Live Cruise Reports

Here goes with another live review of our January cruise around the Med on a new ship to us, MSC World Europa. Following a fabulous New Year’s live review from @Stockjock-this will focus on Yacht Club experience in particular.
We have a couple of MSC excursions booked and I’ll report on those and I’m sure there will be food photos, menus and snaps of the entertainment on offer. We are intrigued to see this large ship and in particular check out the new design with open y shaped stern. Equipped to carry 6762 passengers and 2138 crew, is this ship too extensive to enjoy or an elaborate extravaganza?
Please follow along on our trip and feel free to ask me if you want any information. 

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Hello.  We are Nancy and John and we will be boarding the Eurodam on January 3 for 52 days at sea.  We have strung a 10-day with 2 21-day Collector voyages traveling the Caribbean and some Central America.  We usually do one HA cruise per year and have never documented our trips.

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Pre-Departure Introduction
 
Well here we go again, although now it’s time for something completely different! Tomorrow we embark Aurora for the longest cruise that we have ever done - 65 nights to America and the Caribbean. It’s a port intensive cruise (which we like) with 28 different destinations, which is as many as some much longer World Cruises achieve. This will be our 9th cruise on Aurora (our most cruised on ship), but our last cruise on her was back in November 2019, just before ‘you know what’ turned the World upside down, so it will be interesting to see what, if anything, has changed.

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I can’t believe this cruise is finally here! It was a long time in the making. It started out as a Virgin Voyages Brilliant Lady MerMaiden cruise out of Puerto Rico. We were so looking forward to that cruise and itinerary! I had a hunch that it was going to be cancelled due lack of communication from VV, and sure enough it was. Boo! The ship was, and still is, no where near ready to sail! Luckily all 16 of us were able to jump aboard the Bliss sailing out of our home port of LA. It was an easy call. No flights needed for most of us and the price was right. 

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Hello everyone! I figured I would start a live for the Regal NYE cruise since I have enjoyed reading other people's lives on here. I cannot promise to be as good of a narrator as @TxTeach79 or @Saint Greg who recently both did detailed lives from the Regal, but I hope it will be entertaining for me to update at least.

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My bags are (finally) packed, and I’m ready for the adventure of a lifetime!  After 11 years away from HAL, I’m off to take the 22 Day South America & Antarctica itinerary from Santiago (San Antonio), Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  With Antarctica, I will have now visited (and cruised to!) all 7 continents! 

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Well well well! We meet again!!
  
I'm excited to be taking you all along as best I can on this year's NYE sailing onboard the still-pretty-new Celebration! This time last year, my better half @HelloItsMeB and I somehow lucked into a casino freebie on the NYE sailing of Mardi Gras out of Port Canaveral, and though I'd been cruising almost my whole life I had never experienced a NYE sailing. Well, needless to say we had an absolutely PHENOMENAL time! So much so, we essentially agreed to make it a yearly tradition whenever possible. Hell, we already have Magic booked for NYE '25! 

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Happy New Year!
 
After getting so many great travel tips from this site, I hope to share some useful information on this bucket list trip to Antarctica. Since Seabourn’s expedition ships are relatively new with limited reviews posted I found it a little difficult to get all the information I wanted when I planned this trip back in Jan of 2023 so feel free to ask any questions along the way and I will try to address them as we travel.  While we wait to start our travel journey, first some background:

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Last year we did a New Year’s Eve cruise on Virtuosa out of Paris/Le Havre and this year we are doing a NYE cruise on World Europa out of Barcelona, so I will have some photographs and comments along the way.
 
 
We are staying at the NH Collection Grand Hotel Calderon, in Barcelona, which we like a lot. It’s located on Las Ramblas, which is right on the main drag.
 
Tonight, we are going to do a walking tour that includes stops at several bars with some tapas and drinks.

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Hello again from DFW where it's 30 degrees in the morning and 65 by the afternoon: not only does our weather not know what to do but here we are stuck in the weirdest 5 days of the year, so let's take a cruise! 

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Had V "free air" from PHL to LAX. Initially was assigned a nonstop to LAX, but was changed to a connection through MSP. Flights were on time, and luggage arrived intact at LAX. Noon arrival. V rep was at bag claim, with our names on coach transfer manifest. About a 45 min ride to Berth 93. Check in was efficient and we were on the ship at about 1:30.

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Alternate title - "It's So Close I Can Almost See It:  The Pseudo-Panama Canal Cruise"
 
I decided to do a live report for my upcoming cruise on the Dream.  I'll have Internet access and with Starlink it will probably good enough to post most of the time.
 
Since there's a couple of weeks to go until the cruise, here's the backstory... I booked this one a very long time ago - August 2021, back in the early days of the restart.  I needed a cruise to put my FCC from the cruise I was canceling that had protocols that I didn't want to deal with.  That FCC came from a cruise that was canceled due to the ship shutdown.  I liked this one best of my options, so I booked this one and put my FCC and OBC here.  I also have $250 in OBC as a CCL shareholder.

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We are now on day four of our cruise, but I'm just now logging into the internet for the first time.  I have a bit of catching up to do.
 
December 22 - EMBARCATION
The day started way too early (at 4:30 a.m.) so we could get the train from Canberra to Sydney. We had no intention of braving train coffee, so we ended up sleeping all the way to Sydney.  As several people had advised in this forum, getting from Central Station to Circular Quay was super-easy and we were at the ship by about noon.  (It was quite impressive to see the hull of the Majestic looming above us as we exited the train station.)

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We are headed back to Antarctica starting January 7, 2024 in San Antonio, Chile.  Some of you may recall that we were just there on the Zaandam's Grand South America (GSA) which ended last week. Thanks for following along on that thread.  Why would we return?  There are several reasons.  .......

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Flight:
My trip started off in Florida, along with my DW. I flew on AA from MIA-SCL. Unfortunately all business class seats on this route were sold out months in advance. I tried using an American Airlines System-Wide-Upgrade certificate (Based on my frequent flyer status), but as the flight was sold out consistently and nobody missed their flight, I had to fly in my Main Cabin Extra seat as purchased. 

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Dear Travellovers 😁
We are on our way to our next adventure. 
Happy to fly with our favourite airline again, we are currently on board of a Singapore Airlines 777 on our way to Singapore. We have one day to explore our favourite places in Singapore again before we embark on Celebrity Solstice on the 22nd. She’ll take us to Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong. As always, we would be happy to take you along 😁
Happy holidays and much love ❤️  
Birgit & Oliver
 
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Happy Holidays to all!  And what better to ring in the holiday spirit then with a little Vitamin Sea?  This was a somewhat spur of the moment decision to book a cruise.  Our children are not coming until next week, so the thought of cruising over Christmas was more appealing when compared to a quiet house.  This cruise is our Christmas present to ourselves!  The Summit fit the parameters for sailing dates and affordability.  Itinerary was not important to us this time.  

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Hello everyone! I'm headed out tomorrow on Vision of the Seas of the Christmas sailing. I plan of doing a live review, so please feel free to ask questions, leave comments, etc.

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I promise little, but hope to share some thoughts and comparisons from aboard Splendor over the next few days. First time on Splendor for me, and first time Carnival for Barb.
 
So far, so good. 1st on, even overtaking a few transit passengers that headed for X-ray ahead of us. One thing so far - so many with priority on Princess that there is a crowd when check-in opens. No so much with Splendor. First aboard at 10:45, and much fewer people in the conga line.

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Not intending for this to MY live review of the World Cruise, but rather a place for all of us on the adventure to post as we continue the journey, and others that want to follow us along...virtually.  Ready to sail fellow World Cruisers?  How is the packing progressing?  Quite the challenge on this one.  😉 
 
And a special thank you to @Merion_Mom for posting the blog thread.  This is in addition to the blogs choice, and is simply for posting here on CC.  🙂 

Click to cruise along with many Cruise Critic members on this world sailing@

Hello everybody,
 
I’d like to invite you to follow me virtually on this voyage around the globe.
 
Finally! When my early retirement approached I had the idea to start this new part of my life with a long cruise. After a covid-related failure I booked in June 2021 this cruise and wanted to go in January 2022. As so many cruises also this one didn’t take place because of the pandemic. I was offered to rebook for a cruise going around Africa and South America in 2023 or to circumvent the globe in 2024 on pretty much the same itinerary as planned for 2022. I decided to do the latter, because for me a world cruise does exactly this, going around the entire globe.

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Hi cruisers! Going to attempt a live-ish review for my first MSC and YC cruise! My new DH has never cruised before so I’ll try to add some things from his perspective too. It won’t be nearly as astonishing or entertaining as some we’ve read but I’ll give it a go! Embarkation was a breeze with YC! As someone who has sailed carnival in the past and had to wait in long lines, it was truly delightful!

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Good Morning from NCL Escape!
 
Starting this one a bit later than usual, as day 1 has come and gone!  
 
For those who are new to my reviews - I will post TIPS in red so that skim-readers can just get the nitty gritty tips for their cruise planning.
 
We are a family of 3 in an oceanview balcony.  Our pitiful upgrade bid to Haven was declined (no surprise, as we are too frugal 🤣).  The ship is also sold out, so that may have something to do with it...

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Bags Packed.  Ready To Go. Can't Wait.  
 
A New Crystal Adventure Begins,  
 
We begin a new adventure today flying to Miami for a pre-cruise stay before boarding Crystal Serenity on December 23.  We will sail with some of the CC members and many guests who we have known a long time.  
 
Today's airport experience was great.  Maybe, because we were on one of the first flights of the day.

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Well, it's that time - time to hop aboard another BHB! This will be interesting as I'm traveling as a Newbie. This will be a cruise of firsts - first time to Hawaii, first time solo, first inside cabin and first time "winging" every port (I've booked zero excursions) 👣. Oh and if successful, first time w/just 1 suitcase 🧳 🤞
I feel like the only thing I will know is the ship⛴️ and how to exchange dirty clothes for clean ones. 😏🤷‍♀️
So, in 4 days, I should be enjoying lunch in MDR as I begin what I know will be an amazing adventure. I hope you'll come along or just pop in to see what's happening on the Koningsdam. Ask questions, offer dining suggestions or share your Christmas pictures - let's make this a cruise to remember!!

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