Horizon / Live / Solo - Sep 21-29-2019

[Saint Greg]

What’s the straw situation there? Non-existent?

[beachbum6264]

1 hour ago, sid_9169 said:

When you're drunk, there's nothing better than cheese pizza...

 

 

 

Cheese pizza for breakfast - gets rid of any hangover I may have earned. 

[blarko]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

What’s the straw situation there? Non-existent?

 

Yea.....where are the sugar straws that @Saint Greg had to endure?

[zencruisers]

What are using to remedy the hangovers ? Great drink porn as usual!

[Saint Greg]

16 minutes ago, blarko said:

 

Yea.....where are the sugar straws that @Saint Greg had to endure?

I only had one sugar straw. Other than that I got regular ones or brought my own. Regular straws were easy to get on lido but I had to ask at alchemy depending on the bartender.
 

I’m curious if it’s worse in Florida because I remember someone telling me Vista out of Florida only had paper straws. I got on Vista in Texas and they have unlimited plastic straws. 
 

Then I hear they’re all sugar straws or nothing last month and I get on Glory out of Louisiana and while they have some sugar straws, pretty much everyone is still using regular straws.

 

I’m wondering if it’s tougher to get a decent straw out of Florida than it is in TX/LA.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by Saint Greg

[bina]

Hey Sid,

 

Thanks for giving us another great review 

[grandmarnnurse]

10 hours ago, Cafedumonde said:

Three words:  your time dining 

lol

I’ve been flamed numerous times on John Heald polls when I say this, but here goes: get rid of set dining times with assigned tables. Follow the NCL model of Freestyle Cruising, where you eat wherever you want, whenever you want. You just step up to the hostess at the restaurant OF YOUR CHOICE (not one assigned MDR) tell her you want a table for 1, 2, or how large your party is. Perfect. No issues what so ever. But there are some cruisers that balk at any kind of change, no matter how good it is. When you go to a nice restaurant at home, are you seated with a bunch of strangers? No. If I want to mingle on a cruise, I will, but please, no forced mingling at dinner. Sid, you must choose YTD next time. 

Edited September 23, 2019 by grandmarnnurse

[grandmarnnurse]

10 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

you can do it on CCL as well but you have to get YTD.

Yes, you can, but they have one other issue, Greg. You need to have your choice “approved” before it is final, or they may say, “sorry, you are having late seating. Or early seating”. They need to stop that. If they don’t go to a total Freestyle change, they need to allow people to have their choice of dining. And because they started this thinking not many people would choose YTD, they only have one level of one restaurant assigned for this. So sometimes there’s a back up and wait. With Freestyle, ALL restaurants are this way. You choose where you want to eat each night. Not sure if Carnival will go to this, but I’d bet from all the polls that they are thinking of it. It is what most people prefer now days.

[grandmarnnurse]

8 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I only had one sugar straw. Other than that I got regular ones or brought my own. Regular straws were easy to get on lido but I had to ask at alchemy depending on the bartender.
 

I’m curious if it’s worse in Florida because I remember someone telling me Vista out of Florida only had paper straws. I got on Vista in Texas and they have unlimited plastic straws. 
 

Then I hear they’re all sugar straws or nothing last month and I get on Glory out of Louisiana and while they have some sugar straws, pretty much everyone is still using regular straws.

 

I’m wondering if it’s tougher to get a decent straw out of Florida than it is in TX/LA.

 

 

Greg, I was wondering. Do you get “scolded” if you bring your own straws and use them, if they only use sugar straws. As I mentioned on your review, I bought a huge box of plastic straws to bring. I don’t want to get sent to the “naughty room” if staff sees me pull out my own straw. 🤣🤣

Edited September 23, 2019 by grandmarnnurse

[sid_9169]

10 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

What’s the straw situation there? Non-existent?

I've seen a few, but they're rare.

[sid_9169]

9 hours ago, zencruisers said:

What are using to remedy the hangovers ? Great drink porn as usual!

I've been switching back and forth between the Flyby and the Detoxx... Both seem to be doing their job, but I'm also getting about nine or ten hours of sleep too...

[sid_9169]

Man, I've been getting some really great sleep! I considered just laying in bed all day today, but we're in Grand Turk... I came down to the secret coffee place, but the results were quite disappointing this morning. Still a little better than the buffet coffee. Our port time today is 7:30-1:30, so not a very long day ashore. I'm going to slowly get ready, then head out. I don't think there's really anything to do here other than go to the beach...

[sid_9169]

You can pretty much see the entirety of Grand Turk from the lido deck... To the left.

 

And, to the right...

 

[sid_9169]

And, there wasn't a single CHOG in sight...

 

[sid_9169]

The Tides aft bar when it's not covered up by people...

 

[sid_9169]

Pizza place... Or pizzeria del capitano, as they call it...

 

[sid_9169]

When I got back to the cabin, there was this note in my mailbox... I started reading it, and thought maybe it was some kind of whatever for my birthday. Turns out that I've been invited to some sort of jewelry sale... I may have to shut down my inbox if that's the kind of thing they're going to stuff it with...

 

[sid_9169]

I dug deeper into the stack of stuff that came with the fun times last night, and there is a birthday gift... A fifty dollar gift card for the spa. Good for services only. Basically, it's an invitation to come spend fifty or a hundred bucks, so that I can get my fifty dollar discount...

 

[wardamnweagle]

11 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

When you're drunk, there's nothing better than cheese pizza...

 

 

Umm, cheese is not a pizza topping. It just comes on pizza. It’s like crust. You just have naked pizza!

 

🤣

 

Drinks look good, though!

[blarko]

13 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

I dug deeper into the stack of stuff that came with the fun times last night, and there is a birthday gift... A fifty dollar gift card for the spa. Good for services only. Basically, it's an invitation to come spend fifty or a hundred bucks, so that I can get my fifty dollar discount...

 

 

And you can’t use it on any of the daily or port specials that they run. They make sure you end up spending more than you save. 

[sid_9169]

9:00 on Monday morning... Normally I would be starting my long and arduous work week right now... Yet, here I am, a million miles from home... Well, not really a million, but it seems like it...

[wardamnweagle]

1 minute ago, sid_9169 said:

9:00 on Monday morning... Normally I would be starting my long and arduous work week right now... Yet, here I am, a million miles from home... Well, not really a million, but it seems like it...

 

You give hope to the rest of us. Working from home today so I can be present for our yearly termite inspection. 4 conference calls (including one right now), 10a, 1p, and 3p. So basically I’m going to drink coffee, read reviews (like yours from the beginning) and browse excursions. 

[sid_9169]

Pretty soon, I'll be retiring that 'ol number 49 and trading it in for the big "five Oh"...

 

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Greg, I was wondering. Do you get “scolded” if you bring your own straws and use them, if they only use sugar straws. As I mentioned on your review, I bought a huge box of plastic straws to bring. I don’t want to get sent to the “naughty room” if staff sees me pull out my own straw. 🤣🤣

Not at all. But it wasn’t a big deal because plastic straws were available at all bars. On lido they gave me one automatically. At the atrium and serenity I had to ask. Alchemy it depended on the bartender. I just brought my own when I went to alchemy because I got tired of waiting for a straw if the non-straw issuing bartender was busy. 

 

Now if they’ve totally cut them out in Florida I may get a different response in December.

[Saint Greg]

59 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

When I got back to the cabin, there was this note in my mailbox... I started reading it, and thought maybe it was some kind of whatever for my birthday. Turns out that I've been invited to some sort of jewelry sale... I may have to shut down my inbox if that's the kind of thing they're going to stuff it with...

 

Hopefully you packed duct tape. I haven’t received any such invites for two cruises.

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by Saint Greg