Live Cruise Reports

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.

I’m getting ready to head to the airport for my Avalon Tulip Time cruise on the Tranquility II. I booked the cruise with 1 day in Amsterdam, since I always fly in a day early anyways. I have the Avalon Go app and was able to view the first of the newsletters. We have a welcome reception tomorrow night at 5 pm to meet our cruise director and have a drink. Than on Sun. Morning, we have a behind the scenes walking tour that leaves the hotel at 8:45 am. Our bags will be picked up and taken to the ship. We are supposed to get to the ship around 11:45 for lunch, then we can explore some that afternoon on our own. Some people may have signed up for the Zanse Schans (sp?) optional excursion but I’ve already done that one my 1st Avalon cruise back in 2012. I will try to post daily but no promises. I also won’t post pictures until I get home because I don’t want to be bothered trying to figure out how to do that. I’ll try to answer questions that anyone has.

Wasn't able to start this Sat, but will catch up quickly.
Opening the 2023 AK season for HAL – and celebrating their 76th season in AK, not to mention 150 years of sailing!! Before boarding, after check-in, we were part of a small group that got to watch a ribbon cutting ceremony where the captain presented a donation check to the local CoC. There was a marching band as well as Miss AK and Miss WA (2nd pic), who welcomed us onto the ship. Beautiful blue sky to enjoy the excitement. 

Hello - it's time for another live review!
 
I'm CatLadyFemme, a professor at the University of Michigan, a cat lady , and a fairly experienced cruiser. I am disabled/live with chronic pain, and so walk with a cane, plus I am a vegetarian and have Celiac disease, so am super duper gluten free. My mother just passed away unexpectedly 4 weeks ago, so my whole world has been a bit discombobulated. We've taken in her cats (so my household now has 5, and the integration is NOT going well! Plus one of my partners, MrCatLady, and I also have another cat and a very sassy blue nose pittie). Our grad students are on strrike, and MxCatLady is recovering from their third round of COVID, so it's been quite a month. I absolutely cannot wait to get on board, and feel like I can finally breathe again...I hope.<br style="border-style:solid;border-width:0px;">  
In addition to things like photos of the rooms, pools, etc., I will post about finding vegetarian GF food (we've had some AMAZING luck like with Belic on the Explorer, and some not great experiences where I ate iceberg salad and berries for days), and access/ADA issues. Oh! I'm also queer and nonbinary (as is MxCatLady), so there may be some stuff about the LGBTQ meet up, etc. I like to stay in the shade/find a nice lounge and read, or enjoy the hot tubs. Yes, even when it is fairly chilly (see my May 2023 review of Voyager in the Baltic).
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We boarded at Los Angeles yesterday and are heading north to Vancouver by way of San Francisco, Victoria, and finally Vancouver. They ship is about 60% full and it’s very comfortable moving around. Apparently many people have been on since Sydney as the Majestic‘s working its way from Sydney to Vancouver. They had a pleasant and calm 28 day crushing. That is a great cruise. We did it in 2019 right before Covid on the old golden.

Hey everyone,
 
Heading over to Canada Place in a few hours to board the Discovery Princess for its 7-day sailing to Alaska, with stops in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan and scenic cruising in Hubbard Glacier (conditions permitting).
 
As the first Alaska sailing of the season for the Discovery Princess, we’re starting from Vancouver but ending in Seattle (the ship’s homeport for the rest of the summer)

We’re going to try and take you along with us as we sail the first Solstice Alaska sailing of the year. I say try, because well that will depend on the ships internet.

Unlike how a number of live reviews start, we’re actually already on a cruise. We took the Royal Princess out of San Francisco and we’re sailing her to Vancouver and switching to the Solstice as a S2S. While we’d have much rather done a B2B, my fantastic TA pretty quickly put a kibosh on that idea thanks to PVSA. But, if you’d like some humor, my husband was a bit feisty about it and called Celebrity and they told us no issues. We went with our TA’s advice since I refused to gamble with the single nine day cruise the Solstice is doing this year to Alaska. (Our TA is correct that that B2B would be a no go thanks to PVSA for anyone wondering.)

Familygoboston and Rsharp are back with a LIVE report of our 10 day repositioning cruise aboard QOTS (live, for as long as we can count on the newly installed starlink “voom surf and stream” internet package. The answer to that, and many other questions remain, but hope springs eternal as we each timed the purchases of our VS&S packages like day traders in a bear market, waiting fruitlessly for the deals that never came. Eventually we pulled the trigger sometime around the big Labor Day sale (eschewing the nearly identical, but seemingly differently deals, offered for Black Friday, New Years, Fourth of July, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, wave season, and pumpkin spice season) 

Hello!  Welcome to another live with YVRteacher and her dad.  We will be enjoying the NCL Jewel from May 1-15, 2023 and are both incredibly excited.  We will both be celebrating birthdays on this cruise and my dad is turning 80!  He says he is not having any more birthdays but I am the kind of person who celebrates everything (including National Talk Like A Pirate Day and National Jump in a Puddle Day.) He was born in a bomb shelter in Bristol during WWII and he likes beer, cruising and drinking beer on a cruise.  He also loves to complain, mostly to me.  I have a rule that he is not allowed to phone me and start with “I am so mad…” before he says hello.  

Click to Cruise Along!

The Plan
Going with P & O on the Iona for one weeks in April.
Cost us £1474 for one weeks for balcony cabin (kids will be on bunk beds) and includes the food (and drinks such as tea coffee and juice while in the restaurants). They have also sent us and email with £100 obc. Buzzing.
Also includes parking

Hi 👋 There Follow Travelers 🧳. Today is Saturday April 15 2023. I am going to be showcasing my travel experience on Azamara Onward just like the past fellow travelers have before. Doing daily reports on my journey for 14 nights on the beautiful Onward just did the transatlantic last month so looking forward to France and Italy coming up here. 
 
 
As I am writing ✍️ this I am currently at the Barcelona airport hotel. Which I will be taking the Metro into the city center to explore around for an hour or so. Been to Barcelona beforehand and love Barcelona so much. Checkin starts at 1:30 pm I believe today but with what’s going on the website and not able to check in I am going to enjoy my time out in the city center and arrive around 3:00 pm hopefully things are quieter than. 
 
Well I will keep you guys posted here with any updates and my experiences on the trip. I am here if you have any questions or concerns about the Onward ship or azamara in general. 
 
Time to go grab some Spanish Tapas. First gotta take that 45 minute metro ride (cost 2 euros) compared to $35 euros for taxi 🚕. Anyhow I am really excited for this trip. 

We have seven days at sea, followed by port stops. Port stops are
Ponta Delgada, Azores
Lisbon
Cadiz, Spain
Malaga, Spain
Cartagena, Spain
 
Disembark in Barcelona.
 
I'm looking forward to the Disney experience, the many days at sea, the shows and ship. 

Virtuosa out of Southampton is relatively close for us no flying.
 
The prices have been very good this year, dipping under £300(tax and grats included in UK) for a week with beverage(premium extra) a £170 top up on some dates.
That's 7n AI $590pp  Solos have been a bit more and kids go for the price of the kids beverage package(or free) no taxes or grats to pay so they fill the ship on holiday dates.

I’m back and it’s time to go back to the Carnival Panorama. Last time I didn’t have a good experience with the Panorama and I’m determined to give this ship a new chance. Also, it’s a secret I’m on this ship. So don’t tell anyone? It’s between me and the entire world right now… except for my sister. 

Good morning all,
 
Volendam is transiting the canal today., Atlantic to Pacific. We’re currently off the coast Limon Bay awaiting our pilots with lots of other ships, at anchor awaiting their turn also. I’m hoping others aboard see this and contribute.
 
Last I heard we’re due in Gaton at 7:30ish.
 

 

Wanted to preface this with my wife and I are currently on our second princess cruise, first was Alaska about 9 years ago, so we are far from experienced cruisers.
 
embarkation was a little time consuming. Due to norovirus outbreak on previous cruises the ship underwent a deep clean. Scheduled group arrivals were in 30 minute intervals starting at 1:00. Ours was 1:30 we arrived at 1:15 and asked one of the employees if we were too early, and he said to just get in line. No one was checking arrival groups. There were 3 lines I could see, people who had their medallion, people who didn’t, and disabled.  They allowed the disabled in as they arrived. We stood in line outside the processing room  in the medallion line for about 45 minutes unmoving. We found out later that they made the cruisers who were on the ship previously for the first half of the 14 day cruise option to completely leave the ship for 4 hours for cleaning. It seemed like loading up previous cruisers and allowing the processing room to completely empty before filling up again was the reason for the delay. Once in the processing room it was about 30-40 more minutes to board. 

I will likely post once per day, and may get behind during our three port days in a row.  Hope you enjoy reading our experience!
 
Celebrity Summit A-B-C cruise Miami to Port Liberty NJ 4-26-23
 
We selected this sailing as the price was attractive AND we would visit family up north at the conclusion of the cruise.  This eliminates one airplane flight and as flying is nearly always the worst part of any travel these days for us, that is a good thing!
 
We had cruising friends from the west coast visit for a few days before the cruise and enjoyed a nice time showing them around.

Gearing up for a very short live thread for a very short cruise. As a Seattle resident, sometimes these one night repositioning cruises fit into my schedule and are always quite affordable. I will be taking the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver Friday Morning, board Eurodam in the early afternoon and be back home Saturday morning. Looking forward to getting back onboard one of my favorite ships - of course 18 hours is not enough, so I will be back in 2 weeks for a 7 night Alaska cruise to really satisfy my cruise fix. 
 

It's that time again! One week out from fly out day to our next cruise!
The Details
Fly Out from Chilly Utah on April 28th 2023. Doing our first time flying out of Provo Airport vs Salt Lake City International on Allegiant Air. We couldn't pass up on the price. 4 people round trip direct flights to Houston Hobby for $771.00. This price also including 4 checked in suitcases. Thank you black friday sales!

DH and I are off on another cruise adventure.  This time we are sailing a back-to-back cruise on two different ships. I am told this is called a side-to-side. [13 nights total] We board the Liberty of the Seas in Fort Lauderdale on April 28, 2023 for 3 nights.  We arrive back on May 1, 2023 and move to the Vision of the Seas for 10 nights at the same port and a different terminal.  Just to make it a little more exciting the second cruise is a reposition cruise from FLL to Baltimore.

This is our first cruise with MSC. We status matched at diamond, and boarded promptly today at 11:00 a.m.
 
We are not able to book specialty restaurants ahead of time either by design, or website issues. It was not offered. First thing after getting on the ship was to go to the Yacht Club concierge to request butchers cut and Ocean Cay restaurant reservations for tonight and Saturday.

Disclaimer:
Ahoy there, welcome to my cruise trip report
Please be advised that the views and opinions expressed here are solely my own and are meant to be taken with a pinch of sea salt, a slice of lime, and perhaps a fruity drink with an umbrella in it.

Pre-cruise
We booked a Panama Canal cruise last year, leaving from San Francisco. There is little I enjoy more than driving across or sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. However, that cruise was cancelled by Princess and we had to choose another. We might have chosen to do an entirely different cruise, but were sailing with a group, so we decided to choose a cruise that starts in Galveston and ends in San Francisco. We won’t enjoy the sail away under the bridge, but will be almost home when we end the cruise and that is certainly nice. Coming from CA, the other advantage is there are multiple airlines we can fly non stop to Houston. We chose to fly in early (arriving Tuesday for a Friday sailing) because I have cousins in Houston and it gives us a chance to visit.

As I was researching, I realized that there weren't a lot of of posts about the Meraviglia in regards to the Yacht Club. So I decided I am going to do a live blog for my cruise on June 18th! This is my husbands' and I honeymoon cruise and we are so excited. We will be in an inside Yacht Club room, so this post will feature a lot of amenities you will find there. As well as information about the ship as a whole. I am going to write about our journey leading up to leaving on June 18th. This will include packing, our drive to New York, embarkation, and more! 
 
While onboard, I will be posting about our day, menus, pictures of food, ports and more! This is my first time doing a blog live, but not my first time writing a blog. I am so excited to share our journey with you. We will be traveling to Port Canaveral, Nassau (which is where my husband proposed to me, so this will be an exciting port), and to MSC's Private Island. 
 
Let me know if this sounds interesting to you all. I am really excited to share our journey with you all🤩

This is the cruise that will take the Summit from her winter home in Miami, to her summer home in New Jersey.  I found it after a Millennium Pacific coastal got canceled, and I was looking for something on a revolutionized S class.  We just got off Infinity, which is an unrevolutionized ship, and I wanted Glen (DH) to experience the difference.  I saw this, and several things appealed.  First, it was a 10 day Caribbean cruise with 6 sea days.  That's because it has to get from Miami to New York, and has to visit the Dutch Antilles (ABCs) to meet legal requirements. Second, I like those ports, and third, as mentioned above, it's a revolutionized M class.  Lastly, and best of all, it goes to New York, where my sister lives.  So all good?