Jim_Iain Live Blog - Infinity B2B - Carribbean and East Bound TA

[FlorenceItaly]

Beautiful suite.  Thank you for posting.

[Jim_Iain]

Another beautiful.   Temperatures remain moderate at about 72-74 f.   Seas are calm to flat and very little movement is felt. 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Wednesday 4/24 Dailies. 

 

 

[Aralim]

13 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

As you know weather is always unpredictable.    We have done around 12 TA’s.    The southern crossings have always been smooth, often as smooth as a mill pond. The northern crossing have all been rough and cold.  

 

The website with the wave model is really good.   The ships do a good job of diverting around any large storms.  

 

Would your statement about the northern crossings be likely to apply for the August 2020 TA I’ll be doing on Summit from NJ? Hoping that because it’s August and still very early in hurricane season, the waters will be kinder. Also hoping that by swinging so far north to hit Greenland and Iceland, we’ll maybe bypass some of the rougher waters.

[mermee]

Thank you for posting!  Very informative and easy to read!

We are leaving on the Edge Transatlantic April 28th. It will be our first TA.

This is the first time we have not chosen a drink package (  Not sure, we want to drink 16 days in a row). 

Do you know if we can purchase a pro rated drink package later in the cruise and have you seen any Happy Hour Specials?

Thanks for any information!

[DocJohnB]

15 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

When we came down for drinks at 8:00pm Michael’s Club was deserted.  

Except for the mysterious gin/tonic drinker.  A ghost perhaps?😂😂

[DocJohnB]

2 hours ago, Aralim said:

Would your statement about the northern crossings be likely to apply for the August 2020 TA I’ll be doing on Summit from NJ?

While on the whole, the SHOULD be gentler and a bit warmer than later in the year, they can still fall within Jim's quote of, "The northern crossing have all been rough and cold.".

[Von & John]

Jim  --  Enjoying all your posts...

Last fall we did a Transpacific - Vancouver to Tokyo (Yokohama)

We have a cruise booked Chile to San Diego for next Spring

& are hoping to sneak in a Transatlantic this Fall (West Bound)...

We love longer cruises - it makes the long flights / travel time worthwhile...

[greygypsy]

Thanks for posting the pics. Everything working ok?

[CulverCityCruisers]

Have you seen if they have put out any cocktail table between the deck chairs ?  I guess with more loungers the chair hogs won't be as bad.  Maybe that's what they are trying to accomplish.  Going to be hard to have a drink and then get up from your lounger with no place to put it.  The deck will be covered in glassware

[Jim_Iain]

6 hours ago, Aralim said:

 

Would your statement about the northern crossings be likely to apply for the August 2020 TA I’ll be doing on Summit from NJ? Hoping that because it’s August and still very early in hurricane season, the waters will be kinder. Also hoping that by swinging so far north to hit Greenland and Iceland, we’ll maybe bypass some of the rougher waters.

I believe the Northern Crossing always has more of a potential than a southern crossing for heavy seas.   I have heard some on the Northern Crossing that were very smooth.   One thing consistent though is that it is a much colder crossing than the southern crossing.  

 

Watch wave model at the link below and you will get an ideal of how the storms form and move.    In addition to to Hurricanes you get many storms form originate near Newfoundland and Greenland then move toward the British Isles

http://www.stormsurfing.com/cgi/display.cgi?a=natla_height

 

The projection for 30 hours from now will show what I mean  the Yellow to Red are projections of 18-30 inch.   The captains will attempt to avoid these hot spots. 

 

[Jim_Iain]

6 hours ago, mermee said:

Thank you for posting!  Very informative and easy to read!

We are leaving on the Edge Transatlantic April 28th. It will be our first TA.

This is the first time we have not chosen a drink package (  Not sure, we want to drink 16 days in a row). 

Do you know if we can purchase a pro rated drink package later in the cruise and have you seen any Happy Hour Specials?

Thanks for any information!

Sounds like a really nice time for a cruise.  

 

Traditionally they have offered pro rated drink packages up until about the middle of the cruise.   I've not seen anything yet on this cruise.   I don't believe many people purchased drink packages on this cruise as the bars have been relatively quiet.   Last night around 8:00 I would say 50% of the seats at the Martini Bar were open which is rather unusual. 

 

I'll post the notification when/if they publish.  

 

Not sure when you booked but you might check out the price under the new pricing structure none, one, two or all perks.   You might be able to pick up a good deal at a low price.

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, DocJohnB said:

Except for the mysterious gin/tonic drinker.  A ghost perhaps?😂😂

 

Yea... eventually more people showed up ... Even one drinking Sambuca at our table (LOL).   Wim said we had missed the crowd that showed up for the Officers Soiree.

[Jim_Iain]

3 hours ago, Von & John said:

Jim  --  Enjoying all your posts...

Last fall we did a Transpacific - Vancouver to Tokyo (Yokohama)

We have a cruise booked Chile to San Diego for next Spring

& are hoping to sneak in a Transatlantic this Fall (West Bound)...

We love longer cruises - it makes the long flights / travel time worthwhile...

Von & John -  You had to have been on the same TP as us.   We actually started out with an Alaska Cruise Tour to Denali and spent the night in you beautiful town. 

 

We have the Edge booked for October/November for a Greek Cruise followed with the Westbound TA.   You probably have a longer flight than we do as we can usually get a non-stop out of either San Jose of San Francisco.    Hope to meet you some day.

 

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, greygypsy said:

Thanks for posting the pics. Everything working ok?

 

So far everything is working perfectly.   We did have a problem with our bedroom thermostat the first night and couldn't get the temperatures above about 65 F.    The next morning we mentioned to our butler and he had the fix it within hours.   Somehow it blew a fuse that is in the hallway somewhere.

[Jim_Iain]

56 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

Have you seen if they have put out any cocktail table between the deck chairs ?  I guess with more loungers the chair hogs won't be as bad.  Maybe that's what they are trying to accomplish.  Going to be hard to have a drink and then get up from your lounger with no place to put it.  The deck will be covered in glassware

I checked out and there are NO cocktail table adjacent to any of the loungers around the pool and jogging track.      They have installed many more chairs that I have noticed in the past.   They have also turned them around on the jogging track facing the sea or the pool. 

 

I did notice that there are some tables near the big loungers both around the pool, Deck 11 forward and on the Rooftop garden.    I asked and they say they don't have any on board and have requested Miami to provide but don't know yet what will happen. 

 

Most people seem to be placing their drink on the floor next to their lounger.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[Jim_Iain]

Chair hogs seem to be non-existent on this crusise.   Even at 11:30-12:00 there are loungers available around the pool and the loungers around the jogging track are about 90% empty. 

 

Edited April 24, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[Jim_Iain]

Today was another beautiful day with smooth seas.   I got my 4 hours of walking in and then had a light lunch in Luminae.    The official forecast from the Captain this morning was -   Temps 75F (24c), 10 knot winds, and 5 - 7 foot swells.

 

Clocks were set forward for the first time last night, so everyone was up later than normal. 

 

Fitbit has a strange quirk that it will not update the time from an iPhone unless you put in a city as oppose to just adjusting the time.    I put a list together of the time zones I will be using

 

+1  Hamilton, Bermuda

+2  Nuuk, Greenland

+3  Ponta Delgada

+4  Dakar

+5   London, UK

+6   Barcelona, Spain

[Covepointcruiser]

Good luck in Houston.   Our flight to London from there was delayed 5 hours.

A thunderstorm closed the airport right after we touched down.   Everything was stopped and no personnel were allowed outside.    The aircraft we were to take was diverted to New Orleans.   The passengers had been onboard for the flight from London and had to sit in their seats on the ramp in New Orleans.   They were more unhappy than we were.   At least they kept the United Polaris Club open until flights were sorted.   We use to enjoy First Class on United overseas flights, too bad they discontinued First Class.   Now it’s all Polaris but at least the seats lie flat.   We paid for our “business class” seats on our last trip and when we boarded there was no room for our luggage in the overhead.   There are so many folks with priority boarding ahead of business/first class they take all of the overhead space.    Priority bo

[abbydancer2003]

8 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Today was another beautiful day with smooth seas.   I got my 4 hours of walking in and then had a light lunch in Luminae.    The official forecast from the Captain this morning was -   Temps 75F (24c), 10 knot winds, and 5 - 7 foot swells.

 

Clocks were set forward for the first time last night, so everyone was up later than normal. 

 

Fitbit has a strange quirk that it will not update the time from an iPhone unless you put in a city as oppose to just adjusting the time.    I put a list together of the time zones I will be using

 

+1  Hamilton, Bermuda

+2  Nuuk, Greenland

+3  Ponta Delgada

+4  Dakar

+5   London, UK

+6   Barcelona, Spain

I just leave mine on Pacific time and live with odd results, including getting my 10K steps 2 or 3 times a day.

[Covepointcruiser]

We have crossed the North Atlantic in November on the QM2 three times.   All but one crossing were over 70 degrees during the day.    All but two of the crossings taken on Celebrity were calm seas.   Of course, on the QM2, she handles all Seas well so I won’t use her for comparison.   Celebrity often dodges storms or rough waters as her ships don’t handle the seas as well.

[Jim_Iain]

7 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Good luck in Houston.   Our flight to London from there was delayed 5 hours.

A thunderstorm closed the airport right after we touched down.   Everything was stopped and no personnel were allowed outside.    The aircraft we were to take was diverted to New Orleans.   The passengers had been onboard for the flight from London and had to sit in their seats on the ramp in New Orleans.   They were more unhappy than we were.   At least they kept the United Polaris Club open until flights were sorted.   We use to enjoy First Class on United overseas flights, too bad they discontinued First Class.   Now it’s all Polaris but at least the seats lie flat.   We paid for our “business class” seats on our last trip and when we boarded there was no room for our luggage in the overhead.   There are so many folks with priority boarding ahead of business/first class they take all of the overhead space.    Priority bo

 

Wow.  Hope you made it to London.  Houston has been getting hit pretty bad the last couple weeks. 

[Jim_Iain]

4 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

We have crossed the North Atlantic in November on the QM2 three times.   All but one crossing were over 70 degrees during the day.    All but two of the crossings taken on Celebrity were calm seas.   Of course, on the QM2, she handles all Seas well so I won’t use her for comparison.   Celebrity often dodges storms or rough waters as her ships don’t handle the seas as well.

 

Glad to hear your positive experience.  

[Jim_Iain]

New laundry tags.  Prices remained the same.   Instructions for free laundry say write Loyalty or Zenith in the comments block. 

 

 

Oops there here isn’t a comment block anymore.  

 

[Lastdance]

I really appreciated the update to the port area in Malaga; so much improved from prior years!  I do not visit it or Cartagena this time, but those ports are both scheduled for our fall TA, if we make it!

 

Thanks again, Jim, as your information is such a pleasure to read...yes, I am following somewhat in your footsteps, but on Edge...hope to encounter improvements!

 

Your weather from the photos is gorgeous!

Edited April 24, 2019 by Lastdance