kelleherdl

It’s becoming more and more clear that what the VP for Entertainment (or whatever he is at EJ) told us about the early days during the inaugural season. He said that booking entertainment for the first season was a significant challenge as the entertainers who are booked for cruises are generally committed a year or more in advance. Remember the delays in delivering EJI? He said we would see marked improvement as the year got on as they were now getting that great talent. I hope EJ II already has their entertainment booked for her inaugural season. We have two cruises booked. 😀

You may not even have to miss the lobster roll at One Pool Grill. They often will have the lobster roll available there. I would ask upstairs in the morning at breakfast if they will have lobster rolls at the grill for lunch.

Just use you passport First Name and Passport Last name. When your passport is scanned at boarding your full passport name will be put on the manifest for the cruise. What you put in the booking will be overwritten. Your cruise card will be printed with the booking name. It will not be a problem.

I distinctly recall that the bottle used to fill the pitcher at the pancake/waffle station had a Canadian flag on it when I sailed. I was always under the impression that the flag is only put on bottles of real maple syrup. another reason to only book the OT-1’s 😀

I’ve had the steak multiple times at Sakura. Excellent.

Advance reservations, two per cabin (all classes), can indeed be booked in advance through your TA or by calling EJ directly.

The dining reservations desk is conveniently located at the top of the stairs in the atrium. You can of course use the app or call, but you will pass the podium multiple times a day. In the evening for walkups go to the individual restaurant. We never had a problem dining early.

Our last Seashore out of Port Canaveral (last week) did ask for our health questionnaires.

When I spoke to Franck one evening at a reception he assured me that their oysters were from Brittany. So they were in fact only serving French oysters. We sailed both the Iceland/Canada crossing and in the Caribbean, same oysters. They were fabulous. EJ is MSC, they know how to manage a supply chain. Well, most of the time. 😏

I think the top-top brass were on the cruise just prior to the 2-night. That said there were a lot of senior officer families on board over the holiday as I understand.

Never drink Jack Daniels myself, but it comes in handy for Christmas Day, when my brother is over. 😀

We’re on that inaugural World America sailing 4/12/25. I hope we get treated a little more thoughtfully than the Explora 1 naming in New York.

Why is it a NO-NO? I’m okay to know that there is an option to spread additional tips crew-wide if that is your preference, but why should I be restricted from individual host thank you’s. Particularly since the ‘gratuities’ or ‘hotel service charge’ , which is the crew-wide distribution is already included.

The existing parking garage at Terminal 10 is still open. Almost all of the surface parking to the east side is torn up. Passenger parking has been extended to what used to be employee surface parking on the west side of the garage. When I was there two weeks ago there appeared to still be available parking, just a longer walk to the terminal.

If you are sailing in Yacht Club you can certainly arrange it through your Butler or the Concierge. For us it has been gratis every time. Just recently on Seashore they even used decorations that are more ‘service friendly’ using reusable lighting instead of things like confetti.

EJ and MSC Yacht Club are all over Cruise Critic. Your humility in wondering what the ‘many reasons’ might be rivals Mark Twain 😀. Senior Management definitely knows who is on board. I’m willing to bet they are even aware who our TAs are. (Just kidding)

Be warned that parking at Port Canaveral Terminal 10 is markedly degraded over the last two months with construction of a new second garage. The construction may take as long as 18 months. In a few weeks it may be okay as Terminal 10 will return to only two ships. In either case bag drop has shifted and even the crosswalks on the street out front have been shifted. MSC needs to consider building its own dedicated terminal at Port Canaveral. Hopefully after Port Miami terminal is open and Galveston is done, PC will get one.

I checked Cruise Mapper. Disney Fantasy overnighted in Port Canaveral. Yes, all the other scheduled cruise ship departures happened last night, but MSC is not the only cruise line to think safety and comfort of passengers first.

No. It’s a soaking pool.

The Helios Pool was my preferred sunning spot. With the pool design issues it’s very quiet up there. Besides Daryl runs the best bar on the ship IMO.

It really can’t be that quick. It may take awhile for even a seasoned Producer to rework the venue schedules, entertainer bookings (sorry, I might use ‘host’, but not ‘artiste’) and administrative issues like promotional blurbs. 😀

Tough to beat. Maybe TA’s can score better discounted fares for themselves, but ~ $450 p/p/d for entry level suites is outstanding. I looked at comps on Seabourn for their Black Friday deals, and EJ beats them majorly. Having done two journeys so far, the OT-1’s are fine for us. Even without the ‘butler’ attention of MSC Yacht Club or EJ Residence level we found the ‘hosts’ on EJ to be great. We did book the San Juan to San Juan 14-day in February 2025 on Explora II. EJ only did similar cruises on Explora I out of Barbados. For us Florida cruisers San Juan is an ideal departure port.

Terminal 10 at Port Canaveral is all messed up right now for luggage drop off. The front surface parking lot is under construction for an additional parking garage. Baggage drop has been moved to the front lower level of the main terminal building. Even the crosswalk at the entry drive has been moved for the construction. You will need to park first and bring your luggage to the drop area. Make sure you look for the Yacht Club drop area. Ask the porters to be sure. This may be the time to use off-site parking even though I hate that idea. The White Tent is still at the bottom of the escalator into the terminal.

The EJ booking website clearly shows which cruises are included in the Exclusive Savings Event (at least the US site does). Each search listing shows the discounted fare with the discount %, where applicable. The % discounts apply to all suite categories from OT-1 and up.

No. We got the Extended Journey discount and the 25% FCC, which came to our final price. Our ‘new’ cost was before the Black Friday Sale. I doubt we would have gotten both.