Spunky946

20 hours ago, goinmobile68 said:

So nice to hear that I'm the only one who doesn't feel the need for a smartphone. Woman's clothes tend not to have pockets large enough to carry them & I really don't want to go back to a backpack! Still, more places offer no option to "Scan this ugly code" including my Alma Mater. Oh well, no other option means you don't want my business or contribution-Simple!

My iPhone fits in my back pocket of my jeans no problem. Or I slide it in the pocket of my purse. They aren’t that big.

10 hours ago, AC Stew said:

September 17 night Arctic crossing on the Jewel with My Time Dining:

 

We've done My Time Dining for years, always with an advance reservation for around 6:00 to 6:30. Always a good experience with little or no wait time, and usually the same table and servers.

 

For this cruise, we had 6:45 reservations for every night of the sailing, the earliest time slot offered. It was a nightmare. As previously reported in other threads, MTD now opens later, and only when the traditional early diners vacate the dining room. Consequently, well before 6:45, the line ups have formed. Both on the "Reservations" line and the separate "No Reservations" line. 

 

There were always delays be seated; never got in before 7:00. It took time to process those line ups! Lots of grumbling and frustration could be heard. Especially when "No Reservations" folks were regularly seated ahead of the "Reservations" line. Service with different waiters/assists was hit or miss.

 

After a few nights, we gave up and ate dinner in the Windjammer. In point of fact, a great many cruisers did the same. The WJ was packed every night. We found that the food choices were actually better than what we'd experienced in the MDR. And it was more relaxing to eat at our leisure. Never a worry about making the show. Honestly, we were quite happy there!

 

Unless MTD is returned to its original format of using a separate restaurant level and starting earlier, it will remain inefficient and increasingly unpopular.

It was so much better when they used a separate dining room and it ran the whole time of 5:15-9. Easy to make reservations or even walk in, especially when we were two or four people.  I hate it now that they share.

It’s also on the symphony which is a newer ship and the Caribbean is much more interesting to me then the Bahamas.

We cruised on another line out of seattle and on royal on serenade of the sea’s out of Vancouver both with kids. We went on the second with teens and had a blast. The serenade is the sister ship to Brilliance.  Plenty of families because of the summer and the both made friends, plus they like hanging out with us playing trivia, bingo, cards with us.  I much prefer leaving out of Vancouver because I hate that stop in Victoria.  An Alaskan cruise to me is more about the itinerary than the ship. We also started on holland America with the kids, and moved to royal. We’ve never done a big mega ship, so we are happy just hanging out.

On 4/19/2023 at 12:58 PM, goldenfarm said:

Sit down and do research with a teenager? Have you ever had a teenager? 🤣

I have two teenagers and they both do research for vacations.

Yuck

A refundable deposit gets the whole thing back.  

Eh, not the most exciting itinerary.  While we do love the beach/free pool, we like to mix it up.  Yes it’s cheaper because you don’t need to pay for shore excursions, I’d find something that did one of those islands and something else that has more to do, jmo.

No, you can’t share packages, and if you are caught, they will revoke your privileges and not refund it.  It’s noted on your sea pass.

4 hours ago, poocher said:

The only overpacking I do is OTC meds.  I have everything anyone on board might ever need!  Cold medicine, Dramamine, Imodium, Tylenol, ibuprofen, sunscreen, aloe, pepto, ambesol, benedryl, bandages, moleskin, antiseptic.  You name it, I got it.  I can wear outfits more than once & wash stuff in the sink but no way am I gonna be without an OTC!!

I’m the same way. We are cruising next week, so I better stock up at the drug store soon.

How old are your kids?  When our kids were younger, one cabin was fine, though we did have a balcony.  It was cramped, but ok.  The key is to unpack everything and be organized.  Now that our kids are 18 and 14, we do two rooms, and I can’t imagine going back, so much extra space. I’d price out two and see how more expensive it is.

Per Marc walkers Facebook post he is returning to Mariner February 10-June 3.

Just now, ballarinamom said:

Definitely  have no problem with that. Food waste is a major issue on cruise lines,. But I have been on cruises where guys have ordered 10 lobsters when they are seated.

Wow, 10 is a lot.  Sometimes my husband and I would order a third to share if we couldn’t decide which one we wanted or I’ll get the surf and turf. One cruise I couldn’t decide which dessert I wanted, and the waiter brought me 4 to try,  which we all shared. Definitely wouldn’t order so much I couldn’t eat it all.

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

I can't imagine ordering 3 full plates! 

We’ve had our waiter come by saying he had an extra lobster, did we want it?  Who am I to turn down an extra lobster?  Yup got an extra lobster.  Yum.

3 hours ago, matj2000 said:

What is the problem with going with "Something Less" (Whatever that means)than an Quantum Class ship?

Personally I don’t get the love for the big ships and that there is nothing to do on the smaller ships

We cruise for the itinerary, though I’m partial to the voyager class.  I like the promenade and there is still a lot to do without being huge.  We cruised serenade to Alaska this year and loved it, though I didn’t love the centrum because it felt like the center of the ship was always noisy.  We’ve never been on a ship bigger then voyager, which we may try someday

4 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

Okay, update after talking to RC today. As some of you pointed out, our balcony room is no longer a balcony. They had never emailed us this change nor a price adjustment. They WERE able to move the rest of my party to the 4th floor and they WERE able to get us away from the bar. The new room is $700 cheaper plus a $100 on-board credit. They were not able to get us back into a balcony.

 

So our options at this point are 1) to take the two 4th floor rooms without a balcony and save some money, leaving our itinerary as is, 2) see if they’ll switch us to the June 11th from Rome (which I doubt, as it is $3k more at this point and it was not on their list of available itineraries to switch to, plus worse port schedule, IMO), or 3) cancel this cruise and just do the rest of the Italy/Greece vacation we had planned, and just spend the cruise days on the Amalfi Coast and a Greek island, which were the two ports I was most excited about.

 

My kids and husband were suuuuuuper excited to do a cruise and they’ve never been so they won’t know what they’re missing with the worse rooms, so we’ll probably stick with option 1, though I was kind of already leaning toward option 3 before I even discovered this whole issue. 

Bottom line is that the final verdict could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. Sigh.

I’d I’d keep it.  On a port intensive cruise, it won’t matter what ship you are on, plus to us itineraries are more important.  Also you can keep checking to see if a balcony opened up.

We’ve been on her two sister ships adventure and navigator.  Loved them.  We’ve never been on the oasis class, but there is plenty to do on the voyager class ships.  The promenade is great, lots of fun trivia and game shows.  Heck we just got off of the serenade and loved it even though it was smaller.  We sail for the itinerary not the ship.

Usually comes down from the ceilings but isn’t in the way unless it’s opened up.

On 6/12/2022 at 7:42 PM, DonnaK said:

We've had some dynamic CDs.  On our last cruise, Mike Whitte seemed to be everywhere, warming up the crowd, and even joined the Classic Rock tribute band on a few tracks!   Dru Pavlov would host special activities, such as Seinfeld, Friends and Sports trivia, complete with fun re-enactments of classic scenes.  Dynamic CDs also schedule extra live music, such as having the headline musical act perform a bonus show in a smaller venue, or have the featured singers of the production shows perform their own acts.  We enjoy participating in activities such as trivia and live music, and really appreciated having these additional special activities to attend.     There was always something going on that we wanted to do, and we would move from venue to venue throughout the evening.

 

On the other hand, we've been on cruises where their seemed to be nothing to do, lounges empty for long periods of time in the evening, activities felt "old" and lackluster.  Boring and ineffective cruise directing, for sure.  

That’s so true.  Just off of serenade and for a small ship there was a ton of trivia, game shows, and the shows were great.  John is such a great cruise director 

On 6/12/2022 at 7:31 PM, homedepot124 said:

The CD can make a huge difference when you have a great one like John Blair - and his wife Katrina.  They are heads and shoulders above all of the other CD's.  And John is the only CD we have seen recently who actually does a show on the ship with his Neil Diamond show.  The only other one I can remember who actually did a show was John Gresham on Celebrity with his Eagles show. 

We just got off of the serenade and he was awesome.  He has such energy.  Now my next goal is to sale with Marc walker aka bing bong.

Usually two appetizers, one entree and one dessert.  One night I mentioned that all 4 desserts looked good and then I chose one.  The waiter brought all 4 desserts.  Now I didn’t eat all 4 of them, I had a few bites of each.  Another night on lobster night the waiter came by and said he had an extra lobster, did we want it?  Now I’m not about to turn down lobster, so we took it and shared it.  

Our first royal cruise was on the navigator and my daughter was 9 and my son was 13.  We allowed my son more freedom as he was older.  We let me daughter sign herself out, but only to come straight and meet up with me.  She’d always be on time and we’d allow her to continue.  Next cruise was a year later and she had a bit more,  she made a few friends and they’d like to slide or ice skate.  One night I told her to meet me on the promenade at 10.  She came down soaking wet in her suit because she had been in the hot tub with her friend, but didn’t want to miss being late for our check in,  she asked for more time, which I happily gave.  Both kids were always good about checking in on time and spending time with us and with friends. 
 

At the younger ages, we always did short periods of time to specific places.  Going to Alaska this summer and they will be 18 and 13,  can’t wait.

1 hour ago, LGW59 said:

It throws off nothing, it is all totally a luck of the draw.  When a player seated next to me says, blah blah blah, I say then move to another table

Oh I’ve seen a good shoe go bad because a player was playing completely inconsistent. Yes one or two hands won’t necessarily make a difference, but being completely random will, and yes I will get up.

2 hours ago, Lady Hudson said:

All BJ books say that it does not matter what others do at the table — it matters what you do with your cards.  Yes it is frustrating if someone doesn’t hit when “supposed” to or vice versa and you lose a hand.  But if you watch carefully you will see that “wrong” playing by others wins you as many hands as losing.  True serious BJ players know this.  Forget what other people say — it’s your hand and your money.  If someone doesn’t like how others are playing they can leave.  Follow your strategy card — always.  
 

Another thing I have heard at a table (let’s say the dealer is showing a six) is SOMEONE has to take a hit.  No, no, no!

 

And I will repeat — do not think the BJ dealers are experts in basic strategy.  Most are not.  Hope this helps.  Katherine 

What I can’t stand is the inconsistency of some players.  We all occasionally may go “against the book” occasionally.  Every once in a while I’ll not hit a 16 agains a face care or higher card, which the book says to hit.  Or something similar.  What I can’t stand, and yes I’ll get up, is when they are super inconsistent with their play.  Hitting here, not hitting there,  yes if a shoe is going well, it can ruin the shoe.   I know not everyone believes it’s, but it’s what I feel.  There are certain plays I will never understand, like not hitting on a soft 16 or soft 17.  Never hit against a 5 or a 6 when you have a bust hand, let them bust.  And never ever split 10’s.