Teeara

On 4/24/2024 at 3:15 AM, FionaMG said:

Thanks very much @Teeara for bringing us along and for the heads-up about your youtube channel. 😊

 

If you remember, would you mind coming back here just to say when you put the first video up?

As requested, the first video is now up!

 

 

On 4/26/2024 at 3:37 PM, firstimer2009 said:

What was the name of the backpack? I’m looking to do this for our Sept cruise. 

I bought this one in 2022 for our Wonder TA and have been using it for regular commute too since then.  I like that it can be locked in several places and holds a lot.  It has space for a laptop and can slide over the handle of your carry on.  I just used it again for our Radiance Panama Canal cruise and it still retains the original shape with no issues whatsoever.  Lots of colors, too.

 

Monsdle Travel Laptop Backpack... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DHMPTRW?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

Mine is the purple one.

 

 

My roommate has the red one.  Here’s a better look at it.  Again, at this point we’ve had them for 2 years.  These photos were taken 3 weeks ago.  We love them.

 

22 hours ago, 2travelcats said:

Didn't this cruise end in LA?

Yes, it did and thankfully before the propulsion issue came to light.  We had no issues whatsoever with propulsion during our cruise.  Ship did a fantastic job between 17-23 knots nearly every sea day in order to make each port.  Not sure if that overdid it or what, but we had no issues whatsoever.

7 hours ago, 2travelcats said:

Perhaps I missed it but would you share what transportation you used from the port to the airport?  And thanks for the great review! 

I used Lyft.

11 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

I did a transatlantic on Serenade in fall of 2019, heading to Boston when Hurricane Dorian hit the area. It resulted in us missing 2 planned ports, going to one unplanned port, and getting into Boston 1 day late. The seas were only mildly rougher than other transatlantics I've done; they did a great job sailing around the rough stuff.

 

I always prefer west bound due to time changes. You deal with jet lag either way; but 25 hour days on board >>> 23 hour days on board.

I’m with you on those 25 hour days.  So sweet!

10 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Great video, we have done 5 Westbound TA'S and all have been just like your video. After leaving the Med it has always been shorts and T Shirts every day. Oasis Class TA'S are fantastic, super bonus when 1500 kids are not there. , 

Glad to hear the weather is consistent!

On 4/23/2024 at 2:47 PM, DbPA said:

Considering a repositioning cruise. What is weather like?  Which region and which season will have better weather?  I am apprehensive about rocky seas?? I worry about Fall during Hurricane season.  Appreciate thoughts from frequent cruisers. 

We did the westbound TA on Wonder in October/November of 2022.  We had a fantastic time and we only had a few days that were a little "rough".  I made a video showing what the conditions were like during the crossing.  I hope this gives you an idea as to what to expect.

 

 

4 hours ago, 2funtime said:

Thanks for your reply.  I was only going to do internet for one so with getting the key it would be 3X.  I only need internet to stay connect with things  back home while we are away.  If it would go back to the price of the internet,  I would do it for all 3 of us..... we will see how it plays out.  

Our main reason was for getting off the ship fast at the end of the cruise in order to make our flight home.  But again, everyone has their own reason and budget.  Good luck in your decision.

5 hours ago, 2funtime said:

Teeara,  I have enjoyed your postings and look forward to our Oct sailing through the Panama.   
What's your opinion of The Key on the Radiance since it's a smaller ship.   There are 3 of us and I'm trying to rationalize paying the price.  

For us it was worth the price.  We boarded and disembarked with the suites, so we were on and off the ship close to first.  The internet usage was huge for us.  We didn’t use it for shows.  We plan on using it again for our Allure WB TA next year.

 

I would say it’s definitely worth the price if it’s close to the daily price of the internet which it was for us.  I got it last year during Black Friday week.

6 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Thanks very much @Teeara for bringing us along and for the heads-up about your youtube channel. 😊

 

If you remember, would you mind coming back here just to say when you put the first video up?

I will certainly let you know.  I usually post on Wednesdays at 6pm.  Fingers crossed for next week (definitely not tonight since we’re still unpacking and getting settled here at home).

I hope you enjoyed the photo journey of this Panama Canal cruise.  We had so much fun (even if I did catch a cold).

 

I will be doing a much more in depth review on my YouTube channel.  If you’re interested in a lot more video content from this cruise, please feel free to check it out.  I expect the first video in the series to drop in a week or two.

 

https://youtube.com/@TheEmptyArmchair?si=3lkqT_1hVRg9-fTp

Last of all, I wanted to share all the new Alaska items for sale in the shops.  They brought it in a couple of days before the end of the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, these are the last 2 days of photos I have to share with you for the last 2 sea days.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to Giovanni’s for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s 11:30 pm here in Boston and we’ve been traveling since we got off the ship at 8:30 am PST (11:30 am EST) and we still aren’t home.  
Major traffic leaving Boston due to road construction.  Ugh. 
 

Anyway, I do plan on finishing up this thread tomorrow after a shower tonight and good sleeps in my own bed tonight.

2 hours ago, RobInMN said:

From Guest Services:

2014 passengers

 

Captain's Q&A (and hotel director):

Only 29 kids.

Didn't give numbers or percentage, but said that the Noro counts were "not severe"

Project Discovery is still in design phase, and looking like 2029/2030 (not sure if that's a build start or complete).

Delay on entering first lock was multiple pilot delays followed by a worker shortage for the locomotives(mules). Went slower than normal in the lake so that when we reached the Pedro Miguel locks, we could go right in without waiting again. 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew there weren’t that many kids onboard.  Only saw about 10 during the entire cruise.  They were all well behaved (as opposed to some adults we came across during the cruise).

 

 

15 hours ago, Jimbo said:

@Teeara You said you weren't feeling well. Do you think you may have caught noro, since it has been reported on your sailing.

Nope.  I didn’t have any noro symptoms.  Just a garden variety head cold. 

30 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

Some ship pics:

 

The Puerto Vallarta port is pretty compact for fitting 3 ships:

Love your shots, especially the one with the 3 ships!

Here are the Windjammer nightly themes for dinner:

 

Day 1:

 

 

Day 2:

 

 

Day 3:

 

 

Day 4:

 

 

Day 5:

 

 

Day 6:

 

 

Day 7:

 

 

Day 8:

 

 

Day 9:

 

 

Day 10:

 

 

Day 11:

 

 

Day 12:

 

 

Day 13:

 

 

Day 14:

 

 

There is no dinner for Day 15 since that is disembarkation day.

 

I hope you find this helpful.

Today we were in Puerto Vallarta.  We were indeed docked across the street from Walmart.

 

 

We had the Top 5 Vallarta Highlights and Shopping tour at 8:30 this morning.  Our first stop was the Malecon along the waterfront.

 

 

 

 

 

We caught a couple of rides for the next part of the tour.

 

 

 

We checked out this mural during a bathroom break.

 

 

Our next stop was this church.

 

 

 

 

We had a few stops during our walk.

 

 

 

 

We stopped at a square with some beautiful mosaic benches that were reminiscent of the ones at Park Guell in Barcelona.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were given time to walk down by the beach where there were a lot of beachfront restaurants.  Too bad we didn’t have time for that.

 

 

They took us to a jewelry store then back to the ship by 1:00.

 

 

We had a beautiful sunset tonight.

 

 

Here is the Cruise Compass.

 

 

 

 

 

And here are the location maps:

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay kids.  My cold has been getting better but I’ve been going to bed early so I’m missing some of the time I would usually use for posting here.

 

Our second sea day after Puerto Quetzal was pretty quiet.  We spent a good portion of the day in the Colony Club reading.  The temps are much cooler than the previous days and with my cold I want to be warm.

 

In the afternoon they had the enrichment lecture on Puerto Vallarta.

 

 

They told us we would be docked 3 miles from old town but across the street from Walmart (for those who are interested).

 

We ate in the WJ and it was British night.  I got the fish and chips.  Buyer beware.  I could immediately tell that it wasn’t whole fish, but a fish cake.  The texture wasn’t what I was expecting so I didn’t enjoy it.  They did a good job with the tartar sauce though.

 

 

Back in the cabin I prepared our Wash & Fold laundry bag for tomorrow.  For comparison, the Cruise Compass is letter size.  
 

 

We were only doing undies and socks for this load.

 

 

I’m not seeing any maps or Compass for this day.  My apologies.

 

12 hours ago, FionaMG said:

 

I've never found one 😭

I do have two but only because they were given to us in goodie bags on a cabin crawl a few years ago. 😂

My roommate found a tiny one on embarkation day.

 

I found this one in my medicine cabinet after our cabin crawl. 😁❤️. Otherwise I’ve never found a duck yet.

 

  
 

It made my day.  I’m keeping him.

Today is a sea day.  Hard to believe we’re getting close to the end of this cruise.  Here’s our current position:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning was another enrichment lecture.  Today’s topic was on the Aztecs and how Hernan Cortes conquered them in 2 years with only 300 men.

 

We had lunch in the WJ again and then camped out in the Centrum for a couple of hours.  We like it there since there are chairs next to our cabin.

 

I left a couple of times to take some pictures and videos for a future vlog on door decorating.  Here’s a few of my favorites:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had dinner at Izumi.  If you are planning on doing Izumi on Radiance, bring a sweater!  It was freaking freezing in there.  I had to go back to our cabin for our sweaters.

 

We had the salad as our starter, then the teriyaki chicken with the vegetable rice ( too many peppers).

 

 

We finished our meal off with the assorted mochi ice cream.  We didn’t like the green tea one.  Wish we had the chocolate one instead.  Pam liked the strawberry the best and I liked the mango.

 

 

We’re now in the Colony Club listening to karaoke and then there’s a game show before the orchestra comes in for Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power (what we’re here for).  Glad we came when we did.  Seats are going fast.

 

Here’s today’s Cruise Compass:

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, here’s tonight’s MDR menu.  We went to the podium to let them know we aren’t going to be dining inside for the rest of the cruise.  It had to do with the people they seated us next to and not our waiter or assistant waiter (Jun and Paul) who were fantastic.
 

 

That’s it for tonight.  Have a great day everyone.

1 hour ago, island lady said:

Great photos again Teeara.  Looks like you had fun!  We took a tour up into the mountain town near the volcanos, that included a visit to the factory, museum, and store of that Jade outlet while there on Serenade. It was really fascinating!  We were Amazed how large that shopping area is!  Really did not need a tour at that port with that being there, and we never had enough time to really spend there due to our long tour day.  

 

We did however have to walk all the way through there to get to our tour bus.  That is when I was pick pocketed.  😮   Fortunately I only put a few dollars in my back pocket (12 bucks that time) with the bigger bills, my passport card, credit card, sea pass card in my front button down pockets.  I never felt the pickpocket...they were that good.  

 

I have that habit of doing it that way, assuming the pick pocket will think that is all I had and leave.  It worked...still out 12 bucks...but could have been worse.  

I heard it was a 2 hour drive to get to Antigua and 2 hours back.  That doesn’t leave much time for a tour and some shopping time.  The Jade Museum at the port was very informative and the selection was extensive.  I would go back in a heartbeat.

 

Sorry to hear you were pickpocketed!  But better the $12 than your passport!

Here are the daily maps:

 

 

 

 

 

Well today was our stop in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.  The Norwegian Encore beat us there so they got the pier next to the port area.  We got stuck at a different section outside of the area and had to take a Blue Bird bus to get us to the cute port area.

 

 

Since we didn’t have any shore excursion planned for today we had decided to wait for everyone else to get off the ship.  This worked out since I had a hot rock massage at 8 a.m. and Pam woke up with a migraine.  We finally left the ship around 11:30.

 

So if you’re wondering where Puerto Quetzal is located, they have a great map on the floor of the visitor center.

 

 

There were very helpful signs inside to let you know where things were located.

 

 

There’s also a fun Guatemala sign next to the entrance.

 

 

Since our main interest was shopping, we hit the Jade Museum first.

 

 

They had some fantastic samples of items found with explanations of what they were. 

 

 

They had all kinds of jewelry (earrings, bracelets, necklaces) at very reasonable prices under $100, not to mention plenty above $100 😉😁

 

We saw a couple of women weaving as well.

 

 

One of the things you should bring home with you is a worry doll.  
 

 

The textiles here were so vibrantly colored and decorated.  It was hard to choose.  I really wanted this piece, but it was really tall.  I was offered it for $75, but it was still too tall.

 

 

Pam bought a pillow case with this design.

 

 

These bags were beautiful.

 

 

There was so much to see in each booth.

 

 

We got all the way to Guatemala and still found a bit of home 😉😁😂

 

 

Found a bit of Texas here, too.

 

 

These were interesting.

 

We found a nice place to sit in front of a stage with music piped over some speakers.  This is very close to the visitor’s center.

 

 

A nice couple took our picture since I took theirs for them.  Love my hairdo?  That was courtesy of the spa this morning during my massage. 😉😁. It was 91 today but felt like 104.

 

 

As you go to leave, you have to go to the right of the visitor center and show your ID and they want to look inside your bags before going through a metal detector.

 

 

You will also have to get off the bus at the Guatemala checkpoint, go in the building and show your ID again and go through another metal detector before reboarding the bus past the checkpoint.  It was a PITA.  Then the bus takes you to the ship.

 

We had dinner in the WJ tonight.  I didn’t make it downstairs in time to get the regular MDR menu so you’ll have to settle for this one:

 

 

And today’s Cruise Compass:

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll post the daily ship location after this post.  We’re in the Centrum tonight.  They just had karaoke and are about to start country nightt.  I don’t want to lose my seat.  😉😁