trinitygirl

Greetings everyone, time for a quick update before I head off to today's crafting session. It has been a very relaxing few days since I last posted an update. We had the drama of a helicopter rescue at sea, and a couple of days of pretty bumpy seas - last night in particular was pretty full on. At one point I actually lifted up off the mattress as the ship dropped after a big wave. The slapping of the stablisers as they hit the water is impressive, but not as scary as the sound of the anchor hitting the hull which has now stopped completely = as the Concierge promised a few days back, now that we have changed paths, those currents have gone. The outside pressure has dropped - we can open our balcony doors again, and I didn't have any recurrence of that droning noise that kept me away a couple of nights ago. I just spent an hour in a lounger overlooking the wake pool and it was positively pleasant, although you can definitely still feel the movement inside. We had a pirate party and a lovely afternoon tea in the concierge lounge, and tonight is the Captain's Club cocktail party. Last night was the second formal night but it was so soon after the last one that I had room service and enjoyed the night at home. I went and saw the Spotlight Bar production on Wed night and it was so interesting to compare this version to the version we saw on the Enchanted in August - some passengers I spoke to were convinced there were new musical numbers on this version, but I think its just because there are some very strong singers and they change the way the songs sound. One of the songs I loved most on the Enchanted was very meh in this version, because the male singer was much less charismatic (IMHO). I watched the Olympic bean bag toss yesterday and it was hilarious and enthralling in equal measure - its amazing how the most trivial things are elevated when you are at sea far from the real world. And I have a 50% success rate at the trivia quizzes which, considering, is pretty good. And I am still failing at crafting, but loving the experience. I have been to a few of the Atlantic Ocean seminars and learned lots of interesting stuff about octopuses and jelly fish and sharks, and I went to a Bucket List Cruises seminar and got some ideas for future cruises that sound like fun... Two more sea days before we dock in Antigua - I can't believe how fast an entire week can just disappear like that. Some photos for those of you who are interested... More concierge lounge events... Spotlight Bar is a really fun production. For the first formal night I came home to a plate with 6 chocolates but it was not good chocolate so I left 5.5 of them behind. The second formal night plate contained two truffles which were full of ganache and delicious - I ate both of them! I have used one of my two casual dining credits with a late lunch at Alfredos - it was just as good as I remembered. The piazza fills up quickly and there isn't a spare seat to be found pretty much all day long. Now having seen how tiny those interior cabins are, I don't blame people for wanting to stake out more space during the day. The sun has (kind of) finally come out after three days of incessant rain. It's still cold and windy, but positively pleasant in comparison. No one is touching the pools (the waves are so high it looks dangerous) but the loungers are filling up with people under towels and blankets. Emma tries her hand at crafts... Who knew how intelligent resourceful and interesting octopuses are??? Future cruise dreaming.... Extra blueberries and spinach on the side, brown toast and three teabags in the teapot - the Sabatini waitstaff pick up on your preferences so quickly! IMG_3716.mov more of the Vegan menus - it is so great to have more than one choice every night! Some food photos - I am not very diligent about taking them so they are fairly random - sorry! These were the dry mumbai wraps - really spicy and delicious. the roast pear and apricot starter was yum! and pretty to boot. Whoever it was who told me, when you see indian on the menu, order it, was so on the money. This looks a bit blah but it was super flavourful. as was this - it was a red pepper pasta dish with nutritional yeast - super umami and yum.

No idea. I was just quoting what the CD said this morning. I hadn’t seen any mention of Bingo previously but this morning I came to the quiz in Vista lounge and there is every sign of Bingo.

An update on Bingo- it is happening. The CD just did her morning update and said ‘Bingo is back’ so there you go.

It seems to have been external pressure. It didn’t return last night which was much appreciated!

nope. I asked in the concierge lounge and they said it will show as refundable OBC but no timeline.

Have you done so? I am torn between not wanting to cause extra work and wanting it sorted in time that I can spend it onboard: i don’t want anything ‘dangling’ when I head off on the next stage of my trip.

I’ll say! Its intense! I just got up to go to the loo and had to hold on to the walls and doors to get there. It’s an adventure that’s for sure. The slamming/shuddering is different though. I don’t think it’s the anchor as it was days 1-4; the hollow sound makes me think its the stabilisers? But in great news, the droning from last night has not returned!

Hi there, the three main dining rooms all have the same menu. The Estrella is open for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea on sea days; all three are open for dinner. You do not need to make a reservation, each restaurant has a queue for those without reservations. However, if you are a group, if you want to dine early (before 7pm) or you want a private table, reservations can be a good idea. On the Enchanted in August (a very packed ship) I never had to wait more than ten minutes but I heard stories from others who had less luck. There is zumba at 9am every sea day in Vista lounge. No notification of White & Gold night yet but we have a long way to go yet. I haven’t seen Bingo advertised. : )

There is a very loud droning noise in my stateroom, is anyone else hearing it? It started around 1am. It builds, getting louder and louder, then fades, but never stops. At first I thought it was coming from outside but whoever answered guest services said there was nothing going on outside. It is unbearable and I am not sure what to do.

very cool!! where was it?

So maybe our missed port yesterday was part of a bigger plan - we had the extra time necessary to turn around overnight, and still make it to Antigua on schedule. I hope the patient gets the care they need - the whole thing must be so stressful for everyone concerned, from crew to medics to passengers. i went to head up to the jogging track for a walk and all the doors out to deck 17 were locked, so I took myself to the gym and spent an hour on the treadmill instead. the captain’s announcement came halfway through, and explained why the outside doors were all locked.

Hello everyone, greetings from another (unexpected) sea day. After I left off yesterday, I had dinner in the main dining room - the indian veggie curry was DELICIOUS even if it didn't look very lovely. I went to listen to the 'rock tenor' in the Princess Theatre - he certainly had an impressive vocal range but I thought he was let down by the orchestra - his voice and their pace were really out of sync for most of the show and it spoiled the effect for me. Today was a lovely day, albeit being unexpected. I had a lovely late lazy breakfast in Sabatini's, went for a walk around the ship, then repaired to my stateroom to read my book until lunchtime. I had room service bring me lunch and tried to watch a movie, but couldn't get in to it. I noticed that my excursion charge had been removed from my folio so on my way to the crafting session I stopped off at the spa and changed both of my remaining massages from 75 minutes to 100 minutes, which almost exactly consumes the extra OBC created by today's cancellation. At crafting we made door banners, fixing stickers and feathers and flowers and bejewelling cards - it's not really about the thing, its more about the conversation with the women at your table - it's always a fun way to spend an hour. Tomorrow is friendship bracelets - I have never made one before so that should be interesting. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading in my cabin and then went to drinks in the concierge lounge and dinner in the reserve section of the main dining room where I dined entirely and very satisfactorily off the vegan menu. When I got back to my cabin I found a lovely towel animal on my bed - a whale! and an invitation to a Pirate Party in the concierge lounge tomorrow evening. The patter for tomorrow is full on - I might end up blowing a lot of it off, but there is a lot of green highlighter on there at the moment. I just had a lovely lovely bath and now i am going to bed to finish reading my book - I am down the nitty gritty conclusion of the latest Michael Connolly and its lucky I don't chew my finger nails. Two other things - I found a duck! It was tucked into a picture frame high up and I walked past it before my brain caught up with my eyes. Two crew members have already offered to look after it for me - they seem to love them! And my laundry is still not back - I left it out yesterday morning having ticked the same day return box, but it has not come back, so tonight i have done some hand laundry and strung up my travel laundry line (the bathroom is huge so plenty of room; unfortunately here there isn't a laundry line over the bath, its a half-length one very high up in the shower). It has now been charged to my account so hopefully that mean it is going to come back tomorrow. Here are a few photos just in case you are interested: Found this on a door yesterday afternoon: Amen sister: The Retreat Pool was splashing a serious amount of water around as I walked past yesterday: The Piazza is full all day long - this morning because I was up early, I got to see it while it was still peaceful. Super yummy bircher muesli with extra blueberries at breakfast, followed by a Belgium waffle - I try not to eat empty carbs at breakfast but my excursion was cancelled, so I did a bit of emotional eating to get over it. Last night's vegan menu: I had the roast pear starter which was delicious, but the veggie curry from the main menu as my main meal. looks can be deceiving = this looks blah, but was so flavourful!= The waiter raved about this pecan chocolate dessert but it was a disappointment to me - I had a couple of bites and left the rest. and tonight's version: I started with the mumbai dry wraps, then had the veggie soup (which was so punchy in flavour and the veggies were still crunchy) and finished with a small portion of the red pepper pasta dish, which was so delicious. I am pretty sure there was nutritional yeast in there, it was so delicious.

Yep, that’s my guess. Strikes are always arranged in advance in Europe with court permission granted first, especially for essential services. They knew, but didn’t tell us. Not sure why we went into port but…. I doubt I will ever be here again, so while I love sea days and am perfectly happy to spend the day with my book, also really disappointed not to see the lakes. Although the weather was crappy so not the best day to take photos. My excursion was $120 and if I also get the port fees refunded (still not showing on my portfolio) that’s most of an extra massage which will be nice.

HOLY MOLY! We were in port, the lights of the city of Ponta Delgada right in front of us, then I noticed that the ship started to do that spinning thing it does (I thought we were turning around to dock the other way) and then the Captain's voice came out of the speakers to say that there is a port strike happening in Portugal today, that because we need a pilot on board to be able to leave and they aren't sure that the strike will be over by then, we were missing the port and heading on to Antigua instead. Far out! I am really disappointed, I was looking forward to seeing the Azores. I wonder if this means that they will slow us down so we have an extra sea day, or if they add on an extra port or if we just arrive a day early? He said that those of us with ship excursions (like me) will be automatically refunded and I guess that might also lead to a refund of port fees (could this explain the $20 some of the passengers have already received?). I am up and dressed and was just packing my day bag and instead I could have been in bed stlll sleeping... I guess I am going to go down and have an early breakfast anyway since I am up, and then read the Patter and see what is happening today... I wonder if they have to change things up so that the main dining room is open for lunch and other things that normally happen on a sea day.

According to the man at the IC, yes to coffee, no to coke zero.

But then why haven’t we all got it? Weird. I would ask but since it’s not on my folio they will not know what I am talking about.

Yes, you are correct. I just asked and this lounge is only for suite guests all day long. I must have misunderstood the other evening. There are a lot of suite guests!! Apparently there are the usual pre-dinner drinks for Elites & Platinum guests downstairs - I am not sure where. On the Enchanted it was in Take Five but here that is a walk through space so I am thinking it must be somewhere else. I can also report that the coffee in here is not Lavazzo but it may be downstairs. Still no answer on Coke Zero except that the only cans for sale online are normal and diet.

I think it must include elite guests because many of the others i spoke to at the drinks the other night were elite but not in suites. But i am going there for a drink before dinner tonight so I will add this to the question about coke zero and lavazzo coffee.

Giorgia came to see me this afternoon, to explain about the banging of the anchor which is disrupting the comfort of those of us up front of the ship. He showed me the weather map and the storm system the captain is sailing around and explained how the result is the directional waves which are causing the problem. He offered me $600 in future cruise credits as compensation. Since it’s not really bothering me (I notice it, obviously, but I wasn’t attributing blame) I was surprised and happy to accept. It seems like others are more upset. And the poor woman in the cabin beside mine seems to be suffering from seasickness, which would really suck.

Sorry, just saw my typo. There is a restaurant manager and an asst *restaurant* manager.

Hi Crown Cruiser, I just had a conversation with Ranvil, the Asst Restaurant Manager at Sabatinis. He explained that the restructure last year means there is no longer the position of head waiter. Instead there is restaurant manager and asst head manager. Hope that helps.

Is this the person who greets you when you arrive? So far it has been the same man at breakfast and dinner, but I wouldn’t call him a waiter. I can ask at breakfast if that’s not who you mean.

Ivan Petrovic is the suite experience manager, and Giorgia Tognetti is the Suite Experience Concierge. I don’t think i have met Ivan, but Giorgia is wonderful.

I haven’t found this on my Journey Account.