wcook

I (and my soon to be empty wallet) have heard that before.

Because some ships are sailing well under capacity, there are a lot of “bargains” out there for the solo cruiser. There are also some cruises where the base inside cabin fare is so cheap paying 1.7x still works out to be a bargain. Not seeing as many bargains for 2023 as 2022 unfortunately.

MSC’s official rule is you aren’t allowed to bring any beverages on board. No water, soda, beer, absinthe, nothing. There’s probably an exception for baby formula.

Quick tip, if you get paired up with a stranger who makes a bunch of mistakes the first few holes, then starts talking about “making things interesting,” be very very careful. 🙂

Meclizine works great for me, but as you can see different people react differently. Have your friend try things in advance. You could have fun driving them around like a madman trying to get them sick. If you decide to go with either Meclizine or patches, both can usually be bought a lot cheaper from Amazon than your local pharmacy.

I’m not smart enough to know how to do it, but I suspect there’s a way for your nook to piggyback off your laptop’s access.

The lines are pretty darn similar. MSC has even “stolen” some of the best ship design elements from RCL. First thing, apply for status match Go into the production shows with lowered expectations. You may love the shows. You may not. Better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. Have high expectations of anything put on by the entertainment team. Lots of dance parties. Everyone is welcome. Go and have fun. It’s an Italian cruise line. Expect a bit of chaos. One nice thing about MSC is that there are few things you absolutely must sign up for right away. The restaurants will be there when you want. No North Star to get booked up.

Change is good. New options are good.

I think the portion of people who fully read and understand their cruise contract rounds to zero. For their insurance it’s even lower. (Yes, I know some of you are among the few that got rounded down. Give yourselves gold stars.) Buy from reputable companies. Have low legal expectations. Hope you will be treated right anyway. Have a great cruise.

Modern iPhones are reasonably water resistant. Not that you really want to test it. If the safe thing doesn’t work, I’d get a waterproof lanyard and bring the phone with you to the pool/tub.

I always assume I’m just SOL in that scenario. But I’m not booking $20k cruises.

The all-knowing YouTube algorithm decided I wanted to watch these and I binged watched every Canadian episode. Didn’t like the UK version; I should check out the Australian. Note: while meat and poultry are strictly prohibited from being brought into Canada, you can bring in up to 4kg of fish. Or one fish if larger. Gotta love the people who write such laws.

Random story: Bagnoregio (from the port of Civitavecchia) is a poor choice to tour independently. It’s far from the port, there are no good ways to get there or back via public transportation if something goes wrong, the next port (if not Naples) can be a pain to reach, etc. I’ve often thought about going, but I’m just not a ship tour kind of guy. Well during the heart of Covid, ports were cruise ship tour only. I figured this was my best chance to go. Had a good time.

One the one hand this is true. On the other hand, a *good* private tour has much less down time than ship tours.

Loving this thread. Keep it coming.

And you don’t pitch a fit.

Sounds cool. Hope you let us know how it went.

Side note: Good idea to travel with a written list of any drugs you take, allergies, significant Mexican* conditions, etc. Very easy to fill this out in your iPhone in the basic health app (I assume Android has something similar.) * er, make that significant medical conditions. Though if you have significant Mexican conditions I guess you can list those as well. Loves tacos. Do not serve rice and beans if sharing a room with others, etc.

I’ve never actually sailed in the Pacific, but if Ferdinand Magellan says it’s the Peaceful Ocean, that’s good enough for me. I predict smooth sailing the whole way. Have a great trip.

Note that those are the Caribbean prices; prices are different in the rest of the world (often cheaper) and just for fun are priced in pounds or euros to make things a shade more complicated for Americans to think about. But whatever you do, pre book. If nothing else you won’t have to pay the 15% service charge.

I find Gary’s videos to be very entertaining. But you gotta be careful with his advice (or anybody’s advice for that matter.) Gary just did a video on Alaska where he bragged about his travel agent for being so smart and “finding” him a train that goes from Anchorage to Whittier. 30 seconds of Google time will find you dozens of articles on how to make the trip. Every one of them mentioning the train. There’s only a couple ways to make the journey. Also, keep in mind Gary spends a ton of money on luxury cruises. Because commissions are higher, TA’s have a lot more they can do for you when booking expensive cruises or suites. When it comes to run of the mill cruises, an individual who like to research and plan can do everything a TA can. And by booking everything direct, you’ll never have a problem when you want to change something and the cruise line says “we can’t talk to you, you have to talk to your TA. Keep in mind you are on a forum where most of us not only can research and plan, that’s part of the fun. Where a TA really helps us when you don’t want to have to deal with all the minutia - you just want to tell somebody that you want to take a cruise in October, have them ask you a few questions and get to work for you.

That’s why I drink alone, yeah With nobody else Yeah, you know when I drink alone I prefer to be by myself

Would have been funny if they’d taken the packages and left the ladies.

Unless you are in Malta 🙂

Both your spouse and the person you are cheating on them with. It’s one or the other.