mayleeman

Where is this offer coming from?

I was wondering if families with kids get tips from letting their kids pose for cute pictures with passengers.

Forget batteries. Install a grid of electrical wires above the entire ocean and have the ships work like electric trolleys of old with a rod raised to touch the wires. Or make the bottom 2 decks a gym with hundreds of paddle boats or stationary bikes powering a generator like Gilligan. (Oars only could fit on the shell, but could be used as a supplement.)

Prepandemic, I called Celeb to see about cancelling our March Eq cruise. I told her I knew we would be getting FCC with a $200 penalty (can't remember the circumstances). I mentioned we would be applying the FCC to our Eq cruise in Oct and asked her to explain how to do that. She asked me to hold on. She came back and said that she didn't know we already had another Eq cruise booked. She told us she could just transfer ALL of our money from the cruise being cancelled to the other one, with no penalty. Took 5 mins, and we got our new booking confirm while still on the line with her. It showed the transferred money as a payment to the new cruise. The only thing that was different from a regular payment is that the NR deposit in the transferred money was still treated as forfeitable in the event of a future cancellation. A very helpful rep!

Great job I did that type of thing in Shreveport...got down to my last $15 and ended up with @ $2750. All from roulette. 4 different casinos in 2 days. Ah, the good old days.... And the more Jayhawks the merrier!

I cannot understand why people get upset about being expected to actually gamble with the chips you purchase in order to get that 10% bonus.

Cruise Critic should pin this thread up front as the best example of a far-flung online travel community working tirelessly together to help someone they would never even recognize. Good luck @Georgia_Peaches!

What do you want that post #2 does not answer?

Did you book before they made All Inclusive a mandatory part of Aqua class? And then perhaps look at current descriptions of Aqua which says bev pkg is included?

@Luvtoeat Which cabin was it? We are looking forward to ours next Feb!

No animals allowed unless it is a certified support pony.

How many posts will we see about receiving 1 CC point?

Just roll a keg on board. Glue some buckles on it and say it is an antique type of luggage.

If you buy classic package on board, can it be purchased by just one person in a cabin?

Can you, once you board, change the nights of specialty reservations if the MDR menus change to something you want on those nights?

Very useful information in this one. No need to announce when you aren't interested.

They didn't accuse you of lying about what you heard the couple say. They were saying that couple is wrong.

And no doubt there is some obligation to report if they want to keep having US docking privileges. The Mexican casino likely doesn't have a direct connection to operations in the US.

@AbbyCruiser45 Nothing to fear when you make a post as helpful and comprehensive as yours is! It was especially useful that your "source" was reporting better news after experiencing the downside. (And it is wonderful for them that they are ending their cruise on the positive side.) Hope they continue to enjoy it!!!

I am envious! We have cancelled over the past 3 years exactly the number of nights you are cruising...in a total of 5 cruises.

Are you by any chance in a suite?

People ask for details about positive expriences just as happy cruisers immediately jumped on the OP for details of what was worse. You might be ignoring that many of the positive reviews include statements about not seeing any difference. Early in 2023, the reports were all over the place: Extra RS charges? not on some ships. Filets? maybe, maybe not. OVC minimized? NO!!! (well, we only saw lunch). Prime rib available? Yeah..(but we sailed in December). Details flesh out descriptions and educate people. The questions you complain about have provided a broader sense of what is going on and whether any improvements are being seen. And the answers for suites are very different. Everyone has different things that are important to them. If someone said that a particular thing, venue, or activity you had enjoyed wasn't included on their cruise 2 weeks after yours, wouldn't you be interested in knowing if it was permanent? Why attack people for being concerned about what they expected when they booked vs what they may have to settle for?

If the MDR or OVC are diminished (either in quality or service), then a fee for room service, which is also reported to have a shorter menu, basically punishes anyone trying to find an acceptable alternative. I would agree with you about the reasonableness of paying a fee if they had raised fares enough to keep up their standards in the restaurants. But cutting quality and charging more, plus a few add-ons, while eliminating low-cost beverage packages, adds up to a real message to lower budget cruisers who likely booked many months or even a year or more, before these policies began. Kick in the face is a very realistic description.

From reading dozens of threads and hundreds of comments, I am left with the following: I think the biggest disappointment expressed about 2023 cruises is the difference in food quality and choices in both the MDR and the OVC. These issues have seemed to be not as severe in E-class ships, as a number of posters have quite enjoyed their experiences there. To generalize, it also seems that suite class cruisers have not experienced these issues in Luminae, and a few have sometimes commented that the OVC seemed normal to them. A few admitted they had only been there at b/f or lunch, which seems to reflect other people's views that those buffets are better than dinner. The issue of the new fees is something suite cruisers don't face. But they are paying lots of increased costs that provide them much of the same services. X is very stupidly alienating numerous non-suite cruisers by stacking those ala carte fees on top of the cruise-fare and have made numerous beverage options out of reach. The AI for higher tiers is built into the price, but it seems exorbitant when tacked on for the non-AI-inclusive cabins. The issue of reduced services has been documented by many cruisers who have had trouble getting things for their cabins or getting timely service in restaurants. Again, not an issue in suites. My point is that the problems seem real and people are voicing legitimate complaints. Food cutbacks evoke quite emotional reactions. Responding with "Didn't happen to me" can be helpful if providing alternate info about different ships or perhaps some improvements showing up. But when you are not the target group, that comment or criticism of people who are discussing things they didn't get is bound to be incendiary (calling people "whiners" or "complainers" is absurd, but the worst is to tell people to do the crew's job and stop griping). X should have increased fares to cover the shortfalls. Trying to disguise what they are doing by adding on fees for what was included has always, in every industry that has tried it, lowered customer satisfaction. It is obviously doing it here. Finally, please liisten to each other and leave out the personal attacks. It just detracts from your point.

Let's try not to get this thread deleted since the trinket digression is irrelevant.