MJC

Oh such sad news Laurie, I'm so sorry. Thinking of you and hoping you find comfort in all the wonderful memories you have of your time together. ❤️

I thought you might enjoy this photo I recently found elsewhere: "On September 3, 1957, New York’s West Side, known as Luxury Liner Row, hosted a grand assembly of iconic Atlantic liners. The photograph captures six of these classic ships, which arrived early that morning, marking the end of the summer vacation season the day after Labor Day. From top to bottom, the vessels included American Export Lines' INDEPENDENCE at Pier 84, United States Lines' flagship UNITED STATES at Pier 86, Greek Line's OLYMPIA and French Line's FLANDRE at Pier 88, and Cunard Line's MAURETANIA and QUEEN MARY at Pier 90. At Pier 92 was Cunard's BRITANNIC, which had arrived on August 31. This gathering of liners, 67 years ago, collectively brought around 9,400 passengers to New York in the luxury of the era. In contrast, today, Royal Caribbean's ICON OF THE SEAS alone can carry 7,600 passengers, nearly matching the capacity of all six classic liners combined."

Some Emerald aft cabins have a part of the ship structure in the way of the view, hence the designation obstructed view. Here are a couple photos I found by googling E734 on the Emerald (I circled your cabin). You can see in the first photo that the openings in the structure of the ship don't line up perfectly with where your cabin window is, hence the obstruction designation. The white and silver divider you see in the opening for your balcony is what separates your balcony from that of the corner suite. Some people (like us) are happy to be aft and just deal with the view issue. One of the nice things is that at the end of the hallway back there, there is very little hallway noise. Also the sound of the wake puts us to sleep at night. And it is just one flight of stairs down to the Promenade deck. We did a Norway cruise last fall. You didn't say what month you are going... but you might want to overlook the obstruction because of the deeper aft balcony that will allow you to be outside and watch the scenery go by, and take photos, even if it's cold or drizzly. It is so beautiful there.

... and you may have better luck with those the farther from the tender area you go. We bring Off wipes too for our ankles because there can be no-see-ums under the trees but the shade is worth it.

Love that short coral dress, Laurie. And I'm not surprised you got the jumpsuit, you seemed to really really like it. It's funny sometimes, the things I think my DH won't like, I'm totally wrong about. I spent a long weekend with my brother. I got caught up in the Delta mess and it was quite an odyssey... was 4 hours late getting there, and quite an long day getting home... but made it back on Monday at midnight. We had an awesome time. We went to the Ann Arbor art fair on Friday when I arrived. We really enjoyed many of the booths, and had a delicious dinner at a local restaurant. I went to college there so it was fun to see campus and my old haunts where I met my DH. Saturday there was a car show and balloon festival in my hometown. We went in his 1971 Cougar blasting Bob Seger and visited with lots of car enthusiasts, even saw one of my favorite cousins. I had a 2004 GTO like this one, but in yellow. My Grandma had this car. When we were little all 4 of us sat in a row in the back seat. 😁 Sunday we drove to Grand Rapids to visit my uncle. What a lovely visit. He reminds me so much of my dad. From there we went to visit the cemetary where our grandma is buried. I had never been there since she died while I was away from home. The weather was warm so I packed very light. I did a Zumba at the Y, and thought I might swim but I didn't. I was glad I packed light since with all the delays I was carting my bag around a lot. I wore my tan shorts, sweater, and sneakers every day with these tops. I'll probably go back again in October when DH has a business trip. It will be a good month to visit wineries and go hiking.

One of the things that I like about Princess are the free morning Zumba classes on sea days. I don't know that I'd like them in the Piazza, though. On the Grands we've sailed I've seen them held at Club Fusion or Explorers Lounge. They are usually simpler to follow than the ones I do at my gym, and there is a broad range of age and ability. Great way to start the day!

BTW there is a time limit, I think 30 days? So don't wait too long.

Ask your TA to fill out the transfer form for you to sign and send back. They will take it from there. We have done this several times when we've jumped on a good fare ourselves. It doesn't change your fare or booking number.

Laurie, love seeing your dresses and accessories layout. You have so many nice cruise outfits. Our next cruise is an early November southern Caribbean, so we will have some new to us ports. I am just now starting to plan our shore days. Unless I lose some weight I will be packing the same old same old because I refuse to buy anything new in my current size. Right now I'm getting ready for a short trip to see my brother. We have fun things planned for the 3 days I'm there. It will be a shorts and t's kind of wardrobe, so I'm not thinking too hard about packing.

That is very cute, Laurie. I hope Melody is having a nice time with family on her cruise in spite of the challenges. DH lost an uncle this weekend after a short illness, so we have our hands full with family this week. Just booked our flights for a fall cruise from FLL on the Sapphire Princess. Also the window is now open to book our flights for our Japan cruise next spring, so I have some homework to do.

We had this same experience booking a Japan cruise and were able to get our preferred cabin only by booking it as 2 cruises b2b.

Happy belated birthday Laurie!! 🎂 We are having a busy May. Mark's uncle has been in the hospital, and my goddaughter is visiting us for a few days. She's presenting at a conference at NYU this week. Our next vacation is not until November, so we have the whole summer to enjoy the lake. The weather is finally getting nice. Our big excitement these days is chasing the resident beaver away from our trees and shrubs. 😁

Am so glad to hear this as we have wanted to sail from San Juan at some point.

We skipped it in April on the EP. We were notified way in advance. I wouldn't plan on it if I were you. We did not get a replacement port, just made it a sea day.

I talked to a PVP yesterday since our travel agent is out this week. He told me he already had a list of his previous clients he was ready to book when it opened. I imagine that if lots of PVPs had similar lists, the bookings would be going fast and furious on their end. I got myself up early and kept refreshing until the itinerary was available and I booked it myself. All the aft suites were already gone. I was lucky to get the cabin we wanted, at about 7:45am. This is my first time booking as Elite and I never got any emails about early booking for past passengers. I only learned about today's opening date here on CC.

Here too, totally socked in with fog.

We snorkeled a wreck mot far off the coast of Costa Rica, it may have been Puntarenas, but we didn't see much, and it was more geared to divers. But I wanted to try it, and it was meh, but we still had a nice day on the water. I also snorkeled on my own from one of the beaches in Cabo but didn't have any luck. Too many boats, too many people. Further south I did have a decent snorkel from Isla de Coiba near Panama. The water was calmer there than the others. Huatulco is a newish port in southern Mexico, it is known for the Nine Bays, its very beautiful coastline. We went to a beach called Playa le Entrega. There is some coral along the rocks (I honestly didn't believe them when they told me there would be coral there until I saw it) but it is smaller and not as colorful as coral in the Caribbean. We did see quite a variety of fish, that I didn't get any pictures of 😬 and so I can't remember to tell you what we saw. Mostly small and medium sized, some colorful. It was fun but the surf was challenging, not for beginners, and it pulled us out a bit, and we had to work to get back to shore. Thank you so much for your experienced camera advice! I see an Olympus in my future!

I'm amazed at your pictures and the number of different kinds of fish you saw. I've snorkelled twice in the Pacific and came away underwhelmed. We recently snorkeled at Huatulco and were very pleasantly surprised, though. However, my trusty Canon D10 died, so no photos. I think I even bought the D10 from reading about it in your prior posts, years ago. Long story short, I am wondering how you like your Olympus since that's a model I am considering as a replacement. Your pictures are wonderful despite the water conditions.

This is true. It's good to like the itinerary in general so you don't feel like it's a wasted trip if the weather doesn't cooperate. We are already booked on the Queen Anne, but we will try to switch to Sky since the itinerary is so much better. 🤞

Another thank you for the helpful post!

We don't drink much so we don't get a package, but I like wine with dinner sometimes. Recently on the Emerald I ordered a glass of cabernet from the premier selection on the menu, I think it was $18 or $20. It was so bland I asked the waiter if they had brought the right wine, it was that bad. They took it away and came back with a different one, which was much better but still not very good.

I have lots of photos to sort through from our recent cruise. Then between having Passover right after we got back, loads of laundry to do, and then picking up our new car on Friday, it was a crazy first week home. And I have a cold. So I'll get to posting eventually. 🙂

I'm at that point where I'll wear the short dresses while I still can. 🙂 The black feathered-hem dress that I took on this last cruise falls into that category where I have to watch how I sit. I feel the same way about my heels... I know that day is coming where I won't be able to manage the height that I'm doing now, so I'm going to enjoy them while I can. And do as the French women do... if you think your undies might show, make sure they are cute! When I was younger I had a couple short flowy dresses that I wore matching bike shorts with because of going up and down the subway stairs. One that I particularly loved was yellow and white, and I wore it with white bike shorts and white sneakers.

Poking around the Lands End sale today and thought I'd share this steal on a brown fleece jacket: https://www.landsend.com/products/womens-sherpa-fleece-full-zip-jacket/id_380731?attributes=19923,41906,41951,43197,43307,44256,44967,45134 brown swimsuit: https://www.landsend.com/products/womens-slendersuit-tummy-control-chlorine-resistant-wrap-one-piece-swimsuit/id_348727?attributes=18076,41906,41951,43197,43307,44093,44256,44967,45134

We're waiting to disembark after a wonderful cruise. Being away for 15 days is so different, we really got to relax and enjoy each day, including some really lazy ones. I'm coming home with Mark's cold, which is no fun, but at least it waited until the last day to appear! Can't wait to see my kitty. ❤️