ATG

There’s a big difference between watching the laggers run down the pier when you can see the gangway still out and laughing when someone actually misses the ship. I’ve chuckled at pier runners who can easily get back onboard. They usually just are panicking, maybe they’ll try to be earlier next time. I could never laugh at someone missing the ship, especially a family with children.

On Symphony now. Went to Falmouth instead of Labadee. No credit on our account.

We did our focus group today on Symphony. We had to sign an NDA, so I can’t really tell you what we discussed. (I want my $150!) I think I can say it was regarding a specialty dining idea for a future ship. I have seen mention of it in various articles, so I don’t think it’s a big secret. There were 12 of us and he mentioned he had other groups. This is the first time I have ever heard of them.

On symphony this week. Muster stations E1,2,3&4 were right by guest services. But there are LOTS of crew members who are happy to direct you.

Falmouth is not my favorite port, so I didn’t look at excursions. But I have heard people talking about what they were going to do, so there may have been some offered. I was just surprised by how many people stayed onboard. This cruise has been great so far, but I’m not sure I have ever seen so many teenagers. Not as many small children, but lots of teens. And in general, they have been quite well behaved.

I’m currently on Symphony and we’re at Falmouth. The pools look just as crowded as they did yesterday (a sea day).

We talked about what amount would make us give up an hour of vacation. We figure this will cover our charges and a couple of t-shirts.

Had an interesting email from RC today. Asked me to do a short survey before our Symphony cruise this weekend. Asked questions about how often we do specialty restaurants and whether we get sea sick. I answered them. They then asked if we would consider doing a focus group for an hour and offered $150 OBC each for our time. We agreed out of curiosity. I’m curious to see what they talk about.

I’m also on this sailing and don’t see this anywhere. My cruise planner still has Labadee excursions for sale. I have not received an email about this.

We’re on the Symphony the 23rd also. Grand Turk would be a new port for us. Since we only have 2 other stops, I hope it isn’t just another sea day. But if it is, we’ll have a good day. It doesn’t really matter to us.

Your cabin has not been officially assigned. Mine has shown up any where from 30 to 13 days.

Recently I looked at excursions RC offers for several Caribbean ports. Paraphrasing, they say this is not the US and conditions and laws are different. I had never noticed this before.

Are you perhaps thinking of Princess? Our only Princess cruise in a suite included dinner in a specially restaurant the first night.

We were in a junior suite and should have gotten the old twice a day service. I’ve never heard of “no first day service “.

I have never even considered removing gratuities until our most recent Oasis cruise. We returned to our cabin late the first night and the steward had not been there. We had wet towels in the bathroom. I had left a note asking him to replace the duvet with a blanket. Nothing done. Called housekeeping and they brought towels and blankets. The next evening he knocked on the door and explained he had peaked into the room, but we weren’t there so he didn’t come in. Whaaat? He skipped another night and again I had to call for towels. I complained about it when I called. I didn’t remove them because I know it goes to many people and I didn’t want to use cash. But he certainly didn’t get any extra and got mentioned by name on the survey.