ebk2795

I agree with you regarding the aggressive confrontation. It can be a dangerous path.

 

However, a dogs butt in the grocery cart, lower level or upper, just seems all wrong to me. In my mind it is no different than a diapered baby or child sitting on the food service counter, at a place such as McDonalds. Worse yet, changing the diaper on an eating table. It just comes down to lack of consideration. Their house, go for it. Public place, no thanks.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who sit their children on the counter in a fast food restaurant while placing their order. It's disgusting, whether the kid is diapered or not. Not too far behind is the parent who takes the kid's shoes off so that said kid can play in the enclosed play area, but then lets said kid run around the dining area of the restaurant barefooted.

Eileen

In the OP's picture, the only seats reserved for star class are the ones with the towels draped over the back. They don't reserve entire rows for star class, only specific seats.

We sailed star class on the Anthem. Our genie would reserve us seats for shows. Some genies would reserve front row seats for their guests, and some would reserve seats halfway back. If there were entire rows reserved for sky class, I didn't notice. Oasis class might be a different in regards to the reserving of entire rows for sky class.

Eileen

My only concern about putting all of my electronics in one of those baskets is that I would have a real problem being separated from my electronics and not being able to keep my eye on them. I wouldn't want someone to pick up my electronics "by mistake" and walk off with them while my attention was diverted at the metal detector. That is why, when I get back on a cruise ship, I don't put my bag through the x-ray machine until I am the next one to go through the metal detector.

Eileen

Chris, from your pictures, it looks like your balcony is angled a bit forward. Do you have good protection from the wind? On our Quantum cruise, our balcony had limited protection from the wind, making it almost unusable on sea days.

Eileen

I'm enjoying your live review. Your pictures are great!

Do you plan to eat in the main dining room for dinner any night?

Eileen

Thankfully this has never happened to us, but what if you put a deposit down on a suite and later find out that the ship is chartered? Will you get your deposit back if RCCL bumps you off of the cruise?

What if it's a large group, but not a full charter, and you feel that your cruise would be negatively impacted by the presence of said group? Will RCCL allow you to switch sailings without losing your deposit?

Eileen

Ann,

I don't know if it's been mentioned on this thread (I may have missed it). A good place for sail away is the bridge wings, right off the solarium on either side. You go far forward in the Solarium (port & starboard), and there is a door to the bridge wing. The only drawback could be that a large group could arrange to meet there, too.

Eileen

We have very rarely used room service on a cruise. When we have ordered room service, it has been a pot of coffee and a plate of pastries in the morning. Having the pot of coffee delivered to the room was a lot easier than trying to carry hot cups of coffee back to the room, especially since they didn't have the proper "to go" cups with lids in the promenade cafe. By proper, I mean cups with the sleeves or the proper insulation so that the cup could be carried without burning your hand.

There would be times when we would be feeling a little tired in the afternoon, after being out in the sun all day. We would order a pot of coffee to have while we were getting ready for dinner that night. I understand charging people for food orders, but to charge someone $7.95 for one pot of coffee, just because that order is being placed outside the designated continental breakfast hours? That is highway robbery!

If they are going to charge for a pot of coffee during the afternoon and evening, they should, as an alternative, supply the proper "to go" cups in the promenade cafe.

On our last couple of cruises, we have packed a couple of carriers from Wawa to make it easier to carry coffee back to the room.

Eileen

Well the strategy here was clearly to degrade and dumb down room service and add upcharges so that when they put BACK normal room service previously offered and widely available for free on other lines, everyone would go woo-hoo and slay leather for $7.95 + upcharge + grat. I'm not buying into that.

It would be no different than what is happening in the supermarkets. I'm sure we have all noticed that the packaging for chips, cookies, and cold cereals, for example, have been getting smaller and smaller. Now, if you notice, some of those products now come in "family sizes" for a much higher price. The size of the "family size" package is the same as what you used to get for the regular product before the size was reduced.

Eileen

I'm sorry, I haven't had time to read the whole thread yet, but I wanted to catch you before you were off of the ship.

 

If you are able to get some of the Cruise Compasses from your sailing to post, I would really appreciate it. I saw that you already posted some menus, so thank you in advance. As soon as I get home from my business trip, I plan on diving deep into this thread and my planning.

Dang, Ann! I see that you are sailing on Anthem on May 20th. We will be getting off on May 20th. We are doing a B2B, May 6 & May 11. You will enjoy Anthem. You have to do the bumper cars.

Eileen

Hi Gayle

Have been ok.

My wife Marilyn (Mari) had a bad fall in Nov. and passed away in Dec

This will be my first cruise with out her. Married 60 years.

My Son and Daughter are going on the cruise with me.

 

Did your daughter finish school? A very lovely young lady.

My Granddaughter gets her master in May.

Dick

I am so sorry to hear about your wife Mari. We enjoyed meeting the both of you, and the parrot, on our Bermuda cruise in September 2011.

Dad will be joining us again on our next B2B cruise, and Gayle will be with us on the Bermuda cruise.

Here is a picture of our group at the informal meet and mingle lunch in 2011.

EIleen

A few months back, I was watching an old rerun of What's My Line. One of the commercials was for Remington Rand calculators being used on the SS United States. Very primitive compared to what they have today!

Eileen

I shot this earlier of the Pilot Boat bring us a Pilot.

I am really starting to notice more and more hand washing stations near the entrances to the eateries.

 

This one is by the entrance to the Solarium Bistro.

 

 

Maybe they are doing this because of the fact that the hand sanitizer really doesn't do any good.

Eileen

I am looking forward to following along. Have a great cruise!

Eieen

Thanks for sharing. The menus look interesting.

Eileen

Throw in choppy waters while the ship is in motion, and the stairs can be downright dangerous for some people. I will opt for the elevator over the stairs if the ship is moving too much for my liking. I don't need to tumble down the stairs and ruin my vacation.

Eileen

Chris,

Thanks for taking the time from your cruise to do a live review.

Pat and I had an aft junior suite on the Explorer. We spent so much time on our balcony on that cruise.

Enjoy!

Eileen

I used to do customer service, so I can really empathize with what the customer service reps on board have to go trough for 8 hours a day.

 

Best complaints I have heard from cruise passengers came up right here on CC! The terms "aerosolized fecal matter" or "hookah herb" should bring back some memories to some! However a search on those terms didn't seem to turn up the original post.

 

I know this isn't cruise related, but this thread reminds me of an old Fawlty Towers episode where an older lady is complaining that she paid for a room with an ocean view. The hotel manager points her to the window and says "It's over there between the land and the sky".

Fawlty Towers - one of my favorite shows. On one cruise, we went to a TV tunes trivia. Instead of playing the tunes on a cd, the staff member running the trivia played the tunes on the piano. The last tune he played was the Fawlty Towers theme. Before he played, he pretty much said that most of us probably wouldn't know it. Our team was the only one who guessed correctly, and we won!.

Eileen

I love this picture! It would make a killer jigsaw puzzle!

Eileen

Raina,

I'm loving your review. Your pictures are amazing!

Eileen

Dessert: The Icon Candy Bar from the American Icon Grill.

Eileen

I would have sat down anyway.

We sailed 12 nights on Quantum in April 2015 with dynamic dining. We didn't plan on seeing any shows, except for Mama Mia (an afternoon showing). Therefore, when we made our dining reservations, we did not need to coordinate dining and show times.

We did a lot of research on the dining venues on the Quantum after we booked. We decided which restaurants we wanted to vist, and we went ahead and booked them. We left some nights open because we wanted to eat dinner in the Windjammer a few times. There were some venues we preferred over others, but overall, we had no complaints.

The three of us were always seated at a table for four. Because of that, we did miss out on the experience of meeting new people at dinner. Did it bother me? No. We found other ways to meet new people.

We were on the 3-night Anthem sailing this past March, and we had Dynamic Dining Classic. When we received our restaurant rotation, The Grande was included. Since we had no intention of bringing "dressy" clothes, we decided to skip the dining rooms. We ate in the Windjammer and Solarium Bistro.

We are sailing on the Anthem in May 2017, and I was looking forward to the varied menus in each restaurant. I'm sorry to see dynamic dining go.

Eileen

p.s. now that the menus will be the same in the four restaurants, does this mean that savory bites will now be in the bread basket? :)

Not true at all. I had and was a visitor on ships in the

early and late 90s.

Check out this article. Restrictions on visitors on some of the cruise lines did begin as a result of the Achille Lauro hijacking.

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-23/travel/tr-5949_1_cruise-ship-security

Eileen

It was long before 09/11 that they began to prohibit visitors on cruise ships. The prohibiting of visitors began after the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985.

Eileen