teddy

Sometimes it’s difficult to be good. 

Wow. We’ll be following along.  
 

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This sailing just reaffirms our decision to do the Western Med on Voyager next year instead of Oasis

Our Italy cruise next month is on Explorer and with a port every day, we have the same thoughts as you about just coming back to the ship to relax.  We booked an aft balcony specifically for this reason.  We love Anthem, but I’d feel like I had to be out and about doing something when we got back rather than resting up for the next day. 

I say just go to the C&A desk onboard.

I've had troubles in the past with multiple numbers due to having an apostrophe in my last name because the apostrophe is considered a special character not a letter. I had a number issued for my name with a space where the apostrophe should be, and one for my name with no space.

Our travel agent spent more time than she should have trying to get things resolved, so I just started going to the loyalty ambassador when I boarded if there were any problems.

Three cruises ago, the loyalty ambassador had a special character in his name, so I found someone who understood exactly what was happening.  He fixed it, and so far, it's been okay.

I've been able to catch up again.  Thank you!!!

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

Noro is just so contagious. Not much else to do but ride it out and keep everything clean

Yup, and it's not just cruise ships that have strict rules, it's just cruise ships that get the bad press.

If anyone at my work (supermarket) gets one of the "Big Six" foodborne illnesses, they are out of work until cleared by a doctor.

Oh….51 days till the cruise.  47 days until we fly out. 

We seriously considered doing one in 2024, but our cruise budget for the year is pretty much used up.  We have our eyes on 2025. 

We decided to book a shared water taxi to go from the airport to our hotel rather than ride the Alilaguna water bus.  It should be more direct and much less walking.  Our flight arrives at 1810 and we will have to get a couple bags at the baggage claim. By this point, we know we’ll be tired of traveling and just want to get to our hotel.  
 

$75.90 for two after Euro/USD conversion.  It’s more expensive than the regular water bus, but like I said, we will get to our hotel quicker and have less walking from drop off point to the hotel. 
 

https://www.tiqets.com/en/venice-attractions-c71510/tickets-for-venice-water-taxi-airport-from-marco-polo-airport-to-venice-p1032292/

I was just thinking how crazy it would be if we were diverted from Bermuda to Portland since we live five miles from the city. Thankfully our cruise from Cape Liberty to Bermuda is in May. 

Portland has been gaining a reputation as a foodie town over the past few years.   There are plenty of good places to eat within walking distance of the pier.  Lots of places to get a drink if you’re so inclined.   Like SpeedNoodles said, it’s very walkable and safe. 
 

If food/drink aren’t your thing, there’s a lot to see just walking around the waterfront.  There are tons of shops in the area

There are places to buy excursions right on the waterfront.  Unless you decide you want to travel up to Freeport for shopping and the LL Bean flagship store, you really don’t need to book an excursion through Royal.   Even the Portland Head Light can be done via an Uber/Lyft if you want  

The end of tourist season is approaching, so prices on things may start to drop a bit  

Edited to add:  The weather is supposed to be nice. I hope you have a good time. 
 

49 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

I really hope this is a case of not understanding that there will beds for each person booked.  The alternative is they think this is like a hotel where they just book a room and they can just bring the kids for free!

This is kinda how I read it 

When we were on Anthem last February, we were finally Diamond and had vouchers.  We each tipped cash for each drink we got using them.  After the first night in the Music Hall, the waiter would "forget" to use my voucher...granted, I don't drink alcohol, so it was for a Coke or Sprite, but he appreciated the cash tip.

I just had a chance to catch up with you folks.  I love the pictures.  Thank you for sharing. 
 

I’m glad the weather was good for you.   Last October when we were in St. John, it was foggy and drizzly and we couldn’t see much.   We did do the walk to the reversing falls though.  
 

Like everyone else here, I’m glad you spoke up in the dining room.  I know that as a person whose job depends on customers, I want to know when something is wrong.  Yes, there are times I cannot do anything due to corporate decisions, but I still want to know because sometimes I can still “tweak” things at my level. 
 

I hope the weather keeps cooperating for the rest of your cruise. 

1 hour ago, bobroo said:

I think it's Air2Sea. They are acting as a TA selling air travel.

In my opinion they are being a very poor travel agent. This is a real Costco maneuver. 

We mostly fly American Airlines since they have a lot of flights out of Portland, Maine.  We’ve always had to pay for advance seat assignments when flying Basic Economy.   We’ve found the same thing the couple times we’ve flown on Delta.   

Pretty sure this is on the airlines end. 
 

We fly Economy Class.  
 

Whether we book through Air2Sea or directly with an airline, we can either pay to get seats in advance or wait until our flight and be assigned.  Since we like to sit together, we pay for our individual seats ahead of time.

In our experience, it’s cheaper to do it this way rather than book a more expensive class that includes choosing a seat in the total cost. 

For our upcoming flights to/from Italy, we priced them out many different ways.  Air2Sea was the cheapest overall, but since we booked Economy (rather than Business, Plus, extra, etc depending on the airline), none of the ways we priced out included seats at the time of booking.  We paid extra to chose our seats after we paid in full.   If we had booked a higher class initially, we wouldn’t have had to pay a per seat charge.  

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The whole time we were on the trolley heading there, I thought if you! I kept thinking, “I wonder if @teddy lives around here?” 

Awesome pictures.   We’re glad you had a great day (my wife follows on instagram).  
 

We now live just west of Portland, so close enough.

Until a couple years ago, I worked in South Portland, right across from where you docked.  I had great lunchtime views of the cruise ships when they were in port. 

When wife moved here from Canada with her parents (she was a little girl), they lived about 2.7 miles/3.4 km from the headlight.  In the 90s, I lived a few blocks from the observatory you posted a picture of.  That part of Portland was rougher back then.  It’s nice to see it all cleaned up. 
 

We’re looking forward to following along on the rest of your cruise. 
 

Edit:  BBCode catastrophe trying to edit on my phone. 

It’s always neat to see local pictures taken by people on a port call. 
 

The 10k I referenced my wife running earlier ended at right there by the Portland Head Light. 

6 minutes ago, teddy said:

so even a trip to see the grandkids

It just hit me how old saying this makes me feel.  

We’ve used travel insurance for flight delays/cancellations/extra hotel nights and luggage damage, but never for medical/evacuation….but we have those coverages just in case.  

Once we started doing more than two cruises a year, we went with an annual plan.  It covers us when we’re 100 miles or more from home, so even a trip to see the grandkids is covered for over half of it. 
 

We bring enough ones to give a tip with each drink we get using a voucher.  Even though we don’t drink alcohol, we tip for each drink.  

Technically I went to school in Boston, but it was only kindergarten.  I guess it doesn’t count. 

Maybe they’re “special” cookies? 

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

On another note, @Ampurp85 made me think of something else. Random observation. It’s only Day 2, but all 4 of us have noticed that the age demographic of this sailing appears to be considerably higher than what we are used seeing on our sailings. Enough to make us take notice. Maybe it’s the itinerary? Maybe the time of year? Don’t know. 

We sailed to Canada last year on Voyager out of Boston. While there were some young kids, most of the people we saw were at least our age or older (we were 52 and 54 at the time). 

It’s hard for me to give a worst case answer since any balcony would be great as far as I’m concerned.  

My advice to people asking about booking a guaranteed cabin is if they have any concerns about where their cabin will be, then the GTY is probably not for them. 

The cabin availability seen online isn’t always indicative of what is truly available or where a GTY assignment could be.

Interestingly enough, we have in Interior GTY booked on a five night Liberty cruise to Bermuda next May.