jeb_bud

Thank you for this travelogue. My wife and I will be on Voyager for a Athens to Istanbul cruise next May. We haven’t finalized our excursions yet. Not sure if your Mykonos excursion is on our short list but will check. We’re not crazy about forced-march excursions. how was the weather?

We were recently on a Northern Europe cruise on Splendor. We had booked in Cat E but were offered an upgrade to Penthouse. We declined a Penthouse C for the same reason FengShui@sea recommended against it in this thread. We loved the Penthouse B we did upgrade to and are on the waitlist for a Penthouse on our Grandeur Panama Canal cruise in January, 2024. I'm still concerned about the steel balcony front on 700, 800 and 900 but I am intrigued by the idea of having a front-facing balcony for the canal transit. These suites have not been reviewed in Suite Guru, and I could not find any reviews on YouTube either. With that in mind, has anyone actually been in one of these cabins? How does it compare layout wise with Penthouse B or A?

We were in a penthouse on Splendor last month and we did not see a Blu-ray player in the room. If you can find the email address of the Head Butler you could ask, or ask you butler when you get onboard.

Fortunately it wasn’t quite like that on Splendor last month. I tested positive and was quarantined in our suite. DW tested negative and moved to another suite so she could continue to participate in cruise activities. Thanks to Paxlovid I was well after a couple of days although I still had to wait until Day 5 to get tested.

Voyager too if you please. I had my first cronut on Splendor las last month. Yumm! Our next two cruises are on Voyager and Mariner.

I interpreted it the same way you did. Your “embarkation travel” starts when you head for the airport. For our Copenhagen to Stockholm cruise in July we flew to Copenhagen several days early, arriving three days before embarkation. We tested three days before leaving home to meet the requirement you are asking about then did a proctored test in Copenhagen to meet the pre-boarding test requirement in force in July.

That’s what I wear when I want to wear black shoes. I wear a pair of brown leather Brooks walking shoes most nights. So far nobody’s complained.

I'm certain that you have way more weinerschnitzel experience than I do, considering your background. Most of mine has been in Germany and my recollection, which admittedly is a little hazy, is that they were usually wet with something. Maybe catering to tourists? In any event, I take back my complaint about the Compass Rose meal. Now the cruise was almost perfect. A good thing to have in mind as I have three more booked and a fourth in the planning stage.

I said much the same thing to the doctor on Splendor last month while I was whining about having to quarantine with COVID onboard. He told me that although people like you and me have mild cases and fast recoveries, he has seen other passengers get quite sick. Some have had to go to the hospital. Most days during my quarantine a tech came by to check my vitals in the morning. On the day they were to do my first of two tests to free me the tech did not come in the morning or afternoon. When I called at 6:00pm for a status check the Doctor told me they had been very busy all day, even sending two patients to the local hospital. So, COVID may be dumbed down and weakened but some people still get very sick, or even die.

You might be right about that. I could be interpreting this wrong, but my wife has seen posts of Facebook mentioning dozens of children on recent Alaska cruises. I think one post mentioned 75 kids. By my count there are 29 suites with sofa beds in Categories F through D. I have no idea how many kids have their own rooms or share rooms with siblings, but if there is a high double-digit number of kids on a cruise it wouldn't surprise me if the sofa beds would be unavailable for some. I can't remember the topic or the ship, or the category, but I have a vague recollection of a post a few weeks ago on this board that mentioned a roll-away bed being used for their third person. I'm just hoping someone on this board has had personal experience cruising Regent with two roommates and can tell me how it worked out.

I am planning a family cruise to Alaska on Explorer for 2024, which will include my son, DIL, and their 15 year old son. On the deck plan I see some Superior Suite rooms with sofas that convert to beds, but only a few. I’m assuming that the nightly turn-down service in those rooms would include preparing the sofa bed. But how do they handle a third passenger in the rooms without sofa beds? Does anyone have experience cruising three to a room on Explorer? How is it managed? Thanks

I was on that cruise too and had a very similar experience. I got COVID and quarantined while my wife moved to another room so she could continue to enjoy the cruise. Being stuck in my suite was boring and dull but I was treated fine by the medical and service staff. My wife was treated very well and although she says she missed me she seemed to have a great time. The only slightly subpar thing that happened to us was the last night in Compass Rose the server forgot to bring sauce for the Vienerschnitzel. Certainly not enough to stop us from booking a cruise for May to fill the gapbetween now and our October 23 Montreal to New York.

On Splendor in July they used facial recognition about half the time. They appeared to be having some technical issues but when it was working they used it.

We just got back from a 18 night Baltic cruise. I wore slacks or khakis and polo shirts every night. A couple of times I wore a sports jacket. I never felt like I looked out of place. I was actually paying a little extra attention to how the men were dressed because due to some distractions on packing day I didn’t pack any dress shirts. I was never in a venue where I was even close to being the only guy in a polo.

I had a long reply in my head about the silliness of acting like advertising hype is a legally binding specification and a few other things but I decided to just say that I agree with Bill. I'll be getting on Splendor tomorrow and I'll be prepared to ask twice for mixed nuts in my room, or return a bottle of corked wine. I doubt if that will ruin my cruise though. I will also expect the internet to suck. It sucked my previous two cruises and I still paid for this one, so that's on me. But, if they run out of Dover Sole in Compass Rose... OMG!

We checked in using an iPad and took selfies during the process.

Irishwitchy, We'll be on the July 8 Copenhagen to Stockholm cruise. We will also connect in Frankfurt, with Lufthansa but we won't have lots of time. When we originally booked our air we had a reasonable connection time but after some equipment and schedule changes as the months went by we now have just a little over an hour to connect. The last time we flew through FRA we could have made a one hour connection but it was pre-COVID and homeward bound from Venice to SFO, so no Customs and Immigration. Did you need to collect your luggage in FRA and re-check to COP, or was it checked through all the way from EWR to COP? Thinking back I can't remember a time when I didn't fly from a US airport direct to my final destination in Europe. I know I've had to take my luggage through Customs in the US before re-checking to my final destination but Europe?

My Splendor cruise in July has Culinary Arts classes. You have to scroll to the bottom of the excursion booking page to find the link.

I spent some time on Google yesterday and found that not only does the EU’s version of the CDC have pre-embarkation testing rules but also individual countries. I’m not optimistic but hopeful that the EU and Denmark relax requirements between now and July 8.

Interesting concept. Is the requirement to test before boarding in Europe there because of the CDC rule or a EU rule?

If you don’t get the pre-cruise perks then the only significant benefit of Concierge is the multiple WiFi logins from my perspective. Another thing to consider is the bathroom. If you have a shower only room now you want to make sure the upgrade room is also shower-only.

That’s what will lead me to mask up if I feel like the risk is elevated, like crowded airports or tour buses. We’re not especially worried about getting sick, but a little worried about testing positive the day before we fly home.