Wendy The Wanderer

Despite Moorea being a stop, I would still suggest Moorea. It's close to Tahiti, so you can just hop on a ferry to board the ship. Plus it's a great place to de-stress and get into the rhythm of the islands. Plenty of varied hotel choices, and some interesting restaurants. Lots to see and do. You need at least two nights really to do this--ferries only travel in daylight, so if you arrive on a late flight, you'll have to stay on Tahiti and ferry or fly over the next morning.

Thank you for that, it's what I thought.

I find the choices onboard are pretty limited. I would make sure your hand luggage has a change or two of clothing just in case, a skirt or dress, some extra shirts. Hope it turns out alright, travel by air right now can be such a pain. By the way, @cwn, I like the bracelet!

Well, there is the reduction of shoreside staff reported elsewhere.

The chef may offer locally sourced fish once on a while.

I've had many recommendations from people who have parked there safely.

Interesting notion, but would you think it safe to leave it in a public garage for that long? The Port of Miami offers secure parking, albeit at something like $22 a day.

Ah that's what I wanted to know, thanks! Normally since we're driving from our Florida home for this cruise, I'd bring mine, but I left them up north this year.

And what kind of suite was that?

But only in the named suites, right?

I like the idea of the cruise-by-cruise approach to this. I also think that perhaps it would be more viable on the smaller Navigator which has fewer specialty choices. They do this on Seabourn, and for a small ship like that, it's very welcome to have another venue, even if the weather is a bit iffy (they supplied blankets to us in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in October.)

No. Some do, some don't, no pressure. We generally don't, but often contribute to the Crew Welfare Fund.

Could you clarify this for me, if you could? You mean that the stools can't be pulled close enough to the counters to use while you're doing prep? But you could sit to take a rest? Thanks for your reports!

That sounds like a good option, since in our case, we'll be driving to the port in our own car from the hotel and parking it. Not having to deal with anything but hand luggage sounds good.

Oh well, it sounded good and I was looking forward to it. But I don't like to see any more food wasted than necessary (which is a lot on a ship like that, I know.)

Yes, I have to agree about that.

Thanks, good to know. For purists, it's got to be scalding when you brew the tea, not when you drink it, ha ha. I'm not a huge tea drinker, but I would have a cup in the morning if the Illy could make it. I'll probably opt for decaf coffee instead.

So the Illy machines that I am looking at on their website do not seem to have a pod system, so I can understand that you can't just set it to produce boiling water by leaving the pod out, like a Keurig. As for tea, no one who actually drinks hot tea regular will settle for a carafe of hot water. For black tea, especially, it needs to be boiling, and for green tea, just off the boil. I think I'll settle for coffee this trip.

I'd like to know this too since we'll be sailing in warm climes in January.

I'm sorry, but there's all this talk of hiding kettles. If they're allowed, you could bring one. If they're not, you shouldn't, should you? Like irons. BTW, the Illy I presume can make tea as well, like a Keurig? I'll probably bring my own favourite tea bags.

I was just going to mention that! We board on January 21st , so take good care of her, @cwm, and thanks for doing this!

Some years back we had an Avis car booked to be delivered at Cook's Bay and they never showed. Fortunately Albert's was there, and they took care of us. Not sure how they do it now, but their offices are closer to the two bays than Avis.

Is there anything to know specifically about getting to the Port of Miami to park? We'll be driving from the Biltmore Hotel where we're staying pre-cruise. I presume we can just set our GPS with the address of the port, and then look for the correct terminal once we're through the gate? Eazy peazy?

Where is the aft pool, if I might ask?

We did the Montreal to Montreal on Quest in 2018 and really enjoyed the ports. Did ship excursions on some, just wandered around on others, and spent our time on St. Pierre perusing the French patisseries!