Acrusa

usually these cruises depart in January or March

ENVELOPES? In all my 60 yrs of cruising and traveling never gave an envelope 

Always put a currency in the palm of my hand shook hands and said thanks before and after LOL

On 10/25/2023 at 3:03 PM, TTEllis said:

If you want to see underwater wildlife I would recommend taking the Goff's Caye Tour. Water crystal clear and ocean full of everything. Keep walking out on the flats the further you go it's hard telling what you'll see out there. Water is really never any more than 7 ft. most is 3-5 feet deep, water is glass nothing but life and calm.

Lots of wildlife. 😎👌

We are looking to do one of the following tours offered from our cruise ship this winter. A glass bottom boat or Placezcia Lagoon and Mango.

Has anyone done these tours

The best Vealchop is in Jacques, don't even think of getting Vealchop in anyother specialty restaurant. There vealchop is a cut we very rarely see in restaurant in the US.It has always been consistent since the Marina and Riviera 2014.

4 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

That is  what OBC is for 😉

 

You are absalluty correct. Except for SM we don't do drink packages so OBC might be a little less.

2 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Really??

I spent  $20  in the casino  over  a 15 day  cruise

 

LOL I never go into the casino. Spend it on bottles of wine😀

The longer the passenger's are on board the more they spend and gamble ,makes more sense then saving fuel.But the fuel may figure into it.as a savings 

Do we think if a cruise line docks there ship in a port from 8 am to 5 pm,and then decided to leave at 2 pm they get a refund for leaving early? I doubt it. 

Plus the extra expense of fuel.

6 hours ago, redraider1966 said:

FWIW.  Not sure which season you are "waiting anxiously" for, but Season 7, currently available on Britbox, is the final one.

watching The Fall 2nd season on local PBS station in NY. takes place in Belfast.

3 hours ago, ORV said:

Not only is it delayed but many times, especially on a live show like News or Sports they'll omit whole sections of dialogue. Not really an issue with a movie or prerecorded TV show. 

Except SNL DATELINE ON NBC and 20/20 on ABC these are both pre recorded. Have to remember all live CC is done by human beings typing like court stenographer 

21 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

I've worn hearing aids my entire life, 57 years and counting, and I'm sorry but that's an ignorant statement.

 

It's not the volume of the sound necessarily that needs adjusting, even with louder volume I can still have difficulty understanding dialogue depending on the sound quality. The quality of the audio mix for example plays a huge part in that. There are certain shows and movies I have watch louder because the music and FX are louder and competing with the dialogue.  Other times the quality of the TV speaker muddies the voices so I have to turn it up louder to hear the dialogue.  

 

Now add in the multitude of hearing aid models. Some are entirely in the ear meaning the microphone is partially hidden inside the ear and its outward facing, not forward facing. That's going to require higher volume most of the time to hear the dialogue on the TV. The units with microphones over the ear typically provide better forward facing sound. And if you models like mine with rear facing microphones, that improves the all around sound.  There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of different types of hearing aids all employing different microphone systems and positioning in the outside the ear. 

 

Hearing aid speakers are completely different in how they are set up in the ear along with the frequencies they are tuned in to. Most hearing aids are tuned to human speech because we spend the most time talking to others. Depending on the quality of the TV speaker, human speech may be buried into a lower frequency than the hearing aid is tuned to, what we might call 'muddy audio.' That's going to require higher volume to understand the dialogue.  Rear facing speakers on TVs are the worst because that creates a bit of an echo and a delay making it harder for hearing aids to always pick up the sound properly. Again, dozens if not hundreds of different speaker systems in use for hearing aids. 

 

Now add in the wealth of hearing problems among people. Depending on which frequencies we can hear well, and how good the hearing aids are in making up the difference in frequencies for us, we may require higher volumes to listen to and understand the sound coming from the TV.

 

There are literally hundreds of reasons why someone who wears hearing aids would require a television to still be at a volume that you could hear it in the next room. Just telling people to use them is not the solution. The ability to connect wireless earbuds or headphones would be an excellent solution most hearing impaired people would enjoy. I do that most evenings after my wife has gone to bed with bluetooth earbuds. 

 

 

I went deaf over 20 yrs ago and have a cochlear implant. I've learned over the years that shutting the sound off while watching with CC is sometimes more beneficial a lot of cc. is delaid in transmission 

It would be interesting to know how the passenger's who took independent tours where notified if the ship had to depart before its scheduled time.

29 minutes ago, ORDBoyInLAX said:

Have a related question - I am also on the Regatta that stops at Ha Long Bay at 7am on 11/14/23.  I'm trying to arrange an independent excursion to Hanoi (as the , and am being asked into which port at Halong Bay the ship will be arriving,   Oceania today said that for my particular cruise, they don't have that answer yet and might only be able to tell us once we have already boarded the Regatta two days before.   That doesn't seem right to me - does anyone have any helpful info/intel?  Thanks in advance.

we did this on a cruise ship tour many years ago. My advise go with the ships tour.  It's over 3 hrs to get to Hanoi over very hilly highway. This way you won't have to think about it. 

5 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Do  they book up THAT fast that you need to be on line at midnight?  Had not planned on that for our Vista cruise that should open up dining for us come this Thursday.

Yes. But that's mostly for people who want to book a table for 2. For sharing its not a problem. 

46 minutes ago, pmatawan said:

Question:

On a multi segment cruise booked as 1 cruise, will I be able to make all my reservations at once, or will I have to log in 45 days prior to each segment beginning date?

You can book all together do no have to wait. Did this last year on b2b.

It might seem unfair to those on second half of your cruise but thats the way it goes.

1 hour ago, EJL2023 said:

And I would much prefer the jeans instead of the two women who arrived in the GDR on Vista in leggings, matching graphic t-shirt and baseball caps on our cruise in May.

Very classy LOL

I forgot about the newspapers in the lounge. The only drawback is u have to read it there can't take them to read in your room or elsewhere 

Up until about a year ago always payed for printing NYT and delivered to my cabin.But got the app so don't have to pay LOL

A-catagory veranda you get. Free laundry but on 7 day cruise really don't matter I guess.

But you do get to choose specialty dinning reservations a few days before lower category cabins which to us is important 

CASH IS KING what ever the currency so don't sweat the details 

Hide your Valentine's cards in your  luggage before you leave town.

If it's that important and necessary disembark the port before before and fly home

Back in 97 on the Royal Viking port of Shanghai, tour group stuck on train coming back from tour. Ship waited 6 hrs so tour group could get back. Departed at 11  pm instead of 5 pm.

Arthur Former always said "take ship tours they won't leave with out you".

Then ship tour passengers would be bussed to that new port that's nearby?

19 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

Unless the tides force it to. Rare, but it can happen.

And you know this as fact 

Have no fear the ship will never depart from port until the ships shore excursion returns. That's the piece of mind with ship tours.