floridaag

I heard a rumor that Handre is moving to corporate

13 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

 

 

Opinions on CD's are, like food, subjective and based on personal experience.  That said our personal favorites would be (and unfortunately the best are no longer on Seabourn) in order: David E. (NO QUESTION HE IS #1 IN OUR BOOK, for many reasons going back to our first cruise on the Legend); Heather Clancy (who took some time to warm up to but once she did was a lot of fun to be around); Nick Hale - who got a bad deal based on innuendo that was not true; Handre - it took 3 cruises to really get to know him but we really connected the last time;  Jan;  and Ross Roberts.

 

 

I also really like Heather.  Unfortunately on Viking now.

Handre is by far the best cruise director I have ever cruised with.  Makes every passenger feel special and just does a tremendous job.  I also adore Sophie from back when she was an Ass't CD

2 minutes ago, OceanBlueWaters said:

I asked him about seeing the "shows".  Sid/Wilson never goes to the Shows, but was hoping I could get him to deviate this time. I thought it would be hilarious to get his uncensored review of Kinky Boots. No luck in my nudging. LOL!  I am sure there will be more reviews to come for Kinky Boots without torturing Sid/Wilson on this run. LOL! 🙂

 

I saw both shows on the inaugural - they were both excellent in my opinion.

Enjoyed a beer on the stage with the cast of Choir of Men before the show

1 hour ago, CoralHunter said:

 

Anyone on board should have the bartender on the right (I forgot his name) pour them a glass of wine - it is quite a show

48 minutes ago, whogo said:

Are you suggesting that there were no demonstrations or injuries in response to the sentencing of Catalan separatist leaders in October? Was that all made up by the media? The photographs looked so real.

Not the original poster but my answer is no - the protests were real.  There was vandalism and there were trash cans lit on fire etc.   But the protests largely did not interfere (in a direct way) with most tourist activities - and during my 4 days there (October 20-23) - we did not have any direct impacts at all on our visit.

We just returned off the Ovation which embarked in BCN and had no problems at all.  We were there in the middle of the protest activities, right after the end of the first wave.  Other than the graffiti and a few broken store windows, Barcelona was fine - with an increased police/security presence.  The port itself was also fine.  No issues at all.

Safe travels - with the exception of our first day, I hope the seas and conditions are similar to the way they were on our October crossing

12 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

If you can afford to take a cruise on Sea Dream, then you can afford to take a taxi to the Baths and a taxi back. Even if you don't mind the walk from Spanish Town (and you'll have a long walk down to the Baths when you get there, and then back up to the road when you're done),  this isn't a road with sidewalks, and the traffic will be close and fast next to you. Leverick Bay to the Baths is definitely not walkable, and is a much longer taxi ride.

Not sure why you suggest this had anything to do with expense - we wanted to walk. 

Peter Rosetti - the piano player/singer on the ship plays in a number of venues during the day - often in Cafe Bacio in the evenings

He is a nice guy and good piano player

5 minutes ago, TrapperZimmy said:

You may be suggesting that this was a result of his having lived in Chicago.  The tipoff that he really didn't was your statement that he spoke perfect English.  😀

Hah, should just said lived in the US

20 hours ago, Skysurfr said:

Finally on our taxi ride in an old russian car, we got a real taste of Cuba. We got into a horse drawn cart traffic jam. In one town along the way the horse carts easily outnumbered the cars. The taxi ride was as interesting as any tour. The driver graciously accepted our agreed price and was appreciative of a tip. I was so used to having Taxi arguments and scams  in other countries, it was pleasure to ride with an honest driver. 

 

🙂

 

Sorry for the drift, but my favorite taxi episode was in Buenos Aires over 10 years ago I think.  My wife and I had taken probably 15 taxis over the course of 5 days - all in Spanish without incident.  Our final taxi driver, who had lived in Chicago and spoke perfect English tried to rip us off leading to a huge fight - us exiting, him threatening to call the police and us inviting him to do so.

Glad you hit Fusterlandia - that is amazing place

SD's WIFI is the worst I have every encountered at sea.  First, most ships I have been on do not limit you to one device per package - only that 1 device can be logged on at once.  On SD, if you want to use 2 devices, phone/tablet/laptop, you would need to pay twice.  Really bad.

Even worse at least on our cruise, access to an exchange server/outlook was barred.  It was simply impossible to access my work VPN or even just cloud emails through Outlook web-mail.   From my dealings with staff, it did not seem to be the first time it was a major problem for a guest.  

I did not have major speed issues as noted above, but had to have my office re-route all my mail to a personal email account -

Other than the device issue, for personal use, I think it works fine though

It is not always the same, sometimes it docks at Pier B (at the Margaritaville /formerly Westin) or at the Outer Mole (on the Navy Base) - Depends on what ships are in Port, who gets there first etc.  We docked at the Outer Mole in December - really is no big deal - they have a million shuttles and they run constantly.  Adds 10 minutes or so and you get a mini-tour 

On a different line, the same thing took place.  WIFI on board was available.  No service while ashore.

You will not be able to get WIFI from Key West.

Getting to the Baths in VG is easy.  There are plenty of taxis that can take you.  We ended up walking - granted it was a very long hot walk

We just did AQ on 11 on the Infinity and there was absolutely zero noise from above.  As others noted, it is not the pool deck but the basketball court and rooftop/movie screen . Very convenient location - we liked it a lot for our first non-suite cruise

Personally, to me BLU is a far better experience than the MDR - so I agree with others that whether or not you want to eat in BLU largely determines this.

21 hours ago, nednrom said:

 

We've been to Key West a few times, I've yet to see a sunset as beautiful as the ones in Key West.  The Western Union Schooner is a 70 year old authentic historical registered sailboat and was being painstakingly repaired last time we were there.  Did you notice if it was operational now? My husband and I had our first sunset sailing on her so Key West is sentimental for us.  It has changed throughout the years, Sunset pier has been ruined since they are building hotels around it, you just need to get out of the touristy areas.

 

 

It is not - plenty of the island is far less touristy but I can certainly see why anyone who sticks to Duval Street and especially Lower Duval (the area near Mallory Square) would not fall in love with our island.  There is a large contingency of P-Town people who visit and live here

13 minutes ago, jt1120 said:

What terminal does the ship leave from? Did they have a Chef's Table dinner? Is the Qsine the old version or did they update it with Le Petit Chef?

Pretty sure were were at 19 a couple weeks ago.  QSine has been changed to LPC

These stories are great.  Thank for you sharing

11 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

No one can just wander into the suite area but as in any card controlled area there is the possibility that someone could follow in after someone who does have access. Also some guests like Zenith and high Blue Chip tiers are supposed to have access to the Retreat Lounge but not the sundeck. Once you are in the lounge you have unrestricted access to the sundeck. I don’t know definitively why she was checking room numbers. Perhaps it was more of a capacity monitoring situation to measure how busy they were and she didn’t want to double count people? Not really sure. And not sure what you mean by window locking. All suites on Edge have full balconies. The infinite verandas if that is what you are referring to are in non-Suite cabins.

 

We have 2 cruises booked on MSC for next year and are very interested in seeing how they are. We have talked to several people on this cruise who have done MSC and stayed in Yacht Club and still said they preferred Celebrity by far which actually has us a bit nervous. They said food and service are nowhere near what Celebrity offers. Those are important to me. You can have all the awesome spaces in the world but if your service and food fall flat then what’s the point?

 

But anyway, back to my cruise...

Agree with those - unless you are into Cocaine (several crew drug trafficking busts)- other than being cheaper MSC offers nothing IMO

Prefer all S class ships to Reflection personally.  But a longer cruise is better

Think I posted in the other thread, we had a nice time at LPC - food was good, service was good, show was entertaining but unless we are traveling with someone who has not done it, would not do it again