FLcruiser2011

We were scheduled to go from the Falklands to several days of sailing about Antarctica. But the captain, instead of saying 'Now we will go directly there and perhaps can see a little more," said 'Now we can sail toward Antarctica at 12 knots instead of 17, so it will be smoother.' Huh?

Just got word that our visit tomorrow to the Falkland Islands has been cancelled because the sea is going to be too rough to tender. This is a big disappointment. Second time this has happened to us. We booked this cruise in large part to see the king penguins at Volunteer Point. Perhaps we are destined to never visit the Falklands. There isn't going to be a third try.

A couple of days after we sailed from Miami for Brazil and Antarctica, my wife somehow, somewhere lost a gold necklace with a tiny animal pendant that she had worn daily. This necklace -- a gift years ago on another cruise -- had GREAT sentimental value. The ship's lost-and-found holds out little hope we will ever see it again, and my wife a week later remains distraught. If anyone hears of anyone on this cruise finding a necklace, we can identify it more precisely -- and I would be overjoyed to pay a very generous reward. I can be emailed at vb32963 at gmail dot com.

We have been on Oceania Marina now for almost two weeks, and have tried all four of the specialty restaurants -- Polo, Jacques, Red Ginger and Toscana -- one time each. The food in the main dining room has been excellent -- easily on a par with the luxury lines -- and the food in all four of the specialty restaurants has been disappointing, especially in Jacques. Go figure.

We are on Marina right now and had goose on Christmas Eve and turkey on Christmas Day in the main dining room. Both were the best renditions of these dishes that we have had on recent holiday cruises on Crystal, Silver Sea and Holland America.

Maybe if it had been mailed to our home? Instead of distributed on the ship, when Oceania had to know that everyone aboard needed to fly somewhere at the end of their cruise?

Hitting a sandbar at the mouth of the Amazon gives one a lot of confidence about the part of the cruise that sails by Antarctica in a few weeks. And the chopping board couldn't possibly add more than a half dozen pounds to our already overweight luggage. I'm sure American Airlines will be very understanding when we show up with it in Santiago.

At age 79, I found that the sailor's grip worked really well on a martini glass, but less well trying to balance on the inflatable tube of a Zodiac in a rocking-and-rolling sea.

We tried this on Endeavour last year (when it was still the Crystal Endeavor). I was in my late 70s, in decent shape, but had the same concerns and before going to the Antarctic and trying a Zodiac, I wanted to try one in the Caribbean so the water would be warm if I fell in. I successfully got in and out of a Zodiac -- with considerable crew help -- but decided that doing it in the Antarctic would have been a very bad idea. You are wise to be thinking of this.

We are now clearing the Gatun Locks four hours late. Wonder how that will impact the visit (or non visit) to Cartagena in the morning?

Well, this cruise just keeps going from bad to worse. This morning we decided to order Thanksgiving breakfast from room service and enjoy Thanksgiving breakfast on our balcony. Right on time, a very nice breakfast comes, we go out to the balcony, and are overcome by paint fumes. They have picked Thanksgiving morning to paint the lifeboat directly beneath our balcony. So we hunch down in our room -- my wife over the vanity, I over the desk -- and eat our separate breakfasts. Happy Thanksgiving. Later a guest services person comes and give us a key card to a cabin two floors away on the other side of the ship so we can "enjoy" the balcony. What a wonderful solution.

Well, this cruise just gets worse and worse. We were told by the Pinnacle hostess that Pinnacle is sold out for the remaining 9 days of this cruise. We have not even had a chance to try it. What's the point of buying a Signature Suite and a Club Orange package if you can't get into Pinnacle once. But we then decided to try Canaletto tomorrow night, when they have veal liver. They could squeeze us in at 9 pm, we were told. And THEN, to add insult to injury, the guest services person suggested we might like to have DINNER at the Lido, "where you won't need a reservation. So what I'm really looking forward to on a not inexpensive cruise is fine dining in the buffet. Wow! This sure is one classy cruise line. BTW, we sat a couple of miles out of Huatulco for three hours, while the Mexican authorities messed with the ship's officers for cancelling their stop in Huatulco. Of course, we could have spent that three hours in port and perhaps everyone would have been happy!

Speaking of running out of things, the first night I ordered a Hendrick's gin martini, and was informed that the ship was out of Hendricks. I subsequently asked for a Belvedere vodka martini, and was informed the ship was out of Belvedere. Since I rather doubt that San Diego was out of these two beverages, you have to wonder why they did not restock two brands that a lot of cruisers enjoy. I realize that these are first world problems, but you have to wonder why Holland America is not stocking beverages people like -- since they charge more than enough for them.

We are currently aboard Zuiderdam, en route from San Diego to Port Everglades. This may be the worst cruise we have had in 100+ cruises on pretty near every cruise line.in It started on a strange note. A day before the cruise, we got an email telling us our exact embarkation time had been moved slightly to 1:05 pm. OK. If that kind of precision is needed to avert long lines, fine with us. So we arrived at precisely 1:05 and joined several hundred people standing in a slow-moving line under the sun. Not a very auspicious start. From that point, it would be hard to find things that have gone well. One of the planned Central American stops had been cancelled in favor of a sea day weeks before the cruise, and a few days before the cruise, we were told the Nicaragua stop had also been cancelled and we would have another sea day. Then this morning came the latest medical emergency (the ship has been having one or more daily) and we sat off the Mexican coast for a half dozen hours waiting for the passenger to be taken ashore. The result of that is yet another stop cancelled this one, Huatulco, Mexico, in favor of (guess what) yet another sea day. We understand the need to make changes, but when a total of three ports have been cancelled in favor of sea days, we might expect to be told we will get free internet perhaps, or free drinks, or something to make up for it. Not a word. So we will see what happens from here, but we sure are wishing we had not taken this cruise.

We are currently on Eclipse, and the internet has been great all trip except for one six hour period when the cruise director made an announcement that we were not in reach of any of Musk's satellites.

The Captain announced this morning that a number of passengers on Celebrity Eclipse have now tested positive for Covid. What a surprise after packing them into buses the past three days on the French Polynesian islands! With five sea days ahead of us before we reach New Zealand, passengers are belatedly being urged to mask in the casino and theatre. We'll see what good that does.

When we visited Moorea today, we were told a Princess ship was turned away a few days ago because of more than 100 cases of Covid on board. Anyone on that ship? What's the situation?

My Move Up bid is now frozen. The slide that lets you adjust it up or down, or cancel, is no longer on the webpage -- just my bid. And above it, it still says Pending. What do you think that means?

We are joining Eclipse in Hawaii and are somewhat uneasy about the high number of positives on the previous Alaska cruise. Any news on how many more positives have turned up on the ship in the past couple of days? Anyone wearing masks?

Is anyone else finding the website rejecting sign in attempts today?

Well, the website doesn't seem to be working for me -- so could someone give me an email address that has worked for them. Thanks

I can't figure out where you check your OBC on the website. I click on Manage Reservation, then click on Plan My Cruise. What do you do next to see your OBC? Thanks

We just received an email that Royal southbound will replace Skagway on August 16 with Haines? That's a new one on us. Tender port or dock? And what is there to do there?

We're wondering too. We are scheduled for Skagway on the 16th and the 24th, and fear both are going to be Icy Strait Point. Sure wish one was going to be Sitka.