crusinbanjo

@CruisinPashmina I agree, stay safe.  When outside, keep your eyes sharp and be aware of happenings around you.  Like @jpalbny, looking forward to reading your reports

I never received the survey.   I guess it is mind over matter.

Personally, I don’t care how or why she got there.  What is important to me is that she keeps the experience fabulous, the price reasonable and ships small.  If she can accomplish that she will succeed.

On 12/5/2022 at 10:53 AM, RetiredandTravel said:

 

 

Definitely not for us either.  Our next vacation the resort has 30 rooms and I'm not sure I've ever been on a water slide.  Some people love the big ships, God bless them, hope they have fun.

 

I totally agree on the logistics, what must be involved in  just feeding 7600 people.  It would be interesting to see how the whole thing works.  Found this youtube.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2vXbFp5C9o

 

Wow, it’s a floating, powered island amusement park!     Not for me 😊 

22 minutes ago, tgh said:

Even more interesting is that the brand new "wheelreinvented" ship has sustained damage returning across the drake….hmmmmmmm

Wow, that must have been a real rough ride.   is it possible the captain exceeded a speed limit for rough seas that caused the damage?  I know airplanes have speed limits for rough air, does that apply to ships as well?

Here is the final for this corner of the Banjo homestead

Decorating the house for Christmas, today was tree day.  There might even be a few banjo ornaments. Ok, at least 5 

2 minutes ago, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe fun day all!

I prefer the marshmallow harvest myself

Sounds pretty risky to me, what if you test positive just before you leave?  Is the refund policy still in force?

On 11/23/2022 at 9:49 AM, FrontSeatPilot said:

Thank you for the link.  We will investigate.

 

We received an email from Seabourn with this last week.  We confirmed the requirement with our TA who contacted Seabourn.

 

 

Sounds pretty risky to me, what if you test positive just before you leave?  Is the refund policy still in force?

8 hours ago, drron29 said:

I brew coffee for Mrs Banjo every day………..  but she drinks tea anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.  We are giving thanks for many things, health, family and a return to cruising!

21 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

I was thinking about how this happened. The article mentioned that one women survived in an air pocket. I wonder if some were trapped under the zodiac. Life jackets inflated when they hit they water making it difficult to get out from under a flipped zodiac.

What you said sounds correct. Very sad situation 

Very sad, prayers go out to those effected.  Wow, very quirky indeed.  These boats are usually quite stable, and pax always wear life jackets, making the situation even more odd.

1 hour ago, SLSD said:

What is Envovid?  Is it a hand sanitizer?  Or is it something else entirely?

It is a nasal spray using nitric oxide, claims to kill viruses in the nasal cavity .

  https://shop-enovid.com/products/enovid-sanotize-nons-nitric-oxide-nasal-spray

I think it has to do with their new Convertible debt offering.  Some sources see the debt offering as good news for the stock and CCL, but todays investors don't seem to agree!

30 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

Once you go Neptune it is hard to go back!

 

So, so, so true!

1 hour ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

More like silver! 😜

Could, but if it is sterling, it will have a quality mark.  Assuming it is Swarovski, it is brass with a two tone finish that was quite popular a few years back.  Swarovski did quite a bit of custom work in addition to their regular jewelry and crystal lines.

On 11/12/2022 at 12:37 PM, KenNBarbie said:

With the stones, I'm thinking a Swarovski marketed item from the gift shops, in the early 2000s.

Not sure those stones are CZ’s.  With the Pave’ style setting and some  inconsistency in the stones, I would check to know for sure if they are CZ’s or diamonds.   Of course you can’t tell for sure with a photo, but I was a jewelry manufacturer for 30years and I bought a lot of small stones.  I would check for sure. I would also look closely for any markings.  If it is marked as karat gold, could be diamonds, if there are no markings, more likely to be CZ’s on plated brass.  If it is Swarovski,  it is just brass & glass, but I agree, still very nice piece.

17 hours ago, cruiseej said:

@crusinbanjo I would contact SS again and try to get them to point you to this information on their website, or request it in writing. As we know, various agents on the phone may have different information, or think they are passing on correct information, but the arbiter will be the representative controlling your embarkation. If you don't have the latest booster before cruising, and your most recent shot was more than 9 months ago, I would be concerned that your explanation — "someone at the home office told me I was okay" — might not pass muster. I would also request your doctor give you a letter stating that due to your heart condition, it is against medical advice for you to receive any additional COVID shots. That might not get you aboard, but it might help. 

I did not need either.  The pier embarkation crew viewed our vaccine card and took our temp, all was good.  No further questions asked.

21 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

What is exactly clear as mud? Is "up to date vaccination" definition based on your home country or the country that you visit?

 

On related note, one of the couples who don't have the booster contacted SS agent directly, and she advised them that they are good to go. They have it in written.

That is what I did, contact SS directly ad I got the exact same answer. The only stipulation was that we needed to present our Covid card at the pier, even though it was uploaded to SS previously 

23 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

Interesting.  The CDC defines “up to date” as the basic two doses and any boosters available.  Intake that to mean you are not “up to date” unless you don’t meet the age, health, etc., requirements.  We’re not going to take the chance of some cruise terminal agent deciding we’re not up to date so will be getting our third booster around Thanksgiving in preparation of our mid January cruise.   

We check the requirements closely.  For me, I will not chance the boosters, as I developed a heart issue shortly after receiving the 2 shot vaccine.  Dr’s can’t or won’t say if there is any connection, but it scared me enough to not chance additional shots.  Neither Mrs Banjo or myself have had Covid, (to the best of our knowledge), and will continue with our normal regimens that seem to be working really well.  If it is determined at some future point that we cannot cruise because of our status, so be it, we will use other means to travel. Hopefully that does not happen and that Covid is moving to the rear view mirror.

Mrs Banjo and I are just off the Whisper Quebec to Boston.  In this case “fully vaccinated “ meant having the 2 shot regimen, or 1 shot J&J.  We received these in 2021 and nothing since.  The requirement for boarding was to pass the temp check and show our vax card, nothing more, no discussion of boosters at all.

21 hours ago, SLSD said:

Just out of curiosity (even though I think I know the. answer), was Silversea willing to give you a refund for the "included" excursions that you could not get reservations for.  

To be honest, I did not ask for a refund, because I don’t have the fight in me anymore to argue with management over policy vs customer.  However, we will always just vote with our feet as we have in the past.  Future cruise plans will always look at value for dollars spent.  If the value for actual service received isn’t there, then we won’t be there either.

On 11/3/2022 at 8:30 PM, AtA said:

We stopped sailing with Regent once they started including tours and their prices jumped because of it. 

We just went on a SS cruise where tours were also included and the prices were ridiculous for the 11 days and the tours were quite lame.

I'll always choose a ship where I have to pay for my tours over one that includes it if possible.

I reluctantly have to agree with you.  When Regent went in this direction, Mrs Banjo and I left them and have never returned.  Just recently we were on a SS cruise, with the now included excursions.  Of, the ones we could get on, one was very poor, the other pretty good. We could not get excursion reservations for any other ports.  Our future plans will be to favor lines that do not include all the extra things that we would prefer to buy separately.