MJSailors

@harryfat1 I have enjoyed reading your posts and looking at your photos of NYC. You certainly covered a lot of ground during your visit. Your planning for the trip certainly paid off. As a NYC native-actually from Forest Hills, Queens- I appreciated the photos that showed the City in a good way. I now live on Eastern LI, but my husband and I have made many frequent trips to the City over the years. We stopped going in because of Covid and then reports that the City was no longer in the state that we previously knew. My question for you is, did you encounter homeless living in the streets and did you ever feel unsafe in any area when you traveled about at different hours of the day and night? I am asking this because we would like to return to the City , but we are cautious based on reports both from the media and friends who have had to make trips into the City recently. Thank you for your very interesting review and an answer to my question. Wishing you and your family good days! MJ

@DaniDanielle My heart goes out to your granddaughter. Hoping the Drs can give her treatment to relieve her symptoms and that she will start feeling better very soon. MJj🙋🏻‍♀️

Maybe your grandkids have a good idea. Next time, enjoy a 7 day cruise with them and skip Disneyworld. Certainly more relaxing for all. Has your California grandson been to Disneyland ? Not sure if that park is easier to navigate or if the dining and rides reservation system applies to Disneyland also. With all your effort to plan the Disneyworld visit,I hope you all enjoy your time there. Looking forward to your posts and photos of your time at Mickeyland! MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

My DH and I were talking about our honeymoon trip to Bermuda in 1983 this morning. We enjoyed that visit so much, we vacationed there 13 times with our last visit on a Celebrity cruise in June of 2023 for our 40th anniversary. We took cruises to Bermuda and also had resort stays at the Elbow Beach hotel and the Southampton Princess-the big pink hotel up on the hill. We felt that Bermuda was our secind home. We also used busses and the ferries to get around the islands that make up Bermuda and agree with others posting here that it is a great way to see the various neighborhoods, sites and water views. At the Dockyard, there are usually a line of cabs available to take you to destinations or to offer sightseeing tours. We have always found the cab drivers to be professional and friendly with clean, comfortable cabs-usually van type vehicles. Over the past 40 years, we have noticed changes-some hotels , shops and restaurants that were there when we first visited are gone or have changed ownership/management. We always enjoyed shopping in Hamilton at Trimingham’s store and having tea and scones in their upstairs cafe. We purchased some fine linens at the Irish Linen Shop and some decorative housewares at Bluck’s. All those stores are gone now, replaced with financial companies. What hasn’t changed are the beautiful beaches, turquoise water and stunning views. MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@DaniDanielle and @Ozark_Kid Sending both of your girls some get better wishes. No fun being sick especially in the Summer. Blowing bubbles and pinwheels are a great therapy idea-just fun things to do especially when you are a two year old. MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

That’s a LOT of ducks! They will bé busy. Are they collecting other ducks too? MJ

Good wishes to all who post on Dani’s thread. @dani negreanu I have been watching some news reports and have no words for what is going on in your area of the world. Sending prayers that you and your loved ones are kept out of harm’s way and hoping for better days and clearer heads for the leaders involved. @h20skibumWishing you and your family Bon Voyage! Enjoy your time with your loved ones-very special for you and your DW! @HBE4 Bon Voyage! Hoping that you enjoy the cruise and being with friends. Cheers!! @lenquixote66Hoping the pain subsides and the continuing dental work is easier for you. I am a firm believer in ice cream and milkshakes while recovering from dental procedures. Well, I am a firm believer in ice cream anytime! MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@harryfat1 Interesting review and great photos. As a native NYC person, I appreciate all the photos of the various sites and neighborhoods. NYC is comprised of many neighborhoods linked together. Each neighborhood has its’own features and idiosyncrasies as detailed in your photos. If you find yourself in Little Italy again, try Ferrara’s. Their pastries and cookies are delicious. IMO- the Napoleons are perfection ! They also serve cappuccinos and espresso. MJ👩🏻

Wishing all who post here good days. @lenquixote66 I have been reading your posts about what has affected your family lately. Good news about your daughter’s recovery. I hope the dental procedure goes well for you tomorrow. Take care MJ👩🏻

Plenty of clearance! Last June, the captain took the Summit past the buildings of the Wall Street area and the new building at the site of the former World Trade Center, then went past-very closely to -the Statue of Liberty before going out under the Verrazano Bridge. Certainly a treat for passengers out of the NYC metro area, but a pleasure for NYC people also. MJ

I thought it was a Carnival and RCL thing-not Celebrity. MJ

Asking for a friend, truly. We just spoke with a friend who took his partner, his nephew’s family and niece’s family on the Magnifica last week. Now at home, his nephew and son, his niece , his partner and he are dealing with Covid. Apparently, some symptoms were evident the last few days of the cruise. He is asking if other passengers on the ship have returned home with a souvenir of Covid. MJ

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Lenny-Sad news about your Granddog. Our pets are part of our families and we always want the best for them. Hoping the outcome is better than expected. MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@Sea Dog I did see the photos and was going to leave a comment saying that I was glad for you that you had such an experience. It is a happening that you will remember for a very long time. MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

Not the “fault” of NCL, naturally. Just something that did not cause a pleasant experience.for us. My insight-NCL cruises are not appealing to us. However, others are loyalists to the line. As I have previously posted YMMV. MJ

@RWK1952 The Breakaway was a new ship when we were on it. Maybe it has improved since then, maybe it hasn’t aged well. Let’s leave it at this-my DH and I were not impressed at all with the ship or NCL in general. As I noted in my previous post, YMMV. MJ

@RWK1952 Well, since you asked. A little background. Before the first cruise on the Breakaway, we had sailed on numerous cruises on Princess,a few on Celebrity and one on Cunard and enjoyed them all. A friend recommended the Breakaway cruise-NYC to Bermuda. This was about ten years ago when the Breakaway was relatively new. On that cruise, we found that the Atrium was always crowded with difficulty finding seats there for activities. It was also smokey given smoke that emanated from the casino onto decks6,7,8 midship. Very unpleasant. Service at Cagney’s was not competent compared to the Crown Grill on Princess or Moderno on Celebrity. Side dishes were brought out many minutes after the steaks were served. Waitress seemed inattentive at best. We exercise on cruises , mostly on walking deck/promenade decks. The walking deck on the. Breakaway was ridiculous. It went past the rock wall, an entrance to an open air restaurant and in front of lounge chairs. After several morning walks interrupted by people exiting the restaurant, placing loungers in the way of the path and inconsiderate people stopping on the track-not walkers-to take photos, we gave up and walked on the Waterfront instead, but that wasn’t ideal either. We did book the 2nd cruise on the Breakaway basically because we wanted to get to Bermuda. We knew about service and public accommodations on the ship, but we wanted a fairly inexpensive vacation without airplane flights, so we thought how bad could it be? The cruise was two years after the first one. We realized the Breakaway was not for us, but we made the best of it. It started when we entered the cabin for the first time and were met by a stale odor, like filthy gym socks, in the cabin. Shortly after, the steward appeared and I mentioned the odor. He took care of it with some Febreze spray and apologies. I noticed that he used the spray after every freshening of the room for the rest of the cruise. We found the demographics on the cruise to be interesting. There were many passengers onboard , obviously from a culture that does not recognize people’s places in line as they barge into a line without regard for others or their personal space. We observed this at the buffet and in the elevators. While we were having lunch, there was a group of young ladies, not of the mentioned cultural group, nearby having a loud conversation interspersed with F bombs. Not a pleasant way to spend an embarkation lunch. Service in Taste and Savor was spotty for most dinners. We chose to avoid Cagney’s. The French restaurant provided the most enjoyable dinner. The most disappointing aspect of this cruise was observing how staff was treated by their supervisors. The first incident involved a server in the buffet being reamed out by a supervisor in front of passengers at various tables in the buffet. The supervisor was loud and dismissive to the young server who tried to explain her position. The supervisor’s rant ended by the supervisor telling the server to see her in her office after her shift. I felt so badly for the young server who fought to compose herself as she went about her job clearing the tables. The second incident involved a cleaner near one of the stairwells. He was spoken to harshly by a supervisor well within earshot of passengers using the stairs. The cleaner listened to the supervisor and valiantly went back to work when the supervisor left him to finish his job. In both cases, if a staff person was not doing their job correctly or if there was something that needed to be addressed to the staff person, the supervisor should have taken that person aside, away from passengers and used a respectful tone of voice while addressing the staff person. i have held supervisory positions in my career and worked with many staff members. I would never have spoken so harshly to those two individuals as they were spoken to on the ship. One day, my DH was wearing a Princess t shirt. We were approached by an officer who asked us questions about our cruise experiences with Princess and how they compared to NCL. We offered fair assessments of both lines and he was appreciative of our input. Since our two experiences on the Breakaway, we have chosen not to sail with NCL again. Covid did put a crimp in our cruising days, but we did take a Celebrity cruise to Bermuda last year and enjoyed it. As to sailing on Breakaway or with NCL,YMMV. MJ

My DH and I sailed in the Breakaway twice out of NYC to Bermuda , preCovid. All I can say about our cruise experience is.. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Just sayin’. MJ

@TravelGirlinDallas Bon Voyage, Bethany! Will you be posting about the cruise here or on the Celebrity board? Certainly would like to hear about your experience on Beyond! MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@Coralc Sending you healing wishes! MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@Sea Dog I offer you two words- Hire someone MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@h20skibum You have a good location. We haven’t been to Myrtle Beach. Might consider it in the Fall when temps and crowds get a bit lower. Homeward Suites is a Hilton brand property, so may be a good way to use our HH points. MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

@h20skibum Looks like a very good beach vacation! Your grandchildren are fortunate for sure. Is the beach attached to the hotel or is it a public beach? It looks very convenient to where you are staying. Enjoy the rest of your stay.😎 MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

Over the July 4th holiday, my DH and I attended the wake and funeral of a dear friend. She and her husband were dedicated Royal Caribbean cruisers since their first cruise in 1997. At her wake, there were many photos displayed of them enjoying the cruises, usually with a group of close friends. At the funeral Mass, the priest noted in his eulogy , her love of travel and cruising and her enjoyment of doing Karaoke on the various ships. Our friend was full of life-she enjoyed her time spent with her family and friends, encouraging all of us to celebrate small moments and big events. Unfortunately, she developed pulmonary fibrosis which led to her having a lung transplant almost two years ago. As with everything in her life, she took on the surgery and recuperation with courage and hope. She and her DH took a cruise this past April. She did say that some of their activities were scaled down from their usual cruise days, but she enjoyed the time on the ship. I think it was the Anthem of the Seas out of Bayonne. She and her DH booked another cruise for2025 while in the ship. A few weeks later, she was hospitalized with pneumonia and left us at the end of May. She left us all with the inspiration to never give up,always have hope and courageously face challenges. Her lively spirit and love of life touched us all. She will be greatly missed, but we know that her pain has been relieved and she is at peace. MJ🙋🏻‍♀️