rxlowry

Excellent dinner at Gastrobar at our hotel

Cute birthday gift sent up to room

Ok the bathroom from the lobby is amazing. It’s unisex which confused my sleep deprived mind but it’s so pretty!!

Time for another LIVE report! After the wonderful first cruise I had with my daughter on Summit this summer, the husband and I decided to book Infinity to celebrate our upcoming milestone birthday (yes we share the same exact birthday). We booked a Suite guarantee and ended up with an accessible Sky suite. With all the changes, will we like the sky suite experience? How will Luminae compare to Blu? Is the Infinity in desperate need for dry dock? These questions and much more we can explore. We departed last night with aisle seats across from each other in economy select (only means extra leg room and group three boarding) but after the doors closed the lady in middle seat next to me moved back to be near husband and I scored an empty middle seat next to me! It made the flight much nicer for sure although I couldn’t sleep. We arrived in Lisbon shortly before 6am and met our driver to take us to our hotel, The Ivens. The hotel is gorgeous. They comped us breakfast since our room wasn’t ready which we did not expect it to be. Amazing food! We did get a little nap before going out to lunch though. The trip is off to a great start! I’m excited to try the Gastrobar for dinner tonight!

Last November, the Eagles had a Thursday night game and it was shown. No World Series shown. (We watched it before on other NCL cruises) In February, we watched the Super Bowl. Might be another cutback to save money.

Hope you’re enjoying 7 Wonders Duel!

Yuck. That’s so tacky. I also hate when people say “gen pop”. Ugh.

Ah I do one separate from my live reports so I thought you might too

We’ve brought Splendor on cruises and last cruise we brought Carcassonne but never played! Always looking for fun new games! 7 Wonders Duel is pretty decent What’s the website for your blog?

How does Splendor Duel compare to Splendor?

Agreed. And I’d serve snapper or wahoo. Maybe even on a Bermuda style sandwich….raisin bread!!

Me either but now I’m curious what I missed if they deemed it two night worthy!

I noticed the sign up two day in a row promoting this and thought maybe a mistake. Kind of odd to me to offer same theme twice on short cruise.

It would’ve just been a phone call for them as well. I figured it was Allianz

Maybe you should become an agent!!!

True but you can purchase insurance not through cruise line but from an agent. The fact they “tried” makes it seem like this is how he purchased

So the agent couldn’t do it but you could with a call? I’m sure they could’ve called and should’ve called for you. But I’m glad you resolved it even though it was their job

Very nice report! And I understand the wanting to test out other lines. I thought Celebrity Summit out of NJ this summer was great! Lots reminded me of NCL ten years plus ago. MSC is really gunning for the North American market. We had a great time in YC in Europe last year and excited to try an inside YC next year! Earlier this month tried Oceania out of NYC which while food was great, service and entertainment not so much.

Awesome live report! Thanks for sharing!!

As a definite planner, your planning is pretty next level. I might even feel intimidated by your plans yet impressed. I’ve traveled with my best friends a few times as well. The bf wife is not a planner and one who gets more interested the week before. Sometimes I don’t even think she knows the ports! So I feel your pain. Have patience with them and just realize the trip will be smooth due to all your hard work that hopefully is appreciated in the end. As far as Athens, we were there for a port stop with no plan other than going to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. My DH was pretty hung over (after a night of some shots with 20 somethings on the ship) but he did rally a bit and our taxi driver convinced us to go Olympic stadium and Zeus Temple afterwards. It was pretty easy to see that in a few hours. That paired with your fabulous restaurant sounds like an easy, doable first day! I’m cruising end of next month and do not have definite plans in all my ports in Spain yet! I need to step up!!

Seems a little more than we had on Insignia. Piano was done at 11. No late night dance either.

Glad to hear the larger ships have more activities. It was pretty minimal on Insignia two weeks ago. Way less than even smaller luxury ships I’ve sailed! Trivia was fun. Two nights only a movie as the entertainment in theater. Not enough live music for us either. And yuck to your cabin being dirty at arrival. Hope Bermuda has some nice weather for you!

IMG_3911.mov This gnocchi dish was outstanding! Blu isn’t “meat and potatoes” which is probably why we liked it so much!

Happy Anniversary! Looking forward to following along!

Loved the food in Blu on Summit in June. Food was very flavorful and I preferred some dishes to ones I had on Oceania this month where the quality was high but flavors were more towards ordinary. I was pleasantly shocked by some bold flavors in Blu. I did blog about it with lots of food pics. Alpacamybagsblog We both thought filet in Blu beat the one at Tuscan Grill