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chilliano

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Yes! Agree. We were in suites, so same for sommelier service in Luminae. Ate in Blu, same, one night In MDR b/c hubby really preferred the menu one night. Poor all around, but incredibly so in MDR. e.g., I ordered the Pinot noir and I got a rose. She ignored us after politely pointed out the difference btw rose and Pinot Noir, The “sommelier” staffed the tub-oh-beers at the pool the next day. Don’t blame her, poor training and/or just not enough staff. But we haven’t cruised in 3 years and the number one difference we noticed was the difference in sommelier services and the available wines,
  2. Loving your reports! dang, if you are a Buckeye fan, it was a tough loss the other night. They dominated the game but lost by a point. 😞. back to better, more interesting cruise talk! enjoy!
  3. Honestly, chose a Magic Suite room. I can say that the balconies of next rooms can be accessed. Price is less. I can’t speak as to whether the other Sky Suite balconies can be accessed btw rooms
  4. As the other poster noted, these two rooms allow for people traveling together-e.g., parents in the sky suite and kids in the interior room. There was one interior room that shared the “mini corridor” with us. We saw him ONCE. We never heard him. A plus is that we never heard any doors opening or shutting because we were inset from the main corridor. As far as the Magic Suite rooms goes, the two inside suites are what I will call “inset” with an inside room off to the side, the two outside suites have a kind of “portal” window that adds something to the balcony, for whatever reason, the door btw our balcony and the suite next door was open. It needed to be locked from the other side, and it never was. I put the little table next to the door to keep it shut, I did, however, peak thru to the other balcony before we sailed and I saw it had a window— I knew it was there, so that’s why I wanted to check it out. I liked it, and I’d consider that room in the future, on another note. I confess that my hubby and I grabbed the wrong envelop outside our door and inadvertently opened the door of the inside cabin—what did we know? The inside cabin looked much nicer than I thought it would be. Kinda like a small hotel room. I probably wouldn’t hesitate to book an inside room on a ship that I knew to have a lot of outdoor spaces. Even us, I DID spend time on our balcony, but hubby spent not a minute there….
  5. Just off Apex. We booked a Magic Carpet suite cause the price differential was about $500. I was on the balcony twice when the Magic carpet went by. It was kinda cool. No one was on the MC, hubby was in the room both times and he DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE. It took about a minute for the MC to go by. Our balcony was large and had no obstructed views. The entrance to our room was through a hallway that had an interior room. Meaning? We didn’t hear room door slams at all because our room was inset, I would totally book an S2 room again, we were in the middle, and next time, I’d go for a room on either side that had the extra window on the balcony
  6. You just never know. FWIW, my husband, who’s much bolder in general than I am, thought it would be too risky to try for a 9:30 flight. we took our time getting off the ship and we were still at FLL and cleared TSA by 8:45. BUT, we were on United and have TSA pre check. It would have been another story without TSA pre check. also, FWIW, there was a 9:40 flight to our destination, but it had a mechanical delay and our 11:30 flight arrived a good 2 hours earlier than the 9:40 flight. Bottom line, why stress? BUT, if you have CLEAR or TSA pre check, you walk your bags off the ship and turn right for a Taxi rather than ride share, you can make a 9:30 flight. If you don’t have tsa pre check or clear, you’re not an early bird or fit enough to walk yourself and your bags off with the first group, then, I’d go for a later flight. Walk around the airport. It’s kinda fun to walk on dry land again, grab a meal or drink at a restaurant and relax
  7. I’ll reiterate that if I were booking Aqua, I’d probably go for S class. Even on S class, the gym has a front view. It’s slightly better on Eclass. For both, the location is a good incentive to spend some time doing a bit of exercise. If you like Cafe Baccio, you may prefer E class. We often had issues getting seating on S class, never on E class. (Downside is the gelato place is gone on the E class). however, there is a nice deck with chairs on the S class on the same deck that is missing from the E class. bottom line? e class and S class are both great. Which has the best price for the time you can get away? Me? I’d try for Sky Suite on E class as it ticks all the boxes for me. But if I an Aqua class were available on an S class at a time that worked for me, I’d take it and be happy too.
  8. From an earlier post: “We prefer Retreat lounge on S class, with drink servers not just the bartender trying to take care of the whole lounge.” just off Apex, where I spent a fair amount of time in the Retreat Lounge and patio. There were many more staff than the bartender. The staff in the lounge were the friendliest and most helpful on board. If I didn’t have self-control, I’d have easily had a fresh drink every 10-15 minutes as that’s how often they checked in on me. T
  9. I LOVED the Retreat lounge. Huge windows. Comfortable seating. Lovely music. A bar. Help-yourself-soda and water, a patio shaded with the ocean sounds. Sun deck was fabulous. Rooftop gardens on E class much better than S-class for lounging. Eden has lots of seating and huge windows (aft) if you don’t have Retreat access. Cafe Bacio is much larger on e-class. Never a problem to get seating. Magic carpet is open with nice views and comfortable seating during the day. We dined with friends staying in Sky Suites in Luminae on Reflection, and Luminae on E class is muuuuuch nicer with beautiful sea views. The only thing I missed about the S-class was the Atrium, the tree, and riding up and down the center elevators. I also like the library in the s-class. All this being said, if I were to book Aqua class balcony, I’d go for S Class as I like Persian Gardens better than Eclass Thermal Suites. The S class spa has a great Relaxation lounge at the front of the ship. The E class relaxation room is smaller and has a side rather than front view. also, Blu has poor views on E class.
  10. If you book Sky Suite on Edge class, you will have access to Retreat Lounge, which is beautiful, and the retreat sun deck. My husband DID purchase the Thermal Suites pass as we have previously sailed in Aqua cabins and made full use of the Persian Gardens. He only used it 3 times, and 2 of them were probably because of “gee, I paid for this, so I better use it” reasons, I did not purchase it as I didn’t get the same restful vibe from it when we toured. I loved the Retreat Lounge. I like the Solarium too but spent all my time in Retreat areas and Rooftop Gardens. If you both like the Thermal Suites/Persian Gardens, try to get the Aqua Sky Suites as the price difference may be less than two purchased weekly passes. If only one of you will use it, book Sky Suite and wait til you’re onboard to tour to see if you want to purchase it. FWIW, hubby says he wouldn’t purchase it again,
  11. Our booking came with a nice OBC and pre-paid gratuities. We didn’t use all of the OBC, so on the last night, we got one of the forms and left extra for staff. You can designate to go to the restaurant or housekeeping staff in general or also list specific staff. We did both, e.g., our principal waiter and the restaurant staff pool, etc.
  12. You can purchase on the ship. Wait until you get there to tour it. My husband purchased it (we had a lot of onboard credit), and he went three times. It’s not as peaceful or as blocked off as on the S class (name?) ships. Frankly, the Solarium, to me, has a nicer ambiance. We have always booked Aqua, and as an amenity, the Persian Gardens was worth it. But paying extra is another issue. When I toured, I could immediately see that it wouldn’t be worth the price for me. We were in Retreat, so we had access to a nice lounge and sun deck. But if we were in another balcony room, I still wouldn’t purchase it. Hubby liked it but said he wouldn’t purchase it again. Everyone’s opinion is different, hence my recommendation to wait til onboard. If you do a spa treatment, I recommend Charo.
  13. Yeah, deleted too. I’ll spend 2 minutes. That’s my limit. Companies use the info to make $. It’s too much of an ask $20 min without any incentive. And I’m a researcher btw. We don’t ask respondents to contribute data w/o some kind of incentive.
  14. I've followed the above directions and I see the same discounts that I saw last month--about 10-15% discount only. Could it be because our cruise is this month? Or did I miss it?
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