RetiredandTravel

Agree with everyone above, we also really enjoy Sette Mari. We also don't care for buffets so don't partake in the buffet, there is so much food it almost seems to be overkill unless there isn't anything you like on the menu. In addition to the appetizer, salad, pasta and main course they serve wonderful hors d'oeuvres and bread (focaccia, bread sticks, etc) . The Veal Milanese is one of our favorites, always delicious and the size of a catchers mitt. We treat Sette Mari like any other restaurant. If you want to go to the buffet I'd just wait until there aren't many people and go between sitting down and the appetizer (or later), they isn't any real structure. The menus posted on the TV help decide.

Additional Charge. The included liquors are quite extensive, we often buy dinner wines from the list.

There are times that complaining to peoples superiors can have the opposite of the desired effect. 😬

Genny Cream Ale? More bang for the buck. Recently we were out to dinner (not NY) and Genesee was listed as a craft beer, I got a kick out of that. My wife is from the Albany area, I used to go out with her father for 10c Genny drafts. Sorry for hijacking your nice thread I'll stop.

🥳Great idea. They could start serving kamikaze shots and pot brownies. SB could call it the "college themed" cruise and charge more. toga toga I grew up in NY and was going to go with Utica Club or Genesee Beer but figured it would get lost on the general public.

Personally I find this outrageous, nothing like a little hint of Coke in your G&T from the mixer gun. What's next Busch Beer on tap with plastic cups? You only get one plastic cup tho have to be environmentally friendly.

I agree 100%, well said. The whole included wine quality and transparency on Regent, SS and SS is a major shortcoming. On Oceania you buy the premium wine package ($120 day for two) and they tell you all the wines available, so they could do the same with included wines on Regent. If this is some attempt to save money by pouring cheaper wines to unknowing (or caring) customers just charge us another $20-30 a day and have lists and wines readily available. "Six Star" Luxury ??? DDD another recent Regent cruiser had the same issue but once they insisted with the sommelier a list appeared.

Enjoy your voyage, thanks for the reports.

Thank you Terry, I appreciate the kind words. RKA I have no idea how all this works. Here is a list of CCL subsidiaries not sure how up to date it is. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/815097/000081509719000004/exhibit21201810-k.htm

i don't know but according to the Carnival website they have about 90 ships if you include all the brands. The FT article is very interesting. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/corporate-information/our-brands

Looks like a 11 1/2% coupon, also depends on the price of course. I don't know a great deal about it but this is a quote from a PM on the bonds in the FT. "John McClain, a high-yield portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, said the bond showed Carnival was “getting creative” with collateral to avoid paying “eye-watering” interest rates. “Without the ships, I don’t believe that they would have access to capital at a price they would have been comfortable with,” he said." https://www.ft.com/content/bb89b17f-aac9-45cb-865c-5995a7594d9c

CCL (+11% today) announces debt deal. Maybe to extend the 991 due this quarter out to 2028? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/carnival-corp-announces-offering-of-125-billion-of-high-yield-bonds-due-2028-2022-10-18

Now that's funny. 🤣 Also thanks for the reference to the Rainbow Room in another post. I took my wife on a date there a long time ago, fond memories. We had Chateaubriand. Olive Garden probably better reflected my financial situation at the time.

I don't need to pay someone that much to mess things up I can do it on my own for free. How do they justify those fees? 50bps is ok but when you get over 1% outperforming the overall market reduces greatly (attached is the performance on active mutual fund managers). I'm guessing many don't show their performance vs a benchmark like a blend of the S&P500 and aggregate bond index. Those free dinners must be painful. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/01/underperformance-is-abysmal-in-the-long-run-for-active-fund-managers.html Thursday the market put in what I viewed as a very encouraging reversal day, ending much higher after putting in a new low in the bear market on high volume. Rising yields and the Friday tradeoff dampened my enthusiasm considerably although we are going into a seasonally strong period for the stock market. I got a dollar and a dream.

Well we certainly didn't put anything abnormal in the toilet. I think this was beyond that water was gushing out of the toilet and they had to turn the water off for the entire floor. Our room was right next to the shut off that may have had something to do with it. I think at one point they turned the water off for the entire ship because I went to the bathroom on a lower floor and there was no water.

We had a major plumbing issue on the Mariner in April 2019. To no fault of our own the toilet started to overflow water and other stuff 😬. I called the front desk immediately but it still took 20-25 minutes to turn off the water. The bathroom ended with 2-3 inches of water (++) and the water went completely down the hall almost to the bed. Several other rooms on our floor (8 I think) also had issues but we got the worst of it, there were fans to dry off the floor all down the floor. Housekeeping did a great job cleaning and disinfecting the room but it took the fan in the room all day to dry the carpet. Not a fun way to spend a sea day.

That's unfortunate. The Wealth Management and Equity Research departments are completely separate and compensated differently. I manage our money I thought most of these Wealth Management people got paid on a percent (1%?) of assets. I get a lot of invites for free dinners tho. I think he's a she. 🙂

I think Robin Farley, the UBS analyst is highly regarded (#2 down) https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1nwh5jp639xs5/The-All-America-Research-Team-The-Hall-of-Famers

NCLH upgraded at UBS others mentioned https://www.barrons.com/articles/norwegian-cruise-lines-stock-upgrade-51665582559

Its my understanding that you can avoid the dress requirements in some venues. Personally I would take a jacket and tie. Attached are the dress requirements under "packing your cruise luggage". enjoy https://www.silversea.com/travel-informations/general-information.html

Regent is somewhere in between what you describe of SB & SS. If you ask for the included wine list you will initially get resistance but once you ask the right person and insist they will give it to you. We always felt the secrecy was to give new people the cheaper stuff, reserving the better wines for the frequent cruisers & higher suites. If you ask for a Chardonnay they will give you a glass of a $6-8 bottle Chilean wine but they have a decent White Burgundy that probably runs $15-17. If you ask for the White Burgundy they bring that without delay. Its all about being in the know.

Here's a novel idea have a list available with all the included wines and a brief description. The games played with these wines are ridiculous.

Any more cutbacks in the "luxury" lines "included wines" and we may be looking at box wines. Easy access anyway.

Agree. I used to enjoy smoking cigars and would have liked a location to smoke cigars that wasn't offensive to other guests. SB shouldn't tell people its no smoking then allow it or jeans at dinner for that matter.

I agree rka one certainly isn't guaranteed a level of satisfaction. We do have the ability , after research, to spend our vacation $$ on different venues. We agree that luxury cruises are the best way to experience many geographies but the question is will we be happier with a larger mix of land based vacations. Considering the prices charged we expect a high level of service and cuisine in addition to the ride and a nice room. You are very familiar with the financial conditions of these cruise lines and I'm guessing a very experienced cruiser. Do you think the financial condition of the cruise lines has had a significant negative impact on the "luxury" experience? If so, is it temporary or what we should expect in in the future?