abbydancer2003

Glad you got some laughs, and sorry it was such a hassle.

Thought so, but didn't see you on the spreadsheet. Maybe we should meet for lunch or something.

Other than the Espresso and fruit (neither of which we asked for) we got everything. Are you on the March 27 cruise?

I know our Edge cruise, which had been moved to 2025 did drop by about the amount of tips, but not the OBC. And our 11 night 2025 cruise on Silhouette booked last week is almost 3K less than the 11 night 2024 cruise on the Apex booked before 10/3.

Sorry this happened. Here are my two relevant experiences. In Falklands, I gathered my group in advance, and found out who was Elite. A little over half were. So I said that we'd go to elite and for tender purposes only, we were changing spouses, and paired up an elite with a non elite. (We did have a lot of laughs about it). That said, because we met outside of Michael's club and I was in a suite, the suite concierges just took all of us. We were about 14 people. Last year in Puerto Montt Chile, there was a group of people from online with about 45 people, as she had 2 24 passenger buses going. She said that she'd arranged with someone to get us on the first tender. We met at 6:45 near gust services. They told us to wait in a conference room, then the elevator area. At 8:15 we were still there. It was a hot mess, and our tour was shortened because of it. I think, if this comes up again, I'd get the tickets and if they weren't for a very early group, I'd go to the Elite area and ask, especially since you were a small group. Worst they say is no.

We board in 2 weeks, so glad to hear it.

Hmm, on my cruise the app just describes it, and it starts in 2 weeks. Maybe I'll look for it in the room.

There's a Luminae breakfast menu? I've only seen the menu with egg dishes, bacon, etc. I thought it's the same one you get in concierge or above, but it's been quite a while since I've ordered in room breakfast.

The buses are more like rental car shuttles, not true buses.

You can do whichever you want I think. If you want to check your roll ons, you can, or you can take them. Really the only difference between BA and other ports is that you have to take a shuttle to the ship once you're checked in.

My thought was just that since the cruiseline does cater to families, maybe Hairspray wasn't the best show. But I guess both Royal and one of their direct competitors like doing Broadway shows, so be it. It was surprisingly good, though.

Thanks. We had a great time with you as well. I really hope to sail with you again, and yeah a photo would have been nice.

I'm not sure anyone is reading this, but for completeness, here's the finale. Symphony/Apex Day 14 - Goodbye They are kicking us off the ship today. Oh well, people who are daily posting countdown numbers on our next cruise posted 21 days yesterday, so not too long. We set the alarm for 7, so that we’d have time to get dressed and make sure we didn’t leave anything. So far, that’s worked pretty well. At 7, we were up and noticed we’re in Ft. Lauderdale. It was soon after sunrise, and the sky was pretty. We got dressed, checked everything and took our backpacks and our “get off the ship” bag with us to breakfast. Glen had bacon and eggs, and I had my last grapefruit half (sugar delivery vehicle and something I never have at home) and the cinnamon apple crepes. Cindy and Bob ended up sitting next to us, so we chatted with them for a bit while finishing breakfast. I also remembered to ask about the wine list. Here are the glass pages. Note that we had wines that weren’t listed, and not over package price. After breakfast we went to the lounge to wait for last call. Our flights not until 6, our luggage is going directly to the plane (I have been tracking the airbag and confirmed it’s off the ship), so no rush. While there, I went to the outside deck and looked around. Ships to the left, ships to right, ships straight ahead. (or stuck in the middle with you) I counted 7 total. In the West Coast, LA has 2, Vancouver 4, Seattle 2, SF 2 at different piers. Wow! At about 9:15 we were told we had to leave. We followed Carollyn out, said our goodbyes and headed off the ship. We walked through baggage, making sure we didn’t see ours (although my air tag indicated it was not by the ship) and then headed to customs. It was facial recognition again and easy peasy. We then headed out and found the cab line, with no cabs. We started talking to the people next to us, and decided that if they had a bigger cab we would share it. We ended up sharing a midsize car, but it worked, since we didn’t more than our backpacks and small carry off bag. We arrived at the airport and decided to check the carry off bag. We found the premiere line and it went out of the “chute" and around about 30 people beyond that. So instead, we took it through security with the idea of checking it later. This is what you get when there are 7 ships each discharging 2-5 thousand people. Security was surprisingly fast, and we soon were at the United club parked at seats for the day. I did check the air tag and the bags were in the terminal with us. We had roughly 7.5 hours to boarding. The Club was also crowded, but after about 5 minutes at a high table we did find the comfortable seats. At around 2:30 Glen took the bag out and checked it. I knew he succeeded because I could now see 3 bags that were checked. The flight was uneventful and we did get the meals we preordered. The only entertainment was on our devices, so I plugged my iPad in to charge it and watched Crazy Rich Asians in preparation fo our March cruise. (Fun Fact: John Chu, the director is the son of the owner of our local Chinese restaurant. There’s an autographed movie poster for that and In The Heights in the lobby. Their chicken salad is considered among the best.) The only other thing worth mentioning is that when the bags came out, they’d had regular United tags over the ones from the ship. Baggage claim was also a zoo, since two flights were sharing it. The moral of the story. Do not book a cruise to return home two days before Christmas. In fact, I will try to avoid December as much as possible. And if anyone is here, thanks for reading.

Princess did. We originally had 12.00 and almost all wines were under that. When they raised the prices, the limit went to 15.00 or something like that.

Interestingly, I liked the lounge on the Silhouette better than the Equinox. Maybe it was because on the Equinox a group of 6 or 8 people parked themselves in one of the booths and drank heavily, so were impossibly loud. The Silhouette had nice people.

Which is how both X and Princess started charging for room service except at breakfast, and Princess added a charge to previously free restaurant and started charging to use the app to order (the moved those to the packages, but didn't grandfather in those with packages who booked before they made the change).

DH thought the Infinity had better storage in the SS than the Summit. We were on them a month apart earlier this year.

We also just use our Butler for laundry and morning coffee. I was concerned, but our room steward did just fine with laundry, just as they do on Princess and when we don't book suites. Our head butler arranged with room service for coffee delivery every morning. It was delivered, set out on the table and one offered to pour. Not all my butlers have offered to pour. (Some did). So no real change there. On the first day, when I told the head butler we use water, coke and ginger ale, the fridge was emptied and the head butler delivered 2 cokes and 2 ginger-ales. I don't always drink them so we didn't need more. The room steward delivered water every day. What bugs me the most was what they promised was a smaller team of butlers. I assumed that would have meant that we call a number and one of 3 or so dedicated people take care of it. Guess not. Next cruise, I might invite friends to come over, I'll see what they can do now. I've done that before once with great results and once with good results.

And they will almost certainly take your passports in the terminal and give you a receipt. But you just drop the luggage with the porter, and after that checkin is like normal, except, as above, you take a shuttle to the ship.

Is Jiro from Mexico? If so, and he's the same, I've been with him for 3 cruises. Great guy.

Sorry for nothing yesterday, I've got a cold and spent much of the day resting, and hoping my hearing will return soon. Anyway, here's the sea day. Symphony/Apex Day 13 Sea Day Friday 2 We were up for breakfast, Glen tried Eggs in Purgatory, and liked it - he said it was a mini shatshuka, but with quail eggs. After leisurely breakfast I went to guest services to make some change. Glen and I agreed to meet at Guest services or at Eden to read. We went back to eastern time yesterday, but because of airplane mode, my watch didn’t change. On the way I remembered that we had a meeting with future cruise person at 11:00. My watch showed 11:29, so I thought I’d missed it, but I realized it was actually 10:30. After guest services, I went to the lounge, and apparently the appointment was at 10:30, but fortunately, the Future cruise guy waited and was gracious about it. I texted Glen to come up there. We started with getting some open bookings, and while he was processing those, Glen texted that he was on his way. He arrived just in time to book some actual cruises. In September of 2023, we did Quebec to New York on Princess. Because of Hurricane Lee, we missed 3 ports, and so I wanted to try again. Also, the sun is supposed to be very active, so we might combine it with a chance to see Northern lights. Apparently in 2025 the Silhouette, will be doing that itinerary, so we decided to go mid September, which will give us some room on either side to go somewhere to see them. Our very nice Future Cruise person asked if we wanted something for 2026. We decided, that since my only trips to Japan was a few hours in Narita airport in 2015, and an upcoming 5 hours in Haneda airport in 2024, we’d do Japan. We picked a cruise at the end of March and were about to book it, when I realized that I’d looked that the wrong year for conflicts with Passover. So we changed it to mid March. We also told the Chandra (the future cruise guy) about Quebec, since he’s going there. It was a very nice meeting and we’re set for now. After dropping the paperwork off in our room, we went to Eden to read. Glen said that the seats along the ramp are too warm, so we sat at a table near the cafe. I also looked at the cafe, and I see why people like it. It looks like they have nice sandwiches and salad. When it started getting crowded and loud with people eating lunch, we went back to the room to drop our stuff, and then headed up to lunch. On the way I got a message from Cindy that they were going to join other people for dinner and did we want to go at 7. We said that was fine. We were seated at one of our regular tables, and our dinner waiter Nino was our server. I started with the lemongrass soup It was a lot spicer than I remembered, and too spicy for me. None of the other appetizers appealed, so Nino brought me a beautiful fruit cocktail. I had the Cobb salad for my main. He’d noticed that I’d taken of red onions before, so asked if I wanted them removed. I said yes, and he then went through everything that wasn’t on the menu. I also took off the egg. For dessert we both had their “homemade yogurt with raspberry marmalade. It was Ok. After lunch, we went back to the room just to relax and watch our Roku and of course do the dreaded packing. At 7, we met Tina and Paul at the restaurant. They were one of the couples we are having dinner with. They said it would just be 6 of us. We were seated in the main section, by the entrance so we had our usual staff. For a started, I had burrata. It was good, For a main, nothing appealed, so I asked for the filet, but with béarnaise sauce and asparagus. He suggested a backed potato, which I changed to the steamed buns from the short rib. I was very happy with it, Some at our table had the prosciutto wrapped chicken, which they were not happy with, and Glen had the short rib, which he was not happy with. So they all switched to the filet with béarnaise sauce. It took a while, but in the end, everyone was happy. For dessert I tried the coconut creameaux with white snow. I’n not sure what was in it but it was pretty good. By the time we were we done, my watch showed after 10pm. Nobody else seemed concerned, thought. We thanked our wait team, as they’ve been great, and very willing to work with me to find food I liked. I know I’m not the easiest person, so I let them know that I really appreciated it. Back in the room, we packed up our electronics, finished packing the suitcases, put them out and got ready for our last sleep. At that point I realized that it was not 10:45, but 9:45, and I got the luggage out on time (which never happens). Tomorrow, we leave.

I was just in my first E class Retreat Lounge (Is Apex different than Edge?). It felt a whole lot less of an airport lounge that what they did on the Equinox and Silhouette, although those round bench tables in the back reminded me more of Denny's.

Yes, room steward specifically. Dining will go into a pool and be distributed. If you have a butler, you can also tip him/her.

Oh, OK. I was only on the Summit post Revolution.

I don't recall a piano on the Infinity. On S class, yes.