TheMichael

Our balcony cabin was fine as well - and I've become kind of a "room critic" (ask me about our pre-cruise night at Gaido's - I can imagine anyone with OCD or fear of dirt would be in a fetal position before they even got to the bathroom, with almost every single thing in the room dirty/damaged in some way, up to and including putting in the TP roll to unspool from the bottom - yet the bed was clean and comfy, and the beach was outside our window, so for me it was fine).

Thanks for the Live - I considered trying one but really didn't want to have to worry about it ("sorry honey, I can't go to the comedy show, I'm typing up my Live report!"). Flying out of the northwest is dicey right now regardless (Alaska has a LOT of planes grounded, and in the best of times you never know if they'll have enough ground crew to fly on time, then add in the rare sub-freezing temps). Our fun was had on the way back, when the plane to LAX was delayed first an hour, then a couple more, then 🤷‍♂️ as we watched mechanics tear an engine apart outside the windows. We went to the Voice auditions as well as the finals - you were awesome. We crossed paths with you on the ship a few times and I threatened to greet you with a "Hello, number 12..." (in a British accent, of course). The final was so interesting - it seemed like everybody improved over their audition, and we started thinking it would be a much harder choice than we figured going in...until you came onstage and just broke through the ceiling. Overall, it was a great cruise - staff was so friendly and on point (during the staff-recognition part of the variety show on the last night, the "ninja" comment really rang true - ours did everything we asked and nothing too much, and never once fawned to increase the tip). All of our port days had great weather, there were very few kids and the ones there were seemed well-behaved. (There was plenty of childlike behavior to go around during disembarkation, like when we got cursed out by an older couple because they thought we were jumping their line when we were only walking to the Theater, which was the same direction.) Met some cool people (there's something about Canadians and watching for pier runners...). Also, I'd suggest only sailing from Galveston if you really (REALLY) like Texans. Comics on the ship definitely modified their acts for the crowd, and at one point in the waters off Honduras, a conversation starter was "so, what brings you to Texas?" (since he was Texan, I couldn't tell if serious or if it was a comment on the passenger demographics). It was a big difference from the diverse roster of hometowns/states/countries represented on my last couple of cruises. Can't complain though. (Well, they could clearly mark their disembarkation transfer bus area, instead of what they do now, which is not mark it in any way - there are people on cruises who have disorientation issues even WHEN things have proper signage, why make it rougher on them? Oh, and the shopping gauntlet at each port, which in a couple was more like a maze). For the price (comp for Vegas casino status), I'd do it again.

I'm pretty sure it's adults only, as is the pool area you walk through to get there (the latter of which is free). We booked two sea-day afternoons last week, and our hustle (arrive early and immediately dash upstairs) was rewarded when a crowd gathered behind us as we were finishing our booking. It's calm (even when the pool behind is in full party mode!) and the setup greatly mitigates any wind. It's also a great place to have afternoon tea (it arrives at about 3:30 and takes a while to get to everyone). One thing we really missed on Regal was a hot tub, like they have on Discovery.

Boarding was smooth the week before as well - we try to have everything buttoned up for boarding, right down to a screen shot showing our Green Lane status for when the app inevitably changes it to Blue Lane at the last minute (as Texans like to say, it's not our first rodeo). 😀 Rooms not being ready until early afternoon is more or less standard. The worst part of pre-sailaway was not being able to get a drink in the nicer bars until we'd left Texas waters. Hope your sailing is as great overall as ours was! (Only choppy and cold on the last sea day.)

The cruise I’m on right now is full of people who seem hellbent on NOT protecting themselves (and therefore others). I can count the masks I’ve seen on one hand. My masked-up gf had a woman give her dirty looks in a restroom. And forget handwashing. (Why yes, this cruise DID sail out of Galveston, why do you ask?)

I wasn’t on that cruise (I’ll be on the Eclipse/PC cruise on Emerald in April) but if you’re negative for Covid, loss of taste implies flu, which has also been spiking. Basically all of the things you can catch by being in proximity to other people are rising, because people are in proximity to more people than maybe ever before, and almost zero are cancelling plans or even wearing masks when they feel sick prior to going on vacation.

None (at least for US departures), as evidenced by all of the posts about loads of people coughing and wheezing on ships.

"Supply chain issues" is such a great term for businesses - it can mean anything from "we've overfished the crab" to "factory has a bad reputation and can't hire" to "the ship from China overturned in rough seas" to "our supplier just decided to double their prices." You can just say "supply chain" and people shrug and nod their heads. The Great Egg Shortage a year or two back combined extreme hoarding with extreme profiteering, and seemed to end suspiciously quickly when people decided the price was too high. Major cruise lines have multiple suppliers, so I'd expect that an overall issue would be more on the lines' side.

This is becoming a common thread - I suspect people came away from their holiday gatherings with whatever virus was going around their families, and they ain't gonna let no little "head cold" cancel their hard-earned vacation. Many of those same people aren't washing their hands when they enter the buffet. And we wonder why ships get the mainstream rap of being floating petri dishes...

I liked the "lounge-like" open version of Princess Live! on the Discovery. Looking at walkthrough videos, the one on Regal looks kind of weird in comparison.

BTW, there was a live thread from the same cruise as the OP's that found the food to be anywhere from "good" ("most things were tasty, some extremely so") to "great" ("best deck pizza on a cruise ship, hands down"). Goes to show, different people can have different experiences on the same ship. The difference is that the good review is buried on page 5 of a thread, while the bad one is the title of its thread. Tastes do differ widely. Case in point: people RAVE about the Dive-In burgers and fries on HAL. I found the fries to be just meh and the burgers consistently served lukewarm with dry patties, I even went back another day to make sure I didn't just get a bad one. Just shrugged and ate something else (most of the food was great). I also think In-N-Out is mid, so...

Thank you so much for the review @bethfelk! We board in four days, so we'll be looking forward to exploring those positives. I know it's the in thing to say "people suck" (even the people who suck say that) but it seems like the goal of a lot of folks is to do whatever's necessary to get what they want, and it's unfortunate that they've got plenty of role models for that these days. Just think about someone other than yourself for a damn minute, folks - it can actually make you feel better than sitting in your own selfish bubble where "well, nobody's nice to me" is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Thanks. It might just be the larger Princess ships that have an espresso station in the buffet.

Thank you for the honest review! We'll be on the Emerald in April, and it's good to know that in general it's all in working order. The only thing missing is a review of the "house band" - as someone who spent most of my weekend nights at nightclubs or arenas for music, I find I'm generally disappointed in most cruise bands, but always optimistic in finding a gem at some point and sometimes content to "enjoy" the rough edges. Did they have espresso in the buffet as well? If not, that will change some of my caffeination strategy. So the bartender insults you while you drink? (I'm sorry, I can't let a bad autocorrect go by. 😁)

Wonder if they might move over to Threads or revive their Facebook presence - I've been kind of amazed at how fast X is declining (judging primarily by the number of replies/likes for public figures). It's a shame, Twitter was the go-to social media place for getting a decent company response, but I've had very little luck there lately.

Yeah, I'm picturing the cruise line looking at that "proof" and then issuing a revised bill for the entire contents of the minibar.

Will be on the Regal next week - apparently the OP's issues are with the MDR, we'll be able to see how it stacks up against a recent HAL cruise. (I'm already bracing for slower service.) However bad it may be, it probably won't be my most disappointing meal of the past year - that was not on a ship, but at a well-known local fine-dining steakhouse, which only reinforced my longstanding hole-in-the-wall restaurant preferences. To me the beauty of cruise ship food in this "everybody cruises/nobody cares" era is the variety - I look to find the things they do well, and between the MDR, specialty/casual spots, and buffet, I can always find more than enough to make me happy. My "superpower" is that I will send back food I don't like while keeping a relentlessly positive attitude. Bad food happens, it's not the server's fault (and frequently not even the cook's), I use "thank you" profusely and aim to be the nicest customer they've got, even while not putting up with crappy food. The result is that I (usually) get better food.

Most companies decided long ago that hiring smart people and actually empowering them to help was much too expensive. In a past life I did tech support while it was still staffed with people who knew the product and could troubleshoot just about anything - I saw support get outsourced first to a rural call center, then to Mumbai (I managed to move to a related position that couldn't be outsourced). Even when call centers are in the US, the companies don't empower their staff to make decisions, instead their goal is to end calls as quickly as possible. Frankly, I think management at many companies would RATHER have people posting that customer service is no help than to have their call center deluged with people demanding the same credit/refund/replacement given to one person who then told people on Reddit to ask for it.

OP posts three times on Page 1, with the weather being the only voiced reason for "never again." Then OP states that it's not the only reason, to "believe" them, then disappears as we discuss laundry tokens. Most disappointing "Never Again" thread ever.

😂 Did You Know™: Wilford Brimley was only 49 when filming started for Cocoon...

I guess technically we were dealing with "just" a bomb cyclone...couldn't pay me to cruise the Caribbean during hurricane season, though.

I'm just here in amazement that there are FIVE pages of discussion. I'd have settled for the initial post, followed by some kind of "Things I Worry About, vs. This" meme.

Did Alaska on HAL in September, and it was spectacularly rough the first night as we sailed up the Pacific side of Vancouver Island. Side-to-side, forward-to-back, with the occasional big shudder, and everything that could bump or bang bumped and banged (it wasn't the motion that kept me awake, it was the noise!). It seemed like half the passengers were sick the next day, making the ship quite uncrowded. The captain went as far as to reassure everyone that the ship was built to handle much worse. We ended up sharing a table the next day with someone who's been on 40-odd cruises, and although she admitted it was the worst she'd experienced, she also said that wasn't by much!

Sounds like we'll be "looking forward" to that when we go in reverse order in April. (People on that roll call are up in friggin' arms about not having a substitute port...on a cruise where they'll see the Panama Canal AND a total solar eclipse.)

Back before I focused on learning poker, I played a lot of blackjack, and realized that the fun I had depended on there being at least two of these three components: - Fun dealer - Fun players - Winning The casino can really only make sure of one of those, but a fun dealer can sometimes help bring out the fun in the players. I used to specifically scope out a table where it looked like people were having fun, but in a cruise casino there isn't as much choice. Of course, poker tables can resemble funerals sometimes, but the additional variable of bad players can make up for there being a little less fun.