Mr. Click

YES, THE SHIP WAS WAY TO CLOSE TO SHORE, YES, THEY WERE WHERE THEY WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE. I AM NOT ARGUING THAT POINT.  I WAS SIMPLY POINTING OUT THAT THE ONE PICTURE WAS NOT REALLY TELLING THE STORY BEAUSE OF LONG LENS COMPRESSION.

I worked as a photographer for close to 50 years, I owned small boats for about 15 of those years...just an fyi.  Oh, the only way I go up in a helicopter is if the doors are off or these is a window to open.  Whey take a few thousand dollars worth of camera gear to shoot through plexiglass?

24 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Take a look at the overhead picture...  That tells how flipping close they came ...

I saw, I said they were close. My only point about the picture I quoted was it is misleading because of the lens optics. 

Just now, NMTraveller said:

The problem is that the fishing vessels and smaller ships were the ones in deeper water.  Most likely where the photo was taken from.  

That is all well and good but the point I am trying to make is that use of a telephoto lens will make things appear closer, more compressed than they really are. 

2 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Yes they were too close but this picture is misleading. It was made with a telphoto lens and that will compress the look. It makes the ship look shorter and closer to the shore. The aerial images give a better perspective on the distance.

We originally booked a V2 on the 8/4 sailing months ago. In February we switched to the 8/16 trip. The price dropped 2000, a month later it dropped another $1000 so I repriced. Totoal savings of over 50% from the original booking.  Suites look like they have just started to drop a little.  I think the volcanic activity in Iceland scared some people away

We were on Beyond in January, our first E class cruise and really missed the Sky Lounge.  Something special about being able to sit quietly and comfortably and looking out ahead and around.  Eden looks nice but we found the seating uncomfortable, too low and while the wake view is relaxing it gets boring after a few minutes.

As long as your reservations are linked you should see all of the names show up when you are booking dining reservations.  Even on an unlinked reservation I still need to select the two names on our reservation.  They do have it set up so you can select some of the people or all of the people once you are linked.  If you are in CC and thy are in a veranda they cannot join you on embarkation day.  There are no reservations for lunch of sea days, just dinner.

Thanks.  That is more than I got from the email I got from Hard Rock but since it is a Hard Rock puff piece there is nothing about RCI's relationship with MGM.  My big concern now is with MGM now joining Marriott and RCI joining Hard Rock will MGM and RCI stay together too.   Enquiring minds want to know.

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

Yes - New York has to do something about those New Jersey folks - who think they have the right to add to New York’s traffic congestion by driving into work - because they live in a state with too little economic activity to employ them, and lack the smarts to realize how much more driving costs (in time and money) than public transportation.

Very true but for me taking public transportation into NYC while hauling a ton of photo and lighting gear was not a real option....and working all kinds of crazy hours did not help either.  The good news for NYC and for me is I retired and bailed the land of high taxes, lousy traffic and crappy weather.....

JetDriver787, that long wait for immigration at EWR is just payback for me having to wait 2 hours at LHR the last time I was there to visit family...in the US I get to just my Global Entry and I am out in about 15 minutes.....oh, It was also the weekend of Harry and Megans wedding......

On the serious side, the tolls alone from EWR to JFK  are now over $30 for the two bridges and that was 5 years ago before I abandoned EWR for LAS.  The Belt Parkway is a nightmare almost anytime of day and the shopping, no sales tax on clothing bought in NJ so the folks in NY come over to shop at those outlet malls....

I got an email today from Hard Rock's Unity loyalty program telling me that soon they will be partnering with Celebrity and RCI, benefits to come soon.  I only hope this does not spell the end of they partnership with MGM.  I am not a gambler at all but I do live in Vegas and the MGM partnership does give me some decent benefits all over the strip while a Hard Rock/Unity deal would only give me benefits at one property.  Anyone else know anything?

A while ago I booked an Iceland to Boston cruise. It was pretty pricy at over $6K for a mid range veranda but it was a trip we really wanted to do .  3 months ago the volcanic activity in Iceland started up again and the price of the cruise started dropping.  AQ is now $2K less than what I had booked my V2.  The V2 is now about $3.5K less than what I booked orginally.  I did take avantage of the drops and have re-priced twice for the V2. AQ was tempting but I opted to spend some extra days in Iceland pre-cruise.  Final payment is coming up in a few weeks so I will be watching closely...My TA has been great about the re-pricing. The only downside is as his commission goes down my OBC from his company goes down. 

We were on Beyond in an OV in January.  It took me a day to find all of the closets because some of them just don't look like closets.  Once I found them there was plenty of space for our stuff on a 10 nighter. It is weird layout.  For me things that looked like walls turned out to be closet/cabinet doors...

I have booked spa services in the cruise planner in the past.  No problem.  If you are looking for some status discount you may have to call Captains Club to get those. I know they are in transition to make those discounts available for online bookings but it is still hit and miss.  If you really need to talk to someone, hang up and call again.  

I believe that the whole third guest free thing is based on 3 in a room, not 3 on a mulit-cabin reservation.  If I am correct  and you booked a NRD fare then yes you are stuck with it.  

If you already have reservations you can look in the cruise planner to see if there are times that are more suited to you but to change to another time you first have to go in and delete the original booking. Same goes for adding specialty dining when you already have a MDR booking.  Not a big deal but it can take some sime to sort it out.  If you want to stick with anytime and just go, yes you can do that but at peak times there could be a wait.  We prefer to do reservations and avoid the waiting but it is all personal choice.  Oh, to delete an existing reservation go into your cruise calendar and click on the reservation so it comes up with the option to delete it.  That part took me a few minutes to sort out when I wanted to add some specialty dining dates.

We have had them both. Both are great captains, great people too.  It is a win win either way.

another vote for romecabs.com  They are great, airport to city to port, even for some post cruise sightseeing.  Do check out your roll call to see if you can make up your own small group trip from the city to the port to save some $$$.  Rome Cabs does do multi stop pickups in the city for a small fee.

They can advertise all they want, target anyone they want. For me, after enough cruises to be Elite, half way to Elite Plus all I really care about now is what they deliver onboard.  Since the pandemic ended we went to Bermuda on the Summit and loved it, then it was Beyond to the southern Caribbean and were disappointed in more things than I want to get into.  This summer we will give it one more try doing Iceland and Greenland on the Eclipse.  Advertise all you want Laura but what you really need to do is deliver in the end.

Maybe the rep is on commission? maybe the rep is just dumb.  We share all of the time, have for years.  One log in, one device at a time and if you try to use that log in while the other device is already logged in, it just asks you if you want to disconnect the other one.

29 minutes ago, D. B. said:

If the power stays off for a long time they start giving out unlimited Ice Cream!

But they already do that.........

You should be fine, even with re-claiming your lugage if you chose to leave out the night before.

Last summer on the Summit in the MDR on 'Lobster" night I ordered one and  shrimp cocktail.  Our smart lady waiter brought me two of the appetizers without me asking so between the tasty shrimp and the so so lobster tail it was a good dinner.

Was is your listed arrival? typically 9am should be fine but that is assuming your port arrival is around 7am.

My experience with booking a dining package was not good a few years ago. We got on board, went right to the closest restaurant and no one had any times that we wanted on any day so I ended up just canceling the whole thing.   As far as things being sold now. they usually hold some things back for booking onboard.