Group live: Valiant Lady Barcelona to Miami 10/29-11/12, Everyone Welcome

[CineGraphic]

All TVs, tablets and the app have been unusable since the false alarm earlier today. Their “brilliant” IT team is working on it. (their adjective, not mine)

 

 

[cantgetin]

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.

[MeganGC1983]

1 hour ago, cantgetin said:

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.

I miss the butter chicken. 😭

[jon81uk]

19 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

I miss the butter chicken. 😭

I’ve had it as a lunch special in the Galley. Others have seen it as a dinner special in the Galley too.

 

Personally we prefer the new Razzle Dazzle menu. The butter chicken was the only stand out dish on the old one. There were no starters my partner liked on the old one, now there are several good ones. Same with the desserts, the old ones seemed to be focused more on looks than taste and the good stuff (churros and Razzle cake) are still available for brunch.

[cantgetin]

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.

[MeganGC1983]

43 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

I’ve had it as a lunch special in the Galley. Others have seen it as a dinner special in the Galley too.

 

Personally we prefer the new Razzle Dazzle menu. The butter chicken was the only stand out dish on the old one. There were no starters my partner liked on the old one, now there are several good ones. Same with the desserts, the old ones seemed to be focused more on looks than taste and the good stuff (churros and Razzle cake) are still available for brunch.

I’ll need to look for it in the Galley. I have to admit, I’ve never noticed the daily specials. My sailing on Resilient, after the menu change, the only sea day, I had a brunch I had to attend. I’ll be watching in Feb. on Valiant. Thanks. 

[TheDarkestBlue]

4 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

 

 

LoL wouldn't you think that an abandon ship message might be a brighter color like red? 

Edited November 6, 2023 by TheDarkestBlue

[tbmrt]

13 hours ago, MeganGC1983 said:

I’ll need to look for it in the Galley. I have to admit, I’ve never noticed the daily specials. My sailing on Resilient, after the menu change, the only sea day, I had a brunch I had to attend. I’ll be watching in Feb. on Valiant. Thanks. 

Where are the specials in The Galley Listed?

[cantgetin]

14 hours ago, MeganGC1983 said:

I’ll need to look for it in the Galley. I have to admit, I’ve never noticed the daily specials. My sailing on Resilient, after the menu change, the only sea day, I had a brunch I had to attend. I’ll be watching in Feb. on Valiant. Thanks. 

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

[cantgetin]

21 minutes ago, tbmrt said:

Where are the specials in The Galley Listed?

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.

[cantgetin]

13 hours ago, TheDarkestBlue said:

 

LoL wouldn't you think that an abandon ship message might be a brighter color like red? 

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.

[CineGraphic]

Last night was Scarlet Night.

Carlos the Diva announced at one point that this was the first TA that’s been able to have the party outdoors.
More people ended up in the pool than I can remember seeing on previous sailings.

Everyone was clearly having a great time.

 

[MeganGC1983]

3 hours ago, tbmrt said:

Where are the specials in The Galley Listed?

I’m not sure. That’s why I have to look. LOL

[CineGraphic]

Pam and I hosted a $50 group slot pull this morning, and Lady Luck made her presence known. There were 21 of us, and with the date being 11/7, you can’t blame her for feeling generous.

Everyone had five $10 spins, and thanks to 4 bonuses, everyone doubled their money.

Thanks to everyone who came out to play and to the casino staff for being so accommodating.

[happy cruzer]

So how do you “see” the special?  On a board?  Or displayed on a plate somewhere?

 

thanks

[jon81uk]

Just now, happy cruzer said:

So how do you “see” the special?  On a board?  Or displayed on a plate somewhere?

 

thanks

On each counter that is offering a special, there will be an example plated up with a small sign describing it. Typically the salad bar and diner will have specials, plus the bread counter rotates through a lot of options.

[CineGraphic]

It’s been raining pretty much all day, but thankfully there’s plenty going on to keep everyone occupied. They even debuted a new game today, “Double Trouble”, Virgin’s spin on the marriage game. It was lots of fun, and well attended.

 

The wind just kicked up as I’m typing this in our cabin. Up until now, we’ve been pretty lucky weather-wise.

 

[CineGraphic]

Here are screen caps of our current position, and this morning’s internet speed test. Uploads were at a snail’s pace yesterday, and it looks like they won’t be good today either. Those that need to telework won’t be pleased.

 

 

[CineGraphic]

The British press is living up to its reputation.

A crew member who was in the roundabout told me they only saw one person with a life jacket. People were still in line for coffee, oblivious to the situation. There were no horn blasts warnings that they talk about during muster.

It was a non-event for most of us.

 

 

[WanderingBrit]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

Here are screen caps of our current position, and this morning’s internet speed test. Uploads were at a snail’s pace yesterday, and it looks like they won’t be good today either. Those that need to telework won’t be pleased.

 

 

 

 

Just FWIW: I found that Starlink introduces significant routing delays, possibly the result of carrier grade NATting?, and I got consistently better responsiveness - though not materially different bandwidth measurements - when I had my internet VPN enabled.

Cruise Critic would not successfully post photographs unless I had my internet VPN active, but was flawless with it running. Smaller ship on a different cruise line, but still Starlink and we were above the Arctic circle where there are no "close to overhead" Starlink satellites.

[chefchick]

6 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

The British press is living up to its reputation.

A crew member who was in the roundabout told me they only saw one person with a life jacket. People were still in line for coffee, oblivious to the situation. There were no horn blasts warnings that they talk about during muster.

It was a non-event for most of us.

 

 

This is ridiculous and why the general public thinks cruises are unsafe or a bad decision.  The worse thing that happened was the app wasn’t working for a little while 😱. We all managed.  I think this “article” was in The Sun (which isn’t the most reliable source) but some idiot on here gave them this info to run with.  

[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!

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by cantgetin

[Freelancer1]

We saw the notification on our TV and app. No one was concerned. Everyone just thought it was an unusual glitch. 

[CineGraphic]

6 hours ago, Freelancer1 said:

We saw the notification on our TV and app. No one was concerned. Everyone just thought it was an unusual glitch. 

It was more of an inconvenience than anything else, but it seems that handful of folks may have momentarily panicked.

[cantgetin]

3 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

It was more of an inconvenience than anything else, but it seems that handful of folks may have momentarily panicked.

I can see first time cruisers panicking briefly....but obviously the infamous "7 short and one long" LOUD horn blast did not occur.  The other point which  first timers might not appreciate is that there is a huge difference between a request to report to muster stations and a captain giving an "abandon ship" order.  For instance, on the Disney Magic years ago there was a "thermal anomaly," which on any other line would have been called a fire.  This was a rather large fire (there are photos on line), not a brief kitchen fire.  At some point in the firefighting efforts, we got the horn and overhead announcement to report to muster stations with life vests.  About an hour later, we were released to return to our beds.  The explanation was that the captain felt that it would be better to have everyone counted and in place to allow for a smooth evacuation had that become necessary.  Yes, it was a painful wake up call, but anyone with two synapsing neurons would appreciate the captain placing safety as the top priority.