robmac330

Following, I'm on your same cruise and no IPA's would not be great

Just to be safe I suggest doing what I do:

1) Hit up the post-Christmas sales and acquire enough jingle bells to attach to any shoes and/or flip flops. Like deer, young women are known for their keen hearing, and the bells will help alert them as you approach.

2) Find an old-timey movie director's bullhorn. In a pinch a rolled-up Freestyle Daily or similar programming schedule will suffice. While propping the door to the lounge open with your foot, use your makeshift amplifier to announce that you will be entering the room in 30 seconds.

3) Print up flyers with your picture and a simple message that you simply intend to enter the Studio Lounge to acquire coffee and/or pastries and you mean no harm. Slip the room attendant for the Studios $10 to include these inserts in the first night's Freestyle Dailies.

4) Be yourself. You're on vacation and (just like I often find myself) are too far in your own head. I've done several solo cruises and in my experience anyone who shows up gets included in the fun, regardless of age. Anyone who resents an old guy enjoying his vacation in the spaces that he paid for in his cruise fare has their own issues.

Have fun and Bon Voyage!

Even when it's in port?

For sure, even when the ship is docked, Dockyard kind of shuts down by 9 or 10pm except for a couple of spots, so there's a lot of nightlife entertainment. We were on Dawn and there were different bands throughout the ship at night, plus usually some kind of karaoke or game show going on in the main lounge before it turned into the nightclub. We sailed in August and it was a good mix of ages, lots of multi-generational families too.

I know Royal Caribbean has limited numbers of studio cabins on some of their newer ships, but I'm not sure what they have for solo traveler programming. By far Norwegian offers the most, with entire sections of studio cabins on 5 of it's ships (Epic, Escape, Breakaway, Getaway, and Bliss) and solo get togethers each night that are organized by the cruise staff. The rooms are very well designed for a solo traveler and don't waste space. Save for a water closet for the toilet, everything else is in the main room.

Some of the best parts of the room in my opinion:

- Access to the Studio Lounge, that had complimentary juice and snacks throughout the day, as well as a bartender during the solo meet and greet hours. It also provided a nice spot to relax and read during at-sea days

- Lots of convenient storage in the room, including space for suitcases under the bed and good use of space for all of your clothes.

- An advantage over a regular inside room is the glazed porthole. It allows in light from the hallway without letting people see in, and can be half-covered or fully covered at night.

- Because the room is designed for a single traveler on every single cruise, and this may be the best part of these rooms, you get a full-size mattress instead of two singles being pushed together to form a "cruise queen".

I haven't sailed on Escape (yet, sailing on her March 17) but have done the studios on Breakaway. My advice is avoid connecting rooms (like someone mentioned above) and try to avoid being next to any of the "blank spaces" on the room map. They could just be plumbing/mechanical/HVAC, but the one I was next to was a housekeeping prep area. It was non-stop action in there starting at about 7am every day, not ideal when you're out at Howl at the Moon until closing the night before.

She picked the dining. But none of the others would benefit her. I am going to get her the internet but she doesn’t even use a cellphone. I am assuming I could sign on with her password? If I am wrong please tell me.

Yes, the internet package basically allows one device at a time to use that login until the minutes on the package are used up, but it doesn't really matter who in the party is actually doing the logging in.

As for the soda package, it costs $62 for a 7 day cruise, so you could purchase it for $60 less than the taxes/gratuities you would pay on the Ultimate Beverage Package.

I wouldn't mind a weeklong CTS (Cruise To Somewhere) that is 6 sea days with a single port stop. Kind of like what they do with Breakaway and Dawn to Bermuda, except with fewer island days and more amenity days.

The gnocchi in the MDR. I've had it on 2 different ships (Breakaway and Dawn) 3 years apart, and both times they were just dense and bland and not very appetizing. Enough so that I remember the subpar dish from the Breakaway when I had it on the Dawn last month.

Tying this back to the Solo thread, had anyone had luck waiting to book excursions and meeting folks onboard who may also be interested? I've seen it discussed on roll calls for bigger things (i.e.: chartering a catamaran on Tortola) but sometimes I feel like it would be fun, while cruising solo, to take an excursion I'm interested with other solos who want to do it

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I'm booked on a cruise to Norway on NCL next August, out of Southampton. I booked it while on the Escape, but of course, unlike the Escape, the Jade won't have the solo cabins and lounge. I don't know if I'll have many opportunities to meet people. On the other hand, 7 of the 9 days are port days, so...I'll have something to do either way.

My experience on NCL, even the ships without studio cabins or the lounge, is that they host solo meet and greets each night. The ones earlier in the trip are better attended, but it at least gives you a chance to meet people who are also traveling alone.

Any word on what Western ports the rerouted Escape Eastern itineraries will visit?

 

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Roatan, Harvest Cay, Costa Maya, and Cozumel, accoding to NCL.com

We are 88 days out from an Eastern Caribbean. I honestly don't care where they take me. I'm on a ship' date=' I have a beverage package, and a spa. [/quote']

 

Seconded, without amendment. I'm actually kind of jealous of the people heading back out on the Escape for the Avoidance Cruise to Nowhere, because 7 days at sea on one of these ships would be a dream for me.

Currently the Breakaway out of NYC and the Dawn out of Boston for the remainder of the season. 2018 will feature the Escape out of NYC and the Dawn out of Boston.

Good to know because we are looking to take a 3-day cruise to level up to platinum. I would have assumed that Latitude Rewards follow us. No discount on excursions, I guess.

As far as I know you still earn Latitudes Rewards points on cruises shorter than 5 days, the Latitudes amenities just don't apply on those shorter cruises..

Ship - Dawn

Deck - 11

Stateroom # - 11678

Stateroom Category – Mini Suite

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – For the most part, very quiet. This room is aft, but unlike most of the staterooms on 11 that far back, this one was under the Los Lobos specialty restaurant instead of the Garden Buffet. This meant significantly less chair scraping. Only time I heard it was during one late afternoon nap and the one night I went to bed before 10pm.

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – No obstructions, but the way the balconies are on 11 means that if you lean on the railing to look out, you also have a view into your neighbor's balcony, and vice versa.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Larger than a regular balcony, came with two standard chairs and a small table, but could have fit a full lounger into the space.

Was wind a problem? - No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - No

Any specific problems with this cabin? - The air conditioning system was very strange, it seemed like we had to hit the "Quick Cool" button any time we actually wanted the room to be any less than 75 degrees.

Any other comments? - This was a great cabin, especially once you figure out some of the tricks to getting to mid-ship or the pool deck without having to cut through the buffet (go up the stairs to 13 and then exit through the back door of the video arcade)

NCL provides coordinators who put a lot of effort into solo gatherings, which will include meeting up for dinner, entertainment, and other activities. It's always been easy to meet people because of that. You see pretty much the full age spectrum of adult cruisers in the lounge travelling solo.

I've had a mixed bag of results when it comes to the member of the CD staff assigned to coordinate solo events. A few have been really good at helping to break the ice on the first night and help coordinate things, but others are less than stellar. It's a personality thing, just like with any Cruise Director staff responsibility, and some people do well in a group of solo travelers and some need some work.

Yeah, it's funny how that works out....you'd think that the cruise lines would have one contract with one of those companies, to work all the ships in the fleet....

In a perfect world, that would work, but my sister now works for one of these companies and set me straight. The contracts are usually put out to bid when a new ship is built or an existing ship is scheduled for a large-scale refurb. Since each company has different brands that they offer (Starboard's parent company, for example, is Louis Vuitton - Moet Hennessy) the contracts come down to what kind of retail spaces a cruise line envisions for the ship. Is it going for more higher end retail (think Gucci, Dior, Bulgari, etc.) or are they making a bigger emphasis on duty free liquor? That will affect how much a vendor bids depending on what type and how large of a space they'll be operating in.

Lines are starting to drop now.

Interested to find out if anyone on board knew the cause of the delay. Just as they pulled in the gangway and dropped the lines, 2 generically official cars pulled away from the Customs building. I'm assuming just the Bermuda Custom's officers done for the day, but I'm still curious

Noticed the same thing, currently the gangway is still out, and the rope crew is just leaning on the railing. When the shot was wider I noticed what looked like a tug on the far side of the ship. Sailing on her in 10 days, hoping it's not a mechanical issue!

I don't have a copy, but I participated in February. It's only about 4 columns worth of songs, most of the standards you'd expect a pool band to know, plus some Sinatra and other popular favorites.

I personally will not go to Cuba under any circumstances.

Well then I have a cruise on the Carvinal Victory that leaves on the 11th of September that you may be interested in...

Premiere or FC? Most of these people are probably using MovieMaker or Video Editor. And shooting in 4K won't help the quality when you're shooting everything without a tripod, panning and zooming on every shot, and shooting buildings and empty landscapes.

That's probably true, although I've had more than a few clients who found themselves walking out of the Apple Store after being upsold to Final Cut and ending up totally overwhelmed. I was just trying to contribute something of substance to a topic I happen to have a decade and a half of professional experience in. I'll be more careful about that next time :)

Some complimentary information from another pro, in the event you already shot your 4K footage and then realize it's hard to work with. If you're using software like Premiere or Final Cut and have the time, import your files, create a 1080p sequence, drop your full files into the timeline and downsize them to fit the 1080 window (Premiere should ask automatically if you want to downsize them), and then render/export them back out at 1080p. The process may take a while depending on how much footage you have, but it will allow you to work with the content more smoothly and without a significant loss of quality.

Norwegian Escape, March 17-24, 2018, going solo and looking to meet new people.

Hi all,

 

I've booked my first cruise and I'll be travelling solo. I've booked for RCC Allure of the seas departing 1 October 2017.

 

I'm 31 years of age, I work in finance in London and love to travel. I've wanted to do a cruise for some time as I love the idea of seeing a few countries in one trip.

 

I am a little nervous about being one of the younger cruises and being solo however I'm fairly outgoing so hopefully people will be chatty.

I'm 30 and have done solo cruises as well as cruises with groups large enough that I find myself solo at times, and I've mostly found that people in "vacation mode" are more than happy to chat up a stranger, I've met plenty of interesting people on these solo trips. The booze definitely helps as social lubricant as well! :beer-mug::tropical-drink::cocktail::wine-glass::champagne-toast: