mking8288

This ... prepaid, 3GB data and good for 15 days, it's on LTE signal with my Google Fi, T-Mobile sim turned off on the Galaxy S24, posting now in our stateroom & WiFi is off, no chance of using Voom. At some point during this cruise, I will take on Voom with Starlink for a spin as well to compare. Discussions & review later.

Checking out the Promenade on Deck 5 ... This is for a friend 😁

Tonight's welcome abroad dinner menu, almost feel like doing specialty restaurant ... Prime rib, medium - looking at Cagney's on NCL We have our assigned table for 6, Deck 3 in an exclusive corner, elevated area.

We set sail a few minutes earlier than 4 PM and were heading toward the VZ Bridge, currently on a NEh eading across mid Long Island.

Finally got my prepaid eSim working onboard, maritime network with satellite data access. Chilling out upstairs in the buffet, after dinner.

@cruiseny4life That's from Windjammer, embarkation lunch

Let's take a ride and look around

Let's take a ride and look around

Coffee is good, DIY at the station ... reasonable tea choices 😉 ( this isn't Cunard ) Port security asked for a visual inspection of my arsenal of gadgets, no problem w all the cords, cables & led flashlight, etc. Housekeeping delivered a long extension cable to 2 of our cabins, plus a gallon of distilled water per request. Wheelchair assistance at the pier worked fine, 1 companion allowed to board together to help. Windjammer was 100% jammed full, easing now at 3 PM, still 250+ guests need to report to their muster station. Where's the beef ?

Windjammer lunch, after stopping at our muster station and stateroom, was ready, then elevator down to go up to Deck 11. Up there, 5G signal has returned - inside CL terminal, nope and no free, guest WIFi Hey AR @Arzeena what a surprise 🫢 say hi to RJ for us.

Going - almost there, via Staten Island at noon Here at Cape Liberty at 12:15 - curbside dropping off luggage first. Ahead to paid parking & shuttle back to building for check-in, security as 1st stop. WiFi, none. Cellular signal, barely and not usable. All checked in by 12:55 and seated, waiting for our section to get called and up escalator to board Our turn to board about 1:15 PM, not bad

Partner will be left behind on watch 😁

Navigator, target sighted, mapped & locked on ... set course heading and proceed, once all abroad. I

@Sugar Magnolia Thank you ... are you on late night watch 😁 again Been a busy day, picked up bread & light lunch after a cardiology follow-up, all good and next appointment in 6 month. Finished re-packing, ditched the backpack and going with a 3rd carry-on so Susan can put her iPad in mine ("it's heavy" 😆 so I get the honor of bring her along) Plus, bring 3 x 16 oz. bottled water, rinse & clean, recycled for onboard use ... refills at Windjammer. Easier to deal with the rollerboard, leaving the walking stick/pole inside, use only if needed. She's just going to have her 20L backpack with absolute essentials to stroll onboard. In other non-CC news, besides the bombshell about indictments in NYC, not really a surprise ... no further comments warranted, let the judiciary properly do its job. With my luck, get called in for federal jury service, again, LOL. 3 cruise ships unable to dock at Juneau this Tuesday due to rough seas and wind, ouch. It is what it is, like we missed our chance to cruise the Hubbard Glacier. Liberty slowed down slightly to 17 kts, perhaps the whales got the notice to go away since this isn't NCL (speed reduction zones due to sightings ...) Stateroom expected to be ready for access by 1 PM, timing should work out fine for our 12:30 arrival/check-in ... been cautioned about traffic jams leading into/out of Cape Liberty. Early fixed dining time is 5:15 PM but without afternoon tea, we can manage ... and do a mid/late evening "raid" on pizza (and, cookies ??) Weather-wise, looking fine as expected, no changes in outlook for Saint John, NB - otherwise, no triple layering needed, woohoo ! Longshoremen strike still on / possible next week - will we get - indirectly - extra days at sea, free ... unlikely and United Airlines strike approved by FA, not going to affect us either ... will just roll along and go with the flow, not the Icon (not a fan of those super, mega, monster floating city) Tech toys & accessories conditoned and checked, time to get some zzz's. P.S. No emails or SMS reminders to preview & watch the safety video, not until we are onboard & connected to ship's WiFi ... then go to report at assigned muster station to scan/wipe & be done with, easy (# cough #cough - NCL)

25 Hours or about ... a little bit of shut eyes, alarm go off in the morning, coffee & light breakfast ... load up the luggage and take a 15 minutes drive to pickup BIL and SIL nearby, meet up with our friends - last minute GPS / Waze - Google Map traffic check for optimal, preferred route to Cape Liberty and the rest should all fall into place, as planned. DW asked whether we are going to be connected nearly at all times and ... hmmm, good question, maybe and maybe not. Hon, unlike NCL, we don't have any "free" airtime minutes to play - let's wait and see. I have ideas and plans, options - once ashore, including Canada - we are 100% covered since we are on Google Fi, global data, voice & messaging coverage ... 200+ countries at almost zero and nominal cost, with hotspot - data sims and tethering enabled. Challenge is the "at sea" part where we typically "want" to be connected, and, logically, satellite data, at prevailing ... discounted rates as available to us. RC's Voom will be there and since it is via X-Starlink, fairly confident that it will work fine, going to buy at least 2 to 3 day passes, maybe 4 for those full sea days (yes, got a modest learning curve to figure out the deals, tricks & ways of keeping the expenses down) No OBC credits here to offset. Our Cunard Alaska cruise, did fine plus RedBullData (RBD) as a backup on a trial plan, connected at times to VZW and AT&T, especially when our regular lines couldn't and didn't pickup a T-Mobile or partner-carrier signals, worsen by the underground cable(s) that're severed and disrupted cellular services in Sitka, AK. It also picked up ship's maritime carrier - Telenor Maritime as the "roaming" ISP ... interesting coverage (just not with RC) RBD does not have arrangement with RC, unlike Cunard. For the next several days and week ahead, looking at another eSim data that promised, advertised as being a partner with and offering coverage on Royal, b/c of Cellular At Sea ... hence, satellite to cellular connectivity at 4G LTE speed. Stay tuned for update and if you see a burst of post tomorrow evening, late night ... that will be positive confirmation that this CC "Station Zebra" from "mking8288" is posting "live" at sea, or at least trying to, and have a connection. If not, ETA into Boston on Friday is 2 PM and should have cellular land tower signal somewhat earlier ... by "lunch time". Monday, docking at Portland, ME by 8 AM - definitely will & should see posts, updates and/or at least photos & images. On a side note, RC's iOS app is working better (latest build) but the Android app isn't in a happy mood to connect & populate our digital SetSail Pass ... clear cache, clear storage, delete and clean install app, reboot and checking everything else, etc. Hmmm, still ... no can't do. Like NCL's App, they got "I.T. winners" trying hard to keep these apps 99% functioning ... Well, I am not going to do a factory reset of my Androids ... neither the Google Pixel nor the Samsung Galaxy's ... alas, we will "survive" somehow.

Cover charge in the old days ... these were from the Dawn 2003-2005. Cover charge for Cagney's was as low as $15 p/p and LeBistro lower at $10 p/p like Bamboo - open for sea day lunch and 50% off or BOGO The varieties, options & choices with that nominal coverage charge, 15% or 20% not applicable ... once upon a time.

Could this spell the end of a $20 light "meal" a/k/a cover charge-minimum equivalent at Cagney's and other similar specialty venue onboard NCL in 2025 ? Arrrrrh, yes, plus 20% for our convenience with the kickoff of the cover charge, with a minimum number, billed immediately upon reservation. Wait, better not give them more items to milk our wallets.

Oh, wait, just wait till someone decided to start looking closely at those "high" output USB battery bank / pack designed to recharge iPhone, smartphone, iPad and tablet. Just a handful has been documented to self-ignite whether attended or unattended. Buy a bargain "phone" charger at the Dollar Store with the UL label and plug that into the wall outlet, the risk for that is just as great ... if not higher than multi-outlet adapter. Got a better idea, why don't RC upgrade and modernize its fleet to provide more than 2 outlets ASAP and then, at-ease ... I hate to carry these "extras" ourselves to make up for their shortfalls, FWIW. Will go with whatever ... glad to read that Carnival and other cruise lines are NOT planning to follow this. Yeah, requested 3 days ago that an extension cord be provided by RC to our staterooms for medical necessities.

Adding, welcome home. The cure is to get back onboard soon, as Sugar girl knows all too well. Yeah, we saved $400 on our NCL balcony cabin next early Spring too with the re-pricing & probably lost our double points promo, no big deal at our tier level.

FWIW, at least I can see all 4 of our Sails Pass in my iPhone SE 2022 and saved screenshots yesterday ... can't even do that with Android - Samsung Galaxy S22+ and S24's 😤 Paper passes !!! 🤯

Very interesting, wide ranging and "wild" results from different CC'ers from NCL ships with Starlink, at odds with each other ... which I suspect, hasn't take into consideration the hardware or gears (devices) used to measure & obtain somewhat consistent results to compare (apple vs oranges, cherries and grapes, and strawberries) That is, whether it is connected to 2.4 Ghz vs 5 Ghz, WiFi 5 or WiFi 6 chipsets in Android or iOS, and other settings - which NCL and their I.T. configuration is just part of the calculus ... Several NCL ships have, from my own benchmarked data, showed that - even without X-Starlink and being on just EMC satellite - able to and successful connect at 5 to 7 Mbps download speed vs. much slower 1 to 3 Mbps reported by others. But, by the same sets of tokens, Prima with Starlink and should have onboard servers and industrial grade WiFi routers blanketing the ship, only managed to deliver 2 to 3, struggling to reach 4 Mbps ... on timed minutes or basic unlimited plans. Ship's geo-location and coverage from orbiting satellite above, obviously ... or not, affect these results. However, I can attest that Cunard's ship, Queen Elizabeth, that we just sailed on recently delivered very reliable, consistent and superior, fast speed results (50 to 80 Mbps, as fast as 100 - 120 Mbps) compared to NCL's much lower speed. Thus, severe throttling cannot be ruled out - resulting in very narrowly shared bandwidth on a cruise ship sailing at, near and sometimes above "full" double occupancies. In case our fellow CC'er missed the news over at Carnival, a YouTuber was able to use his personal Starlink "mobile" or portable antenna kit onboard one of the ship and obtained vastly superior speed according to his own plan, and saw much, much lower speed while connected to the ship's satellite WiFi. His equipment was "taken away" as being against Carnival's rules but the point established. Cruisehive and other news channel have the details ... look it up if interested, FWIW.

Engine starts - 24 hours from now, proceed to Cape Liberty with en route stop - trip time, about 90 minutes w usual traffic, noon arrival & luggage drop-off for 12:30 check-in. Indicators looking fine & within parameters, LOS inbound w early docking 👍

36+ hours remaining on the final countdown ... Plans, what, plans in place ? ... or, are we going to just "play by ears", look outside, check the weather/forecast and wing it, which we often do. Been to nearly all the ports before and within the past year or so ... except Sydney, NS and while it isn't diverse like Miami, Toronto, New York or Montreal - Sydney, NS should be the highlight of this cruise. Booked a private morning tour via Viator/TripA for 6, driver/guide confirmed and will meet us at the private M&G parking lot right outside the pier - lunch ashore or not, TBA. Looking at the latest weather & maritime, hurricane forecasts, etc. - looking fine, except ... possibly Bay of Fundy, Saint John, NB with the crazy tidal changes and the, mostly unmarked, "secret" inside walkway from the mall next to the cruise pier to the town's market - occasional rain showers, daytime high of 62 deg F. Will see ... Ready to - at 1 day prior (after 12 noon) to the cruise - complete the brief online health questionnaire, required as part of the online check-in ... when we're completing on return flight from Canada into USA, border control (US-CBP) mandated & requested contact tracing information - email and/or telephone number, just in case. Oops - just saw a post with news about Legionnaire disease associated with 3 Cunard QM2 passengers ... totally unrelated to the QE and/or us. Disregard !

Joining that school of thoughts with you too, fixed dining with late seating worked on Cunard, also b/c of the afternoon tea. NCL's freestyle dining used to work great until Harry & Co decided to mess with it, and poorly trained / supervised and ignorant host/ess at the podium simply made the 15 to 30+ minutes wait unacceptable, plus another 75+ minutes to get thru dinner with lurk warm soup and entrees ... sail to relax & enjoy, not to pull out the printed card and start waiving for attention, asking to speak to the F&B or Restaurant Manager, etc. For 8 out of 9 nights, we showed up around 7:45 PM, go straight to "our" reserved AFT dining table with window views, sit down & get the menu, order & 10 minutes later - starter/appetizer showed up, followed quickly at our pace with salad and/or soup ... Plus, they seldom made mistakes with who ordered what. Between 9 to 9:15 or 9:20 PM, we are out of there ... plenty of time to go FWD to the main theatre, stopping at the restroom first, to pick our seats for the late 10 PM show - nothing to scan or tap, virtual wait or line up as stand-by, etc. This cruise, we have early dining at 5 PM b/c of the elderly in-laws but we'll manage - RC's pizza is good, our grand nephew/niece's opinions - and, we'll definitely checkout Windjammer. Had unfinished bottled water & soda from our B&B pre-cruise stay, and just walked onboard with them - no fuzz and no questions asked or visual exam, etc. NCL has unique and those once-in-a-decade itineraries out there, except - if you follow the board closely, not too sure if they are to be trusted 75% of the time to not pull more rabbits out of the dark hole, with the "surprised" mystery port changes and time adjustments ... really, really poor ethics and annoying, if not outright disappointing - no problem if it is medical emergencies or weather, and been in quite a few over last 25 years. Have a balcony next March, price dropped recently and saved $400 before final payment - DW said the heck with the double point promo when we first booked it, travel agency covering the DSC (I can guaranteed that it will go up by then) so it's almost a steal ... Still have 1 of 2 one-time free, Diamond cabin upgrade to use ... rather use that on a longer itinerary with a steep difference. Not abandoning the fleet of ships, near-term - placed NCL on suspension.

@Sugar Magnolia Kirkland rollerboard has the slippers that I picked up during the TA stop at Ponta Delgada ... Cunard's one-size-fit-all slippers, like H10 Hotels & NCL's freebies, good only for Susan & others. Didn't wasted unused space, stuffed the sanitizer bottles & "spare" cables in the opening. Yeah, "made" room in "her" suitcase for 5th pair of shoes - the joy of not packing a suit / formal wear, tie & party masks. Royal does have themed nights, I realized but dress code easier to meet. There is room in the backpack for bottled water (rinse & re-use onboard by refilling in Windjammer) and maybe Ginger Ale and/or Sprite, up to 12 permitted as carry-on, embarkation day only (and/or wine & beer ... #cough #cough NCL) Cruising NCL these days, often advised to have ziplock bags around. Cunard, not needed and Royal Caribbean, maybe good to have some handy ... Woolite (or equivalent) to hand wash delicate in the sink, hang dry them the retractable shower string.