Live Cruise Reports

I know, I know, not ANOTHER alive thread on Splendor!  After a summer sailing around Scandinavia, Splendor is now going to go south for the winter.  Want to come along?  
 
We left Atlanta on a direct flight to London on Virgin Atlantic.  The flight left about an hour late with a garbled announcement from the caption about something, something and paperwork. But, the jet stream was on our tail and we arrived at Heathrow 15 minutes early.  

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Hello, everyone! Good to see you again! It’s been a while since I posted on these boards and a lot has changed since my slightly cursed cruise on the Anthem last year. Let’s get you all caught up on the highlights of the year before I get to the nitty gritty: last spring, I sailed on the Celebrity Beyond with my mother, which was an amazing experience because for the first time I felt that I was the target customer for a cruise ship. It was amazing! Also, I bought a robot vacuum which I love almost as much as my cat. Maybe even more when it’s shedding season, but don’t tell the cat. And that’s it! Those are the highlights of my year. 

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Day 1 Leaving Cyprus Sunday 17th September 2023
Hi, Everyone,
Almost every time we book a cruise we have to fly to London (UK) this is no exception.
There is no way we can fly to London for the flight to Vancouver the same day, so we flew the day before and stayed overnight at Heathrow airport.
This is our third cruise with Regent, we have sailed with Silversea and Seabourn, in my opinion there is not a lot between them, others may disagree?
So, where to start? Mr. Fudge is a young 73 yrs. old, (well he thinks he is!) Mrs Fudge is a very sprightly 60 yrs old. We emigrated from the UK about 20yrs ago to a small Island called Cyprus in the Mediterranean, a lovely sunny climate all year round.
For the information of our British friends, we stayed overnight in the Holiday Inn just outside Heathrow, clean, comfortable and a good price.

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Hi All
 
We're Randi( I'm on the right) and Julie a same sex couple living in a north suburb of LA.  We booked this cruise for our 10th wedding anniversary!!( actual date Sept 28th).  We're currently at a hotel in Midtown, enjoying our last of 3 days here.  I'm originally from NYC, however I grew up in S. Florida.  Julie retired last year from LAPD.  This will be our second Oceania cruise.  Our first was Feb 2022 for Julie's 60th bday.  It was wonderful as we were originally supposed to be on Sirena, however, O switched the ship to Marina.  There were only 338 people on board.   

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The Galapagos Islands have always fascinated me.  I'm not entirely sure why I'm drawn there but it has always been a bucket list destination I wasn't sure I'd ever get to.
 
Perhaps it was the remote location and overall difficulty getting that added to the attraction.  Maybe it's too many National Geographic type episodes on TV or the idea of so much wildlife to see and photograph.  Maybe it's knowing Darwin himself formed so much of his knowledge right there on the Galapagos Islands.   To walk in the footprints of Charles Darwin.  Can there be a better excuse than that?

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Royal got our ship all fixed and we're SERIOUSLY super excited for tomorrow! There is SO MUCH to do here in Anchorage I need more time to see all of it! More nights next time Right? I have to pace myself! And yes here's our room at the Marriott and I see that the ship is ready for tomorrow!

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Hello to all from beautiful Vancouver.   We arrived here on  Friday night after a long flight from FLL with a connection in LAX.  We made our 2nd flight by only a few minutes - luckily the gates were next to each other.   Our hotel here is beautiful,  it is called L'Hermitage.  All the hotels were so expensive so we decided to splurge a bit and get a suite for not much more than a basic room.   This hotel is centrally located, walking distance to anything you could want and a 2 minute walk to Tim Horton's. We have a one bedroom with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and a balcony which overlooks the courtyard and a beautiful pool and hot tub.  I could live here.   

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I know it's a little early for me to be starting this thread, but I am just so excited to be cruising again soon that I couldn't help but post. I can't wait to be back on the Meraviglia in 13 days. Depending on how Hurricane Lee goes, my husband and I are supposed to be doing a 10-day sailing out of Brooklyn to Canada & New England. This will be my third CA & NE cruise and my husband's second. Newport, Sydney, and Charlottetown will all be new port stops for us.

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Day 1 – Dover, UK
 
This is my 4th Carnival cruise but my last one was about 20 years ago so none of that experience is really relevant to today. I’ve been on something like 45 cruises by now. This is my wife’s first Carnival cruise.
 
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Good Morning everyone.
 
I'm back after almost a year hiatus on cruising.  Well, it wasn't exactly a hiatus, a spring cruise did not present itself, so I ended up not doing anything until this one.  But this one is special.
 
As usual, I'm tagging @FionaMG as is my habit.
 
As of today, Our itinerary is
 
Halifax, NS,
Nuuk, Greenland,
Qaqortoq, Greenland,
Nanotorik, Greenland
St. John, NL
 
14 nights in all.
 
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Hopefully, I will be able to make this a regular series of posts for the sailing from Reykjavik to New York.  As a bit of background, I've had a couple decades of cruising with about a hundred segments all told.  Most all on the luxury lines of Crystal, Regent, Silversea and Seabourn.  A couple here and there on Oceania, Azamara, Windstar and Celebrity with the one-off HAL, Princess, PG and RCI.

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Hello, my cruising family!
 
Who is sitting at work, glaring at their cruise countdown clock, willing it to move along a little quicker? I may not be able to smuggle you onto the ship in my suitcase, but I can do the next best thing: let you live vicariously along with my cruise adventure thru this live review! So, if that, along with a few tropical drinks (sorry, you have to mix them yourself) will help you get thru until your countdown clock reaches zero, then come sail away with me onboard the beautiful MARDI GRAS!

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Thought I’d start a live-ish review. Today is the third day and we are in Kiel. Sailed on Britannia in October last year, both times in an aft suite so it is easy to compare experiences. This year we are unfortunately in A726, I say unfortunately because right above us is the damaged ceiling from the Sunset bar which P and O are currently repairing at night., in fact all night. They drag chairs around from midnight right through until 7.00 in the morning. My husband went upstairs at 5 to ask them to stop dragging chairs around and they carried on despite his polite request. I phoned reception this morning explaining that we couldn’t sleep last night and was told that we should have phoned last night instead of going to speak to the staff doing the repairs.

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So, we’re Day 2 on our Iona cruise to the Fjords. Here’s our hot takes on dining so far:
 
1. Epicurian - our dinner on Saturday night. 
 
- if you’re into seafood like us, the giant Indonesian tiger prawns were stellar. 
- the starters were trying too hard. The snow crab cocktail which contained grated apple and the accompanying  salty cucumber drink shot with lemon foam was a bit all fur coat and no knickers. Style over substance. My husband had the slow cooker in ox cheeks which were presented on a hollowed out bone, or a  “canoe” as the menu referred to it. My husband liked it to a Greggs steak bake on a piece of bone.  
-dessert - we had a lemon meringue tart with looked like a dinosaur - a trail of tiny dots of meringue over the tart “mound”. Tasted good. 

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Join The Bird, *live*, from the Norwegian Encore as she sails to the absolute best cruise destination, Alaska. This voyage is a round trip Seattle calling in Juneau, Skagway, the breathtaking Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, and Victoria.

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We are onboard the Silver Muse!
 
Embarkation at Canada Place this afternoon took about a hour. It was quite a bit faster for those with US and Canadian passports because there were only THREE agents at US boarder control. 

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Good morning and welcome to my attempt at yet another Live report. We will see how the internet goes in helping me achieve success.  
This will be our first time trying Oceania.  We booked this in the beginning of 2022 when I found the itinerary which goes to our beloved St. George’s as well as Hamilton.  The itinerary plus the idea of trying Oceania sold us. At that point in time, we were quite sad about losing Crystal and wanted to explore some new options. We’ve mostly sailed on NCL but the last round of changes has really made a difference for us. 

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Well almost live from the Cloud, we still need to get there.  The first of two flights begins tomorrow afternoon. 
 
We are looking forward to being aboard the lovely Silver Cloud. 
Bonus points for scenic views, icebergs, snow, glaciers, craggy cliffs, freezing water, northern lights, colder climes, hot chocolate, seeing the crew and just chillin’. Laundry I don't have to do, meals I don't have to plan and shop for, cook, or other chores for a few weeks.  BLISS!

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Here we go! Going where, you ask? Hopefully Halifax, Sydney, St John Bay and Portland (ME). I say hopefully because Mother Nature may have other plans. I don’t think the weather will impact our itinerary, but there is some concerned talk about it, so we'll see.
It's been a few years since I've cruised out of NY; last time it was Brooklyn, this time Manhattan. I'm curious to see the difference and really looking forward to experiencing the sail away from my balcony - seeing Lady Liberty 🗽 is a special treat.

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Hello,
 
Starting this topic a few days early.  Please ask any questions.  Last O cruise was in 2019 on Insignia.  Will endeavor to post comments and photos, but will depend on internet, and having time to post, as this is a fairly port intensive cruise, offering much natural beauty.  We have experienced some 45 cruises, beginning over 40 years ago, but 1st time to Alaska.  

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As the title says: I will try my best!
 
The day before: we stayed room only at the Ibis 3* with dinner at TGI Fridays (which we pre-booked as it can get busy, although being a Monday it was quieter this time). It’s just my son and I this time so after a few (reasonably priced) hotel bar drinks we went to bed. 

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Hello everybody.
 
It will have been 137 days since my last cruise but finally a gangway is in my near future. And oh what an adventure this is going to be. It will span a total of 56 days, five different cruises over two cruise lines and two continents, plus five days in Barcelona.

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Come join us as we check off another couple of items on our bucket list on a trip filled year.  This time to Greeland and parts of Canada we have never been to.  

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Hello!!! I’m waiting for a Uber to take me to the Morgan Wallen concert which I’m considering is the start of my cruise adventure.   I had to be all packed so I could go to the concert and fly out tomorrow.   First a little bit about my Mom and I’s schedule then a little bit about us… 

 I fly to Portland Maine, my hometown, tomorrow  (Friday) then I’m going to run around town on Saturday to get ready for my Mom’s birthday party that my Dad and I will be throwing her that night!   Finally my Mom and I will be leaving Sunday morning at 6 on a direct bus to NYC.  This is her actual birthday and I have a dinner reservation at a Cuban place to celebrate.  Finally, we board the Mer. on Monday for our YC cruise to Bermuda!! 

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Greetings on this Saturday September 2nd. We did not have to get up drastically early since our flight to SEA is at 11:00 am but it is also a Holiday weekend so we have to leave the house by 7:45 to get a 3 hour head start for the possible crowds. Fortunately we have Lounge access so can relax a bit before we board our flight. For those that do not know me we are Lisa and Tom and we are long time HAL cruisers.

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