Travel and Vaping Cruise ship passengers & ecigs!

[stashbldr]

Hi everyone .. we got back at 1am this morning, after spending nearly 2 weeks on the Vision of the Seas doing 2 back-to-back cruises .. we went to Norway on the first cruise to the fjords, incredible! The next cruise was to the Baltic where we went to Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

We had many flights over to Europe and back .. I went thru TSA security in Houston, Frankfurt Germany, Copenhagen Denmark, Heathrow in London and Chicago. In Russia went thru security screening at the port too. In all of those instances I never removed my PV equipment, kept it all in my tote bag/large purse, did not remove any of it separately. Had 6 batteries, 20 filled cartomizers, many unfilled cartomizers, 15 bottles of liquids and my PCC .. other than the liquid bottles themselves all of the rest were "electronics" and never once did a TSA agent ask to look at what was in my tote bag.

I vaped everywhere!!! Vaped on all of our flights on Continental, SAS, Lufthansa and United, vaped in the cabin, vaped in the windjammer, vaped in the Viking Crown Lounge, vaped on our balcony, vaped in the casino on non-smoking night .. heck, we did a tour inside the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg for many hours, and I vaped the whole time inside there too. And also on the excursion buses. In fact I cant think of anywhere I didnt vape.

Got asked questions, everyone was FASCINATED by my PV and even more fascinated by how they are made. Gave out many cards with the info on where they can order. Even the loyalty ambassador, who has never smoked, wanted the info about it .. and yes, I vaped at her loyalty ambassador desk too

That all said .. I did not "openly" vape .. what I mean by that is I didnt sit there holding it like a regular cigarette and blowing out the vapor in big clouds. For instance, in the Windjammer as an example, I mostly covered up the lite end of my PV, inhaled the vapor and blew it out halfway thru my nose and the rest thru my mouth .. so the vapor coming out was at a minimum. I call it my semi-stealth-vaping method LOL.

It was so great to be in a non-smoking hotel in Copenhagen .. and vaping. I brought a European/USA electrical converter with me and used that to recharge my batteries and a USB adaptor/charger for my PCC, all of the converters worked great and recharging was perfect with the adaptors.

Jackie
FreQuentKruser on CC .. stashbldr on ECF

 

[kellogg]

Welcome back, Jackie. We did the Baltic cruise (Grandeur) 7 or 8 years ago. It is still one of my all time favorite cruises.

 

[tekmnky]

I started off on Cruise Critic reading about these and have moved over here to continue. Got my KR808D-1 a few days ago and so far so good. I can see this is going to be interesting because I'm already finding myself searching all over for different colored batteries, etc. I've tried these before (the type you buy at the mall) and thought they were horrid. There is such a difference in this one!

Bobbye, I recommend Vapor4Life (V4L) for all the hardware and blank cartos. They have the standard KR808D-1 batteries (280mAh), the shorty batteries (200mAh, I believe) and the longer XL batteries (380 mAh) in a variety of colors. But be aware, they use a live inventory system with no "back order" options. What you see on the webpage is what they have in stock at the moment you are looking. If you order a color that someone else has grabbed the last one of, then V4L will substitute a color of their choice. I also prefer their CoolCart blank cartos. I'm not crazy about most of their juices...I go to FreedomSmokeUSA and Ms T's Bakery for my bottles of juice - those two are by far the best juices I've come across.

 

[tekmnky]

Welcome back, Jackie! Glad to hear there were no TSA complications for all your port and airport entries!

 

[stashbldr]

Bobbye, I recommend Vapor4Life (V4L) for all the hardware and blank cartos. They have the standard KR808D-1 batteries (280mAh), the shorty batteries (200mAh, I believe) and the longer XL batteries (380 mAh) in a variety of colors. But be aware, they use a live inventory system with no "back order" options. What you see on the webpage is what they have in stock at the moment you are looking. If you order a color that someone else has grabbed the last one of, then V4L will substitute a color of their choice. I also prefer their CoolCart blank cartos. I'm not crazy about most of their juices...I go to FreedomSmokeUSA and Ms T's Bakery for my bottles of juice - those two are by far the best juices I've come across.

I'm a huge advocate of V4L's cool cartos. I had so much trouble with regular KR808 cartos becoming burnt tasting and finally tried the V4L cool carts and have been happy-happy ever since. That said, Ross at VaporsEtc has now gotten in some cool cartos .. he doesnt call them that but they are 3.3 ohms and he has them marked as HR (high resistance). I placed an order for them while we were in Europe and will have them on Tuesday, I'm anxious to compare his with the v$L ones, which are also 3.3 ohms. The V4L cool cartos hold more liquid than a standard KR808 does, I like that part a LOT and hope Ross's hold more liquid too.

Bill, I just tried my first juice from MrsT's .. I got it from a gal on ECF who included it with a bunch of liquids I bought in the classifieds. I was amazed at how great it tasted .. it was MrsT's snickerdoodle. I'd like to try some other MrsT's liquids .. Bill can you please post which ones of hers you've tried and what you think of them? The snickerdoodle tasted just like a real snickerdoodle cookie does, the taste was very strong and I loved it.

Jackie

 

[tekmnky]

Bill, I just tried my first juice from MrsT's .. I got it from a gal on ECF who included it with a bunch of liquids I bought in the classifieds. I was amazed at how great it tasted .. it was MrsT's snickerdoodle. I'd like to try some other MrsT's liquids .. Bill can you please post which ones of hers you've tried and what you think of them? The snickerdoodle tasted just like a real snickerdoodle cookie does, the taste was very strong and I loved it.

Jackie

Jackie, I also highly recommend FreedomSmokeUSA - most flavorful juices I've found - favorites are Wyatt Earp, Pina Colada, Vanilla Classic, Strawberry Twist, Orange Cream Sicle, Coconut, Cherry Cola. EXCELLENT flavors.

Ms T's Bakery current favorites: Snickerdoodle Cookie, German Chocolate Cake, Cinnamon Roll, Vanilla Milkshake, Coconut Dream Pie. All of these are GREAT! So are Peppermint Hot Chocolate, Pina Colada, French Vanilla, Strawberry Milk Shake, Orange Dreamsicle. All of these taste JUST LIKE the names imply!

I've also tried Ms T's Bananas Foster Coffee, Chocolate Coconut Bar, Cherry Cheesecake, Chocolate Covered Cherries. The only one I didn't like was Bananas Foster Coffee - just not my flavor, though other folks rave about it.

Both of these juice suppliers custom mix the juices, so they taste the best after sitting for a couple of weeks after receipt. Most will be great right out of the mailbox, but as they set the flavors blend together even better and after a couple of weeks - WOW!

 

[tekmnky]

Jackie, also, FreedomSmokeUSA has a special on for Labor Day Weekend - 60ml for $20 - you select (2) 30ml bottles of the same flavor, strength and PG/VG percentage and use the coupon code "60ml". Look at their entry in the ECF SEASONAL forum http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/labor-day/119252-freedomsmokeusa-labor-day-60ml-sale.html.

 

[Tenngal]

Welcome back, Jackie! I'm still looking forward to meeting you on AOS in November...

All,
I just returned from my month-long business trip to DC, staying in a non-smoking hotel. I vaped away all month. I'm still smoking about one analog a day--in the evening after dinner. I brought along all my remaining analogs. I had 2-1/2 packs and came home with half a pack. That's a long way from the pack-and-a-half I used to smoke daily. I really think that I'm simply using up the remaining analogs, because I'm too frugal to throw them away! Those things cost me money, dang it! So, once they're gone, and I have none in the house with me, I'll know for sure if I'm completely analog-free. I sure hope so. Life's so much easier without having to sneak off for a smoke every couple of hours!

 

[Bobbye]

Thanks everyone. I have some batteries ordered, I guess I'll keep shopping and order some more juice.

Considering I'm usually not much of a shopper, but I think that this may have created another addiction for me -- shopping for hardware and juices:O

 

[carkosh]

Wecome back, Stash! So glad everything on your cruise turned out great including the vaping. I'm so jealous you got to see The Hermitage! 10 yrs ago when DH & I did a Baltic cruise we boarded buses to go there, only to find out an hour later that The Hermitage was closed due to a bomb threat. Needless to say, we didn't get there & that was the main reason why we took that particular cruise. Oh well, such is life, I guess!

I've become a real fan of Ms T's flavors! I love her Mint Choc Chip Pie, French Vanilla (altho today it kind of tasted like egg nog, not sure why). I have another sample sized order on the way. I'll report on those later. VaporBomb is another place I'm trying; 5 flavors are still setting up so can't report on those yet either, well, ok, except for Cinnabomb which is good but extremely strong. Will probably use that to "doctor" up some flavors that I think might be good with a little cinnamon. I've tried FreedomSmokes but am not as thrilled about their flavors like many others here.

Carol

 

[stashbldr]

I've tried FreedomSmokes but am not as thrilled about their flavors like many others here.
Carol

Hi Carol, sorry to hear that you didnt get to go inside the Hermitage, it is HUGE. We normally dont do ship sponsored excursions, but in Russia we did, so we had a guide who explained everything inside the Hermitage to us. There were 30 people in our tour group and 5 of them kept asking the guide if they could go outside for 5 mins to smoke. They did it every hour, for 4 hours. I would giggle to myself everytime because they had to walk a long long way to go outside for their cig .. while I stood right there, in front of Rembrandt's paintings, stealth vaping. Gotta love it.

As for Freedom Smokes, I agree with you. I ordered 5 different liquids from them and they arrived just before we left on our trip. I waited until the 4th day of the cruise to try the first one .. butterscotch. Even had brought some brand new empty cartos to try those 5 liquids, especially wanted the butterscotch. I was very disappointed in it. So I waited another 3 days, tried it again .. and still didnt like it .. at all. It had a burnt sort of taste going on in it and very little actual butterscotch flavor. So then I tried the strawberry twist and also a dark cherry one .. both of those tasted like they had too much of a perfume taste in them. After that I gave up and havent even tried the other ones. I had been very excited to try their liquids, had heard so many nice things about their juices. They have fantastic customer service and are such nice people, but unfortunately their liquids dont have the depth of flavoring in them that I like. I do love some of VaporsEtc liquids, and also TastyVapor has some great ones that I am totally hooked on (Tasty Vapor liquids have to age about 2 weeks before they mature .. but they're worth the wait).

Jackie

 

[Satharra]

Hi Carol, sorry to hear that you didnt get to go inside the Hermitage, it is HUGE. We normally dont do ship sponsored excursions, but in Russia we did, so we had a guide who explained everything inside the Hermitage to us. There were 30 people in our tour group and 5 of them kept asking the guide if they could go outside for 5 mins to smoke. They did it every hour, for 4 hours. I would giggle to myself everytime because they had to walk a long long way to go outside for their cig .. while I stood right there, in front of Rembrandt's paintings, stealth vaping. Gotta love it.

As for Freedom Smokes, I agree with you. I ordered 5 different liquids from them and they arrived just before we left on our trip. I waited until the 4th day of the cruise to try the first one .. butterscotch. Even had brought some brand new empty cartos to try those 5 liquids, especially wanted the butterscotch. I was very disappointed in it. So I waited another 3 days, tried it again .. and still didnt like it .. at all. It had a burnt sort of taste going on in it and very little actual butterscotch flavor. So then I tried the strawberry twist and also a dark cherry one .. both of those tasted like they had too much of a perfume taste in them. After that I gave up and havent even tried the other ones. I had been very excited to try their liquids, had heard so many nice things about their juices. They have fantastic customer service and are such nice people, but unfortunately their liquids dont have the depth of flavoring in them that I like. I do love some of VaporsEtc liquids, and also TastyVapor has some great ones that I am totally hooked on (Tasty Vapor liquids have to age about 2 weeks before they mature .. but they're worth the wait).

Jackie

Welcome back, Jackie! Sounds like you had an amazing time!

Yeah, I probably should've warned you not to get the single flavorings. I just don't care for them at all. I actually tend to like their specialties but didn't care for the Butterscotch Almond. I kept waiting and waiting for it to taste like butterscotch and it never did. I do love their Hawaiian Tropic and RY4. I think they really shine in the tobacco department, more so than in fruit flavors. I think FlavorArt's butterscotch just may not be as good as other flavorings. One thing to keep in mind is that these are fresh mixed so you will definitely want to let them sit for a week or more. (That goes for any fresh mixed flavor.)

So far my favorite fruit flavors are from VaporEtc and Vaporbomb. I've got a peach from Vaporbomb that is mind-blowingly good. Also, if you like a strong butterscotch flavor, I'd recommend TV's Butter Rum. It's just like a Werther's candy. I've got another order with DatsVapor to test out their butter rum and will let you know what I think.

 

[stashbldr]

So far my favorite fruit flavors are from VaporEtc and Vaporbomb. I've got a peach from Vaporbomb that is mind-blowingly good. Also, if you like a strong butterscotch flavor, I'd recommend TV's Butter Rum. It's just like a Werther's candy. I've got another order with DatsVapor to test out their butter rum and will let you know what I think.

Yes well I just sold the Freedomsmoke juices on the ECF classifieds LOL, not for me at all. Each one had an unlying tobacco flavor to it and I think that was another problem for me. If I get a butterscotch, for instance, I sure want it to taste like butterscotch but theirs had a burnt taste in it plus a tobacco taste, I could tell there might be a little butterscotch in it but yikes, barely there. I think they are the greatest people though, but their juices arent ;-)

I'm sticking with VaporsEtc and TastyVapor. I love TV's tastyfinger, cafe macchiato, german chocolate cake and boston cream pie. I have the TV waffle on order now and do plan to order their butter rum next .. if you PROMISE it will taste like a werther's butterscotch lol.

As for fruit flavors .. so far VaporsEtc are the best out there for me. I'm also trying to find a fabulous caramel .. like the Kraft's caramel candies .. any ideas?

Jackie

 

[Satharra]

Yes well I just sold the Freedomsmoke juices on the ECF classifieds LOL, not for me at all. Each one had an unlying tobacco flavor to it and I think that was another problem for me. If I get a butterscotch, for instance, I sure want it to taste like butterscotch but theirs had a burnt taste in it plus a tobacco taste, I could tell there might be a little butterscotch in it but yikes, barely there. I think they are the greatest people though, but their juices arent ;-)

I'm sticking with VaporsEtc and TastyVapor. I love TV's tastyfinger, cafe macchiato, german chocolate cake and boston cream pie. I have the TV waffle on order now and do plan to order their butter rum next .. if you PROMISE it will taste like a werther's butterscotch lol.

As for fruit flavors .. so far VaporsEtc are the best out there for me. I'm also trying to find a fabulous caramel .. like the Kraft's caramel candies .. any ideas?

Jackie

I haven't had any luck with caramels. I just have too many issues with creamy flavors I think.

The Butter Rum is darned good. I'll let you know what I think of Dat's Vapor's butter rum when I get it. If you get TV Butter Rum, let that puppy sit for at least a week if not more. It starts out smelling pretty funky but comes into its own later.

Also, don't try to stealth vape the TV Butter Rum. It puts out quite the odor and is very, very noticeable. Or, if you do, carry some butterscotches or something. I can just about guarantee someone will ask you for one.

 

[DC2]

I'm also trying to find a fabulous caramel .. like the Kraft's caramel candies .. any ideas?

Try the Tasty Vapor Dulce De Leche.

 

[stashbldr]

Try the Tasty Vapor Dulce De Leche.

Glad you suggested the Dulce De Leche .. I almost did order that one 2 weeks ago and then thought I'd be disappointed if it didnt have enough butterscotch flavoring, obviously I was wrong if you're suggesting it. And I've been having 2nd thoughts about getting the Butter Rum .. because I hate rum and figure there is probably a rum taste in it. I do love creamy tastes (obvious from my list of TV favorites LOL). If the Dulce De Leche has a great caramel taste to it then YES, I want to order it.

 

[Sgt.Taz]

I have to say the Butter Rum T.V. from Tasty vapor is awesome! I got it in all PG so I could stealth vape at work. Only weird thing was people kept asking me if I was using incense. Since my smell is just starting to come back it's hard to detect but from what non-smoking friends have told me it smells great. It does have a hint of rum after taste from my perspective.

 

[orville99]

Jackie, welcome back. Glad to hear the cruise went well. We're on Monarch in a few weeks, and vaping makes a big difference. How'd the cell phone chargers work out for you?

 

[Satharra]

Glad you suggested the Dulce De Leche .. I almost did order that one 2 weeks ago and then thought I'd be disappointed if it didnt have enough butterscotch flavoring, obviously I was wrong if you're suggesting it. And I've been having 2nd thoughts about getting the Butter Rum .. because I hate rum and figure there is probably a rum taste in it. I do love creamy tastes (obvious from my list of TV favorites LOL). If the Dulce De Leche has a great caramel taste to it then YES, I want to order it.

I don't tend to pick up the rum too much. It just reminds me of the butter rum lifesavers I used to get in that cute little storybook package for Christmas. My Grandma was adamant that I have one of those lifesaver storybooks for Christmas each year even after I'd long forgotten about Santa. It's a fond memory and I associate it with the TV Butter Rum.

 

[stashbldr]

Jackie, welcome back. Glad to hear the cruise went well. We're on Monarch in a few weeks, and vaping makes a big difference. How'd the cell phone chargers work out for you?

The usb charger was my Ipod usb charger .. that's the one I used to charge my PCC .. worked fantastic! In fact everything I brought worked fantastic and I was fully charged and vaping like crazy for the whole 2 weeks. Other than vaping in the cabin, I think the most fun part was vaping on all of the airline flights .. teehee. We had a 10 hour flight from Houston to Frankfort .. when I've done that flight in the past I go nuts without being able to smoke. This time there was no craving at all, because I stealth vaped every few mins the whole time. Even topped off my carto repeatedly, right in my seat. In Frankfort we transferred to another flight, to Copenhagen, and had to go thru a thorough security screening in Frankfort. I had my PV around my neck in a lanyard, and in my tote there was my PCC, tons of cartos, 6 batteries and at least 15 bottles of liquids. No problemo, I went right thru. Same thing in Copenhagen, on our return flight, same thing in Heathrow (they can often be the toughest), same thing in Chicago on our transfer to Houston.

I did have one problem though .. and that was the cartos that I had pre-filled at home before the first flight. I ended up having to mess around with each of those cartos once we got to our hotel before the cruise. I dont know if it was the cabin pressure of the flight to Frankfort, or the length of the flight being 10 hrs, but every carto that I had pre-filled just wouldnt vape properly. Some of the cartos were brand new, with a fresh fill in it and I ended up having to drain some of them and refill them, and others I had to actually throw out and start over with a brand new carto and a brand new fill (glad I brought so much liquid with me). Once I was on land and did all of that refilling etc, from then on for the next 2 weeks of the cruise, everything was as perfect as it always is .. so I am wondering if something happened to my cartos because of that first long flight. Anyone have any thoughts about that?