Kruzkrazy

Hello all,

DW and I will be taking the Bucharest-to-Vienna river cruise in June. I'm wondering how long it takes for some laundry to be returned to our cabin after it's submitted. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance.

KK

Hello fellow cruisers,

DW and I will be on the Nov. 17 trans-Atlantic starting in Barcelona. Can anyone advise me on tipping customs in Spain? Specifically, for taxis and restaurants. Also, since our Spanish is essentially nonexistent, can  we expect hotel, restaurant and taxi personnel to be conversant in English?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

19 hours ago, DrKoob said:

We just finished a 15-night cruise from Montreal to Miami on Oceania's new Vista. I have been live blogging the entire cruise (as I did our Viking Sky cruise last fall) on my blog at www.jimbellomo.com if you are interested. Today I summed it up by comparing the two cruise lines. The rest of this is self-explanatory. I look forward to your comments. 

 

Let me sum up...

 

This should be the last post on our Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami. I hope you have enjoyed following along and the photos I have posted. I promised a final review of what we liked and didn't. Also, since Oceania has decided to become more Viking Ocean-like with their new Simply More inclusions, I will finish by comparing the two. They both desire to occupy the same space and attract the same cruisers.

 

When doing this post, I consulted all seven members of our party, and they mostly agreed with me. And please—realize these are my perceptions. Not yours. If you had a different experience on your cruise, let me know, but don't challenge me on my opinion of what I experienced.

 

What we loved...

• Obviously, the food. Oceania promises the best food at sea, and in 90% of their venues, they succeed. Every single place to eat was as good or better than any place I have eaten on any other ship. If cruising is all about food for you—you want Oceania.
• The new-ship smell. Kathleen came up with the description. It was great to sail on a ship that was only six months old. Everything was bright and shiny. Of course, this won't be true in a couple of years, but if you get on board this year, you should have the same experience.
• Service was incredible. We haven't had service like this in quite a few cruises. Besides the crew members themselves their training, the way they are treated and how they are managed. What a massive contrast to our last cruise on HAL's Koningsdam, where no one was trained to do their job, and some of the things they did were just dangerous.
• Vista is beautiful. Great design. Some nice art. Just about every part of this ship is gorgeous to look at.
• The shower in my brother's stateroom. I'm not sure if he had a different shower than we did; I do get it. He is a big guy, and a big shower is important to him. Sadly, I disagreed because that oversized shower (a big square) meant there was less room in the rest of the stateroom and less storage space.

 

What we thought needed improvement...

• Their entire system for doing WiFi. Come on, Oceania. It makes me log in and out and kick my wife off. Even worse, it meant she couldn't text me if she wanted to ask me something or let me know where she was. I totally realize that the new Simply More program (which includes two device logins) will be an improvement. But if you have more than one device on the ship with you (a phone, tablet and computer), you will have to log off one to get on the other. That means I have to log off or kick myself off before I can receive something else on the new device. Give us WiFi like every other cruise line if you get "FREE" WiFi. Quick messing with it. Even the guy in the digital center hates it. He said it is his biggest complaint. And from what I have seen on Cruise Critic, it hasn't worked very well since the Simply More changeover.
• Speaking of technology—they need to get an app! Every major cruise line has an app that you can text in (without having an internet package), you can see the daily program, you can check your account, you can see the menus for that evening, and so much more. In 2023, not having your own app says you are just stupid and living in the last century.
• The elevators. I touched on this when I wrote about the ship's public areas, but the elevators are ridiculous, and for a new ship, they broke down far too often. Thankfully, I don't believe anyone got stuck in one, but there are just not enough of them. Sadly, they can do nothing about this, but they can improve it on future ships.
• Very few spaces where you can see the sea. For a cruise line named after the ocean, they didn't want you to see the ocean when they designed this ship. If you don't have a verandah, you can't see the ocean until you are on deck 12. Below that, the only place you can see off the ship is the Grand Dining Room. That's nuts. All the other windows on decks five and six are covered with drapes, and there is no access to outdoor decks, let alone an actual promenade deck that encircles the ship. Again, this is one thing they can't improve on Vista but should make note of for future ships.
• The AC can't keep up. If you are in the Aquamar Kitchen, the Waves Grille and most of the Terrace Cafe and doing a warm-weather cruise—you better love hot and humid temps. Both the Aquamar and the Grille are open to the outside and have no air conditioning that we could see. On cold days, they have heaters but not even fans for hot days. On our last sea day before we got to Miami, the temperature was in the high eighties/low nineties and the humidity was close to 90%. Finding a place to sit in the buffet where you didn't get a blast of hot, humid air whenever someone came into or went out of the room was challenging. If you are from Florida, this probably won't bother you, but those of us from the northern climates were dying.
• Someplace to sit. There is really no place to sit and have a pre-dinner cocktail that doesn't have music playing in it. Piano player in Martinis, dance band in Horizons and string quartet in the Grand Lounge. This is especially true if you want to get together with new or old friends and talk.   But this problem is one they can fix now. Just play excellent background music (like they play all day) in Martinis. No Bill Murray-style lounge singer with a grating voice who tries to drown out every single conversation. That should do it. If people want a quiet conversation pre-dinner, the only nice lounge is the Smoker's Lounge. So many convert that to a regular lounge and just make the entire ship non-smoking?

That's about it. See, we really had a great cruise. Yes, we missed two ports, but O gave us a future cruise credit for the one they were responsible for, and the other was due to weather, so it was not their fault. On the list of all our cruises, I would put it up with our HAL cruise on Nieuw Statendam or one of our early cruises with Celebrity until they decided they didn't like cruisers our age anymore.

 

Let's Compare

Over the last six months, Oceania has been bringing out its Simply More program that incorporates much of what Viking Ocean Cruises does. It adds free wine and beer at dinner, free internet (but only two devices at a time per stateroom) and more. So clearly, Oceania sees itself competing with Viking Ocean for the same clientele.

 

Since we left Celebrity, we have been looking for a new cruise line to lend our loyalty to. And so far it has come down to Oceania (O) or Viking Ocean (VO). So, since both O and I have decided to make a comparison, here is ours based on this 15-night cruise on O's newest ship and our 21-night cruise on the slightly older Viking Sky last year around this time. Here's how I see it. Again, please realize that this is MY PERCEPTION. If you had a different experience, please let me know but don't attack my reality.

 

• Stateroom Design (Viking wins). Staterooms on Viking for close to the same price are much bigger—there is a ton more storage space, which is important on longer cruises that we seem to take now.
• Bathroom Design (Viking Wins). Even though my brother likes his shower better on Oceania, I like the bathroom layout much better. No wasted floor space
• Internet (Viking Wins). I think I have been over this enough. From the minute we got on board Viking until the minute we got off, we had complete WiFi on every device we owned. I am not even sure if Viking offers an internet upgrade.
• Cruise Ship App (Viking Wins). Oceania has no app. Viking's isn't perfect, but I can at least see what is going on during the day without a paper copy, and I can check menus around the ship and text each other.
• Elevators (Viking Wins). Enough said. Kathleen never had to wait for an elevator on Viking. Ever.
• Lounges (Viking Wins). There were a number of places we could get a quiet drink and have a conversation.
• Closed-in Ship (Viking Wins). You can see the ocean from almost any public space on a Viking Ocean ship. Not true on Vista, where you can't see it until you get to deck 12.
• Promenade Deck (Viking Wins). If I am on deck five and want to know what the weather is like, I have to wait until I get back up to my stateroom to find out. There is no place below deck 12 (other than my verandah) where I can step outside. Plus, as a walker, I much prefer a walking track that is partially protected. With Vista's being on deck 15, they closed on a number of days to walkers and joggers because of strong winds.
• Interior furnishings (Viking Wins). This is really a matter of taste, but I just love Viking Ocean's Scandinavian design. Much of Vista's public space was beautiful, but some bordered on gaudy. I said bordered (the lighting in the Grand Lounge was really close to Vegas).
• Horizons/Explorer’s Lounge (Viking Wins). Horizons is a cocktail lounge/dance hall. Explorer's Lounge on Viking is on two levels. The top one is for quiet reading (I did most of my writing and photo processing up there), and the lower level has a bar and excellent seats for conversation.
• The entire spa (Viking Wins). I am the first to admit that even though we were in a Concierge stateroom, I never tried the Aquamar Spa, but in my mind, Viking wins this one because everyone has access for free. Not just those in Concierge or above staterooms.
• Outside activities (Oceania Wins). Deck 15 and 16 had so much you could do on sea days it wasn't even funny. From bocce to shuffleboard, from pickleball to mini golf (not to mention the golf simulator and cornhole), it was a veritable playground for those wanting an outdoor diversion. If I had one criticism, it would be that they need more barriers to the wind as they had to close these decks fairly often at sea...which defeats the purpose.
• Culinary Center (Oceania Wins). I don't even think Viking has a Culinary Center. It is undoubtedly a draw for me.
• Smoking Lounge (Oceania Wins). If you want to smoke on Viking, go outside in the weather. Vista's Smoking Lounge is gorgeous. How about both cruise lines ban smoking entirely, and then Vista can open up her Smoking Lounge to people who want to gather before dinner and not hear music?
• Casino (Viking Wins). Because they don't have one. The space they saved by getting rid of their casino went into the Wintergarden, a beautiful room where anyone can gather. With Viking, we were drawn to the things they don't have as much as to the things they do. No kids under 18, no casino, no ship photographers, no upsell in the spa, no indoor smoking, etc.
• Artist’s Loft (Oceania Wins). Another great extra on Vista. I didn't use it, but it was jammed every single day.
• Complimentary pressing (Viking Wins). Oceania said we got pressing of our clothes when we arrived. There were coupons in our stateroom. Five of them. That means that you can have five things pressed. On Viking (in the PV–the stateroom we had), you got free pressing all the way through the entire cruise.
• Free Laundry (Viking wins). We got about the same amount of free laundry on both ships, but the note on Vista said that it could take "up to three days." Well, if I have three pairs of pants and two are dirty and I send them to be laundered and then I spill something on the one I kept, I am out of luck for three days. I do realize that they were under-promising and over-delivering because many who sent their laundry out got it back one day later. But I can't take that chance.
• Launderettes (tie). Both have great self-serve laundries, although the ironing boards on Vista could be bigger.
• Beds (Oceania wins). This is a hands-down thing. My bed on Viking was almost unusable. It was way too hard for me. Our bed on Vista was excellent (Kathleen thought the pillows sucked, but they didn't bother me that much).
• Ships across the entire line (Viking Wins). We were on Vista, Oceania's newest ship. The entire line has seven ships, with one on the way in 2025. We have heard that Vista, Marina and Riviera are all about the same size and have the same features. But the other four are old R-class ships with some of the tiniest staterooms in all of cruising.—175 square feet in their verandah staterooms, and their Penthouse Suites are only 260 square feet—they call that a suite? Our Concierge verandah on Vista was 250 square feet. The staterooms on those ships are just too small. And those ships were all built in the 1990s. That's just too old. Viking has 11 ships, with one on the way in 2025. They are all identical—seriously. You go on one, you go on all of them. And all were built since 2014, with four of them going into service since 2022.
• Deposit and Final Payment Due Dates (Oceania wins). This is a total given. Viking is notorious for having the earliest final payment dates in all of cruising. For instance, if I buy a Viking cruise today (October 2023) that will sail in December 2024, my Viking Ocean final payment will probably be due on December 31, 2023. But by the same token, Oceania's final payment will be due 90 days before the cruise sales. Of course, you can still get all your money back from Viking before 120 days with only a $100 PP booking fee loss (and you can apply those to another cruise), but the biggest complaint I hear from Viking cruisers or those who want to cruise with Viking but haven't tried them yet is this early final payment date. When someone asks me why they have that early a date, I tell them, "Because they can." Their passengers are amazingly loyal. If people stopped booking Viking or their ships were sailing empty, this might change. But as of now, it isn't.

Food! I thought this deserved a special category all its own

•  Grand Dining Room/Main Dining Room (Oceania wins). I HATE Viking's dining room. There were low ceilings and a staff (at least on our cruise) who was totally disorganized, not to mention some food that wasn't really that good. O wins here big time.
• Specialty Restaurants (Oceania Wins). Was there ever a doubt? There are only two on Viking—Manfredis and Chef's Table. Manfredis is a sorry excuse for an Italian restaurant, and the Chef's Table has a fixed menu. It changes every few days. If you don't like what you get when you go on the day of your reservation, you are stuck. I was stuck. All four Vista specialty restaurants are better than either of these.
• Grille (Viking Wins). Surprise. But the Grille on Viking is so much better than the Waves Grille (for lunch) that it isn't even close.
• Buffet (Tie). I almost gave it to Oceania here, but cold desserts and serving entirely the same menu two nights in a row knocked it down to a tie.
• Mamsens/Baristas (Oceania). I have to get this to Baristas. I love Mamsens, but Baristas's pastries and coffees are so much better.
• Aquamar Kitchen (Oceania Wins). Because there is nothing like it on a Viking ship. And I want to eat lunch there every single day.
• Pricing (Tie): Here's a comparison of two different cruises in three types of staterooms.

Here's a price comparison on a 2024 New England cruise. This is much like the one we did, minus Miami and Charleston.

• Viking Penthouse Verandah (338 square feet) for 15 nights in New England is $8999 per person. Per Night cost on Viking is $599 pp
• Oceania Concierge Verandah (173 square feet) 18 nights New England on Nautica (one of the older ships) $10,599 per person. Per Night costs $588 pp
• Oceania Penthouse suite (260 Square feet) $13799 pp, $766 per night pp.

Or I did a Mediterranean cruise in the same time frame. Comparing a Rivera–10-night Med cruise in the fall of 2024 with a 15-night cruise in the Med on any Viking ship.

• On Viking: Penthouse Verandah for 15 nights Med (338 square feet) $ 11809 Per night $739 pp
• On Oceania: Concierge Veranda Stateroom (242 square feet😞 $6299 pp Per night  $629.
• Penthouse Suite (420 square feet) $ 7599 pp Per night $759

Yes, each line offers different things with their base price, and they aren't all the same. I met a guy on Vista, an accountant who does an Excel spreadsheet for all their cruises. I am not that interested. A few dollars either way doesn't make that big a difference to us. Ultimately, it all comes down to what is important to you. If it's food, sail with Oceania (stick to their bigger ships), but if it is pretty much everything other than their final payment stuff, try Viking. All that said we have future cruises booked with both of them, so I guess we are still deciding.

A thoughtful, insightful comparison. Thank you. DW and I have sailed with V and O and we like them both for different reasons, most of which you mention. We were longtime customers of Princess (elite status with more than 500 nights), and have watched P fall off a cliff in terms of service and quality. They want young families with kids now, and old folks like us no longer feel welcome for too many reasons to go into here. V and O are just the opposite, and we will stick with them for now. By the way, Viking river cruises are wonderful, too.

We are also refugees from Princess. We used them for 40 years, have over 500 nights on that line. No more. We are done with them. We got sick and tired of having our elite perks canceled. Clearly, Princess no longer wants us. Viking does. You will love V. Welcome aboard.

1 hour ago, makaha said:

We used Luggage Forward, last December.  They shipped our 2 suitcases from Pismo Beach and they were in our stateroom in Barcelona, when we arrived.  The only comment I would make is that we were told our luggage would be picked up from our home between 11:00am and 2:00pm.  I can’t remember if it was Fed X or UPS but they arrived at 7:00AM.  Luckily we are early risers and we were ready for them and this is not Luggage Forwards problem ….. just an FYI.

 

The cost was $750 for the one way trip.

 

With the all of the airline “issues” it was nice to change planes twice with only one carry on, each.  
 

Also, as we were boarding at the pier in Barcelona I asked the luggage department if they had ever had a problem with Luggage Forward and the answer was “never.”

 

We are sailing out of Barcelona on November 15th and will DEFINITELY use them for this trip.  I hope this helps with your decision.

Thanks so much. You've made our decision for us. We're doing it!

I think this has been discussed before, but I'd appreciate some new advice on Luggage Forward. DW and I will be sailing out of Barcelona on Nov. 17, and we'd like to use this service. I'd like to see some comments, both good and bad, if any. Thanks in advance.

KK

That helps! Thank you.

Hello group,

DW and I have just booked the Atlantic Ocean Passage, leaving Barcelona Nov. 17. Pre-cruise extensions there are sold out, so we're looking for a convenient Barcelona hotel for one night. Ideally, it won't be too far from the cruise terminal. Can anyone who has been there give me a lead on a decent hotel, including prices? Thanx in advance.

KK

DW and I will be on the 4/1 British islands cruise on the Venus. I've been reading about food shortages, especially fresh vegetables, in the UK. Anybody know if this has been affecting provisioning of cruise ships calling there? Perhaps Viking ships are provisioned in Scandinavia? Any insights are welcome. Thanx, KK

Don't know if this is important to you, but DW and I have been on many, many cruises on many lines, and Viking has by far the best spa I've ever used. Big therapy pool, wonderful steam room, individual men's/women's saunas and even an ice room, if you enjoy freezing (I don't, but maybe that's just me). I could just pitch a tent and live in the spa.

KK

Has anyone used Luggage Forward prior to a Viking Ocean cruise? We are considering it for our British Isles cruise in April. Some input on this service would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

KK

Mr. Padgett:
As a longtime Carnival stockholder and elite Princess cruiser with nearly 500 days at sea with your line, I fully understand that your ships have recently been idle for two years, making no money and piling on enormous debt. You needed to make changes. I get this. If you believe nothing else I write, you can believe that.
That said, I must convey to you my enormous disappointment in Princess after a recent 10-day cruise I took with my wife. In fact, Princess now seems an entirely different cruise line, and not for the better.
It all began weeks before we even boarded the Crown Princess, when our Medallions arrived in the mail. The shortcomings of this ill-conceived piece of technological rubbish have been well-documented in this forum, and I'll not waste my time and yours by rehashing all that. I'll just say that you would have done well to do some meaningful beta testing before foisting it on your paying customers. Frankly, it's an insult to us. In fairness, however, it does make a nice refigerator magnet, as another contributor to Cruise Critic has noted. Enough said about that.
Now, to embarkation day at the San Pedro cruise terminal in California. There was, in theory, a separate check-in line for elite passengers, as always. But the Princess employee was interested only in maintaining lines of equal length, and was unaware that the elite line should have been much shorter, benefitting your most loyal customers. The sign saying so was unmistakable. Clearly, she was ill-trained for her job.
Some other problems regarding elite passengers:
-- We always received a $35-per-person onboard credit. That is now gone.
-- No special toiletries in the bathroom, as in the past.
-- No more free internet, just a discount on the regular package. Gee, thanks a lot.
It is painfully clear, Mr. Padgett, that you no longer want our business. What you do want is a younger crowd that will accept your rampant nickel-and-diming without complaint. New passengers have no way of knowing what they are now missing.Your most loyal, longtime customers have become just another burden to be disposed of.
But these problems are not the end. With no corner left uncut, you have degraded the cruising experience in other ways as well:
 -- MDR food quality onboard has taken a huge hit. Portions are smaller. I almost needed a chain saw to cut my veal scaloppine. In Crown Grill, same thing. Our traveling companions ordered "tiger prawns" that turned out to be ordinary shrimp, barely an inch long. Steaks came with no sauces offered.
-- Dine My Way is a chaotic mess. What was wrong with two MDR seatings at set times?
-- You have removed the club chairs from all non-suite cabins. Why? Is it too expensive to maintain and clean them? Or have you simply cut your staff to the point that you now have no one to do it?
-- There are no longer any trash receptacles at the elevator stops. They used to be placed at every one, on all floors. No staffers to empty them, eh?
-- No padded loungers on the exterior promenade deck. Just hard, uncomfortable, upright wooden chairs. It used to be a pleasure to sit out there and just watch the ocean go by on a beautiful day. What's the matter, Mr. Padgett? Oh, right. I get it. You don't want me just having a lazy day relaxing outside. You want me inside, drinking, gambling and spending money in your overpriced shops.
-- No more chocolates on the pillows at night. Is this a small thing? You bet. Is it too small to complain about? Not at all, because it gives a perfect insight into your cut-everything-to-the-bone mindset. If the repeat passengers miss it, too bad. You don't want us anyway. The newbies will never know that the chocolates used to be there. As I said, I understand that you're in a financial hole now. But is saving money on an item as small as this worth deliberately antagonizing your biggest fans?
-- The automatic, even-though-I-don't-want-them floor-level night lights that went on in the middle of the  night every time I stepped out of bed. Or even if my sheet dangled over the side. And  the big  one outside the bathroom that awakened my wife every time.  What, we're such children that you can't trust us to get to the toilet without your help?
-- Last, but certainly not least, here's an item I just can't comprehend: An electronic panel outside my cabin door where I'm supposed to indicate whether I want my cabin serviced or just don't want to be disturbed. Trouble is, I'm standing right there with my medallion, which keeps unlocking the door and forcing me to keep reprogramming my preference, which never seems to work. My cabin steward finally told me to forget about it; nobody else could get it to work either. I mean, really, sir, what was wrong with the old-fashioned cardboard signs we'd hang on the door handle as we left the cabin? Are you so maniacally committed to electronics that you must simply have them everywhere, even when they make no sense whatever?
In short, Mr. Padgett, you win. You are rid of my wife and me. We will now take our money, and our combined 1,000 days at sea, and go where we can get a little appreciation.
There. Happy now?
KK

Cruising on Crown Jan. 6. Anyone know if we can still get the old-fashioned Princess Patter, in print, delivered to our cabin each night? Or is it strictly digital these days? 

Thanx, KK

How formal are formal nights these days? We'll be  doing a 10-day cruise to Mexico on Crown.

If I book my flight with Princess Air, will it include airport-to-ship transfers? Specifically, LAX to San Pedro? Thanx

KK

13 hours ago, sonomaphil said:

Beat of luck to you with other lines. 

Actually, DW and I are now using Oceania and Viking. Costlier? Yep, but so much more for the money. We're sick of the nickel and diming. This spa nonsense is just the straw that broke the camel's back for us. /kk

DW and I are elite. But if this is true, I'm done with Princess. They've already  taken away our free wifi.//kk

Can anyone tell me what Emerald will charge me to use the sauna and steam room? Thanx/kk

Unless I'm mistaken, it seems Princess is ending limited but free wi-fi time for elite pax and charging us a discounted rate for all used minutes. True? If so, it will make me and dw umhappy. Could even be another straw on the camel's back, encouraging us to migrate to other lines, such as Viking or Oceania. Yeah, they cost more, but you get what you pay for.

Thx. KK.

Thank you for clearing that up. DW says the phones go into the safe when we board the ship and don't see light of day until the cruise is over. For once I agree.

DW and I are elite but haven't cruised since before medallions were introduced, so please forgive my ignorance about this: If I use a Medallion, does that mean I have to keep my smartphone with me at all times? DW and I would rather not have to do that. Thanks. -- KK

Can anyone tell me if there's a fee to use the steam room and sauna on the Emerald? It's been a few years since we've cruised on Princess. Thx. KK

   DW and I just completed an 8-night cruise on the Explorer of the Seas. If you're thinking of joining this ship, I have one word of advice: Don't.

   Put simply, this ship is functioning -- barely -- with a skeleton crew. We've spoken with people who've had cruises on other RCCL ships, and they had none of the complaints we have, so I'll give RCCL the benefit of the doubt and say the problems seem confined to the Explorer. That's my impression, anyway.

   So what were our problems? Primarily, the food. In the Windjammer -- that's the buffet area -- some offerings were barely edible. At breakfast time, for example, the scrambled eggs were dry as dust and tasteless. They were powdered eggs, I'm fairly certain. For lunch, the hamburgers were wildly overcooked and cold. Other offerings fell between "just OK" and "forget about it."

   OK, let's talk about the main dining room for breakfast. This is where the severe staffing shortages became all too obvious. We waited 15 to 20 minutes just to get a glass of water. Five to10 more minutes until the waiter brought menus, and the place was nearly empty. Half an hour later our food arrived, only it wasn't what I ordered -- waiter got some tables mixed up. So I sent it back and tried to drink the coffee, which was like roofing tar. Cold roofing tar. We left.

   Lunch in the dining room. I ordered a Caesar salad, but without anchovies, 'cause I'm allergic to them. But the waiter couldn't understand me because he had, let's say, a bit of a problem with English. I gave up on that and ordered a wedge salad and a cup of potato soup. Salad was fine. Soup was ice-cold (uh, it's supposed to be hot), and had no spoon. I pantomimed that I needed one, and five minutes or so later one appeared, but by this time I'd lost my appetite. Wife had ordered a pulled-pork sandwich and got something else that we couldn't identify. Out we went.

   So, dinner. First night, I ordered onion soup. Hey, no problem, yeah? But wait. No onions. Yep, onion soup without onions. Just broth, the big crouton and cheese on top. Somebody in that kitchen just doesn't know what they're doing.

   Look, none of these problems are the fault of the staffers whom you see. They're running their rear ends off trying to please the passengers, but there just aren't nearly enough of them. One passenger we commiserated with said this seemed like a training cruise, one where the management breaks in the newbies. The more I thought about that the more sense it made. Problem is, we didn't pay for a training cruise. We paid for a full-service cruise and didn't get one.

   We had bought a specialty-restaurant package, and the first one was Chops, the steakhouse. Reservation was for 8:30, didn't get done till 11. Chops had two waiters, needed at least five. The manager was clearing tables. Very slow, but, in fairness, the food here was far better. Delicious colossal shrimp cocktails, nice steaks done as ordered. Terrific desserts. I had what they called a warm chocolate cake, known elsewhere as a lava cake. Yummy. Better coffee, too.

  While I'm being fair, I'll talk about the entertainment. Some of it was far too loud as it was everywhere else on the ship (including the Dining Room) -- had to leave two shows because my ears just couldn't take it -- but others were wonderful. There was a great ice-skating show and one called Impact, which is hard to describe but was extremely entertaining. See it on YouTube.

   OK, back to nitpicking. I'm a big fan of steam rooms and saunas. Explorer has them and a spacious changing room, with lockers. But no keys for those lockers. Go figure. And, the steam room and sauna were down on the last day of the cruise. Annoying.

   This ship has long way to go to regain my confidence. If you are looking forward to enjoying cruising again, or for the first time, look elsewhere.

In addition to all this daily spit-testing nonsense, DW and I just learned that Viking has now reinstated its onboard masks-all-the-time mandate. Had scheduled Zurich-to-Paris cruise, which we will now cancel. We've had several river cruises with Viking, which we enjoyed immensely, but we're done with them until management comes to its senses.

KK

Our Explorer cruise ends in Miami on May 8. Can anyone tell me if Royal offers shuttle service to Fort Lauderdale Airport?

Thanx 

KK