PapaGoose

Funny how it escalated from “my security monitoring company” to “a national security monitoring company” in a hot flash…. I apologize if I hit a nerve! You could always ask them nicely. That’s what we do up here in the land of Mounties , hockey and beavers.

Instead of thinking of it as “forcing them” why don’t you just ask if they are open to using WhatsApp? We, here in North America, seem to fight using something that most of the rest of the planet embraces. Last year we went on a Panama Canal cruise and I asked some friends and family to access WhatsApp so we could keep in touch. Everyone agreed with the exception of my 81 year old father in law. I am sold with the ease we had when communicating with everyone! Using wifi to contact them was much more cost effective than paying for cell service. The FIL still won’t bite on it though. They are the only people calling our landline at home. Apparently they think we will pick up that phone on the kitchen counter quicker than the cell phone in my pocket… maybe we should just get rid of the landline! I have found that all of the excursions we have booked for our upcoming South American cruise have been through email or WhatsApp with most of the tour providers asking us to communicate through WhatsApp once we set sail. Easy peasy

We sailed in an aft facing balcony last February on the NCL Jewel. I’ll post a photo or two and let you all guess where we went. Awesome views!

And don’t forget to be polite! We really like polite people up here…. Thank you for visiting!

A quick search on the internet reveals availability for all shows in August 2024. We got seats middle/middle so we wouldn’t miss anything. Make sure you bring your phone or a camera with video capability. It’ll be worth it!

I’ve been toad that boiled frog is quite tasty…

We sailed on the Royal Princess back in 2019 on a 12 night British Isles itinerary. It included a stop in Glasgow with a 2:00 am departure. We bought our own tickets nice and early online for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (2 parents and a teenage son). The tickets were mailed to Canada quite quickly. Neither the DW or teenage son knew anything about the Tattoo and I kept deliberately quiet on the subject until we were actually there. We booked a day excursion with Clyde Coast Tourism which included picking us up at the port of Greenock, a lovely drive to Edinburgh which included a stop at Loch Lomond. We took the high road… and another stop at Stirling Castle. We had time in Edinburgh before the show to grab a dinner. You might be better making a reservation as it was crazy busy there. We watched the show which was awesome! DW and 15 year old skeptic still talk about that night! The tour group was very organized in letting us know where to meet after the show as it was again crazy busy in Edinburgh. We had a nice quiet drive back to Glasgow which included a nice shot of Scotch provided by our guide Catriona for anyone so inclined. We loved Edinburgh and a few days later when we tendered at Queensferry, Princess shuttled us all to the Edinburgh city centre where we partook in a Harry Potter walking tour. Once again the lad was happy! I highly recommend the Military Tattoo as part of a BI cruise!

One of our stops on our upcoming SA cruise in February will be Montevideo Uruguay. We are planning on doing a morning walking tour and would like to have a steak/bbq lunch somewhere near the port or old city after the tour. There seem to be a lot of Parillas or steakhouse grills in the area but the reviews are mixed and some are very dated. Would anyone like to share any good and recent experiences with this type of restaurant in Montevideo?

It has been some time but we really enjoyed our pizza experiences at Alfredo’s on the Royal Princess back in 2018. Best pizza we have had on a cruise ship but my dear Italian mother in law still makes the best!

I agree with Ex-Airbalncer about the Royal Caribbean boards. This is the Canadian Cruisers forum and we might get upset thinking about you cashing in $400 in US OBC since that would be around $10,000 in Canadian funds after the currency exchange… 😉.

Holy cow….

Question for you Ken. When you first boarded in Valparaiso did they have a table set up to collect corkage fees for extra bottles of wine? Where did the security check for containers of beverages in carry on luggage take place? In the terminal or onboard the ship? Thanks for keeping us up to date on your travels so far!

In 2018, we did a wonderful British Island and France cruise on the Royal Princess. While preparing for our departure in Le Havre, we had a “honk off” with an Aida cruise ship. I forget how their horn went but the Royal belted out the Love Boat theme for all to hear more than one time. Our 15 year old son declared the Royal Princess champion. While spending the occasional sea day on that itinerary we introduced the show “The Love Boat” to junior on our stateroom television. He didn’t have a clue who any of the walk on celebrities were but he did like a few of the starlets…

Ahhh good old Pop Shoppe. Great memories!

If it was me I’d try to check in at the terminal/ship as early as possible then head out to see a bit of the city if embarkation goes quickly and smoothly. If all goes well you might have time to grab a bite or see a highlight or two. It really will depend on how efficient the embarking goes. Hope you enjoy your trip!