Live Cruise Reports

Hello Everyone,
Tomorrow we will be embarking on the inaugural sailing of Utopia of the Seas! Traveling with my wife, two boys (3,1) and my mother (Nana). We have two boardwalk balconies and are doing a back to back. A I’ll try to update as much as I can so drop any questions or places you want me to check out. Wife and I have the unlimited dining package for both sailings so we likely won’t be in the main dining room much.

I’m excited to begin another live from, I love documenting our trip and sharing photos that I take on the way. This cruise is a 7 day Norwegian Fjords cruise on Sky Princess! I will follow the same format I did on the last one of semi live updates, including patters, menus and food pictures. And then will finish up with some overall impressions.  Also, please feel free to ask questions and I’ll try and answer as best I can.  

Good morning y'all!

We leave Friday to head to Seattle for our first Alaskan cruise (and first Norwegian cruise!) so I'm just getting the thread started as it's easier on my laptop to start things than from my phone while we're traveling.

Starting this a few days early while I'm wrapping up things at work on a project at work which got moved from June launch to the day I am leaving, yep fun travel day 😅<br style="background-color:#ffffff;color:#202124;font-size:16px;"> Quite literally I have to be at the airport for 8am, however our first part is supposed to go live first thing when I get up in the morning. So have to check that, head to airport, work for a bit, fly to Toronto and log back in then in the afternoon next update happens - then flying out in the evening. Meanwhile testing and making sure ad campaigns are 👌

Well hey there CC!
 
It seems like it was just yesterday (actually like 21 days ago) that I stepped off Reflection after 10 days of back to back short cruising.  

We reached 'that age' where we no longer require the adventurous ship, but rather a 'new' experience with a 'just right' price.  We have been on 44-45 cruises, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Costa, Norwegian, Celebrity, and MSC.  The addiction started in 2004, and has been growing since!

Greetings from the Arctic on the World Voyager!  I will try to post when able based on internet connectivity based on ship position.  It’s a bit spotty and intermittent.  Pics will be entered at the end of the text due to limited bandwidth/speed

You know those live blogs where everything fits together beautifully? Happy cruisers reuniting with their dear friends in the crew? Dinner with the captain? Perfectly arranged private excursions ashore? Reports of sunsets and scenery that read like poetry? This isn't one of those. We are woefully unprepared for our cruise and I don't write any better than this.

We board the Summit in about an hour! I really enjoy everyone’s Live reports, so I will give it a whirl. 
 
We arrived in Vancouver on the 16th and have really enjoyed the city. I’m traveling with my DH. He is in his early 60’s and I will be joining that decade later on the year. 
 
Neither of us has been to Alaska so we are really looking forward to it and the cooler weather as we live near Austin, Texas🥵

Today is the last sea day as we sail back to Cape Liberty, NJ. We had very calm seas and beautiful weather sailing down to Bermuda. Then we were blessed with 3 days of gorgeous sunny 85 degree weather while in Bermuda.

July 15, 2024–Tulsa to LAX enroute to Sydney Australia
 
Sitting in the Flagship Lounge in LAX.  We are off for another adventure, this time to the Kimberley coast of Australia aboard the Cloud.  JP and Chris kindly scoped out everything for us last month.  George and I generally like the same sort of expeditions as they do, and have similar expectations.  Hopefully you won’t be too bored with a repeat of their trip.

Thursday, July 11, Embarkation
Embarkation was easy. I stayed in the hotel that’s right above the cruise terminal. They offer room-to ship bellman service, which I love. The bellmen even carry little staplers so they can help you attach your print-at-home luggage tags.
Last time I did this cruise, the cruise industry was in restart mode. For a cruise out of Vancouver, we had to have our passports and boarding passes, as usual.

Thought I’d start a new thread.
We’re ensconced in our hotel, ready to embark Annie tomorrow morning/ lunchtime. We have an early check in so hopefully will be onboard in time for a spot of lunch and a visit to the library, not necessarily in that order.

And then it was finally cruise day - I
 
15 months ago, we booked a trip around the Italian boot.
Our ports are
 
Barcelona
Marseille
Monte Carlo
Livorno
Civitavecchia
Sorrento
Kotor
Sibenik
Koper
Venice
 
I would love to tell you all about it.

I boarded just as @Joe33472 got off. Great cruise so far.  Everybody happy.  The ship is 100% full so there are lines to Britannia for open dining for the 6pm seating but no line by 7pm. Great entertainment and staff are wonderful. Food is great.  Weather in Halifax better than forecast and the rain has stopped early on.  Going to Boston next for the July 4 fireworks. 

Just about to embark on the Viking Hemming in Porto…I had a lot of questions (and still have some) so happy to help anyone out and do my best to answer! Please be patient if it takes me time to post…it’s a very full itinerary!

Welcome
 
My family and I are 1 week out from starting our European adventure and I am starting my live updates. I did this last year on a Mexican Riviera cruise and it was very fun so I thought I would again. 
 
For context I have been reading cruise critic off and on for over 20 years (typically in the mths leading up to a trip) and it has always been a great area to learn about the latest trends, changes and new things in the cruise world. I have also always enjoyed people’s reviews and live updates hence the desire to publish my own. I also enjoyed last year how it made me stop and reflect each day so I treasure that. 

It’s time to start getting ready for our upcoming 21-day cruise on the Sky Princess out of Southampton that includes visiting ports in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, and Finland! The last time we cruised to the Baltic was back in 2018 and are looking forward to visiting this part of the world with Princess for the first time!

Hello all! Live from the Breakaway right now. I’m going to try to do semi-live trip report. I’ve been having slight phone issues so we can see how it goes. If it doesn’t work, I can update on return! 
 
This trip is me, Donna, (newly unemployed and/or retired?) and my husband Dan (soon to be …shhh…retired. But he doesn’t like that term- he’s “exploring his options”!) lol

Hello CruiseCriticers! 
 
We’ve been long time wallflowers of this informative site gathering helpful suggestions over the years to make the most of our cruises. Though, we have never once posted or engaged in any friendly banter, we figured now could be the time to add to this collective with our thoughts and perspectives on how we cruise. 

PRE RAMBLE – Part 1
Ahoy Cruise Critic strangers! Last June, I stumbled off the Majestic Princess seeing “red” … sadly, but unequivocally, proclaiming that my cruising “eras” were officially over. “We are never EVER getting back together!”
You can read all about that incredibly COLD trip to Alaska … ‘cause I documented most of it via my first ever “Live from”:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2941403-majestic-princess-june-17-2023-semi-live-trip-report-w-pre-cruise-ak-adventure-%E2%80%A6-let%E2%80%99s-go/
Fortunately, once I defrosted, the freezer burn sub-sided, & “The Covid” wore off (all of which took like … forever & a day), I decided that maybe our foray into the frozen tundra wasn’t so terrible after all! Maybe we’d give it another go. Maybe.
I spent the next several months pulling petals off petunias. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe …

Norway, here we come!
 
Another summer, another cruise for these relatively new to Celebrity cruisers. This is our 3rd Celebrity cruise ( all on E class) but second cruise to Norway. Our very first foray into cruising was to Norway on Disney in 2016, and it was always on our wish list to return. So here we are, 8 years later having outgrown Disney heading on the ultimate Norwegian journey right up to the North Cape.

Here it is … hopefully a GREAT itinerary in which NCL,safely sails the Star into all the ports per our booked itinerary. Well my fingers are crossed 🤞🫰, my packing list made and the actual packing sorting commences this weekend!
 

Yes, this is a land-based cruise!

It is on the IsLAND Princess and we are scheduled to visit Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland and England. So many lands!

Another Sunday, another turn around day in our small summer onboard Queen Anne.
 
Very excited for this cruise and visiting some ports I haven’t been to before, and some favourites such as Hamburg where we hate some things planned.
 
As mentioned in the other thread, it’s a bit grey and damn today here in Southampton, so hopefully the weather gets a bit brighter as we go!