leaveitallbehind

Agree completely. But it seems as though decorating doors is mainly unique to the cruise industry and as previously mentioned I just wonder the reasoning for that. I have traveled extensively on business and have vacationed at resorts and AI's in my past and have not seen that elsewhere. I just find it an interesting practice and wonder what motivates it on cruise ships.

Not specific to NCL, but most elevator banks (and stairways) are separated by a hallway from the staterooms. The rooms are generally well insulated and the "ding" in most cases is very quiet. The primary advantage of stateroom locations near the elevator banks is convenience in using them without a long walk to get around the ship. My bigger concerns would not be so much with elevator noise, but with disrespectful passengers - mainly children - running around the hallways and the elevator banks. But that also is unpredictable and can occur anywhere on the ship. We like elevator locations and frequently choose them for their convenience and have never had an issue with that.

That would be cruise line dependent and in some cases may be true. And it is also true that the ingredients are of a higher quality. But in our experience, most of the specialty restaurants have their own kitchen (or maybe one shared by two) as they are frequently on different decks and locations away from the MDR. The preparations are unique and different as a result. But nonetheless, if there are multiple specialty restaurants on board a given ship (Italian, steakhouse, sushi, French, etc.) that in of itself offers a fairly wide variety of menus and food type options that would, along with the MDR, provide more selection options on a long voyage. There are also world cruises that will tailor certain menus based on the regions and ingredient offerings that they encounter during the voyage that will also provide additional variety. But certainly - just was with your own in home preparations and normal dining out options - there would be on board limitations and if this would be an issue, then perhaps that type of voyage would not be the right choice for you. Especially as most true world cruises are considerably longer than the two months you suggest - that would be more likely just one segment of the cruise.

I meant that I was curious how the source she gets them from has them shipped to them. But you say the pharmacy makes them? Hope you find a solution.

Is this something that your doctor or pharmacist could assist with - or whomever they are purchased through? Perhaps they know of different methods of transport that would work. I would be curious how it is shipped to them.

Don't disagree, but over the years I have also seen many specific - and elaborate - birthday announcements, anniversary cruise, family cruise themes, honeymoon decoration, etc., on RCCL that were definitely not young children themed. More so years ago than recently, but still there nonetheless. It's just an interesting phenomenon to me that seems mostly unique to cruising.

While I agree it is intentional, it also likely that the MDR has by default become the lower quality offering resulting from the inflationary issues and cost control methods at managing the lower base fare, which makes the upsell to the specialty restaurants more palatable. (No pun intended).

On some cruise lines one of the biggest complaints is constant activities announcements! They must have been asleep or just not paying attention to anything. To add to your information sources is the stateroom TV, typically with a scrolling agenda of events on one channel and another dedicated to ship activities hosted by the cruise director and staff.

Good point and thanks for mentioning it. I was only referring to our itinerary in 2019.

I'm with you - no offence to those who do so but its just not for us. Do those who do so also decorate their hotel doors at land based resorts? Not being snarky - genuinely curious. But in all sincerity, to each their own. We used to cruise with a couple that always did it but we never understood why - other than they just liked to do it.

Other than with Maui, which was a tender port, there were no issues at all with getting off the ship or with finding transportation in our experience. With that tender port there was somewhat of a delay with the initial off loading as the tenders were sequenced at two ship board departure stations, which took some time for each tender cycle. It is no more difficult or time consuming than with any other typical itinerary port of call.

GTY's can be a good value and not always with the result of the "worst staterooms on the ship" being assigned. (Of course that is somewhat dependent on category selected). We have done it frequently when the GTY fare was attractive enough and have not had any issues. In fact we have had a couple of instances when we were assigned an upgraded category. Rare, but it can happen. Our experience has been that they assign the staterooms anywhere from 3-4 weeks prior to the sailing date up to 5 days prior. (In theory that can go to day of, but not in our experience). Also, as mentioned previously, if you are not happy with your assignment, you can also request a change to a different location based on remaining availability within the assigned category. It certainly is a personal decision, but if the fare is attractive, the risks IMO are minimal.

Glad this worked out favorably for you. BTW, with Celebrity, if for some reason you are not happy with the current C2 assignment, you can ask to have it moved to a different available C2 location if you want. Your TA can assist with that if you used one. If not, Celebrity can assist directly.

It would appear that any discrepancy is with the information source that provided you with stateroom 1263 as a "C3". Agree with @Essiesmom that there are no C3 Concierge category staterooms on Eclipse. GTY staterooms in the Concierge category are listed as XC when booked, and the three available sub-categories are C2, C1, and SC in ascending fare order based on location. The only difference between a C2 and a C1 is deck location, with C1 being the higher fare of the two - otherwise they are the same stateroom. An SC is an aft facing location in that class, and as such carries the highest fare. Typically the GTY will result in a C2 or C1 assignment, as SC's are very popular and typically are booked full independently. C2's typically are assigned first. So in your case you received a deck 10 C2 aft location behind the "hump", which is a good location not far from the main elevator banks. C1's typically are "hump" and mid-ship locations.

Yes, in this case where it was indicated when someone was seeking available excursions for their cruise. But, as a rule, the cruise lines do not "announce" large group bookings when you are looking at specific itineraries for a cruise you are interested in. Certain large groups and organizations will advertise for their membership with itineraries they are booking. You can also google different organizations, etc., who may be sponsoring a group, or have group bookings planned, for different itineraries to compare those schedules to itineraries you are looking at. But in general you don't normally have a way of knowing what groups are on board in advance of your sailing.

Agree - that would provide a one for one comparison and value measure. I think I was saying that there have been others who have (at least to my interpretation) suggested that when you consider all things included with the premium line v all the extra money spent for specialty restaurants, beverages, excursions, an in some cases airfare, that the premium lines compare favorably to the mass market lines. Perhaps they do in value, but I'm not sure they do in total cost. (Daily value or otherwise). But to be fair I have not put together a spreadsheet comparison, so this is just my presumptive opinion.

Others, however, have made comparisons in a similar manner to the more premium/luxury lines such as those you reference. I'm not sure those comparisons would be apples to apples, however, as they provide a different cruising experience.

I find it interesting when people who have no direct experience on a given subject also are the experts on that subject to support a distorted view that they have on that subject. Happens all too frequently.... Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

It's not terribly uncommon for large group bookings of several hundred in the group (corporations, organizations, clubs, churches, etc.) to have as part of their group package certain excursions included. When this occurs, those excursions will show as closed as the group involved has secured the full capacity of the excursion. (It also is not uncommon for any excursion to book full, either with early planner bookings or on board, which would close them to remaining passengers). The other issue with groups is if large enough, they tend to dominate certain venues on board which can make it harder for individuals to enjoy those venues as well. Some are closed at certain times intentionally for a given groups' function. And as mentioned by @CruiserBruce full ship charters are closed to general passenger bookings, so you would not be able to book that itinerary in the first place. And regarding the vaccine situation which occurred during the restart, many cruise lines had those restrictions and exceptions in place - most of which were driven by port of call regulations at the time.

"Decline" of course is subjective. And as pointed out, cost control measures (and other factors) have affected the menu offerings and selection as well. But I think it is more of a shift in food quality v a decline that has been building over the years since the introduction of the specialty restaurants. When we first started cruising 31 years ago, aside from the buffet and some pizza and other snack-type offerings, the MDR was the only restaurant on board. As such, the food quality, course offerings, and menu variety were, IMO, of very good quality. As the specialty restaurants were introduced the options (at least early on with RCCL) were Italian-based and steakhouse. As they grew in popularity - as well as in level of surcharge - these venues became the more premium level of food offerings, and the MDR began trimming its options and menu variety and became more "basic" in what was offered. Over time, the addition of more specialty restaurants coupled with the cost control constraints and other factors has resulted in what I am calling the shift in quality whereby the specialty restaurants, by being able to offset the higher quality food costs with their upcharges, have become the higher quality venues v what I see now as the more basic, smaller portions, less higher end variety resulting in the MDR as the base fare inclusive food venue. This shift, at least in our taste and current preference, has resulted in our primary choice in dining now to be the specialty restaurants v the MDR, which - given the evolution of this over the years - is probably exactly what the cruise lines wanted.

In general, the up and down motion of the ship as it moves forward in the water will be felt most significantly in the forward part of the ship, and most pronounced on the higher decks. The rolling, or side to side motion, which is caused by the waves coming across the side of the ship as it moves forward will be felt the same anywhere on the ship, but also most pronounced on the higher decks. This motion, however, is the one somewhat mitigated by the ships' stabilizers. Other than with a few areas around the world where certain sea conditions consistently prevail, predicting the wave intensity for any given itinerary is next to impossible as sea conditions can change daily and are affected by different weather patterns. The area you reference tends to have more rain and windy conditions between December and February, so in general it may be more likely to have heavier sea conditions then. But again, that is very difficult to predict accurately far in advance.

As you quoted my comments specifically, I want to clarify. Although not stated specifically, my implication with having the ship "cleared" was referring to immigration protocol as the OP is describing a US based closed loop itinerary, with which this would apply. But as a cruise line requirement, since each cruise is a sperate folio, that folio would also need to be closed with each cruise, so having the ship "cleared' would be a necessary component of that. And as I was referring to the OP's question only, I did not qualify other country's procedures as a result. The method by which this is accomplished as I described is a cruise line procedure that often occurs, which I also indicated may vary by cruise line. I never said this was an "always" procedure.

Not sure what you are seeing but @CruiserBruce response only has the words "NOT" and "DISTANT" capitalized - and neither are in bold type, which typically indicates shouting. And I take those words in caps only for emphasis. Nothing hostile or shouting in his response at all. And to add, he is correct in his information.

Just to clarify the term B2B typically refers to repeat, or following itineraries on the same ship. Non same ship following itineraries I believe are referred to as side to side? (someone can confirm) B2B's are very common and typically are repeat closed loop itineraries (that include a port of call at a foreign port). They also frequently are alternating closed loop itineraries on the same ship originating from the same port. No contravention issues with that. And you are correct, if there are any contraventions resulting from a B2B the cruise line would typically not permit the booking.

@Hlitner note the comments by the OP earlier in the thread. It appears as though they have experience with longer itineraries and it seems to me that they are thinking that larger ships (on larger cruise lines) may have a more favorable scale of economy for their plans for continued long itinerary travel The issue, as has been well pointed out, is that most of the lines they've identified don't have the longer point to point itineraries and concentrate their scale of economy on shorter repeat closed loop itineraries. The alternative to this would be with their repositioning and very few world cruise itineraries. As also has been pointed out, it is typically the smaller ship (and typically smaller cruise line) higher end offering that also has the longer itineraries they seek, thus in general negating the perception of the economies they are after.