canderson

I hope you meant "...isn't a selling point if they want my business." There's yet another part of the cruising public for whom it is a selling point. Meanwhile, we can recommend Regent, another good line with a somewhat more lax set of evening dress requirements.

I should note, on my PC (since I don't know what device you're using), it's obviously different. There, the gear is in the bottom left corner. Select the Auto-Connect tab Select VPN protocol The protocol selections appear to be the same as for phone.

That what will happen if the ship blocks the protocol in use. On my phone (Android) Open app Click on Profile (lower right) Click on 'gear' (upper right) Click on Protocol I suspect that "Recommended" - NordLynx, but I plan to fiddle with all of them on Dawn someday to see. Thanks for the real-time updates, too. Always better than historical info!

Would be curious to know, if asked politely, why the Hotel Manager is operating in this mode for this cruise.

Did you have a chance to try any of Nord's alternate protocols? They're there, but Nord doesn't make them easy to find.

When I was a kid here in the USA, those WERE thongs. Something definitely changed while I wasn't looking:

Deciding it was time to look into the capabilities of VyprVPN (for $60/yr, a reasonable alternative). Discovered that they do indeed support a number of different protocols, one of which is likely to work in any given circumstance. They've even done what they can to deal with issues in countries like China. If it helps with any shipboard IT personnel discussions, port numbers are added for each in bold red. From their page: WireGuard® Is Here We are excited to offer WireGuard®, the most advanced, robust VPN protocol that offers the fastest and most private and secure connection available for all devices. In addition, VyprVPN accounts include a host of other VPN protocols so you can choose your preferred level of encryption, speed and protection, including IPsec, OpenVPN™ and Chameleon™. WireGuard® [51820 UDP] WireGuard® is considered to be the future of VPN protocols. Built with an extremely slim code structure, this nimble technology offers you the highest levels of speed, privacy and security. IPSec IPsec is a protocol built into most desktop, phone and tablet devices. We support both L2TP [1701 with TCP] and IKEv2 [500 and 1500 UDP] for IPSec on select platforms providing you fast, secure and reliable performance. OpenVPN™ [1194 UDP by default] OpenVPN™ is the industry standard protocol for desktops including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. OpenVPN™ is a secure and reliable choice. Chameleon™ [Unknown default, user selectable] Our Chameleon™ technology defeats censorship by scrambling metadata to prevent deep packet inspection (DPI), VPN blocking and throttling.

Got it. VyprVPN.

Using Nord or another service? If Nord, can you elaborate on protocol setting method?

Find your closest Nordstrom store and have a chat with the gent's department there. They sell a Hart Schaffner Marx tux that won't break the bank for a garment that won't get much use, and the wool might be lightweight enough for him.

It certainly does on other RCG ships. Have often seen people here on CC say it doesn't matter who the captain is. I often remind them that the Staff Captain and Hotel Director report to the captain. I usually am pointing out that how the staff and crew are treated by the captain, with his wishes communicated through the Staff Captain, will inevitably impact crew morale, and in turn, passenger experience. Unhappy crew can only 'fake it' just so much. But it is broader than that. Application of pool deck and dining room rules also therefore flows from the captain who may take a Laissez-faire approach and leave it to his subordinates, or may instead make clear statements of expectations in these matters, lax or otherwise. While captains do work at the pleasure of the line, it seems they are granted wider latitude in day to day operations than one might expect, corporate 'guidelines' notwithstanding. This can lead to a sometimes surprising difference in approach to these and other things between ships of the same line.

The direct conflict occurs when pax find their "items" missing. Hard to win either way if they don't want to play by the rules and then complain about the consequences.

Interesting. I wonder if port blocking isn't uniform across the fleet? Which VPN is working for you on Moon, if any?

Indeed. Was just thinking about the parallels to 'real life' in some cities where the 'crew' feels inhibited from doing the job of enforcing rules due to lack of 'head office' support. Makes it tough on a ship's crew and is rooted in the same kind of thinking. For cities, it's votes. For lines, it's income. Head office or Mayor's office doesn't want to deal with the complaints.

When he died last year, he had them drive his hearse through town blaring music from Dark Side of the Moon. Back in the 70's, we referred to this as 'anti-script' behavior.

For less than a $10 investment, you can stick one of these on a 'reserved' lounger and give the dial a spin. When it dings, point it out to security, or just start chucking stuff (though not overboard, please) - whichever feels better at the time. 😁

Very good @billc23. Info is much appreciated. Wireguard is very 'compact' code for a VPN protocol, but sounds like it's a problem? It uses 51820 UDP, and perhaps that's what is being blocked by the ship. IKEv2 uses UDP 500 and 4500, so evidently those aren't being blocked. That also opens up a large number of possibilities including the services below, and no doubt many others that support IKEv2: NordVPN, ExpressVPN, SurfShark, CyberGhost, AtlasVPN, pureVPN and IPVanish. I've had good luck with Nord on other RCG ships, but have no idea what ports SS is actually blocking.

Better to have luggage arrive a day or more early at the pre-cruise hotel. Offers a chance to recover from any issues.

If they're doing port blocking, all you can typically do is try another VPN service that uses different ports to see if that works... hence my query above to @billc23 We've had to play musical VPNs on other RCG ships before.

Can you be more specific? Could save others a lot of time finding success.

When RCL started putting out the illustrations for Icon, the nickname that came immediately to mind was "Six Flags Over the Mariana Trench".

Our first X cruise was on Galaxy, as were several others. Our only Century cruise was a side-to-side after returning on a westbound Constellation TA (side-to-side being a bus trip FLL/MIA) right after they did the structural modifications, added suites, etc. Feels like eons ago. That class ship had one thing that I've consistently rated better than any other ship we've ever sailed -- a real thalassotherapy pool. You could stand under those vertical pipes of water and hammer your neck and shoulders into submission with that water pressure if you wanted to! The 'extras' on Silversea at Silver Suite only amount to free laundry, I think. On Celebrity, it included free laundry, and no-upcharge dining in all of the $ restaurants (unlike Silversea in Kaiseki and La Dame), and a few other goodies. All in all, not a great deal of difference in that regard. It was sometimes a little weird on Celebrity, though - felt like we had stalkers everywhere! One day on Constellation we decided there was a menu item that appealed to us in the main dining room at lunch. We hadn't set foot in the MDR for the entire cruise until then, but we were greeted by name at the door. Seems the rumors of photos posted in the back wait-stations of various venues were true.

We had been booking RS cabins on M and S class ships, so there was never an issue of whether our names (or faces, from what we heard about posted photos) were known, especially on M class, so it would be a bit closer to apples to apples for us in that regard. Although still a cut above the other mass market lines in terms of the crew:passenger ratio, we felt that Celebrity was moving more and more in that direction in other ways. Realizing that we had preferred the (relatively) smaller size of the M class ships, downsizing further seemed like something we might enjoy, and trading an M class RS for a Silversea Silver Suite looked like a comparable swap. Considered Azamara briefly, but ship age and vibe weren't exactly what we had in mind.

Our history is the same as yours. Long time X cruisers, never Edge class, just now moving to Dawn for our first SS cruise. What caused you to 'jump ship'?

"Included" means there's no extra charge if you choose to indulge -- it's included in the fare. "Free" would be a misnomer since you're paying for it in the fare whether you're drinking it or not! TANSTAAFL