Rare KeithJenner Posted September 3, 2023 #1 Share Posted September 3, 2023 This post was recognized by LauraS! "Thanks for your review, and for answering questions!" KeithJenner was awarded the badge 'Great Review' This isn’t a live trip report. I’ve done a few of them in the past, and I don’t think another one will particularly add much. instead I am starting this thread to answer any questions anyone may have and to post any observations I have as I go. Feel free to ask anything that you would like me to try to answer Embarkation today was very smooth and efficient. The ship hasn’t seemed particularly busy (we haven’t been any higher than deck 9). We have been drinking at the outside Shakers bar which was very nice. Dailies are attached. No Howl tonight. I don’t know whether that means they aren’t on this cruise at all. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 3, 2023 Author #2 Share Posted September 3, 2023 The aft balconies on deck 9 are indeed huge. I know cruise critic well enough to know there is no point trying to get all pictures the right way up. You’ll all just have to turn your computer over. 1 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare www3traveler Posted September 3, 2023 #3 Share Posted September 3, 2023 Hi, Hope you have a wonderful cruise. Are there 3 of you this time or just 2? When you can, would you please post the Ship's Officers both Hotel and Bridge?? Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 3, 2023 Author #4 Share Posted September 3, 2023 6 minutes ago, www3traveler said: Hi, Hope you have a wonderful cruise. Are there 3 of you this time or just 2? When you can, would you please post the Ship's Officers both Hotel and Bridge?? Mandy Just the two of us Mandy. Yes, I’ll get the officers details for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare www3traveler Posted September 3, 2023 #5 Share Posted September 3, 2023 4 minutes ago, KeithJenner said: Just the two of us Mandy. Yes, I’ll get the officers details for you. Your son must be a grown-up young man by now. Time passes too quickly sometimes. Enjoy your cruise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatorchinsky Posted September 3, 2023 #6 Share Posted September 3, 2023 This is great! I could be wrong, but I have seen only 1 other trip report on this cruise/itinerary. We take this cruise November 2nd so it is exciting to see what will be going on on the ship. Thx!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare fabnfortysomething Posted September 3, 2023 #7 Share Posted September 3, 2023 hiya how did you find getting to ship in Civitiveccia? we found the port shuttle to bus ststion to get on next shuttle to ship to be disorganised chaos we should have booked a taxi direct from hotel in Civitiveccia to ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 3, 2023 Author #8 Share Posted September 3, 2023 42 minutes ago, fabnfortysomething said: hiya how did you find getting to ship in Civitiveccia? we found the port shuttle to bus ststion to get on next shuttle to ship to be disorganised chaos we should have booked a taxi direct from hotel in Civitiveccia to ship That is usually our experience. This time we took a transfer straight from the airport (we stayed at the Hilton there), so got dropped off at the ship. Walked into the terminal, dropped off luggage, checked in and walked straight on to the ship. Took less than 30 minutes. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
How much longer? Posted September 3, 2023 #9 Share Posted September 3, 2023 My son and daughter in law are on this cruise, so I can follow you and see where they are going! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatorchinsky Posted September 3, 2023 #10 Share Posted September 3, 2023 15 minutes ago, KeithJenner said: That is usually our experience. This time we took a transfer straight from the airport (we stayed at the Hilton there), so got dropped off at the ship. Walked into the terminal, dropped off luggage, checked in and walked straight on to the ship. Took less than 30 minutes. What time did you get to the port? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Turtles06 Posted September 3, 2023 #11 Share Posted September 3, 2023 10 hours ago, KeithJenner said: The aft balconies on deck 9 are indeed huge. I know cruise critic well enough to know there is no point trying to get all pictures the right way up. You’ll all just have to turn your computer over. I turned my phone over. 😂. Awesome balcony. Hope you have a great cruise, thanks for sharing some of it. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smyemar Posted September 4, 2023 #12 Share Posted September 4, 2023 Thank you for doing this. We are getting on the ship right after you so I am going to be following this thread for sure! Have a great vacation ! Marnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wncretired Posted September 4, 2023 #13 Share Posted September 4, 2023 6 hours ago, gatorchinsky said: What time did you get to the port? Good question! Would love to know the answer to this too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoundForSea Posted September 4, 2023 #14 Share Posted September 4, 2023 My friends (also my clients) are with you on board. Thanks for the live! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 4, 2023 Author #15 Share Posted September 4, 2023 9 hours ago, gatorchinsky said: What time did you get to the port? I just checked the notification for my taxi payment and it was 11.22 We were in o’Sheehans by 11.50 after checking in at our Muster Station. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 4, 2023 Author #16 Share Posted September 4, 2023 Day 2 dailies. Howl tonight. 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 4, 2023 Author #17 Share Posted September 4, 2023 Some quick observations. Whilst there are some obvious cutbacks, they are not having much impact on our experience. We upgraded to free at sea plus and obviously the champagne selection is more limited than last year, but the rose champagne was good. Moderno was very good as usual. We had lunch in o’Sheehans yesterday and my wife’s burger could have been hotter, but overall not bad. We did the latitudes behind the scenes tour this morning and it was very good. This is my first larger ship since 2019 and I’m enjoying it. The bar on the Waterfront outside Shakers is a great place. We spent a lot of the day there yesterday. Staff all appear happy and friendly. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 4, 2023 Author #18 Share Posted September 4, 2023 Just another quick observation. I love Howl. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 5, 2023 Author #19 Share Posted September 5, 2023 Day 3 dailies. It’s going to be busy in Santorini today as we are one of 5 ships there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatorchinsky Posted September 5, 2023 #20 Share Posted September 5, 2023 Hope you are enjoying your cruise! Just a couple of questions…Is the ship crowded or seem crowded? Long waits for bar service or meals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 5, 2023 Author #21 Share Posted September 5, 2023 1 hour ago, gatorchinsky said: Hope you are enjoying your cruise! Just a couple of questions…Is the ship crowded or seem crowded? Long waits for bar service or meals? We tend not to hang around in the busier places. We have still only gone higher than deck 9 once so far and it was very busy around the pool and in the buffet. On decks 6,7 and 8 it hasn’t appeared too busy to me, Bar service has been quick (we tend to sit at the bar rather than wait for a server to come round). The atrium and o’Sheehans are fairly busy but not noticeably different to previous cruises. There was a bit of a queue to get into Manhattan yesterday (maybe 5 minutes) and I think they were giving our pagers when we left. Service was fairly good for a MDR. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare tsahall01 Posted September 5, 2023 #22 Share Posted September 5, 2023 We are on the next sailing!! I see that Mykonos is a tender port! On our sailing it is listed as a dock port. Was yours initally a dock port as well? Have a great tiime! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DCGuy64 Posted September 5, 2023 #23 Share Posted September 5, 2023 On 9/3/2023 at 12:09 PM, gatorchinsky said: This is great! I could be wrong, but I have seen only 1 other trip report on this cruise/itinerary. We take this cruise November 2nd so it is exciting to see what will be going on on the ship. Thx!! Are you on the Roll Call? We're on this same cruise, too. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KeithJenner Posted September 5, 2023 Author #24 Share Posted September 5, 2023 17 minutes ago, tsahall01 said: We are on the next sailing!! I see that Mykonos is a tender port! On our sailing it is listed as a dock port. Was yours initally a dock port as well? Have a great tiime! Mykonos is one of those ports where it can be either. We have been on cruises where they didn’t know the previous evening whether we would dock or tender. It actually doesn’t matter much. If you tender then you are dropped off in town. If you dock then you are a short distance away but it isn’t an easy walk so you have to take a shuttle (bus or water taxi) into town. We walked it once and it isn’t fun as you have to walk in the road. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DCGuy64 Posted September 5, 2023 #25 Share Posted September 5, 2023 57 minutes ago, KeithJenner said: We tend not to hang around in the busier places. We have still only gone higher than deck 9 once so far and it was very busy around the pool and in the buffet. On decks 6,7 and 8 it hasn’t appeared too busy to me, Bar service has been quick (we tend to sit at the bar rather than wait for a server to come round). The atrium and o’Sheehans are fairly busy but not noticeably different to previous cruises. There was a bit of a queue to get into Manhattan yesterday (maybe 5 minutes) and I think they were giving our pagers when we left. Service was fairly good for a MDR. Thanks for this review, @KeithJenner! I really appreciate it, particularly seeing the Freestyle Daily. Very interested to hear about the experience with the tenders in Santorini and Mykonos. I also note that the sale of duty free items is curtailed while in and around Greece. Do they mean alcohol bought in the duty free shops or served at bars, too? (I see that those who've pre-purchased beverage packages aren't affected, so that's a relief.) Thanks again for this and have a lovely time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now