Wildcatllamas

Most land based restaurants will have the disclaimer somewhere on their menu that eating meat, eggs and seafood undercooked can lead to serious illness so they can avoid the repercussions of folks eating raw food. In one of my college classes I toured a meat packing plant. That was a real eye opener on ground beef and all meat cuts and the issues of cross contamination. I will not buy hamburger in those solid package tubes. I will only buy it from stores that actually grind their own meat and now that there is a rancher that is selling direct to the public I get his hamburger. So on board a ship or even in a restaurant that doesn't grind their own meat I will order medium rare even though I definitely prefer it rare.

Congratulations!!! If there were options for an extra bed in the suites I would bid on one. I'm good friends with the folks that I travel with, but sharing a bed is definitely not an option.

I may have to check into purchasing a MNVV from someone. Mine all expire in December 2025 and my next cruise isn't until September. I would definitely try to jump on one of the 5 nights and going to do Alaska for sure.

@cantgetin before I became gluten intolerant I liked waffles just like you described. Thick, puffy, crispy on the outside with a nice moist interior. Now I have gluten free frozen waffles that will barely get by and then gluten free mix that doesn't come close and sticks to the waffle iron. So I just watch and drool when others are eating them.

@Gretchendz I will have my computer fired up and ready to go. I would love to get a shot at the cruise that would depart Seattle on May 11. Otherwise I would settle for September.

I have that marked on my calendar. Glad I came out of retirement from being a TA.

I had never been interested in doing an Alaskan cruise. But having spent a week last February in Fairbanks I changed my mind. Now I am thinking what better way to spend my birthday in 2026 then to be on Brilliant going to Alaska.

Alaska - I will definitely be looking at that one.

Nothing is showing in their booking engine at this time. May 8th it will go live.

So far nothing is showing for Alaska or Vancouver for May of 2026.

If you are able to order it without pepper let us know because I will be all over that.

I'm allergic to black pepper so I sure understand what you are saying. The first time I tried it back in December 2021 it wasn't peppery at all. At least it didn't effect me. I didn't know it was supposed to have black pepper. A friend had ordered it and gave me a some. Then on my trip this last December I was going to order it and the waitress told me I couldn't have it due to the black pepper. The folks at the table next to me chimed in and said it is horrible with black pepper. When we got to talking they said in the beginning they didn't notice the black pepper but it had gotten worse over time.

I sure hope they do something with the beds in the non-suite cabins. I finally figured out that if you have the beds laid out in the couch format that the one on the solid wall portion loses all of its cushioning from the "bedsprings" because it is resting on a solid platform. So better bedding is about the only option rather then swapping over to a traditional cruise cabin style bed.

An NCL cruise I was on had to cancel our stop in San Francisco and subbed Astoria. It was a very enjoyable time there. When we entered the Columbia river channel at 1:30 am it was high tide and let me tell you that ship was pitching and rolling. Furniture on the deck was being slammed around and it was almost impossible to walk in the cabin. That morning we went to the Maritime Museum and found out about the Columbia Breaks and what a ships graveyard it is.

I did some checking and it appears that the May 7, 2026 scheduled stop for Brilliant Lady in Astoria is gone and Grand Princess is now there. Princess has had some pretty popular cruises up and down the West coast that are advertised as Wine Country cruises. I guess we will find out on May 1st.