PaulMCO

Yes but kicker is depends on the country entry requirement for cruises. so if you head to South America it is really unchanged. Same for Asia.

As is everything food is subjective. we are currently on Marina and recently off the same TA on Splendor. Regents food was hands down better than Oceania (so far). Also service and friendliness of staff was better. Specifics cold food in GDR day 1. Last night steak was inedible in Polo, I never leave steak. This time left half. Tasteless and tough. Prime 7 much better. Terrace. Pretty much same in day. We like the O terrace in the evening, as opposed to Sette Mari. Toscana and Sette Mari on par with food but Atmosphere is better in Toscana. I did not like the mixed buffet concept. Red Ginger versus PAC Rim. We like neither. Asian fusion not our style. Real Japanese, Malay, Thai or Chinese is great. Really thought Pacific Rim on Regent was horrible. We have Red Ginger tonight. Have not done Jacques yet on Marina. We liked the food in Chartreuse. if you want to talk about ships. Boy Marina looks dated. Dark cabin halls and the ship needs to go to dry dock sooner than 2024.

I considered that before posting it. Iceland is one of the few ports that post so far in advance. The schedule was not a stale schedule as it had newly named ships like the Silver Endeavour. We will see exactly when the release the schedules in a few months.

Understand just trying to be helpful. I just checked the official Miami port schedule. What I do is the day of cruise go to the Port of Miami web cam in the early morning. You can check at which dock the ship is actually at. Today being Sunday the port was a zoo. Took 15 minutes from airport to port. Then another 15 to get to the terminal. Terminal J is not the easiest to find if you use the tunnel and you have to pass by D through G before arriving.

Not a big deal. It is if you are one of the 10% FDR deserves to get the 2022 Ebeneezer Scrooge Award. Port schedule shows it docking at Terminal J. Azamara has also been known to use the terminal.

They have been missing for several months. Last cruise in July we had completed this and non of them were in our cabin. So maybe it is just wait til you get their sort of mentality. Besides because of supply chain we might not have them and then you will really complain.

OMG you don't??

So I wonder if FDR is going to give himself another pay raise, after giving his employees a lump of coal for Christmas...

and the next cruise.

So as a member of the DRS team here are the itineraries as created by the speculation team -- Late July Serenity come out of rehab. It is tough when your in the ICU for over a year. Longest case of COVID in history. Starts in Rome, does the usual Rome - Italy - Marseilles - Barcelona cruise. Then heads to Portugal - Bordeaux ending Southampton. Southampton up to Scotland - Shetlands to Iceland (end of August). Then onward to Canada and Montreal, Montreal to New York and then a big welcome to Miami. Miami Nov/December holiday cruises and then 14th of January 2024 World Cruise (Caribbean, Panama Canal, Easter Island, Fiji, NZ, Australia, Indonesia, South East Asia, Middle East through the Suez and to Athens) Late November -- the old gal takes longer to recover. Needed more work done. We really need to get her to the warm sun to aid those aching bones and bring in much needed revenue. We are doing a TA from Rome to Miami. Winter 2024 spending the time in the sun -- because winter is coming as in May we make our way up through the Canal to Alaska. Alaska is where the Money is so Crystal needs to be here and these are always sold out. So just my guess...

That was a RCL invention -- which wants me to cancel. But then I cannot...

I would expect some SS traditions to come to the new Crystal, including the charity donation on your bill.

Anyone notice the Port of Reykjavik schedule for Aug 2023??

Yes they we in a folder that was too big to conveniently pack and went into the round file. The cutout luggage tag are the same type that Regent is using.

They really are still blue. Just separated into two books. One with the excursions and one with your data and general ship info including deck plan and cabin info.

Maybe we should bring one from Regent or even worse Crystal...

Enjoying your blog. Love the photos. We found the lamb was consistently the best meat on board from Chartreuse, to Prime 7 to Compass Rose.

EXACTLY!!!

I try to stay away from ethnic dishes. First there is likely no native person cooking it and also highly unlikely they have all of the original ingredients of the dish. Sometimes you will have some good Indian chefs that make great Indian cuisine with proper bread. But give a Filipino chef and Indian meal to cook?? Then again who knows what the recipe is and the weird imagination of the chefs. I think maybe we can blame a lot of this on the people and supply chain, these Faux pas were noted on three cruise lines over the past year. Some is supply, other is execution and then some is ?? Some our recent cruise mystery winners: Indian food without any curry powder. Nan that looked like think Arabic bread Kosher hot dogs with sauerkraut -- then they added some chopped tomatoes and scallions Infamous Reuben with brisket, plus it was soggy and cold. "Spanish" BBQ (we were in Spain) that was 100% Mexican (tacos and enchiladas -- welcome to Carnival not Regent) Italian BBQ with no real Italian dishes (except American style Chicken Cacciatore) - excepting the salads. Just because you have a caprese salad and parmigiana cheese does not make it Italian. Singapore noodles without any chilies -- yes we sent it back for a redo -- but when the menu has a little pepper sign you would expect to see a few.. Next up is Marina -- let see what kind of gastronomical surprises await..

That is a good question because I wonder the same. Make sure you have a VPN on your phone, tablet or PC. It will allow you to bypass some the restrictions that EMC the contractor has plus also might eliminate some issues with block IP addresses. I have used cyberghost, nord and norton without issues. I am hoping satellite coverage will be better than my recent transatlantic. It should be. Use the internet for work during non peak hours. That means before 8am and after 10pm. The issue is generally bandwidth limitation and too many users. That is something we have no control over.

I was able to access my outlook exchange server with my VPN. That is good news on Star Link. It is very reliable(have it at home) , but will not work in a Transatlantic until they get the Gen 2 satellites in the air.

O is apparently shipping the Blue Books (2) directly from the printers in New Jersey. We received our on Friday for an 18 Dec cruise.

If a veranda we do prefer one of the aft DECK 7 cabins with the larger balcony's. Front has more movement and there is a crew access that has a lot of traffic in the far DECK 7 forward port side.

We just got off RSSC Splendor. Same issue in San Juan. The issue was not the lines fault but passengers. It took the ship more than an hour to find some passengers who refused to get off the ship to clear customs. Only was able to reboard at 1130 (2.5 hours later) Miami was great off at 8am and home by 10:30am. Really concerned if condition and food are so bad on Marina. There were some issues of supply on Regent especially in missing ingredients and wine/liquor. This is a retest for us as to whether we ever sail again with O. Internet -- we had some issues and yes it was bad on Regent too. Oceania and Regent block many sites - they use the same contractor EMC. They both use IP address that are blocked by many mail services (like comcast/xfinity). The solution is to use a VPN like Nord or cyber ghost.

Ever notice the special tags on boxes?? It means special handling which does not allow it to be put into the cargo holds of planes. Yes they are shipped but require special/more expensive handling.