Live Cruise Reports

Today we start our Great Lakes cruise from Toronto final destination is still a mystery staff interchangeably say Chicago and Milwaukee at the hotel. 

We did an early morning market tour with Culinary Adventures who claim to be No 1 in Toronto - they are not - having done many such tours worldwide they are No 1 in the world it was outstanding and we would thoroughly recommend them. I can’t believe how much we nibbled - look at these berries and of course the Peameal bacon sandwiches the local specialty. More....

So begins my Review and Journal of our family’s latest adventure, an 8 Day Cruise on Regal Princess, roundtrip to/from Southampton.  As in the past, my posts will be long (I fear), informative (I hope), irreverent (I promise) and accompanied by photos (where helpful).  Within the content you will get answers to many of the most oft-asked and burning questions that cause sleepless nights among the members here on Cruise Critic which will be answered so definitively that they will never need to be addressed again!  So with that:
 
Who: Me, my wife (K) and our daughter (S), age 25.  My wife and I live in New England and S lives in Edinburgh (which would balance out nicely if it were “Old England”, but one must be careful to never confuse Scotland for England.) 

Arrived a bit earlier than intended as absolutely no traffic between Salisbury and Southampton.  Luggage went in the hole, but a bit chaotic with coaches still arriving at 15.05.  Big queues outside but seem to be being managed okay and doesn't look too bad at all.  Reported to assistance and a lovely man took me through the side door and seated me.  He offered to help me go through early but I've declined as seemed very unfair with hundreds outside.  Just before 4.00pm he's coming to get me.

Overview
 
There have been no reviews that I’ve found on World Europa (WE) other than Middle East and repo cruises.  From reading or watching those reviews, there seems to be issues that may be unique to those markets/sailings with things like passenger mix, provisioning, staffing levels, staff training, and organization called out.  I’m hoping that those issues go away or lessen because the Med is MSC’s home turf and they certainly have the resources to address them. 
More...

On the Grandiosa now and the ship is just stunning. Totally different vibe to the Virtuosa we was on just two weeks ago. Main dinning room is serving up great food. Bar service is efficient. The first paid for show - Strings was a little avant garde but very watchable. Singers were tremendous in the free show Graffiti last night (wich admittedly I swear I only watched 2 weeks ago on Virtuosa).
 
And the sea... how did she get so blue? More....

After many cruises on Celebrity in Suites our last cruise was on Queen Victoria to the Northern lights in Oct last year. So this is a back to Celebrity after a slight deviation in our usual routine. More...

Another week, another cruise. After we had a lot of fun on the Millennium thread the last three weeks I’ll try to let those who are interested follow along on this weeks journey:
 
Celebrity Solstice to Alaska’s majestic Dawes Glacier, May 12-19th.
 
This will be the first Alaska sailing of the Solstice out of Seattle in the 2023 season and it will remain with the “Seattle loop” for the remainder of this years trips. More...

Tomorrow I leave on a non-stop from IAD to CDG, the beginning of my second European cruise combined with training around Europe.
 
In September I cruised on The Carnival Pride, then enjoyed training around Italy - Rome, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Parma, Bologna and Venice.  It was a wonderful trip and I realized I wanted to do more travel like this, mixing cruise with Europe train-travel.
 
May 29 I will be on the Carnival Venezia's maiden voyage, a TA from Barcelona to Manhattan, then I'll spend two nights in Manhattan before taking the 3-hour train trip from NYC's Penn Station to DC's Union Station, then the red line Metro (subway) home.  The cruise will visit the following ports after embarkation in Barcelona: Malaga, Girbraltar, Lisbon, Azores and Halifax.  I'm really excited because I haven't been to any of those places. More...

This begins my traditional live cruise thread where I search for answers yo questions from CC members, find obscure information, identify changes since my last cruise on a similar-class HAL ship, and provide my opinions on most topics other than food.
 
This itinerary stops in some small Alaskan cities that are not often reviewed so this thread will be a chance to pose questions and get answers to help in future cruise planning. More...

We board Virtuosa tomorrow in Southampton for a 7 night cruise to Norway with stops in Haugesund, Olden, Flaam and Kristiansand and one sea day at either end. Some of you may remember we did a very similar cruise last May (with a couple of different ports) and we loved the area so much we booked to go again. It will be our third trip on Virtuosa and we are staying in a YC balcony, loved this last year and excited to be going back. More....

Embarkation Day
Before I even start writing, I have to admit that I committed a sin, fellow lurkers and posters. I flew in from the east coast to the west cost on this very day. 
 
Would I do it again? 
Absolutely
 
Would I do it in the winter months? 
God no. 
 
Was it the smartest, most restful, vacation vibes decision I've ever made? 
Not at all. 
 
Thankfully, we only had a half hour ground delay in DC and that put me at LAX a comfortable five hours before all-aboard-provided Los Angeles traffic held up (which it did for the most part!) More....

Well, I dithered about whether to attempt this again, given the erratic nature of the Wi-Fi on board, but I’m thinking it might be tolerable since we are sailing up the East coast to Canada.  Time will tell!  I’ll give it my best shot.  On two cruises I have so far resisted the urge to throw my iPad off the deck, so I will go for three in a row.

The Details:
 
I'm traveling solo again, leaving DH at home to tend the cats and the garden.  Booked on a casino comped cruise.   This time I'm doing a B2B to Alaska, the 1st segment is Glacier Bay and the 2nd is Endicot Arm.    
 
Just to get this part out of the way......I am not a writer, my grammar is usually not correct and I do this just for fun and half the time I don't proofread my stuff, so there are definitely some errors to be seen.  I also take lots of food pictures and critic my meals.  I do this when I'm eating dinner, because I eat by myself and it passes the time.

So many thoughts as we finish day 2 just having left Catalina Island a few hours ago.
 
The ship is gorgeous, beautifully maintained. We’ve got one of those bathroom nightlights where underneath the counter glows. Much appreciated! Haven’t seen that in a while.
 
Embarkation was fairly smooth - we’re only at about half capacity, being the one itinerary from LA to Vancouver to start the Alaska season. Both evening shows so far have been very entertaining — AJ Jamal the comedian and On Broadway with good quality singers and dancers. We’ve been exhausted pretty early so didn’t stay up for late-night dancing/DJ so can’t comment on that yet. Sarah from England is the cruise director, so far so good with great energy and humor.

Hello all! My name is Amanda. Traveling with my husband (39), myself (43), and our 2 year old daughter (her first cruise!) This is my 7th cruise, all through RC minus a 2 night getaway on the Margaritaville at Sea out of West Palm Beach. Our last Royal cruise was March of 2020 right before they shut down cruising due to Covid so we are so happy to be back! 

Welcome to our Live From British Isles 12 Day round trip from Southhampton cruise!  We are so excited for this trip as we had this sailing originally planned for Spring 2021 and of course that got cancelled because of “he who shall not be named.”

We are DINKS in our 30s and DW has several food allergies (gluten, dairy and eggs) so expect some commentary on how easy it is for her to find things abroad.  We have been to other parts of Europe but this is our first foray into the UK and France so we are hoping its as easy for her as it was in other parts of Europe.  Fingers crossed!

Well we are all packed and starting the long journey South this morning for sailing on Saturday.

This has been a bit of a strange cruise as when we booked this it was a standard cruise outwith school holidays, there was no Coronation bank holiday or refit. The additional bank holiday means the ship has been fully booked for a while so will inevitably be very busy, let’s hope they have it adequately staffed for the number of passengers. The refit is an unknown quantity. Sur La Mer has gone but we can’t as yet book the new restaurant

Greetings from the eternal city!  Arrive in Rome last night to start this adventure; hope the mods don't mind if I start reporting early!  It will be a 15 day trip and only six on the cruise...so mostly a land report, but I hope to keep it interesting and informative.  Did one previous live report on my first solo cruise and other than posting issues while on board, enjoyed the experience. Just to put it out there, I have a couple selfish reasons for doing this: One- I enjoy being able to share the trip with someone, and two - I am hoping that by trying to keep the trip report exciting,

Let the excitement begin as my husband and I each have one more day at work and should be arriving in Ft Lauderdale in about 25 hours or so of the flight is on time. We wish we could have left earlier in the day but taking more time off from work wasn’t an option. 
 
We celebrated our wedding anniversary this weekend so decided this cruise would we a great way to extend the celebration. 😁
 
Our last NCL cruise was in March on the Gem and we got an upgrade to a 2 bedroom suite and were spoiled and pampered the whole 12 days.  Our cruise before that was on MSC Divina in the Yacht Club in January and we also enjoyed being treated so well while loving Ocean Cay. And the cruse before that one was in September on NCL Getaway in a Haven 2 bedroom suite where we also had a wonderful time. 
 
So this time, we are in a regular balcony cabin and will need to readjust to not having the special breakfast and lunch treatment we loved on the previous three cruises. 
 
But we are on a cruise and that’s all that matters anyways. 
 
Here is our itinerary for this sailing.  
 

Greetings HAL cruisers, 
 
My bride and I are on our sixth (and probably last) HAL cruise and we thought we would let everyone come along. This cruise is a short five-day transition cruise to get Konigsdam on the right day for sailing to Alaska. We only have stops in Ketchikan (where we are today) and then Prince Rupert, BC, tomorrow. Add in two sea days in the Canadian Inside passage and you have this cruise.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (April 2020 to be exact) we were supposed to sail on Mariner of the Seas. Well, that was canceled, rebooked as Brilliance out of Tampa in our favorite corner aft GS for April school vacation 2021. This was lifted and shifted to a B2B on the Brilliance out of Tampa for April 2022. Then in last August we received the dreaded email from Royal informing us that our sailings on Brilliance had been impacted by the ship moving out of Tampa. We ended up with a RS on Mariner for the 5/8-5/12 sailing and added in some land vacation time on either end. 

The cruise itinerary is:  Rome (Civitavecchia),Italy, Santorini,Greece, Athens (Piraeus),Greece, Olympia (Katakolon),Greece, Valletta,Malta, Messina (Sicily),Italy, Naples,Italy, Florence/Pisa (Livorno),Italy, Cannes,France, Rome (Civitavecchia),Italy
 
We’ve travelled a lot, but it is only our second cruise, and we are full of nerves!  Travel is such a lottery!  What will Rome be like?   Will we get a last minute room upgrade?  Will we like our room?  Will we enjoy the excursions we’ve selected?  Which will be our favorite port or experience?  What drinks will we try, will we manage to get value for our Plus beverage package?  What friends will we make?  What things will we learn?  What new foods will we discover?  It is hard to say what this journey ahead holds, and the only thing I’ve learned about travel in my time is to enjoy the path….I sure hope it is a good one!
 
Share your tips and questions as we go along!

We fly this afternoon, to Newark.  I booked the outward flights using credits from Covid cancelled trips, so Krystal and I are on separate tickets, and of course, my luck being what it is I got upgraded to Business, and she didn’t.  So, I imagine she will enjoy my seat.  😂
 
We have a couple of activities for the city, going to the Play Six and eating at the Palm on Saturday night.  Sunday, we are doing the crown tour of the Statue of Liberty, and lunch at the pizza place if we can find it on Stone Street in lower Manhattan.  Monday we board the Anthem.  

This begins my traditional live thread to seek answers for future HAL and Volendam guests, document changes since my last similar class ship (Zaandam), gather price lists/brochures, update my collection of menus, and present my opinions on most everything, except food quality.
 
For those heading to Alaska aboard the Volendam, I will do my best to get answers to help with your planning.  I have a collection of standard "live from" questions posed in the past to get a head start on gathering answers for this thread.

Over the past 13 years, we have sailed 31 times, with various lines and sizes of ship. To start with we sailed with Royal Caribbean, until we discovered the more relaxed dress code and dining style of NCL. We then tried MSC and loved it for its Italian roots and extremely fair prices and generous upgrades.