Jim_Iain

13 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

Just to clarify for those who might know: The 5 GB data limit  on Magenta Max 55+ applies only to intenational high speed data, but US high speed data is unlimited. Beyond 5GB, international data is unlimited at 256 kbs.  WhatsApp uses data whether it's cell or WiFi.

 

 

I have an older plan called  2 Line One All In Plan and when traveling internationally I also get 5g Speed when available for 5gb of data.   After that it throttles my speed to 256 kbs (unlimited). 

I've only passed the 5 Gb usage a couple times and the 256 was ok for using maps etc but little else. 

Enjoying your live post.   The photos are incredible.

1 hour ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Despite having Global Entry, this has happened to me twice. I dread those four letters.  The worst was in Barcelona and they took me to the basement in a small concrete block room. They left me in there for 10 minutes before finally coming in for a thorough check of me and my suitcase 🤨.  Both times I was flying on two separate one way tickets (we had sailed Amsterdam to Barcelona in this case and one flight was booked with miles), and I'm convinced that's what caused it.

I think I got the same treatment once coming through JFK.   It was a connecting flilght so got the treatment both in San Francisco and then again at JFK.    In my case at the entry to the plane the took me aside to a screened off area to do the secondary. 

I have a feeling that even with Global Entry it is just random.   On this one Iain got it and I didn't.  We have never both been tagged on the same trip.

15 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 I hear you on that one.  I am very tempted to fly to Honolulu, spend a day or two, then fly to Sydney.  Coming from the East Coast - going direct to Sydney would be one heck of a travel day, or should I say two days.  14 hours non-stop to Japan was bad enough.  We’ll just have to see how flights and schedules work out. 

 

That would indeed be a long trip.     I guess the question is do you just bite the bullet and do it in one huge trip or spread it out over a couple days.     I usually find the hardest part is to get my head around it pre-flight but once on board just buy an internet package and carry on.

I've done it before on a B2B in an upper suite.   My intention was to give it do him on turn around day and expecting it back in 2 days.... it came back that night.... I'm sure our butler did some special pushing behind the scene.

I often send out our dinner jackets when we first board to be pressed and always get them back for 1st Chic night the next day.

2 hours ago, Maui4us said:

Really glad you guys aren't in Hawai'i right now. We have a Winter Storm Warning for Mauna Kea & Mauna Loa with up to 6 inches of snow and wind gusts over 70 mph. The whole state is under flood warnings. Can't wait to see all of our blooms after the rain! Our Rainbow Shower Tree will be gorgeous!!

-Kelley

It is incredible when those Winter Storms hit...   I'm sure many are amazed that they get Snow on the peaks....

Hope you get a nice show of colors from the rains.

2 hours ago, gordylad said:

Jim, you mentioned Iain loves mince n tatties [no wonder]......my mother wasn't much of a cook as both my parents worked long hours so my older sister introduced me to to Spaghetti Bolognese [in Glasgow in the 70's I was a teenager] so this new food was something else having been brought up eating spam, steak pie [made by the local butcher], liver [sorry but I could not face that now]...however I don't know when Iain left Scotland but ask him if he remembers Vesta Curries......a curry in a bag thing whereby you added the mixture to hot water....this came before the boil in the bag curries.........those were the days

Iain is cooking up a batch now.    He always makes a big batch and then we freeze it for future meals.   This one I thin he used 4 lbs of Ground Turkey.     We have been eating the poultry version so long I now find the Lamb version far too rich. 

Iain remembers the Vesta Curries but was never and still is not a curry fan.

16 hours ago, baytraller said:

Jim could you please list upcoming cruises

 

Hope to read reviews of other Cruise Lines

 

Will reviews be on Celebrity or Cruise Line you will be sailing

 

Have enjoyed your great review all the best

 

Cheers

 

Peter

Oceania Regatta - 9/14/2024  - 12 Night Alaska Cascadia

Cunard  QM2 - 10/25/2024 - East Bound Trans Atlantic

Silhouette - 11/16/2024 - 13 Night Trans Atlantic

Oceania Vista - 11/09/2025 10 Night Med

Cunard QM2 -  10/30/2025 - East Bound Trans Atlantic

Equinox - 11/21/2025   15 Night Portugal to Buenos Aires

I also have them updated in my Signature.  

I haven't figured out yet how I will post.    I will probably do a comparison Live Review -  possibly split it up so don't abuse the CC policies of staying on subject of the thread.  

7 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

@Jim_Iain I warned you and now you are to blame .. We just finished with our appointment with the Future Cruise manager in the Retreat Lounge and are now booked on Solstice, April 19, 2025 - Sydney to Honolulu.  Now I have to start looking at flights and hotels on both end of the 17-day Transpacific cruise.  

 

 

Fantastic -- I think you will enjoy.    The only downside is the long flight to Sydney.

The small groups I've been on are usually the 20 passenger tour busses.   In Fiji we had a small group jeep tour and most only had drier, guide and two guests.    We had one odd person so had to ride 3 pax in that jeep.

14 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

I had two scoops of ice cream in the OVC and they tasted fine to me.

At lunch the other day I had the white chocolate macadamia nut cake with pistachio gelato and it tasted just fine.

 

last night in Tuscan we shared the lemon sherbet and it did have ice in it but I think that is normal for sherbet - in any case it was very tasty! 
 

So if there have been supplier changes, they have not reached Millennium yet that I can tell.

 

 

I found the Ice Cream in OVC ok and of course in the Gelato area.     I think it was confined to Vanilla in Luminae.   The waiter said they had a new recipe.     If a desert had a gelato with it I would order the Gelato instead.  The gelato were all good.

23 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

Istanbul is a fantastic city 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷

You need 3-days at least to do it all in a comfortable timeframe. 
 

You can rush through everything, but I strongly recommend at least 3-days so you can have dinners out and soak into Istanbuls potpourri of Arabic, Europe and Asia. 

Thanks --- will keep into consideration.   I haven't booked the air yet.   We are taking Cunard from NY to Southampton and then will be visiting Iain's family in Scotland pre-cruise so will have to figure out how much time we have

We have a friend that went through a similar situation.   I'm really sorry for you loss.

In her case she was able to shift to a Single  and got Double points.   

7 hours ago, hcat said:

 If not elite yet, hope you will get there soon!

 

Jim made another great suggestion..cafe Baccio  but just pastries.  Heard they niw have snall sammies at lunch time.

Recently they have also had 3 types of small sandwiches in the afternoon tea time.

They don't have the entire menu but can make the regulars --as well as many that have booze in them.   They do not have pastries or snacks...

They also sell Premium OJ, Water, Wine and basic adult beverages. 

Thanks for posting.   I've started researching Explore.    I really had not heard of them until I saw them in HNL.    Your review makes us even more interested.

You have many good choices -  OVC of course, but Eden Cafe (free),  Aqua Spa Cafe for light breakfasts, Captain's Club Elite and above breakfast.   Al Bacio has pastries and coffee

I have to share the joy of getting back to California.   Due to the went winter and spring the wild flowers are in full bloom and much more abundant than normal.

Due to our usual drought conditions many homes have natural landscape and are incredible.

Well we are getting back to normal -   I had a big surprise in the Mail --- Got summoned for Jury Duty on the week of May 20th... ugh.

I had accidentally tossed it in the  junk mail stack, luckily Iain went through the stack and said ---you've got mail.

On 5/8/2024 at 8:52 AM, Mike981 said:

 

Funny you just put those shoes on here Jim. I just finished a six part documentary called The Power of Film, if you like movies I think you will enjoy it. It breaks down the formulas used to create the movies and helped me understand some of the classics better.

 

I found it on MAX/HBO, my wife said it was a little to much like going to college and I explained that the host is a professor at UCLA (I believe) and that would make sense. They ended the documentary talking about The Wizard of Oz, and it really is an easy watch.

 

 

Ummmm, I just let my cartoon bubbles float away and leave it at that. 😉

 

Glad you two made it home safe, now Iain can make you that dinner you were looking forward to.

 

Take care friends and thanks again for such a fun trip review, although, I feel your reviews are more of being let into you and Iain's life. And it is very special.

Thanks Mike.... hope you enjoy your upcoming cruise.

On 5/8/2024 at 5:35 AM, MyView said:

Jim, we are considering our first cruise back with Celebrity since the Pandemic and are considering the Edge classs Sky suite.  If you don't mind could you speak as to why you don't seem to care for this class?  We have always enjoyed Celebrity but am now feeling a little nervous about booking after reading a number of fairly negative comments.  Would certainly appreciate your perspective.  Also why are you not as satisfied with Celebrity and booking other lines.  Thanks so much and always enjoy following your travels.  Catherine

Our main decision is related to the food in Luminae.   While they have the same menus we get the feeling the meals are being made banquet style and were often over cooked, missing items or cold in the middle of numerous entrees.   On the M and S class ships they cook all dishes to order -  there may be a slightly longer wait time but was very pleased with all meals I've ever had on M and S Class ships.

The other thing we don't like is the sheer number of additional people.   While it usually doesn't affect Suite Passengers --- Disembarkation at some ports cold take 2+ hours and even leaving the ship as a Suite Passenger with escorts was delayed and of course the glares you get as you are escorted to the front of the line can be uncomfortable.

The other thing we don't like is that all of the specialty restaurants are open air (no walls) and very noisy.    Finally there is not Tuscan Specialty or Murano.     Final Cut's just doesn't do it for us.

On 5/7/2024 at 5:52 AM, Liao said:

I’m curious, other than the standard post cruise survey, has Celebrity ever contacted you directly to follow up for more detail?  Wonderful review, thank you for sharing this!

In all my years I have never been contacted for further details.     I have however both spoken to Laura and written her.    She agreed with my comments and indicated changes were coming and hoped to win us back as dedicated Celebrity Cruisers.

22 hours ago, Spyder2up said:

Thank you for the detailed rule…he may also decide to leave it in the car.

Will be interesting to hear what you find out.   I have a similar one I usually carry and left it at home on my last cruise.   I was tempted to put it in my shaving kit and see if I could get it aboard.

I later figured I wouldn't be able to bring it ashore and back to the ship so ditched the Idea.

11 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

Hmmmm 🫣🫥 what the heck happened? 

What is going on? It tastes just like egg whites😑🙄🫨😵😵‍💫🥴

Really just 😮‍💨🥴🤢😵😵‍💫 not good. 

We thought it was just us but on Solstice the Ice Cream really wasn't good at all.    Tasted like ultra cheap ice milk.   The taste on the Vanilla Ice Cream also was just off.

So excited to see and hear of your time in Istanbul.      Never been before and will be taking a cruise from there in Nov 2025

I think we will be spending 2-3 days there per-cruise.