bookbabe

4 minutes ago, RELS said:

 

Do you unplug it when not in the suite? I would think it falls under the same category as other devices that they want unplugged when the suite is unoccupied (fire precaution).

We don’t.  And we leave our iPads plugged in to charge while we are out on excursions.  Only issue we’ve ever had is the desire of our cabin steward to neatly coil all the cables, so that we uncoil them when we get back.  Then again, we are usually in a suite and they leave a blank key card in the power slot by the door for us 24/7 so the power stays on when we leave the cabin, so YMMV.

On 4/21/2024 at 4:22 PM, The Hudson Co. Landlubber said:

I would love to use a travel router on my first regent cruise coming up on Splendor.  But I am concerned if it is a violation of the TOS?  (I am kinda big on rule-following, sorry to be a dork!)

 

If it is not an explicit violation of the TOS, I am going to try it.

I’ve never seen anything mentioned, and our cabin steward and butler walked by the clearly visible router multiple times a day without comment.

And, for those not reading the kindle thread, the router solves kindle login issues as well as giving you multiple device access.

This is one of the other issues that using a travel router avoids…we make sure ahead of time that my kindle has the router username and password saved, and then once on board it just automatically connects after the router is set up.  See the wi-fi thread for more info.

Best two dishes from our recent cruise…the Filipino fried rice and the spicy mayo shrimp at the World Cafe.

Worst…every pizza.  Really, just avoid it.  It looks a lot better than it tastes, and that’s saying something ‘cause it doesn’t look great.

1 hour ago, ifitfloats said:

Yeah, I was thinking about that, but it seems that you have to use the Regent app to log onto the system? And, of course, even if we figure that out, it still limits us to multiple devices only in the suite.

Lots of the travel routers have an app or some other setup feature that lets you log into the ship’s captive wifi network, we just did this on a Viking cruise, used that same router on Mariner last year.  It does limit you to multiple in suite only, but how often would you be using multiple devices elsewhere in the ship?

A travel router may solve your issue without having to hope for extra free logins once you board.

3 hours ago, SuzD123 said:

Not sure if this would be more of a Sixthman or NCL question, but on RCCL guests can bring up to 2 bottles (750ml) of wine per cabin onboard.  Does anyone know the comparable rule for NCL??  I haven't been able to put my finger on that information.  We're not thinking of getting a beverage package.

 

The best place to get answers is the festival website, search “alcohol” in the FAQs and you get this…

https://www.hallmarkchannelcruise.com/faq/search/

• What do I need to know about alcohol? 

   

   

  Norwegian Alcohol Policy

  Please note that with the exception of Wine and Champagne, all guests are prohibited from bringing alcohol on board our ships. If you purchase any alcohol at one of our ports-of-call or in our onboard shops, the ship will safely store your purchase(s) until either the final night of the cruise or the morning of debarkation, at which time it will be available for pick up in a designated area. 

  Beverage Packages

  Guests can pre-purchase beverage packages prior to sailing via their NCL account once reservation numbers are shared (4-6 weeks prior to sailing). You may also choose to purchase on board (on first or second day of sailing). Everything you need to know can be found at hallmarkchannelcruise.com/beverages.

  Wine & Champagne Policy

  Guests may bring bottles of wine and champagne on board. When bottles are brought on board and served or consumed in any restaurant, public room area or in their stateroom, a corkage fee will be charged according to bottle sizes noted below. Please note that for safety reasons there are no glass beverages allowed on the pool deck lawn. 

  750 ml Bottle: $15.00 USD*
  1,000 ml Bottle: $20.00 USD*
  1,500 ml Magnum: $30.00 USD*

  Wine or champagne sent directly to the ship by travel agents, friends, family, etc. or from another retail source, are subject to the same fees. Box wines are not allowed on board.

  To speed up the process of checking your wine or champagne at the port, print out this form and bring it with you.

  *Corkage Fee is not applicable to guest with alcohol beverage package.

  Bottle Service 

  Guests can order items through the Gifts & More program including bottles of liquor that are delivered on board with mixers (not advertised but available if you call) and gourmet treats— outside of 10 days prior to sailing.

  Please note there are no glass bottles allowed on the pool deck lawn. 

Safe, clean, friendly.  Great food, okay shopping.  No pushy street vendors or sketchy people looking to scam you.  Lots of natural beauty, especially at the botanical park.  Best island in the Caribbean.

https://www.explorecayman.com

https://www.botanic-park.ky

33 minutes ago, Frisky070802 said:

That makes sense.  A number of devices these days (such as Ring doorbells and such) work the same way, having you connect to them and share.  The reason I thought it would be hard here is because usually you're just connecting long enough to provide the credentials for the router (a WEP key or whatever) and after that the network you connect to doesn't care whether you're the phone or an extra wireless router.  Whereas on the ship, while I connected when I first arrived and provided my name and cabin, I was occasionally prompted for that info again.  I wouldn't expect the router to be able to do that unless it essentially says "I'm connecting to the ship, and it's asking me X and Y.  I'm giving you the form with that request, and whatever you respond, I'll respond to the ship with the same info".  Doable --- but I didn't expect it to be a feature.  

That sounds like what it does.  It’s been working for the last 31 days, and he only had to log in a second time on the B2B changeover day between cruises.

That being said, the internet is still diabolically slow, whether via the router or direct.  But the router we have at least has a port to connect a USB stick that we are streaming saved media from.

2 hours ago, Frisky070802 said:

Interesting. I was going to say almost certainly not since the router still needs to access the ship's network and authenticate to it with a room number. How do you do that? 

This one doesn’t come with an app, although DH says some do.  It creates its own network, and the first time you connect to it, it bridges between your device and the ship and then you log in to the ship network that first use.  Afterwards, any device that connects to the router just logs into the router network, which is already connected to the ship.  
 

I hope I’m explaining that even semi-clearly, I’m going by my memory of what DH told me as he was setting it up.

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Interesting - I also have a Casper at home and this has been the best mattress I have had in my life, but I love the Viking beds.  

Our Casper is the Wave Hybrid Snow, and I find the bed on Saturn to be as hard as a rock in comparison.  I don’t remember the bed on Mars back in September to be quite as bad.

Add us to the haters list, even with multiple mattress toppers.  Have occasionally been sleeping on top of a row of the memory foam pillows, which helps a lot as long as I don’t roll around too much.  Have a Casper at home.

Yup.  Connected to one as I type this.

You are unlikely to find many hotels offering day passes, especially during busy periods.

An option might be Coral Beach - https://coralbeach.ky

Either Coral Beach or Public Beach will technically meet your requirements, although things at Public will be more DIY and a bit less convenient.  If you want a beach club, Coral is the only game in town at the moment.  

There are lots of restaurants with great food and great views if you don’t want beach.  Cayman has never really gone in for the party/AI kind of vibe, even for stayover tourism, so I’m not surprised there aren’t more beach clubs.  

When things went out of business during the lockdown, some properties were sold to developers and other owners just moved on to other types of businesses less affected by fluctuations in tourism.

We were in Marseille two days ago, did a cruise ship excursion.  No sign of anything negative other than rain.

People can look like they’re sick but not be ill.  Allergies can make you look like you have a cold or worse.  Your perfume/aftershave/cologne/shampoo is generally what’s causing my coughing and sneezing.  Your backing away in horror at my coughing will likely solve the issue for both of us.

I’ve noticed a few other people coughing, but I’m kind enough to assume allergies or that it’s caused by the dry air on the ship.  Besides, a little bit of coughing is nothing compared to a couple of the incidents so far.

Earlier this cruise, we had a gentleman have an accident (code brown) on the excursion bus shortly after setting out for the day, and at the first photo stop we had to sit on the stinky bus for a extra 15 min while he dealt with things in the shrubs beside the road.  And the bus (and the gentleman) continued to smell for the full day excursion.  I’m guessing he wasn’t ill, though, since he was on excursions again in the following days with no incidents.

And today at lunch some woman threw up in the World Cafe.  And only half the buffet was open because it’s a port day, so we had nowhere to relocate to.  The cleanup process is pretty thorough, though, and kind of interesting to see.  Not sure whether she was ill or lunch didn’t agree with her, but we’re in port so likely not seasickness.

On 3/10/2024 at 3:46 PM, littlelulu01 said:

Great job op and remaining calm.  Such good advice!
 

Wonder if a duel citizen could get by using the additional passport. I have US and Italian passports.  I have never used the Italian passport to exit or enter countries and always list my US passport but wondering if US passport was lost if the Italian passport could be used to get on ship and flight back into the states and then deal with replacement after home from vacation. 

We are dual citizens on a cruise right now, and our info for the online checkin had passport 1 but we checked in at the terminal with passport 2.  No issues.

The issue with going back to the states on your Italian passport would be that you’d need an ESTA, wouldn’t you?  I’m not sure how that would work, you’d have to use the ship internet to get one, I guess.

For general travel, the guideline I was told was that you should use the passport with the strongest ties to the country you are entering.  In your case, as I understand the guidelines you would be using your Italian passport to enter Italy and the rest of the EU, and you’d use your US passport for North America and the Caribbean.  For most other countries, I personally would check which passport doesn’t need a visa for entry to that country, and use that one.

Answered on your other thread.  But as people say, it’s chancy so you’ll want an excursion that’s refundable or missed port insurance.

22 hours ago, gdlamberth said:

We're scheduled to stop at Torshavn (Faroe Islands) on 21 August 2024.  My question is: 

 

Based upon your experience or knowledge, what's the likelihood of a small (Oceania's Sirena, 20,000 tons and 680 pax) hip missing the port due to weather, seas, etc.?

 

I'm looking into excursions and some DIY do not offer refunds if ship misses port.

 

Any help or insights offered will be greatly appreciated.

 

Greg

We did a Viking cruise (980 passengers) in Sept 2023 and made it to the Faröe Islands but missed the Shetland Islands due to weather.  I had seen a lot of reports from people on that itinerary in the past saying they’d missed it, though.  You might want to go with a ship excursion or a DIY one that offers refunds, just in case.

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Not sure if you consider Canada an international address (it is but...) but we receive our tags very prompty.

 

However the packaging that Viking now mails or couriers these in, have been broken open 2 out of three times with the last ones sent.  It is some kind of small envelop with a "zipper" type pull to open and this has been open on arrival.

 

There is nothing in there of consequence, however not a secure mailing method.  

 

We have reported this to Viking.

Nope, not considering Canada to be international in this case, as mail headed there from the US doesn’t take much longer than US domestic mail, maybe a couple of days extra.  Mail to Cayman, where I now live, takes a minimum of six weeks, but usually closer to eight, to get to me from either the US or Canada.  Still no sign of the luggage tags for the Viking cruise I boarded almost a week ago, according to our house sitter.  I never once thought I’d miss Canada Post.
 

And sending paper luggage tags by parcel post, as Regent does, usually ends up with me having to pay duty on them, with customs just arbitrarily assigning a value.  Cost me $2 in duty (plus 30 min in line) to get my paper luggage tags for our last cruise, not a huge deal, but hassle enough that I almost prefer the print-it-yourself ones from some other cruise lines.

FYI, for those of us with international addresses, the package of tags and final documents is sent via a three-legged pack mule, paddleless canoe or some other very slow means of transport.  Ours were supposedly mailed five weeks prior to our pre-stay for our current cruise, and we didn’t get them before we left.  Pre-stay hotel Viking reps did not have tags either, so we had to wait until the port to do them.

If you really want the tags, maybe have them sent to your home address for your mail pickup person to courier to you?

Otherwise, plan to tag your bags at the port, or DIY some cabin number stickers.

Just now, Kwaj girl said:

 

It IS  a true "circumnavigation"  -  east coast US to east coast US. 

LOL.  Try to convince my husband of that.  He wants same port start and finish.

24 minutes ago, crusin7 said:

The itinerary starts in Miami and ends in Rome but you can extend it to New York.  I think she said 122 days or 14-16 extra days.  It goes to New Zealand and Australia and Africa.  The map looked a lot like ours.  It was on the screen for less than a minute.  We world cruisers are supposed to be the first to see the itinerary.  You will be the second! John the CD introduced Jennifer.  She didn’t speak.  She will be available for questions tomorrow at 4:30 in Coffee Connection.

So Miami to New York for sure for 2027?  Not round-trip Miami?  Sigh.  There goes any hope I might have had of convincing DH to delay to 2027.  He loves the true circumnavigation aspect of the 2026 round-trip Miami WC.  Ah well, I still look forward to seeing the itinerary when it comes out.

Currently on Iconic Med Treasures, which pre-cruise in MVJ had Rome plus the middle Athens day empty of shore excursions.

We got these flyers in our cabin the second day.  Sorry I didn’t take a pic of the whole Athens flyer, but it all seemed to be excursions from the other two days there.  FWIW, read the descriptions of the Rome excursions carefully, we almost got caught in that even the guided optional Colosseum excursion only “views the facade” and doesn’t seem to go inside at all.  We ended up booking a private tour that will hopefully give us a better Colosseum experience, and we are just doing the included as a shuttle to get us there.