Petronillus

Bill, thank you for posting the picture. What a priceless memento!

The various troupes I've seen under the banner Step One Dance Company have been professional-grade. On our last two cruises their scheduled performances had to be shuffled on account of rolling seas, but when they did get to perform, I think they put on good, enjoyable programs. On our last cruise in July, they performed three times and introduced a new (for me) themed show. Just as I will gladly hear some symphonies and other classical compositions over and over again, it doesn't bother me that Step One performed the same ballets.

I am of a quite different opinion about the BBC Earth film. It was not inflicted upon us on the last cruise and if I never again see those snakes in pursuit of the lizard hatchlings, or field mouse versus owl, I'll be content.

Come to think of it, perhaps HAL shelved the BBC Earth schtick because with the loss of LCS, they couldn't field a live orchestra for the sound accompaniment.

4 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

If I could have one 2024 wish for HAL, it would be the return of LCS or a TRUE equivalent to all ships and itineraries.

From your lips to God's ear!

In our day-to-day "real" world I'm a mallwalker. Management holds off on the Xmas decorations until shortly after Halloween, and Santa takes his throne just a little after that. The three people serving as Santa's helpers are chiefly focused on the picture-taking and vehemently prohibit parents from taking their own snapshots. Right around the corner is a Victoria's Secret. A red tshirt in the  display window caught my eye, on which was emblazoned "Santa, I can explain . . ."

BTW: the photo shop racks up the most $$$$ on the three days when customers are invited to bring their pets in for a picture with Santa.

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

Eat chocolate daily. A New Year's Resolution I can keep! 

I recently saw the following in a church basement: "Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate."

We've never done a B2B, although our upcoming 28-day Asia cruise has pax coming and going at various stages. I'm curious: what is the "In Transit Procedure"?

On 1/2/2024 at 6:25 AM, kopykat said:

OMG- I’m from Michigan originally , now upstate NY, and your post sounded like one I would write. I don’t have the luxery of sailing for that many days however and usually fly to FLL. Kelly’s Landing is my favorite restaurant and have stayed at the Renaissance several times. I’m a big Michigan fan.

We too are transplanted Michiganders. Our days at the U of M go back to the Woody Hayes/Bo Schembechler rivalry, when "OHOWIHATEOHIOSTATE" bumper stickers were ubiquitous.

I haven't witnessed it personally, but I've heard tell on this board of folks who, in the process of getting used to their scooter, back up down a stairwell (inadvertently). The thought always gives me a chill when I see people trying to navigate their scooter.

1 hour ago, kazu said:

AI don’t consider my status disregarded but I also don’t hold a high expectation knowing full well how many of us there are.

To quote Gilbert & Sullivan: "If everybody's somebody then nobody's anybody."

For rj59's sake, it's a good thing that attendance is never compulsory. His/her opinion, it seems to me, is the view of a small minority.

Choice of suitable venue was a problem in the early days, after LCS supplanted (and surpassed by a good margin) the Adagio Strings. Eventually, the space on the Pinnacle-class ships was carved out to share with BBKing's, and the architecture was fine-tuned at some expense for better acoustics.

Programming was prescribed somewhere at headquarters -- don't know whether HAL's or Lincoln Center's -- but sometimes had to give way to exigent circumstances. On one of our cruises the pianist suffered (off-stage) a slip and fall as a result of which her right hand was out of commission. The 5 (yes, at that time they numbered 5!) of them scoured the literature for piano pieces composed for only the left hand, and the results were delightful.

Perhaps because DW and I were fans, the LCS was a frequent topic of mealtime conversation. We never heard a negative viewpoint. We learned, however, that for many people the LCS was their first exposure to chamber music, and that many folks were surprised at how much they enjoyed it.

I and people like me lament the loss of LCS. Our 14-day Norway cruise on Rotterdam last summer was our first since the suppression of LCS. Oddly enough, signage referring to LCS remained on display here and there -- as painful reminders. I buttonholed the cruise director at one point and voiced my displeasure. She rattled off the company line, that LCS would come back as ad hoc entertainers in the World Stage, but without a shred of enthusiasm.

On 12/27/2023 at 4:42 PM, Boatdrill said:

Question: would it ever make sense to book CO just to get the upgrade, and do without the other perks  ? 

5 hours ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

You certainly aren't forced to use the other perks.  

Don't laugh. I used to work for a company (which shall remain nameless) that had an employee cafeteria and an executive dining room and a senior executive dining room, in ascending order. There were no guest privileges; i.e., no one in a higher-ranked eatery could invite anyone into that sanctuary. The higher-ranked executive could dine in a lower-ranked venue but rarely would because in that case he/she had to pay an out-of-pocket charge. (A flat sum, in a nominal amount, was deducted from the executive's monthly pay for his/her dining privilege.) Talk about creating and maintaining silos!  Sheesh!

I find the raves about the hamburgers at Dive-In Grill puzzling. I've tried them twice and each time that it was awful. Now the hotdogs on the other hand! I think they are Nathans. Is there some trick I should follow w/r/t the hamburgers? Like, perhaps, insist that they be freshly made and not languishing in a foil wrapper?

Many thanks to the OP for starting this thread!

We booked a "bucket-list" cruise for late January-February 2025, Oosterdam starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina and ending near Santiago, Chile with a few days cruising along the coast of Antarctica. Following the info provided here, we just had our PCC re-fare it for us, starting with the lowest-fare category-V cabin (VH), adding Club Orange, upgrading to a category VA, and thereby saving ourselves a few thousand $$$$.

Best of all, I now know how to go about it when I book far enough ahead to be able to factor in CO.

On 7/22/2023 at 3:03 PM, SilvertoGold said:

On our 39 day Noordam cruise the Cruise Director was everywhere. Very busy on sea days and on port day evenings. Introducing evening shows, doing the Coffee Chat with various officers and guest entertainers, doing port talks. She would come early to the evening shows and wander around the Show Lounge talking to guests, even to those, like us, whom she had no involvement with.  We had had her before and noted that she was more present on this cruise. We thought she was definitely earning her keep and I kept wondering when she had time to change her clothes and eat!

We had the same experience on our last cruise. The CD was the universal and ubiquitous emcee. She was the one I dumped my displeasure onto about the loss of the Lincoln Centre Stage. (She parroted back the namby-pamby company line, in desultory fashion.) Suffice it to say that despite her ultra-high visibility I never found a place in my heart for her.

On 4/24/2023 at 9:51 AM, Shalandara said:

I do not want to commit some grave faux pas by doing/saying something wrong (which is uncomfortable for all parties involved then).  Knowing beforehand all the ins and outs relieves a great deal of anxiety for me.  (Which is why I have found these forums to be so incredibly helpful!) 

Amen to that!

This has been a delightful thread -- lots of information peppered with a lot of humor. Some of the early posts had me thinking that cabanas are not my thing, but later ones tempered the potential negatives with depth of perspective. 

One further set of questions occur to me. Is the cabana a suitable substitute for a verandah?  Assuming you book your cruise early enough, before all the cabanas are claimed, doesn't it make sense to book the lowest-fare inside cabin you can find and then use your cabana during daylight hours? Add in Club Orange and maybe you get a poor man's suite?

On 4/29/2023 at 2:30 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

There are people smoking weed on every cruise I’ve been on the last 10 years. Across all lines. It’s illegal of course 🤣😂.

With all the hullabaloo about smoking, this comment surprises me. How surreptitious can you be when exposed on the starboard side of the aft pool on the Lido deck? As for using in your cabana, wouldn't the staff be all over you in an instant for violating the no-smoking restrictions, whether tobacco or cannabis?

7 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Thanks for sharing - Aft cabins are my happy place.

The one question I have: when the ship is underway, is the noise of the engines and the wake a problem? While walking the promenade I notice both the noise and the steady vibration.

10 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

The vagaries of the PVSA are vast and I'm not sure that even the lawyers know all the rules and exemptions.

For me the major takeaway is that the PVSA and the Jones Act are attempts at protectionism (largely futile because they don't have significant benefits to stateside commerce) and horrid examples of featherbedding. Who really benefits from all these contortions?

Oakridger Nancy covered the waterfront. All I would add is that the dollar-figure limit is applied to the "menu price" of the drink you order. I suppose that's to clarify that you don't get the benefit of any reduced pricing, not even during happy hour; it all counts the same with the drinks package.

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but one gentleman posted that he liked to bring a stack of $2 bills (with Jefferson's portrait) to distribute to bartenders and servers, particularly at the beginning of the cruise. He  figured that it made his generosity more memorable.

I find that I tend to save my $1 bills in anticipation of an upcoming cruise. Then I hand one or two of them to the bartender and/or server when I'm trying to establish (and later occasionally to sustain) my status as a regular.

With the HIA drinks package it feels more natural and less extravagant/flamboyant. Since I never get close to exceeding the daily 15-drink allotment, what I appreciate most about the drinks package is that it takes the on-the-spot economics out of the decision of what to drink and when.

If I've already heard about medallions, I wasn't paying attention. This thread prompted me to take a look at my cruise history, and I've just discovered that with our last cruise we have completed exactly 100 cruise days. Does that mean that we'll get bronze (entry-level) medallions at some point in our upcoming cruise in February? Will I also be schooled in the secret handshake?

21 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Correct - signature suites have same perks as regular verandahs - the benefit is that great balcony🫣

True suites are Neptune and Pinnacle; the names are a bit confusing.  

The only benefits I see from a signature suite are (1) doubling the number of cruise-day credits awarded toward Mariner status and (2) the tiny lights that momentarily guide your feet to the bathroom and back when you get up in the night.

1 hour ago, Huskerchick said:

I actually laughed out loud Ruth at your comment. Yes we used to joke that the one really nice day in July was "summer" 

When I was in school in Montreal we used to joke that the four seasons of Quebec are June, July, August, and winter.

2 hours ago, Mr. Boston said:

If it’s any help, we had very little Fall color this year.  When we flew through Montreal to Boston on 10/8/23 the trees were all still green, same in Boston.  We took a 7 day cruise from Quebec City to Boston in late May, early June of 2013 and had very nice weather mostly with some typical Memorial Day overcast drizzly days.  

Oddly enough, the same was true in Chicago. The fall colors didn't turn until much much later than usual. IIRC, the trees were just turning at Halloween.

24 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

I have the worst PCC in the history of cruising and don't use her except for the 1 cruise that still "belongs" to her. I haven't requested a new one because I don't have the name of a good one to ask for and if left to chance, I'm afraid I will get another bad one and don't have the patience to endure that nightmare. I have read far too many posts about bad ones and have only purchased losing lottery tickets, so I'm fairly certain which way the PCC pendulum will swing for me... I think the good ones that handle my part of the alphabet are probably at capacity 🧐

With that said, there are good (and I hear even great) PCCs and you can request to be switched; just call the number and ask for a supervisor as @crystalspin suggested. A good PCC will help you have a great experience and get you the best deals available. If you want to use one, as others have said, you should be able find one that fits your preferred communication style.

Maybe it was a stroke of good luck, but the PCC I work with now is everything the one I complained about wasn't. It's as if the supervisor I talked with took note of my gripes and custom-tailored a replacement for me. Makes for tons of good will.