Sea Hag

That would annoy me plenty!

@Thrak did a connoisseur cruise tour. I'm sure he can fill you in on that.

Sky, Western Caribbean for 7 days in February Royal, Alaska for 7 days in September

We did a northbound California coastal on the Ruby and a roundtrip Seattle Alaska sailing on the Discovery. Both were great. On the coastal, we had one of our favorite cabins, L104. That's a forward facing obstructed cabin that's much larger than standard and has great access to the little forward deck on Lido. On the Discovery sailing, we had one of our most favorite cabins, M107. There were some things we didn't like on the Ruby sailing, but the Discovery sailing was pretty much flawless.

What I've seen is that the grats are applied on a daily basis, and on a daily basis the obc is applied to them.

Not necessarily, but it may depend on the category you book. I book early and watch for price drops. Mostly, the price never gets lower than what I booked for, at least until after final payment. YMMV

I send a redacted pdf with the stock info in an email with the voyage info and my personal info in the body of the email. I've only done this twice, since we're late to the party on this, but it's 100% success in no more than a couple of days. Sent to the email address above.

Some of the minis on Emerald are connecting cabins. You'll probably want to avoid those.

I haven't been on that cruise, but I'd always go for a balcony with some cover rather than one completely without. Being able to be on the balcony if it's raining or too hot and sunny is what I like.

When we don't have club class, I like traditional, so I wish that option would come back for us and all those who want it.

I hear you on that! I battled with this for years, and it never got any easier.

Yes, they are.

Since I'm a diehard promenade deck walker, I was sure I was going to hate the Royal Class. Sailed first on the Royal, and I thought the walking track on Sun deck wasn't all that bad. Sailed next on the Majestic and still liked it. Sailed last on the Discovery, and I thought the walking track on Sun deck had a lot of merit over the old-style promenade deck. I'd have to say that the Royal Class has won me over. I like them as much as the Grand or Crown Classes. Lots of differences on the Sun, but I'm keeping an open mind.

It's hard isn't it, that quest for a good piece of pie? I'm really picky about pie, and I'm also a pie person. Don't really care about cake. But a good piece of pie is really something.

I seem to recall being on the ship by 11:15 on a recent cruise. That was with an early arrival time and elite status. Not sure which one of those got us on early.

I haven't always had a perfect steak on Princess, but what I do say is that the steaks have mostly been very good to good, while the knives have nearly always been really bad. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this.

An upcharge for decent, sharp knives in the dining room might actually get me to shell out for it. Their knives suck.

I'm sure you're correct about it being likely, but we were lucky enough to have seen them twice during cruising season. Once, was on a ship either in May or September. The other time was in August when we were on a DIY trip and did an excursion up the Dalton Highway. We saw the northern lights in the middle of the night at Coldfoot.

Nice!

Very nice!

Don't know about how early you can show up, but I can tell you what our experience has been since the restart when it comes to cabin access on embarkation. Each time, we boarded as soon as they were allowing people to board, and cabins weren't ready yet. Each time, cabins were ready shortly thereafter. I think you should plan your carry-ons based on needing to schlep them around with you for a bit.

It's not labeled as such, but it looks to me like there might be one midship on decks 7, 8 and 9.

I go back to our first cruise, on the Carnival Jubilee for the total eclipse. The eclipse may or may not have impacted prices. Since it was our first cruise, we just paid what we were asked. We paid $1500 pp for a midship, main deck ocean view cabin on a 7 day Mexican Riviera sailing. Our next cruise is on the Discovery Princess, Western Caribbean 7 day sailing. We paid $1480 pp for a club class mini. Even our booking for the April 2024 solar eclipse sailing is still a fantastic value, all things considered.

That was what I thought about the cc lamb chops! I love lamb chops, so I had them both in Crown Grill and mdr. Very good in both.

On the Sky, there are four M6 minis that are club class. They're the front corners of the ship on Lido and Marina. Extra large balconies and really nice cabin layout. Solid metal balcony rails instead of glass.