lexmiller

Alejandro is currently on the Apex. We were with him on the Millennium in June, then he had a short break, and is on the Apex now.

For you guys, no news is definitely good news! We never got any word when we were on the Equinox - we thought, well, if we were positive, they'd find us! 😜 And unfortunately you know from personal experience, that yup, they will find you! But I am very interested to hear the numbers.....on a personal basis, we have a B5B in Australia/NZ/SoPacific/Hawaii/Vancouver next spring on the Eclipse. I think you are doing something similar in the fall. Anywho, I am super concerned about B2B testing - I KNOW, it's a long way off, things change, blah blah. But if B2B testing is still going on when final payment is due, we may postpone (again! this is a failed 2020 and 2021 cruise adventure). I am just not comfortable with the B2B testing when it is SO easy to catch this virus and yet be asymptomatic!

OK, I've got to chime in here regarding non-fiction for the Canada/New England cruise - THE GREAT HALIFAX EXPLOSION, by John U. Bacon. Excellent, details the explosion in Halifax Harbor of December, 1917, the largest man made explosion before the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Will be very interested to hear the results of the B2B testing.......hopefully your Retreat concierge will give you the whole scoop, as to the actual numbers on board.

If that was only 3 weeks ago, I'd say that shore ex provider was following old rules, or doing a better safe than sorry, not wanting to lose a solid contract. But for sure, contact tracing is no longer being done.

Thanks! We definitely will be traveling with our Binax Emed tests, have tests will travel......but my thought was if X would pay for us to test, then we could save our tests and bring our tests back home with us and save them for the next cruise (being mindful of expiration dates, of course).

Sorry about this. But if the worst were to happen, since this is such a virulent variant, your CORs hopefully will be your 'get out of jail free' cards.

Right, gotya, and I always assumed this, until I read the above post by @wrk2cruise, who wrote: We were on Reflection in March disembarked on Saturday and joined Constellation on Monday (different port) and they tested us no problem onboard Reflection on day of disembarkation.

Well, what do we call it then? It's pretty close, off the Beyond on a Friday, on the Infinity on Saturday. Is a "true" side to side on and off on the same day? I want to get the terminology correct! 😋

We are doing a Celebrity side to side in October in Fort Lauderdale, getting off the Beyond then the next day, boarding the Infinity - so it's good to hear that in March, you were tested on the Reflection before boarding the Connie. I understand of course, that this may not be allowed for us in October, but your experience is a good precedent for us. Let me ask you this - did the folks on the Reflection print out your results for you so that you could give them to the Connie at boarding, or how exactly did that work? Thank you!

A cappuccino with 3 shots of espresso. I always get a double (2 shots of espresso) so I am a bit in awe of 3 shots! Not sure I could handle that! 😜

Great move on the part of Australia and NZ, especially since they were so hard lined with their covid travel restrictions. Wondering - has anyone seen anything yet about back to back testing, any changes announced as of yet? That also need to stop......

AGREE!! 100%

Offhand, I know that for a fact that Viking Ocean has dropped all testing. My friend boarded yesterday in Stockholm and boy was she THRILLED not to have to test!

I wonder, when pre-cruise testing is dropped (as it has been dropped for cruises 5 nights or less), what if a guest self-reports……will X still give cash refunds to that passenger, even though testing is no longer required to board? And what if a passenger decides to take a pre-cruise test anyway, even though not required by the line - and they are positive for covid? Will X still be required to give a refund, I wonder, under the new rules - whatever the rules may actually be. Will that passenger still need to quarantine, where they are not allowed to leave the room, they have no Seapass card, not allowed any movement around the ship? I bet the legal department is working on all of this…… I don’t know what the policy is for instance if a passenger, pre-covid, went to medical and had some virus such as noro or flu - I can’t imagine a cash refund was issued or if the person was locked down in strict quarantine vs on your honor quarantine, no Seapass card, etc, but I don’t actually know. I think the cruise lines are working on a policy to transition covid to the category of other viruses, as far as how it’s handled regarding refunds/no refunds and quarantine……..will be interesting to see what happens.

I LOVE the Aqua Spa Cafe for lunch - their salmon salad is fantastic! I usually get the salmon salad, the quinoa salad and the fruit, and pretty much put it all together on one plate - yummy! OH, and their oatmeal apple cookies, so good!

Thank you for the link - gosh, I have never followed GenX, I sure will now, what a great writer! She didn't actually eat at the Chef's Table dinner - she did have dinner in Tuscan the first night of the cruise and gives a great review of her dinner - but she does make this comment about the Chef's Table being held at the same time as she was dining, as her service was slow: Service was a little slow, but the staff seemed to be doing the best they could and were very friendly and apologetic about wait times. I think the issue was that the Chef’s Table event was also being held in the back of the restaurant. From the looks of the plates and wine going out for that, it has to tie up quite a bit of the resources for the Tuscan kitchen crew and sommeliers. @KteacherI thank you very much for all of your help on this!

Thank you! OK, so now, I'm probably really starting to annoy you now, but not sure how I can find that review that Gen X wrote, I'm searching around........THANK YOU in advance if you have any patience left for me, and if not, thank you nonetheless!!

We will be in Halifax on the Summit in early September - on Jim and Lain’s 3rd leg of their B3B. It will be our second time in your fair city, and this time we want to do a deep dive into the history of the explosion of 1917. We are from Boston, so the historical ties we have with Halifax are so interesting! We appreciate the Christmas tree you send us every year! We read “The Great Halifax Explosion” by John Bacon - fascinating and informative - also, very surprising how people don’t really talk about it much anymore - seems the Titanic history of Halifax is much more well known than the largest man made explosion until the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 2000 lives lost, all of the Richmond area in Halifax obliterated! We are going to do an audio GPS guided cell phone walking tour of the history of the explosion when we are in Halifax, available through Viator. Any tips or insider recommendations are welcome! Again, thank you so much for the Christmas tree - Boston appreciates it!

OHHHHH, ok, that's exactly what is happening for us.......may I ask you another question, since your experience seems to be identical, same ship, us only 1 month after you - do you remember, on the first night of the cruise, were there two evening shows in the theater? Sometimes on the first night, some ships, certain circumstances, there is only 1 show.......but usually, there are two - one at 7pm, one at 9pm. I personally never want to miss the first night of the cruise in the theater - get to meet the cruise director, etc, really sets the tone for me. So with the Chef's Table being the first night, at 7pm, I hope there is a 9pm show - do you recall? OR, perhaps more pertinently, is the dinner longer than two hours - so that even if there is a 9pm show, the dinner might still be going on.......thank you for your input!

QUESTION ABOUT THE SCHEDULING OF THE DINNER: We have booked the "Chef’s Table by Daniel Boulud” dinner on our upcoming August 31 Canadian/NE cruise on the Summit. The X website states, "Your restaurant location and dining time will be confirmed in your stateroom on embarkation day”. I have read that on your “My Calendar” after you reserve the dinner, that the dinner shows up on your personal schedule for a random time as a placeholder until the dinner is officially scheduled. In our case, in our “My Calendar”, it shows up as noon on embarkation day - which is fine, as we know it’s a placeholder. HOWEVER, when we go into the Daily Planner for the cruise on the app, the schedule that everyone sees, the “Chef’s Table by Daniel Boulud” dinner shows up for 7pm on embarkation day in Tuscan. We aren’t sure now if this is accurate, based upon all that we’ve read and what in fact the X booking site states - we thought the dinner happened later in the cruise. We don’t want to have the Chef’s Table dinner the first night. But with it showing up on the Daily Planner, looking all official timing wise, we are thinking that if it is actually the first night, then we will cancel. Anyone with insights on the scheduling, would appreciate your input, thank you!

I know you're kidding, but we have very often been the second in line! We usually get there early (10:30), can't wait to get on board. Retreat class, yes, they have their own waiting area, etc, but everyone else, you just show up.

We are Elite Plus - not in a suite so far this year for those cruises. Trust me - the assigned boarding times meant NOTHING - never checked, status is irrelevant.