Benthayer Gonbak

Thanks that looks slightly expanded. And yes, now that you mention it I remember the coupons when there were too many cc onboard!

Sailing where you gain hours instead of loosing them is more fun on a cruise. But, recovering from jet lag West to East can be harsh all at once too.

For what it is worth, there is normally transportation for those needing wheelchairs etc. not sure if that’s what worries you about the bus.

In 2019 Azamara had a new system for I believe the internet benefits. They brought one of the company representatives on board for at least the first few days of the cruise. He could fix most anything, manually, and then repair it later.

I remember serving always being the first few days when we first started sailing Azamara. In 2019 on a B4B I don’t remember ever being able to serve myself at lunch, at least not entrees. I remember having to ask someone to serve oatmeal as I left my asbestos fingers at home!

I would add that scandisk has a stick that you can store lots of things on and then using its app show them on a device. I’ve only tried it on Apple, and maybe a kindle fire, but I not positive about that one. of course the connection to a larger screen is a plus.

Many years ago, Azamara stoped cruising the Black Sea due to unrest, I agree they are likely to do that again!

oh my yes! China said that they wouldn’t allow ships coming from Korea into China’s ports. Azamara did a lot of rearranging pretty close to sail dates. We did get to Korea, but it was added to a different cruise, and we didn’t get 2 ports. while I wanted to go back to China, and knew Azamara couldn’t start an incident I mused that what should have happened was that they didn’t go to China! Honestly, that would have had most passenger outraged, but it still seemed appropriate, at least as a muse!

I was intrigued by the comment that the Summit was training crew. One of our cruises before COVId, on the summit, found a group of us wondering whether it was a training ship! All the things that happened were polish, but we’d seen the standard higher before. A subsequent cruise found us wondering why we had ever thought it might have been a training ship! Of course, a few dd ask if it was training and told no, that could have changed things too. Another cruise had several tables requesting the background tape that one passenger called techno thump. They were misunderstood at first to be wanting a copy! It was quickly made clear that the intent was to destroy it! In the center area of MDR it just sounded like more clatter. we are booked again on the Summit in May. I’m looking forward to getting back on Celebrity and hoping the ratio of passengers to crew has been worked out by then. i do have a question, is the evening cocktail party begun happening again? I know there was little point with all in, but even when the 321 existed for most passengers the parties were still happening. Now that you can choose not to have the all the add ons, I’m hoping it’s reinstated.

I’ve found strange things behind doors that weren’t visible with the door open, but in the yuk department I’d say you win hands down!

im with you, where ever you found it it’s probably better to throw it away! Guess it could have just been the brunch you used to clean all your Diamond so being on the floor wouldn’t matter but …… we have found pantyhose in original packaging in the drawered night tables, but had to take it apart as we were looking for something else. also found a pair of smartsocks under the bed but again we had to lift the beds to find that. can’t remember what we’re were actually looking for, but we learn to always lift and check the drawers in the night table because we have small items there that could be overlooked as missing!

yep Japan immersion was part of the problems. I had ports missed, so cancelled tours, and a couple of port orders changed which took some scrambling.. we skipped Shanghai because the captain was afraid we’d get in and not back out. That tour I’d spent a lot of time working on. There was also a crew change there, well was supposed to be! Yes, I’d do the trip again other than visas have changed, really enjoyed several countries I hadn’t been to before.

Our captain after the 3rd typhoon was forecast told us about Windy. He said the free version works pretty well for most. 1 of the typhoons didn’t cause any real concern the other 2, both on the same cruise, did drastically change our itinerary. It caused extra maneuvering because of needing exit stamps for our visas!

i have heard several of Betty bowers video, I think there was a recent one too. sorry for the typo that’s Roy Zimmerman. I couldn’t immediately find his one on marriage, but the marriage like the Bible is easily found.

Foy Zimmerman did a song on gay marriage and one on a marriage just like in the Bible. Both are very good.

The hardest one to find is the trip to St Anne’s. But I wanted something slightly different for my mil so I talked to the shore conceirge. She was skeptical but tried. She had enough for the larger bus before she got off the stage where she announced it! It became a standard tour for several years after it was offered on the next cruise and they filled two buses full with a waitlist. All of this is to say the shore conceirge can sometime do lots of things including a tour you want but in a smaller group. Jim and Iian even did that as a private tour.

i was going to mention smoking near the glass elevators on pool deck as it always drifts to the area outside the elevators. I was pretty sure that cigars were T there, glad you found the official list. Glad to see they moved the deck 4 to midship, that was a mess at the restaurants before.

Proofreaders? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 My husband has complained about that repeatedly. He was told every department gets to review what’s printed at least for the newsletter in the cabin. And yet there have been things like returning to the wrong port, the pool on the wrong deck, and various other silliness. He has volunteered to be a proofreader too. No, he didn’t have a job doing that exactly, but he can certainly find errors in most anything.

i think Iian just needs his fuzzy teddy bear slippers, or similar!

i was thinking the same except for whether Canada accepts them.

I hope you never have to spend 14 days or more in a car or airplane! 😱 Seriously though the Canadians are just as frustrated it seems. I understand that masks aren’t still required on Air Canada too.

when the waiter came out with a filled tray of eggs cooked at various times apparently the whole table started laughing. And yes some had runny whites, inside which no one wanted!

I remember the California mess and couldn’t believe you wouldn’t be grandfathered especially if other states recognized your marriage. I hadn’t heard that the federal taxes were such a mess though. As an extra thought, and glitch, does California require you to send at least some of the Federal forms? They’d certainly deserve that nightmare! when I returned from an overseas assignment Virginia wanted to know why we were filing in Philly. The answer was that that was because the Feds told us to! I believe they may have notified us that we hadn’t filed our federal taxes so they couldn’t proceed. I remember my Dad as a nonresident of California and thus filing his Federal taxes in Texas, his permanent address. California kept bugging him about not filing and ignoring the answer to their why such that the last letter said he would be arrested if he ever returned to the state. In a retaliation of sorts they reported to IRS he hadn’t filed his federal taxes in California either, however when the IRS asked why and got the answer that he filed in Texas as required they read the answered and dropped it!

I was just going to ask you to be sure to take a picture of one of them with their swearer on!

On a transpacific there was a guy that wanted his soft boiled eggs a particular way. It took few days but they chef got it right until about half way through the cruise. Then it became a joke with the waiter bringing a dozen eggs boiled for different times to find the egg cooked correctly. The only thing we could figure was the pressure had changed. I missed the whole gang that went down to eat the rejected eggs. He has done this trip numerous times and I never was clear that this hadn’t happened before.