cantgetin

I was busy and didn't even know about the tech glitch until the "don't worry about it" announcement. Much Ado About Nothing,,,,My take was that if any of the cruise channels I follow decided to repeat this, I wouldn't be following them any more!

Well, I'm currently on Valiant and they were showing American Football in The Social Club and had quite a crowd. May have been Kansas City, but not sure.

If it was real, the color wouldn't matter. That horn that they use to alert people is LOUD. In yesterday's situation, I was in an activity and didn't know anything till the "OOPS, we goofed" overhead announcement. The app and TVs are just extras. If you have a deaf adapted cabin, you lights will flash repeatedly as well as the TV and app stuff. I had dinner with an IT person who writes apps last night. Suffice it to say that there was nothing good about the way the app locked up to be said.....it was more like "If I had done that on a critical function, I would have been fired" along with many comments about the app in general, just in technical language.

Half way thru our cruise, they started listing the dinner specials on the paper "daily schedule." The lunch specials are typically at the burger place, salad, taco (they are having various nacho specials), sandwich, and desert locations and are not listed anywhere. You have to walk around The Galley and see what the specials are.

THe brunch menu did not change. Dinner is quite different.

Agree with above. Many nights on our current cruise, there have been 10pm shows that end at 10:45. If the weather is bad, PJ party and scarlet night can be moved inside. I've never been in the location right above the red room to assess noise. Honestly if I had to choose between the hammock in a regular sea terrace and an XL without hammock, I'd be in the regular room.

There is usually a stand by line for any fully booked show. There are usually rude people who make reservations and then don't show up. We missed a couple of shows on our first VV because there were no reservations and I didn't know to try stand by. Yes, for anything that takes reservations, try to get them....but don't hesitate to try standby.

I guess it depends on where you are from and how you look at it. Everything on the ship is overpriced....on virtually every cruise line. If you'd rather take home some cash rather than an overpriced purse or t-shirt, I guess gambling might be a way to get it. As noted, better than leaving money on the table. My friend went nuts when she won at bingo.....but it sure didn't compare to all the times she bought cards and didn't win.

I could be OK with the new RD if they would add back either the butter chicken or beer chicken (yes, I saw it in The Galley at lunch) AND the secret steak. I always thought it odd that the best steak on the ship was in the "plant forward" restaurant, but it truly was. Oh well, I haven't noticed anyone going hungry on the ship.

I'll second the tacos in Pink Agave being MUCH better. The server told us that several of the recipes had been changed. I really miss the old menu in Razzle. And yes, after the screwed up announcement, the app became totally worthless for a couple of hours...all you could get was the emergency notification. The answer from Sailor Services was basically, "Sorry, we know about it , IT is working on it, paper schedules are available if that will help.

not currently on Valiant

The only purpose of the couch conversion, L configuration is when someone needs 2 beds in the room. Getting a cheap mattress topper from amazon is great, either shipped to your pre-cruise hotel or in an "air removed" package in your luggage. Offer it to your cabin host when you leave if you don't want to drag it home. We split the beds so we each have a bed.....but we aren't in the majority. Scarlet will dry dock next year and many of us are hoping the beds will be changed out then. Seriously, if they go to an "all queen bed" concept that cannot divide, we will no longer cruise the line. We've already cut out one line after 30 sailings with them because their bed choices no longer fit our needs.

Was the easiest way to do it a year ago.

I'm on Valiant now. It doesn't matter to me at this point as I have a large bar tab which covered my tea in one of the restaurants. YMMV.... Today a delivery person knocked on my door with a Ship Eats container as well as a bottle in an ice bucket......unfortunately, I pointed out that we were not the cabin on the delivery form (the person insisted we were the correct room, and showed me the ticket, at which point I redirected the delivery. Maybe I should have kept the wine. 🙂

I certainly can't say that I've flown "every" airline. Recently we have flown Swiss, Lufthansa, Turkish, Delta, and Southwest. All of those were satisfactory from a normal flight situation; Lufthansa had serious issues with wheelchair assistance in Frankfurt. A few years ago, I was flying to London regularly; I learned to avoid going thru JFK as they ALWAYS lost my luggage (it became a joke at my home airport) and there was a lot of walking between the international terminal and the domestic areas. My adult daughter had a very bad experience with American many years ago, and will not fly them under any circumstances. To shorten details....her flight home from Japan came into Chicago and was delayed with announcements declaring that they were waiting for flight crew. The flight was ultimately canceled, and they claimed "weather," then said there were no hotel rooms available and there were no flights to her home airport for 3 days. She called me for advice, and I suggested going to every other airline to see what they could do as her college started in 3 days! A lovely woman at United booked her on 3 standby flights and the 4th flight as a confirmed seat, then told her how to manage the situation. She spent several hours on a cot at the airport, most of it assisting elderly people who had been "dumped" onto cots and wheelchairs removed! (her words). She flew home on the second standby flight. Her luggage did not arrive. American blamed United and United said that American was responsible since she had gone thru Customs in Chicago and rechecked her bags with American. Finally, an American rep told us that her bags had been sent to Uruguay. We ultimately got it back. The fault was less the "what happened" as the lies and the way American treated elderly passengers, which left her totally disgusted. You will likely find the best flights starting from large airports...in your case, OHare. Others would be LAX, Boston, Atl, etc. There are some bargain European airlines...Level, TAP, Norwegian, SAS, etc. Look at the routes, the savings, the potential bad layovers and the reviews....then decide,

In our experience, the sooner you can book flights, the better the fares UNLESS an airline offers a large sale. We have booked international flights for April which have more than doubled in price since we booked them!

Yes there is a zipper on the side of the bag which greatly helps with the unpacking.

I did the VHS workout this morning--maintaining balance was far more difficult than doing the workout...things are rocking a bit, but we enjoy the motion of the ocean, Brunch at The Wake was nice, nothing to write home about. I did the fennel salad and French Toast, The steak sauce expert in our group rejected the sauces available at dinner, but the steaks were excellent, Reply to the above on the RD bacon--very sweet, sometimes more peppery than other times. Many of the servers from April are here again, but most have changed restaurants.

On VV currently, and all I need to do is to leave my cabin to get the "bag is not near you, last seen at" message. I'll need to pay attention to accuracy. I do know that my phone gives me a GPS not available signal when I am inside on the ship, so that may be the problem with the bags. On the other hand, I know it was accurate in a lost bag situation when the airline claimed to not know where one was and they were told "Well, this morning it moved to terminal B at the airport, so maybe that would be a place to start the search " This was a bag that didn't make it onto the plane during a layover.

Ordering on the tablet in the room is generally better than on the app. Then you wait for the phone call about what they don't have available and would you like to substitute something. As above, I don't thing Ship Eats serves anywhere except your cabin, and if you try that tab on the app it always gives an error message.

Air tags are great! Ask anyone who has told the airline where the missing bag is! Never had a luggage problem on the ship, but obviously it can happen. Our luggage has generally arrived at our door within 15 minutes of our arrival. On our current trip, it was "slow," taking a bit over an hour. If your luggage doesn't show up promptly, let your room host and Sailor Services know well before "sail away." I'm only aware of one instance where a piece didn't make it onto the ship, but.....

There is a $7 delivery fee which is waived if you order anything that has a charge--order a $4 coffee, hot chocolate or $5 tea or any alcohol and you will not pay the delivery charge. Like everything else on the ship, gratuities are included in your cruise fare, no additional tip is expected. It all comes packed on a nifty delivery set up including real plates, silverware, napkins, condiments, etc. Delivery times for other than breakfast depend on how busy they are--20-30 minutes is common. We've been told 30 and had things arrive sooner. Be sure to turn off the "Do not disturb" light on your door! There is a pretty wide assortment of available items even including steak. The onlu bad experience I've had is that the hot water for tea or broth for soup comes in a thermos type container. They don't understand that once such a container has been used for coffee, it will forever retain the coffee odor and taste. I sent the soup broth down the toilet. I save the tea and get hot water from The Galley either then or later. THe liquid in the thermos is foul. Breakfast can be pre-ordered on the app except on the last day. Beverages come in whatever container depending on what they are--soft drinks are in cans with appropriate glassware. No paper cups. Beers are in cans or bottles, etc. Note--you cannot "double dip." If you have a $10 per day Grounds Club credit and order a specialty coffee, it will NOT be applied to your credit because it didn't come from Grounds Club. Ditto for specialty coffee ordered in a restaurant. Your Grounds Club credit applies to beverages purchased at Grounds Club only.

I'm on BCN to MIA now. It is definitely an older average group then the previous crossing. The longer the cruise, the quieter it seems to be....we love long cruises. THe parties are there if you want them, but in general there are more calm activities and they bring on extra things like comedians, mentalists, etc. Room service if not in a suite has a $7 delivery fee which is waived if you order any item with a charge....like a $4 coffee or hot chocolate or any alcohol. No reason to avoid ordering from room service due to the "charge."

Currently on Valiant Lady. So far, no problem with walk in for brunch or tea, and no problem with changing dinner reservations (time or restaurant) after boarding. We do have brunch reservations for our last day. Tea reservations open only after boarding, but again, walk up is easy.

I found that I could get DCL to talk to me if I called and played like I had a generic question, rather than one tied to a specific booking. If I gave a booking number, forget it. Yes, VV shoreside sailor services will talk to you, but don't rely on the information they give you.