Miata

I was Rotterdam during the first week of January.

I believe my wife, Holly, and I met you while waiting for the lido lines to open.

I fear that I may have accidently offended you. We were discussing how HAL would have a venue, use it for something polar opposite from what you immediately used it for afterward. I was sarcastically saying 'Makes sense to me' which I was trying to say, in a humorous way, as being 'How did they manage to not think that through?' Later I realized that maybe I wasn't being clear in my humor.

No matter what, I wish to most sincerely apologize to you if I offended you. It was not my intent to do so.

I hope that we may meet again so that I can state my sorrow in person.

Larry

Father, by chance were you on the Rotterdam the first week of January, 2017?

Regarding the Eurodam, did you happen to notice how good the various bands were? My wife and I like to dance a lot so we'd be interested in hearing your comments please.

Thank-you in advance.

I enjoyed all of the bands - don't remember any of their names but danced at almost ever club, band, and venue. I had to wait about 5 minutes for parking, so no under the bridge. As for "nose in" several other people backed in, I just pulled in beacuse I was ready to be on the ship!

I appreciate your response. We are on her in 10 days. I've looked at the maps and it doesn't look difficult.

Curious, was the luggage drop off near the parking lot or the port building.

Thanks in advance.

Great start, thanks.

We haven't been to the Mobile port before (live in Montgomery) so the info on parking is appreciated.

I gather you didn't have to 'wait under the bridge' as I've read, prior to getting to the parking lot. Correct?

I've prepaid for the parking. Do you have to park 'nose in' so that your tag is visible? I've found it much easier debarking if I can back in. Not a problem, just curious.

My wife and I are avid dancers. Did you notice which bands, if any, were good to dance to?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

We didn’t go to the dance clubs. I thought that all the live music acts were good, but the locations, the atrium and near the casino bar, don’t really have dance floors.

 

 

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OK, thanks for your response.

My wife and I like to dance a lot. We prefer a rock band. Did you notice a good band to dance to. You mentioned the country singer but not really how well he played.

thanks,

Miata

Curious if they would have accepted Tom Hanks for the fourth question of the evening trivia.

First off, thank you very much for your write ups.

Am I understanding you correctly, the ship’s tenders are breaking down. Wouldn’t those need to be working during an emergency? Translation: These are not shore tenders that are breaking down.

I’m curious if you have crossed the International Date Line or not. I’ve looked at a few maps but the line bulges east in that area so it isn’t clear.

The reason I asked was that I was trying to figure out the timing of your posts. I’m reading them every morning and a noticed that it seemed that you were writing up a full days report for the same date I was reading them.

This would make sense if you crossed the IDL.

Thanks,

Larry

Thanks everyone.

Larry

You cannot buy alcohol from the on-board duty-free shop and take it with you; HAL holds it for you until the last night, as Miata said. The same applies for any alcohol that you might buy in port (excluding certain HAL shore excursions and your one-per-person bottle of wine when boarding).

 

Yes, HAL still gives you your alcohol back the night before dis-embarking (at least as of Dec. 31, 2017).

Paul, thanks for the confirmation. We hadn't been on HAL in a year so I wasn't 'up to date' on the rules.

Paul, you don't happen to know whether the price of a bottle ordered from room service is the same as a price ordered on line in advance.

I usually order it in advance but would like to option of ordering on board instead.

Thanks much,

Larry

Can you purchase it in the store and bring it to the room?

Nope, they don't allow you to buy in the store and immediately bring it back to your room. I think HAL still lets you pick up your on board liquor purchases the last night of the cruise. This would allow you to do a quality assurance test on your purchases before getting off the ship the next day. ;-) Check behind me on whether that is still the case.

Carnival no longer does that last night deal. You have to stand in line the morning you leave. Oddly they have one line for ship purchases and one line for purchases made on shore. Translation: You might spend a lot of time doing this when you are trying to get ashore. The lines can be quite long too. I've concluded that it isn't worth the effort. We order for the room but don't buy anything on board for Carnival.

Another odd thing is that Carnival charges much more for the same bottle for in room consumption than HAL does. Carnival limits you to two bottles and HAL doesn't.

I find it odd that cruise lines within the same company would approach things differently.

Am I correct in assuming that the on board price is the same as the advance price?

Regarding the sales tax, after sale away on the first day, I presume there would not be any tax.

Thanks in advance for your help and answers.

UM, if you think VERY carefully, you might be able to figure out what kind of car I have.

BTW, my car tag reads 'GR8 TOY'.

You should be able to figure that one out as it accurately describes what the car is.

UM, if you think VERY carefully, you might be able to figure out what kind of car I have.

Did you catch the 'Flicks' and 'Rock and Roll' shows?

I ended up on stage for the Flicks pre show. We were in the very front so maybe that was why.

BTW, we live in Montgomery, AL.

No direct comparison to RCCL, but just got off the Dream yesterday...

 

Have sailed 3 Disney and 1 Celebrity, both as a married couple and a family with a toddler.

 

For what we paid, we felt the value was INCREDIBLE. Other than dining, we felt the service was on par with Disney and beat Celebrity. We actually felt the people were nicer on the Dream than on any Disney cruise we've been on...more patient, more friendly and more respectful of one another.

 

I'd say...go for it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

We, too, were on the Dream last week.

We always love Guy’s burgers and the Pig and Anchor BBQ was excellent as well. I had the Arepas, for breakfast, at the Blue Iguana Cantina three days in a row. All dinners were excellent and the service quick and accurate.

We love to dance and the only ‘band’ worth dancing to was the violin trio from Argentina. They played contemporary songs rather than classical music. They were quite lively and danced to them a lot. You may have seen us, I’m tall with a grey beard and my wife is short with blond hair. We look like ‘Lady and the Tramp’.

One night I requested ‘Lara’s Theme’ from the movie ‘Dr. Zhivago’. They didn’t have it in their play list. Three days later they announced “This one is for Larry” and played it. Nicely done guys.

The ‘Flicks’ music show and the Rock and Roll show were very entertaining.

While Carnival is often referred to having a rowdy crowd, we did not see any of that last week.

As platinum guests we arrived at the dock check in area before 11:00 and were aboard 10-15 minutes later.

I would be hard pressed to find anything to complain about.

We have not sailed RCCL but have sailed Celebrity which is owned by RCL so I can’t do a good comparison between the two lines.

Hope this helps.

We sailed the week after you did.

I feel your pain regarding the lack of entertainment. We like to dance a LOT and there weren’t really any suitable choices. I think that there were three acoustic guitar players. They played nicely enough if you wanted to sit there and doze off. The country duo was actually bickering with each other on stage which didn’t make for a comfortable audience.

The irony was that the best dance band aboard was the violin trio that you mentioned. They were NOT playing classical music but rather contemporary music and they were quite lively in their performances.

I asked them to play ‘Lara’s Theme’ from the movie ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and they didn’t know it. The next night they came and spoke to us on the dance floor during one of their breaks. They were all very nice to talk to. Fredrico, the lead violinist, said that they were working on ‘Lara’s Theme’. Two nights later Fredrico announced “This one is for Larry.” and they played ‘Lara’s Theme’ for us. Naturally we danced to it.

Later that night we ran into one of the other players and he spent some time showing us photos of their native Argentina. This was on HIS time so that showed his care for his audience.

In the Carnival survey I talked them up as they deserved it.

We didn’t get into the piano bar so perhaps we missed out. Were people dancing in there?

there was a rock band but it wasnt them the only reason i know that is because i was on the Dream in August and the band had changed since then. They were in the alchemy bar area most of the time and performing in the stage show during the america rocks show.

thanks again.

By chance did you happen to notice whether there was a good rock band on the ship? My wife and I love to dance. There used to be a regular band called 'The Black Jack Band' but I think they are no longer on the Dream.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I, too, would like to know about the bands please. We like to dance a lot so a good rock band is important to us.

Thanks in advance for your info.

The water slides close at sundown. We are going on the Dream on November 5th. Sundown is at 5:15. I don't think the slides will create a problem. As it happens, our cabin is also on deck 11.

Ops see that was directed to BayAreaBC

 

 

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For a moment I said to myself "Huh?"

At my age I say "Huh?" a lot. ;-)

I think BayAreaBC was trying to be witty and I did laugh at BayAreaBC’s comment. I trust he didn’t intend to insult anyone.

igraf appears to be very knowledgeable about acoustics and speakers and I 100% agree with igraf.

igraf properly asked the audio technicians about the sound levels and speaker placement. He was given a bogus answer regarding the musician’s ability to hear the beat of the bass drum. Besides igraf’s point of there being an acoustic shield in front of the drum kit, there are other ways of insuring the band hearing the beat. Many times you’ll see speakers on a stage floor designed to be angle up facing the musicians and NOT the audience. This placement is so that they can hear the music. I’ve never noticed a feedback issue with this arrangement. This is one way to solve that ‘beat problem’. Another way would be for the band to practice enough to KNOW the beat.

Low frequency sound (the bass if you will) is omni-directional. This means you can’t really hear where it is coming from. That said, the sub-woofers could be placed anywhere in the room (read: they could place them on either side of the band without a problem). High frequency sound is very directional so that makes speaker placement very important to the listener.

igraf accurately points out that the midrange is the most important one.

He correctly, in my opinion, points out that a subwoofer, meant for really low frequency sound, is for sound effects. Translation: a good speaker should NOT need a sub-woofer to reproduce a base drum. My point is that the sound technician should KNOW this. Instead he sets the acoustics to his personal taste which is to mix the bass way too high to the point of distortion (bass goes thump and NOT boom. He likes boom and not bass.). If you hear boom then the speakers are of a poor quality OR, more likely, the amp is introducing massive distortion because it doesn’t have enough power.

BayAreaBC, you are from a large enough city such that you should be able to find an audio store that sells Magnepan speakers. The speakers themselves are called Magneplanars. Go give them a listen and see what you think.

OH, you know what I’d REALLY like to hear in the BB King Blues club? Blues! I like Motown well enough but a blues club should play…blues.

I’ll get off my speaker box now.

My wife and I always do and we have a blast with it. It's fun to be a kid again.

And on a more positive note, my wife and I did an excursion in St, Thomas once when we were shown outstanding politeness from a teenager.

The excursion was one of those where they use the large trucks with five rows of seating outside in the back. Each row held five people.

The excursion picked you up at the ship and took you downtown to shop. At a designated time you were to return to the truck to go on a tour of the island.

My wife and I returned to the meeting point but the only two seats left were one on the left side in one row and one on the right side in another row. Obviously we were going to be separated for the tour.

Due to the truck being full a 15 year old teenager was sitting next to the open seat on one side. His parents were in the last bench of the truck so they too were separated. The young man immediately offered to move to the single seat on the other row such that we could sit together. Obviously the entire truck was aware of what just happened.

Once seated I turned to face him at the end of the bench behind ours and said “That was VERY polite of you to do. Did you parents teach you to be that polite or did you pretty much have to figure it out on your own?” Without missing a beat the young man replied “I pretty much had to figure it out on my own.” The whole truck burst into laughter.

I turned to his parents in the last row to acknowledge their superb job of raising their son and they were beaming.

Nicely done young man and nicely done Mom and Dad.