bluesea777

Place towels on floor around overflowing toilet and when wet, take photos with your phone and go down to Guest Services and show them the photos. 
 

One way cruises are OK I think, but maybe they charge taxes on R/T cruises out of Barcelona. I read about this (the R/T ones) last year.

Our son will be on the Escape R/T Barcelona this coming November.

Escape’s last dry dock was in Oct 2022.

Maybe they’re revising her itineraries and possibly home-port.

11 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

 

In Akureyri, we intended to take an easy day and just go to the world's most Northernmost botanical garden. It was not as easy as planned as it was quite a hike uphill. We did also stop at a museum on the way.

 

We had previously been in Iceland, and DW decided the only thing we had missed was the Blue lagoon, so we booked that. Going to the airport, we onboard booked an excursion to the airport that included a museum dedicated to the geology of Iceland. It was fascinating. I wish we had more time there (especially as our flight was delayed. IIRC, the name of the museum was Perclan.

The world's most Northernmost botanical garden is not in Akureyri but in TROMSO, Norway, that is way above the Arctic Circle.

About 99% of Iceland is below the Arctic Circle. 

26 minutes ago, MNcruisingcouple said:

 

Or see if you can switch to the week before.

 

No, better to switch to the week after. No embarkation/disembarkation fiasco.

18 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

Studio Lounge

 

 

 

 

@jrt.mom @tcmagnum

Available only on Epic, Breakaway, Getaway, Escape, Joy, Bliss, Encore, Prima, Viva.

Older ships do not have dedicated Studio Lounge or Studio cabins.

Prima is DOCKED ... first visit to Isafjordur this year, and first time docked.

No, correction: it's Prima's first time to Isafjordur ever!!

Great review and pictures! 

Can you please enlighten us on your travel from Venice Mestre to Trieste? Would love to read about it, asking for a friend (and ourselves!).

Thanks!

Simple extension cord - 2 prong ones:

Woods 603W 15-Foot Cube Extension Cord with Power Tap; White - Amazon.com

Only ship I didn't need to use an extension cord was the Viva ((also Prima).

My 15' extension cord is always in my carry on bag along with my CPAP.

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

For those Platinum cruisers, here’s the current freebie wine list. 

Our fave is #462 and we take the unopened bottle home to enjoy. 
 

8 minutes ago, KansasTexan said:

Doesn't your passport number change when you renew it?

Yes, and also did you go grey or change your hair colour/style since the last time you cruised?

I’m for re-inputting the details every time we do online check in. 
 

On 3/14/2024 at 7:28 PM, bluesea777 said:

That 5 O’clock place (the inside) is directly below the expensive deck 8 Club Balcony cabins with very large balconies … so noise was a real factor that the M9 occupants complained bitterly …. so whatever venues going on in that place had to be during the day and finish early. 

 

I think they managed to *really* soundproof the floor between the Pour House on deck 7 and the M9 cabins on deck 8 during Escape’s first dry dock when the 5 O’Clock was converted to the Pour House. 
 

Escape was the first BA+ ship and the designers had no idea. 
 

Thanks @KeithJenner to pointing out that I wasn't entirely correct with what I posted. I was posting what was coming out of my memory but now I've seen the deckplans for Escape I would like to correct what I said.

That 5 O'clock place (now Syd Norman Pour house) on deck 8 is directly below the expensive deck 9 Club Balcony cabins ... so noise was a real factor that the M* occupants complained bitterly ... so whatever venues going on in that place had to be during the day and finish early. This occurred during the Escape's maiden TA voyage back in 2015 that we went on. 

Always on local time. 
 

14 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

We flew home yesterday and were back at work today. Back to earth with a bump.

 

Next cruise is New York to Quebec in September. Looking forward to it already.

Which ship? We’re eying at the Sky one! 
 

Great review again. Glad you enjoyed the Viva. 
 

24 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Son of a gun, you're right. When did they put that back on? I'm going to see if my wife wants to cancel our Alaska cruise (which we booked when they cancelled the Norway one) and revert to our original plan. Thanks for this!

I saw that on NCL for the first time a few days ago, and thought about you. It makes sense that they switched the dis/embark port from Tromsø to Copenhagen. Also the other ports in Norway are good!

Alaska is great, but better on smaller ships. We did b2b on Spirit (with longer port hours) last year and it was wonderful. If we do it again it’d be b2b again with Glacier Bay thrown in.

5 weeks to go for us … Svalbard here we come!

Forget the early check in time, leave luggage at hotel and go out to sightsee and have lunch. Then return to hotel to retrieve luggage and head to the ship at around 2-3pm. By then you’ll be breezing thru the check in and get on ship in no time, and your cabin will be ready.

Ships do get crowded from noon until 2 pm with ppl milling around ship with hand luggage waiting for their rooms to be available.

It's the Gem's turn ... 

Great views of the 2nd day of SailGP from OL!

On 3/28/2024 at 2:57 PM, bluesea777 said:

 

The Svalbard cruises (2) are still on this year on the Star. May30-June10 Reykjavik-Tromso and June10-21 Tromso-Reykjavik. We're on the latter which is identical to your now-cancelled June9-20, 2025 cruise.

 

 

On 3/28/2024 at 4:03 PM, DCGuy64 said:

I saw that they are doing that for 2024. But we're going on a family trip to France June 8-21 so that won't work, unfortunately. We're just SOL

 

An update:

The two Star's Svalbard cruises are back on the radar for next year 2025 .... the dis/embark port has been changed from Tromso to Copenhagen.

May 26-June 8 (13 days, from Reykjavik, overnight in CPH at end of cruise) and June 8-20 (12 days CPH-REK). Easier for pax to fly from/to CPH rather than Tromso.

The May 17-26 2025 is still missing.

14 hours ago, shof515 said:

 

it is in the freestyle daily paper

Yes, and this is the first person to call if .....

Love love your photos/clips of our fab beautiful Bermuda! Yep, the weather has been great all the 3 days you're here. 

Another web cam shot that include the SailGP sailboats ...

Only one of the above ports is tender port - Great Stirrup Cay.

31 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

We really enjoyed the your to the original Olympic village and the historical museum associated with it.  We actually have been there twice.  On one of the tours we also visited an Agroturismo farm for lunch.  Great food, wonderful educational experience.

^^^^ this.

I did that when we went to Katakolo the first time. The second time we just walked around the town and had lovely lunch in one of the waterfront restaurants.

Next time we get to go to Katakolo we'll do the Hop On Hop Off bus.

We'd rather go to Katakolo than Corfu. Been there twice.

Katakolo is closer than Corfu from Messina, and in turn Santorini is so much closer from Katakolo than Corfu. Expect better port hours in Katakolo and Santorini.

I saw that there's a Hop On Hop Off bus in Katakolo! Goes to Pyrgos and back.

Sorry to say .... if the couple say they're experienced cruisers/travellers with 30 cruises under their belt, it seems they need to learn a very important lesson .... take their Freestyle Daily with them or at least take a photo of the Port Agent Information section of the first page of the Daily. This is the first person to contact if you're running late as this person knows who to contact on the ship. And this person would stay on dock to meet with late arrivals and offer assistance where needed.

In this case, according to the news report the couple got back to the dock and looked around and there were noone there.

Hey - welcome to Bermuda!

Joy was supposed to be docked at Heritage Wharf but what happened was, MSC Divina somewhat docked at Heritage Wharf instead of King's Wharf as scheduled last Saturday and it caused a "domino effect". NCL Gem docked at King's Wharf on Sun-Tues (instead of Heritage), and MSC Meraviglia docked at Heritage yesterday until tomorrow, instead of King's.

But all is not lost .... we have SailGP here in the Great Sound on Saturday/Sunday May 4/5, and there are some sailboats out training/practicing. Here is the screenshot of Joy's webcam - great place to watch the practices is from OL. Pity there isn't a bar there.

ENJOY Bermuda!!