GregD

Happy Cruise day!!

Are you even blogging right if there aren't tangents?

I just mentioned to @TheBoss518 that we leave for Scotland in 8 days....which was followed up with a look of panic, and a s@#t.....I'm not ready.....(which is code for, we will be funding the next Bezos wedding) At this rate we will still be packing the morning of departure...... @Lovetocruise2002 can you have hubby let her know his last minute packing tricks? @asquared17 fear not, I already packed the cup clip

This happens here as well.

funny story....When I was younger I worked as a lifeguard during summer breaks at an inner city pool. This one was known for being over crowded and rowdy. Parents would drop off their poor behaving freeloaders for the day for us to "babysit." Older kids would just come and go throughout the day. Always busy, always stressful. If it got too crazy, one of the guards while on their break would go to the restaurant in the park and get a meatball. This would then be dropped in the pool on the way to a guard station for another lifeguard to find. We would call a code brown, kick everyone out of the pool for an hour so that we can "shock the pool." This usually would have the desired effect of the older kids, who were usually the problems, getting bored and leaving for the rest of the day...

Like I mentioned in your live blog, and now I can see all the people I'm going to upset, but I will repeat here. While I am a fun guy, I found their mushroom soup to be just meh. I do really like the bacon, and will frequently get the crab cake, even though it's mostly bread crumbs.

@OCSC Mike looking forward to following along. This will help distract me from my over excitement about leaving for Scotland here soon. I'm excited to see how the dining works out for you. We have the same B2B booked for April, but on Wonder!. We snagged the UDP for both legs for a really good price. I'm debating canceling for the 3 day. I can tell you that I cant wait to try MJ. All of your talk about that restaurant over your past blogs has me so ready to try it. I do plan on doing a brunch and dinner there. I have yet to eat at Hooked, so I cant comment there, but I can say that I have never had a bad meal at chops. Like everything RC there are consistently inconsistent. Some meals were better than others, but never bad. My go to's there are the goat cheese salad, and the filet. The Boss gets the ribeye and usually has no complaints. The bacon is usually good. The crab cake has decent flavor, but has too much bread crumbs (which seems to be the consensus). I've had the lobster bisque which is quite tasty, but usually lacks actual pieces of lobster, and I'm probably going to make a certain neighbor/neighbour? @Lovetocruise2002 amongst other people sad when I say the mushroom soup is just meh...... My favorite of the sides are the gruyere tater tots, because I am a kid at heart and LOVE tots, and when you can add cheese to them, even better. The Mac and cheese is good too. I will have to remember to reach out to you before we head out on Wonder to see if your crew friends are on the ship. I would love to meet them and would gladly bring any requested items.

It absolutely does. Some areas are better than others. It's all based on distance and availability of access points that you are able to connect to, and any local interference between that access point and your device. For instance, I was on Allure (pre-amplification) seated in the champagne bar and wifi was not usable. Once I moved into the promenade a bit, it was significantly better.

I feel your pain, but unfortunately that is a result of ship construction. All that steel, and other structures absolutely kill WIFI signals. Having starlink won't fix that. Unless they spend gobs of money and time installing additional access points and other infrastructure there will be plenty of areas where the signal and experience will be inconsistent. Speeds though when you are in a good spot are definitely improved with starlink vs the older legacy equipment.

I think prices are fluctuating already. When they went live the other day for my cruise on wonder 4/6/26 passes were $250, now they are $200, which I still think is too much. Paired with the DX its $93.00 per day. I'll be staying on the empty ship enjoying my vouchers and empty suite sun deck. Cabanas are still very expensive

Just for this and to make @asquared17 happy, I'm going to bring a cup clip to Scotland with me! I'll have to figure out how to blog that for the "pictures or it didn't happen" crowd

You should see the pizza in France. I saw some with tuna on them amongst other things.....

I don't think I would fall into that category, especially on these older ships. After sailing Indy in the GS I didn't feel that we needed or would have benefited from having a Genie or the "package" The Concierge was able to accomplish everything we needed. I think only if the price was just right and I wasn't in a full suite would I look hard at it. At the price @Matt showed in his post, that would have been a hard pass.

It's been a long day.....I misread this as "aggressively wash my loins...." and thought well that's a little personal, but we are all friends here so who am I to judge....

well..........

Something is amiss here. No flight issues, no luggage issues.....what kind of blog is this? Have I woken up in a different reality??? Super glad you guys have made it just fine and with no issues. I cant wait to live vicariously through you guys for the next few days!

ummmmmmm, your freeloaders are old enough to do their own laundry!!!! I can send mine up to show them how!

I have been MIA from these blogs for a bit because work has been crazy with my new position and I am in full Scotland planning mode. (21 days to go!) I will do my best to follow along here. It will be fun to read about "the genie experience" I should try to go back and read the other blogs. Its going to be interesting for your genie to escort you to your fabulous "larger balcony room" wah wahhhhhhh I cant wait to see the La Bamba pictures....I need to get back there. I'm glad to hear your dad is improving again.

As I read this, this comes to mind.....

Your room is high enough that the slide really wont be an issue, I wouldn't worry about it and just enjoy the cruise. Here is a shot that shows where your room is, you may hear the occasional person going down, but you will hear much more noise from the boardwalk itself. Even if the slide wasn't there, you would still have all the backdrop of the ATS there anyway.

When we sailed out of Southampton we used Blackberry Cars for the transfer. @Lovetocruise2002 also used them as well. We were on the same cruise to Norway. They are very good and responsive. They meet you right past customs and have nice vehicles. There are plenty of hotels there. We stayed at the Novotel Southampton. This is a no frills hotel, but was quite nice. It's right by the cruise port and was a 6 minute uber ride that morning. If you read our blog (link in signature) I have photos etc. We walked around the city for the day when we got there before jet lag wiped us out. If you stay at that hotel, there is a McDonalds in the same parking lot for familiar food. There are also plenty of pubs etc around as well. It's not far from the "City Center" where all the original parts of the city, and the stuff you really want to look at. Check out the SeaCity Museum for a neat Titanic Exhibit.

In my experience, the streaming aspect is good. I have been able to watch things on Netflix etc, so you should be fine with music. That being said, the ships are giant metal boxes, and some areas are better than others as far as speed and reliability of the connection. For me, I do more that just text etc. I need to be able to be connected back home, so the internet is a justifiable cost to me. As you may have seen, if you book, keep an eye on the price, because if it drops, you can always rebook at the lower rate. You can also look at The Key. That includes the internet and a few other perks that could be useful, but only if the price isn't a whole bunch more that makes the value proposition upsidendown.

Yeah, that's a bit more important.