petefoss

We have cruised many times picking trips with minimal sea days.  Max 1 on a 7 day or 3 on a 10-14 day.  I'm not seeing those types of itinerary now at least on Princess or Royal (our 2 favorite lines).  Any suggestions for more packed trips?

Thanks,

Pete

On 5/22/2019 at 8:33 PM, PandaBear62 said:

Expanding on mocktails.......I'm usually a beer and wine drinker. What kind of blended drinks make a good mocktail? I know about blended margaritas, daiquiri's and pina colada's. Anything else?

Anything that doesn't depend on the alcohol for the flavor (ie. tequila).  Anthing that normally just has vodka or rum tastes virtually the same!

I did my first aft balcony (1200) on Equinox in March.  Honestly, I missed the view from a side balcony and decided I'd rather get my aft view from a public area.  Just my opinion.

FYI 1200 is a great cabin for quiet.  There is a door in the hallway to let you into a little lobby for 1200 and the last suite on the side.  Absolutely NO hallway traffic noise.

I have a video from two summers ago when a Taquan plane landed between our ship and the shore. Seemed a bit tight to me to land there rather than on the outside of us.

On 5/11/2019 at 2:58 PM, akb5k said:

Thank you all! I booked a 7 night fjord cruise on the Iona, our first aft balcony. I'm very excited!

Just curious but did your booking include flights from USA?  I'm also thinking about P&O as a change from Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.  The slightly more formal atmosphere sounds fun (as does Indian food).

Pete from Michigan

Got to agree with most of the points.  We were on the Equinox in March before she headed to Spain for drydock.  My seafood hating wife thought the MDR food was better on Celebrity.  I was happy too.

I did really miss the wrap around promenade deck.  Especially if it was an Alaska cruise.  We did Alaska Voyage of the Glaciers and being on the bow on the promenade deck was a great viewing spot.

Yes the steaks in the buffet are cooked to order but at 1/2" thick it's hard to get medium rare.

So sad to hear it was Randy who was the other pilot.  Michelle at Island Wings had nothing but good things to say about him when we flew with her.

I believe it's all Concierge class and above?

I loved the coffee in Al Bacio (but I will admit I never order Americano).  I had cappuccino, Mocha, espresso and frappe and they were all great!

The swill in the buffet was undrinkable in my opinion.

We were just in 1200 on Equinox, our first (and last) aft facing balcony.  While I did enjoy the aft view, I missed the side  view more.  I'll get my aft view fix in the public areas next time.

Flip side is I paid for our flights in full when I booked our cruise since the cruise payment was due.  Was a mistake because I couldn't change them without a $200/ticket change fee.  Ended up just sweating through a same day flight arriving at 1140 for a 330 sailing,  I would have changed to the day before if I could have.

They were very popular last week on the Equinox! 

We were on Equinox last week and Erin (one of the glass blowers) said they were adding a furnace during the retro fit to allow two passengers at a time to blow.  Should double their capacity to handle passengers.

Since this will see lots of views on GenX's review,  we REALLY enjoyed The Cardinals all week.  Great tunes to dance to all week!

CELEBRITY CANCELLED ON US!  Found out when we got on board.  So disappointing.  I guess we'll just have to go back to Cozumel to a resort someday!

Plus the room phone will stay on ships time if it isn't the same as shore.

Sorry to start a new thread but the search utility is acting weird.  Does the Equinox have the ability to set wake-up calls to the room phone?

46 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

See you soon!  What part of Michigan are you in?  I lived in St. Joseph for a few years.  Beautiful place in summer but the extended gray winters with howling lakefront winds were more than I could handle!

Just north of Detroit.

On 3/20/2019 at 10:13 AM, GenerationX said:

Starting my last day at the office before vacation!  Finishing up my last few pending projects and then time to go home and pack.

 

Tomorrow I’ll be running pre-trip errands then I’m going to try and get to bed by 7pm so I can be up at 1:30am on Friday to make the 1.5 hr drive to the airport for my red eye flight to FLL.

 

AAAAHHH, in just 48 hours I’ll be replacing this gray sky with the Florida sunshine!!!

 

I'm semi retired and consult from my home office!  I'll raise you one frozen Michigan lake!  See you on-board in two days!

When I worked for GM they used American Visa Service in Chicago.  Took less than a week when using overnight delivery in both directions:  https://www.avschicago.com/content.cfm/visa_china

4 hours ago, Dreamcruise27 said:

During breakfast, they also had soy milk, almond milk, and milk in tetra packs (juice box size) in the buffet for free

Thanks for letting me know that.  I'll snag a couple almond milks for the room fridge.  Did they have lactose free regular milk too or just the veggie alternatives?

Is the kitchen tour the $100+ behind the scenes tour or something else?

We have it booked next week via Celebrity.  How were the lines?  Do you find yourself waiting in line for each activity?

Searching isn't finding anything so...

What is the difference in "premium coffee" and "specialty coffee" as affected by the Classic and Premium beverage packages?  The listings for the packages have every brand listed for the boozes but what's the comparison on coffees?

Thanks,

Pete

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Sorry I cannot find a photo from up above down but we were aft on deck 9 on the Solstice and I would say if you were on the couple of feet at the edge of your balcony, anybody from above can see you ... if that is your concern.  I do remember having room to be on your balcony tucked under the ceiling above, though.  This photo may give you some idea .. maybe?  

thanks that's a big help,