GHarkness

39 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

No.

Nor do I.  They ask for Suites.  It's a Suite. 

BTW since I last commented a couple hours ago I did online checkin, and this is the pass.

That's a JS.

On 11/6/2018 at 7:15 AM, villager70 said:

That is correct. boarded our lasts 14 cruises or so  and last week. On indy,majesty,many on freedom, Oasis,Allure

Yep, the SetSail says "suite."  Doesn't say "low class suite," just suite.  I've done exactly the same for the past, well, ever since they started letting Suites board first.

Obviously if it changes, something different will happen.

Ah, we always stop in DFW to visit our kids, so flying ain't gonna happen!

Hey, Tulsacoker...I'm in Tulsa too! (Far East, just at the BA line). I just don't have it on my public profile.

Was a bummer when we moved up here from DFW. Our cruise drive went from five hours to ten down to Galveston. :-(

Thanks Bob, she is listed under the with me in the stateroom. Was wondering is she got her own pass or we use the same

She will get her own card when you check in - in person.

I agree. What’s the point of having older options available but no one knows until they ask.

 

 

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I have been scouring all sorts of info places, but can't find an example of the new menu. I agree...they need to put all the options on the menu, or shut up. :-) I don't see this as helping the waiters, who already have enough to do.

Just off Vision OTS with new menus.

Completely missed that you were on the Vision. Apparently they changed the menus within a very short time of our last Vision cruise. We debarked on Feb. 23.

So please do tell: French Onion Soup, still? Yes or no :-) ?

My main concern with this new, more restrictive menu is that there doesn't appear to be as many "allergy friendly" options as there were before. My daughter has Celiac, so gluten free is a necessity, not a choice. On several menus I've seen posted, the gf options are limited to 1 or 2 appetizers, 1 or 2 entrees, and ice cream for dessert. Also, while I know that she'll see the menu the night before, with the cutbacks in waitstaff, I don't know if they'll have the time to check which options might be able to be "tweaked" to make them safe for her to eat.

That would definitely be a concern. I sailed once with a young lady who had severe celiac issues, and she actually ended up bringing her own food, because on her previous cruise, the 'gluten free' menu - wasn't. The slightest amount of gluten would put her out of commission for 2-3 weeks, so that would be an easy way to ruin a cruise.

2 to 2.5 hours for dinner?:eek::eek::eek:Really? If there are just 2 people,does it still take that long? Can we speed them up a little? There will just be 2 of us at a 2 top,hopefully! We are doing MTD and I reserved a 6 pm time slot. We don,t want to miss the shows!:eek::eek:

I can't help but think that it depends on the size of your ship (not an expert on that, though.)

Our experience has been larger ship = slower dining room service (more people per waiter), and they have to maintain efficiency, so oftentimes, you are waiting on someone else to finish their part of the dinner before you can move on.

However on a smaller ship and especially with MTD, you might get much faster service. Our last cruise we were in and out in 45 minutes or less, but we don't eat dessert.

Not to mention, with the cutbacks in service, it's more efficient to give the waiter your entire order at once as opposed to sitting around and waiting for him/her to take your dessert order. Perhaps some people like spending 2.5 hours at dinner, but it's not for me.

Completely agree with this. Sitting at the dinner table is not my favorite thing to do. I haven't seen the new menu - it wasn't on my latest cruise last month, but since we rarely eat dessert in the MDR (go to the DL instead), we will at least know what we are passing up! :)

Please tell me, though: do they still have French Onion Soup as a choice every night? I might have to jump overboard if they don't!

Junior Suites do count in CK for Allure. 😉

 

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Funny - it can definitely be counted on that I will almost always make a statement that will at least in one instance - be wrong :D:D:-)

That's ok, though - I learned something, and I appreciate the correction.

That said, (you can probably tell that) I don't sail on the bigger ships.

I wonder what will happen when there are so many P’s, Suite Guests will be unable to access the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen?

 

The Diamond Lounge is clearly a C&A perk. Not sure about the SL/CK. Interesting to see what happens in September on Presidents Cruise.

 

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I am thinking that this is going to be a non-problem. There are only SO many suites on a ship, and Junior Suites don't count in this instance. There won't be any more suite guests than have booked that ship. Pinnacles....I will never be a Pinnacle, as we and many others my age simply won't live long enough to achieve that. I always figured (and still do) that D+ is it for me and my husband.

So really, the problem is in the D and D+ perks, not Suites and Pinnacles. (Also I have noticed that many P's really like spending their time in the DL. I haven't ever been in the Suite lounge, as we only do JSs, but it appears the DLs are preferable on many ships where the Suite lounges don't even have windows to look out!)

I believe it has always been profit over loyalty and the stockholders would raise heck if it was the other way around.

 

 

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Yep, has to be that way. Corporations have that responsibility to their shareholders. They only have a responsibility to treat the pax well enough to keep them coming back.

Yes, you will be permitted in the lounge.

And to add to this otherwise excellent answer: You will KNOW you are permitted in the lounge because your Seapass Card will open the door. I still remember the first time my Seapass Card worked. What a rush :-)

RCCL created a monster with too many diamond members, and too easy to reach this level.

This, exactly. I have a feeling they'll keep watering the perks down, because given that you never go backward (in status, and to my knowledge - I am sure someone will quickly correct me if I am wrong), what else is there to do? If they don't, soon, 3/4 of the ship will be crowding the DLs.

That said, I've been in many DLs and haven't found any of them to be crowded with the exception of sailing night ONE time. Full? Yes, but crowded, no. Actually, on re-reading, that isn't in any way meant to say that what others have reported hasn't been true. I am sure as time goes on, unless the perks are changed, they will get more and more crowded.

If it's at ALL possible, get in the self-assist debarkation. (IOW, bring no more luggage than you can handle yourself). I frequently am in my car driving away from my parking place by 8:00 from this cruise. It's all about getting off the ship quickly. And pay no attention to what time the self-assist people are supposed to be downstairs. Your getting there depends on your getting an elevator in time to get down there and get your luggage in line. Be early!

Also, traffic into Houston isn't bad at all on a Sunday morning. Of course, it gets worse as the day wears on and as more people debark.

That said, booking a plane ticket before noon is risky, as blackshirt said. Much better to be early unnecessarily. (And of course, HOU is much closer to port than IAH is).

It does not get suite privileges such as priority boarding etc.

 

George in NY

We alway get priority boarding, right along with the Pinnacles, in a JS. I am talking perhaps the last 10-12 cruises, in several different ports. Now if you don't go get IN the suite boarding line, they aren't going to seek you out and add you to it. But because we are always in "just" a JS, I did check with the boarding personnel, and yep, we belonged there.

I sailed on the Liberty in November, and until THIS moment, when I looked at pictures taken around that time, I had no idea they had added the slides.

I guess that's how much they mean to me :-) We all have our preferences. I suppose the advantage for me, had I noticed any change, is that they tend to keep the kids somewhere else, where I don't want to be.

Now, THAT is funny! We had exactly the same issue...this tiny little noise that I couldn't find. I KNEW I had to find it, or there would be no sleep for me. I am cursed with exceptional hearing. Finally I figured out - it was the speaker, and mine was put on incorrectly, too!

We're currently on the Freedom OTS; back in Canaveral tomorrow. It's been a good cruise, but I frankly liked the Navigator better. :D

Thank you... it's good to know that some one will be on board carrying on with proper decorum and age old tradition... otherwise the Emeralds would get all uppity and who knows what impropriety that would wield.

Most definitely. Having JUST been an Emerald up until last Saturday, I gotta make sure those low life keep in line! :p Wouldn't want ME to be confused with one of them! :D

Oops. Duplicate submission. Sorry! Couldn't see over all those diamonds on my nose!

Thanks for all your readership! Please know all the Suite / Commoners references are made tongue in cheek and are really meant to poke fun at those who think having Diamond or Suite amenities confers some sort of elevated status or on-ship entitlements beyond what's spelled out in black & white.

What a hoot! This really hits home because I just finished my 80 points last Saturday and had to do some creative begging to get my Diamond status installed before my next cruise this coming Sunday (usually it takes a couple weeks for the switch)! But the C&A staff came through for me and I am SO looking forward to being a hoity-toity Diamond, just like you, hahahah! I'll be sure to raise my nose just a little higher in your honor! :D

Print off what you saw, and bring it with you when you board the ship...you may need it....better to have that printout than NOT. Do a screen print if you have to, but find a way to have it printed!

Already have! Yes, just in case. (Evernote to the rescue!) AND we still have our SeaPass cards from the May 4 cruise. Will be bringing those along, too.

We were on this cruise, too! I must have seen you in the priority check-in line, because we were the second couple in line. We were very pleasantly surprised when we discovered NO WAITING to get on the ship! Just check in and GO!

I was wondering why the email a few days before the cruise about "don't come too early." Now I know!

Sorry to hear of your toilet troubles. We had no problems with ours, but I guess we were lucky, though our shower had all the water pressure of a dozen butterfly spits :confused:. I noticed in your cabin photo you didn't have a table either, and I seem to remember having a glass table in every JS we've ever had. As we were walking down the hall, one of the other JS's was open, and I looked in and saw - a TABLE! I asked the attendant about that, and he told me it was an "accessible" cabin and the "accessible" cabins had a table...and they were the only ones that did. (I would think that it would be more important to have open space rather than a table for accessibility, but what do I know?)

I was also pleasantly surprised with debarkation. We didn't have to wait too long - we were in the 7:15 bunch at the front. Definitely a pleasant change from the last time on the Mariner when they lined us all up on Deck 4 all the way around the ship and left us in the cold with a half-mile walk and down a flight to the ladies' room. It was a long wait.

One more thing to mention, since you didn't talk about the wait staff. We had MTD, and OMG those are the BEST waiters! There's one guy we all called the "why not" guy and he was just delightful (even at breakfast after a late night in the dining room). On the last night, he wore flashing sunglasses. Quite a sight to behold. He was not our waiter, but he made friends with us anyway. His brother and cousin were our waiters and they were equally delightful, just not as loud :-) I missed the name of the "why not" guy, but our waiters were Sucit and Muammer, both from Turkey. You could NOT get better than them!

Thanks for the nice photos. We quit taking pictures a long time ago, and we really appreciate those who do!

It has been our experience that our point updates occur within 5-7 days. Since time is short between the cruises where you status changes, call C&A for a first step.....

Thank you all for the answers. I called yesterday and spoke to a young lady named Ruby. She looked at my records and said I was in luck because her supervisor was in that day (?? Well, whatever - I'll take it) and that she would put in for a "level adjustment." She said it would take 24-48 hours. And I thought "Yeah, this is the last I am going to hear of THIS!"

So, this evening, on a lark (more than 24 hours, less than 48), I logged in to C&A, and guess what I saw! DIAMOND!! So, it worked!

The interesting thing is that it still says "78 points," but I really don't care about that. They will eventually update - the part that I wanted is DONE!! Thanks for all your good advice.

Oh, and I must have really had my head turned by the "free internet" because I KNEW that what it meant was "some" free minutes. At Emerald level, we have been getting 15% on our packages (and that's the ONLY thing we spend money on while we are on the ship). So now we will be getting probably 20%. It's all good! :)