abbydancer2003

Looking forward hearing about another trip.  

1 hour ago, msolok said:

 

This is just how things tend to go with cruising. Itineraries, schedules and everything are very susceptible to changes. While they do try and make everything happen, sometimes things don't work out and things need to change. I don't think I have ever been on a cruise line that has offered $ for the "hassle" of a changed itinerary.

Princess in 2023 gave us a nice FCC for missing 3 of 7 ports.  On the Solstice we got some OBC for missing our first 2 ports (nothing for Maui earlier).

I think the certificate credit goes to the TA who booked the cruise you bought it on automatically.  You should tell them if you want to change it.

On another note - it's been 7 days since our turnover, and the points aren't showing up in my totals.  I do see the cruise that ended on the 25th, and the points that will eventually be awarded are for a 16 night. We repeated April 18th.  The Club person onboard sent an email to engagement.

On 4/29/2024 at 1:37 PM, mahasamatman said:

 

I can see them offering 5 power-up points (not 5 CC points).

7 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

 

They round up, so it would be 1 CC point.

I don't see that.  Why would they want that headache?  Since it rounds to 1 point, it's easier to keep it one point. 

On 4/29/2024 at 4:17 PM, HaveDogWillTravel said:

The train turns around at the top.  No need to change seats as the folks on the right side are on the outside rail going down. Also some people don’t like to sit on the outside (left going up and right going down) as there’s some really steep drop offs. If you are not a fan of heights don’t sit next to the window on the scenic side.  
 

I’ve taken the train 5 times and everyone has always been super polite and accommodating.  People share the spaces well in my experiences.  
 

Safe travels and Bon voyage. 

And by turn around, it makes a big loop around at the top, so the sides are switched once the loop is completed.  We did the round trip with my mom in 2022.  Last time was around 2007, when they moved the engine (after telling everyone not to leave the train, due to the switch being in Canada).  They did ask everyone to switch sides.  

12 minutes ago, Alaska05 said:

After reading your experience from the airport, we are seriously considering taking the Skytrain from YVR when we arrive about 6:00 pm on a Thursday evening.  We are staying at the Marriott Pinnacle on W. Hastings. 

Good plan, but the Waterfront station is a few blocks away from the Marriott. It's a bit of a walk with luggage.   The cab fares are regulated, I think.  

12 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I really, really wish they would change the name of that entree. 

Yeah.  Tomorrow night they have the Sirloin, also pieces of a roast.  Last cruise Glen ordered it and it was done right, previous two, outside was well done inside was raw.  Both of those the Maitre'd brought the chefs out.  Tonight, we had the kids menu grilled cheese, and crudites.  (I had the tomato soup as well).

A couple of notes from yesterday and today.

Jim, we may have seen you driving up to the falls yesterday as we were driving out after our visit.  Both days we were very lucky, as we had friends as guides.

Today, a former coworker of mine picked us up and took us to the Refuge National Park and a couple of scenic spots.  We saw baby goats.  We tried to go to Coffee Shack, but there was a long wait, so we went to a place called Foster's in town and had a very good lunch.  My friend is also driving us to the airport to pick up our rental car for the day tomorrow.  We're driving to Waimea tomorrow to meet the people who ship us coffee every other month. 

On 4/28/2024 at 11:43 PM, kwokpot said:

Was it a REAL NY Strip steak or was it a slice of beef from a whole roast?

I think a couple of slices.

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Last night was our least favorite Luminae. 
 

Menu 3

 

 

we ended ordering from MDR - it was a French Mushroom Pot Pie.  It was actually quite nice.   
 

For desert I had the new Orange desert on Luminae.  
 

 

 

Agree on this menu.  And who thought Pig's Feet carpaccio is a good idea?  I ended up, on our new fab waiter's recommendation getting the pork schnitzel.  It was quite yummy as was the orange dessert.

Glen had the Luminae steak, and they overcooked it the first time.  Second time was fine.  (At least on this ship he didn't have to give the chefs a lesson on cooking steaks).

We're on the Beyond next.  Luminae meals are going to be a challenge.  On Apex last year, I had a small filet with bernaise most nights.

8 hours ago, Von & John said:

 

You never know...

2 more days to go - they could pull it out in the final 2 days 🙂 

It's been a while since they've awarded and done a new one in the same month.  Maybe May?

1. We're in 7356 on the Soltice currently and on the desk we have two grounded US plugs and one European.  We have a couple of multi plug, no surge plugged in and have lots of devices.
2. 
   I really do love these corner rooms.  Someone, I think a previous guest, put strips of glow in the dark tape on the poles.

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I guess not... I started reading a long Oceania live today.   I haven't been on that thread since this trip began.   I've only made it through page one when Lunch time hit.

 

Celebrity has rolled out their new menus on Solstice and really enjoy some of the new items but o course miss some of our favorites that are now gone.  

 

Today I had a nicely constructed Mediterranean Turkey Club Sandwich - Slow roasted Turkey, herded Focaccia, Fontina Cheese, charred Broccoli Rabe, and calabrian pepper ailoli    f   In my opinion --- too much bread in the Bread and I had it open face instead.

Glen took the broccoli out.  Lately, he's just been having appetizer and main, and me just appetizer and dessert.  There only so many 3 course meals you can eat.

On 4/22/2024 at 8:03 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! FWIW I was stationed at Elmendorf AFB back in the early 70s when there was only around 100,000 people living in Anchorage. Now there is almost 300,000 and homes are starting to be built on the nearby mountain sides. But I still remember seeing the underbelly of a moose walking along the streetside as I was "slowly" driving by in my VW minivan. Ah yes, Alaska can definitely leave some lasting impressions, that's for sure! 😊 

I went to a meeting with the IT team at Elmendorf back in the mid 80s.  They were nice people.  At the time, I was visiting a friend in Alaska, and Elmendorf was a client.

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Thanks for letting me know of the $5 free spins..... I lost it in less than 1 minute.

Sorry.  I added 20.00 to it and left with 29.00 and change.

11 hours ago, billc23 said:

I think that your tier points keep track of your spend. From Celebrity:

 

Tier points are earned when gaming in the casino. 1 tier point is earned for $1 wagered on a slot machine, $2 wagered on a video poker machine.

 

The other option is to count your spins but that is no fun. What I do is just periodically check my personal banker to see if I am able to take out more. Safe travels and will see you onboard.

I do what Jim does, I just in my head keep a general idea - for example:

I put in 20.00. I spin for a while, and keep rough track of my little wins.  Then at some point, around 15.00 I start checking my personal banker regularly to see if if the transfer button shows up.  Note that if you've played enough to get a 1.00 free play, you actually have to check that room transfer (whatever it's called) is available.  

I then start checking every few spins.

That said, I like playing and since it's cumulative over the whole cruise, I probably could straight cash out, but I like to play some.  Lately I've been winning a bit, so I cash out when I'm 2.00 over what I put in.  I think I'm getting a lot of bet collateral.

I've done Alaska 8 or 9 times, 2 on Celebrity and the rest on Princess.  When it came time to select a family trip with my mom (her last as it turned out), I selected Princess because, although for mini suites Celebrity has a better product, Princess is best for Alaska.  

Have a blast.

1 hour ago, upwarduk said:

Puts me off booking a cruise on Silhouette now, as we would have to fly to the port- but which port? 
Crazy.

Aren't Amsterdam and Rotterdam about an hour apart?  Or am I missing something?

Hi all,

I thought I would treat you all to the sunsets from Samoa, from our somewhat unique view out the back of the ship.  They were taken about an hour apart.

I hope you enjoy them.

10 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Let’s backtrack to Suva.   We took a Tour that @abbydancer2003 arranged with tour by locals.   I think think there were 8 of us.   Great job Abby. 

 

 

Thank you, sweetie.

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We next visited a Fijian village.   Much more Disneyland than the authentic Ine we previously visited. 
 

I think calling it Disneyland is not the right word.  It's more commercial, but it's a real village, but one where the residents have made it a much bigger production.  A fake village would not have children and chickens running around.  I think everyone there, performers, cooks, servers, etc, are locals who don costumes to show their culture.  They live in the village.  They have just figured out how to make some money from their culture.  They are not actors from LA brought in to stage a village.

It was fun and the food was great.

My points showed up today, around lunch time in Fiji, which is the 16th. Right now, I can't see my point history at all, it stays on upcoming cruises.  Might be because I'm on ships wifi.

 I have a spreadsheet with my points from each cruise, plus a field  where I sum my current point count and all the cruises I have booked that I think I need to reach Zenith.  With this, it's now enough that without any more power up or Go Green, I'll reach it on the cruise I think I will in a year.  

Clearly I need a life.

I don't have my power up yet, but I did get the points for the last cruise today (we're on the second leg of the b2b2b.  Ended on the 9th, but we're on the other side of the dateline, so 8th in Miami.

Crossed a threshold - now 3 digits to zenith.

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I agree, it is quite strange to compensate this way for a missed port, usually it is a nominal amount (i,e. $100 pp) plus port fees/taxes.

The only times it varies is when they compensate as a percentage of cruise fare (I.e 5% of what someone paid for their cruise).

We missed 3 ports last year on a Princess cruise thanks to Hurricane Lee.  We got about 1/3 of our base fare back as FCC, plus 100.00 OBC.  I used the FCC to pay for over half of my 7 day Sun Princess cruise in 2025.

Greetings from our new room, an aft corner sky suite.  You'd think it would be a let down from a Royal Suite, but, other than missing the second half bath, we're very happy.  Our butler is good, a little less proactive than in the Royal, but we're getting everything we ask for.  We order coffee every morning and by the third day he has the set up ready to go, so it arrives quickly and hot.  I do like having both a balcony and a window.  

Glen heard that we'll arrive around 3pm tomorrow.  We have a tour for the full day, so I guess we'll walk around for a while.

Once I finish my 3/27 live, I'll post some of my highlights here as well.

21 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

 

So we have a little sticky situation…

As we know… all of us collect our cruise cards😅

1. It’s the only way to document that you was sailing 
2. It’s a great way to keep up on your sailings

 

Well, on the b2b meeting last sailing the document officer said it would be delivered to your stateroom on the last sea day…..

(I don’t like this practice… we have running down the ship before to get our cards last minute) 

 

Last night it was not on our door at 18.00 so Mr went to the concierge desk and they said it will arrive later tonight…..

After dinner, at 22.15 still no cards. 

 

Mr was attending a meeting on zoom 04.30, no cards on the door. 

 

At 07.15 he went downstairs to guest relations. 

“The cards should be delivered” 

🤯🤬😳🥵

 

We left our stateroom at 07.30 as requested… 

We meet concierge Freazer in the staircase down to MDR on deck 4. 

 

We told him our issue and that this is just a really bad situation and this happens every time they are “mailing them the last night” 

We said we will go for breakfast and be back at you soon to check if they have received the cards….

 

In queue for breakfast we were standing behind another couple we knew was b2b. 

So I carefully asked Sir: A very good morning! May I ask I you have received your cruise card from last week? 

 

Yes yes 🙌🏻 they arrived on the door midway through this cruise! 

 

🫠🫥🫡🫠 Yes….. 

🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

 

Last breakfast onboard….

No more omelette or poached eggs unless I make them myself😝

 

 

 

 

We went in a little search to Tuscan to find Freazer… 

We asked in Tuscan and they said he would be back soon… 

The other concierge showed up and collected numbers to take to the gangway. 

 

Mr took a little roam around to locate him. 

No vision of him. 

So when the concierge arrived back for a new group, we asked her.

She had the cards!!! 🥳🥳🥳

Freazer had to walk out a wheelchair so he dropped off the cards to her💙⚓️😘

 

On the way to the gangway we passed Freazer👋🏻⚓️💙 Thank You🙌🏻

 

Then it was straight off and curb side in 5.minutes💙⚓️

Great review - thanks. 

Maybe I'm missing something, but why didn't they just print a new one when, apparently, they had trouble finding them?  (I'm not convinced they don't do that).

Our turnaround was Tuesday and and we got our old cards today.

And so far, this cruise has been nothing like what people booked. We missed first port due to leaving Sydney 15 hours late, and now we're turning around due to a medical emergency.  2 of 6 gone, 3 of 7 if you count Maui replaced with early arrival into Honolulu.  Fun stuff.