jimbob22

now we're off the ship. I'll try that before our next Hal. Definitely when we were on the ship, we could only see our own cabin. Turned out to not be a huge deal.

we got on in San Diego, took it to Vancouver, and got off when you got on. What didn't you like about Gage? My wife liked him (she attended one or two talks he did). I don't keep up with CDs much, but thought he was fine. I also liked the size of the ship--although the Pinnacle class isn't that much bigger. Since we were on the final 5 nights of a longer Panama Canal cruise, we did not get to see any of the stage shows. Comedian Johnny Cardinale performed twice (he was actually really good). And there was a pianist (Hyperion Knight, excellent) that performed twice. And on the final night they just had a movie in the main theater. So the entertainment was not real strong. Our lido and mdr experiences were fine. We and others noticed that the hot water in the shower was on some annoying pump/cycle (around 10 seconds of hot followed by 3-4 seconds of tepid, repeat). This was annoying. And some parts of our fourth floor stunk like sewage; but overall the ship is in really good shape, looks similar to the newer ships.

Just got off Neiuw Amsterdam. The app does seem to let you make reservations for certain times for the passengers in your room. But our family was in multiple rooms, so I went to the MDR to make a reservation for later that day and they said no can do, that we'd need to get a buzzer when we got there. Fortunately, the waits were not too long (we could immediately get a buzzer and we waited nearby). It would be nice if there was a way to make a reservation for more than just those in your cabin though.

we are just off Caribbean Princess and the coffee was overall excellent. Note that you can still get a bit of unpredictability: once or twice I got a cup in the way aft and it was a bit weak, but other urns not far away were stronger. And sometimes in the afternoon it would be tepid, not keeping it hot like I would have expected. Overall, I learned after day one to watch it closely going into the cup. If it is looking super-strong, leave room to add around 1/2" of hot water. I make a bold cup at home but it was often coming out beyond bold, like they were still trying to figure out the right coffee/water ratio. But a bit of hot water would make it just right. Easily the best free coffee I've had on a cruise.

this has been interesting. We live in Atlanta, and we're not sure what we're doing over Thanksgiving (latest plan might actually be a land-tour in Central America), but we were agonizing over deciding on: Spirit out of Mobile (an easy drive we can do morning of embarkation), or Seashore out of Canaveral (one night hotel stay, a considerably longer drive, and there's always awful traffic heading back north, south of Atlanta). We've done several Carnivals, not done MSC. The rest of my family nags about wanting to do MSC, but all I come away with is, (if sailing in gen-pop), the best things about MSC are that the ships are really shiny and new, and they have crystal staircases. And I don't care about any of this. None of this affects the quality of my cruise. I've seen multiple posts about sporadic long lines for some things: embarkation, getting back on the ship at port, disembarkation, getting into the mdr for dinner, customer service to fix things like getting a dining time you did not request. The buffet looks 'ok'--but not as wide of a selection as Hal/Princess/Celebrity. And crowds are not spread out by having separate food venues out by the pool as every other cruise line does. Others have said that the MSC shows are similar to Carnival's playlist shows. Some have said that the msc buffet does not change drastically from one day to the next. We just did Caribbean Princess and the buffet had a really good selection every day, and the variation from one day to the next was very good. MSC does seem good if you are really into the 'white party' and similar group dancing/party type things. We aren't 'fun' people like that so that too doesn't matter to me. I was curious about the tv in the cabins, but someone posted that it has good on-demand movies--and they're around $10 each. It seems like almost everything is an upcharge. So I'm the only one in my family that values an awesome buffet over crystal staircases. Is that wrong?!? Keep the observations coming--but as others have said, since you're in YC, it's not really like a standard Carnival sailing.

we just got off this ship. It had some occasional: trx, stretch/yoga, cycle class. I brought my own trx and used it a bit. The classes are on the floor space that is part of the gym room. I think it's a bit ridiculous that they charge for these classes, given that they're not even in a separate room.

Bernie Kopell, by merely playing a doctor on tv, learned enough to be as good as many cruise ship doctors.

and Carnival has placed great emphasis on the fast foods, but then they oddly shut them down for the night by 6pm. We also don't like their dinner buffet, so it feels like we're basically forced into mdr/chibang/cucina when we'd rather go to Guy's, Big Chicken or Blue Iguana. We did have a mediocre dinner at P&A, they were really skimping on the portions in there.

We were on Hal Rotterdam a few weeks later and it was fine. My wife was recently on RC Wonder and it was fine. Nothing was as clearly obvious as that on MG this past Thanksgiving. But Iguana/Guys/Big Chicken/Street Eats/Panini were all really good. And the rest wasn't 'bad'--just seemed more pre-made/so-so type quality.

we're not boycotting carnival, but I think we are kind 'carnivaled out' for a while. MG was a good cruise, but the cutbacks were a bit too obvious and annoying (eg. food served in condiment containers, etc.).

I wish there was an independant 3rd party that would do testing of water samples and food samples on these ships that have repeated noro issues. I've always suspected that it is due to something not working properly wrt water treatment or food handling/refrigeration. I'm very hesitant to hate any passengers or crew for these issues b/c I've seen how authorities like to deflect blame in some situations, getting people to hate other people instead of analyzing in a more logical manner. Fortunately, I've never had noro on a ship, but wife and daughter did get mild noro type symptoms on a ship after eating 'sushi demo' sashimi around day 6 of a cruise (the fish had probably not been refrigerated properly).

I concur with the skepticism b/c the food quality at these 'fee restaurants that Carnival was so generous to make complimentary!'--is just average overall. To me, none of it was at a level where I'd have been content had we paid an upcharge. And if Carnival reads any of this, what would lure me back onto an XL ship is if they kept at least one of: Guy's, Iguana, Big Chicken open later each night so that we could get dinner from them. They can shift around food/personnel to make this happen if they wanted to.

weird; I was just watching the "Jerry orders a salad" scene from Seinfeld a little while ago. The vegetarian could probably get the Indian vegetarian meal.

Our last cruise had one, and she struggled. So I'm not asserting that they're extinct on Hal, just that they are not plentiful and that 'having a great comedy scene' isn't a big Hal bragging point.

The LCS topic has come up a few times. Their 'branding relationship' with LCS is ending, but I think no one is certain if the musicians (or if these types of performances) are going away.