Harmony LIVE, March 11th - 18th. Come Sail Away!!!

[A&L_Ont]

Dinner starts to roll around and we are at Sabor. Part way through dinner Alexandra shows up to see how we are doing. Things are going better we tell her. In fact we had just a few minutes earlier booked our favourite cabin, on Symphony for March of 2019.

 

We had a bit of small chit chat and she said that she can hold a few seats for us at Grease tonight. Perfect. We requested three seats and told her the area we were thinking of - in the upper balcony, in the normal suite area. By no means did we want ones in the front row at centre stage. After all how long would Owen last at the show. We wanted seats with an easy exit and a good view.

 

As she was about to leave Sabor she made a comment about the meat planks from Jamie's for our Cabin Crawl. She said when we were done with the planks to let her or room service know to remove them when we were done with them. That is if our cabin attendants weren't available to help. Why wouldn't they, especially at 10 in the morning. We nodded in recognition as it was a bit noisy in the restaurant.

 

We went to the show and surely enough the seats were saved, but nothing today was going to be easy. As it turns out she saved a few different seats but some else was already sitting in a few of them as she wasn't there to watch over them.

 

In reality the seats we ended up in were better than the original ones we requested. Alexandra had words with the crew member that let the saved seats be taken but we told Alexandra and the couple that were seated in them not to worry. It really was no big deal.

 

 

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[A&L_Ont]

Owen was starting to get tired and made to just before the song "Beauty School Dropout". We quickly exited to the isle. After all that's why we picked seats on the isle. But first we had to dodge the people sitting in the isle on the stairs.

 

This woman spent more time on her phone texting than watching the show. I'm not sure who was on the receiving end, but I would have told her enough already.

 

 

After we passed by the stair sitters we were off to our cabin. Once we hit deck 17 we swiped our cabin key, which we now had, for the glass security door and accessed our secured hallway.

 

As we got closer to our cabin we saw someone in a suit knocking on our door and our cabin steward Seepaul was with him. What is going on we wondered while we were approaching them. They were still knocking as we arrived at our door and we were standing behind them.

 

We could now see around the corner of the hall was another gentleman with a cart, which had three meat planks on it. What? They were here to drop them off tonight. For tomorrow? They'll be bad and we all know the fridge in the cabin will not hold them, let alone keep them cold.

 

Dear Jesus, what's next?

 

Lisa and Owen went into the cabin, while I figured out what went wrong with the gentleman from Jamie's who was here to deliver them along with our cabin attendant. He made a phone call to confirm that we were to get them and when. In the meantime both myself and our cabin attendant were scratching our heads wondering why would they be delivered now.

 

Even Seepaul said CC cabin crawls are after meet and mingles which are always in the morning and not 10 at night. Why would anyone want meat planks delivered to their cabin at 10 pm, for internet friends to come and eat them while you are trying to put your 9 year old to bed. My god, what is next I wondered to myself.

 

I apologized greatly to the gentleman from Jamie's. The last thing I ever want to do is make extra work for crew, especially when they had to return the food only to be thrown out.

 

If this had been our only "issue" of the day we would have laughed it off, and I would have tried to eat a meat plank before bed. Instead we were frustrated by another break down in communication. Hopefully this was the last one.

 

As I was about to go into the cabin, and join Lisa and Owen, Seepaul asked if we wanted snacks or anything for the next day's cabin crawl. Defeatedly I said to him no thank-you. He insisted, so I asked for some pop and beer on ice. We might not be able to feed our guests but hopefully they could be watered. We weren't going to hold our breath though.

 

 

 

 

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Edited March 25, 2017 by A&L_Ont

[A&L_Ont]

We got Owen tucked into bed and Lisa and I were in the loft getting ready as well and were chatting. What are we going to do we wondered? How many more things can go wrong? What else is there to go wrong?

 

I posed to Lisa, should we just get off the ship in Falmouth. Lisa countered with perhaps we should let the Genie know that we do not need her help for the rest of the cruise. We have been here and done it many times, and we can do it without any help.

 

90% of our problems have been caused by shore side but tonight's issues were all on board. Our frustration levels were maxed out. In all honesty Napoleon was the root cause of our problems and it just built from there.

 

I said to Lisa let's sleep on it for tonight and figure it out in the morning. We settled into bed and lowered the TV to watch some and try and unwind before bed. Once the TV lowered we turned it on, and then channeled up from the starting menu and guess what we discovered. None of the TV channels would come on. The TV was blank. Really?

 

Falmouth was looking like a great disembarkation port right then.

 

I immediately sent Alexandra a Loop message, to which she had still not yet responded to our ones from previous in the day.

 

 

 

 

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[A&L_Ont]

At that point we shut off the non-functional TV and raised it back into the ceiling. We were done on so many different levels.

 

Amazingly enough we were able to sleep that night. The next morning I said to Lisa, that Is was going to set up a meeting with the Guest Services Manager.

 

And on that note I am done for tonight. You will have to wait until tomorrow to hear how that meeting went.

[cruisequeen3311]

Star Class Pier Welcome - or not.

Sorry for the overnight delay folks.

Last night I ended where we were walking away from our Uber driver with our luggage in hand. We were a little miffed that we could not reach our Genie by phone but we’ve done this before so no worries.

We headed to the Star Class Flag to where we were to drop off our luggage. What did we find there, you ask? No one. That being no porter in their white shirt (being a normal porter) and no agent of RC either. There were however two luggage carts/cans with luggage loaded on them.

We looked at one another and we both knew that there was no way we are leaving our non-tagged luggage sitting wayward at an unattended station. Our luggage wasn’t tagged because it was to have seamless transition right to our cabin. We had been informed that we needed no tags this cruise. If we had we would have printed them at home, just like all our other cruises we have been on.

So onward we continue to the suite checkin area to where the email said we were to go, with or without our luggage. This is where things turned sour for us. It was there that we met the “gentleman” that took our pre-cruise excitement and may as well have trashed it like an assignment to which one had a failing mark on. I will add his personality and mannerisms deserve an F mark.

We were waiting behind another couple and we were chatting with the people behind us in line. Once the couple in front of us were checked off this man’s list they continued on through the suite entrance door. We were next and the following is the conversation that we had with him almost verbatim.

Him - You can’t bring those in here.

Lisa - We were told we could.

Him - You can’t bring those bags in here.

Lisa - We are Star Class and we were told that we could bring them in here. We did last August.

Him - Take them over there (he pointed towards the flag). I told you you can’t bring them in here. I don’t deal with them.

I might also add that before his conversation with us he did not ask what cabin we were in and nor did he ask for our names. His first words were not welcoming, very abrupt and wasn’t even giving us a chance to speak.

At this point I was about to say something but then realized you aren’t going anywhere positive with this type of a$$hole with a Napoleon Complex and yes, he was short. I was going to state that in multiple post cruise emails we were sent it specifically said we can drop them off at the flag or bring them in, however I contained myself.

Me to Lisa - Let’s take the bags, it’s not worth it.

We slipped under the containing straps and headed back towards the luggage drop off flag.

 

 

That all being said our pre-cruise excitement that went from great, slid right into the crapper because of this person’s attitude. So much for “valued Star Class guests”. From not being able to get the Genie on the phone (no big deal) to this welcome (huge deal) this cruise was headed sideways quickly.

 

 

We too were star class and had the exact same experience !!! We had no idea where to put our bags and no one would help us. I told my family and kids to wait out there and I went to the purple plum star flag. Angry short white haired gentleman did not want to help me and almost treated me like I was stupid and never cruised before. Luckily s nice woman heard his rude remarks and helped us find a porter with the special bag holder for suites. The mean guy yelled at her and said you better be back you can't leave me. I said wow he is not very nice. And she said just ignore him. I couldn't believe my first experience to this star class was a real jerk myself. He almost made me feel like crying he was so rude. Not the royal personalities I am used too. This nice lady brought us through security and to check in and all the way to the star suite area. Thank you lady. Then as we saw genies come out and talk to almost everyone but us. We had no idea why our genie ignored us. Took everyone on board but us. Hey started calling suites so we just walked on the ship alone. We knew as suite class that we had early access to our room. So we went up to our room and got yelled at by the cleaning attendants. We continued to march to our room because it was just not right how we're left on our own. On our way to our room we happen to see the genie we knew was ours from over hearing conversations - Reyno. He didn't care that we were left and was not prepared for us at all. An after thought really.....

 

 

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[cruisequeen3311]

Also my suite attendant Dennis did a much better job than my genie. It seemed he did all the genies dirty work.

 

 

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[Yorkvillain]

A&L_Cliffhanger

[A&L_Ont]

Also my suite attendant Dennis did a much better job than my genie. It seemed he did all the genies dirty work.

 

 

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On Allure this past August and this cruise with Alexandra our Genies seemed to work hand in hand with the cabin attendants. It's not to say that they all work that way.

 

It sounds as though you met Napoleon as well. What a treat. :mad::evilsmile: I made reference to him in our post cruise survey, but not by that name. ;)

 

I have a few more plans but can't reveal them yet. As Yorkvillain said, A&L_Cliffhanger.

[A&L_Ont]

A&L_Cliffhanger

 

Did you like tonight's food porn? It was tasty and delicious.

[Yorkvillain]

Did you like tonight's food porn?

 

 

Oh yes!

[A&L_Ont]

Oh yes!

 

I thought you would. :D

[tropiclvrs]

And this in the summer.

 

 

My SIL calls it the storm trooper.

 

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Haha...it does resemble like a storm trooper. Love that comparison!

 

 

 

 

 

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[sg1phileshipper]

Napoleon shouldn't be in any Terminal and I hope they don't move him to Terminal 29. Who would want to run in such a rude, frustrated man anywhere? [emoji33][emoji49]

 

 

Cindy

[A&L_Ont]

Napoleon shouldn't be in any Terminal and I hope they don't move him to Terminal 29. Who would want to run in such a rude, frustrated man anywhere? [emoji33][emoji49]

 

 

Cindy

 

A will add a rude and frustrated man where almost all of his guests are 100% happy and polite. We have my experience as well as cruisequeen3311 in one day and I bet within less than an hour's time frame.

 

I'd only let him run the back door of a dog kennel. The door where the day's duces depart after he had to clean them up, from being buried in snow layers during a long drawn out winter. Much like an archeological dig in the spring. But to make it worse this job would happened daily and the kennel would be housing Mastiffs, Great Danes, Boxers, and Bernese Mountain Dogs.

 

Karma, please Karma. :evilsmile::*

[A&L_Ont]

I dropped Lisa off at the pool and Owen and kids club, which Kelsey calls kids jail, and I head down to guest services. I also failed to mention that this was happening during my favourite time of the day, advanced flow riding.

 

When I got to GS there was no line and I waited briefly for the next available representative. I let him know that I wanted to set up a meeting with the Guests Services Manager to talk about my frustration with our Star Class experiences so far.

 

I left my digits and he informed me that I would hear from the manger shortly. I returned back to our cabin to kill some time before the meet and mingle and cabin crawl. A few minutes later my phone rung and a meeting was set for high noon.

 

uqjo4cOYViE

[John&LaLa]

What are meat planks?

 

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[marci22]

What are meat planks?

 

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They get them from Jamie's, google images to see.

[Ourusualbeach]

A will add a rude and frustrated man where almost all of his guests are 100% happy and polite. We have my experience as well as cruisequeen3311 in one day and I bet within less than an hour's time frame.

 

I'd only let him run the back door of a dog kennel. The door where the day's duces depart after he had to clean them up, from being buried in snow layers during a long drawn out winter. Much like an archeological dig in the spring. But to make it worse this job would happened daily and the kennel would be housing Mastiffs, Great Danes, Boxers, and Bernese Mountain Dogs.

 

Karma, please Karma. :evilsmile::*

 

Vikki refers to that task as the great Easter egg hunt.:eek:

[constable145]

Hmm.. Section 78.1.1. Highway traffic act of Ontario "drive- handheld communication device" 400 dollar set fine, 90 dollars in court costs.. Hehe

 

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[A&L_Ont]

I forgot to mention that first thing in the morning (7:30) I Looped Alexandra. At that point she had yet to respond to any of my messages from the day before. I thought I should leave something again to see how long it takes for our communications to be discovered. They were eventually.

 

 

 

 

You might notice that I did not let her know about the meeting either. Shore side is out of her control, the planks at night we'd normally just laugh off, and the TV is just a TV.

 

Previously in my review I showed pics from the meet and mingle which had all of the senior officers and Captain Gus and each of them spoke. They welcomed us and more importantly said that "if you have any issues or concerns to please bring them to or attention". How appropriate for today.;)

 

 

Afterwards the cabin crawl then occurred without a hitch. When we reached our cabin Seepaul didn't disappoint. He had Corona, bottles of water, apple juice, and Coke on ice. I had wondered in the back mind if the Genie would have surprised us with some small plates of apps but that wasn't the case.

 

 

We all enjoyed some Corona on the balcony while we had some laughs and chatted about cruising, work and travel. No one knew about our "drama" behind the scenes.:)

Edited March 25, 2017 by A&L_Ont

[A&L_Ont]

What are meat planks?

 

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There are what sharks used to call "the plank" on a pirate ship. :)

 

They get them from Jamie's, google images to see.

 

 

Thanks. They are delicious.

 

Vikki refers to that task as the great Easter egg hunt.:eek:

 

 

I'd let her win that hunt, the eggs are all brown after all.[emoji33]

 

 

 

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[A&L_Ont]

Hmm.. Section 78.1.1. Highway traffic act of Ontario "drive- handheld communication device" 400 dollar set fine, 90 dollars in court costs.. Hehe

 

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That is correct Constable. Thank-you for the gentle but kind reminder. It has not been lost on me. :)

 

Have I ever mentioned that my wife has extremely long, if not abnormal, arms that have great reach for taking pictures? You know we have awfully long lane ways here in the country and with those Brembro brakes I can stop on a dime. ;)

 

All joking aside, to me it isn't about speed but it's nice to know I have the power to pass when needed. As I have gotten older the drivers around me have started to scare the life out of me, espically when I'm out in the old cars. They don't stop on a dime and have less safety features. Then factor in the following - is the driver in the car that I am headed towards, at the upcoming intersection, doing a rolling stop or have they actually seen me coming? I think I've watched too many episodes of Canada's Worst Driver.

 

As for your Anthem question, we haven't been in the cabin you asked about but perhaps one day.

[A&L_Ont]

Oh I know what the SRT means my friend's daughter had one but in black but you know I was never inside of it as she didn't have it long before she was surprised with twins. She quickly determined that with 2 babies and all the gear the Jeep wasn't cutting it she joined us own gals with the Tahoe LTZ. Sweet ride though! She still talks about it and wished she had kept it in the museum until she loses the car seats, strollers etc...

 

Back to the Napolean story..

 

This my second Jeep SRT8 and I had few others being the 300 and the Challenger. They have moved on, being not family friendly at the time. I have since put my focus on Mustangs both new and old.

 

I can totally understand why you friend's daughter did the swap. Kids equal lots of extra stuff to which you either don't need or worse yet don't have enough of at the exact moment you need it. Receiving blankets for example.

[emmy]

Andrew whew to your issues. That treatment was horrible and I was frustrated for you and could visualize everything going one. I take it that the Harmony in November was not Star Class?

 

Thank you for explaining in detail.

 

I need to get on another ship with you two. :)

[constable145]

That is correct Constable. Thank-you for the gentle but kind reminder. It has not been lost on me. :)

 

Have I ever mentioned that my wife has extremely long, if not abnormal, arms that have great reach for taking pictures? You know we have awfully long lane ways here in the country and with those Brembro brakes I can stop on a dime. ;)

 

All joking aside, to me it isn't about speed but it's nice to know I have the power to pass when needed. As I have gotten older the drivers around me have started to scare the life out of me, espically when I'm out in the old cars. They don't stop on a dime and have less safety features. Then factor in the following - is the driver in the car that I am headed towards, at the upcoming intersection, doing a rolling stop or have they actually seen me coming? I think I've watched too many episodes of Canada's Worst Driver.

 

As for your Anthem question, we haven't been in the cabin you asked about but perhaps one day.

I'm there in Feb. I'll post some pics to repay the favour. Napoleon best not mess with my cruise experience in August!

 

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