frantic36

Thanks Ed, I knew you weren't but for people that don't know me I just wanted to be clear we do things on the "down low". I'll let you know if we get the same letter on our upcoming Pursuit cruise. Though you know I will also say something to the HD about my disapproval if it occurs while onboard. I would be curious to find out their reasons why they thought this was a good idea.🤔

Oh we don't do it to get special attention and actually tell them that when donating. We used to donate last day but then found out some of our favourite crew were also going home at the same time. Having been on a cruise where they had held special dinners for the crew from the crew fund I didn't want our favourites to miss out.

I wonder why you didn't get it but texanaust did? I agree the letter isn't great but since I always contribute to the fund as opposed to tipping everyone who serves me I would just ignore it. We contribute part way through the cruise rather than the end because some of the great crew who served us might leave at the same time we do so not benefit from any special event put on. On our last couple of cruises we have noticed a lot more overt tipping to bar and wait staff. You couldn't miss it as they weren't discrete. I feel it has lead to some staff hovering waiting to be tipped and I for one as an Australian find this uncomfortable. So maybe as @Cantara24 suggested it is a nudge to people to contribute to the crew fund that supports all staff rather than individuals.

For a period of time we had to sail during the Northern Summer School holidays on Seabourn so have sailed on some B2B short cruises with many children. Having said that though some of the worst behaviour I have seen on those 7 day cruises were groups of adult friends travelling together. It is why we now, since we can, avoid 7 day cruises at that time. I'm a Marriot member so I will try them at some point out of curiosity.

I will be on Pursuit's first Kimberly cruise in June. So I can let you know what expeditions we get then. Having done a Kimberley cruise last year I am not expecting them to use the submarine due to tides in the area but I might be surprised.

Agree with both these as we experienced this on our Jan/Feb '24 cruise. We ask the Sommelier for the premium wine list and take photos of the list so we could go through it later to make a list if some of our favourites. We also ask the Sommelier for recommendations because sometimes there are odd bottles tucked away not on the list. On longer cruises the list can be updated if they get new provisions loaded as happened on our cruise. We were lucky on our last cruise we had Joanne and Phillipe and their backups, though not as knowledgeable, were learning quickly with Jo & Phillipe's mentoring.

Maybe Keith and I are too out there 🤔. I am frequently surprised by crew saying hello. That's great your stewardess is a good one most are I think but the not so good do impact. I'm glad you are having a brilliant cruise as the previous one especially wasn't so great so you deserve a good one. Best regards to you and Alf. Julie

We are still called by our name on recent cruises and by new crew as well as by those we have sailed with before. There is admittedly quite a few new crew on the ships. On our recent sailings we have seen crew in the dining room and they seemed to be studying lists. In fact last September on Sojourn we had one of the stewardesses tell us laughingly that she sat a test the day before and our name was one of the few she remembered. She wasn't our stewardess either 🙂. Maybe it is our fairly common surname makes it easier?

Thanks for the reminder to pack our good insulated bottle with us. What you describe is what I have seen on the videos and when walking in hot climates I prefer my drinking water kept cool. For what it's worth reading SS and Regent none of their included water bottles are insulated either.

Your comments are about Spirit and @bohaiboy is talking about his problems on Muse. I think you are making the issue confusing. Different ships can definitely have a different feel at times.

Fully agree. I get their marketing emails. Though the ship is very tempting I would only do it if I was over in the Med and wanted a fill in for two other holidays as a chance to try their product.

I asked my TA this last week as she does a lot of Regent bookings and she indicated it is usually July.

On rereading the original post to me it isn't clear that he actually put his airline locator number into the airlines "manage my booking" to check his flight was still there. But was this to check any flight deviations or to actually check his booking with his PNR?

@Earthtones thank you for posting the menus as they look wonderful. I really enjoy the Mediterranean Menu.

Yes and it is very annoying. I sent a message to CC help to ask them to remove it. I also suggested they tell NCL if I had any interest in sailing with them this would put me off them completely.