MJC

Happy belated birthday Laurie!! 🎂

We are having a busy May. Mark's uncle has been in the hospital, and my goddaughter is visiting us for a few days. She's presenting at a conference at NYU this week.

Our next vacation is not until November, so we have the whole summer to enjoy the lake. The weather is finally getting nice. Our big excitement these days is chasing the resident beaver away from our trees and shrubs.  😁

Am so glad to hear this as we have wanted to sail from San Juan at some point.

We skipped it in April on the EP. We were notified way in advance. I wouldn't plan on it if I were you. We did not get a replacement port, just made it a sea day.

2 hours ago, dreams_of_travel said:

That "sold out" is ridiculous.  Also, where is the Elite email announcing this is open for booking?   I know my travel agent mentioned getting up at 6am PT (she's west coast) to see if it was open for booking, instead of waiting until 9amPT.  I guess we wait and see how this all shakes out.

I talked to a PVP yesterday since our travel agent is out this week. He told me he already had a list of his previous clients he was ready to book when it opened. I imagine that if lots of PVPs had similar lists, the bookings would be going fast and furious on their end.

I got myself up early and kept refreshing until the itinerary was available and I booked it myself. All the aft suites were already gone. I was lucky to get the cabin we wanted, at about 7:45am.

This is my first time booking as Elite and I never got any emails about early booking for past passengers. I only learned about today's opening date here on CC.

3 hours ago, laurspag said:

It was too cloudy and rainy last night for us to see.  Supposedly, we may get another chance tonight!!!

Here too, totally socked in with fog.

On 5/8/2024 at 4:38 PM, mitsugirly said:

  Where are the places you went to in the Pacific that you were underwhelmed? (I want to make sure we don't go there...although when in the ocean, it can change daily I realize). Where is Huatulco?

 

 I discovered my Olympus Tough camera's and never looked back (less bulky too). I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! Every time they come out with a new one, I get another. 

We snorkeled a wreck mot far off the coast of Costa Rica, it may have been Puntarenas, but we didn't see much, and it was more geared to divers. But I wanted to try it, and it was meh, but we still had a nice day on the water. I also snorkeled on my own from one of the beaches in Cabo but didn't have any luck. Too many boats, too many people. Further south I did have a decent snorkel from Isla de Coiba near Panama. The water was calmer there than the others.

Huatulco is a newish port in southern Mexico, it is known for the Nine Bays, its very beautiful coastline. We went to a beach called Playa le Entrega. There is some coral along the rocks (I honestly didn't believe them when they told me there would be coral there until I saw it) but it is smaller and not as  colorful as coral in the Caribbean. We did see quite a variety of fish, that I didn't get any pictures of 😬 and so I can't remember to tell you what we saw. Mostly small and medium sized, some colorful. It was fun but the surf was challenging, not for beginners, and it pulled us out a bit, and we had to work to get back to shore.

Thank you so much for your experienced camera advice! I see an Olympus in my future!

I'm amazed at your pictures and the number of different kinds of fish you saw. I've snorkelled twice in the Pacific and came away underwhelmed. We recently snorkeled at Huatulco and were very pleasantly surprised, though. However, my trusty Canon D10 died, so no photos. I think I even bought the D10 from reading about it in your prior posts, years ago.

Long story short, I am wondering how you like your Olympus since that's a model I am considering as a replacement. Your pictures are wonderful despite the water conditions.

3 hours ago, bladerunner6 said:

Please let me be clear, I don’t want to discourage anyone in their enthusiasm after seeing the eclipse, but this next one is definitely more challenging.

This is true. It's good to like the itinerary in general so you don't feel like it's a wasted trip if the weather doesn't cooperate. 

We are already booked on the Queen Anne, but we will try to switch to Sky since the itinerary is so much better. 🤞

Another thank you for the helpful post!

We don't drink much so we don't get a package,  but I like wine with dinner sometimes. Recently on the Emerald I ordered a glass of cabernet from the premier selection on the menu, I think it was $18 or $20. It was so bland I asked the waiter if they had brought the right wine, it was that bad. They took it away and came back with a different one, which was much better but still not very good.

I have lots of photos to sort through from our recent cruise. Then between having Passover right after we got back, loads of laundry to do, and then picking up our new car on Friday, it was a crazy first week home. And I have a cold. So I'll get to posting eventually. 🙂 

I'm at that point where I'll wear the short dresses while I still can. 🙂  The black feathered-hem dress that I took on this last cruise falls into that category where I have to watch how I sit. I feel the same way about my heels... I know that day is coming where I won't be able to manage the height that I'm doing now, so I'm going to enjoy them while I can.

And do as the French women do... if you think your undies might show, make sure they are cute! When I was younger I had a couple short flowy dresses that I wore matching bike shorts with because of going up and down the subway stairs. One that I particularly loved was yellow and white, and I wore it with white bike shorts and white sneakers.

Poking around the Lands End sale today and thought I'd share this steal on a brown fleece jacket:

https://www.landsend.com/products/womens-sherpa-fleece-full-zip-jacket/id_380731?attributes=19923,41906,41951,43197,43307,44256,44967,45134

brown swimsuit:

https://www.landsend.com/products/womens-slendersuit-tummy-control-chlorine-resistant-wrap-one-piece-swimsuit/id_348727?attributes=18076,41906,41951,43197,43307,44093,44256,44967,45134

We're waiting to disembark after a wonderful cruise. Being away for 15 days is so different, we really got to relax and enjoy each day, including some really lazy ones.

I'm coming home with Mark's cold, which is no fun, but at least it waited until the last day to appear! Can't wait to see my kitty. ❤️

We had an amazing eclipse day on the Emerald Princess with her sister Discovery within sight to our aft as well. Weather couldn't have been better and our captain did an amazing job of keeping the decks as steady as possible for photos. What a great day!

We're already setting our sights on 2026 and have booked Queen Anne out of Southampton to see the eclipse from northern Spain.  Princess will be adding eclipse cruises on the Sky, but I've heard the itineraries won't be available until May.

Time to start an eclipse 2026 thread...

Had a fabulous eclipse day!  Calm seas and clear skies. Lots of corona activity and solar prominences (flares). Got to watch from the shade of our balcony.

We arrived in LA yesterday afternoon and are glad we missed the earthquake in NY. Flights will be disrupted from there for several day as they play catchup.

I checked our house camera and we can see it stop and restart a few times during the quake but otherwise everything looks fine. 

We're waiting for boarding to begin. So excited to be on the water again! We are birthed next to Sapphire Princess which we will be on in the fall.

Laurie, I do!  I have black and tan ankle pants with matching sweaters to go with my pretty tops for dinners. I find the dining rooms and theaters can be chilly at times so I like to have a cardigan handy.

Our boarding day is looking to be rainy and in the 60's. We leave here the day before and it may be raining then too, and cold. For the flight I'm wearing my black cardi with leggings and a long sleeved top, and my sneakers. I'll wear my rain jacket to the airport but stow it on the plane. 

Wishing everyone day of peace and hope tomorrow. ❤️

The last of my clothes are lounging/workout shorts and Ts. The three shorts are along the top, blue and black bike shorts and one pair of lightweight khakis. One of the things I really like about Princess is Zumba on sea days. I have three quick dry workout tops, which will also work well for the very hot days we'll have during the middle of the cruise.

On port days we have plans for snorkeling, sailing, an elevated suspension forest canopy hike, a historic city walk, and a beach day with snorkeling. We have two scenic cruising days, for the solar eclipse and for the Panama Canal.

For the first time we have matching shirts for embarkation day photos!

5 hours ago, akeasley said:

On Caribbean now and we’ve seen Barbie, Mario Bros, The Creator, Where the crawdad sings, wonka and west side story. A few others too but these are the highlights.

 

The movies all listed on the app but are not all printed in the patter. 

Where in the app are they? We cruise Friday and the list of events doesn't have MUTS listed at all.

I'm bringing 2 pairs of pants with matching sweaters, black or tan, and these are the tops I will wear with them for dinner. They also go with my black, tan, or navy shorts for daytime (except for the two satiny ones). A nice bonus is that all of these can be washed in the sink and hang dry quickly.

I'll wear my pearl earrings with the middle one. Then l-r here are my choices for jewelry.

Melody, there's definitely a celestial theme happening...

Laurie, I hope you feel better soon. 

I'll wear my sneakers, and then I'm good at nesting  my shoes in the bottom of my suitcase and filling them with stuff. But, since we're also bringing snorkel gear, I'll probably have to bring my small roll-aboard in addition to a checked bag. I'll see how it goes when I start packing, and what I'm willing to give up, before I make that call. 

I just spent two weeks in Michigan with one suitcase and bulky cold weather clothes, and our fall cruise was a cold weather one, so it's in my wheelhouse to do, but I just don't want to for this cruise. I look forward to dressing up, and wearing my nicer clothes, and taking what we need for the activities we've chosen. 

These 4 dresses are for evening, but will also be daywear on the ship later in the cruise by changing shoes and jewelry.

For the navy dress:

I got this lapis set in Peru and it goes so well with the second dress.

Just earrings with the green dress.

Orange fun!

Shoes!