Essiesmom

There was nothing ‘smart’ about the retort. You asked a question, and you got answers. In fact, the question has been asked and answered here many times. One thing you didn’t mention was the ship. Will it be using the old locks, or the new? There is so much more of interest going on when transiting in the old locks. If you seek to spend the transit on an aft facing balcony, you will miss some interesting views:

If you are taking an In Transit excursion to Anchorage, it will get you back before dinner. If you are doing a glaciers excursion from Whittier, they will have you back in plenty of time. There is not much at all in Whittier itself. You might check out the Alaska board under Ports of Call for excursion information. EM

PMs have never been active for member use, however the Mods can PM members and each other. EM

Like other lines, there will be a time on embarkation day that you can go to your assigned dining room and ask about changing the time. About adding a person, your best bet is to stay where you are. The consequences of trying to change anything with your reservation have not been good. It might result in cancel and rebook and since I think you are within final payment, you might lose a lot of money. Have you called MSC and asked? EM

Since she booked solo, I suspect she is in a cabin that will hold at least two. So, it’s likely she can add someone, and as she already paid the single supplement which is basically paying for two, the answer is probably yes. There should not be a fee but they will add taxes and port fees for the second person. The only hiccup might be how full the ship is. The ship is divided into muster stations, with lifeboats assigned to those stations. They will not book more people in that area than there are seats in the lifeboats. So if they have booked a lot of cabins with 3/4 people, there might not be a seat left for another in her cabin. EM

But whoever would steal it probably thinks it’s a tablet that might have some value. EM

First cruise in 1972 don’t remember what was booked but it turned out to have a porthole. It also had a sink in the cabin but toilets and showers were down the hall. EM

I don’t do beach excursions, but I might go to the pools at Grand Turk and Amber Cove. I might take my Kindle, also an older model paperwhite. If it would be stolen, I would miss it, but I have several more at home just like it. When we first got Kindles, they had two word games that we played a lot. When Amazon upgraded the operating system, they did not upgrade the games, so they can’t be loaded onto Gen. 7 and later. So we picked up extras. I took my first kindle on a cruise in 2012. EM

You could get a copy of Rick Steves’ Mediterranean Cruise Ports. EM

What are they waiting for? Another Spirit class ship from Costa. EM

Cruisedeckplans has a video of 12003. Maybe Google the cabin number and ship and find it. EM

You must have solved your problem, as I see you started a roll call 7 hours ago…. EM

Perhaps ask on the Ports of Call board here for Alaska. Experienced Alaska cruisers and locals might be able to help you, or make better suggestions. EM

But there is a problem if you are sailing Fantasia class and older, as they do not have the wristbands. EM

Cocoli Locks

Heading for Cocoli Locks from the Miraflores cam

Passing Pedro Miguel locks

Cruises from San Juan, Barbados; the Med and Northern Europe. EM

Have you done this on MSC? I know it is routinely done on other lines, but it has been reported that MSC does not issue extra key cards nor change people around. EM

Panama Canal day. Looks like great weather. Here you are, moving into the first lock, and then into the second lock:

Yes, you will need adapters. UK to EU and/or UK to US. There are no UK outlets. EM

I renewed online, late on Jan. 13. By the next day the status was ‘received’. It stayed there until I finally decided to upgrade to expedite on Feb. 25, late Saturday evening. I did not pay for expedited shipping. On Monday 2/27 it went to in process, Tuesday 2/28 it said mailed, and it arrived from New Hampshire on March 1, just as I was leaving for my cruise the next day. EM

Was nature on trial?

They headed back out before I went to bed, at least before 0200. EM

And sometimes depends on the ports visited. EM there have been other recent threads about this. Some suggest contacting their congressman or senator for help. EM