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Jim_Iain – East meets West Equinox Caribbean – B2B2B -March 14 to April 4


Jim_Iain
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4 hours ago, effinaround said:

Jim, when do you travel?  With Princess cancelling all cruises until May 11th, I think it is only a matter of hours before RCI group does the same thing.  The travel ban last night pretty much sealed the deal.  The cruise lines just can't run an operation with so many restrictions and the avalanche of changes can completely overwhelm the operation.

 

We fly tomorrow and join the Ship on Saturday so pretty sure our cruise will be a go but we never know. 

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4 hours ago, AnnemarieC76 said:

@Jim_Iain I am so excited to read and to travel virtually with you!! I think it is exactly what many of us need.  We got off Equinox on February 29th and it was an amazing and wonderful ship and cruise, and this wasn't even just because we got engaged on it, lol! 

Celebrity staff was wonderful....we tried Celebrity for the first time in August on the Summit and we were so impressed we booked the Equinox...and loved every second of it! Now I need to wait to book another until our honeymoon...so I will be so excited to read about each of your moments on this amazing ship 🙂 

 

Thanks.   Love your upbeat attitude.     We sailed the first time on Millennium right after 911.    It was another troubling time and the ships and airports were virtually empty.   We fell in love with Celebrity and have never sailed on another line.    We like the product and never found a reason to go elsewhere.

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4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

We fly tomorrow and join the Ship on Saturday so pretty sure our cruise will be a go but we never know. 


Cheers to you! We decided to cancel our b2b in Italy (likely wouldn’t have sailed anyways) and look forward to when we can sail again.

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2 hours ago, BEAV said:

Always enjoy following your live blogs. It’ll be especially interesting this time around. If Celebrity abruptly pulls the plug like Princess, I hope they do so before you fly to Florida tomorrow. 

 

I’ve reserved a front row seat for this show!  

 

Good luck and safe travels. 😉

So far nothing.  Lets hope it stay that way. 

I'm almost packed and we check in with the airlines in 3 hours.

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Looking at your photo, I'm surprised to hear you called your doctor about the "over 70" rule.  Must be clean living, long walks and lots of cruising that keeps you looking so young!

Have a great cruise.

Susan

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25 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

So far nothing.  Lets hope it stay that way. 

I'm almost packed and we check in with the airlines in 3 hours.

I hope you’re right! My anxiety is now going through the roof and I don’t know what to do about tomorrow. I just wish they would confirm that we are still sailing....or not. I spoke to one of the crew today. He said that they have heard nothing about the possibility of not sailing Saturday 

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1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

My understanding is that was a proposal made yesterday and as of now there has been no action on requiring Doctor's notes.    Just in case i messaged my doctor yesterday and he sent me a pdf with declaration that I am in good health and fit to travel.   With this being a B2B2B I wanted to make sure i had in case they implemented.

You are NOT 70!!  No way.

Have a great trip...

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22 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Good News Today ----

Sure enough, while on my walk this morning my wrist vibrated and I saw a notification from Celebrity followed by another vibration that my credit card had just been billed.   Yea... We got upgraded to a RS.   

On a "Free" cruise, no less!

 

When I grow up, I wanna be Jim_iain!

 

Enjoy!

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At last!  Another great Jim_Iain blog!  I look forward to them - they are one of the main reasons I keep checking this board between times when we are sailing (next one is not until Sept now that Princess cancelled what we had booked for April).  

 

Hope you have a wonderful, safe trip.  So many of us will be following along with great interest.

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3 hours ago, lola2013 said:

Looking at your photo, I'm surprised to hear you called your doctor about the "over 70" rule.  Must be clean living, long walks and lots of cruising that keeps you looking so young!

Have a great cruise.

Susan

Yea... keep up the compliments... LOL

Often when I accompany my daughter to the doctors they think I'm her husband. 

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3 hours ago, Purplsmurf said:

I hope you’re right! My anxiety is now going through the roof and I don’t know what to do about tomorrow. I just wish they would confirm that we are still sailing....or not. I spoke to one of the crew today. He said that they have heard nothing about the possibility of not sailing Saturday 

I can't imagine they will cancel the sailing but you never know until we are aboard. 

 

Anxiety is really runny rampant.   On my walk today the traffic was less than a Sunday and noticed that most office buildings had empty parking lots.   I guess people are starting to work from home.

 

Ultimate paranoia was a guy I noticed in his car by himself wearing a face mask. 

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2 hours ago, tcmagnum said:

You are NOT 70!!  No way.

Have a great trip...

 

Actually I am... ..just hit 70 in November.   I'm sure I have a Dorian Grey complex but I certainly don't feel it.  I'm healthier than I was in my 40's.

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3 hours ago, hcat said:

Much better...pricewise and they have the evening cocktaiks and great breakfast

No drinks for us as we don't arrive until about 12:30 AM so will be at least 1:00Am when we arrive.   Breakfast is a plus for sure.   I always enjoy their wonderful breakfast.    I also love all the stores and restaurants within walking distance.

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36 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

At last!  Another great Jim_Iain blog!  I look forward to them - they are one of the main reasons I keep checking this board between times when we are sailing (next one is not until Sept now that Princess cancelled what we had booked for April).  

 

Hope you have a wonderful, safe trip.  So many of us will be following along with great interest.

Sorry to hear your cruise was cancelled on Princess.   Celebrity has been very silent but we have an Alaska Cruise booked on Millennium of March 30 -   You might want to check it out.   Prices are really good.

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Unexpected banking Nightmare –

I’ve been running around all week getting my bank in order.   Someone hacked into my Bank Account even though I have double layer validation.    They transferred a couple thousand out using Zella.   On top of that they somehow got my credit card account also and purchase Visa Debit cards using PayPal.  Chase had to close my Checking and Savings Accounts and open new ones and Cancel my Credit Card and re-issue.  

To add insult to injury they hacked into my PC and changed my password.   I immediately shut it down and disconnected from internet, later found they had begun to encrypt my data – probably ransom ware attempt.   Being a gray haired hacker back from my younger years I was able to get back into my PC using a really neat hack I found on YouTube to clear the pirate’s password and reset my password.  

At least all is straightened out now and was glad it didn’t happen while we were away on our cruise.

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Fingers crossed for you Jim!! Looking forward to following along!! (A bit belated as I've been trying to keep up with all the info here - rumors are finally starting that principals are being asked to have their staff prepare homework packets, so I'm thinking we may hear of closures tomorrow. Maybe.)

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1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

Unexpected banking Nightmare –

 

I’ve been running around all week getting my bank in order.   Someone hacked into my Bank Account even though I have double layer validation.    They transferred a couple thousand out using Zella.   On top of that they somehow got my credit card account also and purchase Visa Debit cards using PayPal.  Chase had to close my Checking and Savings Accounts and open new ones and Cancel my Credit Card and re-issue.  

 

To add insult to injury they hacked into my PC and changed my password.   I immediately shut it down and disconnected from internet, later found they had begun to encrypt my data – probably ransom ware attempt.   Being a gray haired hacker back from my younger years I was able to get back into my PC using a really neat hack I found on YouTube to clear the pirate’s password and reset my password.  

 

At least all is straightened out now and was glad it didn’t happen while we were away on our cruise.

 

Jeez what a nightmare!  Sounds like you need a vacation 🙂

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4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Unexpected banking Nightmare –

 

At least all is straightened out now and was glad it didn’t happen while we were away on our cruise.

 

Oof! Maybe I don't want to be you after all. 

I'm glad you got it straightened out. Yay for your skills!

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42 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Fingers crossed for you Jim!! Looking forward to following along!! (A bit belated as I've been trying to keep up with all the info here - rumors are finally starting that principals are being asked to have their staff prepare homework packets, so I'm thinking we may hear of closures tomorrow. Maybe.)

Almost all of our universities have started on-line classes -  not sure of all of them but Stanford is one.

 

So far none of our public schools have closed.

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31 minutes ago, abritinva said:

Relative newbie on CC but I have found your posts both  ‘educational and entertaining’😉  Wishing you and Iain wonderful cruising at this challenging time!

Thanks -  feel free to jump in any time.    If I don't' know the answer there will always be someone here to assist and get the answer for you.    Even though a long time cruiser I certainly learn something new every day here on CC. 

 

 

 

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45 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Jeez what a nightmare!  Sounds like you need a vacation 🙂

 

41 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

Oof! Maybe I don't want to be you after all. 

I'm glad you got it straightened out. Yay for your skills!

 

It was a pain but I have to say Chase was wonderful to work with and all funds have been returned to my accounts.   I'm not sure how they did it because none of my alerts were activated

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7 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Almost all of our universities have started on-line classes -  not sure of all of them but Stanford is one.

 

So far none of our public schools have closed.

 

A friend who has a high schooler just posted on facebook that her daughter's school contacted them about the availability of online access at home. So it's looking like pretty much a done thing for NYC but just not being publicized yet as final logistics are worked out. (Like I honestly don't know how they think special ed kids like mine - most of whom can't really do anything on the computers on their own - are going to do online learning short of us giving parents a list of sites they can sit with their kid and use.) We have 2 schools that closed today for a minimum of 24 hours due to a confirmed case - and rumor is that there are suspected cases in several more schools that are being covered up/not reported as such.

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