Jim_Iain - B2B Sydney - Honolulu - Vancouver

[abbydancer2003]

8 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I must have too much time on my hand.  

 

Who is this Weird Couple -

 

 

You got married on my 50th Birthday.  Now I guess I'll know better how long  you've been married that I'll know how long I have.

[Provence55always]

Such a lovely video and lovely sentiments about each other. Wishing you both continued happiness in the future.

[Gracie115]

6 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I have met so many Celebrity Alums over on the Oceania thread.   They have really made us feel welcome.

 

We also tried Oceania back in December on the Vista.  It's just a beautiful ship and we enjoyed it very much.  Much more attention to detail, the specialty restaurants are excellent, especially Toscana & Polo Grill.  The small amount of entertainment they had worked for us, especially the violinists.  It's a completely different vibe than Celebrity and we will sail O again I'm sure. 

 

We have one Celebrity booked, a TA from Lisbon this fall, that ends at Port Canaveral, just an hour up the road from us.  The price was good and it's on Equinox, the class we have always enjoyed.  Will most likely not sail on Edge class again.  

 

Bon voyage to you both.

[Lena11033]

8 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Do you have to give her up when she retires.

 

Luke had been a Police Dog flunk out and I had to go along for a forced removal as the officer was beating him --- Luke was terrified of gun shots and all bets were off when he saw a squirrel.   He was considered not adoptable as he became aggressive.. He really wasn't.   If you put out a hand he would snarl and lung but was a gentle boy and never put his teeth on anyone.   He was just saying dont' beat me.   

 

After a year work with an aggressive dog trainer --- he learned a hand coming toward his head meant Treat instead of a whack on the head. 

 

 

Some people shouldn't be around dogs. Our oldest that just passed in Feb, we had a friend staying with us when she was 1 (so pretty much a puppy still) - I was in NYC for work and my husband called to say this guy had hit her because she misbehaved I told him he needed to leave the house as he can't be there when I got back. Mike never saw what his friend did but for the rest of her life if you went to pet her from a certain angle she flinched.

 

The youngest we adopted because people bought a puppy but expected a dog, puppies are babies they pee, poop and teeth. After having him 4 weeks, for which time he was crated all day while one owner was home with him they gave him up (oh they were also scared of large dogs so got a golden retriever 😑). For the first month or so 6pm every day he would start biting and being aggressive to me, I think that was the time he was let out of the crate. He eventually grew out of it but even now after dinner he has this extra energy but mostly I just take him to the garden, he runs five mins and then just lays with me now - he just wants someone to spend time with him.

[Chrissi3010]

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I can understand your feeling.   I think it all depends on individual tastes.   We often treat a ship more as a residence and haven't attended a show on Celebrity in over 10 years.   Personally the Vibes of the E-Class have really driven us to smaller ships and their more intimate size ships.

 

Our first venture was on Ponant and we really enjoyed it.   Totally different - but we needed a change.

We haven't been on an E-class ship yet. My favourite ship still is the Constellation. Call me sentimental but we had the best times on her, phantastic staff especially in Luminae, great itineraries, met great people from  Canada and the US who we are still in contact with and even visited each other. 😀

[JackE]

10 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I must have too much time on my hand.  

 

Who is this Weird Couple -

 

 

What a fun video! Well done! You might have a new career! 😍

[AF-1]

Thanks for allowing us to follow along.  This thread looks fun.  Have a wonderful cruise. Cheers

[DaKahuna]

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I really chuckle at Disk Drive prices today.   I worked in the Disk Drive industry and when I first started we had a HUGE 20 MB (not GB) mechanical hard drive that weighed 10 pounds and cost about $1,000.   Am I showing my age. 

 

Not really -- I have a platter that came from the "hard drive" of an IBM 360/20 that crashed while I was on duty.  They engraved my name and date on it and presented it to me. 

 

My first hard drive was 10Mb.  I ran a disk double program on it and had 18Mb of drive space and in an email to friends, told them about it and use the statement "I'll never have to by any more disk space"  Oh how wrong I was. 

 

[go.without.you]

What a lovely video! Yellow roses are my favorite, I just listened to the Dolly song last night.

[Jim_Iain]

11 hours ago, DUTRAVEL said:

We can keep her as a pet when she retires - she just wont have public access or be able to travel with us. Luckily our daughter will take care of her when we’re out of town. 
 

Luke was lucky to find a home with you with so much love and patience. 

 

I'm sure she will love retirement.   Maybe you can sail Cunard.   They have a Kennel on board.

[Jim_Iain]

5 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

You got married on my 50th Birthday.  Now I guess I'll know better how long  you've been married that I'll know how long I have.

It wasn't an easy trek.   We had been Legal Domestic Partner --- you file with Secretary of State like a corporation... very personal experience...LOL. 

 

We got married a couple days after the State Supreme Court over ruled the restrictions on Gay Marriage in California.     5 Months later you will remember Prop 8, where the conservatives put up an initiate to make Ban Gay Marriage.    When Prop 8 passed we were lucky and the State Supreme Court Grandfathered our Marriage and we were among only 2,000  legal gay marriage in California for 7 years.

 

[Jim_Iain]

5 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

We also tried Oceania back in December on the Vista.  It's just a beautiful ship and we enjoyed it very much.  Much more attention to detail, the specialty restaurants are excellent, especially Toscana & Polo Grill.  The small amount of entertainment they had worked for us, especially the violinists.  It's a completely different vibe than Celebrity and we will sail O again I'm sure. 

 

We have one Celebrity booked, a TA from Lisbon this fall, that ends at Port Canaveral, just an hour up the road from us.  The price was good and it's on Equinox, the class we have always enjoyed.  Will most likely not sail on Edge class again.  

 

Bon voyage to you both.

 

We are booked on Vista from Istanbul to Barcelona in 2025.     It was our first booking with Oceania.    We couldn't get over the Owner's  Suite and had to book it.    Value is subjective but we were amazed that we were able to book it for less than the price of a Royal Suite.  

 

[maggie.1008]

Wow, what a smashing cabin!

We look forward to sailing with O again. We enjoy the two O class ships more than the smaller R class ships. 
The Vista will hopefully be in 2025. 
Next summer they will have the O class Riviera in Alaska and the first time on the West coast. So far after cruising on 12 different lines, my favorite ship is the Riviera. 
Enjoy your suite life.

 

Cheers, Heather 

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

 

Some people shouldn't be around dogs. Our oldest that just passed in Feb, we had a friend staying with us when she was 1 (so pretty much a puppy still) - I was in NYC for work and my husband called to say this guy had hit her because she misbehaved I told him he needed to leave the house as he can't be there when I got back. Mike never saw what his friend did but for the rest of her life if you went to pet her from a certain angle she flinched.

 

The youngest we adopted because people bought a puppy but expected a dog, puppies are babies they pee, poop and teeth. After having him 4 weeks, for which time he was crated all day while one owner was home with him they gave him up (oh they were also scared of large dogs so got a golden retriever 😑). For the first month or so 6pm every day he would start biting and being aggressive to me, I think that was the time he was let out of the crate. He eventually grew out of it but even now after dinner he has this extra energy but mostly I just take him to the garden, he runs five mins and then just lays with me now - he just wants someone to spend time with him.

 

It was really very uncomfortable picking up Luke.   They had a police officer escort me on the surrender.    I put Luke in the back of my car with the seats put down so he would be comfortable.   He looked terrible -  He was down to 50 Pounds with a normal weight of 75 pounds and due to being kept outside in a hot climate hair had shed and was only about 1/2 inch long. 

 

We got him up to his perfect weight and kept him there his whole life.  His hair was beautiful once grown in.  Looked like he had had it frosted --- blonde undercoat with a red overcoat.  Woman would stop me when walking saying what they would pay for hair that beautiful.

 

Never thought about it but he had never been permitted in the house so was not house broken.   When he got home he peed on the floor .... I told him NO... you do that outside and took him out.   He said Oh... I didn't know that ---OK     That was total training.    He also hopped on the sofa and told him that also wasn't allowed.   Never would get on furniture again.   Iain would try to tempt him to hop in bed, but he would just hang his head over and so... nope.... dad doesn't allow that.    I sure miss him.

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, Chrissi3010 said:

We haven't been on an E-class ship yet. My favourite ship still is the Constellation. Call me sentimental but we had the best times on her, phantastic staff especially in Luminae, great itineraries, met great people from  Canada and the US who we are still in contact with and even visited each other. 😀

 

The E-Class has many really nice aspect.  In my humble opinion the food suffers in Luminae due to it being cooked more diner style (due to Suite Passenger Load) in lieu of cooked to order.

 

Our favorite ship is Millennium -  Our first Cruise in 2000 when she was brand new.   Like an old girlfriend -  special place in my heart.

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, JackE said:

What a fun video! Well done! You might have a new career! 😍

 

Stay tuned... I'm going to do a quick one today ----- Since we have 12 hours before we leave for the airport,  I'm going to take you along with me on my Walk today.     I was playing with my GoPro yesterday,   I wanted to give it a try today after spending days of learning all the features.  Geez you need a masters degree to fully take advantage of all of it's features.

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

Not really -- I have a platter that came from the "hard drive" of an IBM 360/20 that crashed while I was on duty.  They engraved my name and date on it and presented it to me. 

 

My first hard drive was 10Mb.  I ran a disk double program on it and had 18Mb of drive space and in an email to friends, told them about it and use the statement "I'll never have to by any more disk space"  Oh how wrong I was. 

 

 

Techno Nerd time.     I do need a lot of disk space.   Those little black dongles are 500Gb solid state drives.   
 

And they are Cheap.  
 

 

[JackE]

7 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Stay tuned... I'm going to do a quick one today ----- Since we have 12 hours before we leave for the airport,  I'm going to take you along with me on my Walk today.     I was playing with my GoPro yesterday,   I wanted to give it a try today after spending days of learning all the features.  Geez you need a masters degree to fully take advantage of all of it's features.

All 10 miles??!! I need to clear my calendar! 😝

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, go.without.you said:

What a lovely video! Yellow roses are my favorite, I just listened to the Dolly song last night.

 

I also got Corsages for Aunt Isa, My Sister and Daughter.      

 

You have me chuckling.   While we were waiting for our turn to be married --- they were scheduling them at 4 per 15 minute slot.  

 

Isa and Carol (my sister) were sitting on a bench,  the Mayor walked by and greeted them and then said -- Congratulations... We all broke up laughing...   Hay -- It's my day.

[Jim_Iain]

April 4   Departure Day

 

The day has finally arrived.   I'm up early and starting to kick into gear.

 

Luggage Packed and Next to Front Door

Passport Checked and Iain has taken custody of them

Checked in on United and printed Boarding Passes

Checked Weather in Sydney

Checked our Flight on Flight Aware --- On Time aircraft inbound from Frankfurt

 

I really don't like late flights... feel like I'm sitting around doing nothing.

[Mike981]

14 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

No that will be about a month later.   

 

We wanted to try Oceania before the other cruise we booked with them.   Sorry Celebrity You lost out on 6 bookings this year.  

 

While Celebrity's new announcement about cruise only fares for Zenith,  Member's in the private Zenith Group are finding it is useless.    To get the benefit they require you to rebook and loose the $800 OBC from booking aboard and Gratuities if booked before they were eliminated.   Many are reporting that if they took advantage it would actually raise their rates by $1,500 plus. 

 

So the theme is --- Yes we admit we have been screwing you for years and now will continue to do so for the next year or so.   They then scratch their heads and wonder why they lost over $100,000 in booking from us this year.

 

The more we read about Oceania the more we believe they may be a better fit for us.   Having said that Old Time Oceania cruisers are complaining about the cutbacks and decline in quality of food.   Hmmmmm....Must be contagious.

 

That makes me sad. I was hoping that they would fix the problem, not more smoke and mirrors.

 

24 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

The E-Class has many really nice aspect.  In my humble opinion the food suffers in Luminae due to it being cooked more diner style (due to Suite Passenger Load) in lieu of cooked to order.

 

Our favorite ship is Millennium -  Our first Cruise in 2000 when she was brand new.   Like an old girlfriend -  special place in my heart.

 

My wife and I sailed Millennium shortly after you. The year before we went on our first cruise ever on the Mercury. We have a 10 day cruise booked this January on the Constellation and hope to have some memories brought back from our Milly cruise.

 

Speaking of Constellation, we are toying with the idea of getting the Unlimited Dining Package. Do you think it would be worth it on that size of a ship, I  believe there are only two premium dining options and one is the cartoon meal? On our last cruise we did Blu and loved it, so if Luminae cuts it we would be happy with just one option.

[Barwick Cruiser]

29 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Stay tuned... I'm going to do a quick one today ----- Since we have 12 hours before we leave for the airport,  I'm going to take you along with me on my Walk today.     I was playing with my GoPro yesterday,   I wanted to give it a try today after spending days of learning all the features.  Geez you need a masters degree to fully take advantage of all of it's features.

Haha, that’s pretty much how I feel about most electronics 🤦🏼‍♀️

Cathy

[Jim_Iain]

20 minutes ago, JackE said:

All 10 miles??!! I need to clear my calendar! 😝

 

Definitely not.   Will try to edit it down to stay under 2 minutes.... 

 

Silicon Valley is different than many people believe.   There's lots of incredible routes and lots of preserved green spaces.

[Jim_Iain]

1 minute ago, Mike981 said:

 

That makes me sad. I was hoping that they would fix the problem, not more smoke and mirrors.

 

 

My wife and I sailed Millennium shortly after you. The year before we went on our first cruise ever on the Mercury. We have a 10 day cruise booked this January on the Constellation and hope to have some memories brought back from our Milly cruise.

 

Speaking of Constellation, we are toying with the idea of getting the Unlimited Dining Package. Do you think it would be worth it on that size of a ship, I  believe there are only two premium dining options and one is the cartoon meal? On our last cruise we did Blu and loved it, so if Luminae cuts it we would be happy with just one option.

 

The unlimited dining could be fun.   We once - LONG time before dining packages decided to eat every night in Olympic -   It was great.    After the fist night the MD who we still stay in contact with said -  you will not get a menu for the remainder of the cruise.    I will have the Chef surprise you every night.     Even the wait staff didn't know what silver to lay out as they didn't know until it was ready to serve.   Only problem.... I put on Weight...

 

[venicecruiser]

Your Oceania suite looks incredible!

 

Claudia