CruiserBruce

Horn signals are when ships commence movements, or to warn other traffic. The horns in the channel at Port Everglades has become a tradition for sailaway, but is not required by anyone.

@Haljo1935, my post was about KDam's departure from San Diego on March 30. @cruisn71 post was about April 5th KDam sailing.

Yes, he said he would.

Has been an "S" going back decades...the SA, SB, etc, became a marketing tool with the Vista class ships.

If everything goes according to plan, we get 4 minutes and 24 seconds of totality.

11:06

Observations and more bon mots.... Lots of maintenance going on. The painters are finishing painting the entire blue hull on the starboard side, as well as some of the white portion, which they are doing from a large cherry picker. In addition, the Lido hot tubs and the spa hot tub have been closed for about 36 hours now doing some super duper cleansing. Yesterday morning, they literally dumped 20 gallons of chemicals in each tub, cleaned and scrubbed wearing respirators, rubber gloves and other protective gear. They came back this morning and did more scrubbing ( without the protective gear), installed new drain covering materials and did some other stuff. They promised the tubs would be open by noon today...they almost met that. Last night we got word in our cabin that the water system would be off from 11pm to 5am for a cleaning of the water lines. We were advised we would have no water during those hours, and to run water in the morning to make sure we got the brown stuff out. We experienced no issue with this. Due to the extended runs between ports, we have been getting into ports at odd times. 10am at Manzanillo. Noon here. 11 at Huataco. Now 2pm on Tuesday at Loreto, not to mention 2pm at Mazatlan...possibly, after the Eclipse. Lots of time sailing at 19 or 20 knots. We took on some fuel here in Puerto Vallarta yesterday. It means Tuesday is almost a sea day. We got an invite to the Mariners reception (as a 5 star), Tuesday at 11:30. I assume the luncheon will follow, but haven't heard yet.

Yes. We arrived at Puerto Vallarta at noon yesterday (Saturday) and will sail at 5pm today (Sunday).

The key point here would be the unstated "with luggage ". There wouldn't be any Ubers that can handle 6 people with luggage, and only a few taxis. You will probably need to split into two vehicles.

There is definitely a hurricane season on the West Coast, just typically not as affecting of the cruise industry. And just like in Florida, for hurricanes to exist, the air and water temps must be warm. It can be very warm in the Mexican Rivera in the fall months.

Are you on a river cruise, or an ocean cruise? If it's an ocean cruise you will be docking a couple hours away, and doing the Louvre while in Paris pre-cruise would be the much better idea.

Fun being in port over night...party boat with live music floating around the port, fireworks, very few people on board... Dinner was very good. We both had filet mignon...pretty good. Not Pinnacle great, but we definitely didn't leave hungry. Double chocolate cake finished us off. The Ocean Bar Band has a lead singer! After several nights of only doing instrumental music in their first set or two, the lead singer made an appearance at 7:15. They are all good musicians. We love BB King and the Rolling Stone lounge performers and performances. The Ocean Bar Band plays a very wide of music, some less appealing to us. Overall, they are pretty popular with dancers, good performers, but not always to our preferences. After my earlier comments about the starboard side of the ship needing a paint job, the crew jumped right on it. Yesterday not one, but 4 different painting crews were at work, including one 4 person crew standing on top of a lifeboat floating at the stern. When the Europa fired up and sailed, the aft paint crew had to stop and get out of the turbulence caused by their thrusters. It was kind of funny, but not. Now the ship looks beautiful again. Lots of strategizing going on for positioning tomorrow. We a few high thin clouds so far today...if it's like this tomorrow, we will be fine. Lots of talk about the Walmart across the street. Employees saying the Juneau Walmart is cheaper than this one...but still best place for crew to shop, and they do. One loud passenger complaining "they don't speak English over there". Ugh!

Have you looked on halfacts.com? Probably won't have any with the sofa bed opened up.

No. It is the lowest Neptune Suite category. All but Zaandam and Volendam have them.

For a 7 day cruise? I would say that cruise is selling well. We have booked a 21 day cruise where the difference was $800pp to select your cabin versus a GTY.

But they obviously don't allow anyone on their bow....

Because one could save a couple hundred dollars per person. You can guess what wins every time.

OK, a few points here. Yes, the chances of being in a better cabin is good, for the reasons you mentioned. You definitely don't want to be in an SC, they have been discussed here frequently. I don't know if your late booking hinders or helps. In any case, you will definitely enjoy your cruise. Second, due to all the guarantee bookings, (commonly shorten to GTY), you can't really tell anything anything about what what's available, just what has been assigned or not. So literally, one additional booking could cause all of the NS to show as full, as all those other cabis mihht be GTY, but not assigned. You just have to wait and see what you get. But, again, it's about enjoying your cruise.

I would find a cruise that departs a couple days later, and enjoy Rome. Sorry, but that is crazy to sail the day you arrive. The rental car is easy.

Observations and bon mots, part......whatever! @Cruisetrekker, there also a small Star Trek group on board, including one actor, a Cameron somebody, who was in 40 episodes. Also 2 retired astronauts. And a couple of NASA folks doing some research. Captain Smit is pretty funny, and a good speaker. His accent seems to lend to his humor and presentation. He said we are still 3 to 5 years ( my summary of what he said) at least from a female Captain. But there are several females in the chain, including a 3 striper on Zaandam right now. Docked next to the MSC Explora 1. Google it...very interesting.

That was actually someone who wanted to get off EARLY, on a sailing from Whittier to Vancouver. They wanted off in Juneau, so a violation by sailing from one US port to another without a distant foreign port stop. IIRC, it was a $700pp fine charged to the credit on file, as the people just left.

Just in from a very informative and entertaining presentation by Capt Smit and Tom Vassos. We have a Plan A, and a Plan B. Plan A is to sail a course of about 140 degrees, at about 7 knots, directly in the middle of the path of totality starting over 50 miles off shore. This will allow maximum time in the Eclipse and path of totality. The wildcard is high thin sirrus clouds, which are predicted for that day.The Captain's staff had a little fun with the Plan B slide...it looked like a bowl of spaghetti. It means we will free lance as needed to try and find as much clear sky as possible, which may reduce the amount of totality we experience. The event went on for close to an hour, with lots of questions, answers and information. Happy to answer your questions. Believe it or not, they are setting up for music by the pool. I assume it is local musicians. Haven't seen that much any more on HAL.

@Haljo1935, KDam couldn't sail sooner as Zaandam's fuel barge was alongside until 6pm. Not enough room for KDam to sail. Zaandam was scheduled to sail at 3pm, we didn't actually sail until almost 6:30, our fuel barge couldn't get to us sooner because KDam's was alongside until just after 2pm. Again, not enough room.

Is it doing Alaska this sailing, or some modified route because Alaska isn't "open" yet? Like Vancouver or Victoria, Astoria, etc.

I will get back to you, @Haljo1935....and all my faithful followers!😆😆😆