MamaFej

How kind of you to remember, David. This is my first time back to CC since before my 12 week trip that started in early January. I apologize for the late acknowledgement. Yes, watching the TSE from the ship was amazing! Princess did an absolutely remarkable job of making the experience as fantastic as possilbe, and they succeeded! From the scientists onboard giving fantastic talks (available later on-demand for the rest of the cruise), the Captain answering 68 unique written questions in.a recorded on-demand program, the captain recording another program the night before, showing the weather forecast, and how he planned to get us into a spot with 4% cloud cover, as opposed to the 30% forecasted in surrounding areas, telling us 5 days in advance that the Starboard side would face the sun, so people could choose to stay in their cabins* and view from their balconies, reducing on-deck crowds, having crew walk around with sunscreen for folks to use, having radio silence during the entire experience, to having another Princess ship come within a couple of miles of us, to the ship's photographers capturing the other ship during totality, so the 360 degree sunset effect was in the background. They truly excelled. Outside of the eclipse, the 360 dinner was phenomenal! It's a 6 course meal with paired cocktails and wine in a dining room that's sort of like interactive La Petite Chef on steroids combined with the Cirlcevision 360 attraction that used to be at Disneyland, plus smell-o-vision, and live music. Really amazing! Apparently Steve Wozniak is a umbraphile, too. He was onboard and gave a talk the final day of the cruise. As for the rest of the cruise... it was too big of a (beautiful) ship, too crowded, too LOUD, with largely indifferent service (with a few fabulous exceptions) and totally worth it for the eclipse at sea experience. *We were on the starboard side, but chose to be on the very top deck, so we could experience the 360 degree sunset effect. PapaFej staked out the best spot on the ship at 5:15 am, nearly 6 hours before totality, because he is awesome. We took turns holding down the fort until the eclipse started around 9. We now return you to your regularly schduled Jim & Iain are awesome thread.

@Miaminice, how do you feel about your experience with Ann Tours? We will have nearly 3 months in Asia starting next month, and still have several places for which we need to plan. I see that Ann Tours is in many of the countries we will visit. I was also found reading about Ann and her family's history fascinating. Wow! Many thanks, and I hope you fully enjoy your sea day.

It may be a poor substitute, but I'll happily wave in the direction of oncoming passengers as I disembark the Journey on 22 December, 2024. 👋

On another line, we met a couple on Evening Chic night who looked like they'd just stepped out of the late 1940's. Fabulous hair, makeup, and clothes. We were a bit surprised to see them similarly attired on other nights, then back up to top notch on the next Evening Chic night. They were definitely well above the minumum every night, and having a lovely time. They seemed more than happy to enjoy conversation with folks like us, complying with the stated dress code, but certainly not attired as nicely as they were.

This is a fantastic attitude. Do your thing. Enjoy doing your thing, and be just fine with others. There is no maximum, only minimums. If you want to dress like Grant and Kerr, by all means, go for it. If I happen to see you dressed that way, I'll very likely smile.

We tried the Conundrum for the first time on the Summit in October. We enjoyed it, and it is one of the reasons we upgraded to PBP during the Black Friday sale for our upcoming cruises. Disappointing.

I'm wondering if this happened, in part, because their suite included specialty dining. I'm not saying it's right, only possible. It seems that it would have been polite for them to let the Luminae manager know when they would not be using the table, so that others could. Maybe "polite" was not a concern for them. I'm guessing that insisting on the same table each night, when it is not part of the deal paid for could be indicative of folks who don't spend much time concerning themselves with what is polite. I could definitely be wrong.

I do not claim to know for sure, but my gut feeling is that this is the goal. Suck up the concerns/complaints by past cruisers about no longer getting what they paid for, and gradually replace them with new customers who don't know the difference. Of course, in future years, those new folks will be complaining that they no longer get _______, and they will be replaced as well. I am not in any way saying this is okay, it's just what I perceive.

Unless your behavior is affecting others (like loudly streaming or video calling) it's no one else's business how much or how little time you spend online.

We were on the Eclipse for 5 cruises earlier this year. Samantha was in Blu. She is an absolute delight! Two of those cruises were in suites, and our waiter was Nitin, who was also wonderful. Our sommelier there was Bonny, who also says, "Oo la la!"

Hence the need for all the trees and plants to clean the air. 😉

We have been quite impressed with the Starlink Internet. We tend to use it to plan and book future travel on sea days. The new muster procedure is quick and easy, though I do wish they would program the bar registers not to allow drinks to be ordered until people have checked into their muster stations. That would prevent the every 45 minute announcements that get increasingly stern that people need to check in befoe we can sail. The check-in process is also smoother and more efficient in our experience (9 X cruises since the re-start, and several other cruises on other lines).

"The Boss title got downgraded, so I'm going to downgrade almost everyone's onboard experience! Muahahahaha!" -LHB, probably

Background checks are effective after someone has been caught. Before that: not so much.

Great minds think alike, and so do ours.