Jim_Iain – Silhouette Live Post April 8, 21, 30 - B3B - TransAtlantic, Portugal Spain, France and the Norwegian Fjords

[JeanieC,Aston]

Can’t wait for you two to set sail,,,,that means Silhouette is coming back to us.

Will be hanging on your every word until we get on board on 21st.

[Jim_Iain]

18 hours ago, amias said:

Very much OFF topic but wanted to say how much I admire the painting of the sweet peas. Lovely. Have a wonderful cruise.

When we lived in Ireland our rented home had a number of the artists pieces.   We commissioned her to do a Sweetpea for us.    It's actually 4 separate panels that can be put back together.  

[Jim_Iain]

S

18 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Have a safe flight.  We are still keeping a close eye on the Silhouette to make sure she is ship shape for your arrival on Friday.  

 

Our plan is to try and be the last off the ship.  We have a 1:23 pm flight and United will not let us check our bags in until around 1000.  

 

 

Safe trip home John. 

[Jim_Iain]

13 hours ago, MarKay525 said:

Hi Jim - Great job!

Delta allows two 70 lbs bags p/p for First Class - we can easily pack that much, but can't lift the bags afterwards, so we stick to the 50 lb limit as well.

 

We just returned from our first cruise in 2+ years, and I am delighted to have your Live to follow for the next 3 weeks to keep the buzz going. Hope you have fantastic cruises and a delightful visit with Iain's family as they join you for a leg. Kay

 

I didn't realize that.   I thought their limit was 50 Lbs.    At least that is what it is on BA and we will be flying from LHR to Glasgow so will have to keep it in that range.   The Uber driver was struggling with 50 Lbs.

[Jim_Iain]

We made it in last night.   Flight was delayed by about 40 minutes due to a line of Thunderstorms.    It was one of the smoothest flights I've ever had but really a fantastic Lighting Show from the air at 38,000 feet.

 

Got to FLL around mid-night and noticed the pilot continued way past the terminal.   The pilot finally came on and said we have a short delay as there were no ground agents available but some were on the way.   20 minutes later we finally docked.

 

For whatever reason our luggage took about 35 minutes to arrive so what we thought was our final delay.     Got to the curb and Uber had surge pricing in effect so i chose Uber X at a higher price.    The driver accepted immediately but after 5 minutes I noticed his car hadn't moved.   I waited a couple more minutes and finally called the driver.   He said ok... Sorry on the way.   10 minutes late he finally arrived.   The first time I've ever had a problem with Uber.    I chose to give him ZERO tip.

 

We finally checked in at 1:30 AM

[Jim_Iain]

Had a sound sleep last night until Iain got me up at 8:45 for breakfast.   I'm usually the early raiser but remember 8:45 Eastern is 5:45 Pacifc.  

 

We are staying at Embassy Suites and went down to grab something to eat.   Luckily it was on the quiet side and no wait for eggs cooked to order.  

 

I'm slowly waking up.   

[Jim_Iain]

Update on Bermuda -

 

I applied for our Bermuda Travel Authorizations yesterday.    I was up early and applied for mine about 8:00 AM PDT and Iain's was submitted at 10:00 AM.

 

I got my approved Authorization at 8PM last night but nothing on Iain's.   This morning got a rejection on Iain's Authorization.

 

A warning -    I found that the EMed Covid Test Results were sent via PDF (mine I download from site).   The PDF forms are password protected with your birthrate, thus they were unable to open it.

 

I printed the pdf  to an unprotected pdf and resubmitted about 9:00 AM Eastern and will see how long it takes.  

 

Good lesson to plan on at least a day to get approval.  How they are going to process those that require 1 day testing is beyond me.    I can't image the mess a the peirs tomorrow.

[DaKahuna]

23 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

S

Safe trip home John. 

Thank you.

 

[graphicguy]

Yippeeee...just stumbled upon this.  Will be following along.

 

Thanks!

[pasta1]

17 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Update on Bermuda -

 

I applied for our Bermuda Travel Authorizations yesterday.    I was up early and applied for mine about 8:00 AM PDT and Iain's was submitted at 10:00 AM.

 

I got my approved Authorization at 8PM last night but nothing on Iain's.   This morning got a rejection on Iain's Authorization.

 

A warning -    I found that the EMed Covid Test Results were sent via PDF (mine I download from site).   The PDF forms are password protected with your birthrate, thus they were unable to open it.

 

I printed the pdf  to an unprotected pdf and resubmitted about 9:00 AM Eastern and will see how long it takes.  

 

Good lesson to plan on at least a day to get approval.  How they are going to process those that require 1 day testing is beyond me.    I can't image the mess a the peirs tomorrow.

Thank you for the information!

[Jim_Iain]

I know I’m tired but someone at Celebrity must be asleep on the job.  

[terrydtx]

16 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

In their photo outside the terminal you will see “0” skycaps.   We have found the same number at Dulles and BWI.   Believe they are having severe staffing shortages and few folks want to work for low hourly wages and meager tips.

Last September at FLL we used curbside check-in for our Delta flights home.

[terrydtx]

14 hours ago, MarKay525 said:

Delta allows two 70 lbs bags p/p for First Class - we can easily pack that much, but can't lift the bags afterwards, so we stick to the 50 lb limit as well.

We have that same issue on FC, nice to be able to take 70lbs but does no good if we can't pick up the suitcase without killing ourselves, LOL

[rim140]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

I know I’m tired but someone at Celebrity must be asleep on the job.  

Seriously, we received the same email and scratched our head 🙄 They sent another email few moments ago apologizing for the mistake 😁

[Beachlover1989]

23 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Submitted both Covid and Vax records to Bermuda.   It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to process.   I can only imagine people at the pier waiting for a reply.   I submitted an hour ago and nothing back yet.

 

Real easy.    After you register and pay the fee they send you a link to upload your Test Results and Vax Certificate.     On the form you just select file location for each and press submit.

 

 

 

Jim, what is the purpose of the "Covid-19 Test Document Upload (2)"?

 

I appreciate all the information you're sharing about the Bermuda Authorization form and am taking notes for our cruise in June!!

[MamaFej]

On the plus side, they didn't forget the attachment. 😉

[venicecruiser]

I know you two must be sooo excited!  One more sleep then on the ship!  Have a great time!

 

Claudia

[DaKahuna]

Jim,

 

I was just speaking with Laurence, the Luminae Maitre’d, and she informed me that a lot of new staff will be embarking tomorrow in FLL.  They will have to undergo the five day quarantine/isolation and testing before they will start their jobs.  At least they should be up to full staff for most of your TA. 

 

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Jim, what is the purpose of the "Covid-19 Test Document Upload (2)"?

 

I appreciate all the information you're sharing about the Bermuda Authorization form and am taking notes for our cruise in June!!

I think if you also have a letter of recovery

[Jim_Iain]

Had a fun day we decided to walk over to Las Olas.   Nice walk but really humid.  BTW today is National Walking Day.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Stopped by Whole Foods on the way back and had lunch.  The skies started to get dark so went back to the hotel.  Thank God we got back when we did.   A huge deluge hit about 10 minutes after we got back. 
 

 

[cangelmd]

17 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Stopped by Whole Foods on the way back and had lunch.  The skies started to get dark so went back to the hotel.  Thank God we got back when we did.   A huge deluge hit about 10 minutes after we got back. 
 

 

We are in the FL Panhandle at the beach this week and that’s the rain storm we expected the last two days but didn’t get. Hold onto your socks, It’s going to get “cold” tomorrow.

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Every day is National Walking Day for you!  

[pasta1]

33 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Had a fun day we decided to walk over to Las Olas.   Nice walk but really humid.  BTW today is National Walking Day.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great photos!

[Judy204]

On 4/4/2022 at 11:23 AM, runningtide said:

I couldn’t agree more about Dolly. There is a wonderful video on YouTube where Dolly went to a local bar in Ireland near Dingle one night. She was on vacation. She tried to keep a low profile, but you can figure how successful that was. The owner talked her into singing with a local guitar player for the patrons of the bar. It was really moving to watch her work her magic on the excitied small crowd. 

What a great video!  Thanks also for the recommendation on the book.

Judy