twangster

Once Pinnacle you don't need to manually enter DP340. No idea why, but D+ have to enter it every. single. time. This may be one of the biggest unpublished Pinnacle perks. I can't tell you how many times I have entered DP340 before that.

New to me: 18+ , sorry kids.

Labadee has a pickleball court now.

Apparently Bayley just slipped, or almost slipped, or fake slipped, on a call He (somewhat intentionally) started to state "Utopia is going into the short..." Then he stopped himself.

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/panama-canal-reduces-the-maximum-depth-limit-on-vessels-due-to-drought/ Drought forces the Panama Canal to change the maximum allowed draft for neo-Panamax vessels. This shouldn't impact Radiance as it applies only to the largest ships using the new locks but it is interesting to see even rain soaked Panama is expereincing drought. Maybe that means less chance of rain for us. 🙂

Does it show a fake handrail in the day? That snow could be the camera gain going up in the dark. If so that's common. When you first said snow I pictured the classic snow from analog TV days of old. At daybreak or after sunset does the snow gradually change to or from a picture of the outside?

Mine have always been black with the superimposed handrail at night.

Try an aft cabin on Quantum class. The mid-ship elevators are a hiking excursion you can book in the cruise planner. With the suite lounge located way back there and Star class way back there on a different deck it makes for a very long walk for Star guests. But it is great for the step count. Radiance class aft cabins never bothered me. The ship is small.

In other news, Southwest had a mini meltdown yesteday and asked the FAA to groundstop themselves across the US. I'm flying Southwet tomorrow. What was I thinking? Ugh.

Interesting. The once daily doesn't bother me. I'll often tell my attendant to just do evenings.

Makes me wonder if it was a Royal executive who was "found". Revenue mgmt isn't in the habit of soliciting guests especially when a cabin is booked. How exactly did they find someone willing to pay more? I believe it happened but I don't buy that revenue mgmt somehow found someone willing to pay more. I think it's more likely a Royal executive wanted the cabin and told revenue mgmt to deal with it.

Stateroom request form is new to me.

It's starting to get real...

And then there were three...

Voyager class has always been a sweet spot for me. Great size, good mix of stuff. The amplifications made a huge difference.

Another interior cabin popped open in my category so I've moved from a connecting interior cabin to a non-connecting interior. Nothing personal whomever used to be connecting to me, but I'm truly on my own now. 🙂

Move to Florida they said. Cruise all the time they said. Now I have to fly out of Florida to find cruise deals.

The rate at which work is progressing this week:

Mendenhall is a 25 minute drive from the ship. The ship does not have visibility of the glacier from it's berth or from the sail into Juneau.

Glaciers have been moving downslope and shedding ice for very long periods of time. In Endicott Arm the ships don't come close enough to impact the glacier's natural calving. You are still a mile or more away when a ship does make it "all the way". The turn produces very little if any wake. The channels of the Alaska Inside passage are tidal in nature but even that tidal action pales in comparison to the height of the face of the glacier much of which is underwater. The simple fact is that tidewater glaciers calve. When the glaciers of Endicott arm calve the ice can only go into the arm and follow the channel towards the inside passage. There isn't much current so a lot depends on winds to clear the arm and flush the ice. Sometimes there is a lot of ice and sometimes there isn't. For a cruiser on a cruise there is some luck involved. I've been in Endicott Arm five times and four of those were successful. With every passing success the odds weren't in my favor and last year we had to stop and turn around. That's just mother nature. Perhaps global warming or whatever is causing a shift or maybe it's partially influenced by the ENSO cycles and storms that hit the region. Perhaps that's just the life cycle of a glacier. They "live" for hundreds of years so one busy year or slow year of calving is a blink of the eye for a glacier. Some cruises this year will not make it. Some cruises next year will not make it. It's mostly about luck.

I'm going to make an effort to post pics of the nightly MDR menus. The app just isn't friendly to posting the menu. If my shipmates can help post a menu pic from the MDR when I forget that would be great. For a 15 night cruise I think it will be informative to see the MDR menu evolve over the cruise. Will they mix up the entrees or just rotate back through the same menu on different days? Time will tell.

Once onboard the choice is typically a 24 hour pass or a full voyage plan. The 24 hour clock starts when you purchase it and ends 24 hours later. There is no login in and out to save minutes that can be used later. By purchasing a 24 hour pass at noon you get to use it for the rest of that day and until noon the next day so you kind of have access for two days, or partial coverage of two days. Some ships will offer a shorter pass towards the end of the cruise that can be used to check in for flight. These offerings are inconsistent and may not appear on your cruise. For most CAS levels you are better to purchase a Voom plan for the full cruise if you desire to be connected on different days throughout the cruise. Some guests may get connectivity from international cellular coverage while in port. For some this is enough to check in with family or a business from time to time. Other's enjoy more frequent connectivity and that generally means paying for Voom ahead of time. It all depends what you are looking for. Each of us is different with different needs.

Absolutely please join in and post to this thread. The more of us that contribute the better it will be. Looking forward to meeting everyone on board!

I'm still trying to rationalize in my head why two ships had to swap home ports due to speed restrictions imposed for the safety of marine wildlife. Adventure and Voyager are both Voyager class yet Royal had to swap the ship home ports, Galveston < > Port Canaveral or else wildlife speed restrictions would be an issue. Ummm - they are same class of ship with the same propulsion systems. There are factors beyond my brain's capacity or there are factors beyond the ability to use the excuse of speed or engine restrictions to put something in a letter to guests to explain the why. In truth I'll never know why Royal changed ships on me citing speed restrictions. In this case I'm not sure we will ever know why speed restrictions created this change.

I didn't find this vantage point until the last lock while on Vision. This is why I love the old locks. The new locks don't use these electric mules. I am so looking forward to this cruise!