Mademypoint

The butter chicken was there most nights in the galley! It is not on the menu so you have to know to ask for it. The Naan bread was really good, too. In terms of things in walking distance, my friend has a walker so that wasn't an option. We did go to Senor Frogs for lunch because we'd be boarding before 2PM.

You CAN drop your bags off early. I believe it's anytime after 10AM but keep in mind there are still hundreds of people waiting to leave the ship who will be queueing up to get a taxi. There is NO PLACE to sit inside the terminal. You literally queue up in three different lines and then when you get in to the terminal you go upstairs to be processed. If you have "Deep blue extras" you get a blue colored band and can board before general boarding begins. If you need assistance, security will let you skip to the front of the line but you will not have anyone from virgin waiting outside for you. If you need wheelchair assistance you must wait until after you get your wrist band. The ship didn't sail for us until 8:30 so getting their early was okay but it really didn't matter. There were a lot of people throwing tantrums that they had to stand in line and a lot of them were the people we saw at the various ports who were rude to people who needed assistance getting back onto the ship.

I love outrigger, I also loved being able to use the app to order drinks and then asking the bartender for one because when it's busy, you wind up getting two drinks within a few minutes of each other and don't have to deal with the crowds which start showing up by day three once they realize how nice and quiet it is.

Is anyone on the ship right now? I have a friend who says she's sitting on the stairs for hours now. Does anyone know what's happening? TIA

Someone or some people decided to take this "find a duck" obsession to the next stage and hid creepy little naked babies around the ship. They must be laughing endlessly at the excitement it generated when people found them. It's NOT a thing.... Anyone else found them? Picture added for authenticity. If I'd found any, I would have run the other way.

When you cook sous vide you are cooking to 5 degrees below where you want it. It still goes on the grill, it still gets perfect grill marks, it still looks perfectly cooked on the inside but when you cut it, there's no liquid. Not a single drop. It is confusing to the brain because it "should" have that taste but it doesn't. All cruise ships cook this way as do more restaurants than most people realize. There's nothing wrong with this method, in fact it's the best way to make sure you don't overcook a steak, but if you leave it in too long, it isn't overcooked, it's dry.

Sorry to hear that. We are going to Alaska the second week of September and the price difference going that week versus the week prior to labor day was more than $1100 per person. I had a 2K credit from Princess that I needed to use and one ship going to the eastern caribbean from FLL on an older ship versus going to the west (Mexico) on a newer ship was more than $500. Since it was a free cruise I didn't care where it went but I wasn't spending $500 more for the same mini suite (starboard forward).

Steak is sous vide so you run the chance of getting something that's been in the water much too long. Nothing like ordering medium rare and getting a steak that looks red/pink in the middle that's as dry as a rubber stamp. The next time I'm at Cagney's I'm not ordering a steak. As for the Donna Summer musical, I thought it was wonderful when I saw it on Broadway as did anyone I know who saw it. I think as a rule, unless you make it a point to get to the venues early, you run the risk of not seeing "the best" of everything. I always love the activities in the atrium, sorry you didn't have a chance to see those, nothing like seeing people make fools of themselves in all sorts of ways. As for the weather and the ship, I agree that not all ships belong in that cool weather, but that's why sailing at this time of year was probably a lot less expensive.

Again, my friend SAW WHAT HAPPENED. why is everyone so quick to say "but a you tuber" said? I came on here explicitly to stop this speculation because a woman committed suicide and her family deserves peace and everyone's sympathy.

She jumped.

No...my friend SAW HER BODY. I stand by my statement.

Why do people want to speculate? Absolutely untrue, as was the information in the newspaper that she landed on someone. It was early enough in the evening that there weren't many people around when it happened so that always leads to people making assumptions. If someone actually witnessed her trying to take a selfie they should report it to investigators rather than spreading "I heard" because if my friend hadn't witnessed it, I would not have come on here in the first place to try to prevent misinformation from being spread. When I had more information, I shared it. I was invited to go with her but was unable to go because I'm in the middle of an upgrade project.

She was screaming on the way down. Yes people saw her. My friend was on the balcony and saw it happen.

No, the person is not okay. If you are on the ship you will get the update but in the interest of not having people speculate, I'm sharing what happened as per a good friend who is on her right now.

I don't understand why someone with 500+ days at sea should have their email treated different than someone who goes on their first cruise and has issues far more significant than not being able to use a fork to cut veal. It always seems that there's some sense of entitlement for elites on every cruise line where their issues are more important than everyone else's and "you need to" "or else". I can't imagine what it must be like at the get togethers, where every one expects to be the first one served. I've heard of fights breaking out, I guess this is a great example of the expectations one has when they are elite. I'm guessing based upon how unhappy you were that you removed your gratuities as well since you'd decided before you got off that you aren't going to spend anymore money on them "unless" they give you your chocolates? And I'm sure there's someone out there somewhere who is legally blind who is thrilled those lights exist and can help them find the bathroom in the middle of the night.

They take you into the kitchen so no open toed shoes. White coats might be when you go into the kitchen.

You can email it to them. I emailed them on Sunday and got the OBC on Monday.

This reminds me of people on another site that wanted to lecture me because my mother already checked in and I had her bottle in the bag with mine. I was "wrong" and essentially should have been denied boarding for daring to break the rules. They thought my mother was selfish to not wait for me and to take the bag with me. Another time we had a group of 9 and one person had 6 bottles of wine in her bag (easy to see) and they didn't say anything when she went through screening (we were together). And then there was the time they used to let you bring on (checked) champagne and wine for on board celebrations and when we got to the cabin our case was easy to spot among all the luggage waiting to be wheeled onboard lol.

I don't know those itineraries but as someone who has traveled solo many times, it really depends upon what you're looking to do for excursions and if you'd be happy spending that time with a group of strangers. I can talk to anyone, anywhere so stick me on a bus or a train and I'm happy to talk to future new friends. I'd recommend looking for the roll call here and see if there's any activity. You might find there are people already signed up and if that's true take some time to see if there are other solo travelers. You might find a kindred spirit!

I've gone ashore early in the day to pick up some bottles of guavaberry and gone back to the ship before they've set up to search people's bags. Never had an issue bringing it back to my cabin because they don't expect people to return that early. I then go back out.

Your choice of cabin should have no bearing on the service you receive at a restaurant. I can assure you at Cagney's, that after the server dropped off my food and said "let me know if you need anything else" I would have if she'd bothered to come back. I had to flag down the dining room manager three times (1 to get salt and twice to refill my water glass) and I watched as she paid all kinds of attention to a table of six, making sure they were looked after. When she finally came over because I was entitled to order dessert, she didn't even ask me how the food was. I looked at her and said "you asked me to let you know if I needed anything, how could I have told you I needed salt or a refill of my water glass if you couldn't be bothered to come over here?". She couldn't even be bothered to apologize but that's okay, I knew she wasn't going to because the tip from a table of one isn't worth her time. The previous night the manager didn't even charge me for my meal because the waiter was so completely rude (anyone ever have a server literally stand over you trying to look down your shirt while taking your order)? My standards are rather simple, greet me in a reasonable amount of time, take my order and bring me what I ordered. Maybe check in with me to see how the food is and/or do I want anything else before doing a fly by with "I'll just leave this here but take your time" and leaving the check. These places were not busy either (neither was the ship). If a server has time to check on a table of six they have time to check in on me. Years ago I was on an RCI cruise and I watched as this server wouldn't stop and ask me if I wanted a drink, instead preferring to stop at a larger table so I brought it to the managers attention. During their staff meeting he asked them point blank if anyone remembers doing that and one guy raised his hand and said yes he did. They all admit the tips are better with larger groups so that's where their priority is.

I coordinated our M&M on Joy this past May and had a great turnout. We did have some officers that turned out but they did not have the appetizers or beer/cider samples they did in the past. I find that participation on CC is not the same as it was in the past but that might be due to people just being glad to get back on ships and forgetting about on board activities. There were people on another site that participated in pub crawls, poker runs, etc so I think these days it's being active in multiple places. The m&M was absolutely CC and people who turned up signed in with their names. There could have been people who were not on here that came to it, but it was made clear this was Cruise Critic and when they signed in, if they weren't members they would've needed to indicate that.

When I was on Escape the first night was in the lounge. I didn't go to any after the first night as 5 is too early for me. I prefer eating 7:30 or later so I'm able to stay up late. On the Joy I traveled solo and had the worst service imaginable in the specialty restaurants. They just don't care about one person and only come to see you when they are going to their other tables.

I don't take it through them because I want coverage from the time I leave my house until I get back. I want flights, trip interruption, hotels, etc covered. I also get CFAR which usually costs around $30. I insure the cost of my trip. For the one I have in February that is using a FCC and costs me $78 I got a separate policy for the travel costs only.

You can name the value of your vacation but I don't believe you can add on thousands "just in case", however, I'm reasonably sure that some policies will cover unexpected emergencies that "may" include immediate family deaths.