NutsAboutGolf

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is the entertainment will be fine as I'm sure they'll pull some entertainers from other eclass ships and they can rehearse many times before the first real show. The problem I see time and time again with something new or after a recent change are service coverage gaps such as Servers/Waitstaff not servicing their areas of responsibility. In many cases it's managements fault for not clearly communicating them

Will there be consequences if you experience hiccups, get disconnect and cannot reconnect? If you're chatting with friends or family, no problem. If you're trying to present an hour long sales pitch to "close the big deal", don't rely the ships internet

Just makes think, if you're a great chef and want to work on a ship, don't be a chef, become a waiter or bar tender so you can get more cash in your pocket

Solution, bring @fstuff1 to luminae and they’ll bring you some plastic water bottles (jk!)

Why pack it at all? Whether in an airport/plane or waiting in line to board the ship, having a water bottle "stuffed" with, you know, water, that you can access anytime is its biggest benefit. We wouldn't want to carry it everywhere so we use a backpack with bottle holder pockets on the sides yet various $5-$10 solutions exist on Amazon

LLP = X Decline 1.0 LHB = X Decline 2.0

YMMV

I did say rhetorical as now you're also making assumptions that X passengers WOULD drink from the carton; NCL and X passengers are different. Do we even have data of how many on NCL drink from the carton or pour into glasses? At the end of the day, ships, whether cargo or cruise are NOT remotely environmentally friendly. If you truly care about being greener, there's no bigger impact you can have than to NOT cruise. If you want to cruise, there's no bigger impact you can make than to only sail on ships that burn LNG fuel and not ships like X that use Heavy Fuel Oil mixed with diesel. From "well to prop" LNG is significantly cleaner and ships often last for 50+ years Now you're attacking all of America (lol) yet I'll share that we personally bring water bottles with us, use refill stations and most circumstances, if filtered water isn't an option are okay with drinking tap water. We are well aware that doing so is only a tiny drop in the huge bucket of environmental impact

It comes down to this, if X changed to carton water, will most X passengers who have never experienced a water carton before, request a glass to pour it in? Will the servers just serve the water carton along with a glass along without even asking ? Rhetorical questions

I know what I'm about to say will be unpopular, I want to be clear it's an OPTION, not a REPLACEMENT. Ability to order your dinner food selections and drinks from the bar/cafe in your app; again, you can still use the waiter and bartender if you want. I personally do not encounter bad experiences by the waitstaff other than service being slow at times. Bars and the cafe during peak times on the other hand, can be incredibly slow

I don't mean this in a negative way, when it comes to X passengers, wouldn't you consider those from Canada the minority? In the US, most if not all the Starbucks sell water in plastic bottles

Thanks for the datapoint, if you don't mind, ask a bartender or perhaps the crew manning the buffet drink station if they heard if they're switching to plastic

Majority of adults do not drink liquids directly from cartons, of course exceptions exist

Yup. They were all “Rain” metal bottles, only the labeling/images on the cans were different. They used to be all silver with custom X branding and at some point they switched to the presumably cheaper regularly labeled RAIN cans which have a lot more blue in the background

Many cruiser eat at the buffet but complain they're anti-buffet because they were taught trashing food is wasteful, yet, many things we do are MORE wasteful. I mention this in context because lately all over the media and celebrities preach "don't use single use plastics" like water bottles. An recent example, SFO had already banned and LAX just banned plastic water bottles at the airports, therefore it could be bad optics for X

I do think people are more inclined to fill them up at least one more time vs tossing them than they are with plastic...We're at least one couple who does that

X now uses TRUE just like, wait for it, RCI...Just a coincidence?

I know someone who works in Viking and another who worked at both Viking and Crystal until the pandemic hit and they moved to another industry. Some cruise lines don't want to spend the huge up front costs for the software and training so they rely upon IT to take a disaster and turn it into a lesser disaster. The Viking person said this is also the reason on X, we don't get CC loyalty status discount off things like the internet and have to call in; their software doesn't allow it. I will say Carnival's is great, never had an issue yet others in the travel industry, like SouthWest suffered when they didn't want to spend the $$$ on the software and it came back to bite them

X performers / show performances are great, it’s the lack of choice I’m saying is superior on other lines. On our May Beyond cruise, I do not recall seeing any other shows outside the theater

"Charging extras for dinner" is such a blanket term, in this case it's MSC charges $5 or more for a second entree, X doesn't at the moment except for lobster. X now offers filet and/or lobster yet the pricing is excessive since X is still serving inferior tiny Spiny/Caribbean Lobster and X charges $35 + tips for surf and turf. Both Carnival and RCI serve the superior Maine lobster and Carnival charges $23 + tips for surf and turf

We’re not “owed” anything, we’re rewarded for our loyalty; nearly every travel company offers loyalty program. The next step I expect cruise lines to take with loyalty is for new cruisers only, they’ll get rid of lifetime status (existing will be grandfathered) and require you to re-qualify every 1-3 years

Why not put a cap on 3 if they’re going to serve the shrimp size spiny tail…Only an extreme minority are getting that many and they’ve been allowing this for decades. RCI first starting charging and at least replaced the inferior Spiny tail with the superior Maine tail. Carnival followed meaning both RCI and Carnival serve better lobster than X

There's absolutely nothing wrong reaching out to X to voice your displeasure. While I agree with everything you say, the reality is a RCI loyalist wanted to try an elevated cruising experience and elected to stay within the RCG family, they apparently wrongly assumed (yes, we all know the cliché) the X happy hour menu would mirror RCI's free drink menu. There are things RCI does better than X, such as entertainment, free Maine lobster (X uses spiny lobster) and apparently free drink selection for those with loyalty status

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is they'll mirror RCI with four daily drinks loaded your SeaPass yet they'll keep the same current drink menu. Many RCI regulars have voiced their displeasure of how limited the CC Elite drink menu is

Even during a sell out, there's a 99% chance at least a few people don't show up for various reasons and do not plan on joining mid-stream / at a later port