MarkBearSF

I also love the paintings in The Restaurant. And I just got out of the post-theater jam around the elevators. I can imagine what it's like on a full ship.

Are the little movie theater alcoves in the theater ever closed for movies?

Lunch today at the nearby Pompano Beach Club. Beautiful.

I'm currently loving our cruise on the Viking Orion around Bermuda and am in awe of the design of her. Everything seems so well planned, the decor is beautiful and the fit-and-finish of the details is impressive. 

Which made me think. No design or plan is perfect. Inevitably, there will be things that just don't quite work as planned, or new improvements. Obviously, with so many ships queued up (and the advantages of keeping the same design for training and operations), there would likely be little opportunity for major changes, but I'd imagine there would be little changes would be made as they refine their product.

Are there differences as they've gone through the years?

One silly thing, I'm so happy that MSNBC has changed their ads over the past 18 months. On cruises, that is our default channel, and the spaces that are filled with "normal" commercials at home, are all Internal MSNBC promos on the satellite feed - so by the third day, you almost know the six of them by heart. And before the pandemic, they hadn't updated them in a year or two, so the same damn ads were on 3-4 cruises. 

We went on a wonderful catamaran/swim/snorkel excursion this afternoon. The water was beautiful. 

Tomorrow, we don't have any excursions scheduled, but are planning to take a taxi to the nearby Pompano Beach Club for lunch. 

Tonight is Manfredi's. I'm thinking steak. We enjoyed the Asian menu at the Chef's Table and have signed up for Mexican on Sunday night. (Coming from San Francisco, the California Cuisine menu wasn't appealing - also because the main course is fish, which my husband is allergic to)

Everything is fabulous. I can't imagine a more wonderful return to sea.

They added a Sunset Glass Bottom Boat cruise to Hamilton. (Hopefully the glass bottom part will be before it get's dark. It starts at 6:30). We signed up for this and moved our St George's tour to 10:15 AM, to space the two excursions apart. 

Hi Patty,

The current schedule is
Tues, Wed - Hamilton
Thurs - at sea
Fri, Sat - Dockyards/King's Wharf
Sun - at sea
Mon - Hamilton
Thus - disembark Hamilton

Most of the excursions have been rescheduled to fit the new schedule. For instance, the St George's tour has been moved to departing from Hamilton from St George's and the existing King's Wharf tours have been rescheduled. They have also added a few excursions. They have been very helpful and flexible.
 

All set. Our red-eye to Atlanta leaves tonight. SOOOO looking forward to this trip. 

6 hours ago, molymoo said:

 The agent was very nice and I’m guessing we didn’t fit the typical “drug mule” profile so we had a few laughs and we’re eventually on our way … it makes for a good story !  

As I often console myself, the worse the experience, the better the story afterward! 😉

Thanks. I found the attachments in an email forwarded by my TA. 

I was going over tickets and things to print and pack and could not find an official Cruise Ticket or Boarding Pass to download and print as I'm accustomed to have by now on other lines.

Am I missing something? I would like to have a simple document for customs/etc with my cruise info.

Eek! A few days ago, I saw something about the Orion and Bermuda. I mistook that "r" in the ship name for an "n" (result, "Bermuda Onion") and now every time I see the ship name I first see "Onion"

I wonder if they're prioritizing them by arrival date. 

Interesting. From the Royal Gazette, there is dissatisfaction with the Travel Authorization Forms amongst the government...
"Later today, Mr Dunkley repeated calls for the abolition of the TAF.

He said: 'The OBA strongly believes the TAF is no longer required. While we support protecting our borders, recent history has shown widespread concern in the community due to the challenges faced by countless travellers in completing the form.

'The people of Bermuda are asking, and we echo their sentiments: who is this TAF actually benefiting? The health and safety of the island or the coffers of friends of the Progressive Labour Party Government?'”
https://www.royalgazette.com/health/news/article/20210702/travel-authorisation-forms-have-earned-government-5-4-million/

FYI - Bermuda has dispatched people to JFK to help head off problems with the Travel Authorizations. They say they will also send people to other airports.
There also is now a toll free number for problems  (833) 570-2594
https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210627/bta-deploys-team-to-jfk-over-covid-related-travel-issues/

58 minutes ago, sleepybobo said:

Could you enlighten me on why portside westbound on Transatlantic? Not that I've booked a transatlantic.  But I'd love to be on one in the future.

I can answer that one. When traveling westbound, port side cabins face the sun; starboard will be in shade. Of course the reverse is true when traveling eastbound.

One more east vs. west factor that may not be immediately obvious. There are five or six time zones between NY and Europe. That means when traveling eastbound, you lose 5-6 hours and it's like the "bad" daylight saving time change for most of the days of the crossing. Much better, when traveling west, you gain an hour on five or six nights. Woo hoo! 

1 minute ago, Irishbuckeye said:

Kaiser gives a PCR test.  I subsequently received an email from TAApprovals@gov.bm stating they were in error.  I am now in possession of the authorizations.

Yikes!  I've got Kaiser tests scheduled for us in three weeks!

I saw a menu picture from California theme Chef's Table. It appeared that there were no choices for the main course (or others). Is this the case? In our case, we'd have to cancel because my husband is allergic to fish. (I'm also a bit picky, which could be a potential issue)

Not to mention we probably wouldn't pick the "California Cuisine" theme, well because....

FYI, we just got our Bermuda Map from the tourism authority.

It's a beautiful map of the island with places of interest and insets of the cities. It folds up to pocket size. I ordered it about a week ago from their tourism site. (you can also download) The page also has ferry and bus schedules.

Check it out!
https://www.gotobermuda.com/official-visitor-guides

Well, our Aug 28 Cabo cruise is cancelled. Not really surprised; Princess has been somewhat silent about those LA departures when things should've been swinging into gear.

Rescheduling for Oct 9. Happy about that. Timing is a bit better - after booking this, we added a July Viking Bermuda cruise - this spreads it out a bit better ...and looks like the third time for the itinerary (third time's a charm?).

Especially happy that it'll be on our favorite Grand Princess. Less crowded than the Ruby. (And since we're splurging, a midship suite is an acceptable option since it is NOT directly beneath the lido pool deck, unlike the Ruby). For us, better all around!

Also happy that vaccinations will be required. I wonder they'll use the VeriFLY app that Viking uses to verify the vaccination status, or add vaccine verification into the Medallion app. (VeriFLY was pretty easy and fast) 

(moved to another thread)

Note - today begins the first Bermuda cruise. All communication had been that passengers would only be able to leave the ship in their "bubble" on ship excursions. 
However last night, passengers received an email from Viking notifying them that Bermuda has lifted that requirement and therefore, all passengers could leave the ship at will and freely travel around the island. (YAY! We sail in a month hoping and expecting that will be true for our trip)

(duplicate post)

3 hours ago, MarkBearSF said:

Interesting that St Georges is a tender port. I recall, when we visited in 1998 on the Zenith, we docked there. And a NCL ship docked there with us, lined up along the pier (Norwegian Destiny or Majesty)

Interesting. I checked an old Berlitz guide and although the Orion is a bit longer than the Zenith, she's a smaller ship in GRT and passenger capacity. And, as I remember, the two ships were lined up along the shoreline pier (so length is unlikely to be an issue). Perhaps the protections causing problems with the tender also protect the shoreline.

Interesting that St Georges is a tender port. I recall, when we visited in 1998 on the Zenith, we docked there. And a NCL ship docked there with us, lined up along the pier (Norwegian Destiny or Majesty)