abbydancer2003

Mega Trip day 9 - Sea Day 4 - Monday 2 So still working off jet lag and clock changes, we woke up at 9, or so we thought. The captain’s announcement came on at 9:15? Oops, clock went forward 30 minutes last night. I guess that’s to match Darwin time. Those wacky Aussies. So I manually set my phone to Darwin time, which now matches ship time. And I got my grade for the final I took in Singapore - Full credit except for the one Multiple choice. Yippee, for what it’s worth. We called Walter for our morning coffee, which he puts out with placemats and pastries. I guess it’s back to coffee table coffee next week. After breakfast and fully dressing, we called Walter to take us to the customs officers. Turns out he wasn’t necessary, since there were only two people there when we got there, and they were already getting their passports. We were quickly checked off, and I went to the lounge. Glen brought the passports back and put them in the safe (presumably, I haven’t looked) and then we met Robin and Brenda for our now regular morning coffee. Once they headed to lunch we wandered a bit and then went to lunch at Luminae. Today is the day I get a main dining lunch - cold blueberry soup, fried chicken and then key lime pie. My favorite pie. The fried chicken on this ship was the best I’ve had yet, and I let Pratip, our waiter know. As is usually after lunch now, I worked on the blog until it was time for trivia. While Glen shows up once in a while, we now have a team with Dorinda and husband Dale, and 2 or 3 gentlemen, one from Britain and one from US. Today was Beatles on the music, and we won that. We also won general trivia in part because I knew the 3 fairies in Sleeping Beauty. Next stop was the lounge, where I met Bill and his wife Linda from Cruise Critic. I do hope to talk to them more later in the cruise. In part I was there because Ann and I wanted to confirm with the concierges that they can take our Yorkies Knob group off as priority. It helps that most are elite. We talked to Ann and co for a bit, and then headed up to the room. Next stop was the production show, “Amade”, based, sort of on Mozart. Here are some pictures. Notice the costumes. I guess adding costuming on stage is part of it. One thing Celebrity does well is aerialists. They did something similar in Elysium years ago. After the show, we checked out the atrium for dance music, but the “dance” band is not very good, and doesn’t play danceable music. It is, however, loud, so we went upstairs to the sky lounge where from 8-9 they play recorder ballroom music. It wasn’t bad, and not quite elevator music so we danced some. We also ran into Dorinda and Dale there, who were a bit surprised to see us. After that, it was down to Luminae for dinner and then bed. Tomorrow is Darwin, and we have a very early tour.

It's been good. If you look at my last comment on my last post, they managed to do something right that has never happened before. It would be nice to have dinner together one night. We're not doing any specialty after this cruise, for obvious reasons.

You got married on my 50th Birthday. Now I guess I'll know better how long you've been married that I'll know how long I have.

Megatrip day 8 - Sea day 3 - Sunday 2. We thought we might make breakfast today, but we missed that the clock went forward an hour (reminding me why I love Westbound TransAtlantics). So we called Walter for coffee (man, we are spoiled, we’ll miss him soon) and then decided to see what Michaels Club offers. Turns out we could get juice and espresso drinks. I asked Lucy, our outstanding bartender about regular coffee from Luminae, and she got me a cup. It was appreciated (on Constellation, they sent a full pot). When I went back to the room I saw Walter, and asked him about drinks and the mini bar on the sky suite. He told me the new bean counter president doesn’t want butlers to do it anymore. So, I will ask my new butler/room steward to empty the fridge, and will put my own drinks in it. (I might ask him if I can just pack up the 8 or 9 cokes we have, plus a couple of beers and the water and bring them. Walter was there to actually tell us that tomorrow, when we have to do Australian customs on the ship, to call him and he’ll take us up there to skip the line. After that it was time for our now regular coffee with Brenda and Robin. They go to the 10:30 talks in the theater, and then we get coffee. No snagged table, so we went down to cellar masters where it’s quiet. They went to lunch around 12:15, since they have to do customs this after and I went up there to check out the line. It went from the entrance to the sky conference center, past the sky lounge, and wrapped around to the door to the conference center. People told me it was about 30 minutes. I texted that to Brenda. Next stop was the casino. It’s finally open, since it was closed from Singapore through Bali (that’s gotta hurt). They have now, as mentioned, changed from the cashier vouchers, to the card at the machine. On newer casinos, you tap your card, here, you insert your card and download money. Until you’ve gambled 50% you can’t download more. I check, and all I can see when I got to my personal banker is my reward total. (Hint: Gamble more than I do to get a free cruise). Once I’ve bet 50% (10.00 on a 20.00 download) I can transfer again, and that’s where I usually cash out. So far, not so good - I’m above 10.00 but below winning. That’s all I’ve done so far. We went to lunch next. I had my modified Luminae burger, and it was good and done right. I spent the afternoon enjoying the ocean and working on the blog. (yes, there is an ocean out there) At 3:30 I went up for trivia, I did jet out at 4:30 because we had our cruise critic friends coming over at 4:30. It was small but nice. After that we dressed for dinner and headed to the lounge until our second dinner at Murano. We’re front loading our specialties, since we have to buy them after this, and we’ll have lots of repeat nights on the next two cruises. Glen started with the heirloom tomato salad. I started with what they called mushroom cappuccino, because they put a layer of milk foam on top. It was really good. We both had the rack of lamb which was excellent. For dessert, we both had the strawberry crepe And a close up. After that, it was time to call it a night and check email, and chatting with Jim about shipping a new router to him, but it won’t get there before he leaves. We’re having problems configuring ours. Before I go, one thing I forgot last night at dinner, That was the night Luminae has their beef sirloin, which is two slices of steak. Glen’s ordered it a few times, and it’s always been well done on the outside, and almost raw in the middle, and we’ve met several chefs because of that. We told our waiter this, and he took it as a challenge, and brought just the steak. This ship did it right, so Glen will probably order it next cruise.

Wow 6 pages already. I want to be you when I grow up. Also this sounds like a fabulous itinerary. I'd love to do it with you. Oh wait, I am. We'll figure out what to do with my live once I finish in Sydney. ' Off to start writing the Sunday entry where I answer the buring question "what about the casino".

Mega Trip - Day 7 Bali - Saturday 2 Today is Bali, our first port stop of four. We’re joining two other couples on a tour with a guide. The content is flexible, and it doesn’t include lunch or admissions, but it was very inexpensive (23.00 per couple) so that’s fine. I have about 100.00 in Indonesian money (over 2M rupia) which will cover our admissions, etc and probably the others as well. Our meeting time was the passport bar at 8:30. We decided to get up at 7:15 and we put the hang tag out for breakfast of coffee, orange juice, fruit and pastries at 7:30 - 8:00. Walter arrived at about 7:50 with everything. By then we were mostly ready, so we enjoyed our breakfast and headed to the passport bar. We arrived a little before 8:30 and headed out. At the bottom of the gangway, some Balinaise dancers I guess were posed. The required sign was there, too. We met our guide, Pong just outside the gate, and went to his very comfortable van. Our first stop was to be a coffee plantation for a taste and tour. Bali’s big coffee thing is Luwok Coffee. It’s coffee that’s been harvested from the droppings of a small animal called a palm civet cat (thanks, wikipedia). The animal eats the coffee cherry and the undigested inner part is harvested, cleaned and brewed. It’s considered one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Pong let us know that there was free coffee and tea tasting, but if we wanted to try the luwok, there would a charge of 45,000 rupee. (That’s just under 3.00 US - you can’t get a run of the mill coffee at home for much less). It took about 90 minutes to get there, as it was both a ways away, and traffic in Bali is terrible. Once we arrived, he turned us over to one of their employees, who guided through a jungle walkway, explaining about the various plants, etc that they grow for their teas and coffees. We also saw a civet cat. Apparently they borrow these each day, and release them each night, so different ones every day. They are not mistreated, as they’re nocturnal. I also saw trays of spices, and someone roasting beans. They also do the grinding with a very large stick. Glen said our neighbors would probably object if we did that. After the tour, we were seated at a picnic table and they brought out samples of many teas and coffee, including one they call Bali coffee - no digestive tracts involved. Glen and I split a Luwok coffee. I couldn’t really tell the flavors, because I don’t like black coffee, but it didn’t seem that much better. We did enjoy most of the teas and flavored coffees. Once we were done with tasting we went to the gift shop. All of us bought a little something. We got a box of tea and a small bag of Bali Coffee. The Luwok was about 100.00 for a small bag if I read the price tag correctly. We then got back in the van for about 30 minutes to the Monkey Forest. This is a Monkey Sanctuary in Ubad Bali. We parked, and walked to the very nice visitors center. They have posted “guidelines” about staying away from the monkeys, not feeding them, etc. After we paid the entrance fee (about 6.00 and change each) Pong took us through the forest. Here are some of the residents: They are all over, as apparently being fed regularly and being safe have great appeal. And they pretty much ignore humans. The sanctuary provides them with all amenities, including a swimming pool. They like to jump off the branch into the water. The sanctuary also hosts a very old Banyan tree. And, no sanctuary would be complete without a temple. Apparently it is a working temple, so we could only look from the gate. After the sanctuary we drove to lunch. Along the way everywhere are these religious hangings. Bali is mostly Hindu. Our restaurant was on a small cliff overlooking a working rice paddy. Just below the restaurant was a terrace, which was good for pictures. There are also swings over the paddy and from the restaurant, we could see a zipline. After lunch it was too late to really see anything else, because traffic is so bad, it would take about 90 minutes to get back to the port. There are religious statues all over Bali in the middle of intersections. You can see the top of this one from the car. We got back to the port around 4:30, and once on board we headed to Michaels club. We ran into Ann and company so we talked to them until they went to dinner. After that it was back to our room to watch sailaway. We saw more of the Island as we left. Tonights dinner was at Luminae., and I ordered from Main mostly. I had an eggplant brochette which was pretty good, and flank steak. The steak was good, but their idea of Lyonniase potatoes and mine didn’t match - there were just thin slices, but they were good. For dessert I had the hibiscus parfait from Luminae. It was an early day today, so we called it a night after dinner. Two more sea days starting tomorrow.

Erin does the afternoon trivia. She's good, but spends a little too much time between questions, but that could be just me. Mar told me yesterday our sky suite butler is Dino. I saw him once. We'll see how it goes. There are two butlers for sky, and prior to butler gate there were 3. I guess they'll see how it works out. And Water has starboard, and Bart I guess has port. And Bill is correct on things. See you soonl

Mega Trip - Sea Day 2 - Friday 1 We woke up in time for breakfast today, since we’re still a little jet lagged and time is still wonky. Today I ordered scrambled eggs with cheese, shared fruit and bacon, and hashbrowns. I got the eggs, and a total of two strips of bacon. Not enough to share and the hashbrowns weren’t there. We got more bacon, and that was fine. From there, we headed to the lounge to drop off our confirmations for the Bali Tourist tax, as the concierges had asked for them. We’re all still fiddling with our OBC, so they played with that for a while. I got a text from Brenda that the were done in the theater, so we met for coffee in Al Baccio. I was able to snag a table, and while I was there, I noticed my OBC was back. We talked until lunch time, For lunch we went to Luminae. I started with Mushroom soup from main dining (quite good actually), and then had the herbed chicken breast, which was surprisingly good. (First time) I have no idea what the risotto like thing is but it was good. For dessert, I had the poached pear. Glen had the cafe latte panna cotta, which had some chocolate on top. I tried it and it was good, so maybe I’ll get it next time if they can remove the chocolate. After lunch, we went back to the room. I got a call from Dorinda about trivia, so I said I’d meet them upstairs for 3:30 music and then general. Walter showed up with some surprises. First, a try of sweets. <6986> Glen ate one by the time I took the pictures. Also these: Apparently in the Penthouse Suite they’re monogrammed, not so much in the Royal. At 3:25 I headed up and found Dorinda and husband, as well as one of the couples we’re going to Bali with. We did decently on music, and Glen joined us for general, where we also did Ok. After that, it was back to the room for our next gathering. Ann, and her entourage, most of whom I’d met on our Silhouette transatlantic came by. Walter brought some shrimp, chicken skewers and cheese and meat; we opened a bottle of champagne and it was very nice. They stayed until their dinner time and a good time was had by all. We dressed for dinner, and headed to Michaels club for a drink. Tonight we have a reservation at Tuscan Grill, so at 8:30 we headed down. We did get a window table, for whatever that’s worth at 8:30 at night. Our server was named Les, she’s from Bali and shared that she’s excited to see her family, especially her niece tomorrow. I had a Caesar salad to start and then the Ribeye with a side of Spaghetti cacao e Pepe - cheese and pepper. The steak was great - I but the spaghetti was a little too garlicky. We ended up skipping dessert. We’ll have it next time. We headed to the room after that, as we have an early start tomorrow.

I'll do what I can. Especially since I should go to the gym occasionally.

I have a couple. I usually don't bother, but every once in a while I do.

Yup. Agree. You are my people.

Mega Trip - Day 5 - Sea Day 1 - Thursday 1 We’re still waking up early, so we decided to go to breakfast today. We called our room steward for some laundry bags. Since we’re in an RS, we get two bags of laundry for that, plus our 4 bags for our status. We also called Walter for some coffee. No sign of Ellen, so asked him for bags, and got 2. We filled out the laundry slip and headed to breakfast. We had the same waiter as last night, so I suspect he, Pratip and his assistant Desire, will be our team for at least this cruise. I asked for one piece of the the special French Toast, and a grapefruit half. The grapefruit was not cut well, in that it was cut with pulp on it and hard to get out of the skin. Glen had to cut it for me. But the French Toast was perfect. After breakfast we were having a meeting for our tour in Yorkie’s Knob. I’m hoping I’ll learn why it is called that on the tour. We made our way back to the room to be ready for the group. Walter was supposed to show up before 11 with some snacks, but no sign of him. People arrived, and so I called Walter. Apparently, he’s waiting at the bakery. He did arrive at about 11:15. We had a nice time meeting the people we’ll be going to Cairns with, and they enjoyed the snacks. As the were leaving I got a text from my friend Brenda, and they were at Al Baccio. I did tell them to come up for a while, and so they did. We chatted until it was lunch time. We headed to Al Baccio mourned 1:00, and were seated in the front room. We had the same team we had for breakfast, so I think they’re it. I started with the mozzarella sticks from main (I do like one of the salads in Luminae, but today it was mozzarella sticks. For my main, I had the petit filet . It was good. Glen had the feta salad and a Luminae burger. Our waiter actually asked if he wanted truffle or plain fries. He chose plain. After lunch we went back to the room for a bit to clear email, work on this, etc. At 4 we went to the Sky Lounge to find our trivia team, but they were full. So back we went. At 4;30, I went up to to find the meet up, but it was hard to find people. I did find a couple that will be on our Cairns tour, so I talked to them for a while, and then found a few people from the FB meetup. It was hard to find anyone there, since the lounge was crowded. I really miss the officially sanctioned cruise critic meetings. We were meeting in Ensemble at 5:30 with our group for the Bali tour, so I headed there. When Glen didn’t show up, I tried calling the room from the house phone but it didn’t work. I didn’t want to go into the lounge, because there was the officers Soiree going on (we’ll go to the next one), so I went to Murano and called. He showed up soon after. We had a very nice time talking to the other two couples, both from the San Diego area. We agreed to meet at 8:30 at the Passport Bar on Saturday. We then got dressed for the first specialty dinner of the cruise, Murano. We stopped at the lounge for a while and tried to work with the concierges to fix Glen’s app, which showed he had 0 OBC. The net result was that mine also reverted to 0. They tried to fix it, but couldn’t so we gave up and went to dinner. We were seated quickly,. I started with the spinach salad. Generally, I don’t eat the egg and whatever it’s on top of. We had the chateaubriand for our main, and it was a little underdone, but still very good. I finished with the grand Mariner soufflé’s and a latte. The latte is very pretty. We called it a night after that.

They do as of now. The breakfast menu has rolled to the new weird one, and I've seen a couple new things on this menu, but the DB specials are still the old one. Glad to be the bearer of good news.

I don't think so. I substitute steak in Luminae a lot, and never ever had a charge. Why do you think that?

Here's our boarding experience. @Baynanno1, this was not our best suite boarding, and thanks for adding your perspective. I appreciate it. Mega trip Day 4 - Boarding Day - Wednesday 1 Today, we board for our 41 day adventure. As mentioned, I will see what I do after we arrive in Sydney. We’d booked a transfer.with MySingapore-Holiday, the company who picked us up at the airport. We’d booked a shared transfer with our new friends Brenda and Robin from Ottawa. They’re at a different hotel, so they created a custom two hotel transfer for us. Their hotel is in little India, and ours near they bay, yet the company said we should be picked up first. They told us to be ready at 11:00 am. We got up in time for breakfast at around 9:15. I had my last very well made omelette and enjoyed my usually latte. I do miss brewed coffee in the morning, which I will get on the ship. We got back to the room at about 10:15, and packed up everything left. At about 10:40 we did one last check and headed to the lobby to wait for our ride. A few minutes later I decided to tell the bell staff that we were expecting a ride, When I gave them my name, they said my ride was there. So we brought our bags out and loaded into a 8 seater SUV, with the back row down. I texted Brenda to let her know we were on our way. It took about 15 minutes, and we seemed to be going away from the port area, but what do I know? We picked them up a little after 11 and they were ready. We then drove back the way we came, and eventually reached the cruise terminal. There was another ship there - the Genting Dream (yes, that Genting that folded a while ago). I think that was, however, not a turnaround for them. We were dropped in the basement of the terminal, where there were some workers taking luggage. This area was for bus/coach drop-off, which turned out to matter. We joined the queue to check our bags which took about 10 minutes, because the people ahead of us didn’t have tags. When it was our turn, they noticed we had tags, so they put some stickers on a told us to go upstairs. Upstairs we found the checkin area. This is the chaotic check in area. We found an area that said retreat, and we asked. They seemed confused, and just told us to go sit down in the chairs with everyone else. I asked another guy and he asked why we didn’t have stickers? (I explained we checked our bags downstairs, and there was nothing about stickers). He took a picture of my boarding pass and left. A few minutes later, he came back with two sheets of stickers, and gave us one of each to put on. He then took us to an elevator and took us to the mezzanine, opening on the other side. There we found the retreat checkin area. We were seated and then checked in. Eventually Johna, the retreat manager said hello. Mar, one of the concierges, who’d been my concierge last time I was on the Solstice, said hello , too. We grabbed some coffee and Mar came back and told us to head down the nearby escalator to the next step when we were ready. We waited until a group had gone down, and then headed down into a line for immigration. Mar caught up with us there, and told us she’d meet us at the other end (no priority) and take our passports and Bali Visa. It took a few minutes to get to the front, and while my passport scan went fine, the thumbprint and “look up” took a few tries. Mar met us after we got through, and walked us up to the front of the line. She took our passports and visas, She handed us off to Leticia from Argentina who is an Effy rep. She took us onto the ship, by our muster station and then to our room. Walter, our butler was putting something in the room when we got there, so he introduced himself, and went on his merry way. Glen still thought we were in a sky suite, and was very surprised when she opened the door, and there was a second room. We got the move up in late February and I managed not to tell him. He is actually surprised. We looked around, and then decided to get lunch at Sushi on 5, since our room includes unlimited specialty dining. The restaurant was pretty empty and we were seated right away. I started with chicken gyozas, and Glen had their miso soup. He had a triple roll set (not sure what that is), and I had shrimp tempura roll. Thats about the only sushi I eat. For dessert, I had their gingerbread with Wasabi ice cream. It was surprisingly good. After lunch we went to the retreat lounge to meet the concierges, While there, we ran into our friend Ann from Vancouver, so we sat and chatter with her, her husband, and their friends. Glen went up before I did and mid afternoon texted that the bags were there, Next up was unpacking. There’s not a ton of drawer space here, but we managed. At 4, I went up to do trivia with one of our cruise critic people. She’ll be there every day. We did OK, but there are no prizes now, so it’s just for fun. Glen and I then wandered around for a while waiting for the ship to leave. At about 7, we finally did, and we went to a public deck to watch. We noticed that on the Genting ship, there there were colored lights flashing. We also noticed that the ship was now run by World Resort cruises, which I guess took it over after Gentings bankruptcy. After we pulled away, we noticed the flashing lights spell out Dream Cruises. You can kind of see it. We then dressed for dinner, our first meal in Luminae. I started with the Roasted Apple Salad, and had the steak fries from main dining. For dessert I ordered the Vacharin, but our waiter brought the chocolate ganache by mistake. He left it and then brought the correct dessert. After dinner we went back to the room and called it a night. We’re off and running.

As others have said, there have been a couple of port days with early (2 pm ish) all aboard whwere Luminae has been open for lunch, in order, I think, to take some crowding out of the buffet. It may have been on Apex, where the Luminae kitchen is different than the main dining kitchen, so not dependent on them.

Mega trip - day 3 Singapore 3 -Tuesday 1 Today was to be a low key day, as I have a final to take. I’ve been taking a US History class, and this is finals week. The test was supposed to be open on the 26 and 27. My first thought was great, as I could finish it before getting on the ship. But due to the tine difference, it would open around midnight on the night of the 26th, so I’d pretty much have to do it on the ship. I emailed the teacher, and he was happy to open it from the 25-26 for me. So it opened at Midnight between Monday and Tuesday for me. We began by going to breakfast. I took my folder of teachers lectures with me, because for tests, I do best if I reread them. There were a lot for this class, so it took about 2 hours. After that, I went back to the room to take the test, which was 25 multiple choice questions, and 5 essay questions (you only do your choice of two essays). We have 2.5 hours for it. I did get 24/25 multiple choice correct. He’ll have to grade the essays, but there are some advantages to being a highly educated older person, rather than a 19 year old community college student. After that we decided to take a walk. The Merlion statue was just over 1 kilometer away and about a 15-20 minute walk. Seems doable. About a block from the hotel is a major intersection. In order to cross, you can go to a pedestrian underpass. What’s nice is that it’s air conditioned. We crossed that, and came up near the “Esplanade Theaters.”. There’s a cool water feature in front. After that, you cross a bridge and there you are. We noticed some food stands nearby, so thought maybe we’d get something, but nothing appealed. Again, the heat made it difficult. So we walked back. On the way, a group of young girls in matching tee shirts asked us to take their picture. Glen was happy to oblige. Apparently, they’re a school from Thailand. Once back at the hotel, we stopped by the lounge for their high tea. I had a little bit of food, including something they called a Chicken Fluff Bun. It was OK. Our next event was a dinner with our friends plus two others from our roll call. We decided to go to a steak restaurant that apparently is related (franchised maybe) to a chain in Paris and New York that we like, called L’entrecote. It’s about a 20 minute walk, but an easy metro ride. We’d been told that we can use our phones for metro, so that should be easy and quick. Our reservation was at 7:30, and Google maps said it was a 7 minute train ride. So we figured that 40 minutes should be enough to get there early. Wrong. First, it turns out the station at our hotel, doesn’t hose the line that goes to the Customs House (where the restaurant is) - for that, you have to walk through the mall to a different station (at least it’s underground and air conditioned). Next we had to find the right track for our destination, and get into the system. (My phone had some issues, so it took a couple of minutes). The train itself came quickly and we only went two stops. Once out of the train, however, we had to find exit J as that was where google maps told us to get off. J was a fairly long walk from the train, and so it took us a total of 35 minutes to get there. We found the restaurant with 5 minutes to spare, and we were the last there. They had us at an outside table, and apparently Singapore hasn’t discovered the misters that they have in Arizona. I asked about moving inside, and, while it was a small inside, they were able to accommodate us. A bit about the restaurant. It’s got one menu item - steak frites, with a simple salad. They have a secret sauce on it that’s really good. All they ask when you order is how you want your steak done. The salad was good, but a little underdressed. The steak was also good, but the sauce wasn’t quite right, and I can’t put my finger on what’s different. It was a very pleasant evening in any case. Originally, since it said a 20 minute walk, we thought we’d walk back. Jodi and Rich were at a hotel by the Merlion and that was on the way, so we decided to walk back with them. It turns out that their hotel had a sister hotel by the restaurant, and there was an underground tunnel linking them, so we waked back to their hotel with them. Once there, it was a little confusing trying to figure out how to get to the Merlion to get back, so we just used map routing. We walked a slightly different route, but ultimately ended up at the theater where we took our underground tunnel under the intersection. We did get to watch some young men showing off their breakdancing skills. We were back at the hotel by 10, did some packing and called it a night. Luggage tags went on, as tomorrow, we meet the Solstice.

We got a travel router and it was working great until we got on the Connie in January and DH couldn't connect. He thought that maybe Celebrity was doing this too, so we just ended up buying a second device each (we had a lot of OBC). We tested it when we got home, and that wasn't it at all. The router was broken, since it didn't work at home either. The new one has a way of bypassing this problem. We just got on the Solstice yesterday, and we get 4 devices each with our moved up RS. We'll see what happens when we go to a sky suite on April 9.

We're currently on the Solstice in our moved up full suite, so we have a butler. I asked him about the sky suite butlers, since we'll move to a Sky suite on the 9th of April. He said that we would have a dedicated (not head) butler, but they are starting them with 22 plus or minus rooms. His view is that they'll eventually have to reduce the number back. Our head butler on Beyond had over 50, so I guess that's an improvement. It looks like, to me, they are still trying to staff up to even 25 rooms per. Maybe that's why they have June as the date. I have two of my former butlers who were gone (one on maternity - the other wasn't plannign to come back) who are back. So for my Saturday post, it will be reported/oartially back, because there's no way to know for sure if they're fully staffed. .

Megatrip Day 2 Singapore Monday 1 We have been waking up early, but taking our time getting ready for the day. Today we hit breakfast around 9:15. It’s nice but if you want any coffee, it’s served and espresso roast, so I get lattes. There is a guy making pretty good cheese omelettes, so I had another one today. We don’t have plans today until 1:30, so we decided to check out the local mall. ‘Before we left I took some pictures of the room, so, as promised, here are my comments. The bed. Notice the room is very narrow? The desk. There is a lot of space between the bed and the desk, and nothing there. This makes for very limited countertop storage for backpacks. (There was however, a lot of closet space). The entrance to the bathroom. Separate toilet and shower stall. On the left, you can see the small counter area. That’s all there is. And the dead space next to the limited counter. I don’t get it. I forgot to get a picture of the shower, but it’s very deep and the controls are at the far wall. It’s a rain shower midway, and, as you turn it on, it’s cold water and you have to hug the wall to not get cold. Also the shampoo etc are on the far wall, so to use them, you have to go away from the water. That’ was the biggest impracticality. Anyway, it was off to the the mall. Lots of shops I knew and lots of food shops. Our next plan was to meet our new friends Brenda and Robin at Raffles for tea. We/ve been chatting online for months, so it was really nice to meet in person. When we arrived in Singapore on Saturday night, I got. A message from the manager of the tea that they weren’t doing their regular tea, but their cherry blossom festival tea. However they were going to honor the regular tea price, but couldn’t accommodate gluten free or vegan. I had learned that Brenda is allergic to all things from the sea., so I asked her about that. Her response was that they could do different desserts, because they use fish gel in the desserts. (Huh?). I then asked about the savories, which seemed to come from a sushi restaurant. I’d stopped by yesterday, and explained all that to the manager (it’s across the street from our hotel) and thought she understood. The result was sort of. We met them there, and when the food came out both Brenda and I had fish stuff. They said it was crabmeat, which is not fish. So they took that away and gave us eggs and small roast beef sandwiches. The sandwiches were Ok. The desserts though, were the same for all, meaning they had fish gel. They were, however, very pretty. They did make Brenda a couple extra, and in the end they didn’t charge for her. So it was all good. As far as tea at Raffles goes, you go for the ambiance. They food is mediocre. We were supposed to only have 1.5 hours, but they let us stay until we were almost late to get to our next venue. We were meeting Jodi and Rich at Gardens by the Bay at 4:30. Our original plan was to walk, but it was very hot, so we decided to take a cab. We ended up being a few minutes early. And met them at the entrance. We’d purchased tickets to the Skywalk and to the Cloud Forest/Flower Dome. We first went to the sky walk, but it was crowed with a school group from, apparently, Taiwan. Every time it looked like the line was getting shorter, another batch of those kids would show up, so we gave up and went to the cloud forest. It’s a dome that contains a waterfall, and lots of plants that can be seen in the cloud forests of the world. You can go up an elevator and do a walk down that takes you behind the big waterfall and shows you others. In addition to the waterfall there are several gardens, including this glass one by Dale Chiholy. This is a view down from the Cloud walk. There were also gardens along the way. Overall, it was very well done. Next, we went back to the sky walk, and the line was shorter, with no school groups arriving. Marine Bay Sands hotel from the skywalk. This is a rather large interesting plant from the skywalk. It looks like a small cabbage plant from here. The base of one of the SuperTrees. They are the image of the Gardens. The Singapore Flyer from the skywalk. It was about 7:15 when we finished, so we decided to stick around for the the light show at the Super Trees. We found a spot to sit and wait. The show was set to opera, in the US it would be Bon Jovi or something. The lights were very pretty. The show was about 15 minutes give or take. After the show, Jodi and Rich decided to get a cab back, and we decided to check out the hawker food courts here. We ended up walking to the far end of the garden, to a court called Sayta by the Bay. Glen had some chicken and rice, and I had some Satay. After that, we headed back to the taxi line. It was short, but we noticed a lot of people to talking to the drives, and not getting in. I asked a driver the price and it was 2.5 times what we paid going over. I do have the Grab app, but I couldn’t figure out where they wanted me to meet them, so we decided to walk. To get to our hotel, we had to cross the Singapore River. This is the Helix bridge, the pedestrian bridge across. It was about 2 kilometers, so I was pretty wiped at the end. We got back to the hotel and collapsed. Tomorrow is our last full day in Singapore.

Hi there. I found this thread a couple of days agin so I'll follow along as we do our first B22B2. My very first Celebrity cruise as on the Equinox. By the way, after we get back from this, our next cruise will be up your way in August. It would be nice to meet.

Hi, Yesterday - I was going to post but my computer decided to freeze for a while. It's better now, and here is Sunday. Mega Trip - Day 1 Today is our first of 3 full days in Singapore. This is our second time here, as in 2015 we did a long weekend here (combination mileage run and hope to meet a friend here). So, we don’t need to try to see everything, although we do have some plans. Our plan for today was to visit the national Museum, since it was being remodeled last time, and their main history exhibit was in the basement. Also, we’re meeting Jodi and Rich from our roll call to go to the Night Safari. We did sleep some last night, and woke up around 8 this morning. We took our time getting dressed, and at about 9:15 we headed to their lounge for breakfast. It was very busy, but they offer both Asian and Western food. In addition they had a guy making egg dishes, which I know you’d never see in a US lounge. I ordered an omelette, and also had bacon and potatoes. They don’t have brewed coffee, so you have to order espresso drinks from the staff. I flagged someone down and got a latte, which is the only espresso drink I like (An Americano is not the same as regular coffee). After breakfast we decided to walk to the museum. This is just out of our hotel. The walk was pretty nice, with many tree shaded areas. We passed Raffles Hotel, and churches. We got to the museum at about 10:45. We had some Singapore money that we wanted to use, so we were directed into the museum through a vestibule, and rather the long way. There was a guy coming in about the same time as us, and he didn’t like doing that. We didn’t care. It was 15.00 SN for each of us, so not bad. The gentleman at the entrance suggested we first go to the basement, where they have an exhibit about plastic. Ok. We headed to the basement, and it was indeed all about plastic. It started with a kids area including this sign. I liked that it started with wakey wakey. It shows we use a lot of plastic. They also had a wall display of the different kinds of plastics. I’m sure everyone has seen the triangles on plastic things with a number between 1 and 7. Now I know what they all are. Next was the main exhibit which was a history of plastics, lots of examples of things made of plastic, and finally a room about recycling. US doesn’t do very well. I can now say I know more about plastic than I ever wanted to. We next went up to the main exhibit in the museum, the history gallery. This is very detailed, and very well done, and you could probably spend a day here if you wanted to read everything. Here are a few things we saw. This is a rickshaw that was used in the 19th century This is a bell that was cast by the Paul Revere foundry (we learned in Boston that he wasn’t the only rider that night, but his name was the only one that rhymed with hear.). This was presented to the Church of St. Andrew by Maria Revere Balestier, Rever’s daughter. She was married to the first American Consul in Singapore. The history gallery is very detailed and you could potential spend a day there. We spent about 2 hours. It does trace the history of Singapore to the present. After we finished there we went to the third floor where they had their dome. It was an art installation about the forest, and then a photo exhibit of trees of Singapore. Walking into the the dome, you walk across a bridge. This is on either side. After that, you walk down the spiral of the dome, with a fanciful animated forest. I'm reasonably certain neon pink deer do not exist in real forests. After that, we left the museum and walked back to the hotel. It is so very hot here that we needed to get back to the AC for a while. I did stop by the tea and had a small sandwich. Tonight we’re off to the night safari. We’re meeting people from our roll call, Jodi and Rich at our hotel lobby just before 6pm. Our concierges here have arranged for a cab to take us there. At 5:45 we headed to the lobby, and they were waiting, so we decided to go then. It took about 30 minutes, and our driver was very friendly, telling us things about life in Singapore. (It’s pretty regimented here). Since we were last here, there have been significant changes to the route in. Now you’re in underground garages going to all the different parks, back in 2015, you would just pull up to the front of the park you wanted. We waited in line and at about 6:40 we entered the park. First up we stopped at the amphitheater (their term) to get tickets for the 8:30 “Creatures of the Night” show (Rocky Horror Picture Show comes to mind). Following that we got in line for the tram that takes you around the park. It took about 25 minutes for our turn, but we spent the time chatting with Jodi and Rich. They live about 40 miles from us I think. Here are some animals we saw on the tram. Random horned animal These are female lions. Sorry it’s blurry, the tram was moving. Can’t see a zoo without elephants. After the tram, we had some time til the show, so Jodi and Rich waited and Glen and I walked a trail. The problem is that after dark it’s sometimes hard to see the animals if they’re not moving. Glen was a little better at it then I was, but by using my camera on the phone, I could locate the creature and then watch. We did watch them feed a small cat - a fisher cat. At around 8 we got a text that people were lining up, so we walked back and joined them. We were eventually let into the auditorium, there was bench seating and we got seats about 8 rows up and center. The host presented different animals, and snapped pictures of them close up. This is a turkey vulture. I believe it’s a North American bird. Next up were some owls, and then other small creatures such as foxes. The porcupine was the finale. It was only about a 25 minute show, but we enjoyed it. After that, everyone was ready to go. It’s still very hot. We walked back to where were dropped off and found the cab line. There was a cab that could hold 4 waiting, so off we went. The driver dropped us off and then continued on to drop Jodi and Rich. We’ll see them tomorrow at Gardens by the Bay. In the hotel we asked the concierges about any restaurants that we open that had inside seating. There’s a restaurant across from the hotel, in what they call South Beach (it’s sort of a mall with mostly bars and restaurants), called Harrys. They’re open until at least 11. I had a burger, Glen had fish and chips. They were both pretty good. After that we walked back to the room and called it a night.

After going to bed early yesteday, I waited until today to get the next one. Without further ado: Megatrip day 0 continued. After leaving the UA lounge, we headed back to the international terminal. We parked ourselves at the gate, and then I took a walk to look at the gate art. G9 had my favorite I also stopped at a to go food restaurant to use the vouchers ANA gave us because the Polaris lounge wasn’t servicing food this late. I got some stuff from Kara’s cupcake store, caramel corn and marshmallows, which will probably go home with us. The plane is a 777. Ana allows 30 minutes for boarding. I wasn’t optimistic, but they did start a couple of minutes early and managed to get the plane boarded and to leave early. When it was our turn, I settled into my business class seat. Better seat storage than United, I think. There was no dinner served, but the do offer a couple small “amuse bouches” with their after takeoff beverages. In this case it was smoked salmon on toast, and a small caprese salad. After that I watched a move - Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is the prequel to the main series. I then tried to sleep for a while, with limited success. I gave up after a while and watched a second movie - Anatomy of a Fall. During that movie they did serve breakfast. I had scrambled eggs and it came with bacon (let’s just say it’s hard to do bacon on a plane) and potatoes. It wasn’t bad overall. The credit on the move were rolling as we landed, almost 1 hour early. We were at the gate at about 3:55 am. We gathered our stuff, headed off the plane, and followed the signs to International transfers. There were 2 different areas for that. We were in terminal 3, and there was an area for that and one for shuttle to terminal 2. A sign in front of the terminal 2 area, included our flight to Singapore. We headed down a nonworking escalator to the transfer area, and there was no one there but a security guard. He indicated that the shuttle didn’t start until 5 am. So we had an hour. We went back upstairs, and parked ourselves on a bench near the escalators. Glen pulled out his iPad, and I took a walk. I walked through the entire arrivals terminal, and there is nothing there except gates. Finally, at about 4:50, we headed back to the shuttle area. There was a departure board there, and it indicated that our flight was in terminal 3, which was where we were. So two signs in conflict. We asked the airport employee, who’d arrived since we were last there, and she confirmed terminal 2. At about 4:55 we boarded a shuttle bus. I’d say there were 7-10 people, and probably half had come from our flight. It took a good 20 minutes to get to terminal 2, definitely not walkable, as it seemed to be in a completely different part of the airport. Once there we had to do a security screening, and then found the ANA lounge nearby. We checked in and settled in for a long wait, since we have to leave to board at about 10:15. The agent at checkin did confirm we were in right terminal, at least. Once we arrived, it was sunrise. Japan is known as the land of the Rising Sun, and that’s their flag, so there you go. At about 7:30 I decided to take a shower. They do have showers there, and they are pretty well equipped. They have toothbrushes, combs, and a blow dryer. It was very nice, and really helped my overall disposition. Throughout our 5 hour stay, we enjoyed some of their snacks. I did try a noodle bowl and Glen had some ANA special curry. I tried it - it was good, but too spicy for me. At 10:15 we headed to the gate, and it was indeed in that terminal and near the lounge (2 floors down). The plane is a 787, two class plane. We boarded, and the seating area wasn’t quite as nice as we’d had on the first flight, but we still had lay flats. We left about 1 minute late, but were still projected to arrive about 30 minutes early. On this flight, I started with Wonka, the movie about the beginnings of Willie Wonka. I enjoyed it. After that, I thought about the original Hunger Games, but after about 10 minutes, decided I didn’t have enough concentration for that. I started Frozen 2, a favorite, and slept through some of that. If you’ve seen it, you know that Christophe is the best boyfriend ever. When he sweeps Anna up and rescues her, he doesn’t ask her why she left, he just asks what she needs him to do. I then watched the Jonny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was fun and different than the first. Note that Wonka used a lot of music from the 1971 original, this only had music by the Oompa-Loompas. I had the map on for the last 30 minutes of the flight. We did arrive about 30 minutes early, but it seemed to take forever to get to the gate, since were were on the furthest gate on the back side of the airport. We were, however, pretty close to the arrival area. Fun fact: Unless you’re connecting, you’re an international arrival, and all connections are international. There are no domestic flights in Singapore. There weren’t a lot of people in the arrivals area, and we quickly got to the two part passport scan area. First, you scan your passport, look at the camera and, if your arrival card is done, you pass to the next scan. On this one, they scan your thumb, and take a picture - apparently that registers you in Singapore. It took a few tries for my picture but eventually we got it. I did later get an email that said I could come and go for 3 months. Our bags came quickly and we headed through nothing to declare. I then couldn’t find a person with a sign with our name. Fortunately I have have What’sApp contact with the company, and the airport has wifi. It took about 10 minutes, but we did connect with our friendly driver. We followed him to the area next to the garage, and waited while he got his car. We were soon on our way into the city. We had a friendly chat with him, and he recommended we go to the top of the Swiss Hotel for a picture. We might do that later. After about 25 minutes, we arrived at the JW Marriott South Beach. It wasn’t here the last time we were here, so we decided to try it for the location, as it’s near lots of stuff. It only took a few minutes to check in, and we had a slight upgrade to a deluxe room. The room is big, and the bathroom is huge, but there are some practicality issues. Before I leave, I’ll show some pictures. We were very tired, so instead of going out for dinner, we went to the lounge. It had a a very nice cook to order section of soup and noodles, as well as chicken katsu don. They also had cheese and crackers, some fruit and bread. I had the chicken katsu, but they had to make it twice, since they hot sauce they use has fish flakes and I’d said no fish (hate it). It was pretty good, and about all I wanted. Glen opted for noodles. After that it was was around 8:30, so we headed to the room, and called it a night. I ended up going to bed around 10:15. I figured from the time the first plane left until we cleared customs in Singapore it was 25 hours of travel, so a very necessary early night.

Greetings from Singapore, where I will soon know the status of Butlers on the Solstice. It turns out this is going to be harder than I thought, since there's some discussion of what that means etc. But I'll give it my best shot. Confirmed: Ascent Beyond Eclipse Edge Reflection Possible: (some say yes, some say no): Apex Solstice As always, let me know if I've missed anything.

Thanks - made it to Tokyo, and so far he hasn't asked about anything except weights in the room. I asked the shoreside concierge if maybe they could do it.