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travelberlin

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    Azamara
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    Asia

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  1. You are right, this makes no sense. If this were true, Crystal would be the only cruise line in which OBC cannot be used for excursions or shops onboard. I guess the person you talked is misinformed.
  2. Although this is controversial, if you use the vouchers for your drinks, there is no need to tip. Tip seems to be included as part of your benefit as others have posted. If you want to tip in addition, feel free to do so. However it is not obligatory.
  3. Thank you are this bottles already in our cabin when we arrive or do we have to request them? I am Diamond member.
  4. One question please. What is the Diamond water?
  5. Could you please remind me where to refill the bottles ?. I like the idea more than buying plastic bottles (and further contributing to additional waste). What I did not like at the MSC ships however is that not everyone would use refill stations carefully. I mean they would just put their water containers on the machine touching it after drinking their water directly from the containers. Is at Royal ships similar?
  6. Sorry to read you are facing cancellations and rebooking problems again. The cancellations were the reason why I have left Explora without booking another cruise with them independently of how generous their compensation seemed to be. I hope Explora will improve this. On the mean time we are happily booking other cruise lines including MSC. Today we are just finalizing our booking for Spring 2025 with the MSC Seaview.
  7. Thanks Keith for your answer. Same as you, I try to write reviews from my cruises and from hotels and restaurants to give others an idea of what to expect. I benefit a lot from reviews from others when searching hotels and restaurants. I have to say, I benefit more from the lower rated reviews than from the 5 star reviews. If posters write something negative, I see if the negative things are very important to me or not. For example if someone mentions a security and safety issue in a hotel, it doesn’t matter how many others write 5 star reviews, I do not book on that hotel. I have indeed written a review of my cruise with the Serenity. I have given the experience 5 stars, not because every thing was perfect and better than ever from my point of view. But because I appreciate the efforts that the new company is making and I have given my honest review with some suggestions for improvement. Nothing is perfect but I did not find the issues that I did not like to be a problem in order to diminish my 5 star rate of my experience. I do not recognize the names of the other reviewers because they do not post on this board. This is why I was wondering. Thanks again for your explanation. Ivi
  8. I find it also interesting that when looking at the reviews for the ships on Cruise Critic, we hardly find people who post on this board. For example for the Serenity there are several reviews now, and I can only recognize Keith, who writes 5 stars reviews of all his cruises with Crystal. Other reviewers I do not recall having see them posting on the Crystal boards. Are they travel agents or travel journalists just coming to Cruise Critic to write reviews? On the other hand, other Crystal loyals here, who have already sailed with Crystal, and seem to love the product do not write reviews of their cruises, although their opinions might be helpful for the new company. Ivi
  9. We find curious that so many people are just standing around in the water for hours as if it were another hot tub. And this was actually the subject that the OP mentioned: safety in terms of hygiene of the hot tubs. As long as people are standing a long time in the swimming pools also, those pools are not hygienic either. As I have said before, it seems to be a cultural difference. We would never consider to go into a public pool with an alcoholic drink in the hand (although this is not allowed) to “socialize”. However others seem to find it the right thing to do. Enough for me about this subject.
  10. We have been swimming in all our cruises. You are not correct. I wonder where you got the information that pools have not been designed to swim. Best pools for swimming you can find on Regent and Crystal. Of course they are not olympic sized pools, but large enough to do laps. Pools at Royal Caribbean ships are large enough to swim. Pools on ships are used for several purposes for example to do aqua classes or to play games at certain hours. But most cruise lines do not allow people to drink while on the pool.
  11. Thanks. Interesting. It did not occurred to me that just standing around in the swimming pool for long periods of time was kind of acceptable behavior because people were on vacation. I have thought the pools were there to be able to swim. It must be a cultural difference. We usually swim on our pools and chat outside. By the way, we have heard so many times using the “I am on vacation” line to justify lack of consideration for others that it has become also something to wonder about it.
  12. Thanks for all the advice you give here. Do you think it will be a good idea to visit the Gothic Quarter and El Born on a Sunday? Are those areas safe to walk on your own even in the evening? Not late at night and in the Sommer season. I have seen also some wine tour outside Barcelona visiting a couple of wineries in Penedes. It is quite expensive though. It is about 6 hours including some light lunch. Do you think it is worth it to spend a Sunday that way instead of walking around in Barcelona? I do not like hop on hop off buses either.
  13. Thanks Keith for your answer. In relation to guests stealing, fortunately it hasn’t happened to us. In many cruises with different cruise lines from Royal Caribbean to Crystal, we have encountered honest people. My husband tends to leave his sports jacket at different places on the ships. I don’t remember how many times he went to the guest relations of ships to get again his jacket. He was able to recover it because honest people (passengers or crew members) delivered it there. Only once his jacket was definitely gone. This was an MSC ship. Ivi
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