Live Cruise Reports

Background

My first cruise was the Alaska cruise on NCL Pearl eight years ago. It was a round-trip from Seattle. It’s a wonderful trip and I like it so much that I continue to go on a cruise usually once a year. Ten cruises later and now I’m back on Alaska again. 

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Ok after a few last minute Covid test adventures we are on board for our 40th Anniversary!  I’ll post pictures of the Patter as we go along. My wife just got a massage and I go in a hour. They had a 25% off special on embarkation day. We are in a suite so we get free Crown Dinner tonight. This cruise is two back to back Eastern Caribbean cruises but with different ports each week. Much more to come

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Semi live review Y1L Holland America’s Alaska Cruise Land and Sea, June 1 – June 19, 2022
I will attempt to make a (semi-live) review of our Y1L Land first, Cruise Second, Holland America Cruise tour.
In preparation of our tour, we could not find many reviews or planning information, so I decided to start this review. I will promise to complete it, I cannot promise that it will be completely live.

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The Wind is looking amazing.  She looks so fresh.  New carpets on the stairs.   unfortunately the navy carpet and the lack of lighting on the stairs means you really need to pay attention when using them.  I love the remodelled bathroom.  No bath tub but a lovlarge shwer with a bench seat overhead shower and a wall shower head.  lovely new large towels.
 
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I’ve done lives from other voyages, usually Azamara and one from Ama.  Here we are, two Brits both able to have seniors rates wherever we go in the USA arrived at the day before embarkation.  I’m calling this semi live as I hear wifi on AQ is rubbish, so bear with me if there’s a gap, I will catch up even if it’s when we disembark.

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Hello everyone!
 
I am Kas, I am from the UK, Cardiff in Wales specifically and I am in my 30's. I travel as much as I can on cruises and caught the bug in 2010 when I was taken on a cruise by my family. I thought I'd hate it and I couldn't imagine anything worse than being stuck on a boat, but boy was I wrong and I got hooked! 
 
This will be my first cruise on MSC and I'm really looking forward to seeing how things go and what things I love/hate. 

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Hi All!  We just did our drive-through Covid testing at 11:30 this morning and had our results by noon.  Both of us are negative so we are clear to sail!
 
We board Mariner this Saturday for an 8 night cruise to Nassau, CocoCay, and Bermuda.   I think this is the only itinerary where Bermuda comes after the Bahamas so we will need to get a Covid test on the ship before getting into Bermuda.

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We spent this afternoon at Hubbard Glacier, there is still ice blocking the approach to the glacier, but we could not have asked for better weather.  The Gulf of Alaska was very calm, and the day was clear and sunny at Hubbard Glacier.  Here are
some pictures, and I will try to answer questions.  

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First, despite early forecasts, Sunday turned out to be an absolutely beautiful, sunny, warm day in Seattle. We were visiting family so didn’t board until 1:00. There were lines inside the building (none outside), but it only took us about 10 minutes in the Priority/Elite line. I heard others who were Green Lane but not priority say it took them almost 45 minutes.
 
One tip: there was no internet and no cell reception inside the port terminal, so we could not access the Medallion App, ArriveCan, the Novica app our email with our eMed covid test results. So, I strongly recommend doing what we did and either take a screenshot of or print out your Green Lane QR code, your Negative Covid Test Results and ArriveCan receipt with QR code. They were fine with screenshots from our phone.

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Hi, all. I don't always start a preview / review so far in advance, but I have some information about our booking that I want to share before I forget it, plus I have some time this weekend. 
 
We'll fly from O'Hare to LAX three weeks from today.  Here's our itinerary. 

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Hi all - greetings from my 30th cruise celebrating my engagement that just happened last week. Cruise started off very rough, as we were met at the embarkation pier with a notice that the Bliss had a noro-virus outbreak the week prior and offered us 100% FCC if we were concerned about sailing. Pre-pandemic I knew that this had happened and assured my fiancé all would be cleaned scrubbed etc. we had flown from TX to Seattle so we were going to continue.

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We just boarded Odyssey this morning in Civitavecchia. 
Covid tests yesterday morning at a pharmacy round the corner from our hotel. Cost was 20 euros each. The 10 minutes waiting to get the results back were horrible.
Boarding was a breeze. We had the first time slot and the cabins opened up not long after.
After a quick lunch in the windjammer we did the North Star and watched braver folks than us on the flow rider and ifly. The weather was not being terribly friendly. 
 

 

 
We left Civitavecchia 3 hours late, something to do with an issue regarding clearance.
 
The MDR seemed very busy. We had my timing with a table booked for 8 pm but it seemed like they improvised rather than having a table allocated in advance. However our server was very attentive to our needs.
An interesting development on the menu is the appearance of a nightly pie and a curry dish. Those usually only show up on cruises with a large British contingent. 
 

 
Wild mushroom soup

 
Two Maryland style crab cakes as my mains just because I like them even though I've been told they're nothing like the real thing. 

 
Royal chocolate cake for dessert. One of my favourites. DH 's cheesecake and a shared scoop of vanilla ice cream in the background.  😋 

 
The show in the theatre after dinner was a singer called Mike McLean. He had a decent crowd and gave an enjoyable show.
 

 
Tomorrow is Naples, from 8 am till 6 pm.
 
I'm just going to wind this post up by tagging a couple of folks who might be interested in following along.
 
My joint blog buddy from Navigator @Rogueperson because he always remembers to tag me for his live reviews.
 
And @BennyBrun because he's off to the Greek Isles in June and I might conceivably post something that would be of use to him.
 
I'm happy to try and answer questions if anyone has any.
 

The cruise is a B2B, first leg to Bermuda and the second one to Bar Harbor and Halifax.  Both destinations involve extra steps.

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Hi fellow cruisers!
 
Hope everyone is doing well. I’m here to introduce you to my semi-live blog from aboard the newest of the newness, Wonder of the Seas! We are so excited to be going on this cruise. Much like a lot of people, we were originally booked on Allure (an already great ship in our opinion) but when we were moved to Wonder we were over the moon. We love a new ship and exploring all the new features. We are lucky enough to be booked in a one bedroom aqua theatre suite, thanks to a number of future cruise certificates gained during lockdown. We have a bid in on a two bedroom aqua theatre, hoping for that Genie, but know it is likely not to happen.

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Planning on trying to do a live review for our Oasis OTS sailing leaving Sunday 5/22. I will try my best to keep up! If anyone else is already planning on doing their own live review...LMK and I will just tag along. No need for two separate threads.
 
We are so excited for this cruise... we are both Emerald but have never gotten the chance to sail an Oasis class. Even better that we don't have to fly! Looking forward to lots of cocktails and sunshine!

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I have benefited a lot from the experiences of others while cruising. It is three years since I have started a live thread. I have decided to do it on this cruise because Azamara has not been communicating much in the last time and many people are just wondering. I have just purchased an internet package for the whole cruise in order to do this and if the internet connection allows, I will try to post.

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We've only sailed on RCCL once previously, but a nice fare came up at the last minute for a quick one week trip to Alaska on the Quantum of the Seas.  So, tomorrow, my wife and I are boarding the Quantum in Seattle on Monday afternoon for a 7 day Alaska trip with port stops at Icy Straight, Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria, BC. 

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Hello!  First time cruiser here going to Alaska on the Encore.  Have been very much looking forward to this cruise.  First time cruiser but very experienced traveler.  I've used TripAdvisor extensively and find the trip reports and reviews and very helpful and enjoyable so will do my best to give the day by day reports.  Hopefully this will be helpful to first timers (and experienced cruisers as well).  Feel free to forward questions and I'll do my best to answer. 

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We are boarding later today (2pm) for our first Virgin cruise. We have sailed many times on Royal Caribbean and looking forward to trying something different. 
 
Feel free to ask any questions. 

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The time has come for yet another virtual cruise.  This week I will be on Adventure of the Seas in a Spacious Balcony room with complimentary dinning.  The prices have gone way up to the point I don’t see it as value to me personally since I have been to them before and was not overly impressed with the offerings (Chops , Giovanni’s Table and Izumi only ) and now it’s over $200 with a sale it’s a no go for me!  There will be lots of pictures as usual, lots of food and lots of my random thoughts 💭   As always, you got questions I will attempt to find an answer for you!

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Hi all, this is my first live review so hopefully it’ll go well with posting pictures and just being able to get decent WIFI connection on ship. This cruise is overdue by more than two years thanks to…well you know. I was supposed to do first solo cruise back in March 2020 with hubby’s blessing but well…you know. I did end up posting a virtual cruise review because I was sad, bored and mostly housebound for three months.  The review caught the eye of a reporter and somehow I ended up being interviewed and my picture and part of post was featured in Washington Post, I believe @twangsterwas also interviewed.

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On the ship. Embarkation was a snap. Cabin was ready. Muster done. On Lido now - let the grazing begin.

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My friend and I boarded Mariner yesterday in San Francisco for her first Alaska sailing of the season. We had flown in the previous day, staying at a hotel close to the pier. We had a lovely walk around town, and got together for a bit with a friend who was to disembark the world(ish) cruise the next day (Mariner was overnighting in SF).

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We'll give this a try.  The fare for an ouside cabin was silly low.  Like $163.  We decided to drive.  Experts warned us this was Jazz Festival week- so hotel prices are silly.  We stayed in Hattiesburg at the Indigo the night before which was cute and classy.
I had to dig for my Carnival member number- we are dancers and like a promenade deck so phased out Carnival.  But the price was too good and the timing worked.  
I had two goals- be at sea and avoid catching any illnesses. 

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I’ll say this, it is going to be interesting! 
 
If you didn’t know, last week all itineraries for the Crown were changed due to a mechanical issue on the ship. As I sat here starting to Type this, we just got another notification that the itinerary on at least this sailing will change again. 

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