BTimmer's Almost Live Grand South America 10/7/23 -12/19/2023

[oakridger]

Those look like very useful items.  Nice!

 

 

~Nancy

[Btimmer]

1 minute ago, oakridger said:

Those look like very useful items.  Nice!

 

 

~Nancy

Yes they are!  

[WriterOnDeck]

10 hours ago, Btimmer said:

 It's the first time we've received anything quite like this.

 

 

One of the perks of a grand cruise as opposed to just a longer cruise!

[mexico8]

11 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Tonight after coming back to the stateroom we were surprized with a few gifts: a heavy shopping bag, a travel case, a sun hat, a wallet, and a 7,000 milliamp portable battery.  It's the first time we've received anything quite like this.

 

Quite the surprise.   Good for you.   I think I read you a re 5* so you have earned all those gifts!

[Durango Sandy]

Nice gifts. Looks like HAL is trying to make up for the not so Grand Africa 2022 and World 2023. We were on the Africa. A step in the right direction!

Have a great cruise. Look forward to your reports. 

[MAsquared]

2 hours ago, Durango Sandy said:

Nice gifts. Looks like HAL is trying to make up for the not so Grand Africa 2022 and World 2023. We were on the Africa. A step in the right direction!

Have a great cruise. Look forward to your reports. 

I am a newbie and don't know what happened with the above mentioned cruises.  Can you enlighten me?! TIA

 

[REOVA]

2 hours ago, mexico8 said:

Quite the surprise.   Good for you.   I think I read you a re 5* so you have earned all those gifts!

They actually are given to everyone on the Grand cruises. Glad they are bringing back the cabin gifts. The Grands are supposed to be special voyages and over the years (even prior to the shutdown) HAL cut back. But sounds like they are listening to feedback. 

[WriterOnDeck]

7 minutes ago, REOVA said:

They actually are given to everyone on the Grand cruises. Glad they are bringing back the cabin gifts. The Grands are supposed to be special voyages and over the years (even prior to the shutdown) HAL cut back. But sounds like they are listening to feedback. 

At a reception our travel agency had yesterday, Hotel Manager Florin Dragomir reported out on the Montreal meeting from May attended by the hotel managers and cruise directors for the 3 grand cruises to day (world, africa, south america) and 20 people from HQ. (Sounds about like a typical corporate meeting... but I digress.) In addition to hinting at the pillow gifts, he said there are more dressy/gala nights (perhaps with decorations), three guest chefs who will have cooking demonstrations and offer special dinners in the Pinnacle Grill, two shows nightly by local entertainers on overnight stops, and probably a few other items I've forgotten. We have nightly chocolate (as we did on the world), and had a block party the first sea day. I assume we will have more of those, at least one after Buenos Aires (we had 4 or 5 on the world). I'm guessing we'll have some surprise parties -- like the glamping party by the Lido we had on the world.

[Btimmer]

13 minutes ago, WriterOnDeck said:

At a reception our travel agency had yesterday, Hotel Manager Florin Dragomir reported out on the Montreal meeting from May attended by the hotel managers and cruise directors for the 3 grand cruises to day (world, africa, south america) and 20 people from HQ. (Sounds about like a typical corporate meeting... but I digress.) In addition to hinting at the pillow gifts, he said there are more dressy/gala nights (perhaps with decorations), three guest chefs who will have cooking demonstrations and offer special dinners in the Pinnacle Grill, two shows nightly by local entertainers on overnight stops, and probably a few other items I've forgotten. We have nightly chocolate (as we did on the world), and had a block party the first sea day. I assume we will have more of those, at least one after Buenos Aires (we had 4 or 5 on the world). I'm guessing we'll have some surprise parties -- like the glamping party by the Lido we had on the world.

 

Don't spoil everything for us.

[WriterOnDeck]

6 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

Don't spoil everything for us.

🙂

 

I figured word would get around. I guess it's a toss-up -- get blamed for spoiling it or get blamed for knowing and not sharing. And I wrote about it in my blog earlier today anyway. But don't worry -- I didn't share everything he told our group.

[Sir PMP]

15 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Tonight after coming back to the stateroom we were surprized with a few gifts: a heavy shopping bag, a travel case, a sun hat, a wallet, and a 7,000 milliamp portable battery.  It's the first time we've received anything quite like this.

 

Did you see the note: to be returned at the end of the cruise.

[whogo]

Just now, Sir PMP said:

Did you see the note: to be returned at the end of the cruise.

"If you would care to keep the items, you account will be charged..."

[whogo]

Seriously, great live report and blog, BTimmer. It makes sense to provide the gifts at the beginning, you can use them through the cruise.

 

Personally, I have too much stuff already and would rather not have any gifts.

[Btimmer]

The upgrade fairy waved her wand and we are now in 1818 (a window stateroom).

[Durango Sandy]

1 hour ago, MAsquared said:

I am a newbie and don't know what happened with the above mentioned cruises.  Can you enlighten me?! TIA

 

See post #58, re: items added back into Grands now that for the most part were missing from Grand Africa 22 and World 23. We have 700+ HAL sea days mostly on Grands, since 2014. Experiences have declined some over time, not unexpectedly or too uncomfortably, except on Grand Africa 23, where even considering Covid “pause”, it rather nosedived. To me the worst was no printed port guides after two ports…in Africa, where many people have never visited. Fortunately, we had been to many of the ports and had other research, but many, many hadn’t and didn’t. I think printed port guides have been reinstated. Is this correct current cruisers? Also, we had no guest speakers for the first 7/8 sea days of the cruise. There were other issues, but I think above info and what WriterOnDeck provided will suffice. 

[RuthC]

2 hours ago, whogo said:

Personally, I have too much stuff already and would rather not have any gifts.

Historically, one of the last 'pillow gifts' on a Grand Cruise is a carry-on size suitcase to lug it all home in. 

If a passenger truly didn't want the gifts, all this is necessary would be to inform your steward so you aren't given one.

[REOVA]

3 hours ago, Btimmer said:

The upgrade fairy waved her wand and we are now in 1818 (a window stateroom).

Ahh so the gifts were really meant for someone else. Guess you have to leave them in the cabin. 😉

[dawnvip]

Very much enjoying your reports thus far, thanks!

[SilvertoGold]

5 hours ago, Btimmer said:

The upgrade fairy waved her wand and we are now in 1818 (a window stateroom).

Well, wow!!!  Great that you asked, fantastic what you got!  Really happy for you both.  Have a great view!

[Btimmer]

Before I share a bit about today's excursion, we were interrupted during dinner by the Captain's voice from the Bridge indicating that for our upcoming overnight stop in Guayaquil, Ecuador, for the first night, Sunday, 10/15/23, the ship gangway will remain closed and nobody can leave or enter the ship.  For the next day, it is to be determined whether we will be able to leave the ship and / or whether shore excursions will happen.  Below is a copy of the letter that we received.

 

 

Today we took an independent shore excursion with Ricky Ricardo Tours.  This tour did a large loop through the area near Puerto Límon.  Along the way, we stopped at a fruit market and examined local fruit and sampled freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, drove through a banana plantation, took a hour long river cruise where we saw birds and sloths and a howler monkey, ate lunch at a Costa Rican restaurant and returned to the ship with two hours to spare.  It was blazing hot and the air-conditioning was wonderful.

 

There'll be more details in my blog for today, but below are a few pictures.  We especially liked seeing the sloths once again.

 

 

 

 

 

[Btimmer]

Today was our transit of the Panama Canal and I have posted a long narrative and many pictures over on my blog.  It was a good transit although we got behind schedule and my wife and I had to miss the last lock and sailing under the Bridge of the Americas (not that we haven't seen it on our previous 6 transits),

 

Tomorrow is projected to be a relaxing sea day on our way to our next port stop in Manta, Ecuador.

 

 

 

[ScottishMaid]

Hi Tim, Can you solve a mystery? What are the objects on the left hand side of the bow? We watched them being loaded by crane onto the bow back in August. I'm surprised they are still there. 

 

[Alphen]

2 hours ago, ScottishMaid said:

Hi Tim, Can you solve a mystery? What are the objects on the left hand side of the bow? We watched them being loaded by crane onto the bow back in August. I'm surprised they are still there. 

 

Not on board, but on a different thread, they are described as the thruster covers, that are normally in place to guard the bow and or stern thrusters, maybe still to be installed after the recent thruster change, or maybe spare?

Edited October 13, 2023 by Alphen

[Btimmer]

35 minutes ago, Alphen said:

Not on board, but on a different thread, they are described as the thruster covers, that are normally in place to guard the bow and or stern thrusters, maybe still to be installed after the recent thruster change, or maybe spare?

I figured that they were thruster guards like shown above.  They appear to be used due to their condition.

[ScottishMaid]

16 hours ago, Btimmer said:

I figured that they were thruster guards like shown above.  They appear to be used due to their condition.

Thanks Alphen and Tim.

All makes sense as we watched the divers working when at Halifax. I was confused as it looked like there was wood but that's probably a pallet. We were on deck 6 not the bow. I wonder where they will unload since they've been there 6 weeks or more.