Bxc53

41 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Good morning.

 

So the staffing issues are manifesting themselves the most in the morning.  I should have been up earlier but I stayed up pretty late.  At 8am, when I arrived at the Windjammer, the line was stretched all the way back through the elevator corridor to the glass doors leading to the pool area. No problem I thought, I’ll just shoot down to MDR for breakfast.  Same line, different location.  So back up I go and head to the Solarium for breakfast.  Much shorter line and they have all my favorite breakfast items except the omelette station.  

 

Yesterday the Windjammer looked the same.  I never checked the Solarium or the MDR and we just went to Cafe 270.

 

The line for the Solarium has grown since eating my breakfast and is now running out the door.  This is a real issue for Royal and they need to aggressively attack this problem.  I know they can’t snap their fingers and magically create workers but something has to be done.  

 

 

We are absolutely socked in this morning in Sitka.  Heavy fog and rain so far.  Hopefully it clears up or I’ll just be staying on the ship. I’ve got a haircut scheduled for 330 in the spa today.  That is the only thing on the agenda so far.

We are on the Quantum in a few weeks . Curious where the choke point is for the dining options? In our past cruises ( well pre Covid) it was table / chair space. Are they slow to clear tables or ?. 
 

Thanks 

Thanks for the great review in such detail!

Not to fire up a hot topic ( pun intended), can you comment on the smoking situation?  We will be on QoS in a few weeks - Vancouver to Honolulu and as non smokers, we are wondering how avoidable the smoking areas are and what we might miss by avoiding them. The casino is an obvious one, but interested in the others.

Thanks for any thoughts you can offer!

1 hour ago, matt1 said:

I can definitely see that happening on the Caribbean or Med week-long or shorter cruises. But I wonder if that still holds true for the longer 14-night one-way trans-ocean cruises, that would seemingly draw maybe a slightly more sedate or older crowd? 🤔

I have similar thoughts on the TA demographic. We decided to keep an eye on Virgin and see what the upcoming TA reviews reveal. Virgin does seem to be making some changes as they find what their customer base actually is.. Maybe in a year or two they may offer a TA experience more tailored to the (ahem) mature cruiser 🙂. 

We booked a 4 day on Navigator out of LA for late Jan '23. We made the initial booking in late May this year for a Guarantee Balcony. We had a room assigned by the end of June, and not a bad location. 

YMMV..

38 minutes ago, dunedinmaiden said:

Friends of ours (a couple in their 50s), recently got back from a Virgin cruise.  We had dinner last night and I asked them about their experience.  They were in a "Rock Star Suite" but said they wouldn't cruise with Virgin again.  In their opinion, there was virtually no entertainment in the evenings.  They actually said they were bored.

I've not cruised with Virgin, but I've read numerous reviews and board discussions as we are interested in the TA itineraries .

They seem to focus pretty hard on the nightlife centric 'sailor'. As in bar hop all evening, sleep it off and sweat it out on the exercise programs, have a nice dinner, then repeat. 

No disrespect, it would have appealed to me 40 years ago.. Now however, we like a mix of entertainment, pool/hot  tub time and  nice leisurely meals. And these days a couple drinks is our limit.. So , unfortunately , Virgin, in its current program not a good fit for us.

Just to add another thing to consider, the transfer from Fort Lauderdale airport to the cruise port is close, quick and cheap. From either Houston airport to the Galveston port is the opposite… 

I appreciate the OP's candor.

We are booked on Quantum in October , our first cruise in several years. We are hoping for a better experience but not really expecting a miracle .

Travel and hospitality / tourist industries seem to be universally sub par in current conditions. The current airline experience is infamously bad. Hotels are hit and miss.

Even Disney, arguably the gold standard for customer experience, seems to be struggling.   Is this the 'new normal'? Hope not.

It seems to be the time to have modest expectations.. But to paraphrase the old saying:  "The worst day cruising beats the best day working"..

We will be on Quantum in October. What should we expect for outlets and USB charging ports? It’s a standard balcony cabin if that matters

 We have the usual bunch of gadgets to keep fed..

I did  a quick search but came up dry. 
Any advice appreciated 

17 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Hopefully a CBSA officer will respond.  We are with a small group boarding Quantum in OCT. sailing Vancouver to Honolulu. Someone in our group has a DUI from 2015.  Talking with them last night they claim to have had no knowledge that is was a reason for denial of entry into Canada.  Will anyone with actual experience with this problem please respond as to their probability of being denied entry. I know you can apply for a TRP but we are within two months and final payment has been made.  It seems a TRP can take up to 4 months.  Need to hear the reality of the situation and not rules and regulations from a booklet. thanks. Also thankfully this person is not a family member. 

You seem to be asking if the person in your group really needs to comply with the rules and regulations.

And you are requesting a response from a Canadian government official who's career is enforcing such rules and regulations. 

And further, you want the CBSA officer to respond on a public forum.

Good luck with that... 

15 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

 

The reason is that the ships systems work too well. Everything is removed from the water, not just the salt. Some important minerals, mainly magnesium, is completely removed. Magnesium plays an important role in water retention. It affects everyone differently, but some people (as you know) can experience significant, even painful water retention when they don’t get enough magnesium.  

This is true, but the modern, larger ships ( meaning most mainstream cruise ships) have a mineralization step after the desalination/ purification process. Without the mineralization, the water tastes very flat. Try a sip of distilled water for example. The actual amount and content of the mineralization can vary, but generally mirrors the ‘ generic’ bottled water products.  

We have cruised on several of the mainstream cruise lines ( list in the sig), but never NCL. Hoping to hear from folks that have cruised on both for pros and cons, etc. I know this is the NCL forum, I’m asking the same Question at the RCL board as well, should be interesting to compare..

Thanks for any input.

We have cruised on several of the mainstream cruise lines ( list in the sig), but never NCL. Hoping to hear from folks that have cruised on both for pros and cons, etc. I know this is the RCL forum, I’m asking the same Question at the NCL board as well, should be interesting to compare..

Thanks for any input.

I always chuckle at these type of threads. Being a tech geek, I researched the systems that make the onboard tap water on any modern cruise ship. The difference between common bottled water and ship potable water is… The bottle.  

We are on the preceding VAN to HNL cruise. No related notifications so far, but we are booked through a well known big box TA/ Hot Dog purveyor not known for timely communication. Really hoping this is all a non issue by then.. Our last 4 RCL cruises have cancelled, we are all too familiar with the patterns…

Only applies to the EU, so far.

"For sailings beginning August 1, 2022, vaccinated guests sailing on a cruise originating from any port EXCEPT a U.S. port; Canadian port; or Piraeus, Greece are exempt from all pre-cruise COVID-19 testing requirements.

21 minutes ago, PineappleJedi said:

Will I be arrested on the ship? Or just denied entry? 

You seem to be aware that an unresolved DUI is a basis for denied entry to Canada. Once you enter Canadian waters and dock at Victoria, you are in Canada without authorization.

So, are you asking " Can I get away with it?"   Maybe.

But you would be deliberately violating Canadian Customs regulation, a criminal act.

You won’t like this answer, but don’t try to go to Canada. 

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

Next you will hear cruise  extended an extra 6 days because of traveling at half speed to conserve fuel.

Well, she is making 21.4 kts now per a vessel tracking site. Her normal speed is 22 it. Hmmm.

37 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

In part, this depends upon whether you would buy the wifi package and drink package.  

Agreed, but Celebrity had been marketing 'All included' pricing in recent months which , at first glance, be much higher than RCCL's basic cruise prices.

I did an in-depth evaluation for Transatlantic cruises next Spring and found that, like for like, RCCL, Celebrity, Princess Nd NCL all came quite close on the daily rate, for a mid range balcony room .

26 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

Maybe because Celebrity charges so much more for their cruises, they don't need to supplement profits with casino revenue (same with DCL that has no casins).

Two points:

1.If you look at all costs, ( Tips, Internet, drinks, etc)  Celebrity  comes out close or sometimes even less than RCL  for similar itins.

2. It is my impression after several Celebrity cruises that they generally appeal to a different demographic than RCL, overall. Even in the designated smoking areas we saw few smokers. And the (non-smoking) casino was very active.

11 minutes ago, F27TW said:

 

I do think the idea of smoking and non smoking casinos should be looked into.   Granted the non smoking one should be smaller.    Seems like they could carve out space somewhere in these monster ships for a non smoking option. 

We encountered something like this several years ago, I think on the Sapphire Princess about 2007 or so. The casino was full on smoking, but they also had video table games, Vegas style, in one of the  non-smoking entertainment lounges. We spent a lot of time ( and $) playing, sipping adult beverages and watching the entertainment , when it was on- the lounge was available whether or not the entertainment was going. We thought this was a great idea, but haven't seen anything similar in several cruises since.

Following this with interest as a gear head/ retired field engineer who is fascinated with how things work.
And also we are scheduled to ride this particular boat from Vancouver to Honolulu on October.. I would hope to make that run with all engines/ propulsion systems operating. It’s one thing to shuttle up and down the coast with many ports and nearby assistance available vs the long, lonely Pacific crossing.

Thanks for the suggestions. Just to close the loop:

Taking the bus the day before was Plan A, but the sail away changed from 5 PM to 7PM since we booked. It looks like the “ Miss the boat “ time is 5:30 and the bus ( Quick Shuttle) arrives directly to the pier at 2:30- if it’s on time.  Still a 3 hr buffer, so that’s likely what we will do.

We fly back from Hawaii to a US airport( Bellingham) so port parking at Canada Place just doesn’t work. The bus leaves for the  cruise port from the BLI airport as well.

No cross border Uber or Lyft. Lots of regulations in the way, apparently.

And, digging deep in the RCL website FAQ’s there is apparently a provision for possible downline boarding if a scheduled carrier causes the delay.  The Emergency Travel Team makes the final decision. Biker 19 is correct for pre-planned downline embarkation.
 

This really should be a lot simpler 🙂. 

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

Typically it's 90 min (check in) before sail away.

Thanks.   That would leave enough buffer that I can suppress my day early habit.. I suppose in a worst case, we could meet the ship at the next port- Victoria. Heck, we could beat it there 😉  

Normally I’m a day ahead to a cruise port guy, but this is a different situation.

The cruise is one way Vancouver to Honolulu in early October. Departure is 7 PM.

We live in the US but only about an hour drive away from the terminal  and we wont be flying back to Vancouver, so driving and parking at the terminal is not practical ( and quite expensive anyway) .

The cross border bus earliest arrival is 2:30PM but it’s (in)famously late and the border inspection is a wildcard.

So I’m hoping for feedback on the Vancouver cruise terminal Last on board time Vs the actual departure time.

Thanks