Live Cruise Reports

I... I feel like we were just here...
 
ANYWAY, It's almost GO Time! 
 

 
Well, this time around @HelloItsMeB will be along for the adventure! How much we get from her? VERY much TBD....

I always enjoy reading the live reviews and trip reports that people post on Cruise Critic.  I am going to try to do a live review of our trip to Iceland, Ireland, and Scotland on the Celebrity Apex.  I will be traveling with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law for this trip. We booked this trip on a 2022 Thanksgiving cruise from the Future Cruises office. 

This is our first Seabourn cruise. We got an incredible deal booking direct with Seabourn 17 days out from the departure date. We have cruised in other parts of the world, largely pre-pandemic on Oceania, Azamara, Regent and Silversea. Cruising is not our usual type of travel but this was a wonderful opportunity to take a holiday from our own home port without the need to fly anywhere.

Celebrity Ascent - June 2024 - Greece, Turkey & Italy - 1 - Rome
After our short 1 1/2 hour flight to Rome we took a taxi into town. There’s a € 50 flat rate for a ride into the city center. 
As usual, we like to stay around Torre Argentina in Rome. We think it’s the best location for exploring as it‘s basically right in the middle of everything you want to see.

 

 

 

 
This time we chose the Argentina Relais as our base. The entrance is just a small door on the square. The gate to a very inviting place with a view of the ruins.

Our first go to was Rosciola just around the corner. There is always room for a small Pizza snack. 
 

 

 


We passed the time to dinner with a drink at Campo dei Fiori and then walked across the bridge to Trastevere.
 

 

 
When we walked past the church on the main square, there was a wedding ceremony taking place.
 

 

 

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The picturesque alleys of the area are lined with countless little restaurants, one more inviting than the other.
 

 

 

 

 
Since we discovered the La Scala Trastevere restaurant 12 years ago, we have visited it whenever we are in Rome. Today was no exception. However, tbh unfortunately it has seen better times.
 

 

 

After dinner we walked over to the Pantheon and the small distance to Piazza Navona. Unfortunately Bernini’s beautiful Fontana di Fiumi was fenced in and is undergoing renovations.
 

 

 


On the way back to the hotel we incidentally walked past a small place a friend had just told us about on FB an hour before. A cafe for 100 different kinds of Tiramisu.
 

 

 

 
A good way to end the day. Buona Notte!
 

Since we have so many great reviews and onboard commentaries from QM2, QA, and QV I feel bad for our QE!
As mentioned, we are on the June 21 sailing out of Vancouver on a 10 day voyage on QE - my 60th bday wish. We were also recently upgraded to a Q4, so thank you Cunard.

First Live for me.   Nice ride to Bayonne on a Sunday morning.   Dropped our bags off curbside and had to park along main road because parking garage was not open for newcomers yet. About 10:30 we were able to park inside garage. $210 for the week.  After we parked we went inside terminal where we were seated till a little after 11:00, then allowed to board.  Little wait but nothing crazy.  

We are on board Riviera and scheduled to depart at 7 pm.  Our last O cruise was pre Covid on Marina and I thought I would post my daily observations for what they are worth
-Boarding in Civitavecchia was a snap. Booked a boarding time for 1:00-1:30 and it could not have been smoother. Took five minutes at most and all staff were friendly and helpful. 

Well, I’m on board. Just after registration on board, I got into the elevator to head to the grill for lunch when the woman next to me said “Do I know you?” It was @late2cruisin who recognized me from my picture here. That was a bit of a surprise. 
Anyway, I have spent the last 2 hours or so getting acquainted with the ship and where things are. Other than the fact that I haven’t entirely got fore and aft totally figured out, I think I have a reasonable idea of what is where. 

Last year when I read Norwegians were serious about limiting cruise ship access to certain destinations I did a few minutes of confirmation research and signed up for this cruise on the spot, without even leaving my chair. I thought I had beaten the restrictions, but soon after I signed up, several controversial ports were edited out anyway! But here I am anyway. 😉 After a short land bound visit to a Baltic port, I arrived in Rotterdam to board Rotterdam and we are off today.

This probably won’t be an as active live review as others but I will try and add as much as possible. Others on this cruise please chime in.
The airports and planes were packed yesterday. (yes, I know it’s summer) Remember to pack your patience especially towards all the first time travelers. 
We wouldn’t have chosen a caribbean cruise in the summer but it is a DH sibling cruise as they lost their father recently and this is the only date that worked.
First time Princess cruise as well as 50% of the ship.

Well we are off on the long journey south from Scotland, at least the weather looks good for the drive. As ever we will stay over and stop off on the journey to see or do something of interest.
 
The plan is to get to Southampton mid day on Sunday as there is a Take That concert on later in the day and the roads an

Dh and I are on day 3 of a 5 night with a 9 night kicker.
 
First time on Liberty.  Yes I see wear and tear in general but so far it's been great.  Literally the only thing we've been bothered by (and not really bothered) was a reaction to our requests.

I can’t believe I’m finally writing this Live From. This trip has been FIVE years in the making. We originally had booked this cruise back in 2019 to go in summer 2020 (can’t remember what ship) but that obviously was cancelled. Once things reopened my family decided to look at rebooking. They found the same itinerary but this time on a new ship called Sun Princess. That was more than 18 months ago and now, tomorrow, I depart for Rome! 

Hey, Cruise Critic family!
 
It’s that time again….time for Pirate (aka ME) to set sail on the high seas again. I wasn’t supposed to sail Carnival again until October, but the itinerary I had us booked on for that trip just wasn’t appealing to me (Nassau, Freeport) so I swapped the hubs and I over to the June 9 sailing aboard the Vista.

I’m sailing for the next 10 days on the Island Princess. I always recommend that people fly to the port at least the day before, but I did not follow my own advice for this cruise. I was up at 4 a.m. to catch a flight from Raleigh-Durham to LaGuardia. It was an uneventful flight, getting me to New York City around 8:30.

Four days to go until our TA on the QM2 from Southampton to NYC.  We're in London now and have a car service picking us up at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday to take us to Southampton.  This crossing is our first cruise with Cunard and only our second cruise in about 30 years.    Our most recent cruise was a TA on Royal Caribbean from 4/21 to 5/5 from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome. 

I belatedly decided to post a live (although slightly delayed) blog in response to the many negative posts I have been reading about food and the general Silversea experience.
 
This cruise boarded in Reykjavik.  It is also the last leg of the “Pole to Pole” journey.  There are 14 passengers who have done the complete pole-to-pole.

Good Morning from Southampton.
 
I have not done a live in a LONG time and figured it was time to do one. 
 
We arrived in Southampton on Wednesday morning from Orlando and had a few days to adjust to the time difference. 
 
Woke up this morning and it’s CRUISE day. 
 
This is our second time on this beautiful ship so we know what to expect here at City Cruise terminal. 

Hello all, I’m writing this from the Windjammer aboard Brilliance as we await our departure from Vancouver this evening at 5pm. I can’t promise how live or even semi-live this will be as we only have Voom for 1 device and it’s going to mainly be my DW’s phone to keep in contact with our daughter back home.

Hey all!
 
I will be live updating from this amazing cruise from Southampton to the Norwegian Fjords!
 
I'm Kas, I'm in my 30's, a gay man sailing as a solo cruiser looking to meet lots of folks and hoping to share my experiences onboard 🙂

We're currently sailing in the Retreat on the Celebrity Equinox (day 8 of 9 total at the moment) and we sailed in the Yacht Club on both the MSC Seascape and MSC Seashore in March-April so both are still very recent experiences.
 
We cruise often for a young family (8 and 9 year old kids, sailing 6-8x/year), but for this cruise it is just my wife and I (thank you grandparents!).

Embarkation was a bit slow this time. Food been great, at the Culinary show before bingo.

Hey Everyone!
First time trying my hand at a live report, wish me luck! 
 
I'll start off with a brief introduction, the name's Brittany, I'm 35 (today's my birthday) and I'm getting away with my travel partner for life DH Chris. My first cruise was circa 1993/4 on the Song of America when I was a wee little girl. Since then, I've completed 20+ sailings, primarily in the Caribbean with a trip through the Panama Canal and a cool cruise to Alaska. My first (and favorite) NCL cruise was in 2014 on none other than the NCL Getaway.

And back on board we go.
 
Apart from the hectic disembarkation from the previous  cruise the re boarding process  was smooth again.
 
Cairns - Airlie Beach - Brisbane 
1June - 4 June  2024
 

Hello!  My soon to be 16 year old son and I are cruising on the Carnival Celebration on June 9.  I've never done a LIVE from thread because, quite honestly, I'm not a very exciting cruiser.  I am not the cruiser that's researched everything.  I don't get up early and participate in classes and demonstrations and go to shows.  We rarely get off the ship in ports.  I'm a gambler.  I like to cruise and look at the water and have someone take care of me and I like to play slot machines.  That's the cruiser I am.  No spa treatments. I don't drink usually.  I stay up late and I sleep in.  It's not unusual for us to wake up and make it out of the room in time for lunch.  Everybody cruises differently.  That's how we cruise.