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sauvichick
Cruiser
| Joined: | Sat Aug 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Long Island,NY |
| Posts: | 66 |
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Posted: Wed Nov 7th, 2007 01:40 am | 1st Post |
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October 26-28, 2007
Finally, I am able to sit down & write the review. Here goes my 2nd attempt. It's my 1st review so bear with me. We booked this 14 months ago & it was finally here. We booked on travelocity because they were offering shipboard credit.
Embarkation Day
It was me, husband & the in-laws. We are from Long Island & after doing some research we decided to drive in because car service was going to run $270. Is that crazy or what? It only cost $48 for parking at Pier 90, 1 1/2 hours of our time and some traffic. Definitely worth the price. We arrived at the terminal at 11:30 hoping to board at noon. That didn't happen. We received the letter about the virus on board inside the terminal. Of course we did not want a refund.We were looking forward to this weekend because it will be a long time before we cruise again. So there was going to be a delay. The "director of chairs" was quite a nasty individual. Let me explain. If you arrive early enough you actually get to sit in a chair while you wait. Our in-laws were in the bathroom so we went ahead & this caused a disruption in the seating arrangements because we were standing, not sitting. She was rude and kept stating loudly, "This is not hard folks." Finally I stated we know this is not hard but we are waiting for the parents. I Kept myself in check. No wonder New Yorkers have such a bad rep-not all of us do, though. We started boarding at 1:30PM. In the meantime I met folks from Virginia and my mom's friends found us. By the way we are Latitudes members but we didn't bother to sit upstairs or was that only for the suite passengers. Who cares. Now if I was in then villas or a penthouse that would be a different story.We now went through the X-ray. I'll confess I did bring a gallon of Poland Spring, 1.5 liter of wine & my best friend(will explain later). As it's going through I tell them to be careful-it's glass. I was ready to pay the $15 corkage fee but that didn't happen. I think everyone had virus on the mind. We then get on line for check-in which took less than 5 minutes. Then it was get onboard. The in-laws were on the line for passengers needing assistance. Mom-in-law has a bad knee. That line was extremely slow.
Onboard
But we boarded & jumped on the dinner reservations line. Le Bistro for 4 @ 7:00 Saturday. Perfect. No wasting time exploring-we were all familiar with the Dawn. After lunch we could still could not get into our cabins. 1st they said 2PM, then 3PM & finally 4PM!!! We sneaked into the cabin much earlier to drop off our bags. It looked the halls were getting "fumigated"-it was very misty. We went to Spinnaker Lounge to get a drink-we were dying for one right after lunch!
Meals
We went straight to Venetians for lunch. I did order 2 apps & a salad each time (oink). We were hungry! The crew kept directing people to the buffet. Why is that? I do not "do buffets!" Where people can sneeze, touch their face, & lick their fingers ( I did see that). I love formal lunch. I rarely do it at home so it's nice to relax. We did have to bring our rolling suitcases around. I had my "liquid" knapsack, my pocketbook and a suitcase. The staff directed us to leave the bags in the area by the staircase but that was OK. We had a nice leisurely lunch. Food was good but not memorable. (I love my food but you would never think so. I did lose 20 lbs. this year and this weekend was eat whatever I want. I gained 2 lbs. but lost 4 at work after vacation so I was ahead of the game...nothing like stress to help). We decided to check out the dinner menu for Venetian but it did not appeal to me. I did keep my mouth closed. Later that evening we went to Impressions to see if we could get a reservations for which we did at 8:30. Unfortunately, the food took forever from start to finish. Husband had the caesar salad(awesome) & I had the tricolor(OK) The risotto shrimp(me-unimpressive) and the veal marsala (husband-terrible). We skipped dessert because it would take forever. We went exploring and had more drinks. At this point it was late we head back to the room and I'm hungry again. We head to the 24 hour place Blue Lagoon? Chaos! If you are desperate you will deal. Food was OK! For Saturday breakfast, lunch & Sunday breakfast we headed to the Venetian. Saturday lunch was very crowded. There was a wait at one point. Our waiter was very stressed because things were not going smoothly. We learned later there was staff still stuck up at the buffet and they were supposed to report to the Venetian-still cleaning up. He (from Dominica) was kind enough to stop by after he was done with service to explain and to chitchat with us. We did appreciate it! A lot of people were shut out from breakfast both days because they arrived late for their meals. I had called the "front desk" to find out the hours. That night Le Bistro was awesome. It was empty but there were many large parties later. The highlight was the chocolate fondue for me-YUM. Ask for it as soon as you are seated. We had the goat cheese tart, the seafood fish soup and the boston lettuce salad-YUM as well as my long awaited cappuchino.
Around the ship
Hand sanitizer is my friend! It's everywhere plus I had my other friend (will explain when I get to the cabin section). Friday at the sailaway we stayed outside on the pool deck to get the view of the Verrazano bridge-very cool! It was cold and rainy. Saturday Day there was a lot to do. I was up at 8AM(late in my book) and went to get coffee at the buffet(only coffee) for the 2 of us. There was hardly anyone there-all still sleeping. it was a long night according to a very cheerful employee.All the staff wore rubber gloves and would not allow passengers to touch the mugs or the milk dispensers or any of the food & as most of you know no more trays. I appreciate the hand sanitizer-no contamination from the germs and hidden virus. I had my highlighter to mark everything of interest in my program. People were in the hot tubs throughout the day-Yuk. It's abreeding ground for bacteria. It was extremely cold & windy. Plus I forgot my sweatshirts! I went to the Meet & Greet arranged by Jimswims. Thank you. It was my 1st. I also met JS's wife & friends, Coka(thanks for the gifts from home), Ria & friend, Fishbait & husband.I could have stayed longer but I was meeting up with my family. Mom-in-law & I went to the newlywed game-very entertaining. Unfortunately we had to leave because we were headed to the margarita clinic. What a bargain! $15 for many margaritas. Ria, friend & cousin were there. Jose, Jose Jose ,Jose!!! Thanks. We had a great time! Hubby was at the beer clinic $15 too-he was a bit disappointed but he got a free beer out of it! Then we hit the shops-didn't buy liquor. I'm a wine girl. There were bargains on liquor & cigarettes but we did not buy. I bought a Dawn magnet instead. The clothing was not appealing either. After we got ready for dinner and but met for drinks at Gatsby's.
Cabin
Before we entered the cabin I had my "friend" ready. Lysol is it's name. I think hubby thought I was crazy for bringing a Costco-sized can. That thought went out of his head when we received the virus letter. I sprayed everything we would touch, handles,knobs, the bathroom, etc. I was determined not to get sick. We sprayed throughout the day and did notice early in the morning the staff was spraying exterior doors, handles and walls. Once again it is appreciated! We booked an inside cabin forward part of the ship near the elevators. Now I remember why we only do balconies. We just thought it was not worth the price for the weekend especially since the weather would be cool & we're going to Mexico for Christmas. It was claustraphobic & tight. No room at all. The best thing was the water pressure was great but I never found any outlets!!! It's a good thing we did not bring anything requiring an outlet. The seas were a bit rough Friday night & I was awoken all throughout the night because the ship was really rolling. I expected to be awoken(is that a word)by partiers not rough seas.
Entertainment
Usually we do not go to the shows but we did see "Band on the Run" Sat. night a tribute to the 70s. It was great! I knew every song-I'm revealing my age now. I'm glad the in-laws were going. We also saw the Quest(adult scavenger)-everyone comes already prepared but it was entertaining! The casino was quite smokey and it did not appeal to us. Husband quit smoking about 6 months ago & did not need to be smelling it. We never made it to the dance club-we usually don't. We are early risers on all our vacations.
Disembarkation
Had to get a wakeup call because our Verizon cell phones were an hour off (DST) and we did not want to miss breakfast on Sunday. I did finish packing at 1AM but being awake on & off Fri. night and still trying to catch up on sleep from the week before I was exhausted. While getting ready I watched the TV to see how close we were to the pier. I noticed we were approaching so I ran out on Deck 7 to get some pictures of the Manhattan skyline-cool. Breakfast was slow but the Venetian was packed! We finished breakfast, went back to the room and grabbed our bags. Mom-in-law wanted to check out the photos. they were cheaper that morning $15 vs $25 the day before. We then got on the line to get off the ship. We arrived at Pier 92 although we were parked at 90. As we were walking it was nice to see the Spirit & the Crown already docked. Got into the car, got home in an hour. Vacation over.
Last edited on Wed Nov 7th, 2007 01:42 am by sauvichick
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http://www.iberostar.info/ticker/image.php?code=0XT13268bdXk7Xs23XEurodam cruise to nowhere
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jimswims
Frequent Cruiser
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Posted: Thu Nov 8th, 2007 11:46 pm | 2nd Post |
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Thanks for the review sauvichick! Great job.
I am glad that you took the time to re-write it.
It was great to meet you at the meet and greet.
I will see you on-line.
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Jim
8/7/09 NCL Spirit, Boston to Bermuda
Previous cruises NCL: 6; RCCL: 4; Carnival: 2; Cunard:1.
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Catnip
Charter Member
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Posted: Fri Nov 9th, 2007 12:15 am | 3rd Post |
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Thanks-------super review!!!!!!! 
I feel the same way you do about buffet's!!!!!!! :holymoly:
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33 previous cruises..
Next up: Celebrity Solstice 1-09/Jewel of the Seas 3-09/ QM 2 11-09/ Queen Victoria 1/10
**Triangles Are For Losers!**
When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state"
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hstrybuf
Founders
| Joined: | Sat Jun 17th, 2006 |
| Location: | Kansas |
| Posts: | 21524 |
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Posted: Fri Nov 9th, 2007 12:40 am | 4th Post |
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| I like my food to be at least good. Great food is even better. Bad food, unacceptable. Your friends are a good idea. I do carry the hand sanitizer everywhere I go, especially during the cold/flu season. Thanks for taking the time to write a review! I always find them interesting and each person has a different point of view.
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/hstrycrsr
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sauvichick
Cruiser
| Joined: | Sat Aug 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Long Island,NY |
| Posts: | 66 |
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Posted: Mon Nov 12th, 2007 02:20 am | 5th Post |
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| Thanks for the compliments. It took me forever to type:computer. Now I have 1 under my belt. It will be good practice for my review on the Playa del Carmen message boards. When I go on longer trips I carry around a travel journal. See you all on the net.
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http://www.iberostar.info/ticker/image.php?code=0XT13268bdXk7Xs23XEurodam cruise to nowhere
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