Great newbie complaint - overheard on the Sky

[Sally Forth]

I love the concept of a first time cruiser orientation. But if they can't find more than one restaurant in four days, how are they going to find orientation on the first? :eek:

 

LOL! Love that! Maybe giant feet on the floor?

 

VIv

[Sally Forth]

This reminds me of my dad on his first cruise, he was 78. We went to the buffet for our embarkation meal. All of us were seated and eating except dad. I went looking for him and found him wandering around looking for the cashier. He didn't want to eat until he had paid! Trust me, dad, you have already paid;)

He loved the idea of a "free" all you can eat buffet so much it was all we could do to get him to try a different restaurant each day. :)

 

Awww, I can totally see my dad doing that. The first time we went to McDonalds as kids was a really big deal. We lived in a farm outside a small town but in those days, even Vancouver only had two McDonalds. Dad was surprised they didn't have the menu up in the parking lot, but asked what we wanted, and flashed his lights for the carhop to come take our order. When she didn't come, he went inside to find out why their service was so bad and then sheepishly came out with all our food in bags.

 

Viv

[alwalaska]

We kinda had the opposite problem of this fellow on our first cruise - a 3 day on Disney. We booked a couple of months in advance so I had a little time to research, but I did not know about CC back then.

 

Disney has 3 main dining rooms included in your fare, but you are assigned tables and dining times and rotate between them. I was excited to see all 3 so we ate at our late dining time for 2 plus hours each night. The food was fabulous and the service superb, but I remember thinking that I didn't like taking so long to eat every night, not knowing that some nights there was also a buffet and other options as well as the fact that we could ask our waiter to increase the speed of our meal and they would be happy to do it.

 

Our first day, we also ate a couple of breakfasts and lunches in the dining room. After years of watching Love Boat on TV, going to the buffet didn't even cross my mind. :eek: Ha Ha.

 

When we got off that cruise, I told our TA and several friends that I wasn't sure if cruising was for us. THEN, I started thinking about it and realized it wasn't a problem with cruising, or even that particular cruise, but the problem was that we hadn't yet figured out how to make cruising fit best with our personalities.

 

Now, we love Freestyle (my time, or anytime) dining, we go do the things that look interesting on the Daily, but don't try to do everything, I play around on CC for too many hours planning our cruises, and we all have a fabulous time. :D

[shelly11]

The first thing my husband and I did when we got on board the Sky was wonder around and see what we could find. I'm surprised everyone doesn't do that.

[mickeysgal]

What he never say the Love Boat or even the Titanic?

 

Way, way back in the stone age when we did our first cruise on the Song of Norway, with no cruise critic, no internet, no cruise books, no one that we knew that had been on a cruise to ask, even given all that we knew how to go find the dining room, show up, and eat.