PlanetX

Age check? It's very much an 18+ event.

Looks like the port expansion is coming along nicely. Hope the rain holds off for you today!

Captain Marshall Bartlett sailed Harmony into Galveston last week.

Following! We will be on Harmony starting Sunday, hope all goes well for your sailing after the Alpha call last night. We got 2 on Symphony last year on the first night and had to head back to Miami, but we were back on schedule the next day, no worries. Do you happen to know who the comedians are on your sailing? Guessing they'll be there next week too.

While true, the service and food was still good in December. MSC has gotten a wide reputation for low food quality (other than pizza and Italian) and Italian (read: surly and clueless) customer service. Is that changing? Don't really know, but I don't feel the need to gamble with my cruise dollars. Royal's customer service and food was still worth the money the last I was on there. If that changes, I'll look at making a change, but MSC absolutely won't be at the top of my list of alternatives.

Before you book MSC, take a look at the food and service reviews across the various ships. As they say, you get what you pay for…

Saw it on Symphony in December, it was really good. Cast was great with lots of energy, and great production values too.

I don't think blanketly ignoring reviews and going into a cruise blindly is a smart move, particularly before you make the booking. Seems to me the better option is to read a lot of reviews, consider whether they're trustworthy or if the person posting them is just a crank looking for problems, then see what common problems/complains there are. Then ask yourself if those things will bother you or not. If so, is it a deal-breaker or are there strategies to avoid these issues so they don't affect your enjoyment of the cruise, etc. More to the point, I've never been on Allure but have been on Oasis, Harmony and Symphony. Yes, there are crowds and some lines at times but between making reservations and knowing when places are less busy, I never really found it to be much of a problem. There is a lot of passenger space on Oasis class ships. While Allure is older and doesn't have some of the bells and whistles of its sister ships (yet), the recent videos I've seen show it's in good shape and still has a lot to offer, especially if you're the type of person who doesn't need water slides and robot bartenders to have a good time at sea.

Possibly a fast casual pasta and brick oven pizza type deal, grab your Italian food and go eat somewhere else on deck. A la carte, starting price $7.95 per item or something similar.

Per MB on FB: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelBayleyRoyalCaribbean

They’re still open deck space on top of the new cabins they built on top of the bridge. They just moved the open space one deck higher, off the Solarium instead of a hallway with cabins like it used to be before dry dock.

They'll get a nice, shiny C&A Pre-Gold membership! 😁

A bit unusual, but on the other hand, it only needs to be so fast. I'm streaming Youtube in 4K right now without a problem.

Aboard Symphony now, off the coast of Mexico:

Just one data point, but I submitted my shareholder benefit request on 11/23 and got confirmation and $$ on my account on 11/30, for a 12/10 sail date.