Jim_Iain Live!!! - B2B Summit New England and Bermuda Jun 5 & 16th

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Thanks for pics of the walkway to /from the ship...We last cruised out of Bayonne when we had to take small shuttle busses from the  terminal to the  ship to board.

 

This looks like a much better  arrangement, but a decent length walk. With so many walk off guests..,it hardly pays to sign up for that even though we will be driving to the port.

 

Our cruise is 9 nights...we'll pack light but  will still have 2  medium wheelies, plus 2 small  carryons  . May as well take our chances with them taking our luggage and not rushing home!

 

Disembarkation was really quick once we got started.   I noticed while we were being processed that they were using facial recognition to clear passengers departing.   Step up to a white line and within 20 seconds they would get a green light.   

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

Very interesting..wonder what was there before or was it always there!

I believe it was where Park West’s office was.   They moved them to the photo gallery. Still the same ‘ol crap. 

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, bhughey said:

Quick question... is Qsine now Le Petit Chef, or is the Le Petit Chef "dinner theater" only on certain nights?

 

So far Qsine only.  Have not heard of any plans for Petite Chef.  

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, papadave said:

Thanks for sending the game room photo.  In the photo, I only see one table appropriate for game playing, as the other tables appear to be at knee height if using the chairs in the room.  Is there more than one table suitable for cards and other games?

 

Ill try for a better picture.   I honestly don't remember how many large tables.  

Edited June 16, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Lecture sounds great but  I would hope he does or did something for all in the theater...unless he was a cruise guest.

Yes Jim Kennedy was one of the Beyond the Podium speakers.   He have almost daily presentations in the theater.   Very well intended.    The 45 minute presentation in The Retreat was just a special more intimate talk.    He is very engaging and he and his wife are very approachable.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Good choice to make a game room and re-purpose the photo area...not fans of Park West but guess there is a contract.  Does this mean the photos are all digital now on kiosks or in room tv? It was very impressive on EDGE...

 

They moved them to the photo area just outside the retreat.    So far it is a combination.   They still put photos up on the board but you can access them from Kiosks using your room number.    Currently the TV's are pretty a step back in time.   Although they say you can do many things, you can't order room service or book tours on your TV nor to my knowledge view your photos.  

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Luv2Crus40 said:

Don't see the Summit leaving port yet.  Was she supposed to sail at 4 pm?

 

Never mind, see her moving now.

Just as Safety Drill ended there was a Star Code Star Code to Casino.    Someone I spoke to said their was a man flat on his back in the casino.   We were on helipad and saw 3 ambulances arrive.   Departure was delayed.  

 

Maybe you saw but we had a Police Helicopter shadow us after we went under the bridge.    He was stay very close to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Minya said:

Hi

Im on deck two (2166) later this year Have you been along this deck? I am hoping its still a quiet area and the rooms are not too dark. I know they have  large round windows but fairly near the water line. I am wondering just how much view people get from  those windows. I was on deck three but changed it due to noise complaints  from reviews. Deck  two though lower seemed quieter.I would be very grateful if you could posisbly ask folk in or around that cabin please.

I hope you will have fun on this cruise.I have yet to read though all the posts on this thread

 

I’ll see what I can find out.   I have walked down the hallway.   Seemed very quiet.   I’ve noticed that on all floors the new carpet and lights make the hallways much brighter.   

[Jim_Iain]

Safety Drill was fairly quick followed by sail away.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tear Drop 911 Monument at Cape Liberty. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Half time is over.   On to 2nd Half of our cruise.  

 

I usually keep a copy of the schedule in my favorite folder.   Bold means Chic Night and arrows indicate time forward >   And Back <.    

 

[Jim_Iain]

The daily Sunday Day 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[Jim_Iain]

Game room.  There is indeed only one tall table in room.  

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Norwegian Escape close by on Port

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[wrk2cruise]

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We had a fun evening and a farewell to all our new friend. Alexandra was in rare form and had us all in hysterics. 

 

Enjoy your second leg.  She had us belly laughing almost every night on the 5/26 cruise.

[Luv2Crus40]

Thanks for info. On our 5/26 cruise we stopped in NY harbor to offload someone.   Many NYFD boats and ambulances waiting on Staten island for them.

Thanks again for all your posts and comments.  Thoroughly enjoying them.  Hope you both have a wonderful cruise. 

[Jim_Iain]

Trish, Karen And George had the opportunity to dine at the Chef’s Table last night. They sent these photos.  We were able to get a booking for the first formal night.  Unfortunately for us The Chef won’t be onboard. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[Von & John]

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Maybe you saw but we had a Police Helicopter shadow us after we went under the bridge.    He was stay very close to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Jim - did you learn why the Police helicopter was "Tailing You"?

Edited June 17, 2019 by Von & John

[Minya]

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I’ll see what I can find out.   I have walked down the hallway.   Seemed very quiet.   I’ve noticed that on all floors the new carpet and lights make the hallways much brighter.   

Thankyou so much good to know that reports saying the hallway was quiet are still accurate hoping you can find out  rooms info in that  vicinity .

I am going to enjoy looking thought your posts super photos and great information well done ! :).

[Minya]

5 hours ago, Von & John said:

 

Jim - did you learn why the Police helicopter was "Tailing You"?

Reminds me of a cruise when we had a coastguard boat following us with a huge machine gun pointed att us why ? Protection at the ready. January 6th, the day of the tragic Fort Lauderdale airport shootings and it was a very quiet subdued very late sailaway after waiting for as many passengers as possible delayed by the shootings. Everyone on our ship was o.k but some boarded later in the cruise. One lady on our thread reported later that  the gunman reloaded his gun behind her, the person next to her was a victim. Had he appeared five minutes or less  later and decided on a coach outside the terminal i might not be writing this post. It was that close. We were the last through before  the terminal route was blocked dropping passengers off to fly home after an excursion at the end of my  first leg of the cruise.It was horrible.

[Member123]

5 hours ago, Minya said:

Thankyou so much good to know that reports saying the hallway was quiet are still accurate hoping you can find out  rooms info in that  vicinity .

I am going to enjoy looking thought your posts super photos and great information well done ! :).

Minya,

I was on the first leg of Jim's cruise. Just by happenstance, I met a lady who had booked a guarantee cabin and ended up on Deck 2. She said that she was very apprehensive but ended up absolutely loving both the stateroom and the location. She said it was one of the quietest cabins that she'd ever sailed in and thoroughly enjoyed just about everything in her cabin, from the window to the view to the quiet to the ability to get absolute darkness for incredible sleep. Very positive comments.

 

[Member123]

Hey guys! It was an absolute pleasure to finally meet you both and put an appropriate face to a name!

 

While the memory is fresh, I thought that I'd talk with you a bit about our disembarkation experience. Let's see: just getting down to the basics we were assigned luggage tag 12 and got to EWR at 9:45am!

 

The process was incredibly simple. When our luggage tag number was called, we easily located our luggage in our assigned area. I noticed that the areas seemed to be relatively small; in other words, there wasn't a huge amount of luggage occupying a large space, but a manageable amount of luggage in a lot of spaces. Frankly, there were only 4 pieces of luggage in our area by the time we arrived and we didn't take our sweet time walking off.

 

When we retrieved our luggage and got into the customs line, that also went rather quickly. No looking at passports. No filling out of customs forms. We simply stood in front of the facial recognition camera, got our green light, and walked out to the transportation area. This area was a zoo! We were immediately bombarded with the Jersey way of doing things, barking orders to get over there, move from there, go there! Insanity. Anyway, if you were going to call an Uber, you were to give them special zones in which to arrive (if I recall they were zones 7, 8, or 9... but don't put that down as fact because it could change and I may not be remembering correctly). You proceeded across the street if you had arranged for shuttle transportation. I have to say that the Uber area was packed!

 

To grab a taxi, you had to walk through the Uber area and walk across the street; you can easily see the Taxi Dispatch sign when you exit the passenger terminal. We were being told that the Uber ride was either $35 or $40 to EWR. We were also told that the taxi cost was $75 plus tolls. We went to the taxi, anyway, as I just didn't want to be in the Uber madness. Crossing the street, we encountered a friendly couple and shared a taxi with them, effectively paying the same cost as an Uber. We were presented with two options when we arrived at taxi dispatch: share a shuttle for $20per person or take a taxi for $65 plus tolls. When we arrived at EWR, the taxi driver asked for $69, so the tolls must have been $4. Such an easy solution for transportation to EWR. Plus, our taxi driver was really good and the ride was very pleasant.

 

EWR is what it is.

 

Hope this information is helpful to others.

[Member123]

I also wanted to make mention to you that another CC member stopped by Blu to try to meet you. She arrived on Friday night, as I recall. I hope I get her name right: i believe that it's Easternskygirl. She really wanted to meet you, enjoys your trip reports immensely, and i promised that i'd let you know that she was on board. But, then I didn't get a chance to bump into you again on the trip! So, hopefully, she just comes on here and makes a comment.

 

Anyway.... NOT Chef Michael! Chef Daniel Boulud! OMG. I'm such a huge fan of his. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't get to go to the book signing. Devastated! But, my sweet husband went there and surreptitiously purchased two of his cookbooks for me. Hearing that Chef Boulud was chatting with the patrons and taking pictures made be a bit teary, but i so appreciated my husband's effort. (As an aside, he was really upset when we got home and he saw what TSA did to his luggage. He had wrapped the book very protectively and apparently the scanner wasn't able to see what the huge gray blob was on the screen...so you can imagine the condition of his carefully folded clothes. Plus, they just tossed the book on top of everything once they'd uncovered it. Still arrived in perfect condition! yeah!).....

 

Lots of changes are in store for the food with Celebrity, in all venues. It will be interesting to see how the restaurants and chefs onboard respond to Chef Boulud's suggestions......

[LA_CA_GAL]

13 hours ago, Von & John said:

 

Jim - did you learn why the Police helicopter was "Tailing You"?

We have cruised Summit twice to Bermuda, and both times, NYPD helicopter was following us both times.

 

I just assume it is something routine.

[Jim_Iain]

13 hours ago, Von & John said:

 

Jim - did you learn why the Police helicopter was "Tailing You"?

 

The staff said it was just part of Homeland Security assuring the safety of the ship.  Surprised me as someone was flying a drone near the ship in Tear Drop Park. 

[Jim_Iain]

8 minutes ago, LA_CA_GAL said:

We have cruised Summit twice to Bermuda, and both times, NYPD helicopter was following us both times.

 

I just assume it is something routine.

 

Good to hear.  I didn’t notice last week.   Maybe on other side of ship.