ThyriC

SQUEE!! I hadnt seen that on their website about some of their products being available at the clocktower mall. Crossing fingers it'll be there because I'd like to make my 2nd day a bit more shopping dedicated

Yah I used it in Penn Station when I was going to California by train. Checked it in Baltimore, and it met me all the way in Anaheim because of the long layover in DC, the Cardinal caught up, handed over the luggage onto the Capitol Limited, then handed off again to the Southwest Chief, then one last time to the train that went from Los Angeles to Anaheim. On the way back due to a delay on the Chief, the luggage and I became unpaired and because of that, Amtrak sent someone to my home to deliver my luggage to me (it was a nasty delay on the Chief, like 11 hours late, all connections got missed, so they put me up in a hotel overnight, and that's when the unpairing happened)

I think you "can" check your luggage but its not going on that train with you. There's no baggage car on the NE corridor train. On the Cardinal, yes they run a baggage car. But the NE Corridor, nope, not even if you go from DC to Boston. But they'll stick the luggage on the Cardinal for you to pick up later in the day. But that thing has some crazy delays (I regularly see it with 2 hour delays, I dont think I've ever seen it on time)

Yah I take it for work as well, but when you get on in Baltimore, all the DC people have the luggage cubbies full, and usually they're full all the way to Newark. I've just learned to travel for work with my single airline approved carryon that I dont have to break my back to heft into the above seat storage. For someone not accustomed to this train ride, its a little difficult

I'd recommend the amtrak personally. No worries about traffic and the NE corridor train is pretty danged regular. Because your pain points are going to be getting out of Baltimore (depending on where you are, 695 just finds a way to get itself jacked up at the 95 junctions), your next pain point is going to be Philly. Might be good, might be jacked for miles. Then its getting through Jersey. But I'm all about the relaxing on a train, chatting about your upcoming cruise, and letting someone else deal with the traffic. One issue about the train. The NE Corridor train does NOT have checked luggage. So you have to be using carryons (a full size suitcase will not fit, or you'll give yourself a hernia lifting a full size suitcase into the above seat storage, not to mention possibly clubbing someone with your full size luggage as you get out at Newark). If you do 2 carryons per person, figure out how you're going to wrangle that luggage down before the stop at the airport because the stop is relatively short because that train is going to try to make up any time lost before it arrives in NYC. If you take a train like the Cardinal (I think that's the correct one), its been notorious for delays, but it does have checked luggage but with checking luggage, you can have luggage snafus. So your luggage situation can prefer leaving Baltimore by car at like 530 just to be on the safe side with traffic.

I have the silicone straws that I can just pack in my purse or pocket and when I need it, just whip out the straw. But for the hub, plastic straws all the way, he's not used to the silicone ones yet. So into a sandwich bag in the purse it goes. My purse is slowly becoming the bottomless pit of "stuff"

I have Pam Richter out of Pennsylvania. She has been nothing short of an angel for me. In just a few email conversations, she already knows my cruising preferences, how I like to travel, I swear the woman is a mind reader. She even extended a reservation hold for me when it benefitted my credit card miles to wait an extra few days only to have my plans completely change due to a move down south. After all I put her through, only to cancel, I felt so bad, but she was very reassuring and hasnt stopped her top notch service. Its very comforting for me to use a travel agent, to know that in 67 days I have nothing to do but relax.

Thank you all so very much. Now I know I can bring my skates! My husband teases me because with my disability, I shouldnt be able to skate anymore, but its the one place where I'm upright and moving normally, even gracefully. I came up as a skater on an uneven rink. I've skated on ponds and lakes, and bumpy rinks. If you've never taken the plunge to go ice skating or roller skating on a cruise, give it a small try. Even if you're clinging to the wall, take a lap or two around, its one of the most invigorating sensations in the world. And a tip about falling. If you feel yourself falling, and you;re not a confident skater, dont try to stop the fall. I know its instinct to flail around and try to catch yourself. Its ice. You wont be able to. If you can, try to land on your rear end. Most cushioning! Crumple at the knees and sit. kick your legs out from under you and voila! you're on your rump! I'm really not kidding here. You might bruise your backside, but its better than flailing wildly about and possibly injuring someone else, or falling forward and risking injury to your wrists or shoulders or knees. Or trying to catch your balance with your ankles. The skates arent THAT strong to save you a broken ankle from trying to compensate your center of gravity with your ankles. I KNOW falling is counterintuitive. But its one of the first things any skater learns. How to fall. And your butt is best for falling.

Thank you. I think the ferry that frightened me was the one to St George because that's a lot more limited of a schedule. I adore St George but with only one shot at the ferry there, and only one coming back, knowing myself, and how I can get lost in a box, I'd miss the ship.

Ok so, I'm using your map that you provided of the Dockyard kind of as my guide (and a ferry schedule). So get on the blue ferry to Hamilton, and Front St is right there. Seems like this ferry operates about every hour. Ok that's not too bad, I think I might be able to do this one without an excursion... I think.

Ok this one's a bit... odd. But I'm on a mission. A long long time ago when I went to Bermuda (we're talking about 30 years ago now) I got this perfume. It was amazing. I found out that this perfume still exists and is sold in Bermuda (also online but I'd prefer getting it in Bermuda for the nostalgia sake of being turned into a human test strip from the amount of perfume that was testered on me. Apparently I have decent chemistry to make perfumes smell good). However, the perfumery is in St George and on my cruise I'm not seeing an excursion to St George that would even give me an opportunity to shop and I'm terrified of self ferrying to St George, going to the perfumery and trying to get back in time to catch the ship (I'm booked solid for day one). I've heard rumor that this perfumery has a store on Front St. About how far from Front St is the Royal Dockyard? This may be my only opportunity to get this perfume other than getting to St George to do the perfumery tour. And Front St would give me a chance to mayyybe get myself a bermuda shorts suit because I just love them.

I remember being a young woman like your daughter. What worked for me to dress up? Pants. Lots and lots of pants. I wear pantsuits and female tuxedoes for formal events, so why cant she? Look at female sports figures today. Serena Williams, the women of the womens soccer team like Megan Rapinoe, the women of the WNBA. these women can rock a tank dress or a pantsuit like no tomorrow. Too young to pantsuit, ok how about yoga pants and a dressed up tee? Something with a few sequins on it enough to draw the eye from the yoga pants. Pair that with a pair of vans slipons and you have a sporty formal night appropriate outfit that I'd dare any sweats for everything teen to turn their nose up at.

I'm a fan of the drink package. Its more the peace of mind than trying to beat the drinking game. I like to think of it more like "drinking insurance" than I think of it as a game of "beat the house". Here's why. 1. Soda costs 3.50 each. Same with bottled water. Do you like bottled water or do you like tap water? Do you like tea or lemonade over soda? 2. Specialty Coffees are in the 5 dollar range. Do you like your coffee plain? Or do you like a latte or other specialty coffee? 3. Adult beverages. Your typical rum and coke will run you around 8 dollars. A Lava Flow with Kraken rum will run you 13. Now lets add up our numbers. You wake up, have a latte or two. That's 10 dollars for the day thus far. Now you go do trivia or something and have a soda. We're up to 13.50 for the day. Its now lunchtime. We're on vacation so we get our day drinking on. Lets have that lava flow. 26.50 for the day. Lets also have a bottle of water so we dont have issues with alcohol. we're already at 30 on the day. Now we have a latte at midday for a little extra pep, 35 for the day. Lets have a soda before dinner. 38.50 for the day. Lets have a glass of wine with dinner. 45 for the day. We go to the nightclub or to the evening show, lets have a rum and coke and dont forget that bottle of water. 56.50 for the day. Before gratuity on the adult beverages. You're pushing 60 dollars without the DBP and that's really not drinking heavily at all. And this isnt trying to challenge our alcohol tolerance in the least and we've hit a rather high number for the DBP. Anything more than that, and you've exceeded the DBP. That's not to say you cant have a great time having regular coffee or tea with breakfast, drinking tap water, "enhanced water" tea and lemonade throughout the day, the same with lunch and dinner, and maybe one alcoholic beverage a day to get you to 13 a day. Then, yes, the DBP is not for you. But for me, I'm on vacation. I want my frozen adult beverages. I want my special coffees, and I need my soda to survive. I'm not a fan of tap water on a ship. Its definitely drinkable, I'm just not a fan of it. Bottled for me please.

For #5, I dont have children in 2019 however, perhaps a bit of alternate advice rather than making the child miserable by putting them in something they hate. You want to do formal night, GREAT! Kids, go to Sorrentos, the WJ, or have room service for dinner. If they're teenagers, I'm sure they're responsible enough to be left alone for 2-3 hours while those wishing to partake in formal night can. You can express to them that you'd really like if they participated in formal night together as a family, but its their choice. That said, sometimes a bribe works as well. A bribe of a mocktail with dinner, a nice souvenir or something like that. Also, there are places like ThinkGeek that make polo shirts and even formalwear with a nerd culture or video game theme if your kids are into that. I'm 40+ and I'm still young at heart enough to enjoy those clothes. If they're into sports, almost all sports teams stores carry polo shirts with a team logo to indulge in their sporty nature. Formal night doesnt have to mean slapping on a suit, especially for kids, they're a little more lenient. How about "nice jeans". Black jeans go with any polo shirt!

I'm going to have to concur with the masses and say get a good sunblock and apply LIBERALLY. Then after an hour, apply more. And then more. That's how people get burned with sunblock. Then after sun, moisturize! Your skin will thank you. I used to be a tan before I sunned type. So if you MUST sit in a tanning bed, try the ones with the quartz lenses. They reduce the amount of time you're exposed to UV. I'd go for about 5-7 minutes, once a week for 4 weeks, then 10 minutes, once a week for 4 more weeks. That should get you a decent enough of a base tan with minimal UV exposure and minimal UV damage. But that doesnt absolve you of your sunblock responsibility! Even with your base tan, sunblock sunblock sunblock!! And after sun, moisturize!! Like, a LOT. Slather that stuff on. A good quality sunblock of a minimum SPF30, and then a moisturizer like my personal favourite Body Drench (used to be sold a lot at tanning salons for post tan moisturization)

OMG I was just watching the Solstice on the webcams I think. Hopefully propulsion was restored quickly

I, too, like sea days, but I also like visiting the places on port intensive cruises. For me, going to the Med is all about those destinations and not about the vehicle to get to those destinations so for me, I'd adjust my expectations to the destinations. But I'm in the USA, and I dont get to see the Med all that often. Its more of a once in a lifetime experience. But I also understand why for others the ship is the destination rather than the ports. Repositioning cruises are perfect for those who are all about the ship rather than the destination. Like I also see people saying Nassau is on so many itineraries that frequent caribbean cruisers would probably prefer another sea day to visiting Nassau again. But everyone has different tastes. I think that's why I like the smaller ship sailings that seem to me to have more sea days than they do port days. I think also with Oasis class, the ship CAN be the destination. If belly flop, sexiest man, etc are your thing, I might even look into shorter Med cruises and do back to backs rather than a single long cruise. More sexy man more belly flop and more sea!

Oh mannnn @WAAAYTOOO I'll just miss you on Grandeur, I'm on the Oct 26th sailing. But it is nice to hear about the MDR on Embarkation though, because I was kind of dreading doing the WJ on embarkation and didnt want to see if maybe the UDP was going to work or not for Chops, so now there's a nice option to take a load off and really get to starting the cruise. The unlimited "Key" sales kind of baffles me though. Because if its for everyone, then what does it really include? Just priority embarkation and Voom? Kind of loses its value without Chops on the smaller ships since you can almost always get a good seat at shows without the Key.

I wish there'd be more smoker friendly areas that dont intrude on the nonsmokers. Like installing better filtration areas in the casino as well as doors so that nonsmokers dont have to be inundated by the smoke cloud. A cigar bar would be just heaven to me. Same with the outdoor smoking areas. I dont want nonsmokers needing to walk through my cloud just to get to where they need to go. But I also dont want smoking to be made so inconvenient for me that I need to crawl inside of the funnel, do a handstand, while carrying the hope diamond just to be able to smoke. I try, I really REALLY do try to be considerate of the non smokers. I dont blow my smoke in their direction, I dont hold my cigarette out into their path of travel, and I move my cigarette so a child doesnt see and think that I must be a really cool person and thus smoking must be cool. But some of the hysterics I've seen from nonsmokers, entering into the small smoker friendly areas is a bit much. The wild waving of hands, the exaggerated coughing, the need to "inform" me that its a horrible habit, etc. Hey I get it, its a gross habit. It'll likely kill me some day. But until a cruise is made smoke free, we both need to inhabit the same space, lets try to get along. I'll try not to inconvenience you with my smoke, you try not to go into my dark smoky corner waving hands.

I'm super picky about my eggs too, so I never order scrambled. Not even like at a hotel or anything. NOPE I need to see me some actual egg, not something from a box or powdered. Usually my room service order, I just get some muffins or a bagel or something small for "first breakfast" then to the WJ or MDR for "second breakfast" I swear on a cruise I eat like a hobbit.

Just a few days now until I'm a 2 digit midget LOL I like working in small countdowns, makes the time go so much faster. I remember when that countdown was over 300 days, now it just seems so close!

I'm not a huge fan of this "hack". I AM a fan of it for packing because you can just roll it packed up and then unroll onboard the ship. However I mean you "could" put the organizer on the outside of the door, or use magnetic hooks to put the organizer on a wall outside of the bathroom or similar.

I meant checked with the ship. This bird doesnt fly. And trains are very generous with their luggage size allotments.

1 28" checked bag 1 24" that we check as well 1 21" carryon... depends on my mood if we check that (sometimes depending on the weather we'll skip one of the smaller bags or will condense some of the miscellaneous bags into the 21" and then use those misc bags for souvenirs. 1 backpack (this is my "cant live without the stuff in this" bag) 1 messenger bag (because hub gets self conscious toting around a backpack so he gets my laptop bag) 1 purse. Hey its luggage.

Oh I agree that the environmental impact to the bay would be immense if they built a terminal at Annapolis, or worst lost the cruise business to Norfolk. I dont know too much about the turning needed of the cargo ships, but I recall seeing something about some larger ships than can fit in New York have come to Baltimore regularly. Maybe cruise ships have a greater turn requirement than the cargo ships, or maybe its just the positioning of the cruise terminal vs the cargo terminal. So perhaps there'd be less environmental impact to increase the basin size but then it would only allow Radiance, and I'd doubt the key bridge would allow Oasis class (or Carnival's larger ships as well)