twprincessfirsties

You can still read the NYT and the LA times and the financial post for free from Navigator. What was cool was that I could use the NYT app on my tablet and get all of the daily news in a very readable format for free, and portable as well.

Remember too that Jamaica is bigger than a city and parts of the country, like Mexico, are quite safer. I felt safe doing outings from Ocho Rios (no travel warning) but not in Montego Bay.

Yes, the Canadian government does issue travel warnings to the USA from time-to-time. For example, it issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ etc travellers to avoid certain states due to discrimination last fall. That has since been removed. And during COVID as well.

HAL, like everyone else, will charge for what the "market" will bear, and I am sure there are analysts looking at all of the cruises and all of the numbers to figure out what the best mix would be to maximize revenue and not upset passengers. And really, when most cruisers are travelling under one of two corporate umbrellas (kind of what MGM and Caesars do in Vegas) Carnivore (like that!) and Royal Caribbean can pretty much mix and match according to their clientele and the line they are travelling in. Yet, it is totally a misnomer that HIA really doesn't mean that, all all. I guess you can drink all of the beer you want. I still think that if you lower the limit from 15 to 12 and up the dollars from $11 to $13 you would attract all of the drinkers complaining that HAL is catering to the upper end drinkers! Sigh.

Jamaica's travel warning was for particular areas of the country. For example, most of Montego Bay was mentioned, but Ocho Rios was not. That said, when NS diverted from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay last week, we went as far as the cruise terminal and that was it. The town, we heard, was pretty much shut down because no cruise ships were expected that day. Beaches were closed as were much of the tourist stops. Reading further down in the warning, it states that certain government staff have a do not travel warning. St. James Parish/Montego Bay—Do Not Travel All of Montego Bay on the inland side of the A1 highway and The Queen’s Drive from San San to Harmony Beach Park We pay attention to the Canada travel site as well which advised us to avoid parts of Montego Bay. We had booked an excursion in Ocho Rios that I think we would have felt safe going to.

On NS last week where a port was changed and one cancelled we received refunds or differences of the port fees.

In my recent experience things did not update in the Navigator until a day or two before cruising and it still was not accurate until you boarded the ship. For example, yes, there are two dressy nights so bring nice clothes. And the movie names and nights were switched out. So, don't rely on the Navigator app until on board.

I think that one piano vs two doesn't matter. It's the talent behind the piano(s) and their ability to attract people that matter. I feel that Billboard Onboard and Rolling Stone is a weird concept together in one space. You have piano players playing cheesy oldies and a rock and roll band playing hard classic rock. Last week on NS we would stay in our seat for the entire 4.5 hours and talk through the Rolling Stone performance and listen/participate in the Billboard performance. The audience does really influence the performance in Billboard. A very old crowd can fill the all request night with ballads, like it did last Friday, where as a few younger people in the audience can make the set completely different and feature songs that only they know. Something tells me that the BO space will be reconfigured and they will turn the Ocean Bar into a piano bar, move BB Kings to the BO and make the current BB kings into a permanent space for non-musical acts. But what do I know? Nothing!

The Nieuw Statendam was diverted to Montego Bay today as the Carnival Dream had an incident with the pier at Ocho Rios yesterday, which made the pier unavailable. The rest of the itinerary is unchanged. Interestingly, with the town not expecting a ship today (we are the only ones here), people are coming back with reports of shops and beaches closed.

With respect to the Rolling Stone, I must say that they are quite talented, but that adding extra dozens of bars of solos are were not necessary to understand the fact that they are talented. I enjoy hearing the songs, but not with the extra repeated various solos. We get it — you’re good.

Hi from Jamaica. We’ve been enjoying Gabriel and Matt’s playing onboard. He does have excellent pitch! And plays and entertains quite well! He matches up well with his partner. Our favorite entertainers on the ship, so far! He seemed nervous night 1, but seems much more comfortable gelling with his new partner.

Cool! We will be on the NS next week and look forward to hearing him and his partner!

We were on the same cruise, and yes, very little (I would say < 20%) in the way of passengers wearing masks onboard even though notifications were clear. Crew, for the most part, wore masks diligently, but there was no effort to mask. The only effort was the insistence on washing hands or using hand sanitizer entering the buffet area. Given the Canada arrival and the requirement for positive cases to quarantine and your relegation to Dolphin Deck (both sides were closed off for that journey) if positive, I would want to mitigate the risk as much as possible. We wore masks and were diligent. For those in the know, because there was no testing required on board and understanding the penalties, I would guess that if you thought you had COVID but were not feeling ill enough to require medical attention, you would keep it to yourself and avoid that penalty. Chances are that even if you contracted COVID on the ship you probably wouldn't start feeling its effects until you were at home. Omicron is a bugger that way - you've spread it before you even know you've had it, which is why masks are important, if not to protect yourself, then to protect the older passengers on the ship who don't know better (in my opinion).

The Royal Princess Alaskan sailings beginning / ending in Vancouver had a masks required letter in the stateroom as well as a daily announcement from the captain or officer. Masks were required everywhere on the ship except when eating and drinking and in your stateroom. Masks were also required on Princess shore excursions while in transport. Crew did not attempt to enforce. I would say the compliance rate was close to 10% on this particular voyage. The US CDC stopped requiring cruise ships to disclose COVID cases as of mid-July, so there are no late statistics. Still, for the industry, the COVID incidence rate (up until the end of reporting) is consistently about 1% for passengers and a similar rate for crew with isolated breakouts happening all of the time. With that risk of (1) ruining your vacation by quarantining down on Dolphin Deck (on Royal class ships) and (2) facing quarantine in a Vancouver hotel at the end of the trip, even with the low incidence rate, IMO, you are playing roulette.

I guess you should find a power strip or at least a couple of adaptors in Ketchikan - make sure that they don't have a surge protector on them - they are not allowed in rooms.