Denny01

2 hours ago, marazul said:

You are wrong. In current usage (the last few centuries) Alhambra is feminine. But you had your say. 

 

Thank you. 

33 minutes ago, marazul said:

"La" Alhambra, not "El."

You are wrong in saying ‘not El’, it has and is referred as El and Al And even La in various documents and sites. The Al - The - is already part of the name The Red One in Arabic: Al Ham-ra. 
 

we can play this game all day. 
 

den

In Malaga, did the tour to El Alhambra Granada tour and it was fantastic. Beautiful drive to Granada and outstanding tour through El Alhambra which is part Islamic design with Catholic redesign. One of our better ship tours. Not crowded bus and tours were broken into smallish groups. 

Den

1 hour ago, PKB said:

In light of these experiences by the OP, what is the benefit of reporting symptoms to ship personnel instead of doing self tests and self quarantine if positive?

39 minutes ago, canderson said:

Pro-rata refund of the cruise fare for the days spent in quarantine. 

And properly reporting it limits you exposing crew that enter our SR either to clean, and bring in your food. They need to know for sure. 

Den

And why would the ship limit a passenger to how many specialty reservations they make? They want to fill to capacity and its up to the passengers to get what they want. Kind of saying you cant book more than one popular tour because…..

The ship obviously ‘limits’ how many can make reservations at set times. Theoretically they can limit someone but I’ve never seen, heard, read, experienced, etc, the ship not allowing anyone to book additional.

There are Many passengers who enjoy the specialty restaurants over and over, and a number of posters who have stated they Only dine at those. Myself? We book one per cruise, usually. 

First come, first booked. 

One time, I went to book the Eden which was pretty limited, and they offered me a discount to book the last night, which is usually lower use because so many are packing and getting ready to go off. We were on a B2B and jumped on it. 

Den

And as stated prior, just go into the website and cancel the tour and immediately rebook. Got my reimbursement within a day or so. 

I booked 4 and didnt realize I’d not used my available OBC doing it on line. So I went back, cancelled all 4 and rebooked using my OBC that I had.

All done well prior to the cruise. Worked just fine. 

Den

I’m looking forward to getting on board and enjoying the lobster roll. Its still fun to eat……even if its warm water ‘longusta’ which I agree isnt as firm or as tasty as the classic cold water lobster with tasty claws, but I’ll take them anyway. 

Den

36 minutes ago, PKB said:

In light of these experiences by the OP, what is the benefit of reporting symptoms to ship personnel instead of doing self tests and self quarantine if positive?

OP, so sorry you and your husband contracted COVID. What a hassle and also ill! 

@PKB, not sure what situations the OP is reporting that would be that different from self-quarantining. And trying to do it that way would probably not work because you’d need to tell your room steward Not to come in and so on, and that would flag you.

Also, the suggestion that the OP needs to be more proactive and calling room service and contacting the help desk and so on is right. Need to bug them if you arent getting proper responses. Just as we’d do under normal situations. 

And the OP will find out once they talk with the right ship personnel that they will be reimbursed for the time they are in quarantine, which you would miss if you didnt report it. 

Its good to see another report that those that tested positive remained in their own SR, which was the reason some were posting theyd not report being contagious. 

Den

The OP has the handle on this, and although its good to respond with rational inputs of why just not returning to the ship is a Very Bad idea, I think the few who suggested it would never do it themselves…..I would hope. 

Den

4 minutes ago, RichYak said:

But is she laughing with you or at you 😂

Neither….she Isnt Laughing!

Den

Great response @MarinerAlex of Not taking the ‘advice’ of just not going back on board at the port you’d have to fly home from. 

I tried to come up with the right wording to describe such suggestions but I’ll leave it there because most of the ‘words’ would get me banned!! 

Just Wow. 

Den 

1 minute ago, zitsky said:

Oh no!  Not another thread from Denny???  😭

 

Well call the doctor because I’ll be laughing too hard and I’ll pull a muscle.  🙂🥸🙂

I just cant control myself!! 

You just gave me an idea! My wife has been having back pains and Ive been pressing on various spots, trying to help……I wonder if the pain is because I’m soooooo funny and she laughs and pulls a muscle!?!?

…..well, maybe Not considering she doesnt spend any time ‘laughing’ but instead is giving me that very cold roll of the eyes….Oh well, just an idea.

den

Ok, I’ll give it a go……

First, making sexist or racist post/comment/joke doesnt mean the person who did such Is a sexist/racist, it is an observation about the post or whatever. 

Second, there was No reason to even mention that some ‘woman’ made an error in controlling their craft and that a ‘guy’ had to take over, except to appear they were bothered by someone posting how a woman was doing something different from what they expect, and they had to point out ‘women’ made mistakes and in their post, a ‘man’ fixed it……that to me is a sexist post.

And by the way, being impressed they was a woman at the helm of a small boat 20+ years into the 21Cent is a bet odd too, but what the heck. 

I have 3 very accomplished daughters, a wife with outstanding abilities, and sisters who are a cut above….but I see their accomplishments as what individuals can do, but at the same time well aware of how we have changed since ‘The Good Old Days’.

den

5 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

You can say all you want if/when a female captain, tender pilot, does something well, and that’s o.k. Someone else points out something not so well, and that’s sexist? What’s the difference?

If I have to explain it, I’m afraid a sexist wouldn’t understand…..but I’m sure no one here is one. 

Den

Just love judging how judgmental posters are about how judgmental others are judging what someone wears to dinner…….I’ll work on how to get the phrase ‘judge’ into one sentence more times later….edit: got one more in!!

and 14pages and 325+ posts…..wow, love it!!

den

18 minutes ago, JCruise85 said:

Man, I'd love to see the fast food places they go to.

Drive through seared duck, salmon tartare and veal sounds like an experience.

This was my response:

“Yeah, just got back from the fast food joint down the street….enjoyed the escargot with fresh salad and lamb entree followed by an order of tiramisu …..you know, all the normal dishes I get at any of the fast food ‘restaurants’.”

I then suggested using the words ‘restaurant’ and ‘fast-food’ together didnt seem to work too well.

Would Love to visit their hometown. But dont know if I want to pay $50 each at a drive through….

den 

1 hour ago, colliercruiser said:

Good question.  My guess is that this is an “honor system” transition to dropping testing requirements altogether.

 

When we checked in for our October 3 sailing which only required one of these “non-proctored” tests, I showed the picture of the results to the staff person.  She said “where is the date?”, so I showed her the date stamp on the iPhone picture.  She was good with that… but, of course, that is only the date the picture was taken and not necessarily the date of the test. 🙄

I just finished slogging through threads on ‘how do I sneak booze onboard?’, ‘I insist on wearing shorts, t-shirt and ballcap into dinner’, ‘Can I order a premium drink for my wife and use my premium card and not get one for her? , so I just got to this post about the ‘Honor System’….I agree, but find it interesting this is a phrase that All of us CruiseCritic posters will of course follow….yeah. 

Den

In our experience, they allowed a family group (ours was 4 cabins, not 10+!), to enter at the same time, but we all went to our appropriate check-in Line and then met after going through that. 

All done very quickly, so no reason for 10+ cabin full of non-Suites to go through the Suite line. 

But again, you can all go into the terminal at the same time, just not the special lines set for Suites and so on. 

Den

To emphasize the point, the food on Celebrity ships are pretty much the same, so Solstice will have the same quality and choices as Eclipse, and postings about the quality of food is Very subjective.

I got a kick out of one post reminding all of us that Celebrity MDRs are the same as our local fast-food places…right. So along with being very subjective, you have those posting just to get reactions, or to show their superiority to us commoners. 

We cruised Solstice this last July and loved her. Good shape, excellent dining (for us), outstanding service and Alaska is fantastic. 

Den

When AI is available, we take it and as @LB_NJ posted, we just pay if we upgrade a drink. Heck, a few times, I ordered a more premium and the bartender waved off my card. 

Den

Might work better checking with a TA, but to answer a few:

1. Concierge provides a few benefits such as better robe, snacks and a few other things. Ive done it if its a bit more, but that is too subjective. 

2. Not familiar with NCL, but yes, Cruise Only is that….no additions of covered gratuities, WiFi, drinks. Personally if you wife likes premium drinks, going AI and adding Premium is probably a good idea.

3.BLU is the same as the MDRs, not extra cost. Only the specialty restaurants on Celebrity are extra. The 4 MDRs on Beyond, BLU and Lumanae are all included. 

Enjoy. Den

On 10/13/2022 at 7:49 AM, Tulsacoker said:

We had a female pilot (trainee) on a lifeboat tender on our Alaskan port stop...on the tender back she slammed into Quantum pretty hard and and the guy had to take over to dock... just saying 😉 

 

Just saying What??? So much for none of this is sexist. 

Den

Its always interesting reading the reason someone just cant wear pants for a few Hrs once or twice during a cruise, but the one saying their ‘thighs’ are too big and pants are uncomfortable is a bit new. The Big Thigh Guy can wear a nice pair of shorts that go to their knees - doesnt that cover Big Thighs??

My pants and shorts all pretty much have the same ‘space’ for my thighs, so if that guy with Big Thighs who cant wear pants but can wear shorts to their knees, I dont think I understand…. except its just another excuse.

At least that gets points for being a bit ‘unique’…..

And So It Goes.

den

I can’t believe no one has suggested the Obvious way of saving on drinks with no package:

Just bring a long straw. Saunter up to the bar next to someone who has a drink you’d like and stick it in and sip away. Don’t be too noisy about it and be quick….it works great!

If you get caught, just look very innocent and go…Oh Sorry I thought this was my mates’s drink!! or some such stupid excuse. You’ve got to go to differnt bars because the bartenders seem to catch onto this…or they just recognize me!

den

35 minutes ago, SailingHigher said:

….Our big problem was the cruise ship induced crowds in each port. We thought "shoulder season" would be different, but that wasn't the case in late September 2022. It was no fun trying to squeeze through so many crowded streets. When four ships with 2,000+ passengers arrive at once, what's the onshore experience likely to be? We love traveling and we love the sea, but if we keep cruising, it's only small ships from here forward for us. 

I know some of the small ships go to less crowded ports, but many of the port calls, no matter the size of ship, have many larger ships and crowds ashore.

Life with so many finding and loving cruising. And of course the crowds of non-cruising tourists.

Den