Neil, I fully understand that with the wealth of information you need at your fingertips, electronic media is the only way for you to go.

I like to do a fair amount of research on-line; but there's nothing like the look and feel and smell of a brand new brochure.

Rick, you have a point. I'm a gun enthusiast and get that same feeling when I get a new gun magazine. When it comes to printed litterature for cruising, nothing would smell better than the sulfer from the match I'd light to get rid of them, but I keep getting more!

I once had someone at one of the cruiselines make an error and put my personal contact information in their system for a booking and it defaulted their system to send everything going to our agency directly to me. My email shut down, it couldn't hold the volume. I got a delivery a couple of days later from a shipping company wanting me to sign for a shipment on my front porch. I asked the driver what it was and he said 500+ cases of brochures. I eventually got it sorted out but what a nightmare in the meantime.

Cheers, Neil

quote:

I'm a gun enthusiast

Admitted thread drift alert! I am looking around for a slicked-up .45 carry gun, perhaps a Wilson Combat or Kimber. I guess this needs to go to a PM!

OK, thread drift alert has been cancelled. Now back to the action at hand...

I used to get Porthole but it got too slick and had too many fashion ads in it so I dropped my subscription. When I dropped it, it seemed it was 70% ads and 30% substance (which was also questionable). Has it changed?

I'm going to interrupt the gun question for a second with another comment for Neil, and a possible solution to his snail mail overload:

I collect cruise line brochures, so I'm happy to take any extras off your hands.

As we were...

Oddly enough, as I type this I am having to wade through years worth of cruise brochures and magazines. We are doing some remodeling and my stacks of knowledge (also known as cruise junk by "others" in my house) are in the way. So I have to toss some stuff. Anyone interested in some 2002-2003 NCL brochures?

Oh, I also have a 2003 Cunard brochure that notes the "QE2 Farewell Trans-Atlantic Season".

I'll mail them to the most worthy member, free of charge!

Lisa, you be welcome to them if I had any. I work from my home now and don't keep a single one here. There are enough of them along with other outdated junk trashed each year at our office to fill a construction dumpster twice. I am almost completely paperless now and working every day toward being completely so.

Cheers, Neil

Me...me...me!

Actually, I'm most interested in the 2003 QE2 brochure. I was on one of those crossings, and can't locate the one I thought I had saved from back then.

And our lovely winner is......Lisa from Boston! E-mail me your address and I'll send them out.

The Cunard brochure is "Grand Voyages 2003 - QE2's Farewell Transatlantic season". It features QE2 and Caronia voyages - with deck plans. I expect you'll like it. And the NCL brochures too - South America & Panama Canal, and the Caribbean.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Beers:
OK, thread drift alert has been cancelled. Now back to the action at hand...

I used to get Porthole but it got too slick and had too many fashion ads in it so I dropped my subscription. When I dropped it, it seemed it was 70% ads and 30% substance (which was also questionable). Has it changed?

I dropped Porthole last year for the same reason.Still get Cruise Travel.

I am the same way about saving cruise brochures and catalogs. I put the final statements, Capers, and shore excursion lists in the relative catalog. It makes for a great way to reference and reminisce.

The only magazine I buy now on a regular basis is Cruise Travel. I will pick up an issue of Caribbean Travel and Life once in a while if it is cruise time.

Dwayne

Yes, Porthole is still slick and has a lot of adds for stuff I'll never buy; but the photography is so much better than Cruise Travel. I get them both--for different reasons.

Conde Nast Traveler has a lot of good information but is about 90% advertising. I subscribe when I get an offer for $1.00 an issue--which I usually get about three months after I let the previouse subscription lapse. It's one mag I don't care if I miss a few issues.

I was given a gift subscription to National Geographic Traveler for Christmas; so far I'm not impressed.

I'm with you rcclfan, although both magazines were was nice to look, at the articles became very generic & I found that some people's opinions I read on different bulletin boards (this one included) are more subjective. I still occasionally read a copy at our local library if an article catches my eye.

quote:

Conde Nast Traveler has a lot of good information but is about 90% advertising.

It also has a certain "snob" factor and a barely veiled political agenda at times. But it does have good info - the Perrin report and Ombudsman are my two favorites.

Dave, isin't it interesting and also sad how often the same issues keep coming up in Ombudsman. There are certainly many people out there with legitimate complaints, and it's good to see them get help from sombody with some muscle; but more often it's the same old lack of planning or making incorrect assumptions or inattention to detail that gets people in trouble.

Of course we never see anything like that around here.