Jim_Iain

My fist date with my first lover was to see the movie and afterwards he would play the sound track for me every night to fall asleep. He passed away from HIV 37 years ago. In those days it was a death sentence and he was dead within 6 months of diagnosis. For years and years I dreamed of one day going back in time and seeing and talking to him for one last time. Iain knew the story and learned the music and played it for me on his Grand Piano on one of our first dates. He later repeated it last year on Solstice when we had a Piano in our Penthouse. IMG_2038.mov

Bo - Very possible. We have done it a number of times. All you have to do is ask the Maitre'd. Some nites they have it blocked off for the Chef B Dinner. Iain booked it once as a surprise birthday for me with only 6 guests. Another option which we have done was made a reservation for the Luncheon they have on one of the Sea Days. Often if flambe items are offered they will not flame them in the room but just outside the entrance

We stayed aboard and I would guess thee was at least 25% of the ship either stayed aboard or were back aboard during lunch. While many do go ashore they also seemed to be coming back rather early.

I've stayed beneath the pool and most recently in a RS on Apex below the Aqua Spa. Generally very quiet except on some evening you could hear scraping of chairs as they moved them to power wash the deck. I took a look at the deck plan and looks like your room might be adjacent to stairwell and possibly beneath the Swimming Pool and probably no scraping sounds of chairs being moved.

While I can agree with you in a general nature I can tell you I have had a truly bad Guarantee Sky Suite. 2130 - 2136 - Accessible cabins and while that is ok with me - It is right underneath where they push the dirty and clean dishes in and out of the kitchen for the OVC. Starting at about 6:30-10 AM every 10 minutes it sounds like a subway going by. Reoccurs at lunch and Dinner times. All of the occupants in that area were complaining but all Suites were sold out. I can't imagine anyone finding that a location that would be acceptable. Luckily on the next cruise we won an upgrade.

I doubt it but the waiters may accommodate. From what I remember you could not get a drink in Retreat. They didn't even have bar tenders on duty.

Will be interesting. I don't think Iain's been on bike in 50+ years. I bike occasionally and enjoy it.

Maybe they didn't want' to deal with Customs/Immigration Formalities...

Will do . We are traveling in Mid-September so maybe we will see a little color change but I believe it will be a bit early. Really looking forward to Mackinac Island - Really have to see the Grand Hotel. I really have a strong connection to the movie - Somewhere in Time which was filmed there.

When on Apex all bars except pool bar were closed. Even Al Bacio Segundo was closed. They got around it by setting up an auxiliary bar on the pool deck next to Ocean View. Lots of servers available and servers in OVC were taking orders for mixed drinks and delivering tale side to those dining. Also around the pool they had lots of pool butlers taking orders. There was absolutely no lines.

Just took a look on the App - Apex - The Club Bar Menu - Apex is currently in Europe if that makes a difference. Jack Daniels Neat - $12.00 plus Gratuities

Curious about breakfast hours. Do they still offer some type of Continental Breakfast after 9:00? My DH usually never rolls out of bed until after 9:00. We are not big breakfast eaters and usually just have Coffee/Tea and a Croissant etc?

I suspect it is much larger than we can imagine. I've often looked at Suite Sold Out cruises and suddenly about 3-4 days before the final payment lots of Suites open up.

Good point. When we lived in Ireland we used transformers for many of our appliances.

I would check and consult you home office https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india/entry-requirements For U.S Citizens we are permitted to use the e-Visa at designated seaports and airports. I would really recommend confirming on your Home office.

I found that you can enter it if you neglect the space between the two middle names. Most of my Airline profiles just join the like one name even though they are both listed.

I was recently on Apex and have been on both S and M Class this year. To me the sweet spot is the S-Class ships. While we really enjoyed Luminae on Apex I found that do to the much larger passenger count they food was on more than one occasion only lukewarm. I've never experienced this on either M or S Class. Regarding portions size we have had the opposite and often specifically ask for a small portion size. The waiters always seem to want to supersize anything. If you find the portion too small let your waiter know immediately he will bring you another and will speak with the chef so you won't be disappointed for the remainder of the cruise. On E-Class also you don't have the option of ordering from the MDR menu but if the restaurant isn't too busy the MD will fulfill any request especially if you ask a day in advance.

I think it depends on both the staff and what class you are traveling. The definitely went all out for Iain's big day a couple weeks ago. We also got a Cake in Eden and then another the next night in Luminae. Needless to say there was a lot of waste and since we didn't touch the big cake and appetizers asked they send them down to the crew bar. Then Dinner in Eden

On Land Tours your receive the same number of points per night as your Room Category you are booked in for the cruise. We were going to be 1 point short of hitting Zenith on a TP so added a land tour on the beginning. Turned out due to the date line they gave us an extra days points anyway.

They definitely have it daily in Retreat between 3:30-4:30. On Apex they have Tea Tim listed daily in the Ocean View between 4:00-5:00 PM. You may wish to check the ship you are interested in and on the app select a current cruise and then Ocean View Cafe.

Wondering if they were telling you that to hype the experience. They offered it both on the TransAtlantic and the British Isle Cruise. Lyle, the Retreat Host had told us about it and wanted to know if we were interested. We are not big on Indian Food and declined.

Looks consistent to what we experienced on Apex in the Caribbean, Trans-Atlantic and British Isles. Looks like a pretty solid connection.

They pretty much network like at work where you have a main pipe in and 100's of routers throughout the ship that feed the individual users.

When I booked guarantee cabins, as soon as the cabin is assigned I was able to have my agent change to a more desirable cabin. Only restriction is that has to be in the same sub-category - eg C1 to C1 C2 to C2. I had also been able to pay upgrade to a higher classification after final payment when prices dropped to almost the same price.

It looks like stable at the capped limits.