Pratique

The quality of the ingredients seems to be the problem, not the preparation. On Freedom now, food has been very good but not excellent about par for my experience. Chops strip was a bit fatty but the meal overall was enjoyable. WJ has been good too. We will be on Symphony later this month so we’ll get another data point soon.

Both Royal and Carnival are reporting very strong customer demand levels. Additionally, building out private destinations captures more spending. As long as this continues, they can increase profitability by cutting corners on complementary soft products such as food and housekeeping. IMHO the smaller cruise lines will need to compete on quality because it is very expensive for them to build new ships and private beaches.

Glad to hear you are good to go. They probably just called this guy in. 😄

Although the OP is more than 30 days out, I'll just note that if you book less than 30 days out it usually takes up to a day for the cruise documents/luggage tags to become available via email and the website.

RCI agent told me to keep an eye on the website for price drops, but of course that doesn't work if the category is sold out. I am booked on a transatlantic in a suite where the suites are usually sold out more than a year in advance. It would be nice if there was an easy way to periodically check (or at least get a clue) for a possible price drop without having to call every few weeks for months on end only to be told that the price has gone up.

Yeah same here. DW and I have a cruise planned for late May but at the last minute we decided to book another for next weekend because we need a mental health break and can't wait another month. So now I'm wasting time planning for two cruises in May instead of one. 😀

Just one more point (I have learned not to stress about reservations): maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never been turned away from a specialty restaurant or CK when I show up thinking I have a reservation. There have been a few times where we were not sure if the concierge put it in and the maitre d seemed befuddled but they almost always find a way to get us seated even if it is with a caution that the server might be extra busy with other tables. Being a suite guest usually comes with some extra white glove treatment by the staff. To ease your concerns I suggest checking with the concierge once you are onboard if they are not replying to your emails so far, but no harm in pinging them if you want (they are there to assist you).

I think this is the best perspective. The pre-cruise emails from the concierge are partly for their benefit so they can take care of some requests in advance and not face a crush on Day 1. But if they don't get around to it before Day 1 they will be able to once you are on board. Also, I have had concierges who quietly take care of things without acknowledging, so maybe the reservations have already been taken care of. And they don't show in the planner for me when the concierge makes the reservation (maybe others have had different experiences but I don't remember seeing a concierge-generated reservation show up in the planner or app).

I think that would affect the next cruise either starting a day later than scheduled or being cancelled altogether. If the port continues to require tugs through the channel, that could also restrict the volume of traffic, making arrival/departure logistics more complex.

The open sea can be fickle. The North Atlantic is notorious, but crossings further south may be better. The ships will navigate away from hurricanes, but strong ones can send swells out for hundreds of miles. My perspective is that it is better to be on a massive modern cruise ship with stabilizers than one of those rickety wooden boats that plied the seas a couple hundred years ago. Everyone has their tolerance level - some things that used to cause motion sickness for me no longer do, while others that didn't before may do so now - and if it happens then I am better at managing it now than I used to be. My wife finds that lying down with head and feet pointing toward the sides of the ship helps a lot. These cruises are really great for folks who like to be at sea and my humble opinion is that if you are one of those, then you should give it a go.

Caveat is that this temporary channel is only for essential vessels (whatever that means) and will only be open until Monday or Tuesday. The Baltimore Sun reports the channel will then remain closed until May 10. "The Captain of the Port (COTP) plans to establish the Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel for commercially essential vessels on Thursday, April 25th until 6 a.m. Monday, April 29th or Tuesday, April 30th if weather adversely impacts vessel transits." https://homeport.uscg.mil/Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=89633&Source=/Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=89633

Sounds about right for four people. True but I think we need to view these comments as people's relative experiences from cruise to cruise. Some say it has gotten worse and some say it has improved over time. The benchmark is usually the earliest one we can reliably (fondly?) remember. My wife keeps complaining about the wider salad selection in the Windjammer, which is most definitely displacing something less healthy (and probably more tasty). 🙂 We don't cruise for the salads lol.

I was booking some things for Freedom and I also got error messages that something in the cart was not available, but while I was scratching my head the order went through (email confirmation popped up) and my credit card was charged.

Another reason is that foreign-built ships generally cannot be flagged in the U.S. (even if they wanted to) due to the protectionist laws intended to support domestic ship construction. These laws seem to further incentivize foreign-flagging as long as they still permit those ships to call in the U.S. as they do now. Walk around the harbors in South Florida and count how many mega yachts are registered in the Marshall Islands.

Looks like a beautiful, relaxing day at sea - a "perfect day" as they say! Curious why the captain is taking a more northerly track than Odyssey and Scarlet Lady. He has more time to kill than they do, maybe he wants to swing by Bermuda to wave hello. lol