ashley@cruisecritic

On 3/15/2020 at 3:53 PM, hcat said:

Hi Ashley

How do you like EDGE?

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry for the SUPER late reply. Loved the ship and the whole vibe for the IWD sailing. When I was booked, I made arrangements to disembark in St. Maarten (because they needed me back at the office, not because of anything COVID-related), so I missed the last few days. Now I'm immensely sad that I did because it's the last cruise I was on (and, unfortunately, probably the last one I'll be on for a while with the way things are looking). How did you like it?

I love this! Nice to see some good things happening in the industry, despite the current state of things.

I don't see how they'd be able to socially distance themselves on a ship with it being such a confined space. Plus it's all the same people with nobody new coming or going. If they haven't found coronavirus onboard by now, it seems unlikely they will.

On 3/12/2020 at 9:18 AM, Luckiestmanonearth said:

we’re all definitely upset

When you say "all," you speak for everyone onboard. I was onboard, and I wasn't upset. Given the state of things right now, we could have experienced far more setbacks than we did on our sailing, so I'd count us as pretty darn lucky to have made it to the ports we did.

22 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

All women crew...had to stop for some shopping.  🙂

Or, you know, slow down to drive the ship safely.

16 hours ago, keesar said:

Two other ships also dealt with the same seas but made it to San Juan as scheduled yesterday.  These two ships left Florida the same afternoon as Edge.  A couple of weeks ago, we had 15-20 foot seas on the Equinox and made it to San Juan early.  Other factors must be involved.

 

By the way, it is 75 and mostly sunny in Tortola today.  If I was on that cruise, I would be really upset.

We took a different route than planned to get to San Juan. The swells on the new route were only half the size. Not sure which way the other ships went, so it's possible that's why. San Juan was lovely, by the way. No complaints here.

19 hours ago, esp15 said:

That is awesome, we love Captain Kate. Is it true that she will be going on leave after this sailing?

I did hear that several times throughout the sailing but not from her, so I can't confirm.

Hi all. Cruise Critic is onboard, and we skipped Tortola due to bad weather. We've had nothing but rough seas for two days, and it took us longer than expected to reach San Juan. We were supposed to arrive yesterday but didn't get here until today, which meant skipping Tortola. It had nothing -- I repeat, nothing -- to do with coronavirus, in case anyone was wondering.

On another note, the sailing has been fabulous, and the women at the helm are incredible. Stay tuned for our coverage of the International Women's Day events. Never have I felt so much palpable positive energy in one place.

I was writing an article on SeaPass cards for the site, which is how I ended up on this page. I e-mailed Royal to have them verify, and this is what they sent back. There are some on here I didn't know anything about and thought you all might find it interesting also.

"Below are the colors for our Sea Pass cards. 

1.       Royal Caribbean light blue SeaPass card: All non-Suite staterooms

2.       Royal Caribbean silver SeaPass card (sometimes looks white or pearlescent): Suites on Freedom, Voyager, Radiance and Vision class ships, as well as Majesty and Empress of the Seas

3.       Royal Caribbean gold SeaPass card (sometimes looks yellow): Pinnacle Club

4.       Royal Caribbean sky blue SeaPass card: Royal Suite Class Sky Level (Oasis, Quantum and Quantum Ultra class)

5.       Royal Caribbean burgundy SeaPass card (sometimes looks black): Royal Suite Class Star Level (Oasis, Quantum and Quantum Ultra class)

6.       Royal Caribbean seafoam green SeaPass card: Royal Suite Class Sea Level (Oasis, Quantum and Quantum Ultra class)

7.       Royal Caribbean orange SeaPass card: Interporting (when we embark guests in two ports of call during a sailing) 

8.       Royal Caribbean beige SeaPass Card: Royal Premier (China)"

On 5/7/2019 at 7:04 PM, eroller said:

My card recently on NAVIGATOR OF THE SEAS.  Diamond member in a regular cabin.  I believe this is the latest design for standard SeaPass card.  I quite liked it and it was time for a card upgrade.    

 

 

Just curious: Is the main color of the card blue, purple or gray? I can't really tell, but I like the look of it!

Hi all,

I've reached out to Royal's PR department, and this is what they tell me:

"The cruise compass you reference below from Harmony of the Seas was actually misprinted – human error. Harmony of the Seas, along with all 6-night or longer itineraries still offer Formal Nights.

'Nighttime’s the right time to wear your best look. That means a step up from your typical dinner wear, and includes collared shirts, dresses, skirts, blouses and pantsuits. Jackets, tuxedos/formal wear sports coats and blazers are also appropriate.'"

Hope this helps a little!

On 8/4/2019 at 7:55 PM, Love my butler said:

You absolutely can hang it.  Your steward may or may not take it down.  Tips tend to go down when stewards touch things that don't belong to them....

Your signature says it all, Love my butler. 🙄

To me, if someone breaks the rules and hangs the decorations, those decorations are fair game. The door belongs to the cruise line, not to the passenger, and technically the cruise line can confiscate just about anything it deems "unsafe" -- power strips, candles, etc. Same concept here.

5 minutes ago, hurricane18 said:

 

Hi there! 

Follow this link. There is a copy posted on this website. Having trouble uploading documents on my computer at the moment. 

https://disneycruiselineblog.com/2019/07/disney-fantasy-skipping-san-juan-amid-protests-during-11-night-southern-caribbean-cruise/

 

See you onboard!

 

Thanks, hurricane18!

On 7/25/2019 at 12:55 PM, SamTimeDining said:

Anyone else thinking Royal is getting a little loose with their e-mail etiquette? Maybe the college interns are writing these? 😂

I think it's delightful. I'd much rather have a fun, upbeat, positive message like this than some stuffy, impersonal bit of corporate speak. It's well-written and creative. Have you seen the letter they wrote during the whole drink package debacle? It was brilliant (and not written by an intern)!

4 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

Well, I can only say that on another site I'm on, people on that cruise are saying they're now going to St Thomas.  But, sorry, I have nothing official.

No worries! I've seen it too. Just can't quote it, unfortunately. Have reached out to Disney directly, of course, but waiting on a reply. Thanks for your help, though! 🙂

4 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

It's replaced with St Thomas.

Thanks, Schmoo here! I did see that above but was trying to track down something more official (like an email or press release).

On 7/25/2019 at 12:00 AM, hurricane18 said:

Yep! Had a feeling this would happen when I first posted. We got an email. 

 

 

Hi hurricane18. Would you mind posting the email? We're trying to get the details of the cancellation. Wondering if it will be a sea day or if it's being replaced with another port.

Hi everyone. Cruise Critic's updated story is here: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/3891/. At the bottom, you'll find Viking's official statement in full, as well as a link to the line's website, which I believe someone already posted. Viking tells us that's where it will put any updates. 

French Rivers 23 August.

Thanks, Eglesbrech. I'm looking into it to see why it happened and whether it can be expected on future sailings or other ships.

Our recent cruise on Braemar was comprehensively spoiled by the amount of work going on on the ship. Now every ship I have ever been on has had bits of ongoing maintenance, that is par for the course. This was in another league.

 

The whole ship stank of a mixture of damp, paint and oxidised metal from the grinding they were doing morning, noon and night in our corridor for most of the cruise.

 

They painted virtualy the whole promenade deck so closed different sections each day or you had to dodge round the painters and the ladders and the drips.

 

They were fixing up the external tables and chairs so a large part of the aft outdoor area was condensed off with tape for the whole cruise.

 

They shut the main Marquee bar to paint it. It was a beautiful sunny day and the main outdoor bar is closed and the area stinks of paint! It was closed 3 days out of 8.

 

They painted the pillers in the Neptune lounge, now anyone who has been on this ship knows how narrow this is to get past We went to a lecture and had to dodge the wet red and gold paint.

 

They re carpeted the Morning Light Pub - noise all night.

 

They cleared out the cabin next door, everything in it removed back to the walls - banging and knocking all day long.

 

They switched off the water, supposed to be from 1am to 5 am. 8.45am and we still had no water whatsoever so could not flush to loo, wash etc. Did we get any apology, explanation or timescales -no, the curt answer from reception was we are working on it. Now given how often they tell you to wash your hands on a ship it ironic that they don’t provide the water to do so. I ended up washing my hands in bottled water (which I had to pay for!).

 

Now reception tell me that what we experience is “perfectly normal ships maintenance” which frankly I don’t believe. I have not sailed a lot with Fred but I have done so with other lines and never had this.

 

Is this fairly normal on Fred? (If so we won’t be booking again)

 

And just to add insult to injury we came back into to a “temporary” berth. That meant a cobbled together gangway to get everyone off which went from the ship to the top of a portacabin and then from the portocabin down to the ground. I am relatively young and fit and I found the descent far too steep, goodness knows how people with any sort of mobility difficulty managed it.

Hi there. Are you able to share which sailing this was, specifically?

British face cloths are for the face. Flannels are for other parts of the body. Wash Cloths don't exist.

They do in the US, but they generally aren't used for the face.

Also, regarding your other comment, how do you eat cake with a spoon?

...waits for the first comment about facecloths not being hygienic to appear!

I've always wondered why they're rare in Europe. Is this the reason people give? I'm confused why a facecloth is any less hygienic than a towel. What's their logic? I'm also curious how people who don't use washcloths (or flannels or whatever we're calling them) apply soap to their bodies. If it's bar soap, how do they rub it in the right places without the bar getting totally gross, and if it's liquid soap, how do they not waste half of it when it slips through their fingers? Plus, rubbing it on your body with your hands doesn't exfoliate or scrub off dirt the way a cloth does. (Not trying to stir any pots. Just genuinely curious about the mechanics behind this!)

AN extra 2 hours of travel time !!!!!!!! do they mean getting from the airport to ship and vice versa?

Yes, that's what they mean.

Hi guys,

I contacted MSC's PR department yesterday to ask about what the bridge collapse means in terms of shore excursions, availability of taxis at the port and passenger ability to travel between the port and surrounding airports. This is the official statement I was given:

We are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred in Genoa yesterday, 14 August. The collapsing of the Morandi Bridge is a tragedy and our thoughts go out to the victims, their families and loved ones as well as to the entire City of Genoa.

We are constantly monitoring the situation on site and we are in close contact with the local authorities, ground service operators and our colleagues in Genoa.

At this point, our upcoming calls on Saturday 18th (MSC Opera and MSC Divina) and on Sunday 19th (MSC Fantasia and MSC Seaview), are all scheduled to take place as planned. The excursions that are planned in and around Genoa this weekend (mostly to Portofino and in town), are currently not affected.

We are currently expecting to receive an updated road traffic plan which will be issued by the authorities shortly.

We are advising guests travelling by road into (or out of) Genoa to take additional travel time into consideration. Alternative routes are available, though traffic delays are likely on surrounding highways, including those serving Genoa. We are advising to take an additional 2 hours of travel time into account.

We will keep our guests informed either directly or via our trade partners. We will also provide regular updates via our website www.msccruises.com

No one here can help you , call MSC.

I think people here can (and did) help, as the OP's initial question was how to go about fixing the issue.

I’ve watched video snippets of the shows, most on CC some you tube. Welcome to 2018. Yes, I would rather skip them then walk out during the performance. Who knows, if I saw the land first, maybe I would be interested in purchasing.

To each his or her own, of course, but why not just grab a seat near the back so you can leave unnoticed if you don't like the entertainment? At least then you can say you've seen it for yourself before making a judgement. I've sailed with both Norwegian and MSC (each more than once), and I can assure you MSC's entertainment is spectacular. Among other things, it's one of the major selling points for the line. That said, many Americans don't enjoy it because it's not the safe, standard Las Vegas- / Broadway-style entertainment they're used to. But that's what you get on ships that cater to people who speak multiple languages.