jsn55

Emergency Instructions on your Smart Phone! What a novel concept. It's precisely the vast numbers of people with phones glued to their hands and their noses an inch from the screen 24/7 that I'm worried about when it comes to panic.

That lounge with the coffee, cookies, whatever, 24/7 (more or less) was what really impressed me with Avalon in the first place. We found it a huge treat to be able to trot down the hall for excellent coffee whenever we pleased. We both want our coffee the minute we wake up in the morning, so that was heaven as well.

One bar per deck in port!??! What a disaster. Seriously, it must be VERY hard on the bar staff to deal with this. I can hear the pax screaming now. OTOH, collecting and remitting the taxes from drinks sales all over the ship during the short time in port is probably a real pain. But I'm thinking ... since NCL gives away so many Free at Sea perks, this might not be a problem at all. Need some current reports and posts.

I hadn't ever noticed this 'hanging out forever' at the buffet, but once I heard about it, it's easy to spot these groups just lolling away, forever milling about, coming and going. And there's not a food item in sight. Seems that it wouldn't be that difficult to come up with a procedure to get people to move off after their meal. But people would scream 'unfair' and pitch fits, so no cruiseline will be the first to try to make some sense out of it all. We've had no issues; if the place is crowded when we show up, we go do something else and come back in an hour. At some point in our travelling lives, we've developed a dislike of sitting down to a 'formal meal', except for a few nice dinners on cruises. We're not 'socializers' ... not unfriendly but little interest in inane chatting. Much more enjoyable to pick up a few plates here and there at the buffet and call it lunch. My idea of heaven is creating a great big salad to enjoy with delicious bread and butter, followed by a little plate of hot food. Then dessert , of course! So this 'no seats available at the buffet' topic is of great interest. I'm sure the cruiselines will think of something that will meet everyone's needs.

A checked bag, a rollaboard and a laptop case/purse ... I've travelled with these three forever. If we're 'moving' after 3 nights in Zagreb down to the port on a bus, for instance, I put any fragile items in a tote and stow both bags in the luggage compartment. I remember arriving at the ship on a small-ship cruise of Croatia and all the ship's officers were waiting for us. They grabbed our carryons and hustled them up to the lobby. That was a lovely surprise, the 'gangway' was a little bouncy but I never had a chance to worry about it.

Can't explain this kind of thing; everybody sees things differently.

I'm with you, Sugar! Based on reviews, NCL's Epic in October is bound to be the worst experience I've ever had anywhere, doing anything. Be sure and post all the horrors of your Dawn adventure. Starting with, maybe, the fact that your cabin steward didn't remember your name an hour after you boarded ... the shame of it all that he isn't right on top of these things.

I don't think that bars in the evening qualify as places that should be kept quiet! What's the point of drinking if you can't laugh and act stupid?

Well, you've given me my laugh for the morning. I don't think anyone qualifies to be called a serial whiner because they report on loud, obnoxious groups of people on a cruise ship. Loud, obnoxious people are everywhere, they need to be endured, but they don't have to be accepted as a positive. And for the record, these CC boards are considered ... gasp! ... social media. What a scandal, eh?

I forgot the punchline from the dinner. After a little back-and-forth, my husband became exasperated and said "Do you want me to go up to the buffet and get some? I know they have Chardonnay there". One of the other servers came by and saved the day. The poor girl ... there was no language issue, but she obviously had received about ten minutes training. Like you, we've had such great restaurant staff ... and they're so happy to have us back, like joining the family for dinner. I've always said that the crew makes up 85% of the reason cruises are so enjoyable.

Seems to me there's a huge difference between taking a photo of your dinner and 'vlogging'. I assumed it was someone who was videoing their meal and commenting on it for a 'vlog' posted on the internet. But perhaps I don't understand what a vlogger looks like, maybe it's all unobtrusive and a non-issue for the people sitting around you.

This must have been really annoying. The buffet is our preferred dining venue for many reasons. We don't like crowds and we don't stand in lines unless unavoidable, like boarding. We manage our time on a ship by personal observation and experience, and we just figure out our 'schedule' based on when everyone else has 'gone home'. If the ship docks at 8am, we plan on departing our cabin at 930 after a nice room service breakfast. If the ship sails at 5pm, we reboard at 330. It's just a philosophical difference that makes our cruises always enjoyable.

All one needs is many experiences dealing with travel emergencies to know that 90% of the pax on a cruise ship would panic in a real emergency. If you've only had 'discussions on the subject' you may not realize how bad things can get. Even if a real muster would help half the pax at least go get their life jackets and proceed to their stations, that would be a great improvement over what would happen today with 'watching a video'. There's little comfort in the fact that the Coast Guard has approved this new pax-friendly muster procedure.

THIS is why I read all the reviews: "I want to see if what bothered someone else really matters to me. Quite often it doesn't. In fact, most of the time it doesn't." I pick up a great deal of information reading reviews, solid information that helps me choose my next cruise or my next hotel. The great majority of negative reviews about anything are based on one negative experience the OP had. They're all in a lather because the front desk didn't upgrade their room ... those reviews are easy to discern. But that review may contain a few nuggets of information that describes things 'as they are'. Good example is an upcoming hotel res in Venice. We're only there one night, so I splurged on a room overlooking a canal. But first I read the reviews to see if anyone thought the canal smelled bad. A review is the only way I could possibly know this before checking in, therefore it's valuable to me. I'm not going to waste $600 on a hotel room with a balcony if I have to keep the doors shut to mitigate the smell.

I'd go exploring after boarding and look at both of them, plus everything else that's available. We are usually drawn to a specific restaurant by the level of service we experience. Friendly, professional wait staff get our vote every time. On our anniversary, we did a specialty restaurant on our last cruise and the server did not know what Chardonnay was ... and she didn't even know that she should go find out ... so much for the 'specialness' of those places!

Feels really good to know we were able to ease your mind a bit over the last few days. Have a super cruise, you deserve it! I'd never advise anyone to do it, but I would have ignored the whole situation and set up the cabins however I wanted. If anyone asked about the cousin, he's sick and can't cruise. It's really none of the cruiseline's business how things are handled, as long as the pax are responsible and smart about it all.

I know what it's called and where it comes from and how to avoid it. I find it creepy that I did NOT go to any website, I clicked on a photo in a post on CruiseCritic.

I continue to be amazed at the pax who continue to book Princess cruises, knowing that Princess will drive them crazy with the medallion. And knowing that Princess doesn't give a rip.

The point is not to compare independent tours and ship's tours. There are good and bad tours in both categories. The point is that if you're on a ship's tour and there's a problem, the ship will probably wait for you. If you're on an independent tour with a problem, the ship will not wait for you. If my ship sails at 5pm, I am comfortable on an independent tour in the morning; equally comfortable on an all-day ship's tour. It's a simple decision.

Glad to read that the vloggers are generally non-disruptive in the dining room. That seems like a new low in public behaviour. I have to think that today's fascination with food is directly related to the obeseness (is that a word?) of the American public, particularly on cruises. I did a food walking tour in Paris last spring because I was interested in the neighborhood we visited. It was very pleasant, but why anyone would walk around for four hours eating bread, cheese, macarons and chocolates is beyond me.

If vlogging means taking video with audio during dinner in the MDR, the DR Manager should take care of that pronto. While it would be amusing to watch them for 5 minutes as long as they're across the room ... waaaay across the room ... 5 minutes would be as much as I could take. If they're taking photos of every course, that would be just weird ... but unless they were using a flash I guess it wouldn't be annoying. People don't seem to be aware of 'decorum' any more, they just do whatever they want whenever they want with no regard to everyone else around them. I still find it startling that people go walking around in stores yapping on their cell phones for all to hear.

I've been aware of this little phenomenon for years, but just assumed the objects in retail catalogues and ads I looked at sold the info to the ISP. But this was a photo posted right here on Cruise Critic. Unless ....

I so understand your frustration. We here on CC are always trying to help, but sometimes we should just extend some sympathy and stop making suggestions that the OP knows are meaningless. I just had a go-round with a neighbor about an invisible fence for her dogs who keep running loose. The invisible fence itself doesn't stop a dog from running through it, but a dog is easily TRAINED to be aware of the fence and stay home. Many email rounds of trying to explain to her how the invisible fence works. She couldn't understand and wasn't having any of it. Oops! There go her two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, hot on the trail of a squirrel. Oh well, I've tried.

Difficult to find room for compassion when your brain is totally absorbed with yourself.

And yet, in spite of all the hard evidence, people insist on doing financial transactions on a PHONE. Astonishing. Ignorant or lazy? I dunno.