BellKat

Just wow! Do I think the whole duck thing is a bit silly? Yes. Would I put anything on my door? Hmm, maybe if we are traveling with a group (yes we have done that a long time ago). But I usually laugh when I see what some people have put on their doors. Sometimes they are good as a marker as to where you are on the ship (large ships - am I on the my side of the ship). But do I care? No. People have fun in their own way. Falling down drunk? Disrupting other passengers? Being rude to crew? Going to a formal dinner in bathrobes? Those are all a big no for me. Be respectful and most things are good. 

4 minutes ago, basor said:

It was the policy for years and with the start of Simply More, they changed to 2 accounts for each cabin.  For many 1 account per cabin was not an issue as everyone were not on their phones/Ipads all the time.  I understand for some that are used to/need to have several devices on at the same time, your DH for his blogging, etc., it was a burden.

If they had an app, it wouldn’t have been as much as an issue. There were 7 of us trying to keep in touch with each other & we weren’t always in our room. We have booked another O cruise for 2025 so we’ll all be happier about that situation. 

6 minutes ago, basor said:

Luckily the one device per cabin ended with the Montreal - Miami cruise and now each cabin has 2 accounts so much easier when both want/need to be online.

Yeah, I know. It was a stupid policy. I don’t know what they were thinking. 

Elevators on Vista:  Hi, I’m Jim’s wife Kathleen. I have only been frustrated with elevators on one cruise prior to this one (Ovation of the Seas - took grandkids to Alaska). When it was a busy time, it was difficult to get an elevator. Our bank only had two so when one of them was out, I’d go to the forward ones with four. However, there was at least one instance when one was out in our bank and two were out in the other bank. That is absolutely unforgivable! We had a lot of scooters, wheelchairs, etc on our cruise so it made it even more intolerable. It was so bad one night that Jim was scouring the ship looking for me frantically. And that brings me to my other least favorite thing - the one device only per cabin. I had no way of letting Jim know I was stuck trying to get an elevator! Heaven forbid that I had fallen and had no way to contact him (it has happened (fallen) so that’s a real fear for me).

Edit: Just remembered other issue with elevators - only one went to decks 4 & 5 so if we were getting on/off at one of these decks, only one set of elevators was available. Whose idea was that?!

38 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

Please tell Mike that I am so thrilled to hear that he is happy and enjoying travel.  Often, I wondered what happened to him, as I had read all his reviews.  Sometimes people have followers much like teachers have students, but never know what exactly happened after not hearing from them for quite a few years.  He always seemed to be excited about traveling and sharing his adventures on CC.

 

DrKoob, my DH and I have an TA booked on Vista in 2025, so that will be our first.  We are also elite+ on Celebrity with a few more cruises on the books, but no new ones on the horizon.  The prices have gone up and the quality down; however, we do enjoy The Retreat life, just not at those prices.  We are looking forward to our cruise from Miami to Portugal, along with remaining in the country for a week or two.  Oceania was our new choice based on so many things, but now because of the new Program simplyMore, we are looking at several different lines due to excursions being included; we always like to do our own excursions in port.

 

Thanks for your detailed review and safe travels!

Mike is still publishing reviews. He has not stopped. He has a very lovely woman in his life who shares his passion for traveling.

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I agree, some people try to make this more complicated that it needs to be. Step one watch the video in your cabin or on the Navigator app, Step 2. on board, find the muster station and get signed off.

Did all of you forget how chaotic our boarding was? And these were newbie cruisers. So many times there were broadcasts all through the cruise but if you were in a public place you couldn’t hear them. No one would shut up & listen! If you were in the Lido, forget it. And as far as the app goes, it didn’t always work for numerous people. They would get help and 30 minutes later, it stopped working.

32 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Same for us on all post covid cruises, when we turned on the TV it began playing the muster video.

The TV has always been on when we have boarded. This was a first to not have it on. I worried about a couple of people in our party who had never cruised before. How would they know to turn the TV on? Apparently theirs was on as they did their muster before we did ours. I should have asked them. But how many others who had not cruised before knew to turn the TV on for instructions? Especially those who 1st language is not English & there appeared to be a lot of them onboard.  

4 hours ago, bluesplayer said:

Why are they assigning boarding times when they are not enforced?  Allow people to enter the foyer at their assigned boarding time.  4 star Mariner in a Neptune Suite.  Assigned boarding time was 11:00 am.  We arrived at Canada Place 10:50.  Stood in line for close to two hours.  No priority boarding whatsoever.  The foyer after going through customs was empty.  All those folks ahead of us in line could not have had assigned boarding times prior to 11:00 am.  Not sure if I would leave from Vancouver again. 

I’m DrKoob’s (Jim’s) wife Kathleen. We mostly followed the rules and paid for it. Our onboard time was one pm. We thought we would head to the line around noon. Imagine our shock at seeing the lines and then watching how quickly they doubled. If we had waited until one, who knows what time we would have gotten on the ship. My daughter & her husband accompanied us - this was their first and LAST cruise. Left a very bad taste in their mouth. Lines, lines, lines! Poor Brian geared himself up for another 3 hour wait just to get off. To our surprise, we were HOME in 3 hours (Redmond, WA). 

Just remember also - you spent most of that time in line with 2 other cruise ship passengers. 

45 minutes ago, Hobson1754 said:

Are you planning on giving the Restaurant another try or are you more content with WC? Really interested as it will probably be our main dining venue as we’re not usually that keen on buffets.

Kathleen again - yes, we are giving the main restaurant another try tonight - all 6 of us agreed to try again. We are not usually keen on buffets either but have found theirs to be quite good. The only other time we have spent this much time in a buffet is when we were on Azamara in Southeast Asia. Their buffet was great. This was many years ago. 

This is Kathleen, Jim’s wife, and the one who was ill. I feel 100% this morning so sitting here waiting for the medical center to open and call me. Although I may just call them. I want to be off the ship at 9:30. What really gets me is that if you have stomach issues, you don’t have to pay for the medical services. What? I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. I did get a call from the doctor yesterday because we were so upset about the handling of this. I was told because gastroenteritis and food poisoning have the same symptoms they have to treat it as if it is contagious. But they still let Jim walk around when he could have it but just hadn’t started having symptoms. I once again let him know I was sure it was the swordfish. I hope he made a notation of that. I wonder if other people who were ill let them know about eating the swordfish - that is if they went to the med center. 

6 minutes ago, hartwickds said:

Page 2 of this thread there is a picture of him

 

 

That’s us with him from a couple of years ago.

32 minutes ago, hartwickds said:

Somebody posted a picture of him on another forum the other day. He is on the reflection 

Also, can you let us know what other forum?

26 minutes ago, hartwickds said:

Somebody posted a picture of him on another forum the other day. He is on the reflection 

Thank you! We have been so worried about him. 

19 minutes ago, BelleEpoque said:

Curious if you or your wife have spent anytime in the Greenhouse Spa? I am planning to book it but wondering if I should do it now or wait until I get on board. Sorry if you mentioned this already - didn’t see anything when I searched. 

Nope, neither one of us has spent any time there. Sorry we can’t help you.

1 hour ago, smlnd said:

Were passengers able to get off the ship in Aruba today?

Yes!

17 minutes ago, Cyberhwk said:

 

I'm guessing they came down with symptoms and reported it?  Or are there routine screenings?

They were tested because they are on several back to backs & are required to be tested before each segment.

10 minutes ago, RICHARD@SEA said:

Just a note to yuor covid comment - there have been cases on board during your cruise - one couple that has done a HAL World Cruise for years(WCB /Maryann & Bill from CA) & is doing 108 days on your ship & one other HAL vessel) are now quarantined in a Florida hotel after being tested onboard & one of them positive for covid.  They were quarantined onboard for several days.

 

They post here on CC also

This is Jim‘s wife Kathleen. I have been following along with their adventures. They got off the ship the day we got on & should be getting back on the day we leave. We are getting increasingly frustrated with people who refuse to wear their masks - on busses, during performances. Even though the Cruise Director Betty Ann comes on the PA before EVERY performance and reminds people that masks are to be worn. Grrrr! They don’t understand if ships get too many cases, they will stop cruising. The CDC seems hell bent on shutting down cruising (although they have backed off a bit). I won’t do my usual rant. 

I’m sure there are cases on board right now but no numbers are being announced. 

8 hours ago, St Pete Cruiser said:

Thanks for your reports from the NS.  Found your pics on your other blog which are beautiful!  Will Seth be on next week?

No, Seth is only on for this cruise.

10 minutes ago, nooligans said:

Sorry to hijack this thread but we are also on the NS. PLEASE let guest services know how you feel about the maskless. We speak to them every day but nothing seems to change. 

I will speak to our friend who works for Holland corporate about this. He’s adamant about people wearing masks.I’m sure he will speak to the appropriate people. Thanks for the heads up.

We are on Nieuw Statendam right now. We missed Half Moon Cay yesterday due to winds. The staff was amazing about jumping in & revising the days activities within 2 hours. The captain came on at 8:00 am with the announcement that we would not be stopping. Everything (except a group of very rude people in BB King - no masks, would not shut up so we could hear the ban d) has been excellent. We are with a group called Sail with Seth (He’s their brand ambassador and a friend) so we are getting a few extras but even without that we can’t say enough good things about the ship and the crew. We had dinner at Rudi’s last night and it was amazing. They are getting very few patrons & we don’t understand why. I guess some of that is that there are less than 750 people on board. Which we are loving. Today we are in Grand Turks and so far the weather is lovely. Getting off soon to explore & do a tour. 

Would love an update - we are boarding tomorrow.

On 1/20/2022 at 9:40 AM, seaoma said:

Check your Home Depot. They have N95s made by 3M- It's Aura 9205+. We ordered online and went by the same day to pick them up.

 

These are highly rated legitimate masks. Very comfortable for us to wear.

This really depends on what state you live in. We live in Washington and tests, masks, etc are pretty much non-existent. We were in CVS here in Ft Lauderdale (we sail tomorrow) and lots of tests on the shelves.

We were on the 1st Flora cruise back in action on July 4th. It was the most wonderful trip ever! We loved it so much, we are going back in 2024. We did the Outer Loop and will try the Inner Loop next. Everyone onboard was amazing. Sometimes the Captain or Hotel Manager would come to the deck and help people get back onboard from the Zodiacs. The food was very good (except the beef but they may have solved that problem by now). If you love seafood you will be in 7th heaven - my husband was. The wines are not bad, we didn’t have one that we didn’t like. You just have to remember that EVERYTHING is local (by Ecuadorean law). We were at about 55% capacity with several important Celebrity personnel onboard. One recommendation is do your flights through Celebrity. We don’t normally do this but we did this time and were glad we did. They take care of everything that way. Please check out my husband’s day by day thread from these boards 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2788623-live-blog-of-first-voyage-of-flora-in-the-galapagos-post-pandemic/#comment-61390924

Hi - I’m DrKoob’s wife Kathleen. So glad your trip has started out well. I also had an issue with the altitude. When we got our PCR test the doctor asked if I was okay. My heart rate was way up & I was obviously having difficulties. They took my oxygen level twice. It was even worse on the way back for some reason. I’d been feeling really great for the whole trip until we got off the plane back in Quito. Within minutes I was struggling. I hardly slept that night, my heart was pounding. I checked my sleep app in the morning & my heart rate during the night was in the 90’s. I will definitely be getting meds when we go back in 2024. Have a great time! The Galapagos is an amazing place. Can’t wait to return.

On 7/13/2021 at 9:07 AM, dani negreanu said:

Jim, just curious if some of our team was also in your sailing....

Dani - these are the naturalists we had. As they add passengers, they will be adding more naturalists. 1st time adding a pic so hope it works!