rmalbers

They are roped off and there are signs about the rental so I assumed they did indeed rent it but I didn't ask them, lol!

No sorry, I didn't mean at all you were wrong at all. I've just never checked out VO in the Caribbean, in fact I really never planned to cruise in the Caribbean until I did it on X, then noticed VO was there.

I have to say I saw one couple rent a cabana on EQ on my 10 nighter last week. I sort of wonder how it worked out because I sure didn't see anyone providing any service. Maybe someone from the sunset bar checked on them, not sure. I sure would research that plan before committing.

The drying closet in my cabin on my Great Lakes cruise could not be turned on and used for 'drying'. I think they might only fire those up when needed in the 'far south'.

I have to say VO was at several ports at the same time as the X cruise on EQ I was on last week (and before). I was surprised, I need to look into that.

Yes, I have one smarttag (android) that I put in my suitcase. It is interesting watching it.

My wife was talking to a woman from Canada who didn't get her luggage (airline) until day 7 of the 10 day cruise. Would that be bad or what! But why I wanted to post this: When luggage is lost one of the things that they want is a very accurate description of each bag so the key is to take several pictures of all your luggage from different angles showing tags, brand, etc. Maybe most everyone already does this, I'm not sure, but just putting this out there.

Someone on board needs to ask Cap Kate what the deal is, if they know there's no reason for her not to say what's going on.

I sure hope they get to the bottom of it and we find out the cause, this is really strange with all the work and expense that goes into building a ship.

I was wondering if anyone else would comment about it. Wow, maybe it isn't a screw up but hard to believe. The only other thing I was thinking was that the salt settled to the bottom of the pot that they dumped into the serving bowl or something like that. Anyway, we'll see if anyone else comments.

I think I've caught up on the comments. I got off EQ last week and here are a few things I've noticed from the comments: If you have not cruised X since Jan 1st then you really shouldn't rebut a comment from someone that has, it is truly different on X now. I saw something on training: I saw numerous people being trained in customer facing positions, a VERY good sign, they are bringing in more crew. (Having said that, I have no idea if they are losing crew at the same time.) I really had not seen anyone in training before on X, I think it might have been more behind the scenes, but not now, again, a very good sign. Another thing I noticed on a detailed Edge review (from after Jan 1), they seemed to have a number of higher quality menu items that used to be on M and S class, not sure it that will change on E class or not but that also might be why there are some different options in some areas, it sure 'appears' like E class hasn't seen the food quality cuts yet, at least going by the pictures in the review. Oh, another thing from the comments: I can tell that there are a lot of comments from people that have no idea what financial shape RCG is in, they are not doing these cutbacks for the fun of it, they are doing them do survive, literally. The change in interest rates is NOT going to help when they go to refinance their debt and need as much cash as they can get their hands on.

I went into it wondering how the elite minutes worked and I found out real quick, lol! They should set that up if you have elite minutes automatically for sure. If I would of known about that I would have put that in/on my survey. Anyway, the basic worked for what I needed, I don't need to stream. I was getting a WIFI 6 connect to the AP from my cabin aft on deck 12, not that that improved my overall speed but it surprised me.

I was wondering about that. So what do they do that allows you to 'toggle'? So what I needed to do was turn my wifi on my phone off to save minutes and back on when I wanted to use those minutes?

Yes, it's always nice to get info from a local or someone that's been to the ports recently.

I would say, that's a yes.

Probably just a mistake. Non embarkation days it's 30 minutes, typically.

OK, that is starlink equipped so my comment/s apply.

I would be curious to know, if Starlink home users in the US have any issues accessing CC? Anyone seeing this that use it (without issues)?

Yes, I saw all that stuff in your first paragraph on EQ. I really felt bad for the staff, if they moved any faster they would have been running. It certainly is not their fault.

Off topic a little but just to put it out there: I was wondering about Starlink and how they are doing it. There was a VO ship next to us and I noticed they had eight Starlink antenna's (that I could see) clustered in the center of the ship and that ship hold around 900-1000 guests.

Yes, I had that happen with a number of sites, even CNN. I think it might have to do with embedded ad and tracking links.

OP: You don't say what ship but EQ is now using Starlink and FB works with basic but if someone uploads a huge image or video to the FB group that you are trying to view that was sometimes/usually an 'issue'. I measured it a couple of times and got a solid 1mb up/down speed but of course you have the latency. I also had an 'issue' where I started up my Elite 90 free minutes and it worked fine but was used up when I woke up the next morning without having really used it at all. I'm not sure what is up with that, I didn't ask.

I don't think that is the case, they have a serious mess on their hands with staffing levels, at least on the ship I was on. One thing that I don't know is if staffing levels are better at the new cash machine, the E class ships. I haven't paid much attention to E class staffing complaints, if there are any.

Ya, it is interesting. I haven't mentioned it but the rise of the 'middle class' in developing countries may be part of it. X workers, at least customer facing, have to be able to speak and understand at least a little English and if they can do that maybe they are getting better paying jobs elsewhere (not in the cruise industry).

I think you've summed it up real well. The people, like me, that notice the most difference are the people that have sailed on X before. If you had not sailed on X before Jan 1 you would not know what the differences are. When the MDR chef was brought out and introduced to the various people at the tables and the people were asked about the food, everyone I heard commented on how great the food was and how happy they were, etc., I was surprised by it and didn't say anything about the 'menu changes', LOL! I would add to your list: new menus in the MDR.