Rare mysty Posted January 11, 2023 Author #126 Share Posted January 11, 2023 15 hours ago, mysty said: Thanks so very much for taking the time to post this Deck! Much appreciated! Some yummy places on that list! 😁 Today the ship excursion options appeared for San Francisco. One of the included excursions is a combo of Alcatraz and Sausalito. It's a 5 hour tour beginning at 10:00 am with a walk to Pier 33, the ferry to Alcatraz for a self-guided look-see, ferry back to San Francisco, bus to Sausalito, bus back to the ship. We booked it thus ticking two boxes from @Deckhawk's wonderful list. Only fly in the ointment might be the return time to the ship. The pre-cruise gala dinner for the World Cruise part of our adventure will be held that evening. We are hoping to attend. We will need to arrange something with Reception prior. And if we would need to leave the ship before the return time for the excursion we will just do Sausalito on our own and cancel the excursion booking. All good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare crusinbanjo Posted January 11, 2023 #127 Share Posted January 11, 2023 On 1/9/2023 at 9:25 AM, mysty said: You were definitely blessed with enlightened parents crusinbanjo! Mrs must be as happy as a clam! 😁 Thank you for that compliment. My mother came from a family of 16 Children, her mother didn't let the kids do any of the house work. My mother had to learn on the job when she got married. From that time on she swore that her children would all learn, starting at a young age. All of us had to chip in with household chores, including cooking, laundry and caring for the ones younger than you. Yes this was a blessing, as all 15 of my mom and dad's children were and are still sought after in work situations as hard workers, innovative problem solvers, and independent thinkers who are ready to lead. Early life training has made myself and most of my siblings pretty well off....... ......(at least well off enough to enjoy SS cruising!) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 11, 2023 Author #128 Share Posted January 11, 2023 9 minutes ago, crusinbanjo said: Thank you for that compliment. My mother came from a family of 16 Children, her mother didn't let the kids do any of the house work. My mother had to learn on the job when she got married. From that time on she swore that her children would all learn, starting at a young age. All of us had to chip in with household chores, including cooking, laundry and caring for the ones younger than you. Yes this was a blessing, as all 15 of my mom and dad's children were and are still sought after in work situations as hard workers, innovative problem solvers, and independent thinkers who are ready to lead. Early life training has made myself and most of my siblings pretty well off....... ......(at least well off enough to enjoy SS cruising!) WOW cruising! You're one of 15 children! You should write a how-to book on parenting. It seems like a lost art now! 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare crusinbanjo Posted January 11, 2023 #129 Share Posted January 11, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, mysty said: WOW cruising! You're one of 15 children! You should write a how-to book on parenting. It seems like a lost art now! 🤔 Haha, you are correct, it is almost a lost art. My mom should have written the book. I am the 7th child of Bernard & Rolande. Together they were married 72 years and had 15 children……. We really know the book “Cheaper by he Dozen”. Edited January 11, 2023 by crusinbanjo 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 11, 2023 Author #130 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Just now, crusinbanjo said: Haha, you are correct, it is almost a lost art. And, I am the 7th child of Bernard & Rolande. Together they were married 72 years and had 15 children……. We really know the book “Cheaper by he Dozen”. Is Rolande French crusin? In Canada, French families in that era had many children. My dad's family had 8 siblings and mom's had 6. I came from a smaller family of 4. I was the oldest. Interestingly, my dad was thrilled that his oldest child was female. His mother had died fairly young and his oldest sister was tasked with the job of raising the rest of the kids. Thankfully I did not have to take on that responsibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare crusinbanjo Posted January 12, 2023 #131 Share Posted January 12, 2023 3 hours ago, mysty said: Is Rolande French crusin? In Canada, French families in that era had many children. My dad's family had 8 siblings and mom's had 6. I came from a smaller family of 4. I was the oldest. Interestingly, my dad was thrilled that his oldest child was female. His mother had died fairly young and his oldest sister was tasked with the job of raising the rest of the kids. Thankfully I did not have to take on that responsibility. Yes, Rolande was named because her dad wanted a boy, so they feminized the name. My grandparents on moms side were in fact from Canada. My grandfathers brothers were ship captains on the St Lawrence Seaway for years. My Grandfather, Lorenzo, was a stone mason who came to the US about 1910. During WWII, he was building housing for soldiers on the Allusion Islands, in Alaska. After the war he taught my uncle and my dad in the construction biz, they were very successful and taught us to be the same. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 12, 2023 Author #132 Share Posted January 12, 2023 This World Cruise originally had 6 events planned for the folks who would be on for the full ride. Two of those events were planned for Russia which is no longer on the itinerary. Events in Vladivostok and Korsakov are no more. My hope is that there will be an event planned for a port in Japan. That would be amazing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyLadyTravels Posted January 13, 2023 #133 Share Posted January 13, 2023 On 1/11/2023 at 8:10 AM, mysty said: Today the ship excursion options appeared for San Francisco. One of the included excursions is a combo of Alcatraz and Sausalito. It's a 5 hour tour beginning at 10:00 am with a walk to Pier 33, the ferry to Alcatraz for a self-guided look-see, ferry back to San Francisco, bus to Sausalito, bus back to the ship. We booked it thus ticking two boxes from @Deckhawk's wonderful list. Only fly in the ointment might be the return time to the ship. The pre-cruise gala dinner for the World Cruise part of our adventure will be held that evening. We are hoping to attend. We will need to arrange something with Reception prior. And if we would need to leave the ship before the return time for the excursion we will just do Sausalito on our own and cancel the excursion booking. All good! Hi. Where did u see the S.F. tours. None I could find on Jan15, 2024. Thx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 13, 2023 Author #134 Share Posted January 13, 2023 8 hours ago, HappyLadyTravels said: Hi. Where did u see the S.F. tours. None I could find on Jan15, 2024. Thx. The San Francisco tour I found was for January 14, 2024. January 15, 2024 is the debarkation day for the Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco cruise that comes just before the start of the World Cruise on January 15. There are no excursions typically on the embarkation day of World Cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 13, 2023 Author #135 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Another bit of research I do relates to the currency in use for each port on the itinerary. The ship does not do currency exchange and passengers are advised to get the foreign currency they need prior to the voyage. Depending on where the ship is sailing, USD and EUR may be available from Reception. For our adventure there will be 14 ports on the Holiday Season cruise from Bridgetown to San Francisco and 63 ports on the World Cruise. Here is a list of the various currencies in use and the count of the ports using each..... BBD - Barbados Dollar - 1 Port XCD - East Caribbean Dollar - 2 Ports EUR - Euro - 2 Ports USD - United States Dollar - 19 Ports COP - Colombia Peso - 1 Port CRC - Costa Rica Colon - 1 Port MXN - Mexico Peso - 2 Ports AUD - Australia Dollar - 10 Ports WST - Samoa tala - 1 Port FJD - Fiji Dollar - 2 Ports NZD - New Zealand Dollar - 9 Ports IDR - Indonesia Rupiah - 4 Ports SGD - Singapore Dollar - 1 Port MYR - Malaysia Ringgit - 2 Ports VND - Vietnam Dong - 2 Ports HKD - Hong Kong Dollar - 1 Port CNY - China Yuan Renminbi - 2 Ports JPY - Japan Yen - 11 Ports CAD - Canada Dollar - 4 Ports We will be purchasing USD, AUD, NZD and JPY for our adventure. We have a very reasonable currency exchange option here that is much cheaper than banks offer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stumblefoot Posted January 13, 2023 #136 Share Posted January 13, 2023 3 hours ago, mysty said: We will be purchasing USD, AUD, NZD and JPY for our adventure. We have a very reasonable currency exchange option here that is much cheaper than banks offer. Probably stupid questions, but here goes anyway for my education. 1) Why do you purchase in advance in Canada instead of just using an ATM in country for free? 2) Why do you only use four currencies instead of each country’s own currency? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 13, 2023 Author #137 Share Posted January 13, 2023 1 minute ago, Stumblefoot said: Probably stupid questions, but here goes anyway for my education. 1) Why do you purchase in advance in Canada instead of just using an ATM in country for free? 2) Why do you only use four currencies instead of each country’s own currency? There is a charge for us to access ATMs in foreign countries. The other issue is that excursions don't always involve easy access to ATMs. We are only going to purchase currency for the countries where we will visit the most ports. We have currencies in hand left over from previous voyages. The option we use for currency exchange has a minimum purchase for some currencies that sometimes exceeds what we want to purchase. Thus, the four currencies. 😁 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stumblefoot Posted January 13, 2023 #138 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Thx Mysty. Makes sense. Sounds like we’re lucky our Bank of Montreal account doesn’t impose any ATM fees or have minimum amounts. Maximums can be a pain for us sometimes, so understand your hassle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 13, 2023 Author #139 Share Posted January 13, 2023 We learned the hard way Stumble. With ATM fees and higher bank exchange rates it was more economical to handle the foreign funds with currency exchange prior to departure. Your questions were good questions! 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsWaldo Posted January 13, 2023 #140 Share Posted January 13, 2023 10 hours ago, mysty said: AUD - Australia Dollar - 10 Ports WST - Samoa tala - 1 Port FJD - Fiji Dollar - 2 Ports We will be purchasing USD, AUD, NZD and JPY for our adventure. We have a very reasonable currency exchange option here that is much cheaper than banks offer. They will most likely take AUD in Fiji. You pay a bit more though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 13, 2023 Author #141 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Thanks MrsWaldo! It's good to "see you" again! Hope you are well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 13, 2023 Author #142 Share Posted January 13, 2023 33 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said: Thx Mysty. Makes sense. Sounds like we’re lucky our Bank of Montreal account doesn’t impose any ATM fees or have minimum amounts. Maximums can be a pain for us sometimes, so understand your hassle. This is what our BMO looks like.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stumblefoot Posted January 14, 2023 #143 Share Posted January 14, 2023 1 hour ago, mysty said: This is what our BMO looks like… ABD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted January 14, 2023 #144 Share Posted January 14, 2023 OK so I'm probably about to expose my ignorance here [just as I exposed my lack of awareness earlier today when I tripped over the fuel hose at a gas station and did a major job on my forehead – 10 stitches above the eye and 4 below], but ... Could Canadians open a Charles Schwab Bank account in the US? This would allow you to maintain a supply of US dollars and get a fee-free Debit card to use anywhere in the world. You would also be a currency speculator, just like the big boys in finance! 😀 [It might also put you on various government lists of money launderers? As I said, this all comes from a vast reservoir of ignorance – plus maybe a little concussion 😉] 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 14, 2023 Author #145 Share Posted January 14, 2023 Perhaps we could Jazz. At this point in our lives we are attempting to simplify things. Your suggestion has merit though. Except for the currency speculation. 😅 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare jpalbny Posted January 14, 2023 #146 Share Posted January 14, 2023 Agree; the Charles Schwab card works well overseas and in 5+ years of using it all over the place, they have meticulously refunded every cent of ATM fees. BoA is getting better; in many locations they do provide totally free ATM withdrawals, but their international network doesn't have the blanket coverage that Schwab does. Jazz - Ouch! Feel better. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare highplanesdrifters Posted January 14, 2023 #147 Share Posted January 14, 2023 21 hours ago, mysty said: We learned the hard way Stumble. With ATM fees and higher bank exchange rates it was more economical to handle the foreign funds with currency exchange prior to departure. Your questions were good questions! 😁 Have you thought of using Crypto? It's safe, easy to use, accepted globally, and fun to speculate with. Why just this week Bitcoin was up 30%. 🤣 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 14, 2023 Author #148 Share Posted January 14, 2023 10 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said: Have you thought of using Crypto? It's safe, easy to use, accepted globally, and fun to speculate with. Why just this week Bitcoin was up 30%. 🤣 Thank you High! That is just a bridge too far for us! And our kids would be roaring with laughter! 🤣 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mysty Posted January 14, 2023 Author #149 Share Posted January 14, 2023 Apparently Scotiabank bought Charles Schwab Canada in February of 2022. Not interested in opening an account in the US. Nothing personal folks! 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare jpalbny Posted January 14, 2023 #150 Share Posted January 14, 2023 It's OK M. I'll rent my Schwab ATM card to you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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