kluv2cruz

San Pedro: I’ve heard the Best Western is being converted to a homeless shelter? Doubletree, even with free warm yummy cookies upon checkin is pretty $$$$. Crowne Plaza is not coming up on searches? Is it still open? Thanks for any, on the ground, wisdom!

Crowne Plaza is not coming up easily in searches. Does anyone know if it’s out of business? And interesting about Best Western. I have a Feb 2023 booking and wonder if/when they’ll tell me about this? I did also hear about the conversion to homeless housing so have a backup booking at LAX, as the only other property, the Doubletree, is just too expensive, even with free cookies on arrival!

“No personal experience…” I mean, with Hawaii Bucket List Tours. Lots of personal “cruise to/from Hawaii, maximize a fun time on Oahu” experience!

No personal experience, but I follow a couple of FB groups that have been very helpful for what to do on Oahu. These are 98% land travellers, but folks are super passionate and very helpful. Try: All things Oahu Hawaii Going to Oahu Hawaii Bucket List Tours www.hawaiiblt.com $169pp Justin Billings; gto10 for 10% off Oahu Fun things to do Pass it on - Beach Gear and more - in Hawaii The Hawaii Bucket List Tours is who I was going to suggest you consider. Again, no personal experience, but he seems to have some wildly happy customers, and I’ve checked the price and it seems less than a big splurge (between affordable and a splurge). Follow for awhile on Facebook and you’ll see what I mean! We’ve done the maitai catamaran sunset sail 4 times and that’s always fun! Check out the beautiful pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Have a maitai at their beach front maitai bar. Take an Uber/Lyft and head to the Disney Aulani. Have lunch or dinner or happy hour at Roy’s Ko Olina or Monkeypod. Walk the lovely walkway along the 3 lagoons. Explore the gorgeous Disney hotel and resist some very cute Disney merchandise in their shops! Sort of on the way to the Aulani hotel is the outlet mall. That’s fun if you’re a shopper! And, you’ll also sort of be near the Aloha Swap Meet. Exhausting but fascinating to walk around. Many will suggest the North Shore, and that is lovely, but a long way. If you’re a walker, do Diamond Head. But, follow some of those FB pages I suggest and you’ll have a zillion things to do and 2 days will be a rush! There’s so many more cool places to check out!

I think I did once and the person had to runoff somewhere to find out so I didn’t want to tax them like this again- they were flying most nights. Don’t remember the answer. A lady at the 2 top next to us said she liked her “red blend”, so I gave it a try next night and it was good. I wouldn’t otherwise have tried it not knowing what it would be. I do remember the sauvignon blanc, at least one time was “Line 39”, and that was the server’s suggestion when I asked for a suggestion, and it was good so I ordered it several times when drinking white.

Just off Royal on July 9. Left hand side of dining room wine menu “Plus selection” had generic wine references as discussed earlier: “red blend, cab suav, merlot, Pinot Grigio, sauv blanc, etc”. None that I ordered were bad (as in, some were quite good, some were good, none were icky), but yes, a bit strange not knowing what you’re getting. Right hand side of menu “premier selection” had wines by the glass over $12 listed by name. Vines menu that we QR scanned or that we were handed was out of date both in what was available and prices. Recently read “Cork Dork” and one big takeaway is to “let the sommelier serve you”. Let them suggest what to drink after you give them a price guideline and what types of wines you’ve enjoyed in the past so they have an understanding of your usual preferences. They are a “server”, let them serve you. I know the asst. waiter in the dining room is not a sommelier (!!) and often doesn’t even drink alcohol or wine, but I relaxed into this notion a bit and asked their suggestion. Enjoyed a few different wines than I would otherwise have tried, including many that weren’t on any menu. Did same in Vines and you could tell they enjoyed this - wanting me to try something different, or something that others have said was good. I had an off glass in the Vines taster menu of spicy reds (smell, colour, taste) and they quickly opened a new bottle and gave me a new glass, slightly bigger pour, with apologies. They are all confused by the changes and the computer wasn’t programmed correctly either, we had several $1.18 charges that front desk reversed with apologies. Watch your account regularly so you’re not standing in line on the last night.

Maybe helpful? On the Starbucks app it says it’s: *milk foam *2% milk steamed hot *whipped cream *2 shots espresso *4 pumps mocha sauce Is “mocha sauce” just chocolate or is it coffee / chocolate? In description it says “bittersweet mocha sauce”. Google tells me it’s like a chocolate syrup but made with strong brewed coffee in place of water. It goes on to say it’s made with: *1 cup cocoa powder *1 cup sugar *1 cup strong brewed coffee *1 teaspoon vanilla Boil, cool, refrigerate. That provides some clues why chocolate syrup in a latte isn’t going to taste like a Starbucks Mocha.

DH uses hearing aids and it’s AMAZING when he wants to watch TV and I want to SLEEP. Amazing, IF he can connect using a TV adapter or “optical digital output” or “TOS link” (no I don’t know what these mean!) Does anyone know if Royal Princess regular balcony room TV’s allow access to output plugs?

Re solo…. On another CCL owned sister ship, in April, I was COVID positive, and therefore in isolation for 7 1/2 days. VERY grateful my travel buddy kept up a rambling chatter with me (Facebook messenger) about her antics around the ship. She wasn’t able to eat or drink in public (due to close contact with me, her roommate) so partially it was to keep her company while she watched music in a venue solo, or enjoyed a towel animal takeover of the pool area early one morn, or a little bit of light chatter about who she chatted with while waiting for her cappuccino. But, for me, it kept me sane. I’m usually pretty positive and easy going, but that’s a lot of days to be just me by myself eating cold take out, wondering if food will arrive?, watching movies and reading books & magazines (thank goodness for my library downloads!) Very easy to wallow and have a few emotional minutes … if not for her, they would have been more frequent and deeper. Easy to see how isolation could go wrong, very quickly.

Using the “following” button, I request an email daily summarizing posts I follow. But, when I’m wanting to really stay on top of posts, I keep a browser open set to “activity/my activity streams/content I follow”. Sometimes if I’m spending too much time on CC I also have another browser open set to “activity/all activity” so I can scan for feeds of interest. Hope that helps… see screenshots.

Thanks Glaciers. Good wisdom (j-walk). I did test positive recently on a ship, so hopefully, fingers crossed, that’s it for me for awhile. So then I’d be the one to “get the car”, if travel partner takes a turn at testing positive (ugh). Just something to consider. I also know, as a Canadian that tested positive, the government called me, twice, to discuss how my isolation was going.

I just asked on chat about the status of my request and they too advised it takes 2 weeks. Unfortunately the form says 2 days so sets an unrealistic expectation. They could put an auto responder on that email saying “due to volume/staff shortage….” Then folks like me wouldn’t get so antsy!

I’ve been waiting a couple weeks to hear back on this. I may just cancel and book with the private company. Very strange that they offer it, form says you’ll hear back in 2 days, but nothing.

Did you ever hear back? I too have sent emails , twice, and haven’t heard back. On the form it says 2-3 days. I don’t have a cruise rep, use a TA. Not sure what else to do? Ideas?

Hi there - not looking for a cash grab, just want to make sure we’re not missing out on applying for something my roommate should receive? I got COVID in April on Koningsdam. All’s well that ends well. And now I have a positive letter for future cruises! (Looking on bright side!) I received FCC for the days I was in isolation on the ship, which is lovely. Must be used within a year which hopefully isn’t a challenge. I can roughly agree to the math of their calculations. Roommate stayed negative (yeah her!), but had to be tested every morning 8am (ugh, that’s early!), and couldn’t eat or drink except in her room, and missed out on the lovely-ness of Club Orange that we paid extra for. On HAL website it says, “if you, your family members, travelling companions or other close contact are quarantined or medically isolated during your voyage because of a positive COVID-19 test or are suspected of having COVID-19, you are entitled to a 100% future cruise credit for missed cruise days, including the time in quarantine, for you, your travel party, and any confirmed close contacts.” Anyone have experience with travelling companion and FCC? Or wisdom on this? TIA! A pic of my lovely heart shaped Cheerios, which actually is a pic of my “cereal bowl” and “cutlery”, and me trying to show appreciation to the crew… didn’t think until later a $20 would have been more appreciated! D’oh!

Good suggestion martincath!

Looking for most affordable/safe parking in Vancouver. I think this will be YVR long term + sky train. BUT, what IF we test COVID+ on the cruise and need to head straight home to isolate after? Health Canada rules are no public transit including bus, taxi, ride share. So this makes parking downtown Vancouver more logical. Anything affordable & safe-ish within a sturdy walking distance?

IF you get COVID on the ship or as you’re disembarking, and have to isolate, you are not supposed to take transit including taxi, ride share, bus etc. How would you get to your vehicle if it’s at Templeton? That’s my concern and my wonder about where to park.

The minimalists.com 20/20 rule: Anything we get rid of that we truly need, we can replace for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes from our current location. Probably / maybe not going to want the shoes that cost less than $20 but certainly advice that I find helpful for avoiding overpacking and trying to declutter my house. Less helpful if stuck on a ship at sea with a broken shoe. AND, I got wicked water blisters (gosh, don’t think I’ve had those since I was in high school and we’d kick off our shoes and dance til we couldn’t!) from walking ALOT in my Chaco sandals in the heat and for the reminder of the cruise I was grateful I had brought- a needle (TMI!), antibiotic ointment, lots of bandaids, good smartwool socks and runners for the remaining huge port walks!

Definitely doable. We find packing cubes, as a few others have said, really help with packing minimalist. Coloured ones are great - I know to reach for the pink one for underwear, socks etc, and grey for shorts & slacks and the yellow one for charging cords, red one for bathroom items etc. We’ve travelled by bicycles (as well as cruises!) and motorcycle, and they’re helpful in the paniers too.

I very often find I see the lower price but by the time my TA « calls Princess » she comes back to me that the price has increased. Strange. I maybe will do a booking with courtesy hold.

It was like I was on light internet. The refill hearts didn’t work, but yes, I’ve done that at home. I also noticed I couldn’t always download library books… like the internet wasn’t strong enough. Yes, paid HAL internet.

I lost my Duolingo streak in the unpaid version on the recent Koningsdam sailing Vancouver Hawaii Vancouver. I could do the exercises but as someone else said, couldn’t earn gems, and it didn’t refresh hearts so once I’d burned my 5 hearts I was locked out from moving on. Strangely, I could only do the first lesson in each category, I.e. couldn’t move on to lesson 2 or beyond, and I think it didn’t let me fix broken lessons but I might not be remembering accurately. Eventually I had to give up as I was driving myself crazy!