WAAAYTOOO

All of you have a WONDERFUL cruise. I just got back from Bermuda. So beautiful. I always say that the color of the water in Bermuda was the biggest surprise. I think the water in Bermuda is more beautiful than anywhere I have been in the Caribbean. Such an incredible color. ...and there is nothing like the view from the ship when you are at King's Wharf. Just lovely.

You can get loungers on Labadee for free. Only the “special” loungers cost money.

We will be going to St Lucia in December on Grandeur for the Christmas cruise. I don’t recall which day exactly.

Sometimes the email offers are very good. You would just have to call and see what they offer.

That's how Dan and I feel as well. We love the gentle rolling. We had that all the way to Bermuda on Grandeur this week. Coming back was surprisingly smooth. The opposite is usually the case (rockier coming home, usually, as you are sailing into the wind).

He's in a van pool so even though he did not ride in with them this morning, he will be able to get home with them this evening.

It usually is the same comedian and often the same show (except one will usually be family-friendly and the other may be for adults only) but the reason that they will not allow you to book more than 1 is because they don't allow you to book more than 1. If you want to go to a second show you can always do that but it would be on a standby basis. The same is true for any of the headline shows (Broadway shows) that take reservations, too. I guess they want to make sure that everyone has a chance to see the show so they only allow you to reserve seats once.

I know what you mean...going straight to work is a major bummer but we have to save all of the vacation days we can. I asked Dan if he wanted to just come home with me and work from home this afternoon instead of going into the office but he said "no". I fear that with all of the rain we are likely to get, the ride home from the Washington Navy Yard may be quite unpleasant this afternoon. He's quite dedicated though...good for him ! It was raining when we disembarked this morning. You can tell that the bad weather is coming. There was very little wind earlier but it's definitely picking up now. Something else to mention re: the room. We were in Aft JS 7656. It is a lovely room with one of the big balconies on the fantail of the ship but I noticed a couple of the nights when I was in bed early (normally never happens !) that there was definitely a lot of bass noise coming from somewhere. It was either coming from the Viking Crown Room 4 levels up or coming from 2 decks below in the Star Lounge. My bet is on the latter. Last night the bumping lasted until after 1:30 AM so we were not very happy as it kept both of us awake most of the night. We have had lots and lots of rooms on the aft of Grandeur and never remember having this noise before. I'm not sure what changed.

I have never been to or participated in a wedding on a ship but I HAVE heard that wedding parties are the very first to board so my guess is that the answer to #2 is "yes". Also agree with the others that these are things that the wedding planner should be asking on your friend's behalf.

How will there EVER keep those dolphins still for that long ? Sorry...couldn't resist.

Day 5 and wrap-up Last night dinner was at Chops. We both ordered the lobster tail from the MDR along with our choices from Chops. I had the petite filet, which I split with Dan and he ordered the shrimp which he shared with me. The reason that we decided to purchase the Ultimate Dining Plan on this trip was b/c on our last 5 night Bermuda cruise (July 4th), they did not serve the 2 dishes that we most enjoy in the MDR - lobster and lamb shank. We assumed (we all know what happens when you ASSume) that they would not serve these 2 dishes on this trip either, only to find that they were serving BOTH. But we weren’t going to let them deprive us of our fave meals...we just had them bring them to us in the restaurant(s). Nothing much to report about the evening. Casino actions as always. I am happy to report that on this cruise I got both a straight flush and 4 of a kind (Ultimate Texas Hold’em) so I had a profitable trip for the first time in MANY cruises. Dan also came out ahead. Woohoo ! Nothing particularly interesting to report for today. B’fast in the D section of the MDT, lunch at Izumi and dinner at Giovannis (Dan had the lamb shank brought from the MDR and it was disappointing for the first time ever. Just wasn’t as good as it usually is). Casino closed around 9 PM as we entered the Chesapeake Bay. Random musings This is the first time we have been to Bermuda that the NCL Dawn was not also there. As a matter of fact, we were the only ship at King’s Wharf both days. Due to the anticipated affects of Hurricane Michael, Grandeur will be leaving port tomorrow early (New England 9 day) - around 2 PM. Normal departure is 4PM. We are now in the Bay and are having the smoothest seas we have experienced since we left Baltimore on Saturday. Not likely to stay this way. Never saw a drink card but it could have been offered. Was not able to get any information about the unplanned dry dock being discussed for March 2019. We will walk off tomorrow morning and will catch the hotel shuttle back to the hotel where our car is parked. I will drop Dan at work (Washington Navy Yard) and I will go home and work the rest of the day. Next stop - Navigator for Thanksgiving. Then we will be back on Grandeur for Christmas and NY.

Congratulations

From my memory, the non-hibachi Izumi menu is the same on all ships that have Izumi. I have not sailed on Mariner though.

Thanks, John. I will be using LV at a Thanksgiving then. Was able to upgrade our JS today to an Owners Suite. Never tried to change an existing reservation while on a cruise. I went to Next Cruise and she politely told me that they are not permitted to make changes to an existing booking but she allowed me to use her phone and call Club Royale. I was very grateful for that. Otherwise there would have been no way for me to get in contact with CR. The suites on this cruise have been sold out since the day we booked so I knew that this OS would not last long. Yippee !!!!

Day 4 - Casino edition The biggest change I have noted at the Casino on this cruise is that all of the tables (that I have visited) now have at least a $10 minimum. In the past most tables had a $5 minimum. Conversely, the Texas Hold’em table (as opposed to the Ultimate Texas Hold’em table), which had been a $2/$5 table is now a $1/$3 table, which is a welcome change. i have already mentioned that Joyce is the hostess. She has been moderately visible but has not presented a dynamic environment. When Kaia was the hostess here she had lots of fun events like a 007 scavenger hunt and some fun tournaments. Nothing like that going on this week. Not that we expect it, but we have not received any casino gifts at all on this cruise. Sometimes we get champagne or a specialty dining meal (which would have been wasted on us this cruise) but nothing at all on this cruise. IMO the casino on Grandeur needs some TLC. Carpets, chairs and table top felts are looking very worn and dated. I don’t play slots so I have no idea if the games need updating or not but my guess is that some of them have been there a while. I noticed that the chips are filthy. Last night 2 of my chips were completely stuck together. I’m sure drinks get spilled all the time but they need to wash them very once in a while. Gross. I’m certain that someone will have a question about craps odds or other similar subjects. I will say now that I just don’t know but if anyone is interested in knowing, ask and I will try and find out. The craps tables have been very popular on this cruise; they’ve been very enthusiastic and vocal. ?? The Ultimate Texas Hold’em table is very very popular this trip. This is “my” game and I have gone down just to find the table completely full only minutes after the casino open multiple times. Guess I’ll have to get there before they even open to be sure and get a seat. As of day 4, I am dead “even”. I won $700 on the first day the casino was open and I lost $700 yesterday ?? so I’m back where I started. Frankly, by day 4 I’m usually well “in the hole” so being even at this point is welcome.

Good question. I haven’t sailed out of Miami recently but will there Thanksgiving week. Would like to use LV if it is available.

I believe your question is whether you can choose which MDR you want to use. The answer to that question is “no”. You are assigned one of the MDR based on whether you are My Time Dining or Traditional Dining. If you are in Traditional Dining and don’t like your assigned location you can change that but you cannot arbitrarily choose where you want to sit.

MJ was the Suites Concierge on Liberty last month so maybe Anis was on vacation. I cannot recall who was in the D Lounge. Not sure we even went in there.

Completely agree that the call center is worthless since they’ve outsourced offshore. My experience...don’t call in the AM as you will almost certainly get one of the new reps. Far more likely to get on “old” one in the evenings. As I’ve said before, the certificates are worthless but the “free” cruises have been extremely usable. Of course, that means you have to choose from their “list” but assuming you can find a cruise that works for you on the list, upgrades have been very affordable. We got 2 inside certificates (one each) last month on LIB and booked NAV over Thanksgiving. We paid very little to upgrade to a JS. Our 2 Prime “free” cruises we were able to upgraded all the way from inside rooms to Star Class for a very good rate so you have to be flexible and use a good TA to do the legwork for you. You also have to be diligent and track your points carefully but at least they will give you your points info now. Under the old program there was no accountability at all and you had no idea how many points you had. Now that info is much clearer. Sure. It’s different. I hate that the casino discounts on all cruises is pretty much gone but there are some good aspects to the new program too.

Holy crap ! Talk about port-intensive ! What a wonderful find.

My pleasure, Matt

Day 3 Pulling into Kings Wharf right now. Finally no rocking and rolling ! Much appreciated relief. Momentary flashback to yesterday and last night. Lunch at Izumi. Delightful. Much busier than I expected but service and food were still great. Dinner at Chops was ok. Our steak on embark day was much better. Service was S.L.O.W. We actually got up and left before they even offered dessert which means we missed our red velvet cake (sorry, Sweety) dessert. We never got a receipt to sign or anything. I guess they know where we “live” if they need to talk to us ! Tonite is Giovanni’s. Back to the present. Coolish in Bermuda. We have no plans to get off the ship so likely we will just saunter down this evening and ride the shuttle train around the circuit. It’s one of my fave things to do here. One of the items that was lost in my recent luggage debacle on Liberty was a beautiful hand woven wrap that I bought in one of the craft shops here at Kings Wharf a number of years ago (it was my favorite wrap to wear at nights in the casino where it’s always arctic temps) so maybe I will see about replacing it. <Still pissed off that somebody took our bag in Galveston> To my great surprise Izumi is open today for lunch and is eligible for the dining package. I never even looked in the Compass b/c I figured today would not count as a sea day (arriving in port around lunchtime) but the lovely lady who has been at Izumi on Grandeur for as long as I can remember was walking through the WJ this morning hocking the sushi-making class and asked if we were coming to Izumi for lunch today. Dan’s sleepy eyes came to full attention immediately and a recognizable look of pure joy spread across his face instantly. Guess we’re Going to Izumi for lunch AGAIN today ! As a matter of fact, he has asked me twice, while I was doing this post, when we were likely to be ready to go. He’s so easy to please ! Just shove some eel, salmon or tuna nigiri in his face and he will agree to anything. ?? So why were we in the WJ for b’fast this morning instead of the D area of the MDR, you may ask ? B/c of the stealthy time change last night, I would answer. We got up at what we thought was 8:30 AM just to realize later that it was actually 9:30 AM and the MDR was already closed. PLUS, this morning at 10:15 AM was the Diamond event (referred to by us as the “cattle call”) and for reason not fully understood, Dan loves going to those things. I hate them but I went. At any rate, there was not enough time to eat a sit-down b’fast AND get to the D event by 10:15 thus, the WJ it was. Lovely b’fast, BTW. We missed Yogi and BooBoo and I’m sure we’ll hear about it from them tomorrow morning. They so absolutely adorable. You canNOT tell them apart. Dan has started making impatient movements towards the door so I think I’d better cut this off. Another best day on Lady G. Happy Columbus Day, everyone.

It’s hard to say these days. In the “good ol’ Days” all ships had a small area of the MDR set aside for Diamonds and above. To be honest it’s nothing that special, really. Just a separate place to make you feel special. You can get “specialty” coffee and fresh squeezed juice (as opposed to juice from a concentrate) but that’s about the extent of the perks. It had been a while since I had seen a D area in a MDR so I think it’s all dependent on the ship’s Hotel Director. I was delighted to see it on Grandeur. ...and congratulations on achieving Diamond !

...not to mention the extra space and view !

Yippee ! Maybe we will have to stay in the Atlantic a few extra days ! I never have that kind of luck ! I will say, this trip to Bermuda was the roughest we have ever experienced and we’ve done this itin a lot. Last night there were barf bags posted around the ship. I haven’t seen that since the infamous Bayonne repositioning cruise on Explorer a few years ago. I can’t imagine it being much worse going back but it’s always rougher going home than going out b/c you’re normally sailing into the wind on the return trip. No idea what the hurricane might do to the normal wind pattern. Guess we’ll just have to find out...but it would be damned shame if we had to extend our cruise by a couple of days. NOT