gcvt

Dang it, too late to edit my last post.

How do we find out if they're doing BVE for this one? Is there a '16 schedule out yet? We would love to leave Austin a little earlier if we could take my folks on board.

Also, gotta remind the GF to call and specify meta upgrade only. They "upgraded" us from C743 to Aloha mid-ship for our Hawaii cruise. Had to call them to get our big balcony back :mad: We're young. Moving us closer to elevators with a smaller balcony is not helpful.

OOPS! I forgot to mention, she booked this one for me as my birthday gift :cool:

I was on a similar itinerary out of Houston having not been to Roatan and Belize as well and I can say we still haven't been to either. Fog / Wind delayed us so we got to see Costa Maya and a day in Cozumel where every excursion that was water related or took place near the water was cancelled due to weather.

 

Good luck is all I can say. :D

Well, I'm perfectly flexible LOL. We're used to missing ports - all part of the adventure. As long as the hot tubs are hot, Francesca will be happy!

Southwest out of Hobby is great for one way flights.

I grew up in Houston and always hated Hobby but, in this case, it would certainly be the better option.

We've never booked a cruise on such short notice before - only 47 days to go! :D We most recently sailed Star and Grand out of SF, so we're excited to see a new ship. Close call on cabins; we always book Caribe and I think we got the 5th to last one. Whew!

We'll be visiting my parents in Austin for my birthday on 2/12 and they'll be delivering us to Houston on 2/14 to board. Neither of us have ever been to Cozumel, Roatan or Belize so we're very exited.

Now we just have to get our flights figured out since we'll be flying in to Austin but flying out of Houston.

I will say that the laundry rates are reasonable onboard and there's usually a laundry special somewhere around the halfway point of the cruise.

$1.95 for a single handkerchief seems a tad high. Not that we've ever used them, but the option of self-service laundry facilities on Princess was a nice option. Our longest cruise so far was only 15 days though, so we have never used either.

Then again, after a 30+ day cruise, I might be happy to dump it all on them so I don't have to do it when we get home...in addition to learning how to cook and make our bed again :D

Glad they were rescued. What an ordeal.

Regal headed South. So jealous :)

Star is backing out now.

http://www.webmarin.com

Very nice photos...thanks for sharing!

^^^ I second that!

The Blue Angles show was awesome. The people on the Star and Grand had penthouse seats for the show. The scheduled 2pm United 747 maneuvers turned out to be a Boeing 787 instead. Still fun for low flybys and vertical type climb outs.

 

The Star arrived much earlier than shown on the shipping timetable. As we got off the ferry and out of the ferry building, we saw the Star pulling in and that was 11 something.

 

I believe the Princess ships were the photographic highlights prior to the angels show. I think more people thought the two enormous white passengers vessels were brought in as the backdrop for this event.

 

Im compiling pictures and will share some in a bit. Mark

Looking forward to the pictures Mark!

After we got up this morning and had some coffee and breakfast, I got around to checking AIS thinking we had hours of time. I noticed that Star was already tied up in port hours ahead of time. That was disappointing. Oh well, still a good air show from our balcony.

This Saturday, October 10th, the Grand will be docked at pier 27 during the busiest day of San Francisco's Fleet Week and Air Show.

 

At 1 O'clock the Star will sail in under the Golden Gate bridge and be greeted to an air show by a United Airlines 747 doing show maneuvers along the waterfront and at 3 o'clock the Blue Angels. I will be posting photos here to share afterwards. It should make for quite a sight with all the sailboats, navel ships and two massive white cruise ships.

 

http://WWW.webmarin.com may show some of the fun along the waterfront of SF.

How was the show? We ended up watching from our apartment and they buzzed us three times. The dogs hated it :D

Well this time, you will be in prime location to catch the Star roll in at 1pm!

 

.

AIS is showing Star arriving an Noon. Anyone know for sure?

We really want to go downtown to see the ships, but we'll probably just head up to the Marin Headlands, or some other GG Bridge view area since traffic will be a nightmare. We've had horrible luck watching Princess ships leave on time on Fleet Week day. This same weekend one year ago...nothing happened on time :o

If I get some pics, I'll be sure to post them.

Why any compensation at all? For what? Accidents happen.

^^^This.

It's weird to see a ship in port like this for so many days.

Are they wearing Speedos? Where's the 'puke' smiley :p

On the Grand Class ships, which we sail on most because of where we live and work full time, I wish we would have done it on the Mexico itinerary with some kids on board. No one seemed to use it on the April SF-Hawaii trip last year. On that itinerary, I'd love to have Sanctuary duty every day as a ship employee! Just hang out up there all day and have nothing to do :D

Fettuccine Alfredo in an entree-sized portion.

This.

I hate you both :p

We've taken our steamer on every cruise and I think we've only used it once. Never got hassled or questioned on any line. As previously mentioned, if you pack and unpack right, it's no big deal. A wrinkle or two is part of being on a cruise. Everyone's in the...same...um...boat :)

We had Winston on Rhapsody in 2009 (I'm assuming it was the same Winston!!!). We loved him! He was a widower with 2 young sons in boarding school and had been with RCI for 16 or so years. He was the best! :D

Sounds like the same Winston to me. He was amazing. We can't remember the name of our last two SAs, but we remember Winston from almost four years ago.

And if they're not busy you can have a nice chat about where they call home and their family etc.

 

A good one can be a miracle worker.

You had Winston as your SA on Freedom too?! :p

That story sure took a left turn in the tenth paragraph :confused:

And they've apparently changed the definition of a "beating" since I was younger.

Awesome - thanks for posting those.

Yep. You can also get a much better ice bucket from the dining room that will keep ice for much longer.

Been watching too. What is that thing?