willoL

@kazu and @cruisepro19, my condolences to each of you on your loss. It's kind to share what you've learned about such a difficult situation to help others. When my mother passed away in 2019, I had to suddenly cancel a European (land) trip consisting of so many vendors. I was almost shocked by how much assistance various operators gave me, and the waiver of policies about fees. I know I spent some money on "nothing" (but the pleasure of planning that trip I couldn't take) as Mom entered hospice and slipped away within a few days... but it was much less than official policies might have suggested. I hope you ( @cruisepro19 ) and your mother have a wonderful trip together. Enjoy every moment together.

I will look for your post @atexsix. I find it so helpful when people describe specifics about access. My own limitations are minor (thank God) and sometimes variable (autoimmune disease that flares and remits), but there are details I've learned really make my life easier. Thanks for posting. 🙂

I discussed this with my regular doctor, and he is willing to write an approval letter for each member of my family if we schedule a tele-medicine appointment (which could be via Zoom or FaceTime or any video "call" system) and he observes my family self-administering any of the approved at-home COVID tests. Anyone can ask if their usual doctor would do this. I suspect it's easier to get a yes from small, physician owned practices, however. (My doctor uses the direct primary care model, so we pay him directly for a membership, never using our insurance for office visits with him.)

@Btimmer I'm so sorry to hear you caught COVID, but glad the symptoms are mild. Take good care of yourselves. Are you considering taking the antiviral medication as a prophylaxis? (A friend of ours was very glad she did when she caught COVID for the second time.) Also, I'd want to get a letter of recovery from a doctor since I think that sometimes eases paperwork burdens on upcoming trips. I appreciated your review of the Quantum of the Seas, though I had no guess which cruise line runs that vessel until you mentioned "Royal has an app" in the internet section. 🙂 Since I'm pretty open to trying any ship sailing at the time/place I want to go, but I'm also very curious about the "feel" of the different lines according to those who've tried them all, I love comparisons like this.

I'm another first timer, booked for Irish & Icelandic Saga in August '24 because my son & I loved that itinerary, but it is a practice run to see if O might appeal to my picky husband who also loved Crystal. It's so hard to get DH to take a vacation, I often travel on my own or with my kids from when they were little to their current young adulthood. (Used to go with my mom before her passing.) 67 countries is pretty impressive, @anonymousegirl! I keep getting drawn back to Arctic waters. I've yet to cruise without stopping in Canada. 😁 I dream of a Northwest Passage itinerary.

Seattle has dreadful traffic as another poster mentioned, plus the airport is pretty far out of town. (The airport is in Seatac, between cities of Seattle and Tacoma, ~17 miles from the cruise ship terminal.) I'm speaking as a former resident and annual visitor to family there; I haven't cruised from Seattle.

Since it seems your intent was to insult me and my parenting, I'll add that my younger child is a flashy dresser by choice who begged for a velvet smoking jacket and his first tuxedo around age 8. 🤷‍♀️ He enjoys dressing up; he likes the positive attention he gets from adults when he wears a suit. The kid collects hats as well as silk bow ties. He's a little sad that he's almost a full grown young man now and his child-sized ties are nearly too small for his maturing face and body. How is children's clothing not appropriate for a child when it fits well and they feel comfortable? You'll notice my specific suggestion to the OP was for more typical trousers her child might use daily after this one trip. There's a reason my younger kid had fancier outfits compared with his more sartorially typical sibling from that first cruise until today. I respect their personalities while also respecting policies such as dress codes and asking that my kids only attend events where they are willing to meet expectations. My eldest prefers a navy knit blazer that looks as sharp as old-fashioned suiting while feeling as comfortable as a sweatshirt. Hurrah for modern fabrics and innovative design! I'm not putting toddlers in corsets as insane upper class Europeans did during the middle ages. Teaching children that certain occasions require specific types of clothing strikes me as part of the most basic job of parenting. I'm sure the OP will find a wonderful option for her child that is easy to pack and travel with that suits her child's needs.

It's worth noting that formal dress for YOUNG boys can include pressed, tailored shorts worn with tall socks, dress shoes, and the appropriate accessories. It's more of an early 20th century thing, sure, but still appropriate in many venues. Imagine the more traditional school uniforms in some former British colonies for a sense of the look. When I took a preschooler on his first cruise, he wore a seersucker suit (jacket and shorts) with a dress shirt, bow tie, and suspenders. It was adorable, and I'd consider a child dressed that way to be much more formally dressed than an adult man in an open collared shirt and khakis. That being said, age six crosses into the category of "school aged" rather than young child, at least IMHO. My early elementary aged child on that same voyage wore long pants, dress shirt, and a tie. (Cruise dress codes were more formal then, but I also generally expect my kids to exceed polite expectations, not just meet them.) Chinos are easy to wear casually as well as to dinner. Brands like Kuhl or REI might have a not-too-technical looking pair of quick dry pants that can pass for something more traditional while packing in almost no space and working for active days as well as dinners. I wrote a blog post on this very topic a few years ago: http://reallywonderfulthings.me/2020/02/27/a-tale-of-3-trousers-lightweight-kids-pants-for-carry-on-family-travel/ The most important note I have is that my well-behaved kids didn't collect nasty looks or ill comments on their first cruise on a line known for attracting seniors. (I was nervous before we sailed!) It's true they aren't particularly rambunctious kids by character, but they found plenty to enjoy on a trip geared toward adults, and were hesitant to cruise with any other line after their first wonderful HAL trip. No worries; they adjusted very easily to cruising with Crystal a few years on! 😄

I don't find the tea strong enough in restaurants or on cruises either, because I do want the extraction possible with water just off the boil (At home in my own kitchen with gadgets, I use 205 F for black tea, not full 212 F boiling temp, but same idea.) On Crystal, I was able to specifically request (of a waiter, or on room service card) for the tea to be added to the pot IN THE KITCHEN with water just off the boil. I did get much better results that way. I think even on HAL room service was usually willing to drop the teabag in the pot when I wrote it in as a request, but that's been awhile. Most restaurant servers respond pretty well to this request, too; if they're friendly, I ask them to pop the mug in the microwave if necessary to get it above "coffee machine water spigot" tepid. Has anyone on Oceania tried requesting this, either in a venue or from room service, for stronger black tea? I'm hoping to take my first O cruise in 2024. 🤞 I don't want a pod coffee maker in my hotel/stateroom, but I would adore a kettle! A strong cup of Yorkshire Gold first thing in the morning is one of the few things that happens better at my home than at even most luxury vacation spots. When we moved into an unusual, kind-of-ostentatiously designed 1980's built home that had a wet bar in the master bedroom, setting up a tea station within steps of my bed was second only to *finally* having more than one bathroom on my list of favorite things about the new house. (Even higher than our ocean view!) 😆

This will make my lactose intolerant teen very happy, too 🙂

Can't help as we sail in August, so after you do, and this is our first cabana rental. (Family "corner" one on Nieuw Statendam.) I hope you'll return and post your experience of the cabana in northern waters, however, since we'll be visiting Canada, Greenland, and Iceland! 🙂 My husband tends to be outdoors even in weather that others would find too brisk, so we expect that he will get more than average use of the space even if it is windy and chilly. (For example, he'll barbecue on our deck all winter in New England as long as snow doesn't activity block his access.) Time will tell whether our teens or I spend much time there with him, however. I do plan to pack a hot water bottle for this purpose. COVID socializing taught me that keeping my feet warm extends my comfortable time outdoors (at 60 F or less) by quite a lot. And I'll pack gloves and a knit hat.🧤

I'm glad it was resurrected as I've been wondering if there would be an orange party on our August voyage, but had only seen pre-pandemic threads on the topic. 🙂 My younger teen loves to dress up, so a new (orange) silk bow tie will be amongst his upcoming birthday gifts if the orange party is even probable. 🧡

I wrote a very long post the other day that disappeared into the ether(net) when I tried to create this topic on the Crystal forum. Sigh! I love to travel, whereas my husband (DH) would rather stay at home. I did convince DH to try a cruise on Crystal for a "major, round-number milestone" birthday of mine, and he enjoyed that trip enough to go again on an Alaska voyage with our kids and me. (He'd always wanted to visit Alaska, but also feared seasickness, to which he remains prone.) We will attempt HAL in August of 2022, because the itinerary was perfect, but DH may never leave our Neptune Suite except to go to our reserved Family Cabana or ashore in Greenland/Iceland. I don't know how DH will handle lines on a mass market cruise line, but I hope the inconvenience isn't sufficient to make him regret 24 days away from home. I'm much more adventurous, and yet… traditional. I adore cruises because they hearken back to the golden age of travel. I love a good promenade deck, a library full of actual books, and at least a few formal nights. Excellent lectures and cultural activities are my happy place. Someday, I hope to circumnavigate the globe, perhaps via container ship. It is for my husband that I seek luxury lines over my own preference for more days at sea at a lower fare. DH, on the other hand, will stay in with room service if even a necktie is required! (He will tolerate wearing a jacket over a turtleneck or sweater.) Fortunately for me, my younger child enjoys dressing up--he asked for a tux for his 8th birthday--and accompanies me to formal nights. For DH, itinerary is everything. I can only coax him away from work (for more than a week) every two or three years at best, so visiting less accessible ports with gorgeous natural scenery close-at-hand is key to his enjoyment. Photography is his hobby, and he's a scientist by (a)vocation. (I expect he'll earn the Nobel Prize one day, though he's too modest to accept this as a given like I do.) DH has been able to work from home throughout the pandemic, so excellent internet connections *could* enable much longer voyages in future. He is required to use his institution's VPN, however, to access sensitive information, which I know is blocked on some ships. WiFi experiences would be helpful to me. DH is very prone to motion sickness, so we have some concerns about smaller ships. Sailing on Crystal Serenity, he was uncomfortable as we crossed the Gulf of Alaska towards Seward. (So was my youngest, also prone to seasickness.) Serenity's tonnage was 68,870 whereas HAL's Nieuw Statendam, upon which we sail in August, will be 99,500 tons, so I'll have another data point then. Historically, I often traveled with my two kids while DH stayed at home, but one is off to university this year, so only one teen is a current factor. Unlike MANY posts in luxury forums, I must emphatically state that my kids *hated* mass market kids’ clubs and are perfectly able to amuse themselves on a high-end ship without water slides. My youngest is history buff, sharing some of my interests. Our children have met nice, well-traveled kids (with international home ports) on our previous voyages and kept in touch, which is great, but no special child-friendly perks are required, though I do see a teen center as a plus. Information about a third bed in a stateroom, however, would be grand. I'm not interested in lines that only cater to people aged 18+ because DH and I prefer the option to bring our teen. He'll be home-schooling this year, so available to travel at any time. From my research, I think Hapag-Lloyd might be our best bet for our best cruise line to try. (My German is imperfect, but practicing it on a voyage would *add* to my enjoyment. I self-study several languages daily for fun.) Regent and Oceania seem next most appealing, though I wonder if Cunard's entertainments would be particularly up my alley, especially when DH stays at home. (The Royal Shakespeare Company is a definite draw.) Azamara and Seabourn are also on the list. I’d be delighted to hear what devotees of these lines have to say about their relative strengths given my wish list and this brief description of our interests. --willoL

Does anyone have experience using the Duolingo app (smartphone or tablet) or website (on a laptop) while on HAL's internet plan at sea? Per my Booking Confirmation, I've got the "Prem Internet Pkg" (included in the Have It All promotion) if that affects the answer. Searching the internet for my question didn't give me an answer, but I'm hoping Cruise Critic includes others who self-study foreign languages with Duolingo. I should have a two+ year streak going by the time I sail in August, so it would be a bummer to lose that. Also, daily practice helps a lot with language skills, though I use other methods, including some that offer downloaded content. Irrelevant, but for the curious, I study German and Spanish practically every day while also dabbling in French, Esperanto, Welsh, Russian, and Hebrew. I am a dilettante who loves the idea of knowing at least a few words in oodles of tongues. 😁 I believe Glossika may be a more powerful digital learning tool, but the game-ification in Duolingo is especially motivating. Thank you! --willo