Margarita Jane

gusguide@hotmail.com http://www.tourguidegus.com Hopefully one of these will work for you.

I agree that Gus is great. We used him for 2 days in March. When I booked with him, I gave him a list of what we wanted to see and we did all those things plus a couple more that he suggested. His English is very good and he was full of information to make our visit to Rio de Janeiro extra special.

We flew Saturday with a bit of a scare - suppose to fly SRQ to ATL To GIG, but as we were leaving for the airport, I got a text that the SRQ to ATL was delayed meaning we would miss our connection in ATL. Fortunately got the flight changed to TPA to ATL and despite horrendous traffic, made it just as the TPA to ATL flight was boarding. Whew! We visited Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf on Sunday and have a full day of touring today. Have to agree Iguazu is not to be missed - we saw the falls in 2020 - JUST before COVID. Almost did not get back to USA as everything was closing down. Happy travels!

We sailed the Ascent in December, 2023 in an IV6271 and it was noisy, despite maintenance trying to fix it. We had creaking sounds and a drip, drip, drip, drip…. I’m glad there is no noise in some staterooms, but it seems there are enough people who have trouble sleeping due to stateroom noises that a warning should be out there for anyone who plans to be on an Edge class ship. You might get lucky, but if you have a noisy stateroom, hopefully you come prepared with earplugs or a white noise machine.

This was the elite happy hour menu on the 12/10/23 sailing of the Ascent. Sometimes the bars did not have Absolute and they offered Tito’s instead. DH drinks Chardonnay, and sometimes the offering were not to his liking. Some bars allowed him to substitute spiced rum and he would have rum and cokes.

We recently did a 7 day on Ascent. We carried on two bottles of wine, and we did not have a drink package. We are Elite + and not heavy drinkers. But….with the elite happy hour, and we ordered bottles of wine at dinner (5 bottles over 7 nights) with our 20% discount. I had purchased one device stream ( DH used elite minutes). Usually we have a beverage package, but the 7 night Ascent sailing was a last minute get away. It turned out to be about $40 night…lots less than the packages. YMMV.

You can bring canned, non-alcoholic drinks onboard. Celebrity told me I could bring as much canned soda as I could carry! We brought 2 twelve packs of soda on our recent Ascent sailing because I drink caffeine-free, diet soda which is not always available onboard.

Just to be clear, mine are Bose wireless earbuds…so no alien paraphernalia 😁. Mine are a couple of years old and I have not had any issues with them, but I have read where others have had issues.

I have some Bose, but @Jim_Iain has written about a better option, but I don’t remember the name. Maybe he can chime in and give you his recommendation on ear buds.

This is firsthand - but not AQ. We were in 6271, an IV, for the December 10-17 sailing. We had creaking, but even more irritating, there was a dripping or popping sound in the upper left of the window. Try sleeping at night with a drip….drip….drip. We reported it, and maintenance was in our stateroom and worked on it. Unfortunately they did not resolve the sound. Our room steward also heard the dripping/popping, and acknowledged the noise, and the creaking. I had earplugs and had to use them. I had no choice. I did not realize others were complaining until reading this thread.

I am a naturally skeptical person, but on a couple of the first sailings after COVID, my DH bought me some nice pieces from Effy. When we got home, we had them independently appraised and they all appraised for more than we paid. OTOH, the last couple of cruises it seems prices have gone up considerably, so maybe we lucked out because of post-COVID inventory.

If this is the Big Box company in NH, I had booked many cruises with them, because they always had great prices…. Then I had a problem…. and could never reach their customer service. It was a Princess cruise and fortunately, Princess helped with my problem. I have never used them again. Abbey I’m not getting the lowest price, but I can always reach my TA, who helped significantly on a COVID cruise…. They should honor what you have paid for, period.

This is the Champagne (Brut) in our Reserve Class mini suite. It was awful.

Embarked Sky Princess today in Reserve Class mini suite. The room steward brought us two glasses of something bubbley. We drank it - it was OK to us. Instead of the 1/2 bottle of red and 1/2 bottle of white, they brought us one bottle of something labeled Champagne - haven’t opened it yet. But having had the 1/2 bottles of red and white, this bottle of Champagne can’t be worse. The bad news is my DH likes Chardonnay. They had two offerings in the bars, and another in the dining room. He did not like any of them. The server told us the one on the plus package was Canyon Ridge, and the one one the premier package was Flowers. The dining room waiter said the one on the Plus package was an Italian Chardonnay (!), and they also had Flowers. My DH is not happy, but one server said they may have other options tomorrow 🤞.

I definitely was not trying to be condescending or insulting. Again, we have been on many cruises, on many lines. I was very happy to see a woman in this job as I personally had not had a woman tender driver before. I am glad to see women in positions that in years past, they wouldn’t be given the opportunity. And yes, being a CPA, the on time and on budget was my way of saying women can do anything men can do. Your comment @mom saysis one of the reasons I rarely post on cruise critic anymore….seems like people want to twist things to see the worse.

We have been on many cruises, many different lines. We are currently on the Celebrity Solstice, and had to tender into Cabo San Lucas this morning. Today was the first time we had a lady driving the tender! She did a great job and we arrived into Cabo San Lucas on time and on budget.

Thanks so much for your review and pictures. Have really enjoyed following along.

@KenTheCruiserHi Ken, I’m a lurker and have been enjoying your review and pictures. Thank you! Curious - we were in an aft Aqua on Summit in March. We got a lot of noise from the movies on the deck above. Have you had any issues?

Following! Jim - did I read this right - you had a second bout of COVID? I agree - we have to get to the point where we treat this like the flu. Visited same ports in Iceland in June. I think I got COVID in Reykjavik ☹️, golden circle tour with Viator and a packed bus. Isafjordur is tiny.

We had a bad experience with National Express, the bus company. We were staying at Heathrow for a few days and booked National Express to get us to Winchester and back, which is the same bus that goes to Southampton and back to Heathrow. The bus to return to Heathrow ( which is the bus from Southampton) never showed up. The locals in Winchester said they have heard a lot of complaints about National Express. We have used National Express in the past and had no issue, but I would suggest a back up plan. I think you can check their fares on their website.

We were 2 of approximately 300 people unceremoniously disembarked in Southampton after the TA and before Norway. See the May 26 roll calls for more details. Although Princess gave me a Certificate of Recovery, saying I was no longer infectious, I was still disembarked, after being in quarantine for 5 days with no fever and no symptoms. IMHO, there were so many that tested positive, I understand Princess deciding to cleanse the ship. However the hotel they assigned us to was not acceptable.

@Cuedon Any updates on your cruise? Sounded pretty awful from your post on Monday.

@crimlarksThank you for laundry room info!

Will be on the TA and wondering about the laundry room. It’s been awhile since I used the laundry room….What is the charge to use washers and dryer? Can you charge the fee to your stateroom? Are there soap dispensers?

@laurieal So glad to see you got your little pink buddy! i think that is a picture of my friend in the Rising Tide Bar!