Live Cruise Reports

This begins my traditional "live" thread.  During my15-day repositioning cruise through the Panama Canal and another seven days in the Caribbean, I will be collecting menus, answering CC questions, chasing rumors, experiencing the west entrance to the canal for the first time, giving my impressions (except on food quality), interviewing crew members, trying some new beaches, meeting CC members, and experiencing new excursions.

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We're on the Jewel, from Seattle to Singapore (3 cruises b2b2b, departed 3 Oct 2023).  This is NCL's first ship back to Asia after the interruption.  It has some maiden ports, including in the Philippines. We've been to Alaska and a couple of the Japanese ports before, but most of the rest is new to us.

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I stepped on the Zuiderdam on Friday, September 30 in Quebec City. My first stop was my cabin. I am in a Signature Suite right at the front of the ship on deck five. It is an accessible cabin and it is beautiful. It has a balcony door and a huge picture window looking from the front of the ship. My scooter and everything fits with lots of room left over. I love it.
 
The ship holds between 1900 and 2000 passengers. Right now there are 1852 passengers on board. It is the perfect size for me. 11 decks with lots to do. Starting at 8 AM until 12 Midnight, you can stay busy. It has the Rolling Stones lounge, and Billboard Onboard. Fantastic music, great drinks, and great passengers to talk to. Every day they have new art classes, teaching you to color, paint, do origami, etc. I have eaten all three evening meals in the main dining room and it has been excellent. I have also eaten breakfast in the main dining room, and it has been amazing too.

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On our way to Japan, with about 1600 other passengers on the Westerdam.  We booked the cruise over a year ago and was lucky to select an Aft Stateroom at a very good price.  This will be a 26 day journey from Seattle to Yokohama.  A number of passengers will end their cruise at day 13 in Yokohama, and there is a very active thread of those folks who will be joining the cruise when begin cruise around Japan.
Embarkation was a breeze.  The Westerdam was the only ship at Seattle's Pier 91 that was embarking passengers. 

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My first attempt at a Live - and I’m already late on sharing, well, anything about this journey. 
But since I’ve so thoroughly enjoyed the Live narratives from other CC denizens - and am on this fabulous new ship that you are all curious about - here goes.
 
It’s taken a few days to pull out the IPad because alas, I did not properly prepare (er, train) to be onboard Silversea again.
 
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I shall post about our current QV cruise here. It was nice to get back on board and head off to what is hopefully a nice  warm Mediterranean cruise out to the Greek Islands and back - Embarkations today was uneventful unlike Roy's biblical QM2 exploits. We were through security and on board in less than an hour, all very boring.

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This is our first Oceania cruise, and like I have done for the past few years with our Viking, Celebrity and HAL cruises, I am going to live blog this one. If you would like to follow along, I would love to have you join my bride and I as we cruise from Montreal to Miami on Vista.

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I have a very few days to go before I fly out on Tuesday to Amsterdam to start the adventure there until we board the Rotterdam on Saturday.  We have a huge and wonderful roll call so I wanted to start my LIVE thread early in the hopes that with the link provided, some of them will join in 🤞
 
We have some nice, different things to do in Amsterdam and fun planned on board and in our ports.  It should be a great cruise!

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We left our hotel near JFK about 9:30, and the rain was pouring down.  All kinds of weather alerts for flash flooding, and in fact the entrance to the cruise port from the city street had about a foot of water in it.  Our uber was Toyota Highlander, and we went through the water to the terminal so many people were getting out walking in from the street to the terminal.  We were inside the terminal by about 11:30, and they opened check in at 12:00.  By  1:00 PM we were on the ship and dumping our backpacks into the room.  It is 3:00 now, and we have the luggage empty and the room ready for our trip.  We ate lunch in Kings Court, and found the food very good.

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As one might imagine, we'll be watching for any potential hurricanes and/or tropical storms forming in the Atlantic which will hopefully either disappear or become irrelevant once we start cruising down the Atlantic coast. On the brighter side the Northern Lights are expected to be stronger than they have been for at least a decade over the next few months, which hopefully means we will have a good chance to see them when we're cruising up the St. Lawence River or maybe as we make the turn and start to head south once we reach the Atlantic.

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Hello we are going to try our first live review from the Horizon this week hopefully to help future cruisers on the Horizon because cruise critic has gave us tons of helpful information over the years. Wish us luck 🍀 We definitely won’t be able to cover everything but we will definitely try to cover the things we enjoy and  maybe some cool pictures along the way.

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We're off again on the Zaandam to do the Grand South America cruise.  Most of my "to do" items are done.  I'll be posting updates here along with pictures and doing one of my regular daily written blogs (link to come later).  Feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer.  This will be our first "Grand" HAL cruise and we've seen much of the destination ports except for Rio and we've been on the Zaandam to Antarctica previously.  We're looking forward to a nice cruise. 

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Morning all, so I'm a bit late to the party here but figured with today being a sea day (it's day 7 already) I'd have a bit of time to put a few thoughts and pics together of the cruise so far. Also upgraded my Internet package yesterday so I can send photos and it's not quite as painfully slow!
 
One of my favourite things on here is reading trip reviews and live from threads, so only fair that I contribute something, even if I'm a little behind.
 
I'm traveling solo with two friends staying in the cabin next door. This is the second cruise we've done together after spending 11 nights on Reflection last year. As this is our first time on an E class ship, I'll be throwing a few co

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Everything comes to and end and the European cruising season is certainly ending soon!  
Today we embarked Rotterdam in Amsterdam for her last European cruise of the season before she heads back across the pond to Florida.
I know that there are many onboard this cruise who are staying on for the next cruise to go home at sea level and not at 38 thousand feet, but unfortunately we are not soo lucky.  Maybe next year!

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Testing!  Is this thing on?  OK, at least the Starlink Internet is working... 
Hello from the Equinox. 
 
Day-1 (so far): 
I used "Flights by celebrity" to get here.  Huge mistake.  
My docs said "Someone will meet you at baggage claim." 
That did not happen.  
I talked to the airports transportaiton aid desk, after I woke her up, she seemed surprised to hear there are cruise ships in Florida. No help there. 
So I called the help line, After 15 minutes of on hold music I gave up an grabbed a waitibng cab.  $20 and 5min later I arrived at the port. They did eventually answer and explained I was supposed to get a bus that ran every half hour but were not clear where I should have gone to find it.

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This blog is to continue with the next leg on Silver Muse, a circumnavigation of Japan including Busan, South Korea.  Please note that I tend not to photograph food, but I will try to remember when there are special events or dinners.

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What is life like virtually living on a HAL ship? After seven months on the Zuiderdam earlier this year, I'm back at sea -- this time on the Zaandam -- and once again blogging. I'm going to try to update this thread with every post, unless the internet gods protest too much.

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This will be a first attempt at a live review from me so here’s some background.
I am from Ireland and this will be my 6th NCL cruise, first time to Alaska. I have been to the US over 20 times since I was an undergrad on a J1 visa in the 90s, I spent 13 years working for an American multinational and have cousins stateside. Alaska will be the 14th state I’ve visited. 

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Hi, last month (August), Maria and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a 3-day Alaskan land tour, followed by a 7-day Alaskan cruise (Whittier, AK to Vancouver, BC) on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam. This is our story, better late than never!

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Hello and welcome to my first go at starting a live thread for this upcoming cruise. I will try my best to keep it updated and my fellow shipmates are welcome to post their photos and experiences as well especially as I will likely not post too many photos. 
 
If there’s any questions I have 11 sea days worth of time to go check something out and report back. We will be primarily dining in the MDR so follow along and see if we make it through all 17 nights before burning out! A couple nights for Tuscan Grill and Murano are planned as well. 

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Arrived at 1200 for our scheduled boarding and was at the end of a long line. It took about 20 minutes to get processed and aboard. The ship is lovely and everyone is delightful. This is our 3rd Regent cruise. Sail away party was fun. Dinner in Compass Rose was very good although service was a bit slow. The evening show was an introduction for what is to come. Internet is slow and spotty so far.

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Let's go to Hawaii!!! After much second guessing, it's happening and I couldn't be more excited. Traveling with me are DH, DD (8) and DS (10) and none of us have been there before.
 
Booked since June of last year, I started really planning a few months ago. My planning has consisted of scouring Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor and social media for information on Hawaii. It has also consisted of spreadsheets, lots of spreadsheets. Some people like to take notes on Word, but Excel and I are BFFs. Turns out there's so much I want to see and do it was hard to pick and limit to the time available in port, too. And also to remain within a reasonable budget. And then DH throws me a curveball - he wants to make sure we get actual relaxation time on this vacay and we don't return home more exhausted than when we left! I plan to treat the POA more like a floating hotel given that there's no sea days; besides, I'm bound to be exhausted in the evenings from all the port adventures we have planned.

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Welcome to my LIVE! Blog of my trip on Wonder of the Seas!  This is my 6th LIVE! Blog here on Cruise Critic, but my first for a Royal Caribbean Cruise.  
 
I’m Dee, and although I usually travel with my dear husband, this time I’m traveling solo.  
 
I love cruising! Starting cruising back in the 1990s, I’ve cruised on lines including Carnival, Norwegian, HAL, Regent Seven Seas, Celebrity, Radisson (that goes way back!) The Caledonian Sky,  Viking River and Viking Ocean.

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After 4 nights at the Villas at Grand Floridian (DVC) we are getting ready to head to the port via Lyft. This will be my 11th DCL cruise and Cameron’s 25th. She is excited to hit Pearl status. Have a magical day!

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I know, I know, not ANOTHER alive thread on Splendor!  After a summer sailing around Scandinavia, Splendor is now going to go south for the winter.  Want to come along?  
 
We left Atlanta on a direct flight to London on Virgin Atlantic.  The flight left about an hour late with a garbled announcement from the caption about something, something and paperwork. But, the jet stream was on our tail and we arrived at Heathrow 15 minutes early.  

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