mom4mom

Hope it comes back before the end of Feb. we were on her pre-inaugural and it wasn’t ready yet and I was hoping to see it this time.

I, too, pre-booked space for playing games and LCR and was given the port conference room on deck 3 outside the dining room. If you go past the stairs on that side and enter the cabin corridor, you just turn left and enter that door. It is actually part of the dining room at night so they ask us just to keep it neat and put glasses etc on the serving station as one of the wait staff comes after you leave to reconfigure it for dinner.

I wasn’t aware that we need special access into deck 17 but I hate to start with the Grand Loft first as that’s the one everyone wants to see and I’m afraid they’d drop out after that one. Thanks for your suggestion to use the less crowded forward elevators. Since the lowest deck cabin I have is on deck 6, I think I’ll suggest meeting in front of the carousel near the donut place and go up from there. Most people don’t mind walking up a deck or two and then only those who need it will use the elevators. I can’t wait to get back on the Allure again. Thanks for sharing your travels with us.

I’d like to pick your brain since you are so recently on Allure. I’m arranging a cabin crawl on our 2/26 sailing and need to determine the least crowded place to gather to start this activity. My plan is to have it the first sea day at 2pm but don’t want to interfere with any planned activity. Any ideas?

We were in both of these ports in Nov and took free walking tours. You just tip the guide at the end of the tour based on what you feel the value was. Some give as little as 5 euro and as much as 50. We took the Essential Valencia tour from FreeTourValencia dot com. in previous stops in Valencia we went to Oceanografic and it was an amazingly huge aquarium. Another time we went to the Science Museum which was also fantastic. We did a free walking tour with Guru Walk in Malaga years ago and had friends who had never been there so we booked them again. But then we were offered space in a different tour with other friends. But those who took our spots loved it. On both tours you walk through the city for 2 or more hours and hear lots of history. We usually like to see out free walking tours wherever we go. another time we were in Malaga we went to La Alhambra but you really need a long port day. I think the drive is at least 1 1/2-2 hours away. This year we didn’t have that kind of time, this the choice of walking tour. no matter what you choose, have fun. These are 2 beautiful cities.

Palma is one of my favorite ports and that may be because I hired the most awesome guide on both visits there. I have also been in touch with Miguel Corral to guide us again in Nov. The cathedral is a must see. We loved going to Valdemossa and had a Mallorca buffet followed by a winery tour. Some went to the cartons while we were at lunch and was treated to a Chopin concert. Have fun in this beautiful city.

He was on the Odyssey transatlantic 10/31-11/13/2022

Roll your clothes and get packing cubes. It's a game changer for us. We're flying out today for a 3 week trip in 1 checked bag, 1 carry on and 2 personal items.

Be careful to look at stopover times, especially if in a foreign city. You usually need to get off the plane and go thru customs which may take a while. I usually look for layovers of 2.5 hours minimum. Sometimes they are as little as 1 hour and connecting flights get missed.

Thanks, crzndeb, I sent an email and they temporarily reserved the VCL until they confirm with the ship. Fingers crossed that it goes through and more importantly that the set up will be conducive to play with a large crowd. I have over 80 people interested.

We will be sailing on the Voyager in about 10 days and I’ve agreed to run some games and LCR for my Roll Call friends. In the past, these activities have been done in the dining room, library and Viking Crown lounge. Do you know who I can contact before we board to reserve a place to play?

I have booked several CT at lower prices. I utilize my Roll Call and find others who are interested and then bring that list onboard and begin negotiating a better price. Last cruise I think I got $30-35 off regular price. I’m boarding the Voyager in 2 weeks with 83 people that are interested. I do all their work for them and they usually appreciate it and give us a break. Hope it works well for us this time. The first time we did it, we felt we got our money’s worth, paying full price. But we had someone at our table who said they got a call before their scheduled Chops reservation for the same price. I guess it’s all how desperate they are to fill the CT. Good luck and enjoy.

My next cruise is through FRA; this one is through AMS. I hear lots of European as well as American airports are a nightmare. Praying that this all settles down soon. At least we’re arriving 2 days early. Let’s hope we’re not spending it at an airport somewhere

How was the airport? Did you fly nonstop and if not which airport did you connect through? Can’t wait to board in 2 weeks.

Has anyone had experience with Cityview Trolley?

I’m disappointed that we can no longer get wine packages. Thanks, footzz, for posting the extensive wine list. My husband will enjoy picking out a few bottles that probably won’t be available anyway😁

In the past, we have purchased a 6 bottle wine package. Is this still being offered? Does anyone have a link to selections and pricing? It seems like supply chain issues may interfere with having particular bottles available. Might it be a good idea to have certain bottles put aside on the first day to assure we can get our preferred selections?

We take a taxi to Chakanaab Park which has many things to do for an entrance fee of about $21. You can swim with the dolphins and manatees, zip line, see a sea lion show, swim in a pool or rhe Gulf, snorkel, visit a replica Mayan ruin botanical garden or just sit on the beach or lounge in a hammock. Taxis are readily available right outside to take you back to the ship when you’re ready.

We have 4 airline branded cards and play the game to build up enough points on one to get one way tickets overseas so we can take transatlantic. We put one or two recurring bills on each and then use one card to put all the rest until we have accumulated at least 60k and then move to a different card and start over. We’ve been able to do transatlantic for many years sometimes only paying as Lotte as $11 for 2 tickets. We are doing an Arctic Circle TA and TA from Rome this fall using 2 of our credit card mileage points. Love playing the game!

We sailed on Davina several years ago on an eastbound transatlantic. We were able to match to their Black level because we were Diamond on RCCL. We got a fantastic rate but will never sail them again. Disembarking at each port was a nightmare and as one poster pointed out that announcements went on and on!

My husband copied the board onto 4 pieces of card stock and put fit together with packing tape to make it lighter for traveling. You could probably even laminate it as after a few years of cruising I probably need him to redo it.

Sequence is good for multiples of 2 or 3. LCR only has 3 dice and good to play with coins or bills. A deck of cards to play Kings in the Corner.

Many years ago we used Mariano from pleasantravel dot com to do the same wonderful trip to his own home, Sorrento and Pompeii the first time and then another trip he took us down the Amalfi Coast. He was fantastic! Hope he’s the one you used too.

They said he had missed the ship. We had 3 ship changes since booking as well as a date change around final payment. They also moved up the sailing time about 2 weeks before and maybe the priest just never got notified. It was quite a disappointment.

It used to be on our transatlantic that there would be a priest onboard but I would say in the last 4-5 years they stopped that practice. I wish they would continue that service as when I’ve attended a non-denominational service, it is not as well attended as a daily Mass would be. We got back last month from our first Holland America cruise which was chosen for the specific reason of being able to attend daily Mass the our group of 18 and the priest missed the boat. Such a shame!