pencowgirl

On 2/13/2023 at 2:49 PM, smtcan said:

We changed cabins on a B2B just before COVID.  We told our cabin steward and he said he would tell the steward for the new cabin to get it ready early.  As arranged at 10am he put our hanging things on a trolley along with our suitcases which we had packed with the rest of our stuff.  We went to the new cabin, he opened the door and we found a woman in bed and a man in the shower.  Apparently they had refused to move.

Security was called and they were out of there very quickly.  On other occasions we have changed cabins with help from our steward, and with no surprises.

What a memorable experience 

Not having someone to enjoy it with 

I just got back on equinox and liked no masks, also they were quick to deal with Covid which is sadly the new normal. I was happy with service, and ports need us back. I can’t wait 

Thanks for the info

How much cash do you take on a World Cruise 

What was your blog?

Re:all our luggage. Still MIssing!

Our choice was to say surrender and go home or go shopping in Copenhagen. We chose to go shopping. Bought enough to get us thru the next three days, including rain gear and sweaters. That should get us thru six days with a repeat. Except for dress shoes. Couldn’t find Herb’s size. He flew here with black sneakers. Guess what! Some people may be upset but that’s it —unless our luggage shows up.

I was a sight, zipping thu the mall this afternoon on my red scooter, grabbing everything off the rack

We are now ready to board tomorrow.

This has become a real adventure!

Thanks everyone for your concern and support.

Sheila

Sheila

Really looking forward to meeting someone who has this attitude. I always say if I have a passport and a credit card it will be a great trip. Anything I’ve forgotten or lost can be replaced. I once wore the NCL tee for several days.

Sandy

It sounds like we will have a fun bunch. Looking forward to seeing you and Howard

Le Anne

Sheila

Hope you are soon posting your luggage arrived

It cost us over $13,000 for insurance $3000 for me age 60 and $10,000 for my husband age 98 with travel insured. It’s a lot of money, but if we needed it and didn’t have it...

I am very excited. I have lots to do before we go. Today I got Bert’s passport renewal. I’ve book excursions. I ordered my GoPro. I’m starting a blog. This is as exciting as Santa bringing me a 3 speed bike when I was 8.

God Bless both of you! Guess what? Hopefully, we will get to meet you. We will be on the Singapore- Dubai segment!

I agree. Every morning that I wake up, I am glad that I did!

Regards

Sheila ( and Herb)

Wonderful! Sheila we look forward to meeting you and Herb.

I have no problem revealing my age to everyone! I celebrated my 80th birthday several months ago. I am proud to be alive and always tell everyone. . Promise that if I reach 90, I will shout it from the rooftops!

Sheila

Sheila:

My husband will be 98 and going on Navigator in Jan for a World Cruise, God willing. He has taught me that you don’t need to retire to the rocker. He wakes up every morning and says today is the best day of my life.

I have blogged on World Cruises starting in 2007 and blogged on eight different world cruises.

 

First recommendation is practice, practice, practice from home so by the time you board you are an expert on using the blog site.

 

There are a lot of choices out there for blogging host sites.

 

I have used Blogger.Com for many years and that was a free site. I did look at Word Press and while many people like it I didn't. Instead I am using Weebly for current blogs. I do pay an annual fee.

 

I would write a lot of the text off line using a word editor. This way you can cut and paste and save internet time.

 

When posting photos upload with the lowest pixels possible. This will speed up the posting time and since you are not printing the photos people will not notice.

 

Do realize up front it is a lot of work. I am not being negative but depending on how much you write and post it can require a lot of time. I know many people with great intentions who stop posting mid way through.

 

I keep current. I also write the blog throughout the day so I don't wait for the end of the day to write it.

 

In my case I start with the activities from the night before and then post each day late afternoon. This works well for me.

 

Again, practice, practice and practice so by the time you go live you know how to do everything.

 

Keith

Keith

My email is Pencowgirl@gmail.com and I’d love to check out your blogs. I did a blog on a baseball road trip in 2014 following the SF Giants on the road. I was managing all the travel and the blog and I do remember thinking at times that it was a pain especially when internet and WiFi were less than optimal. I can use notepad to get ideas on paper during the day, so that is a useful tip. I also am going to begin draft pages of the ports.

I blogged our RTW cruise last year, but once the port intensive sections kicked in I fell behind and had to catch up after we returned home. I use Blogger as my platform ... I looked at Wordpress and did not care for it as much ... especially since it lacks the kind of archive gadget I have with Blogger.

 

I use Open Live Writer to draft offline and then post when I have internet. OLW is the same as the Microsoft free software mentioned previously. When Microsoft stopped supporting it, the Open platform group took it over. If you plan to blog and are on a Windows user, I highly recommend downloading and using it. I would also encourage you to keep it simple ... something I am still grappling with after all these years of blogging. As Keith suggested, practice makes perfect ... start now with preamble posts leading up to your adventure.

 

Good luck ... and if you decide to go ahead with your plan to blog, do post a link here so those of us who are interested can follow along with your travels.

 

P.S. If you have not done so, check the Blogging forum here on CC ... if my recollection is accurate, there is a discussion in that forum that might be useful.

Thanks for all the good information. I think I’ll probably go with Wordpress since I used it in 2014 when we went to all 81 San Francisco Giants road games. I’ll be sure to share before we leave in January. It will be unlike most since my husband is 98 and I’m 60. We have most activities together but I wasn’t going to have him hike over the top of the bridge in Sydney. I bought a GoPro and will see if I can get some video clips inserted. I appreciate the comments and a month before we go I will share and hope for input

I believe Open Live Writer is the same software I used when on the World Cruise, it has since changed to an open sourced software. I will be downloading the latest version before our next WC.

 

Totally agree with Keith, maintaining a blog is lots of work, in fact almost a full time job. I find drafting the post to be fairly quick, the time consuming factor is converting photos to .jpg, resizing them, compressing them and uploading them.

 

Prior to departing on the cruise, I created an individual post for each day and saved them, but did not publish them. This included the page format and any generic port information I planned to include. I found this saved some time creating posts on the ship.

I did a baseball blog when we went to 81 road baseball games. I know it’s a lot of work, but between Bert being 98 and many friends not being able to do one World Cruise I’d like to preserve the journey. We never know what lies ahead and this is a dream of a lifetime. I had just considered getting some basic information together prior. The nice thing is I can play with things for a couple of months before I get serious. I appreciate the advice.

Le Anne

I have done a blog on all of my cruises since 2014. I use BlogSpot . Before I started my first one I asked on CC about the differences - there did not seem to be a preference as to which is better. After reading Heidi13, however, I am glad I chose BlogSpot because I do compose my posts off-line (I used "Pages" when I wrote on my iPad and now use "Word" on my PC) and then copy and paste into the blog when I go online. I do have to add the pictures separately. Before I go on-line I resize them (used the app iResize on iPad and now use (the free) ImageResizer - https://www.bricelam.net/ImageResizer/). If you have a Microsoft PC you can upload your resized pictures directly into the blog (when you are online). With the Apple products you have to first upload them to a hosting site (like flickr) and then put them on the blog (which is why I switched to the PC).

 

If you expand my signature you will see links to my blogs if you want to see what they are like.

I am looking forward to reading about your 2014 adventure.I glanced at it, but will read the complete blog. I have an iPad and will probably have a Laptop which won’t be Mac. I am playing with my blog now and decided to start over. I’m letting friends and family give me input and hope to create pages for see and port days prior to going to I can pop the information in. I realize on a trip this long things can change, but I figure while I have the time I may as well get things done.

I operate a travel blog, using Wordpress and completed a daily account of our previous WC on the Sea Princess. Not sure about other providers, but with Wordpress you compose posts and add photos while online. While we had comp internet, I had no desire to use our available minutes while drafting a post.

 

Prior to the cruise, I researched options to create posts when offline, finding a Microsoft program that was free. I downloaded it and used it for the entire WC. Only issue is the photos didn't size correctly

 

Our next WC is with Viking, who provide unlimited free internet, so I will draft posts the normal way by being online.

 

Biggest challenge is lack of speed - internet access is very slow. When adding photos, I resize to 1024 pixels and compress them to about 300K. I find the results are reasonable and it also balances both speed and storage space on your blog.

Thanks Heidi:

I used Wordpress for a blog in 2014 and I used notepad and pasted then added pictures. I’m playing with Wordpress now. Did you get any sponsorship for your travel agent or the cruise line?

Naturally not all my friends and family are lucky enough to go on a World Cruise. I’m curious as to who has blogged and what works and what doesn’t.

Thanks Heidi

Besides being all inclusive, how are the premium cruise lines (like Viking) better than the mass market lines in terms of shows, entertainment, activities and food?

My experience with Regent Seven Seas is that they take care of everything. You are not being charged for a glass of wine, a specialty restaurant, nor most tours. When I compared all the things I would have liked to have on a mid tier line with the cost of having everything I got on Regent I feel I came out better with the Regent Cruise. I also think the staff is better trained on the premiere line. It is about convenience for me. I don’t have to worry about flights, luggage, visas, drinks, or excursions. I know in my 30’s I was happy with a lesser level of service, but now I appreciate it, and it makes for a better experience.

Hello. We plan to do a world cruise on Regent in a few years. We don't enjoy being hauled around on coaches with 50 other people. I was wondering how many of you book the ship excursions, how you have found them, and if the included ones are good. Also, how many of you book your own excursions privately (we do this on cruises, but this would be a massive undertaking for an around the world cruise) and how many of you just wing it and take a cab to the city or major site and explore on your own? I am guessing a combination is probably the way to go, but there are so many choices.

 

 

Jen:

We have been on 2 Regent Cruises one in Caribbean and the other Australia/ New Zealand. Our experience is that Regent does a good job of planning excursions. My daughter in her 20’s was as thrilled with excursions as we were. We have booked the 2019 Regent WC. We plan on using Regent for excursions in ports they have them. In ports they don’t offer them we will get a cab and plan what we want using Frommers or TripAdvisor.

FYI...along the "map theme"...I found on Amazon various maps for grandkids to follow along that I'm going to get for Christmas presents. One is one that you scratch off a country to reveal it below, others are of assorted interest, too. Nice choices to give them.

 

 

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My daughter made us a globe with gold leaf. We can mark the itinerary as we go with a gold marker and attach special memories with gold stickies she gave us. It will be a keepsake we can keep forever in the office.

The temperature rose to 91° with high humidity. I was glad I stayed onboard. I was especially glad when I met Ronaldo, my hair stylist. You know how you can tell as soon as they touch your hair they will be good....he was fabulous! I think he did a great job.

Tonight for our canapés we asked for our one time, included "Sumptuous Caviar Service". This is included in the Master Suite booking. Our butler brought the caviar with all the trimmings. We like to put it on the Melba toast. We each got 2...it was fabulous like my haircut!

Caviar

Yummy

Last but not least new haircut

 

We like the haircut and appreciate all the info. We are getting excited about 2019 and seeing the cruise pics has added to the excitement

Last week I got a very nice DVD from Regent Seven Seas Cruises. It was interesting to get a tour of one of their ships and it looked very nice but do I really think that they are better than NCL? No I don't.

 

Any opinions, is Regent Seven Seas Cruises better than NCL?

 

Some things they mentioned on the DVD:

 

All cabins are suites with a diningtable. I can get a suite with a diningtable on NCL too.

 

All cabins have a balcony. I can get a balcony on NCL too.

 

All excursions are included in the price for the cruise. Is that good or bad? Sometimes we prefer to stay on the ship and sometimes we just want to walk around in the area close to the ship. If all excursions are included in the price for the cruise, everyone pay for them even if they don't take an excursion.

 

All drinks are included. That may be a good thing and we can handle that but some people can't!

 

The ships are small so it doesn't feel crowded. On NCL it's possible to book a Havensuite and stay in the Haven the whole cruise if someone wants that.

 

Since the ships are small it's possible to get to ports the bigger ships can't get to. I agree with that!

I think Regent is better. It depends on what you want from a cruise. I’ve done 15 NCL Cruises and 2 on Regent. We look our daughter ( in her 20’s) on the RSSC Explorer last Christmas and she says she can’t wait until she can afford to sail Regent. She found lots to do, we had dancers join us for dinner. If she were choosing a line with lots to do she would choose Royal Caribbean. To be fair we haven’t tried the Haven, but have a bid in for a Haven cabin in Feb. We have a World Cruise booked on Regent for next Jan. I like Regent because there are no hassles. I don’t have to worry about tips, drinks, excursions. If you lead a busy lifestyle it’s great to have everything done for you on vacation.

It is lovely to sail with well behaved children. We have complimented the parents of children on Regent when their children were like yours. It is a shame that there are too few parents that take the time to teach proper dinner manners, etc. When I see uncontrolled children - I don't blame them - I blame the parents.

We took our daughter on her 1st cruise at 9 months. We left the dining room when she had enough. We figured others would prefer enjoying their dinner without a screaming child. By the time she was 2 she would sit through the meal with a short walk after an hour. By four she had mastered the menu, and never wanted the kids menu. She is now 25 and still enjoys cruising. She said she enjoyed Royal the best as a young child because she had more to do and more kids to play with. We took her on Princess, Holland, celebrity. By the time she was 8 we took her to Russia, Scandinavia, Europe. We took her on the Explorer last year and she looks forward to more RSSC cruises.