Geezer Of The Seas

Cruisemapper is now showing Serenade heading north again......and hoofing it (26 mph)!

As of 30 minutes ago, Cruisemapper show Serenade heading back toward Vancouver.........this morning it was sailing north.

Except for drydocks, for something that has seen literally tens/hundreds of thousands or more passengers over the years, I'm impressed with the condition of every ship we have sailed over 3 cruise lines. Jewel of the Seas looked its age the most in the cabin wear and tear department, but over 6 cruises we've experienced 2 mechanical faux paxs, a plumbing leak that sent had water accumulating in the corridor down from our cabin on Jewel (within scant hours, never knew it happened), and a balky toilet on HAL Nieuw Amsterdam (remedied within 15 minutes of calling Guest Services). We're booked next April on Adventure. Mariner's 'sister', a bit different, but as long as we don't go dead in the water or to the bottom by the head, I'm good.

Carnival Circling the Wagons? Reads like the executive suite is all in......

The natives are indeed restless................ But end of the day, will it matter? Every cruise line I've sailed has the same fine print regarding their rewards programs. 'We can do what we want if and when we want.' Even John Heald's post reads like he's under some level of duress discussing the customer response, like there's suits standing nearby with a kettle of boiling oil.............

Judging by the #/frequency of e-mails I'm receiving from Royal, HAL, & MSC, plus now weekly calls from NCL to both of us, I sense the salad days of 2023-24 are coming to an end. RE: Carnival's Rewards 'retool'. I get a sense they're trying to slow the upward mobility to their top tiers; something I've seen discussed on this forum regarding overabundance of upper tier C & A passengers on some cruises resulting in less than satisfying experiences for some 'not quite there' yet?

I was prescribed scopolamine patches 3 years ago. Asked my doctor about interactions /side effects with any of my prescribed meds , particularly Zolpidem (generic Ambien). Doc and the pharmacist that filled the Rx said there was potential for interactions with the Zolpidem. They weren't wrong........

Dunno about the OP, but I seriously sympathize with @DanielB. A life without mushrooms????? Oh, the humanity.......

As an aside, did anyone read the article in CruiseHive reporting the Bahamian government is about to crackdown on cruise lines with private islands they suspect are stiffing them ? The suggestion is the Bahamian government is being underpaid on taxes for excursions, rentals, etc. that originate/happen on the islands. I was particularly amused by the example cited by the Bahamian prime minister, referring to record numbers of passenger visits to the subject islands, cabana rentals as high as $4K/day. Wonder who he was talking about.......

Been squirrely for weeks on our PC (windows/Chrome). Tried all the various voodoo to 'clear the digital palate, nothing. Most common issue, freezes/seizes when attempting to type a comment. I realize the proprietor of the site has to eat,but sometimes wonder if there's just too much stuff running on the pages. OTOH, viewing and typing this on my phone (nearly 5 y/o android), no problem at all, except I note android doesn't push out updates any longer, which is an obvious indication I should get (and Verizon is all but begging me ) to get a new phone.

Not to worry. Your experience mirrored ours on Wonder. Mrs Geezer's card worked fine. Mine was a @#$*&%!. 5 scans from 5 different crew members. Nothing. They wound up doing a manual input into a laptop before I was officially checked in and "mustered'. Ain't technology grand.......

Margaritaville's short itineraries setting sail from Galveston would seem to fit their business model. Must be a underserved group of Parrotheads in the North central gulf.

Read a story on Cruisehive today that Margaritaville at Sea is acquiring a third scow to smear lipstick on. Currently operated by Costa. The plan is to place it in service next year. Galveston would seem a logical homeport......

Enterprise it seems has changed their general rules of engagement over the last 2 years. Not for travel purposes, but I did a 7 day rental while our car was in the shop last year and the contract stated the car must be returned to the office it was rented from, even though there was an office closer to the dealership.

4 cruises on 3 vessel classes with Royal. Our cabin selection rationale has never failed us. We're not fans of sail away parties, so we pre-purchase a bottle of wine and do our own sail away. Our single trip on Wonder I was frankly amazed how minimal the noise was at sail away once we were underway. Midship ocean facing balcony cabins with 2 deck separation from the pools rule......

AFFIRM of the Seas. In honor of the buy now pay later company RCL uses.

NOAA does publish a text format high seas forecast. Problem is you have to know latitude/longitude for the route the ship is taking. It's not completely written in "meteorologist". Easiest way to locate it is Google NOAA high seas forecast if you haven't run across it yet.

I cast my vote for no-seeums. The photos conjure memories of a 'fishing trip' with colleagues from work 40+ years ago at an oceanfront park at Sebastián Inlet. Budweiser/ganja induced stupor/coma, which begat spending the night on a sandy campsite with no sleeping bag, blanket, or air mattress. I was covered head to toe, just in time for a family portrait appointment at Olan Mills that weekend. Mrs Geezer? NOT pleased.........

Within the last month or so (i forget which media outlet site) had a story a regarding the State Department preparing to issue a complete travel ban for US citizens to 40 countries. Haiti and a couple of other countries in the Eastern Caribbean (that surprised me) were on the list. I haven't seen any additional reporting regarding the implementation of the ban, but my wife was telling me a missionary group that makes fairly regular trips to Cuba to work with a church they adopted was denied permission for their upcoming trip in June that was previously granted a religious/charitable exemption. Obviously Cuba was already on 'no travel' status, but now no exemptions for the stated reasons.

To completely derail this thread, our daughter met Edward James Olmos when she was in high school. Helluva an actor and he made quite an impression on students during his visit. And Miami Vice was must see TV for us back in the day.........

Pardon my skepticism, but........

Odyssey of the Seas does or did sail from Port Everglades.

And the people said AMEN!!!! And bring Jewel along just for the hell of it.

No bother at all. Did Mariner 2x, 4 day Bahamas & 5 day Western Caribbean itineraries. It is (or was) our 'Goldilocks' ship.......and should be returned to Port Canaveral dammit!!!!

This might look like topic drift, but bananas and avocados and guacamole along with other fruits/veggies might be impacted when ships are provisioned in the US. A lot of the aforementioned items are imported to facilitate year round availability. Probably depends on how Royal and the other lines do their grocery shopping. I'm still wowed by the recently acquired knowledge that the US is the largest consumer of bananas in the world and the largest customer for Guatemala's banana crop.