ICEX21

Yup I shall do so now!

Yes that's correct, there is no covid testing on arrival in Brooklyn.

Yes we'll definitely have to catch up if we end up on the same crossing again! I've just had to alter my plans for next year due to a friends wedding in May 2023, this means I'll have to try and plan a crossing from May 2024. Still, as you said it was a great voyage and absence just makes the heart grow fonder!

The below is a picture of us 🙂 I'm on the right, I can't even remember why we decided to take a selfie in the corridor beside the cleaning equipment lol.

I think we were quite close at one point in the Commodore club, but to be honest I could only vaguely remember your face from this forum so I didn't want to take the risk! Me and my brother-in-law weren't hard to spot, we're off Indian descent and had Scottish accents 😂. If you look at the prices right now, they've jumped up by almost 25% from what I paid for this last crossing. A sign of the times I think.. I do hope Dee gets well soon!

I really wish I could change my name on here... Yes that was definitely my experience as well, although I was still pretty cautious and wore my mask when travelling around the ship unless I was on my own or outside. Wearing a mask genuinely doesn't bother me to be to be honest, it's just become second nature for me. One point I forgot to mention in my above post, I too noticed people sitting in the Golden Lion around lunch time and not ordering anything, they were just reading their books or on laptops. It was already quite difficult to get a seat!

Hi Jack, What a great opening post! I wanted to do something similar but I've only just returned from our trip and I've been struck down with covid. This was my first ever crossing and also the first time I'd ever been on a ship that wasn't a day tour. The experience itself was just magical, it definitely surpassed all expectations for me, so much so I am looking to book another transatlantic crossing for next year! Unfortunately our experience of embarkation day was a little different to yours. We arrived at our allocated time and encountered some confusion as to where where to drop our bags off having been given 2 different answers for the same cabin number. On a positive note, while waiting for my brother-in-law's vaccination documents to be confirmed which took 2 hours (a very long story) we did meet a couple who were bringing their dog along and another dog owner who was bringing along his very loud American bulldog. Both groups became friends of ours on board and we're now looking to meetup in the near future :). I absolutely agree with your assessment of the service on board, my only gripe being the service in the Golden Lion which was very under-staffed at times, we sat next to one lady who had to wait 45 minutes when it wasn't busy along with delays of up to 30 minutes at times for our drinks when it was. In regards to the announcements you heard, not all of them were for close contacts, I do know of one person that bought a Lemsip sachet from the shop, whose name was then announced and upon returning back to their cabin they received a phone call asking why they had bought the Lemsip! They were then asked to isolate for 1 day and take a pcr test. This happened on the 2nd day of boarding. Like yourself, I found the dress code quite surprising. I expected a lot more people to put in an effort on the gala nights, although this definitely changed towards the end of the crossing. Interesting you also noticed the couple in jeans who we spotted pretty quickly lol. For my first time, this was a brilliant crossing and I hope to have many more like it. I'm glad you and your wife also enjoyed it 🙂

To answer this, there wasn't a talent show, but there was a passenger participation song and dance show on the return journey back to Southampton as a couple I knew who were staying on board were telling me about it yesterday.