Princess). These are two very different things. It is mostly adult crowd. I would recommend a balcony cabin so you can sit on your private balcony with a warm drink and blanket and watch the glaciers or scenery go by. It can get cold 40 and also warm in some ports. . It was surreal sitting in the bar at 11:00 p.m with the sun still out. Some ships can get into some areas and other cannot. (check Cruisecritic). We chose ours based on the glaciers we wanted to see. Cruisecritic will also advise best side of ship to book your cabin so you have best views.</p>
<p>I have also done Caribbean when we were younger. It was more of a party atmosphere. We prefered the Southern itinerary with more interesting islands. If you can get to St. John in USVI or the British Virgin islands, the water is spectacular. Sorry for the length. I was trying to get a lot of points across.</p>
<p>Enjoy the planning and congratulations. </p>
<p>Would it be possible to plan the cruise for shortly after you graduate? Then, as far as employment, it shouldn’t be an issue. You just say your availability date is a couple of weeks later than you originally intended. Seems like it would be a much easier sell and not really a factor if you said, for example, instead of being available on May 16th, you’d be available on May 30th, after your honeymoon cruise. Or pre wedding cruise, whatever it works out to be!</p>
<p>lia, thank you for that post! No need to apologize, it was very informative! </p>
<p>BD, we’ve kicked around that possibility. But then I have to factor in time to move (as I’m about 99% I will not stay in MI), pack up and get the house ready to sell, etc in the time between graduation and wedding (early May to early June). I’d much rather do a honeymoon sometime later in the year after everything’s settled than to try to squeeze it into that month. Knowing myself, I’d be way too wound up and worried about every little thing to relax and enjoy. That’s just me being honest with myself lol. </p>
<p>At this time though, we’re still leaving that possibility wide open. I’m not at all opposed to honeymooning pre-wedding, I’m just not sure how to fit everything in.</p>
<p>Wow, you might be taking on a lot in a short period of time. You sure don’t want to feel so rushed, that your honeymoon is stressful, that certainly would be a waste. You know what would be perfect? If you got hired way before you graduated, and knew the exact timeframe and location of where/when you’d be working, and had a chance to negotiate this with your employer several months ahead of time. Before you’d even booked the cruise, then you could more easily work it out with the employer. If only it would be so easy!</p>
<p>Oh I wish!
I’m hoping that one of my internships extends a job offer to me. The odds are very low though as one org has only 4 FTE employees (state completely defunded the org and won’t be refunded until there’s a party change so I’m not holding my breath :/) and the other generally only takes on those with PhDs. I’ll start applying for jobs quite early on in the year and hope I’ll have something set. </p>
<p>One can hope 
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<p>someone commented about cruise excursions. We don’t usually book the ones through the cruise lines - we prefer to arrange our own. Much better that way - you do what you want, on your own schedule. cruisecritic was great in helping us plan those.</p>
<p>Just piping in about the job issue. The problem with a time-off need is greater when there’s a business cycle that conflicts- eg, accountants don’t get much flexibility first quarter, nor do adcoms. I’d guess a junior pilot would have trouble asking for vacation during peak flying times. (?) I suppose there are cycles in social services/non-profits, when it doesn’t make sense to take time off- eg, if you’re writing annual reports or grant requests. Or when something big is being implemented (don’t think ACA folks got much time off before 3/31, if then.) Of course, it’s possible a major training program conflicts with her honeymoon. But overall, I don’t think this is going to be as big a problem. And I believe you will be in demand, romani, with your background.</p>
<p>" I’d guess a junior pilot would have trouble asking for vacation during peak flying times. (?) "</p>
<p>That’s for sure. You don’t ask, you just submit your preferences, and get awarded them based upon seniority. After almost twenty years with my company, I still can’t get a December vacation, in any week.</p>
<p>That does make sense, as far as timing. No way is an accountant going to get time off during tax time (which is a dirty word TODAY), or a new teacher, just as soon as school starts.</p>
<p>Another problem, if you don’t know where you’ll be working until shortly before graduation, how do you buy airline tickets? They are expensive going to Europe, and if you wait till the last minute, especially in the summer, yikes! But if you don’t know where you’ll be flying out of, how do you do it?</p>
<p>Thanks for all your confidence in job-hunting. Watching the 2nd years trying desperately to grab up jobs right now just makes me kinda nervous (notice a trend? lol) </p>
<p>As for the ticket issue, yes another big issue. That’s another reason why I’m hoping to secure a job early. My wedding is in MI so if I do honeymoon right after the wedding, I would still be in the state to fly out of DTW or Chicago (my wedding is in NW Michigan so it’s about equal distance to each city). It only becomes problematic if I put off the honeymoon. </p>
<p>Sigh. Funny enough, as semi-stressed as I am about the honeymoon, wedding planning is going fabulously smooth. I’m even going to start looking at dresses a week from Friday. So I guess that’s good news 
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<p>Happy shopping. Don’t be like the gals who bring a dozen critics!</p>
<p>^ No worries there. I’m going with my mom, sister, and man of honor. I’m my biggest critic by far. </p>
<p>We are avid cruisers and have done 2 Med cruises. When we are doing what I would call a “touring” cruise we prefer Princess. By touring I mean sightseeing everyday at each port as opposed to a beach cruise where we are rolling off one lounge chair to another on the beach. For a beach cruise we prefer Celebrity…the reason why we go with Princess for a touring cruise is that we are usually exhausted after 10-12 hours touring in port. We like the anytime dining where we can come and go as we please and not worry about being back in time to dress for dinner. On a beach cruise we enjoy dressing each night and going for a leisurely dinner. If you have any specific questions, please PM me.</p>
<p>All the major cruise lines now offer anytime dining as an option and I agree this is the preferable option if you are taking excursions.</p>
<p>Just was going to say what jshain said-all the major lines have it now ,including Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. That is much preferable to me as well.</p>
<p>This sounds wonderful: <a href=“Royal Caribbean Cruises”>Royal Caribbean Cruises;
<p>I hadn’t considered the Greek Isles. The airfare makes my wallet want to cry though 
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