cmcsharon

5 hours ago, miamoe said:

Thank you for sharing!  What kind of camera did you use?

I use a Sony RX10iv.

We went on the 6 passenger OB1 at 8am, on 6/3/23, with Captain Graham.  We were very fortunate to see some very active whales that morning (I stopped counting after 16).  Here's just a few of the pictures, it was beyond amazing! 

I leave Monday on the 10 day Alaska trip out of San Francisco and over the last 3 days I've received at least 2 phone calls, 3 emails and 2 text messages all from Carnival alerting me about the ArriveCAN requirement.  So that seems to be the timeframe, you're not going to be notified by Carnival until close to your cruise (less than a week), which makes sense to me because Canada's requirements continue to change and that's out of Carnival's control.

Thank you both for sharing your experience, I appreciate it!

It's been 10 years since I've been on a cruise to Alaska and I'm excited to finally be going back in May, on a 10 day cruise out of San Francisco!  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent lenses from fogging over when going back and forth between the warm cabin and balcony?  I'd appreciate any tips you can share. 

For this trip I'm upgrading from a Sony A6000 to the A6600, and have a 70-350mm on order.  I'll be using that lens along with my 10-18mm primarily.  I've also preordered the new Samsung Galaxy 22 Ultra since I need a new cell phone.  So between those, and my trusty Sony RX100vi, I'm sure I'll be struggling with a lot of condensation.

On 11/11/2021 at 9:33 PM, Habubabu said:

"Panda"monium!!!

 

We called the ship the Panda-rama instead of the Panorama.  We even had the Panda-rama name on our face masks.

On 11/11/2021 at 1:47 AM, jedishan said:

Uuuuhm these are PHENOMENAL!!!

Thank you!!  It was so much fun!!!!

On 10/31/2021 at 7:43 PM, pengu1n said:

So funny! I would have fallen down the stairs!

LOL!  We couldn't see our feet over the inflated panda belly...it made those glass stairs very challenging!  

This was such a fun cruise!

If you're wondering how many pandas can fit in a Panorama elevator...the answer is 7.  

On the stairs.  One of the fun crew, Celine, saw us getting ready and wanted to join us, so she's in one of our panda costumes.

This was so much fun!  I think the crew were having as much fun with us as we were having.  

Photo test

Thank you both for the suggestions.  I just realized I left out a key detail, I booked a non-refundable rate directly with the hotel.  So, I can't cancel it, but my fear is that they could cancel it at the last minute.  I'm sure they'd issue a refund in that case...but, I need a place to stay.  I'll take both of your advice and I'll book a Plan B hotel that has no restrictions on cancelling, and hold on to our reservation at 9Hotel Cesari and watch the TripAdvisor reviews.  That'll give me peace of mind knowing I have a backup plan and I still have a couple of months for things to work out with the original hotel.  Thank you!!

I just learned (via email from the hotel) that they are not accepting reservations from April 2019 through December 2019 because of renovations that will be occurring. 

Unfortunately for me, I booked (and paid - 3 nights) for a room there for May 2019 several months ago and have a confirmed reservation.  I've been emailing the hotel trying to find out what this means to us (are they going to cancel us at the last minute...or, no better, are we going to be surrounded by construction mess)  and what I get back is...we don't know when we'll be starting the renovations, maybe in May, maybe in July...just keep in touch.   

If you were me (first trip to Rome), would you be reserving a Plan B hotel...or, is this common and the hotel will sort things out?  I only found out about it because my sister tried to book a room for September.

Thanks. 

I loved staying at the Motel One hotel on Princes Street (it's a Hotel not a Motel).  It's very convenient to all the transportation options (airport bus, tram, Waverly Bridge and train station).  I really liked having the Balmoral right across the street as that clock tower became our landmark for easily finding our way back to our hotel.  Plus, the views across to Old Town were amazing!  From our room we had the view of the Balmoral to our left and the view of Old Town to the right! 

View of Balmoral from room.

View of Old Town from room.

I was on a Vista Med cruise and we brought alcohol on board at the ports and directly to our cabin with no problem. I plan on doing it again on the Horizon. It was wonderful. Very different from our Caribbean and Mexico experiences.

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We had our transfer pick us up at 10:30, arrived around 11. Those in our group with priority were able to board immediately, the rest were on by 11:30. I'm glad we went early!

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I'm really enjoying your wonderful review and beautiful pictures! My kids are similar ages to your boys so it's nice to see that they are enjoying the sites as well. I was really glad to hear that you recommended Italytours.eu! We have them booked for all 3 of our Italy ports!

Nothing confirmed for our 13th September cruise, but its obvious we will be cancelled as well

Just received the email for the Sept. 13th cruise, it's confirmed.

Thank you for doing this review! I'll be excitedly following it as we countdown to our same adventure on the Vista next month!

Did he say if it's a sea day or if they are working on other options?

And just to be clear, if the OP's Heathrow-Athens flight is on Aegean rather than BA, then obviously Aegean's and T2's policies will apply instead.

Thank you all again, and yes, we are flying Aegean through T2 but the BA links have been very helpful for getting additional info about Heathrow. I appreciate all the help.

Thank you both for the answers, this helps a lot!

These are probably simple questions but I'm getting confused by all that I'm reading. There are 12 of us flying (all US citizens), through different airlines and airports so I have several questions.

1. Flying from LAX to Athens, with 2.5 hour connection in Copenhagen. All on one ticket, same airline. Will we need to go through immigration in CPH and if so, do we have to get our checked bags or will they go through to ATH?

2. Flying from Heathrow to ATH, is this considered international so we'd need to be at the airport 3 hours early or just 2 hours? Or, is LHR so difficult that even 3 hours is cutting it close?

3. Flying BCN to Paris (Orly), same question as #2, arrive 3 hours early or 2?

Thank you for the help!

Sharon