ATG

7 minutes ago, jmh2006 said:

So glad you are a ManU fan!  I didn't want to not like you 🤣.  Our DS got us hooked on them from here in the US.  We have seen them play 3 times here in the US and in 2019 went to Old Trafford for last game of the season.  It has been a rough season to be sure.  😪

Wow, I would love to go there for a game. We started watching the EPL decades ago when our sons started playing.  We wanted to see what the game really looked like.  My favorite moment was when my husband was coaching tykes (under 6) and in the middle of the game he called a time out for the kids to look at the blimp flying overhead.  He figured they would all stop playing and it was better to just stop for a minute.

26 minutes ago, MancGirl21 said:

Thank you! No I’m definitely not! I’m red through and through 😁

Not an easy season for you and my husband.  I’m a Liverpool supporter, so each weekend we root against that other Manchester team.

3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

John, it is like you two are living in our heads.  That is exactly what we do.  We are at that point in life where we try to not accumulate “things”.  So it is just cruises, or vacations, or things we need.  

 

 

I’m not a man, but Dave and I do the same.  Years ago we stopped doing any gifts.  We take our 2 adult sons on a vacation each year.  They take us out to dinner.  It has made Christmas so much more enjoyable, and without gifts we seem to focus more on the reason for the season.  If/when we have grandchildren I’m sure things will change.

6 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Such a terrible drive from san antonio to Galveston. It was horrendous. Torrential. From the time I hit I10 until Houston trying to follow headlights at much lower speeds. Seems to have had the worst of it though some arrive 1 or 2 hours late due to road closures in Houston. 

 

Mariner which I've never been on before arrived to do a special 7 day leaving tomorrow, then starts 4 and 5 day cruises. Just this one 7 day. I'd say I arrived 2 hours later than google maps suggested it would take. I'm hearing on the news houston might take weeks to recover. My hotel in Galveston was fixing their wifi which was out. Because of the storms.

 

Hopefully clear skies ahead. Cant get worse than today. We can go straight to our cabins. No pax onboard, just crew when it arrived. 

We just got off Mariner in Port Canaveral last Thursday.  The crew were looking forward to some partying! We enjoyed the cruise.  The ship was in good shape, a few signs of age in our stateroom.  We thought the food was quite good.

5 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

OMG, how terrible! However, it's a shame that the beekeeper couldn't relocate them. When we bought our Florida home a few years ago, my husband was remodeling our kitchen and, when he took out the exhaust fan above the in-cabinet stovetop, a beehive fell out onto the stovetop! Luckily, for us, there were only a few dried up/dead bees. Whew!

They moved about 90% of them (including the queen) but some didn’t make it.

it was scary. I had picked up my 2 small children (about 1 & 3) and was juggling them when I opened the door to a strange buzzing noise.  Slammed the door shut and went to the neighbors.  Luckily, he wasn’t afraid of bees and went in and got diapers and a few other things for me.  Dave was on a business trip and flying in that night.  In the days before cell phones, I called Delta and had them relay a message.  I also left a note on the door.  I’m not sure he really believed me until he went to the house and opened the door.  I’ve never been stung by a bee but several relatives are allergic, so I was freaked out!

1 hour ago, SilkySal said:

Forget which ship we were on but DH and I saw a small hawk fly onto the pool deck from one side, attempting to do a "fly-by" by exiting the other side. Unfortunately, the poor hawk hit a closed window on the other side and was knocked unconscious. I picked up a cloth napkin and placed it over the hawk, picking it up to see if it was alive or dead. He was unconscious but breathing. A young woman came over to me, explaining that she was a wild animal rehabber and asked to check it out for physical damage. I handed her the little hawk and she proceeded to check out it's wings for any damage. No damage found. She then promised to take it up to the higher open deck and sit with the hawk until (hopefully) it regained consciousness. Lo and behold, the little hawk woke up and flew off of the ship. The little hawk circled the ship (as if to say thank you) and flew away. It was a really wonderful thing to see! I would do the exact same thing again in a heart beat!

 

Another time, while on a cruise, a queen bee decided to leave the island and brought her worker bees with her to the pool deck, where she decided to nest under one of the deck umbrellas. It was amazing to see how quickly so many bees nested under that umbrella! We notified ship staff, who quickly roped off the area, donned those white (Covid) suits, and brought Henry (the ship vacuum) with them. They proceeded to "suck up" all (or most) of the bees. We asked them what would happen to the bees and we were told that they would be taken back to the island and released. I hope that happened. Luckily, no one got stung!

 

Happy cruising! Cheers!

 

I came home from work one Friday to find our house filled with bees.  We ended up at a hotel that night calling to find a beekeeper.  He came out on Saturday and got them out by smoking the house.  For weeks I found dead bees, including some in the ceiling lights.  We had to have some drywall replaced where they had been building a hive.  Not an experience I want to repeat.

10 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

We saw a bird in the Solarium /Park Cafe area.  It was quite odd since we were out at sea; the poor thing must've been hiding onboard.  Several passengers tried (unsuccessfully) to capture it, then the crew got in on it.  

On Mariner last week there was a bird in the Viking Crown Lounge.  It was flying up around the ceiling and passengers and staff just looked at it.  It flew upstairs, I guess it wanted to try the escape room.

We have inflatable pads and a small plug in blower(?).  It’s pretty small and lightweight.  I inflate it and slide it under the mattress pad.  I believe the brand is klymet, I got them on Amazon.  We’re on Mariner now and the bed is fine without it, but I’d rather have it packed and not use it than not have it and not be able to sleep.

Wow, sorry I missed this last night.  I has been an interesting cruise. There is a large group of Dungeons and Dragons aboard.  The costumes have been…..interesting.  One young lady who has a dinner table nearby has been a cat and either a cow or a fawn.  There was a group that were dressed as riverboat gamblers.  It’s been fun to watch them.

49 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

Just read on another site that Harmony had to make an emergency medical stop in Cozumel to drop off Captain James.  The cruise is continuing on to Roatan with the staff captains in charge.  Hopefully he is okay.

We’re on Mariner, Captain announced we were docking at a different location so that another ship could use our spot.  We saw Harmony leaving, I don’t remember when but thought it was a strange time to be leaving.

17 minutes ago, mets07 said:

@Jimbo We are doing a back to back this summer in Europe similar to what you had planned. We will spend a few days in London pre-cruise.  We have already done multiple trips to Europe right after we were married (40 years ago 😉). People told us to travel before we had kids and we took their advice. Those were trips we did on our own and went all over by car or train. My husband also returned to England & France with my older son and also visited Japan when same son was studying abroad. 

 

We have long since become huge cruising fans and are fine with the combination of relaxing sea days and intense port days. We are doing a Norway cruise followed by a cruise to Spain/Italy/Portugal/France.

 

We know it will be hot weather but we are ok with that.

 

I hope you have a great time whatever you decide. @bobmacliberty mentioned Tauck tours .... those were very popular with my husband's family.

 

 

 

 

We’re also doing the b2b Norway and the Med on Anthem this July.  Yes, it will be hot, but it’s hot in SC then too.  We’re spending a couple of days in Portsmouth before since Dave is a big naval history buff. He was excited to learn we would be close to where the battle of Trafalgar was fought while we’re in the Med. We did an eastern Mediterranean cruise in 2013 and spent several days in Rome before.

37 minutes ago, Toddcan said:

Just got notice on our Aug 24 sailing on the Adventure.  Labadee replaced by Turks & Caicos 

 

Just got the same one for our September sailing on Adventure.

5 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Like which ones? And if those GI things are not contagious, how do people get it on board?

They eat and drink more/differently than they normally do.  Not a virus or bacteria illness but overindulgence.  Too much sun, booze and rich food.

22 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Read the posts that she was responding to. People have posted about their enjoyment of watching pier runners right up to grabbing a drink and settling in to watch the show.

There’s a big difference between watching the laggers run down the pier when you can see the gangway still out and laughing when someone actually misses the ship.  I’ve chuckled at pier runners who can easily get back onboard.  They usually just are panicking, maybe they’ll try to be earlier next time. I could never laugh at someone missing the ship, especially a family with children.

On Symphony now.  Went to Falmouth instead of Labadee. No credit on our account.

We did our focus group today on Symphony.  We had to sign an NDA, so I can’t really tell you what we discussed.  (I want my $150!)  I think I can say it was regarding a specialty dining idea for a future ship.  I have seen mention of it in various articles, so I don’t think it’s a big secret.  There were 12 of us and he mentioned he had other groups.  This is the first time I have ever heard of them.

On symphony this week.  Muster stations E1,2,3&4 were right by guest services.  But there are LOTS of crew members who are happy to direct you.

2 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

Maybe the passengers on board did not have enough time to reschedule anything off the ship and just decided to stay put. I have been to Nassau enough times that if we get off the ship, it is only about two hours or less to stretch our legs at the local shops.

 

Were any shore excursions offered or was the change in itineraries too late to book something?

Falmouth is not my favorite port, so I didn’t look at excursions.  But I have heard people talking about what they were going to do, so there may have been some offered.  I was just surprised by how many people stayed onboard.  This cruise has been great so far, but I’m not sure I have ever seen so many teenagers.  Not as many small children, but lots of teens.  And in general, they have been quite well behaved.

I’m currently on Symphony and we’re at Falmouth.  The pools look just as crowded as they did yesterday (a sea day).

10 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Anna @ATG

... and profitable to boot 😉

We talked about what amount would make us give up an hour of vacation.  We figure this will cover our charges and a couple of t-shirts.

Had an interesting email from RC today.  Asked me to do a short survey before our Symphony cruise this weekend.  Asked questions about how often we do specialty restaurants and whether we get sea sick.  I answered them.  They then asked if we would consider doing a focus group for an hour and offered $150 OBC each for our time.  We agreed out of curiosity.  I’m curious to see what they talk about.

10 minutes ago, khm1 said:

Symphony sailing on 23 March has cancelled Labadee and is now calling on Falmouth from 9-5:30on day 3, 3/25. 

I’m also on this sailing and don’t see this anywhere.  My cruise planner still has Labadee excursions for sale.  I have not received an email about this.

3 hours ago, Jillt92 said:

We’re on that cruise too and anxiously awaiting the port change.  Hoping for Grand Turk but will be happy with anything.  Just want time to plan.

We’re on the Symphony the 23rd also.  Grand Turk would be a new port for us.  Since we only have 2 other stops, I hope it isn’t just another sea day.  But if it is, we’ll have a good day.  It doesn’t really matter to us.

49 minutes ago, orla56 said:

Hi,My setsale pass on the app and signing in online said deck 10, stateroom  Qty, Muster CO2 on Friday now today it says the same on the app but online it says boarding pass instead of deck 10 it says reprint,Qty,muster C02.

What does that mean?

Your cabin has not been officially assigned.  Mine has shown up any where from 30 to 13 days.

Recently I looked at excursions RC offers for several Caribbean ports.  Paraphrasing, they say this is not the US and conditions and laws are different.  I had never noticed this before.