Benthayer Gonbak

sorry, autocorrect helped messed up by bad spelling of rhubarb! I agreed we use rutabaga in soup not pies! And, thanks.

When they removed fat they added more sugar. Sugar like salt is often used as a preservative too. Tomatoes have changed to have less acidity but sugar is still added to try to lower it anyway. Corn soup can be naturally sweet and yet most recipes add sugar too! But, yes, I agree much of this is nonsensical. And the only thing Im sure needs sugar is rutabaga although I’m not sure who first thought to try it. Then there is the evaporated cane syrup, l, some is beet sugar, but still.

My question would be how hard it’s going to be for you to step into the tub! While I haven’t tried the Azamara tubs at 5’7” I had a bit of difficulty on Crystal and a major problem on NCL, I asked for steps! I belief NCL was partially because of a knee replacement. I’ve had trouble with some European hotel tubs too. And one in Australia that was an apartment with the bath having a fixed half door on a short tub. I believe Crystal had a fixed glass too which made it difficult to sit on the side and swing your legs over. Not trying to be a pain just raising the question and give you reference points so you can make the best decision. For what it is worth, I ran hurdles in high school during a heat I caught my back foot on the second hurdle —— 7 stitches in my chin😂 I was slightly taller then, but really didn’t like hurdles!

I even bought 2 bottles of the Turkish equivalent of Sambucca in a port. When I tried to give it to them to stow I was told no I could have it in my room! And that was when beer and wine were only at lunch and dinner and other drinks weren’t included, which was why I was surprised!

previously I’ve use OBC in the spa and to buy a camera? Why the camera? Because I had way too many OBC on a transatlantic cruise😇

we did an connection in Paris, I didn’t have a choice as the tickets were from a cancelled trip. For some reason security decided to check my entire carry on. I think he counted the straws, opened the collapsing straw. Opened really strange items like tour maps! What made the whole thing really odd was my hubby had the medical bag complete with 3 lithium ion batteries and a raft of other things that X-ray poorly. They never opened that bag, which was a first! We’d already landed too late to make our connection so what he was mostly doing was holding up others behind me as he was the only one searching. I was in a wheelchair and the skycap told me our bags were too heavy and should have been checked. I told him it was illegal to check lithium ion batteries and he said that the US carryon rules were different than Paris. I told him the rule about the batteries was international! He then asked me about precheck! I never figured out what that was about even with precheck if they wonder about the batteries they check them! Did I mention I hate the Paris airport? It had changed so we had the extra security which I didn’t mind but I’d preferred it had made more sense! They took so long the skycap was notified it was taking him too long! In Nice when I asked what they thought they had seen I was allowed to point out they had just missed it, I’d forgotten. Turned out that wasn’t the blob they were seeing, it was a glasses case I didn’t realize was metal. No big deal, they checked it and carried my bag to a repack table and offered to help me repack! Super impressed.

The hardest allergy I’ve seen most of the RCL brands deal with is green peppers! Or really any bell peppers. They turn up in all of the salads and have even been seen as decorations on fish and mashed potatoes! i have an allergy to refined sugar that we haven’t been able to totally define. The reaction is simply me braking out in blotches. On a celebrity cruise my husband came in after I’d order and asked me what I was drinking, Diet Coke. He then asked if it was in a can and I told him no why, he then told me I was breaking out it wasn’t diet. After than I was always given the can and it was poured at the table. We still have to be vigilant, unfortunately. i worked with people with nut allergies before it was well known. Even when asked they didn’t always get the right answer from a regular restaurant! I’ve now learned most of the menus and know what has to be modified. And, the waitstaff is always attentive to making sure I don’t order something that may have changed. But, I consider myself lucky as my allergy is more annoying for several hours rather than life threatening. For what it is worth, my stepmom is a celiac patient, there a lot of things to learn that the wait staff can’t keep up with so the maitre’d must bring the chef to work out the details. Silly fact: most mayonnaise has sugar in it!

Our Travel Agents still complain about untrained personnel and long hold times. I had my agent check on a change the first one was good, the second cruise had fccs etc that it looked like there was little benefit. My agent is pretty good about giving up OBC when there is still a net gain. They just redid a celebrity for me that gave me a better price plus more OBC. Yes I lost some internet,but my loyalty status makes up for those!

There used to be a stated $100-$125 charge if you failed to show up for off ship evenings. I have no idea if anyone was ever charged.

Before COVID most overnights we were told that the gangway would be open all night if that helps. You’d still need to tell them you are disembarking!

There is a people mover between Tronchetto and Piazzale Roma. From there is not too far to the vaporetti. The slowest vaporetti to St Marks is 45 minutes, which is on their website along with the timing of other vaporetti. I believe the vaporetto was 7.50€ or 8.50€ I don’t recall as my wheelchair got me the local rate. Costs are also on their website. Tickets are pretty easy to buy when you get near the docks too. Finding how to get some of the sites to English can be challenging at times. When we were in Ravenna before COVID we took an all day tour to San Marino. what is your port before Ravenna? We found people before us that were doing Trieste to do a tour with us in Venice. They found a couple to share a car and arrived around 10 and left around 5-5:30. Our tour was private for 4.5 hours because that’s about all we could both physically do.

Thats just silly that they wouldn’t start at the airport also! I think there may be a regular buss from the bus terminal though. I was on Oceania in May and we couldn’t get them to come anywhere but the airport! It had some bumps and stuff, like not being able to put all the luggage for their current passengers. It turns out there is a fine for having most carry on luggage inside the bus! Hang in there, I thing they are still testing the processes. And, I can’t believe there is enough space to load buses at a bus terminal, but who knows! There were several people who hired vans to take them as they wanted to leave from Piazzale Roma. Yes, it still cost them more than a free bus but they had hoped they might be able to get the driver to show them part of the town or at least let them drop off luggage and then get drppped off in town. I don’t know how it worked out but it’s an option. for what it is worth we spent a lot of time waiting to get on the busses and then waiting for loading of baggage and passengers so there is some merit to hiring a car if you can form a group. That’s what cruise critics boards do well!

Thanks, I did fear it was a rumor only.

I read somewhere he went to Silverseas, but I still have that a rumor!

Laundry is per cabin. Special events used to be the top tier in the cabin, eg get together that have pretty much gone but I assume the brunch still works that way. The comp nights is an interesting nuance, for sure!

Not all desks have mirrors over them, hopefully that’s been fixed!

We had a family emergency and although my TA doesn’t normally do domestic flights I sent an email asking for best connections from St Martin. I got an answer in about 20 minutes and made my own reservations. Yes, the ship would have helped but I doubt they could have done what he did! Now, with the long waits on the phones it’s better my TA does that. He can do other things while waiting so it’s a win win!

We have given them it to check every time we’ve boarded, it’s always returned for our use. We have to carry it for hotels. As for the special needs forms, the last journey I was on the room steward actually had read it and had everything there when we arrived. I wrote a nice review and got thanked I think for 3 days by both room stewards! Normally they just tell us they know that we need an extension cord, but not all extension cords will handle two plug ins and rarely do they want to give me a second extension. With the new configurations, plugs on each side of the bed we rarely need an extension cord now although I think we’ve been in one Azamara that only had a plug on one side so we used the power strip. It’s visible but no one has said much. On a Royal out of Australia our old strip was taken but returned to us when we couldn’t plug what we needed in. They required the electrician check it and approve, which they did. In Miami for Celebrity I believe they kept the strip on shore and we had to chase it down. That was shore security so now the new one is normally in checked luggage so it makes the ship. Since I switched to the European plug on a 220 rated strip, I’ve never had to retrieve it from the naughty room, we just voluntarily have it checked. Last time I went to the naughty room they thought a curling iron was a power strip! We told them we already had that and it had been checked. Can’t recall who that was but since I don’t know where the naughty room is on Azamara I assume it wasn’t them. for what it is worth I’ve never found a ship that had power strips other than Australia and then those required Australian plugs! We had been told they were available, when pointed out that that was useless we were told we’d have to get one from the shops but they didn’t know if they would be right either. When we said we brought one was when they said they’d have it checked.

Thanks. We have a universal adapter too, too many OBCs but it doesn’t do all plugs seems Italy was one of the . We have a power strip we take and several adapters because of medical equipment. The power strip is European so occasionally we use the universal to conver it.

Amazing! We alway carry adapters. For boarding in the UK we would have been in a hotel where we needed them. Our cruise on the Pursuit was cancelled or I’d have known. what did surprise me was the plugs by the bed on the quest were European, but that worked okay because we started in Stockholm. Now we always have European adapters for the ships.

That sounds like a lovely venue. But the trek sounds awful! Back a few years I was in Venue at the end of June too, and I remember the walk to the vaporetto being miserably hot too. This year I think we had one day that got warmer than I’d wished but not as bad as the previous trip. I remember the ship, not an Azamara also being quite hot inside too. I assume the venue wasn’t air conditioned either! sorry so many people were in destress too. That’s never good! Sounds like at least the ice cold wash clothes would have been in order!

Wow, not good. I started with Azamara befor Azamazing began. In Bangkok they were using ice in everything and it wasn’t clear how safe it was! Yes, I was a bit paranoid but …… I think our first Azamazing was a huge display of pastries and mostly beer and wine. I don’t remember water there but it’s possible and yes I recognize you are commenting on liquid of any kind, That awful, especially since Azamara used to put water on tours where they weren’t sure of the local water! I not sure if we had beverages at the Russian Ballet, but I believe because of the long line water was available on the pier as a 4 piece band had been put on the pier to make the waits better. I’d be interesting in knowing where you actual went in Venice having just returned. I do recall on Celebrity that walk was longer than I wanted it to be. St Petersburg was pretty long too, on Azamara.

I’m more inclined to believe that inexperience rather than age creates more problems than most any other factors! I know to get experience you have to practice, but it would seem that most tours don’t provide enough and passengers aren’t listening. Years ago on a white water raft trip with a group, the tour company looked at me oddly because I had a helmet. After a few errors our raft guide moved me up to the front. She had figured out that I was experienced in reading whitewater. While I wasn’t the strongest she could count on me to react appropriately to keep us from flipping the raft. I’m pretty sure they didn’t realize that several rafts had mostly drunks in them, too. The reason for the helmet? I normally soloed a canoe so like kayakers we all wore helmets! There has to be a good middle ground, I think you may be right that joining an experienced group or one with several instructors may be safer than a ship tour! Certainly the power to remove the unsafe from the group is a must! Btw, don’t look for me on any dive, even a training one!

when the Azamazing events were on shore there was a early dinner that was with minimal choices. When we returned there was a lot to eat upstairs! There were also drinks at the events as well as some food, often just sweets.

On my first Azamara cruise we had a 30 minute before departure time BUT there was a storm coming in. The captain said most of us were on board but they had a few crew and passengers they were waiting for. He went on to say that he could protect the ship better at sea than banging into the dock, but he intended to try to out run it. He blew the ships horn several times! One of the locals mention that to a passenger that likely meant they needed to return to the ship. Everyone returned and we indeed missed the storm. Our guides were at the next port and asked about the weather a they had had 90 winds. I don’t recall if that was km, but that’s still uncomfortable. ——we had a calm night at sea.