bookbabe

Has anyone here actually done this transfer yet?  Anyone able to comment on the logistics and how well it went?

39 minutes ago, aungrl said:

I'm sorry to hear that!  I would have felt the exact same way if we wouldn't have had any Norse-related content.  On ours, we had four excellent enrichment speakers, one of whom focused on Norse content.  

We had a very good astronomy guy, and one WWII person plus one other I can’t remember.  But nothing even remotely Norse.

28 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

It's just that many posters forget about empathy. Someone might be in the wrong. They may have made a silly decision. Heck, they could have made absolutely every wrong move in the book. 85 isn't far off from my grandma's age. I imagine her in this situation and how this could impact her. I don't think I'd need to tell her she was wrong. Perhaps I could make some suggestions as to what she could do next time...but bottom line, there are a lot of posters lacking empathy about various happenings on these here boards. And, I'll admit, sometimes I spout off before having half a brain to consider the human element. 

My mom is 80, and took her first solo cruise with Princess last fall.  She is NOT an experienced traveller, and can get lost on the way to her local Walmart, but has done one recent cruise (Alaska) with us and a couple of cruises with my dad decades ago before he passed.  The cruise was a Pacific Coastal, so easy ports.  She took the daily with her in both print and electronic form, and in the one port where she DIY’d, she made sure to be back on board an hour before all aboard time.  If she can figure it out, anyone can, especially people who are supposedly experienced travellers.  
 

Do I feel badly for that couple in the article?  Sure, anyone experiencing travel disruptions of whatever sort deserve kind thoughts.  That doesn’t change the facts of the situation, which is that their issue was created by their own actions or lack thereof.

However, if I was the family member on the ship, at least one of our party would be getting off with passports, meds, etc to stay with the elderly relatives and help them navigate their way to the next port.  Heck, someone would have been getting off to wait for them well before all aboard time when they weren’t back at the originally scheduled time.  Who abandons their parents or grandparents like that?  

18 minutes ago, rev29k said:

Hello all.  We are cruising on the Voyager in a couple weeks and are working on our mini-bar selections.  

 

We were wondering, has anyone been able to request and get a liquor selection that ISN'T on the bar menu or the Butler form? A complimentary one I mean, not a connoisseur selection.  The options for Bourbon are pretty basic and limited.  Was hoping for maybe a Buffalo or something in that area.  I mean I've been on NCL countless times and they have many options at the bars, so figured Regent is likely going to have similar options as well given they source from the same place (NCL owns Regent).  But again, just wondering if anyone has been able to get something other that the 3 lousy options on the form/menu.  

 

TIA!

I asked on the pre-cruise form for either Baileys or Kahlua, and got full size bottles of both.  We were in a Grand Suite, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

I’ll be the naysayer…we did this itinerary in Sept 2023 and it was meh.  
 

Part of our disappointment was the enrichment content, no Norse studies experts or content at all, which we had expected to find because of the itinerary name and route.  

Missed the Shetland Islands due to weather and subbed St Anthony for L’Anse aux Meadows due to Viking’s poor planning.  Wish we’d missed Greenland instead, that’s a one and done for us.

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

 

She was still "going' to Vegas at that point ??  yikes! Can't imagine what her return flight would have been like .....🤮

Yeah, I think she was unaware that the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” doesn’t start until you actually *get* to Vegas… lol

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We will never know the 100% full story of actual events for this situation.

 

It was unfortunate for the passenger involved and unfortunate for all the other passengers on the aircraft.

 

These things happen when we travel and we have seen our share of events including a 90 minute circle over Europe dumping fuel to return to the closest airport to offload an intoxicated passenger.  Cool and scary to watch at the same time.

 

If you have never seen a fuel dump before, check this out....  Both wings were dumping at the same time.

I so wish that airports and airplanes were “dry” zones.  We’ve had too many incidents with drunk fellow passengers impacting our flight experience.  
 

The worst was a four hour delay on a February flight from YYZ to Las Vegas, where the deicing had to be done twice due to the return to the gate to offload a drunk woman (and her equally drunk travel party) who kept throwing up on herself and then taking off that vomit-covered piece of clothing.  She was down to a bra and leggings by the time they unloaded her.  And she was exit row.  Even with more clothes and less vomit there was no way she was capable of sitting there.  Fun times.

22 hours ago, sowhat33 said:

I'm hoping to see this while visiting the Normandy beaches.

BBC: D-Day silhouettes assembled near Gold Beach

 

 https://bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-68853855
 

On our recent Saturn cruise (Trade Routes) the D-Day excursion was altered a bit from the online description due to the anniversary events.  The included museum visit was Overlord, across from the cemetery and it was awesome.  The lunch was actually at a restaurant in the Gold area, and we had shopping time there which you could probably use for visiting the silhouettes.

4 minutes ago, RELS said:

 

Do you unplug it when not in the suite? I would think it falls under the same category as other devices that they want unplugged when the suite is unoccupied (fire precaution).

We don’t.  And we leave our iPads plugged in to charge while we are out on excursions.  Only issue we’ve ever had is the desire of our cabin steward to neatly coil all the cables, so that we uncoil them when we get back.  Then again, we are usually in a suite and they leave a blank key card in the power slot by the door for us 24/7 so the power stays on when we leave the cabin, so YMMV.

On 4/21/2024 at 4:22 PM, The Hudson Co. Landlubber said:

I would love to use a travel router on my first regent cruise coming up on Splendor.  But I am concerned if it is a violation of the TOS?  (I am kinda big on rule-following, sorry to be a dork!)

 

If it is not an explicit violation of the TOS, I am going to try it.

I’ve never seen anything mentioned, and our cabin steward and butler walked by the clearly visible router multiple times a day without comment.

And, for those not reading the kindle thread, the router solves kindle login issues as well as giving you multiple device access.

This is one of the other issues that using a travel router avoids…we make sure ahead of time that my kindle has the router username and password saved, and then once on board it just automatically connects after the router is set up.  See the wi-fi thread for more info.

Best two dishes from our recent cruise…the Filipino fried rice and the spicy mayo shrimp at the World Cafe.

Worst…every pizza.  Really, just avoid it.  It looks a lot better than it tastes, and that’s saying something ‘cause it doesn’t look great.

1 hour ago, ifitfloats said:

Yeah, I was thinking about that, but it seems that you have to use the Regent app to log onto the system? And, of course, even if we figure that out, it still limits us to multiple devices only in the suite.

Lots of the travel routers have an app or some other setup feature that lets you log into the ship’s captive wifi network, we just did this on a Viking cruise, used that same router on Mariner last year.  It does limit you to multiple in suite only, but how often would you be using multiple devices elsewhere in the ship?

A travel router may solve your issue without having to hope for extra free logins once you board.

3 hours ago, SuzD123 said:

Not sure if this would be more of a Sixthman or NCL question, but on RCCL guests can bring up to 2 bottles (750ml) of wine per cabin onboard.  Does anyone know the comparable rule for NCL??  I haven't been able to put my finger on that information.  We're not thinking of getting a beverage package.

 

The best place to get answers is the festival website, search “alcohol” in the FAQs and you get this…

https://www.hallmarkchannelcruise.com/faq/search/

• What do I need to know about alcohol? 

   

   

  Norwegian Alcohol Policy

  Please note that with the exception of Wine and Champagne, all guests are prohibited from bringing alcohol on board our ships. If you purchase any alcohol at one of our ports-of-call or in our onboard shops, the ship will safely store your purchase(s) until either the final night of the cruise or the morning of debarkation, at which time it will be available for pick up in a designated area. 

  Beverage Packages

  Guests can pre-purchase beverage packages prior to sailing via their NCL account once reservation numbers are shared (4-6 weeks prior to sailing). You may also choose to purchase on board (on first or second day of sailing). Everything you need to know can be found at hallmarkchannelcruise.com/beverages.

  Wine & Champagne Policy

  Guests may bring bottles of wine and champagne on board. When bottles are brought on board and served or consumed in any restaurant, public room area or in their stateroom, a corkage fee will be charged according to bottle sizes noted below. Please note that for safety reasons there are no glass beverages allowed on the pool deck lawn. 

  750 ml Bottle: $15.00 USD*
  1,000 ml Bottle: $20.00 USD*
  1,500 ml Magnum: $30.00 USD*

  Wine or champagne sent directly to the ship by travel agents, friends, family, etc. or from another retail source, are subject to the same fees. Box wines are not allowed on board.

  To speed up the process of checking your wine or champagne at the port, print out this form and bring it with you.

  *Corkage Fee is not applicable to guest with alcohol beverage package.

  Bottle Service 

  Guests can order items through the Gifts & More program including bottles of liquor that are delivered on board with mixers (not advertised but available if you call) and gourmet treats— outside of 10 days prior to sailing.

  Please note there are no glass bottles allowed on the pool deck lawn. 

Safe, clean, friendly.  Great food, okay shopping.  No pushy street vendors or sketchy people looking to scam you.  Lots of natural beauty, especially at the botanical park.  Best island in the Caribbean.

https://www.explorecayman.com

https://www.botanic-park.ky

33 minutes ago, Frisky070802 said:

That makes sense.  A number of devices these days (such as Ring doorbells and such) work the same way, having you connect to them and share.  The reason I thought it would be hard here is because usually you're just connecting long enough to provide the credentials for the router (a WEP key or whatever) and after that the network you connect to doesn't care whether you're the phone or an extra wireless router.  Whereas on the ship, while I connected when I first arrived and provided my name and cabin, I was occasionally prompted for that info again.  I wouldn't expect the router to be able to do that unless it essentially says "I'm connecting to the ship, and it's asking me X and Y.  I'm giving you the form with that request, and whatever you respond, I'll respond to the ship with the same info".  Doable --- but I didn't expect it to be a feature.  

That sounds like what it does.  It’s been working for the last 31 days, and he only had to log in a second time on the B2B changeover day between cruises.

That being said, the internet is still diabolically slow, whether via the router or direct.  But the router we have at least has a port to connect a USB stick that we are streaming saved media from.

2 hours ago, Frisky070802 said:

Interesting. I was going to say almost certainly not since the router still needs to access the ship's network and authenticate to it with a room number. How do you do that? 

This one doesn’t come with an app, although DH says some do.  It creates its own network, and the first time you connect to it, it bridges between your device and the ship and then you log in to the ship network that first use.  Afterwards, any device that connects to the router just logs into the router network, which is already connected to the ship.  
 

I hope I’m explaining that even semi-clearly, I’m going by my memory of what DH told me as he was setting it up.

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Interesting - I also have a Casper at home and this has been the best mattress I have had in my life, but I love the Viking beds.  

Our Casper is the Wave Hybrid Snow, and I find the bed on Saturn to be as hard as a rock in comparison.  I don’t remember the bed on Mars back in September to be quite as bad.

Add us to the haters list, even with multiple mattress toppers.  Have occasionally been sleeping on top of a row of the memory foam pillows, which helps a lot as long as I don’t roll around too much.  Have a Casper at home.

Yup.  Connected to one as I type this.

You are unlikely to find many hotels offering day passes, especially during busy periods.

An option might be Coral Beach - https://coralbeach.ky

Either Coral Beach or Public Beach will technically meet your requirements, although things at Public will be more DIY and a bit less convenient.  If you want a beach club, Coral is the only game in town at the moment.  

There are lots of restaurants with great food and great views if you don’t want beach.  Cayman has never really gone in for the party/AI kind of vibe, even for stayover tourism, so I’m not surprised there aren’t more beach clubs.  

When things went out of business during the lockdown, some properties were sold to developers and other owners just moved on to other types of businesses less affected by fluctuations in tourism.

We were in Marseille two days ago, did a cruise ship excursion.  No sign of anything negative other than rain.

People can look like they’re sick but not be ill.  Allergies can make you look like you have a cold or worse.  Your perfume/aftershave/cologne/shampoo is generally what’s causing my coughing and sneezing.  Your backing away in horror at my coughing will likely solve the issue for both of us.

I’ve noticed a few other people coughing, but I’m kind enough to assume allergies or that it’s caused by the dry air on the ship.  Besides, a little bit of coughing is nothing compared to a couple of the incidents so far.

Earlier this cruise, we had a gentleman have an accident (code brown) on the excursion bus shortly after setting out for the day, and at the first photo stop we had to sit on the stinky bus for a extra 15 min while he dealt with things in the shrubs beside the road.  And the bus (and the gentleman) continued to smell for the full day excursion.  I’m guessing he wasn’t ill, though, since he was on excursions again in the following days with no incidents.

And today at lunch some woman threw up in the World Cafe.  And only half the buffet was open because it’s a port day, so we had nowhere to relocate to.  The cleanup process is pretty thorough, though, and kind of interesting to see.  Not sure whether she was ill or lunch didn’t agree with her, but we’re in port so likely not seasickness.