ggo85

Our assigned dining room is Luminae. However we often eat off the MDR menu so can comment on the food, not the service. Tonight was, for me, a disappointing MDR night. The onion soup wasn’t as good as usual and the steak was sub par. However, this was an exception not the rule. Prior to this, our MDR selections have been great, so I think you’ll be fine there. At least 12 main course options every night - how could you go wrong ? Oceanview (the buffet) has a variety of dinner choices. Salad station, pasta station, pizza, burgers, main courses, fruit, etc. It’s obviously self serve. It’s great if you want quick or want to dine in shorts. But not the service or cuisine of the MDR — IMO.

Our assigned dining room is Luminae. However we often eat off the MDR menu so can comment on the food, not the service. Tonight was, for me, a disappointing MDR night. The onion soup wasn’t as good as usual and the steak was sub par. However, this was an exception not the rule. Prior to this, our MDR selections have been great, so I think you’ll be fine there. At least 12 main course options every night - how could you go wrong ? Oceanview (the buffet) has a variety of dinner choices. Salad station, pasta station, pizza, burgers, main courses, fruit, etc. It’s obviously self serve. It’s great if you want quick or want to dine in shorts. But not the service or cuisine of the MDR — IMO.

Tonight’s Luminae menu.

I’m trying more to report on select topics than do a general review. If folks have questions, ask away and I’ll answer if I can.

Today in Cartagena. Did the Amazing Cartagena: Bay and Walled City tour. Mixed views. Started with a 30+ minute ride to the old town. Some in Hop On bus and some of the group on a traditional Coach. We then did the walking tour. It’s 90 minutes, mist of that standing. Maybe a mile walk in total. We visited a bunch of squares. Tour doesn’t go into any museums, etc. After that, we had a 90-minute boat tour of the harbor, which included demonstrations of local dancing. Then ride back to ship. The good: on foot is the only way to see the old city. Easy pace. Boat trip was relaxing and neat to see city from the water. The good to know: it is REALLY hot and humid. I was about to melt and I’m usually comfortable in heat and humidity. Most of those on the tour were feeling the heat. I went through 3 bottles of water. The walking isn’t strenuous but consider whether you can handle hours in the sun / shade without AC. I can’t stress this enough. The bad: they tell you that you’re going to the “emerald museum.” That means tourist trap tiny shop with no chairs and ugly emeralds. At least there was AC. 20 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Also, the tour description is wrong. They tell you the boat takes you back the the ship. Not true. You take the same bus back. Finally, when you get back (sweaty and tired), you must go through this “Port Oasis.” Consists of an aviary, food places and a small amount of shopping It’s probably lovely if you aren’t more than ready for AC. But a pain when you just want to get on board. Takes 5-7 minutes if you walk through without stopping. Yes, I’d do it again. But it’s not for everyone.

Last night we dined at Tuscan Grille and tonight at Sushi on 5. Enjoyed the food at Tuscan. Service was good. However, I don’t think we’ll do it again — mainly because it didn’t see, that much better (if at all) than Luminae. Sushi was good. DH liked it better than Tuscan and he doesn’t love sushi. I think because it was less crowded and not as many passengers talking loudly trying to impress everyone around them. Must say I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of free daily activities. There’s a lot of variety — trivia, games, dance lessons, sports. And unlike RCCL, not every activity is trying to sell you something (e.g., foot analysis). Just things to do. Tried Oceanview for lunch and wasn’t super excited. Food was tasty but not a lot of variety. I asked for a Diet Coke and literally finished my meal before it arrived. What continues to amaze me is the courtesy of my fellow passengers when it comes to deck chairs. No chair hogs on this cruise. Not only do people take their stuff when they are finished using a chair, but they also take their towels, thus letting others know the chairs are available. It’s unusual and refreshing. And means that there are always plenty of chairs. Tomorrow is Day 1 in Cartegena and will report on my shore excursion.

Wanted to comment on crew attitude. I can’t speak as to whether folks are sad, but we are always greeted with a smile. Having been away from family during the holidays, I’m sure that is weighing on the minds of some of the crew. Thinking of loved ones far away at this time of year can make it harder to put on a happy face. I also have heard a number of crew members say they are nearing the end of 7-9 month contracts. Burnout hits, no matter how hard one tries not to show it. As for masks, very few people are wearing them. I’d estimate 5% of crew and a bit less than that among passengers. My DH wears one. They aren’t required in most places in the world. If being surrounded by mask wearers is important, a cruise might not be the best place. In terms of self service for food, at the grill, the servers give you everything (e.g., onions, lettuce) other than ketchup. There does seem to be more self service in Oceanview. Cruising on X today looks a lot more like pre-COVID than cruising a year ago. I suspect most people are happy about that. Some are not and they have to decide whether cruising makes sense for them.

For those on Constellation in the near future, make sure you see the Vesseletes. They are packing them in. SRO at 10 pm. Wide repertoire and great music. Pic of dancers.

Someone asked about beer prices. They range from 6 (miller lite and others) to $10 (Stella).

Today we were in Grand Cayman. It’s a tender port, using shore tenders. Seemed to run smoothly. I didn’t see much to do just walking around. Stores mostly selling (high end) jewelry. I wandered into a few T- shirt / souvenir shops and there was not the “pushiness” you find in some Carib ports. Bought nothing. I did the Kittiwake snorkel ship’s excursion. Highly recommend. The ship is a US Navy ship sold to the Caymans to sink for divers and marine life. It’s in great shape. It’s too deep to snorkel around it but the water is clear enough to see it well. We then went to a reef near the port. So many fish! I do a lot of snorkeling and this had more fish, including a x-mal barracuda, than I’m used to seeing. Details . . . You walk about 1/5 of a mile to the ship. It’s 30 minutes to the ship. We had about 25 minutes to snorkel, which was sufficient. The. 25 minutes to second site. Another 25 minutes snorkeling. The. 5 minutes to the dock. You don’t have to know how to snorkel, but you should be comfortable in the water / swimming with fins. There were 12 on our excursion, so no crowds. I don’t recommend going on this if you don’t snorkel - boat isn’t comfortable just to sit in - it’s transport.

Today we were in Grand Cayman. It’s a tender port, using shore tenders. Seemed to run smoothly. I didn’t see much to do just walking around. Stores mostly selling (high end) jewelry. I wandered into a few T- shirt / souvenir shops and there was not the “pushiness” you find in some Carib ports. Bought nothing. I did the Kittiwake snorkel ship’s excursion. Highly recommend. The ship is a US Navy ship sold to the Caymans to sink for divers and marine life. It’s in great shape. It’s too deep to snorkel around it but the water is clear enough to see it well. We then went to a reef near the port. So many fish! I do a lot of snorkeling and this had more fish, including a x-mal barracuda, than I’m used to seeing. Details . . . You walk about 1/5 of a mile to the ship. It’s 30 minutes to the ship. We had about 25 minutes to snorkel, which was sufficient. The. 25 minutes to second site. Another 25 minutes snorkeling. The. 5 minutes to the dock. You don’t have to know how to snorkel, but you should be comfortable in the water / swimming with fins. There were 12 on our excursion, so no crowds. I don’t recommend going on this if you don’t snorkel - boat isn’t comfortable just to sit in - it’s transport.

I’ve never been to Blu but I would be a bit disappointed if we could only order off the Luminae menu for dinner. (We are on an older ship so we can order MDR as well). There are only 4 main course options per evening. While I can always find something I like, the MDR offers about a dozen choices each night. The first night I had MDR prime rib (hungry for steak and Luminae didn’t have that as an option) and it was quite good. I do like breakfast in Luminae. I personally wouldn’t choose a cabin category based solely on restaurant. I’d look at the totality of Retreat vs. Aqua on your ship and decide whether the added suite benefits warrant the additional cost based on what’s important to you.

I will try to remember to check on beer prices today. Here is last nights Luminae menu. Sorry if hard to read.

One other comment - for those thinking of paying for alcohol a la carte, you’d better be light drinkers. Wine pours are meager. Fine if you’re on a package, but I’d be annoyed if I paid the cost of a bottle for at best 3oz. The few mixed drinks I’ve tried (e.g. margaritas) are large on size and short on alcohol. Again, not an issue if you don’t drink much or are on a package. Not great if you’re paying by the drink and expect value. It is nice that, if you’re on a package, they don’t print a receipt - which to my mind is designed to encourage more tips. Of course, you’re always free to tip your favorite bartender in cash and that might change what I wrote above.

Today is another day. First, we drove to Tampa, so can’t help with flights. They told me the earliest we could disembark was 0830 but will report back on this later in the cruise. Lots of good today. No chair hogs at the pool. Plenty of chairs on a lovely sea day. I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of free activities during the day. The ones I observed were well attended. The production show was above average. I wasn’t enamored of the “rock” songs they chose, but that’s more about me than the songs. At least I knew about 75% of them. Had a massage - also above average. Ship is in good condition and the crew work very hard to please. Internet speed is acceptable. We were at Luminae tonight (next 2 nights at specialty). Forgot to copy the menu. I had chilled lobster salad. It was good but not the presentation you’d expect. We had halibut as main course and it was nice. There was a potato pasta and ribeye and something else that I don’t remember. Service was better tonight. The only nit was one diner who spoke so loudly that everyone around him figured out how to leave early. Including us. Nothing the crew could do - just want to make sure we don’t sit anywhere near him the rest of the cruise as having someone shouting sort of ruins the atmosphere. In terms of shore excursions, I’m doing the USS Kittiwake snorkel tomorrow. We are tendering. I don’t recall what I picked for shore excursions for the Central American ports, but will report back on what we did later in the cruise. Demographics - most passengers are 50s to 70s. Mostly couples though quite a few singles. Very few kids.

Reporting back. Tonight (Chic) saw maybe 15% of men in jackets. Probably 75% wore long-sleeved shirts. I’d estimate 50% of the women wore dressier outfits than last night (casual). Some just a nicer top and others wore cocktail dresses. Didn’t see anyone wearing long. You can wear the exact same thing or dress up.

Tonight and tomorrow we’re at Tuscan and Sushi. Will try to take a photo of the Luminae menu when it’s posted.

We’re on this cruise. I’m not going to post a blow-by-blow account but will post highlights and answer questions to the extent possible. Check-in was one of the fastest and smoothest I’ve experienced on any ship or line. Have your stuff ready and the whole thing takes less than 5 minutes. Cabins ready at 1:00. Both suitcases arrived by 2:45. Dinner in Luminae was excellent but very slow - more than 90 minutes and we are super fast orderers and eaters. They were crowded but wine wasn’t refilled and we often sat for 10 minutes waiting for the next course. Evening had lots of music options, which I like. Have yet to see a child on the ship. One crew member said the ship generally has very few kids. Something to keep in mind, depending on your preferences.

We’re on Constellation now. Most of those around us in Luminae ordered off the MDR menu and quite a few from the classics. I had the onion soup and my DH the Caesar salad.

I did a paperweight. Don’t have time for a pix - we leave on a cruise tomorrow. But I’ve received lots of compliments and love having something I designed and “made” - thought the experts do most of that. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

When we saw RCCL’s move to market to families with kids, we mostly moved to other lines. We now only only cruise RCCL at times when we are quite sure there will be fewer kids and also cruise on the smaller ships. Just off an RCCL cruise with very few kids and those we saw were well behaved. Marketing to families is a huge positive for some and a huge negative for others. If you cruise a mega RCCL ship during or close to school holidays, you’re going to be overrun with kids. Their families paid to be there. Your call whether you want to join them.

These people must also be nuts! Seriously . . . one could easily pay for biz class air plus transfers for tens of thousands less than what SS is asking. I like to think that people who've made a lot of money are also smart about money. But I guess some folks want "one-stop shopping" and are willing to pay (through the nose) for it. People have all sorts of reasons that they want to do their own air (status with an airline, choice of flight plan, cost, ability to use miles, etc.). "Forcing" you to tack on the extras to book the cabin you want is a huge negative for me. We book higher-level suites, but if this is SS's new biz strategy, we might have to move on.

I’m looking to book a particular cruise. We want to do our own air and (have lots of miles) and car transfers aren’t available for our city. So we want port to port. When I look at cabins for port to port, only the “lower” categories are available. However, if I select door to door, all categories open up. Of course, it’s $50k more (not kidding). Can someone explain this? Why can’t I book a higher suite w/o booking stuff I don’t need or want? Or am I missing something?

Reciprocity only gets you so far. To get the high rest level benefits on any line, you actually have to cruise on that line. For example, the top tier on X wouldn’t be Pinnacle on RCCL.

On many cruises, the top tier suites (above Sky) often sell out early because there are so few of them as compared to other cabin classes. Thus, people who want them grab them early. This tends to be especially true on longer cruises or more "exotic" cruises, based on itinerary The above said, on some cruises there may be less interest in suites, for whatever reason. That can mean great deals for those willing to bid for a suite or X may reduce prices on suites. Whether the ship will be uncrowded really depends on how filled the other cabin categories are b/c there are a lot more of them than suites. IOW, if the suites are empty but every non-suite cabin is full, the ship could still be fairly crowded. If the suite occupancy is reflective of the ship as a whole, it may be an empty ship.