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I’m celebrating an anniversary this week – my 200th posting since starting this blog in late April of 2008.

My regular musings about everything cruising have come a long way since their humble beginning nearly two years ago. For example, selected blog postings are now featured on Canada’s premiere media aggregation service (www.bourque.com). In addition, Commodore Dave is now the primary provider of cruise content to Canada’s largest online media portal – www.sympatico.ca. You’ll find it at http://travel.sympatico.ca/trip_harbour/.

But what I enjoy most is getting comments from our readers – which now number more than 5,000 a month. Over the last year, I’ve received dozens of comments on a wide range of topics including pirates at sea, pisco sours, cruising to Haiti, and the population of Istanbul, to my foibles at sea, swine flu, tipping and outsmarting the cruise lines. Some agree with my views, and some don’t; but their comments are always insightful, entertaining and very much appreciated.

For example, when I criticized MSC cruises for allowing passengers to help fight off a pirate attack near the coast of Somalia, Ron jumped to their defence:

“Dave, those people who threw some furniture at the pirates who tried to capture a cruise ship recently should be commended, not criticized. None of them were compelled to take part in the defence of the ship and the fact they did is great. The sooner the pirates realize they are not on a cakewalk the better and if some participating passengers get hurt or killed defending the ship, well, that’s life and good for them for trying. The fact that it was an Israeli ship says a lot. Mainly it says that if you want what is mine you had better be prepared to fight me for it. I am tired of being a victim.”

(In that case, maybe we should start arming passengers with AK-47 assault rifles!)

And then there was my blog about Istanbul when I grossly over-estimated the size of the local population, which Ray took me to task for:

“What were you drinking, Commodore Dave? The population nearly doubled since you arrived, from 12.6 Million to 23 Million. I don’t think so. Maybe you counted all the Turks that now reside in Germany.”

(Whatever I was drinking, I’d like some more!)

My post about 10 ways to outsmart cruise lines by spending less on board the ship generated a lot of positive response, except for John who took offense with my suggestions:

“It seems to me to be a bad idea to bite the hand that feeds you. This industry has always been about add on services to offset lower fares and increase on-board revenue…nothing new here. Here is where I take offense….I spent three years working for a large unnamed line as a senior photographer. The photographs are taken quite clearly without obligation to buy…..

Encourage restraint by all means, but putting the squeeze on on-board revenue producing services can only result in higher fares in the long run. The ships have to make money however they do it.”

(I’ll make sure to pass around a collection plate the next time I’m sailing on a billion-dollar ship!)

However, the posting that generated the most response was the one asking if cruise ships should be sailing to Haiti so soon after the earthquake. Bob agreed with my position that RCI had done the right thing by returning to its private resort area in Labadee, Haiti:

“We will never be able to “Fix” the press and the way it reports. Some reports and “Stories” are better than others. Yours CD is a pretty good one btw. Labadee was way out of whack with Haiti well before their latest tragedy. RCI made a decision quickly and in my opinion the right one. Cruisers and future cruisers and others that have been or will go there will be split on their thoughts as are folks in all sorts of matters. It’s the human way. At least RCI is helping. Doing something… and because they had infrastructure already and it was unharmed were able to do it right away.”

(Agreed, but let’s not give up yet on trying to fix the press!)

However, Gerald took exception:

“Now if you were to go without passengers aboard and only crew and medical professionals; to get some of those Haitian people on to see to their medical needs, to feed and clothe them with all the clothing that the rich forget aboard your ships, etc. That would be a nice deed from your rich company……..”

(Gee, that sounds like what the Red Cross should be doing with the donations from companies like RCI!)

Believe it or not, I occasionally make spelling and grammatical mistakes, which a handful of readers have been good enough to bring to my attention. For example, Jim wrote:

“When speaking of Cartagena you said “…built on the foundations of a raised Indian temple…” Did you mean a razed Indian temple?”

I did and admitted so.  But then I embarrassed myself again by saying “mucho gracias” to Jim for his help, which prompted the following response:

“Last time, Dave. I promise. It’s muchas gracias, rather than mucho gracias.

Love your blog, by the way. All the best.”

(I’ve already offered Jim a job as a copy editor!)

From time to time I’ve tried to be funny with some blog posts in a series I’ve labeled “feeble attempts at humour.”  Thankfully, a few people like Vampzzzgirl have found them entertaining, in this case, one called “Behind the Fun Tours no Fun at All”:

“Hilarious!!!! Soooooooooooo funny I couldn’t stop laughing!!!! Fabulous blog!!! 2 thumbs up!!!

(Thanks. Gee, I wish you had 3 thumbs!)

I could go on, but I think you’ve got the idea – I love to get comments! Whether good, bad or even embarrassing, interaction with readers is the greatest reward that any writer could ask for. So thanks for your comments, and please keep them coming.

On Wednesday of this week I accomplished something that seemed improbable just 10 months ago – I posted my 100^th entry on this blog.

It’s not that I didn’t think I could come up with something to say about cruising every few days. After all, you can’t take nearly 50 cruises without coming across a few interesting things to say about vacationing at sea. It’s just that I never thought anyone else would be interested in reading it.

Well, thankfully a few of you have taken the time to read my posts – in fact, we are now averaging well over 5,000 visitors per month from all over the world on the main blog site (the one with photos). And we’ve had some interesting topics, comments and dialogue about it.

It all began in April 23 when I introduced myself in my first blog post entitled “Welcome Aboard.”  That was back in the early days before we activated the main blog site with photos, and before we had many community members or blog followers.

A little over a month later, we activated the main blog site and my first post with photos appeared on June 2. The timing was perfect because I had just embarked on a 12-day Mediterranean cruise with Gail and our two daughters Lindsay and Samantha, so for the next two weeks we posted on our experiences aboard the Pacific Princess. Lindsay posted some of her own observations during the cruise and developed a strong following. (She’ll be posting again when we cruise to the Greek Islands and Turkey in May of this year.).

Since then, I’ve reported on cruises across the Atlantic and around the Horn of South America, and I’ve commented on a wide range of cruising issues. There have been posts about art auctions at sea, single sailors, repositioning cruises, cruise ship awards, etiquette at sea, new ships, cruise deals, shore excursions, short cruises, choosing a cabin, cruising regions and more. And I’ve had some interesting comments and dialogue with readers.

For example, Abe commented about art auctions at sea based on his own bad experience:

“What u say makes sense, but sometimes we leave our common sense on land. I fought long and hard with park west. I was set to go on INSIDE EDITION ,and just made a pain in the neck to park west till they stopped sending me law suit “letters”. Fineartsregistry helped 8 of us get our money back. Park west was so happy to get rid of us, but they wanted signed non disclosure forms signed, which I refused to sign. I could spent hours telling you of the false bids,bait and switch tactics, etc.”

Then there was my post on a travel agency that charges a cancellation fee that irritated Joe:

“It astounds me today that customers feel they can do what they want at the cost of businesses, then when they incur a charge they jump up and down saying it’s not right. Make up your mind next time! I have a small business, and I take deposits on parts orders before I will order the part for the customer. If they change their mind, they lose that deposit. There is a price for indecision. You may have only spent 5 mins on the phone booking your cruise, but you forget to understand that the majority of work is done when you hang up. When you cancel, the agent then has to file paperwork, accountants have to issue you a refund, and someone had to spend an hour hearing your childish rant about paying a cancellation fee. I think you owe them more. You say you’re insulted, I would hate to here the conversation you had with your travel agent. I’m sure you insulted them more then once because you feel it’s your right as a consumer. Well, it’s not! I would like you to think as a consumer on what your actions have had on that agent. Were you polite? I doubt it. You kicked and screamed at someone whom is just doing their job. Again, it was your indecision that cost you money. Would you like some cheese with that whine? No charge, I just hope you and I aren’t on the same cruise, you’ll probably be unhappy about everything.”

Ouch!!! And then there was the Sevillian called Mario who recently tore a strip off me for liking Seville. He wrote:

“I am sorry but I am half Spanish and I live in Seville. It is dirty, noisy and the people are unfriendly. Sevillanos are generally ignorant of their own history and quite unhelpful.

When I hear things like “One can’t help but fall in love with Sevilla! I need to plan a return trip.” it makes me laugh. People who think that way obviously haven’t traveled because there are far more beautiful places in this world that are cleaner, more beautiful and with kinder people. Seville is OK. People aren’t “bad” and it truly is historically significant. If you are fixated on Spain however go see Madrid or Barcelona. I wouldn’t even bother with Seville until people can elevate themselves above their ignorance, stop urinating in the streets, pick up the dog poop, the garbage and the filth and maybe learn to smile once in awhile when they serve you. To call this city “intoxicating” is a farce. The only intoxicating thing about it is all the cigarette smoke.”

Okay Mario, so how do you feel about New Jersey and Thunder Bay?!

There have also been lots of supportive comments, and many interesting tips. For example, Jax let everyone know during my South American posts that RCI had decided to cut back on this itinerary in 2009/10:

“Enjoy your travels on the Radiance! Sadly, RC has pulled back on the extended South American itineraries that were once a big part of her yearly schedule. I was looking at a 13-day trip next year that has since been taken off the calendar.”

But whatever readers have had to say, I’ve enjoyed reading every word of it, and I look forward to receiving many more comments in future. I just hope the feeling is mutual and that you will continue to look forward to reading my blog posts as much as I enjoy writing them.