Jump to content

jpalbny

Members
  • Posts

    10,374
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Albany, NY
  • Interests
    Adventure travel, wine, food
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Silversea, Ponant, Uniworld
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Wherever I am going next!
  • If you have a personal or hobby CRUISE or TRAVEL BLOG, include the url here:
    http://jpalbny.smugmug.com, https://www.blogger.com/profile/01909358205846920309

Recent Profile Visitors

8,903 profile views

jpalbny's Achievements

  1. Yes - that is a cool feature. The discount can go as high as 30% I think and gradually decreases as the cruise becomes more fully booked.
  2. No extra deals on cruise fares when we were on board Le Commandant Charcot last month, other than the usual 5% on-board booking discount. But, definitely some attractive itineraries! On our cruise the Future Cruise Consultant did a quiz on the last sailing day. The winner of the quiz got an extra €250 in OBC on a cruise booked on board! First time that has happened on a Ponant cruise for us, and definitely worth giving it a shot.
  3. Thanks HPD. We do have a lot planned in the next 12 months! Six more cruise vacations, the first of which commences five weeks from tomorrow! And four weeks from tomorrow is our last day at work. We are beside ourselves with excitement! The daytime flight was great in many ways. Iceland Air Saga Class is pretty much like domestic first so the pitch of the seats is not great, and they don't recline much, so they are not good for sleeping on an overnight flight. Plus, the flight time from Boston or New York is barely 5 hours so that's not enough time to sleep. So the daytime flight solved all of those issues. We were still very tired upon arrival and were definitely ready to sleep. They had 7 or 8 gins to choose from. Only 2 tonics IIRC. But it was still fun to try a few different ones. The seats were fine for a short flight from the East Coast. I do love the view when flying over Greenland but unfortunately it was clouded over as we passed by. The flight lands just before 10PM which is good because the airport was completely empty at that time. There was no other flight within an hour of that time so immigration was totally empty except for our flight, and since we were among the first few off the plane with carry-ons only, it was a very quick process. HOWEVER (lesson learned), if you're taking the FlyBus, it will not leave until everyone from that flight has a chance to catch it. So the wait there was interminable! Next time I will skip the extra G&T and rent a car... When is your Canadian Arctic trip? We have one which starts in Reykjavik next summer as well, July 9th I think, on Silver Endeavor. Our cruise friends who we met on board Explorer in 2013 will be with us, and Mysty and Myster are also on that trip. We are still figuring out the flights and other logistics, as the cruise includes a flight back to Montreal after it ends in Churchill. It would be perfect if Iceland air flew YUL-KEF but they only fly out of YYZ. This reminds me that I still have to post some highlights of the last day in Tromso. And the trip home!
  4. That's one creative way to deal with the 50# weight limit for the charter flight! You must have had lots of room for souvenirs.
  5. I'm sure you could get it, with "John and Jane Doe" if you asked... 😉
  6. What's a fuse? 😁😂🤣 Just kidding. I could fix almost any electrical problem in my old Saab by popping the cover to the fuse box, and spinning all of the fuses.
  7. Have a great trip! SEA-ICN is a long haul for sure, so I'm wishing you a relaxing flight and hope the time passes quickly. But Seoul airport is super efficient. And pretty - with lots of flowers, and cute robots wandering the concourse which I think can help you if you need guidance. There is security after landing, before you get to the gates for your next flight, but both times we've been there it was pretty much empty and took minimal time. In fact, coming home from Singapore in 2023, we were late getting in and had only 40 minutes to make the connection - and we did so with time to spare. We went from gate to gate in 15 minutes! Your stops look great! We visited some of the Indonesia stops with Ponant last year, and Darwin with Silver Cloud in June. Have not yet been to Cairns. I'm very curious what you will do at some of these places with a larger ship as opposed to an expedition ship. Looking forward to hearing all about it!
  8. Good advice. I certainly haven't yet, so I'll stop trying!
  9. GMT never changes. It's always GMT. Except on the occasional odd day when they add a leap second at midnight...
  10. I want to grow up like you guys! Soon, we hope.
  11. Excellent! Have the best time. They can do as little as that, or they will do more if you ask. Some are more proactive than others. But they deliver your room service food, and they can take care of dinner reservations for you, among many other things. We don't use them for much at all but others with more experience can undoubtedly tell you more. You must book it, yes. It's small and very popular. It's a small cozy place with live music and a tiny dance floor (at least that's what it was like on Spirit). The food is hard to describe; some love it for its creativity and some think it's weird. Try it and see. I'm sure I put some pictures of the place and the food in my 2021 Silver Spirit trip report. Yes.
  12. Glad it worked for you, Techno123. I missed this thread earlier as we were on another cruise but I could have confirmed for you that it's on the dot of midnight GMT. We booked our dining for January at the civilised hour of 8PM EDT a couple of weeks ago. It was fun being on the website and watching the grayed-out buttons suddenly spring to life and become clickable! We had been on the website at 7PM in case things opened up at midnight London time and that was definitely NOT the case. It was definitely tied to GMT.
  13. That's great that it worked out in your favor. IME it rarely does but I always check. I looked at my July 2025 Endeavor cruise for kicks. The same cabin that we booked last September is now $4500 more per person (list), $3000 more per person with the new "great deal" so no changes here!
×
×
  • Create New...

If you are already a Cruise Critic member, please log in with your existing account information or your email address and password.