abbydancer2003

True - Hubbard is the biggest single glacier, but if you do Glacier Bay you see more. A matter of personal preference. I'm lucky - last summer I ended up with 3 Alaska cruises (none of which were originally booked for 2022) and went to both.

I'm tempted to say at the beginning of the cruise "you have a 10 as of now - every time you mention rating you a 10 it will drop by one". I won't though, just tempted. Back in the day, I was a technical trainer. I'd have lost my job if I told students to give me a 10.

Let me first say that I've yet to sail on Royal (but do have one booked later this year), but I sail both Princess and Celebrity. During the pandemic, my mom found some stock she'd forgotten about, so she decided to take us on a trip. Eventually we settled on an Alaska cruise. I chose Princess for us, even though I thought Celebrity would have given us a better on ship experience (my sister only sails Celebrity and has no desire to do Princess again), Princess has Glacier Bay, and I knew it would be my mom's only Alaska cruise (she was 90 at the time). She told me, while watching glaciers, that she thought it was money well spent (we had 2 minisuites and one suite - so not cheap). Turns out it was a good thing, because a month later she started her downward pneumonia spiral that ultimately resulted in her death. It was our last family (mom, daughters, son-in-law and grandkids) trip.

I tend to agree with @mahasamatman. I never had a problem getting water bottles, and while this is not green, I prefer the plastic that Princess uses. I can't drink directly out of an aluminum bottle (as a theoretical matter I applaud them, though). And as far as asking for 10s - it's just as bad on Celebrity.

No, No charge for the lunch. Sorry I just reread my post, and realized it could be confusing. Too late for me to edit it. I left the word lunch out.

Probably means nothing. Mine always say pending, and since I bid for Royal Suites, they always get rejected.

Nope, the fee is for rooms service. It's included with concierge.

If you look, the charge applies to to 24 hour room service. Notice the lunch has ***, the 24 hour room service has the +

Only 1418 for me, once this posts. Think they'll do 1418 more quizzes before December?

I've been on all 3 ships since the restart. Infinity is the same class as Millennium, but not revolutionized. I was on it and Summit (revolutionized) a month apart. On those ships, the difference between Michael's Club and the revolutionized retreat lounge is less than on the E class. I actually like the Michael's club furniture better, as on the Summit it's not very practical. The self service food area is nice - on the Infinity, the staff can bring you some snacks in the afternoon, but no self service. By the way, we liked the ship, but were were in a cold weather area and it was drafty near the doors to outside - I think the weatherstripping was worn out. On the Silhouette and Equinox the new Retreat decor reminds me of a cross between Denny's and an Airport Lounge. Get one group of 6 or 7 drunk and loud people in there and it gets very noisy because of lack of carpets in the main part. On the Equinox there was such a group and we spent most of our time in the entryway area, which was quieter. It was a little better on the Silhouette. One other thing to be aware of is that Luminae is much smaller on the Infinity as well. One long room that can get loud when busy.

On the Silhouette in 2022 we got a deck of cards as a prize. Same one you can get from Guest Services if you ask.

On the ship, you go to the casino and play. How you play depends on both what you're playing and which ship - I don't mean to be flippant about it, but you don't "set it aside", you just use it on the ship.

Maybe, but my suite upgrades (from Sky up) always show pending a few days before, but are always unsuccessful.

We did the Silhouette for her transatlantic last year. We flew into London a few days early, and spent two nights there, at a very nice Marriott that let me use their house phone to call my mom in a rehab facility in California. We spent a lovely day visiting the Warner Brothers Studio. Next day, we took the train from Waterloo and stayed overnight at the Moxie. It's a low end Marriott branded hotel, but it's very close to the City Terminal. We walked. All in all, very easy.

Very well said. I know that on X, I spend a lot of time at shows, and in lounges. The MSC experience you describe has no appeal to me. In the interests of full disclosure, we did book a Royal Caribbean cruise (suite in Oasis class) to back up with our next X cruise, so we'll see what I think about that. It's short.

Mine did too. I'd emailed them, and apparently I entered my number wrong. (In my defense I was watching from a hotel room in Massachusetts. We were there to scatter my recently deceased mother's ashes, so maybe I was a bit distracted.). They gave me a one time pass on that.

I'm sure it's not, and many people love the vibe. My point is that we like Celebrity and Princess partly because of the opportunities to dance in a relatively uncrowded area, and the main MSC areas seem to be crowded. Maybe I'm not understanding things.

I'm really enjoying this, and thinking maybe we should consider switching, but for us, it comes back to one thing. When we're on a cruise, one of our most frequent, and favorite things to do is ballroom dance. The older Princess ships have great venues, and their newer ships, like Celebrity S class offer it in the atrium. The sense I'm getting from this is that MSC should be avoided if you're not in YC, and I don't get the sense that they have ballroom there.

Appears to be for Mexico, Caribbean and South America, on "select sailings" through 4/24. I looked at my February Beyond cruise - no thanks it's 11,000 more (no kidding). On my January Caribbean I'd give up 450 OBC to save 300.00

For grins I did some math. Assuming the base price hasn't changed: Previous sale = 1 + .25 = 1.25. (ie, you're paying 1.25 of the fare for both.) Current sale = .6 + .6 = 1.20 Slightly less, but you'll lose probably more in the OBC difference. Also, if a category is sold out (happens with suites sometimes), no sale at all.

I don't think they'll give it to me for a side by side with Royal Caribbean. Definitely not for my 2025 side by side with Princess.

On the Summit a few months ago by about the third day, the waiters brought all the menus. Or maybe it was the Infinity (was on that the month before) or both. Also, on the Summit, there was one night it was so loud in Luminae (there was a large loud group there) - usually we sat away from them, but that night there was only a near table - the Maitre'd walked us up to the Blu, where it was quiet. We also ordered off the Luminae menu there. (that was an exception because he felt bad)

The thing with Hawaii cruises, of course, is that a cruise from LA is 14 or 15 days, and mostly sea days. I've done Princess twice - but I love sea days. Our last one was over the holidays - and I don't think I'd do that again - 400+ children running through the halls - playing in the stairwells (I almost got pushed down the stairs, etc). However, the advantage was that if you time it right you can do a night tour of the Ialoni palace - it's open 3 nights year around Xmas. The other option is that Celebrity seems to do some repositioning cruses from Vancouver to Honolulu or vis versa.

When we disembarked there in May it took 15 minutes for us to book a Lyft, and an hour for him to get there. People were having all kinds of trouble with both Uber and Lyft. Our friends got in a taxi line, and ended up paying 80.00 to the airport. Someone at the port told me Saturdays are always difficult.

Have a great trip. I'm following even though I doubt you will ever hear from me on an MSC cruise. I'm interested though, in what you think.