Live Cruise Reports

Virtuosa out of Southampton is relatively close for us no flying.
 
The prices have been very good this year, dipping under £300(tax and grats included in UK) for a week with beverage(premium extra) a £170 top up on some dates.
That's 7n AI $590pp  Solos have been a bit more and kids go for the price of the kids beverage package(or free) no taxes or grats to pay so they fill the ship on holiday dates.

The Plan
Going with P & O on the Iona for one weeks in April.
Cost us £1474 for one weeks for balcony cabin (kids will be on bunk beds) and includes the food (and drinks such as tea coffee and juice while in the restaurants). They have also sent us and email with £100 obc. Buzzing.
Also includes parking

I’m back and it’s time to go back to the Carnival Panorama. Last time I didn’t have a good experience with the Panorama and I’m determined to give this ship a new chance. Also, it’s a secret I’m on this ship. So don’t tell anyone? It’s between me and the entire world right now… except for my sister. 

Good morning all,
 
Volendam is transiting the canal today., Atlantic to Pacific. We’re currently off the coast Limon Bay awaiting our pilots with lots of other ships, at anchor awaiting their turn also. I’m hoping others aboard see this and contribute.
 
Last I heard we’re due in Gaton at 7:30ish.
 

 

Wanted to preface this with my wife and I are currently on our second princess cruise, first was Alaska about 9 years ago, so we are far from experienced cruisers.
 
embarkation was a little time consuming. Due to norovirus outbreak on previous cruises the ship underwent a deep clean. Scheduled group arrivals were in 30 minute intervals starting at 1:00. Ours was 1:30 we arrived at 1:15 and asked one of the employees if we were too early, and he said to just get in line. No one was checking arrival groups. There were 3 lines I could see, people who had their medallion, people who didn’t, and disabled.  They allowed the disabled in as they arrived. We stood in line outside the processing room  in the medallion line for about 45 minutes unmoving. We found out later that they made the cruisers who were on the ship previously for the first half of the 14 day cruise option to completely leave the ship for 4 hours for cleaning. It seemed like loading up previous cruisers and allowing the processing room to completely empty before filling up again was the reason for the delay. Once in the processing room it was about 30-40 more minutes to board. 

I will likely post once per day, and may get behind during our three port days in a row.  Hope you enjoy reading our experience!
 
Celebrity Summit A-B-C cruise Miami to Port Liberty NJ 4-26-23
 
We selected this sailing as the price was attractive AND we would visit family up north at the conclusion of the cruise.  This eliminates one airplane flight and as flying is nearly always the worst part of any travel these days for us, that is a good thing!
 
We had cruising friends from the west coast visit for a few days before the cruise and enjoyed a nice time showing them around.

Gearing up for a very short live thread for a very short cruise. As a Seattle resident, sometimes these one night repositioning cruises fit into my schedule and are always quite affordable. I will be taking the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver Friday Morning, board Eurodam in the early afternoon and be back home Saturday morning. Looking forward to getting back onboard one of my favorite ships - of course 18 hours is not enough, so I will be back in 2 weeks for a 7 night Alaska cruise to really satisfy my cruise fix. 
 

It's that time again! One week out from fly out day to our next cruise!
The Details
Fly Out from Chilly Utah on April 28th 2023. Doing our first time flying out of Provo Airport vs Salt Lake City International on Allegiant Air. We couldn't pass up on the price. 4 people round trip direct flights to Houston Hobby for $771.00. This price also including 4 checked in suitcases. Thank you black friday sales!

DH and I are off on another cruise adventure.  This time we are sailing a back-to-back cruise on two different ships. I am told this is called a side-to-side. [13 nights total] We board the Liberty of the Seas in Fort Lauderdale on April 28, 2023 for 3 nights.  We arrive back on May 1, 2023 and move to the Vision of the Seas for 10 nights at the same port and a different terminal.  Just to make it a little more exciting the second cruise is a reposition cruise from FLL to Baltimore.

This is our first cruise with MSC. We status matched at diamond, and boarded promptly today at 11:00 a.m.
 
We are not able to book specialty restaurants ahead of time either by design, or website issues. It was not offered. First thing after getting on the ship was to go to the Yacht Club concierge to request butchers cut and Ocean Cay restaurant reservations for tonight and Saturday.

Disclaimer:
Ahoy there, welcome to my cruise trip report
Please be advised that the views and opinions expressed here are solely my own and are meant to be taken with a pinch of sea salt, a slice of lime, and perhaps a fruity drink with an umbrella in it.

Pre-cruise
We booked a Panama Canal cruise last year, leaving from San Francisco. There is little I enjoy more than driving across or sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. However, that cruise was cancelled by Princess and we had to choose another. We might have chosen to do an entirely different cruise, but were sailing with a group, so we decided to choose a cruise that starts in Galveston and ends in San Francisco. We won’t enjoy the sail away under the bridge, but will be almost home when we end the cruise and that is certainly nice. Coming from CA, the other advantage is there are multiple airlines we can fly non stop to Houston. We chose to fly in early (arriving Tuesday for a Friday sailing) because I have cousins in Houston and it gives us a chance to visit.

This is the cruise that will take the Summit from her winter home in Miami, to her summer home in New Jersey.  I found it after a Millennium Pacific coastal got canceled, and I was looking for something on a revolutionized S class.  We just got off Infinity, which is an unrevolutionized ship, and I wanted Glen (DH) to experience the difference.  I saw this, and several things appealed.  First, it was a 10 day Caribbean cruise with 6 sea days.  That's because it has to get from Miami to New York, and has to visit the Dutch Antilles (ABCs) to meet legal requirements. Second, I like those ports, and third, as mentioned above, it's a revolutionized M class.  Lastly, and best of all, it goes to New York, where my sister lives.  So all good?  

As I was researching, I realized that there weren't a lot of of posts about the Meraviglia in regards to the Yacht Club. So I decided I am going to do a live blog for my cruise on June 18th! This is my husbands' and I honeymoon cruise and we are so excited. We will be in an inside Yacht Club room, so this post will feature a lot of amenities you will find there. As well as information about the ship as a whole. I am going to write about our journey leading up to leaving on June 18th. This will include packing, our drive to New York, embarkation, and more! 
 
While onboard, I will be posting about our day, menus, pictures of food, ports and more! This is my first time doing a blog live, but not my first time writing a blog. I am so excited to share our journey with you. We will be traveling to Port Canaveral, Nassau (which is where my husband proposed to me, so this will be an exciting port), and to MSC's Private Island. 
 
Let me know if this sounds interesting to you all. I am really excited to share our journey with you all🤩

While we used to be very loyal to Norwegian Cruise Line, we more recently have given most of our travel dollars to Viking.  Our last NCL cruise was in 2018 aboard Breakaway in the Baltics. So it will be interesting to be back aboard an NCL ship and especially one as unique as Epic. This will be our first time aboard her as I am six foot seven tall and didn’t want to deal with the short beds….but good friends are making their first Transatlantic (this will be our fourth and a half-damn you covid) and we wanted to enjoy it with them. So hopefully I won’t find myself sleeping on the floor. 🤞 MORE....

Hello all, in the spirit of pay back for all the great live trip reports that kept me entertained,
 I  decided to continue the Getaway live trend. This being a short 5 day cruise starting on a Wednesday and ending on a Monday I’m not sure what to expect..but hopefully we will be well past the huge spring breaks crowds of the last two months. This cruise is round trip from Port Canaveral and only has two port calls, Great Stirrup Cay and Cozumel Mexico. MORE......

Journal 1: Salaam Alaikum
 
I am slightly astonished to say, here we are in Muscat, the low-key and low-rise capital of the Sultanate of Oman.  And not only that, we are staying Silversea’s Simply Hotel, the Shangri-La Al Husn Resort.  Our spacious room has a pool and ocean view, a lovely balcony and all the trimmings.  While the other two hotels of this huge resort area look rather like 3-star package blocks on the Costa Brava, the Al Husn has tried a little harder with a stunning lobby, courtyard and pool area.  The surrounding landscape is  deeply scarred rocky abrasions. MORE....

LESS THAN ONE WEEK TO GO BEFORE WE BOARD THE PRIMA! 🥂🚢. I keep debating whether or not to do live reviews due to the time commitment, however, with the mixed reviews and questions surrounding the Prima (it is a love-hate thing I think), as well as the fact that some my fellow R🐀P-ers @Sailing12Away @CptBoatface  will be sailing on her soon – in fact, @Sailing12Away will be in the exact same cabin type as us – I decided to go for it. I also know that @ChiefMateJRK and @oteixeira like to join in the fun! 😜     
 
Oh, and just so you know upfront I am a firm believer in YOLO and Go Big or Go Home, especially when it comes to vacations. My DH and I work hard so we like to play hard and make great/fun memories. Simple.  MORE.....

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go ..... but it will be about six or seven more hours before our journey actually starts. 
 
We will be moving from home to a hotel closer to the airport this evening since we have a morning flight from IAD to FLL. 
We will be spending the day and night tomorrow night at our normal hotel in FLL, the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel and boarding the ship tomorrow morning around 1100. MORE....

Leaving tomorrow morning for San Diego for a 4-day northbound Pacific Coastal on Nieuw Amsterdam to Vancouver, BC, with a stop in always really nice Victoria, BC, followed by a (separate) 7-day Alaska inside passage journey with stops in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan

Here we go – almost time to cruise again, T minus 2 days to embarkation … approaching the 48 hours mark soon for "mking8288's" sunset cruise this Saturday.  All systems go, final preparations under way ... prepaying and scheduling bill payments ahead, travel notices to cc & banks submitted, postal mail on hold for almost 3 weeks, etc.  

A cruise through the original Panama Canal is not just a cruise between two oceans, it is a journey through history.  
 
Join us live for 15 nights as we sail from Galveston to Los Angeles through the Panama Canal aboard the Radiance of the Seas.

I scored a relatively last minute studio balcony a few weeks ago for the Anthem's 8-day Bahamas run out of Bayonne, NJ. I cruise solo, so these studio balconies with no supplement are a real treat if you can grab one. 
 
I'm hunkered down in Manhattan hotel riding out tonight's thunderstorms. 
 
I'll try to keep up with some updates along the way. Happy to answer questions. 

Nothing like a last-minute and first transatlantic cruise!
 
Mailer: I received a Blue Chip Club mailer offering a free Europe cruise in an inside cabin.  I called the number, and they emailed me a list of eligible cruises, which included transatlantic options.
Solo: My Wife has an upcoming B2B solo cruise and as such was not going to be able to make any of the options available that worked date wise. MORE....

The particulars......Seems any cruise I've taken since the restart (hard to believe, but I've sailed 5X since then) has been last minute bookings.  Have done this itinerary before and probably ranks as one of my top 2 or 3 (Bermuda and Mediteranean being the others).  What got me to look at this cruise was a targeted promo NCL was offering.  It's still not clear to me who they were targeting or why.  Just that some of us here at CC received coupons.  In particular, 20% off the cruise fare on Alaska itineraries.  It went as high as 50% off the cruise fare, but that is for sailings on the older ships.  Plus, I've never been on the Bliss before.  

Click to Cruise Along!