Live Cruise Reports

Celebrity Apex 2021 - Greece - Day 1   Good morning, dear shipmates! At last we get to take you (and us) on a vacation again. We are just waiting for our flight to Athens at Frankfurt Airport. Tomorrow morning we are going to embark on Celebrity Apex to cruise in Greece and Croatia. After the cruise we booked a week on the Island of Zakynthos at a beautiful hotel… As always we’ll try to take you along for some virtual traveling. Click to read more..... 

Hey all, so excited to give you guys a LIVE review on Encore this upcoming week! I have the basic unlimited wifi, I hope that it is fast enough to post some good photos and such for you!
 
1) Feel free to ask any questions, I will do my best to answer them 👍
2)  🍹 I am a glass very full sort of person. I don't mind waiting in line, hiccups, etc. So if you are looking for a review filled with outrage and such, this will not be it. 
3) I hope you enjoy the review! 😄
 
Quick Details: I am flying out tomorrow morning at 7am Central time, out DFW airport to SEA with the airfare promo and transfers to the port. I got my negative PCR test yesterday morning as a precaution, and I have been in a self quarantine for 3 weeks since both my husband and I work from home. We are both DINKS, no kids, two dogs, we like to drink, we do not smoke, we do gamble and we love a good meal or two. We have done Alaska before with NCL in 2019, on the Bliss, almost same itinerary except the Bliss went to Skagway. We are sailing comped through Casinos At Sea, and have a balcony cabin on deck 9 that is angled (woohoo)
 
(I'll be back in a bit to give more pre cruise details, gotta go clean my house and double check my packing 😛)
Click to read more.....


We awoke to another grey day but that improved rapidly in many ways! Arriving at  COVID testing station, all is very efficient. Noticeable that many are arriving way before given time. We had 12.15pm allotted but drove in  about 10 minutes early and was having our test at our exact time. Then to theOcean Terminal, and upstairs to checking area, received results and on ship with no wait at all. There were certainly holding areas where some where being directed. Very impressed by the set up, but it takes everyone’s effort to make it work efficiently! Click to read more....

Working to get this started, hope it works. 

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Hi everyone. Anthony here. I wish I had the patience to write a witty and fun filled blog of my journey but that's not the person I am. Instead this will be an informative and direct thoughts from my experiences on the Mardi Gras.
Some background. I along with my husband Robert are 60 years old (my 60th is next month) and while we are native NY'ers we have been living in Philadelphia for the past 15 years. Click to read more.....

We have just arrived in Liverpool to a dull, damp day and we are not getting off. We chose not to book a P&O tour as we have been here many times. We are enjoying the cruise far more than anticipated. Click for more.....

Hello everyone. I'll be cruising on the Sunrise for 9 days starting tomorrow and plan on doing a live review during my cruise. 
 
If you have any questions I'll try to answer them for you.

Got the tickets today, boarding time 9am. To be honest, i don't believe they are ready for new guest at 9am.....
I think I'll be there arround 10ish.... 
More to come... 
 
 

Greetings from the MSC Splendida! We embarked this morning at Trieste, the embarkation process was surprisingly quick. We arrived at the port right on time at 10 am. It took a few minutes to explain to the man at check-in that we hadn’t spent any time in the countries on the “no-go” list during the past 14 days. They checked our passports and our CDC cards, and after that we had an uncomfortable but rapid COVID swab test. We were whisked on board and enjoyed a glass of champagne at the concierge desk while various bits of information were provided.

Jim_Iain - 9/5 and 9/17 Equinox B2B - Come along for a Live Blog

Please pull up a chair and join us on a new adventure. I love posting live commentary of our cruise and mostly do it for our adult children can keep up with us and see us spending their inheritance.

Sitting on the veranda watching the goings on in the Port of Miami.  Embarkation was smooth but below are a few suggestions for those embarking in Miami on future voyages (until COVID protocols change).

Hi.  I am 4cats4me, and I am  looking forward to cruising to Alaska,  once again, this time on the beautiful Majestic Princess.
This will be my 5th trip to Alaska, and 23rd cruise on Princess.  Last trip to AK was back in 2014 aboard the Grand.   
 
Cruise:    I booked this cruise at the last minute, only 19 days ago, and there was still plenty of cabin availability, so I snagged an obstructed view deluxe balcony  cabin, which really isn’t that obstructed at all.  I will be sailing solo this time, a first for me, as my husband has work commitments and cat-caring duties.  We now have to travel in shifts, as we have some demanding felines.  (3, not 4)
 

Been waiting 539 days for this moment...🥳...when I walked off Harmony in February of 2020, i expected to be sailing the Med in May and had several others booked into 2021. 

Thankfully I have an amazing travel agent who has managed to keep track of lifts and shifts & FCC’s, and for months has shared my optimism that one of these booked cruises would finally “stick”. Once I knew it was finally going to happen, then it was a full week of anxiety waiting to take that antigen test, until finally the CVS email notification came up, and I was finally able to open that bottle of wine, pull out the suitcases, and start packing.
 
Have done quite a few live reports and even one on Symphony in March of 2019, so forgive any redundant photos or random musings. I won’t possible remember what I posted back then, and most certainly was a few pina coladas in during most of my live report . I am expecting this cruise experience to be a tad different, although hoping the pina colada situation is  status quo.🍹
 
 
 

After a very enjoyable week on the AmaLyra cruising the Seine River, we are now on the AmaKristina headed for Avignon on the Rhone. Yesterday morning we were up EARLY to put our bags out so the crew could transfer them via truck to Lyon and the new ship. At 10am we hopped on TGV high speed train for the two hour ride to Lyon. I was very impressed how smooth and quiet it was even at speeds approaching 160 mph. We had lunch on our own in town and then enjoyed a quick tasting of local products before boarding the 'Kristina. 

Finally, at last, we get to sail again.  Our last cruise was what seems ages ago, January 2020, when we visited our seventh continent, Antarctica on Silversea Cloud.  Now after 4 cancelled cruises, we are getting ready to embark on the brand new Silversea Origin in the Galapagos. So, as my friend Rich Wiseman (Mr. Rumor) says, I will set the table.
 

Hi All,
 
Made it through testing, and with an upgraded cabin. I only have roaming in port rather than WiFi package but if you post any questions you might have, happy to pick up when I can. I'll update on experience and excursions too. 
 
Arrived two days early to stay Athens Gate hotel with amazing Acropolis view. 
 

It’s all starting again, last week Queen Elizabeth set off on her first post-covid cruise, now it’s nearly our time. It’s two days before boarding and getting very exciting. All paperwork has now been completed and printed off. All the packing has been mostly done, just waiting for a couple of items to be returned from the cleaners.

Hi All from sunny Seattle, if some of you all from AZ could take back some of this sun we would really appreciate it.
 
My mom (71) I (29) are getting ready to depart Saturday and will also be posting as much of a live from as possible to provide another perspective. We have so enjoyed following along with everyone on the first three sailings and it has been a lot of fun tracking changes. 
 
We are Seattle locals so the trip in will be a very easy drive across town. 
 
A few notes on the pre-cruise logistics.......

Can you believe we are finally getting back to cruising?! Have you been reading every single LIVE thread just hoping it helps the time move a little faster, like I have? Are you so ready to get back onboard that you’ve been packed for two weeks!? No? Just me?

Come along with us as we embark on our first B2B2B onboard RCL's newest ship Odyssey of the Seas!! I know I am a little early as we do not sail until next weekend, but this week is going to be nutty here and I wanted to get the preamble out of the way so I can focus on the fun stuff when we board.  Hopefully I am not jinxing myself and will test negative so I an actually TAKE the cruises. 🙄f I don’t know, I will try to find the answers!

PRE-CRUISE ARRIVAL DAY
We booked this cruise the day Celebrity opened bookings for St. Maarten.  Serious cruise withdrawal had set in, and we wanted to support Celebrity and the cruise industry.  We are now a day away from sailing and very excited.  While some of our experience (like arrival and testing requirements) won’t be relevant because this is the last sailing from St. Maarten, I’ll share them anyway. 
 

We ended up booking 2 vacations in parallel: a 2 week Miami trip (AirBnB / Symphony Cruise) and a 2 week Nassau trip (AirBnB / Adventure Cruise). Around the 4th of July we decided to cancel our entire Florida vacation and focus on Nassau. I was a bit bummed since I've never been on an Oasis Class ship, but I've also never been to CocoCay so that helped a lot. Next problem was to find a flight from Amsterdam to Nassau WITHOUT a transfer in the US (nope, can't transfer either with the travel ban). Thank goodness for the British: LHR to the rescue!
 

I know what you are thinking.  Another Mardi Gras trip report.  Yawn.  
 
There have been some brilliant threads from other users but for those that have seen my threads for other cruise lines know I tend to be picture intensive...  I let my photos speak a thousand words.  This will be one of those types of threads - lots of photos.

You know what this means. After 18 long months it's almost that time again.
 
 
 
 
 

RELAX
 
The Vogons, or Covid, have not destroyed the earth
 
For those that get the reference we are kindred spirits and you already know the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.  For those that do not, carry on reading you’ll catch up soon enough.