TravelinGert

Oh sorry I didn't catch on sooner. The ship I am looking at is Vista at the moment but I have yet to settle definitely. None of the ships I'm seeing in the Med next year start with an R, though.

I would absolutely love it if someone gave a detailed description of each thing they have their butler do for them on the average cruise. I guess I'm just lacking in imagination because I don't even know what I would ask them to do for me.

Thank you for taking the time to post all those photos. The extended balcony and the large bathroom do look extremely roomie and comfortable!

When I visited Italy last year a lovely Italian grandmother called pasta sauce gravy. I was visiting a friend's grandmother in Bari to drop off some treats my friend asked me to deliver and got invited to stay to dinner. She showed me how to make orecchiette and served it with what she termed "a lovely gravy". Don't know if maybe she picked it up from her family across the pond on the east coast here but that's what she called it.

Best ocean cruise I have had to date was on Adventure of the Seas. Great crew, great ship, and we had such a smooth experience that cruise. Second best was MSC Seaside which I really enjoyed. Best boat/ship I have been on ever was the American Steamboat Company Countess but that line just shut down recently. I'm very sad about that as I had planned to cruise with them again next year. I did 3 cruises on that boat and got to know several crew members. They were good people and I hope they were easily able to get work elsewhere.

I'm more inclined to leave the beaten path as the years go by. I'm less fearful than I was in my earlier travels, partly due to experience I suppose. I'm more likely to set out on my own verses booking any tour. I guess part of that is the old termagant in me, maybe. I'd rather not have to wait on others, or leave just because others want to. If I go on my own I can please myself. Having a GPS map in my pocket helps, too, as now DH can argue with Google if he likes instead of bothering me. 😁

They say you have to tell them because if you leave the US longer than 30 days they suspend your SSI payments. Specifically the law allows them to suspend coverage if you're gone longer than 30 days and you must have it restarted when you return. In order to do that you must provide copies of your passport, plane ticket, and some other documents to establish you have returned to the US. My grandmother let them know she was leaving for 29 days and they still suspended her payment for 30 days. My uncle went through a lot trying to get her reimbursed for the missed payment since she wasn't gone 30 days and eventually they did correct it. However she went without that money for around a year. And yes, my whole family was surprised to learn this is the case considering we have family members who retired to other countries with less expensive cost of living and still receive their SSI retirement benefits. Seems they never notified Social Security and just have a mailing address and bank account in the US the whole time. All of them claimed to be unaware they were supposed to have notified Social Security.

I'm going to answer without reading the other replies in hopes some small thing I say will prove helpful to OP or to others reading. 1. Excursions: does anyone have first-hand recommendations for Puerto Plata, St. Thomas and Tortola? In St Thomas we did a tour bus the first time, and just winged it the other two times we were there. We went to all the trouble of booking one in advance and paying a $10 deposit only to be completely unable to find anyone from the company. Ended up there were half a dozen tour buses just collecting anyone who want to be driven up to the scenic overlook for a very reasonable flat fare so we just joined one of those. Not the best option for an excursion in St Thomas I don't doubt, but we had plans to meet friends at a beach for the greater part of our time there. The tour operator agreed to drop us at the beach for no extra so it worked well for our plans, particularly considering the tour itself was only barely more than the taxi fare we'd been told by a couple of taxi drivers at the port just to go directly to the beach. If you decide to visit the beach be aware Magens Bay Beach is gorgeous, but gets a bit crowded in the afternoon unless you head for the edges of the beach. There is a fun bar on the beach if that's your pleasure. Emerald Beach isn't as nice but is usually less crowded. If you'd like to visit Coral World, then Coki Beach is just there by the parking lot. Saw some gorgeous little colorful fish there after being recommended to visit by someone who grew up in St Thomas. Take a few dog biscuits or some fish food or crackers and you'll soon see more than you can imagine swirling about. If you decide to take the ferry to St Johns taxi to the far side of the island and grab the Red Hook Ferry which is faster and offers a smoother ride. Trunk Bay is beyond gorgeous but can be logistically a pain to visit due to taxis and ferries. Has a great snorkeling trail, too. I'd say it was well worth it. You can swim with turtles at Maho & Linduist or Salt Pond Bay has great snorkeling though I would say book an excursion for that. 2. Dinners/formal attire: I did not realize NCL was a "freestyle" cruise line and didn't do formal nights. I'm a bit disappointed as I love getting dressed up. If we wear suits/cocktail dresses to dinner, will we be totally out of place? Every cruise I've been on both before and after pandemic I've seen everything from people in high end tuxes and formals to people in much more casual attire, and this has been especially the case on Caribbean cruises. Everyone else wears whatever they like so you might just as well enjoy that privilege as well. 3. Planning: I'm such a planner, and I find NCL's website and app to be completely non-user friendly. The UX is awful and I can't find much info. Do we really not have to plan anything in advance besides excursions? I'm also a planner and always plan a lot in advance. Truth be told, you really don't even have to plan excursions in advance, though. At every stop there will likely be a booth on or near where your ship unloads selling all the same tours you can book in advance. There will also be individual tour operators looking to fill up the last few empty seats. Sometimes these can be less expensive than booking in advance, but most times they're roughly the same price. Sometimes if you've mastered the art of haggling you may score a deal. If you're like me, the planner in you will be thankful you at least read up on the options in advance.

I hate to say this, but just because one person has a good experience on a very large ship like that does nothing to negate another person's negative experience. These ships are huge and they may just never deal with the same staff or eat in the same section of the dining room. I've definitely both experienced and seen others experience far less than good service on occasion on ships, and sometimes I've had service and food that was far above reasonable expectation on that same ship. Maybe his room steward just isn't a very good one, and maybe the servers he dealt with in the dining room just happened to not be very good ones. Sorry. I know that's not what everyone wants to hear, but not every staff member on every ship is doing a great job. Equally it could well be this other cruiser happened to get in a cabin with a really great, experienced room steward and dines with the best in the fleet. Some cruises you just get lucky.

Thank you will do! 🙂

That does sound great right about now. So difficult to compare.

I was trying to be polite about his spare tire, essentially. Like a lot of us he's put on a few pounds over the years. Mostly because I'm not exactly as trim as I once was, either. 😉

Oh my stars and little fishes this did give me a chuckle! Husband was not as amused. Some people just don't have a sense of humor. 😁

Hopefully CoolBlueGreenSeas won't mind me tagging onto their post here. Please elaborate on size a bit. My husband is six foot six and dad-bod, so he takes up a certain amount of space just by necessity. I found videos of a six foot six fellow not quite so dad-bod who demonstrated he fits in the showers even in the Ocean View cabins on several different Oceania ships. This is going to be a big anniversary cruise for us so I really think at least a concierge veranda room, but that nice space in the bathroom in the PH cabins really looks nice.

I haven't even peeked at what Viking is offering yet. I'll take a look. Do you have a favorite Viking ship, Don?