stevec999

We just did it recently. Had done the $100 FCD  three years ago. We wanted to book a 28 day and they just had us pay what the FCD would have been for a cruise that length.

Ginger capsules work great for people I know that have motion sickness issues.

On 2/12/2019 at 8:29 PM, kazu said:

 

Ditto Ruth.

 

We did one and NEVER again.  The only specialty restaurant I liked was Jacques Ibut good luck getting a second reservation).

 

The specialty dinners they did (similar to a Cellar Master but different format) was not impresisive IMO. Some stuff was over cooked and some way undercooked and NOT cheap.  

 

I think it is all hype and if some want to swallow it, well and good.  I can say honestly that the crew on the Prinsendam could teach this crew a few things 😉 

 

I never figured out what our butler was for.  He did bring me hot water to make honey lemon water when I got the cruise crud on that ship but that could have been done on the LIdo on a HAL ship easily 😉 

We have one cruise on HAL (Zuiderdam)and one on Oceania(Riviera) and based on my experience I would pick Oceania every time. Service was better, food was better and ship was nicer.

We enjoyed our HAL cruise and have a Hawaii / French Polynesia  on HAL(Ossterdam) booked for next year.  

You might look at Oceania. Similar to HAL as far as being low key. I prefer their larger ships (Marina,Riviera-- 1250 pas).

Service is great and food is a step (or two) up. Entertainment is basic. Speciality restaurants are included in cost. Ships are very classy with lots of art on display. Very high staff to passenger ratio.

We took our first Oceania last January and were more pleased than we ever expected. The service was outstanding and the food was great. Even the buffet was excellent.

We have never sailed with a friendlier group of people. We spent almost all of our evenings in conversation with people we met. Over all a very well traveled group with lots of stories to tell. Sadly we are not so well traveled and had little to share:D.

It is more expensive but not vastly so. Our standard balcony on the Riviera was maybe 15% more than concierge on Celebrity.

We like Celebrity and will be sailing them but if funds allow we will be on Oceania.

Got the tumbler last month. This is our favorite gift so far. They are vacuum insulated and will keep ice for a day. They came in handy on the cruise. Kept our drinks nice and cold.

We liked the tops better than the styles we have on the tumblers we use at home.

We have done many Carnival. Also cruised HAL and Oceania (our favorite).

So compared to Carnival.

Buffet food about the same. Buffet layout on S class far better than any class of Carnival we have been on.

Main dinning room food a bit better on Celebrity.

Entertainment better on Celebrity.

Service similar which is to say good.

Celebrity has fewer announcements, photographers are less intrusive.

Ships are quiter, decor is more classic.

Iin the end after many Carnival cruises we will be booking Celebrity most of the time.

We have always enjoyed our time on Carnival. We started when our daughter was younger and the kids programs were great.

We do not drink (or party) and always find plenty to do and plenty of places to relax.

Our favourite cruise lines in order are Oceania, Celebrity and then Carnival. But we are getting old :).

That said our next cruise is with Carnival (Splendor) and we leave this Sunday :D

If you enjoyed Carnival take another Carnival. We sailed Carnival until we ran out of new itinerarys to try. We have since tried other lines and found we like a couple others better. Of course we are 20 years older than when we started cruising and what we want out of a cruise has changed. We will never be on one of the monster ships. Smaller and more intimate is more our style now. We prefer Oceania then Celebrity. Of course our next cruise is on the Splendor. Carnival is great for a cheap get away for us.

We have done many Carnival and one on Celebrity (Equinox). We liked the Equinox, it felt more open than any of the Carnival ships. The Equinox décor was subdued compared to the Carnival ships.

Food is better than Carnival but not by a huge margin, enough to notice. Service is similar but we have always had good service on Carnival. Entertainment is better on the Equinox. The buffet layout is much nicer than any of the Carnival ships. Celebrity is quieter.

For us Celebrity wins out and moves above Carnival to our second favourite line (Oceania is first). We have a Carnival booked for November and we will be back on the Equinox next February.

Give Celebrity a try, even if it doesn't turn out to be your favourite it will be enjoyable.

We were on a cruise during the hurricane last October. In our case they just reversed the order of the ports.

They will reverse, rearrange, skip or change ports. No way to tell what will happen until it does. They cannot just pick another port and show up. Ships are scheduled into ports very far in advance. It is possible there will be no alternative ports available and you could end up with a lot of sea days.

While it is not illegal it is deceptive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_beef

Mislabelling

Hyogo prefecture, where authentic Kobe beef is produced

The proliferation of beef outside Japan marketed as Kobe beef is an issue for Kobe beef farmers. Due to a lack of legal recognition of the Kobe beef trademark in the United States, it is possible to sell meat that is incorrectly labeled as Kobe beef.[22][23] The Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association planned to publish pamphlets about Kobe beef in foreign languages.[24]

Japan has a Wagyu Beef Export Promotion Committee.[6]

We did the 11 night partial panama canal cruise in January 2016. It its a good itinerary and we enjoyed the cruise.

All comments are relative to our particular cruise on the Zuiderdam.

Service was good but no better than Carnival.

Food was very similar in quality.

HAL offers full breakfast from room service even on Debarkation day. We enjoyed this a lot.

Entertainment was similar.

Steak House on Carnival was better than the HAL equivalent.

HAL ship felt very closed in, a touch claustrophobic in areas. Décor was nice with lots of art work.

On our cruise I was 59 and defiantly among the younger cruisers on the ship. I have no doubt the age range changes from cruise to cruise. But there were a lot of walkers and scooters which at time made it difficult to get around the ship.

HAL had a much better salad station at the buffet.

AS far as the ship closing up at 9PM things did slow down and get pretty quiet. We found that the lounge that karaoke was in stayed pretty lively until midnight.

We had a good cruise and enjoyed the itinerary. For us HAL is not a good fit so not sure we will ever sail with HAL again. But the right price and itinerary you never know.

If I am on a cruise and there is something I perceive that will make my cruise better I will ask. If it is supplied then great, if not I continue on with out disappointment. My last (first) cruise on Celebrity was in CC. My next is in Aqua (Equinox) so I should have a foot stool.

I find it funny that things like " asking for something you don't deserve" are said. Kind of like telling someone to go be poor some place else.

If I am in CC and some one in a standard veranda gets a foot stool it will in no way impact my enjoyment of the cruise.

I have been on 4 different lines in the last 1.5 years, twice on Carnival. The worst maintained ship was not Carnival it was HAL Zuiderdam. Lots of rust and the hull needed repainted badly. Oddly enough we still had a great cruise. Was on the Celebrity Equinox last month and there was a fair amount of rust on our balcony. Had a great cruise.

If you travel outside of the U.S. regularly you might want to look at T-mobile. Just make sure you have good coverage where you live. With T-Mobile you get unlimited data (they do limit the speed), unlimited texts and calls are $0.20 a minute. In > 140 countries which includes most all of the Caribbean and Central America. In Mexico your phone works just like at home with LTE data and calls to U.S. at no charge.

Sadly you will still have to pay to use it on the ship.

The lines we have sailed in order of preference .

1. Oceania

2. Celebrity

3. Carnival

4. HAL

Oceania is about the food. None of the other lines come even close. It does come at a cost. Expect to spend at least 2x. Quiet, less entertainment than others. Very well traveled guests. Most evenings spent in conversation with other passengers.

Celebrity- Food a step above Carnival and HAL. Quieter than Carnival but not as quiet as HAL. Entertainment similar . Probably be our fall back when we don't want to spend the price for O.

HAL- food similar to Carnival. Very nice room service menu, you can order a hot breakfast even on Debarkation day. Best salad bar in the buffet. To quiet, crowd a lot older than other lines. Lots of interesting itineraries so I am guessing we will sail them again.

We were in 7006 on the Riviera last January. Our travel agent suggested the cabin because of the large balcony. We had two chairs and a small table along with two lounge chairs. These are listed as B3s.

We really enjoyed the large balcony and wouldn't hesitate to book again. The motion of the ship does not bother us but I am sure you will feel it more in the forward cabins when compared to midship.

I actually like Carnival but I would never go on a 3-4 days cruise with them. If a steward gave you the choice of only morning or evening service he was going against the rules. There is extensive discussion of this on the Carnival boards. Our last Carnival the steward had a card that you could mark morning, evening or both. We selected booth and he complied with out complaint.

Also the center pool on Carnival is always very noisy, always has been. The aft pool is much quieter. There are also many quiet places on the ship if you look. Most of the ships have an adult only Serenity area that is very nice. As far as food, I can't compare to Celebrity because my first Celebrity cruise isn't for a couple more weeks. Guys burgers is good (not the best at sea for me), blue iguana is also very good. Best burgers by the way were on Oceania.

As far as annoying passengers the worst for me has been on HAL, there was a group of ladies (70 ish) that were very drunk and very loud every night. Believe me if your loud on HAL you really stand out.

That said looking forward to my cruise on the Equinox next month :D.

We are booking marina tomorrow. Any recommendations on cabins or decks. Will book either veranda or concierge.

 

 

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Check out the B3 veranda cabins. They have a very large balcony. We had on one the Riviera last January and it was great.,

We took out first cruise on Oceania earlier this year and enjoyed it very much(Riviera). Following our TAs advise we booked a B3 and really enjoyed the large veranda.

We are looking to book on the Sirena in a B1,B2 cabin. I can see the cabins on the Sirena are smaller but can't really visualize the difference in size. Also the bathrooms look a lot smaller. I am not a small person and wondered how small the bathrooms really are.

I would appreciate thoughts from people who have sailed both ships.

We have been on one HAL, one Oceania and a lot of Carnival cruises. We booked HAL last year because the timing and the itinerary were just what we were looking for. It was a partial Panama canal on the Zuiderdam. Food was mostly okay with some good and some not so good. The premium restaurants were not bad. Service was good, crew was friendly and helpful.

HAL is really a lot like Carnival when it comes to food, service and entertainment. HAL is much quieter and the décor is much more reserved. We enjoyed the HAL trip but not really inclined to go back but won't rule it out if an itinerary pops up that intrigues us.

We were on the Riviera last January. The service was excellent, the food was beyond good and the entertainment was so-so. We thought the ship was beautiful. The bed was the most comfortable we had ever slept in. Overall it was an outstanding experience. It also seemed to be the friendliest group of passengers.

If we didn't already have cruises booked on Celebrity and Princess I am sure our next trip would be on Oceania. At this point is looks like we won't be back on Oceania until fall of 2018 for a trip to Cuba.

We have had flight times changed before. Last time on a return flight, they put us on a 6:30AM flight. We weren't due to be off the ship until 8am :). We just called AA and said that doesn't work for us and they gladly searched for a flight that better fit our needs.

Once we had booked a 5:30AM flight to save money, they changed us to an 8AM. I was glad to have a couple extra hours of sleep.

Or flying First Class. It's so nice not having to worry about those darn fees and being able to take 2 bags each, zipping through the security line, getting your bags out of the carousel first, free food, wider seats, more leg room, etc. It pays to compare it and see if it's worth it to you to fly that way instead.

Bags can also weigh 70 pounds instead of 50 (at least on American)

We were on the Riviera last January. Went to to several shows in the main lounge and found them to be from okay to good. We found it a pleasant way to spend some of our evening.

After the show we generally would go up to Karaoke, which was well attended on our cruise. The lounge wasn't packed but was busy.

It was our first time on Oceania and we very much enjoyed it. I can see many more cruises on Oceania in our future.