Sassafrass

Persimmondeb, Thank you for your responses to my posts.
I hope everything goes well on your cruise and you have a wonderful time. It will be interesting to get your opinions afterwards.
We enjoyed Pride a lot, was sorry to have it leave Baltimore. Like you, we considered it an easy break from winter weather. We also liked Grandeur of the Seas when it was in Baltimore.

Jacket, you have given me something to think about. We usually just go to the Caribbean during GD’s Spring Break, and probably will do that again if COVID has calmed down. However, I want to take her to Europe or someplace different. For Europe, it will likely be a regular land trip, once we feel safe. Iceland might be really exciting though, and we have not been there. That might be a good Summer trip rather than Bermuda.

jeterray

persimmon- My wife thought she saw on Cruise Critic that the Bahamas no longer accepts the rapid antigen test for entry. This might also effect Half Moon Cay. Unless the ship has a proper lab, it might be a problem if the PCR test is required. In any event, it seems that the ships will just divert to other ports that will be equally warm. Our cruise goes to San Juan, PR, St Kitts, St Thomas then back to Fort Lauderdale. At this time, these ports are open to cruise ships, but this could change any time. It will not make much difference to us since we will likely stay onboard.

persimmondeb

That is what the Bahamas official site says, but as it was, our tests were before departure, not entry into the Bahamas, so I'm not sure how that's working. I don't know if the rules might be different for visitors off ships, or if they're going to change it up. We haven't heard anything from Carnival yet, so we'll see how it goes.

schmerl

Looks like Royal Caribbean is cancelling some cruises:

https://www.aol.com/finance/royal-ca...140257235.html

mlgb

NCL cancelled a lot of ships on January 5, but not the Mexican Riviera. Updated on January 5, 2022
The health and safety of our guests, crew and communities we visit is our number one priority. Due to ongoing travel restrictions, a select number of sailings across the fleet have been affected, including:

• Norwegian Pearl cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 14, 2022
• Norwegian Sky cruises with embarkation dates through and including February 25,2022
• Pride of America cruises with embarkation dates through and including February 26, 2022
• Norwegian Jade cruises with embarkation dates through and including March 3, 2022
• Norwegian Star cruises with embarkation dates through and including March 19, 2022
• Norwegian Sun cruises with embarkation dates through and including April 19, 2022
• Norwegian Spirit cruises with embarkation dates through and including April 23, 2022

Pride is the Hawaii ship
Spirit is Hawaii/So Pacific
Sun is assigned to Alaska from June, they would have been in Asia before that.

Sun was the ship for my Cape Horn cruise. We were talking about possibly using it in Alaska since we liked it so much before it was remodeled. My prior Alaska cruises were on HAL.

mlgb

My cruise buddy and I were just saying that if we had FCC to burn on NCL, that would be the one we would take. But it's all "who knows" at this point.

mlgb

NCL has now put on hold additional cruise ships adding Breakaway most recently. So 12 of their 17 Norwegian ships are on pause as of today. Several of the new ones are mega ships (like Getaway and Escape. Breakaway is nearly as big). I suspect they are also having staffing issues with crew in quarantine, as well as cancellations. Fortunately or unfortunately, Bliss is still sailing tomorrow.

• Norwegian Pearl cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 17, 2022
• Norwegian Dawn cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 18, 2022
• Norwegian Getaway cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 19, 2022
• Norwegian Escape cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 22, 2022
• Norwegian Joy cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 22, 2022
• Norwegian Breakaway cruises with embarkation dates through and including January 23, 2022
• Norwegian Sky cruises with embarkation dates through and including February 25, 2022
• Pride of America cruises with embarkation dates through and including February 26, 2022
• Norwegian Jade cruises with embarkation dates through and including March 3, 2022
• Norwegian Star cruises with embarkation dates through and including March 19, 2022
• Norwegian Sun cruises with embarkation dates through and including April 19, 2022
• Norwegian Spirit cruises with embarkation dates through and including April 23, 2022

.

mlgb

So far so good on Bliss, we have less than 1100 passengers on a mega ship ( 4000 + passenger capacity). More crew than passengers. Saw one of the crew COVID ships in Ensenada today. Any positive crew gets transferred off. Crew is good about masking, passengers hit or miss.

Great drunk whale watching in Cabo, shrimp tacos in Ensenada.

Sassafrass

Mlgb, Thanks so much for the little post on your cruise. So glad it was not canceled and is going well. It lifts my spirits to think of a Fodorite on a cruise. Quick question. Is there a Supper club on Bliss? That is one thing we enjoyed on Escape. We much preferred it over the main dining room.

mlgb

No there is nothing like Supper Club.

Apparently NCL sources all food supplies through a central purchasing and dispatching center in Miami, then ships via truck, rail and container all over the world. So, for example if they would use Mexican white shrimp, it would go through Miami and then back to the west coast, from the way I understood it. Many fresh produce items were not so good (but then, it is winter). The day that they had a Jamaican themed buffet, I was very happy. There was even a salad made with mango (although you had to try it to realize that).

As far as seafood, it's better and more variety in one of the specialty restaurants.

This time I only ate from the Garden Court Buffet selections (especially the Indian section). Despite living a few miles from Little India, this was my first chance to try Uttapam for breakfast.
They did not previously have smoked salmon in the breakfast buffet, but it was there every day this trip. I was happy that you can still serve yourself at the buffet, so a little mix and match.

This morning's breakfast on my balcony:

Sassafrass

Glad you got a balcony. Breakfast looks great! Thanks for posting a picture.