Live Cruise Reports

Well well well, it looks like it's about that time!! We're four work days out from my first Princess cruise since Ruby to Alaska about 7 years ago, the Regal out of Galveston. It'll be my first Royal class ship.....
 
A little background for those of you who haven't come across my stuff before - In my modern Cruise Critic era, I'm far and away most frequently a Carnival cruiser. They were my first (Celebration '88), I honestly enjoy the heck out of the product and they treat me well. I get decent casino comps (I'll play a lot, but incredibly low stakes. I'm a public school teacher, for goodness sakes), and I've gotten to do some pretty great cruises and see some amazing places with the offers I've been fortunate enough to get since the shutdown. I'm Diamond over there, Platinum But Rusty (#PBR) here with Princess, and a smattering of cruises with Royal, NCL, HAL, Costa, and a few lines that don't exist anymore. 
 
@HelloItsMeB is my better half, and as some of you know we do some cruises together and I do others solo; she has a real grown up job, and our vacation time doesn't always sync up. Luckily for me, we both really enjoy solo travel, even if we miss each other coming with. In fact, as I type this, she's in Patagonia on a two week tour through Chile and Argentina I couldn't possibly have joined her on, lest my kids don't get complete their Great Cities of Europe project. She likes to chime in on my LIVES, and she makes them better, but I'm skeptical on this one since she gets back to Dallas (where we live) the day before Regal arrives back in Galveston.

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Now that I’ve whittled this cruise countdown into the single digits, I thought I’d begin my post a little early in the hopes that you will indulge my excitement to finally get started!  But first, I’d like to invite any fellow Cruise Critic friends who are on this journey to join in this review as I know excitement levels are high and should be shared with anyone who wants to contribute!
 
So why this cruise?  Well, it might be a little risky embarking on a brand-new ship…with a brand-new crew…breaking in brand-new quirks but DH and I will celebrate a milestone wedding anniversary of 19 years on November 23rd and we were looking for something different, new and maybe even a little bit quirky.  Now, I know what you’re thinking… 19 years isn’t a traditional milestone number.  I agree. But since we are both in round two marriages, any year over 5 (for me) and 9 (for him) is a milestone we are darn proud to celebrate 😉.

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Consider this the Hype post to start my 3 day live review on Freedom of the Seas. 
 
Itinerary is an interesting one in that we are not stopping at Nassau, every 3 nighter I've done in the past has the obligatory stop in Nassau so this will be interesting to have a true sea day to round out the long weekend. Honestly I thought we had a stop in Nassau until typing up this post and realizing we were not going to be seeing Atlantis, so not sure if this got dropped last minute or if it was never part of the itinerary?

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Since no one else has started a live thread for our sailing, I figured I might as well start one 😃
 
We flew down from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale on the 11th and spent the night at the springhill suites in Dania Beach before boarding the ship yesterday. We love the location of this hotel, as we can walk to various shops that we don’t have at home (mainly Ross and TJMaxx) as well as several great restaurants.

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My wife and I will be flying out soon today to Quito.  We have booked the 11 night Quito cruise tour package--and we added an extra night on our own before the cruise tour.  This will be our 16th sailing on Celebrity and our first time to the Galapagos.

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Hello to anyone interested in following along on this cruise. I am starting the live "early" so I can share some preparation and planning items, as well as hopefully hear from you and learn what you are interested in me sharing when I am on board.
 
This cruise will be departing Miami heading to LA through the Panama Canal. This will be my third time on the Bliss and my first time through the Canal. As a matter of fact, first time to every port (other than Miami). I am a Platinum latitudes reward member so I will share some of the items that includes as well. 

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I’m starting this thread to pick up the baton from @InsGuy3 and @florisdekort 
Our focus will be comparing to Viking and Azamara entry level suites. We hated MSC Yacht Club - the pampered few within a “factory ship” wasn’t for us so will not feature much in comments. Given how poor our dining experience in YC we just hope for far better. We therefore hope this thread stays away from YC discussions ad infinitum 

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I boarded Silver Dawn today en route from Barcelona to Lisbon and thence transatlantic to Fort Lauderdale.  I’m not sure how a cruise blog will go on this itinerary, but I’ll give it a try.
 
Part 1 encompasses Palma de Mallorca, Valencia  Cartagena (Spain), Malaga, Gibraltar, Casablanca, Tangier, Cadiz snd Lisbon. Unfortunately I had to cancel the day trip to the additional Alhambra because of my foot injury, but I will give some feedback on ship excursions to from the other ports.

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Hi everyone, I hope you are all well.  It's been a couple of months since I was active on CC with that 21 night European cruise on the Enchanted back in August.  I have been busy making my way through Italy, France and Portugal and London and not thinking about this cruise really at all, until a couple of days ago.  Yesterday I made my way to Victoria Coach station kind of reluctantly - I LOVE London and can never spend enough time there, the past two weeks went by so quickly!

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We / I am back - this time, sailing the Norwegian Prima TransAtlantic westbounds, 11 days, 3 port stops (they are "relatively" shorter in total time ashore.) 
 
T minus 9 days - let the single digit counts run, 4 days to our JFK flight to BCN via Lisbon (will miss watching the Norwegian Viva sailway while in transit - free stopover option waived ... next time)  Going to embark on the new'ish Prima as we twiced cancelled earlier this year due to timing & other factors (hopped on the eastbound Epic TA in April, "all in" price deal too good to past up then - rebook & all set.  Steered clear of summer crowds, tired of the Getaway itineraries, warmed up to 7 days NE/Canada cruise with 3 nights "Escape" onboard as a floating hotel off Verrazzano-Narrows between NY Bay and the Atlantic. 

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I’ve enjoyed many live threads and thought this cruise would be of interest to a number of people and so a good chance to start my own thread. I’ll be honest up front and say this is a jam-packed itinerary, with two ports scheduled for most days so I don’t know how well I’ll be able to keep up.  But feel free to follow along on what I expect will be a once in a lifetime trip for us.

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We boarded today in Lisbon, checkin was very smooth and quick.  We went straight to O'Sheehans for lunch and had sausage sliders followed by beef chilli and a blue cheese burger, all very nice so we carried on to the apple pie and carrot cake. The carrot cake is definitely a winner but the apple pie was a little sour. 

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Very smooth embarkation.  The casino is hot, hot, hot.  I will try to post event listings and pics throughout the cruise.  So far, everything is excellent.  Such a gorgeous, new ship.  And Gigi's had the best lunch.  The veal pasta I think was the best Italian dish I've ever had!

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I’m currently onboard the QV with my husband and daughter. We’re seasoned but unusual Cunarders in that we are both in our 30s and are travelling with a toddler. Day to day we dress pretty casually so we don’t see eye to eye with the people who claim that no jackets mean the world is caving in but we do enjoy making an effort on our Cunard trips. 

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Hi all and welcome to an almost live Harmony of the Seas trip report.  I’ll have the basic internet package so I should be able to post throughout the week.  This will be our third Oasis class ship and look forward to trying out a Boardwalk Balcony cabin.  I’ll let you know if we get any notice of what access we have to the Crown Lounge.
 
Quick rundown so far -
Stayed at the Country Inn and Suites last night - a bit to close to the motorcycle rally but we were tired enough to sleep through it.
Ate breakfast at the Sunflower Bakery and Cafe; I do recommend the grilled cinnamon roll.

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Hey everyone! I wanted to post a live review for our first MSC cruise on the Meraviglia leaving out of Brooklyn on the 13th. I will post the complete review summarized here so you don't have to browse all the comments once we are done with our cruise, but for now this will be an ongoing thread. My husband @BurdineGooberwill also be posting his updates and food pics along with menu pics. We have 3 people in our party with Celiac. We booked 2 luxury suites in the Yacht Club, and also paid for the 2 carousel shows. The goal for our cruise is to read books, relax and spend time with our family. Nothing much more expected than that. We have been on 4 cruises together. 2 of them were Royal Caribbean and 2 on Disney. 

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We are sailing on MSC Euribia on Friday so thought I would drop a few notes as it’s our first time on this ship.
 
Well we are on our way to Southampton a day early as the weather tomorrow (Thursday) looks horrendous. Better an extra day in a hotel than miss the ship. Someone who is onboard at the moment has said they have already been advised that Euribia will be missing their call to Le Harve tomorrow.
 
The journey today has been dreadful as part of  the M6 was closed after an accident and we ended up going east and down the m1. Very long road but at least we did it in decent weather (and we’re not the poor souls involved in the accident).
 
We are now ensconced in a hotel for 2 nights and I have to say so far the weather has been fine, no more than light rains. The worst I suspect is yet to come.
 
Followed Euribia as she left Rotterdam and 10pm last night, much later than the advertised 1700 and is now sitting at sea.

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This afternoon my daughter will be driving me 35 minutes to Port of Baltimore and not coming with me again on this cruise.  At least I have the bathroom to myself - when she comes with me she uses every square centimeter of space on the sink-top for her epic cosmetic collection,

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Greetings from my home  We are heading out very soon as you can tell very early this morning taking a quick flight down to San Diego to board the Koningsdam our flight leaves at 6:50 am. This will be the Koningsdam's second round trip San Diego sailing but her first was a Charter. This will be her first actual winter season sailing.  This will be our first time sailing out of San Diego since November 2, 2019 on the Eurodam and it is only our 2nd sailing on the Koningsdam with the first being April 8, 2016 for her first revenue sailing/Inaugural.

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Saint Greg's Regal Princess - Live - November 12, 2023

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Hello everyone! I’m Angela, and my husband Mark and I will be sailing with Princess for the first time since 2010. 
  
Our itinerary is the 14-day Circle Caribbean on the just-out-of-dry dock Ruby Princess. We depart tomorrow from Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades) and I am giddy with excitement!

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I am travelling solo but met up with my friend Anne who I met on the Jewel last year.
 
Had a fabulous 2 days in Barcelona. Our first port was Valencia and I had organised a tour for 14 of us for a Paella cooking class. 
 
It was a fantastic day / if you are going to visit Valencia check out Horta Viva. Taxis were arranged by Miquel, the chef and owner, and cost us 10 Euros each round trip from the ship.

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Never sure when to start a thread like this but figured since we sail on Friday now was an appropriate time to set the scene. 
 
We are sailing MSC World Europa in Yacht Club for 7 nights, on what I'd call a 'bog standard' Mediterranean itinerary. I intend to post from the ship about our experience as best I can.

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The intention with this cruise is to get a taste for a larger ship, as well as to indulge in the YC experience. The destinations were less important as we've been many times before.
 
We will still get off in most ports but for example no plans to go into Rome, instead exploring locally. We are doing a tour to Aix-En-Provence from Marseille as we weren't overly impressed with Marseille itself on previous visits. I find MSC tours to be reasonably priced compared to other lines.
 
The largest ship we've been on to date across all lines is Meraviglia at 171,598 Gross Tonnage. Earlier this year were on NCL Joy - 167,725 Gross Tonnage.
World Europa is the 6th largest ship in the world by Gross Tonnage standing at 215,863 GT, surpassed only by RCL's Oasis Class.
 
We do have some apprehension about the size of the ship and crowds etc. but also looking forward to the extra facilties/venues only a mega ship can offer.
 
On Joy we were in Haven, so will be able to compare the the Haven vs YC experience with fairly recent memory. NCL is our most travelled line followed by MSC.
 
We are Diamond with MSC but many of the perks are covered by the YC experience anyway, so the only thing of real value to us is the speciality meal.
 
Just on the dining note, 7 nights is way too short a cruise for us and we also want to try the YC buffet (if it's still running) as the menu really appeals to our taste compared to the main menu, as well as use our Diamond meal, so in reality we may only have 3-4 evening meals in the YC restaurant. We also want to try Hola! and there simply won't be time for it all.
 
We fly to Barcelona on Thursday, to spend a night at the Kimpton Vividora and then join the ship on Friday. We have been given a 3pm boarding time which will be ignored.
 
If anyone has any specific questions regarding World Europa I will do my best to find out the answer when onboard. Appreciate the recent hot topics are wristbands and snacks in the TSL!
 

I know people have had questions about this cruise. I'm on QV now and I'll try to answer any questions. I will do a day-by-day, but it's 10 minutes to cocktail time, so this will be a short entry about things people worry about.
 
CARPETS are in very good condition. I love some the aqua colors in the mail elevator lobby by the atrium. 

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We will be boarding Serenade on Tuesday 11/7 for a 28 night round trip from Miami to LA and back, and expect to do a "World Cruise upgrades" scavenger hunt along the way. I have a short list of what the World Cruisers asked us to track down, but we will try to find whatever hidden gems that may have been added as well. We will try to post frequently about what we find, what is still missing, and how they are doing with the overall preparation process as we go. Hopefully we will be able to post pictures of what we find that has changed since we were last on Serenade in February. DW really wants to find (and try) the laundry facilities if they are working yet.😇

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