Don Kehote

I'm happy to see that we're just looking at the difference on drinks on the NA for next month. Now, I'd just like to be able to purchase the HMC drink package again after it vanished from the website. TAKE MY MONEY, HAL!!!

Aren't you aware that there is a shortage of change? Timing, people, timing!

Might I recommend you fill out the Special Requirements form? It's located Right Here. You'll need your booking number and last name. From there, under the section "Respiratory needs" you can let them know he will be bringing a CPAP, and you can even request distilled water. This may help prepare the staff a little better so that they can provide an extension cord as necesary.

I spent two years living in Italy and never once saw curry, except for non-Italian cuisine restaurants. Weird.

Fortunately, you can write as long a list as you like on the internet. I don't believe there is a limit.

New development! Now, I can bid again. However, whereas my previous bid of $65 was "Fair", the new bidding starts at $150 and up. I have decided that I probably wasn't going to get it anyway, and will be happy with what we have. Still, I might accidentally "drop" my IATAN card at checkin while asking if there are any upgrades available 🙂

Our sailing is on December 18th. For a while now, I've had a level upgrade bid in to bump up to an XL Sea Terrace. Tonight, I got a little curious, and decided to see about a bigger upgrade. So what did I do? I cancelled my bid so I could go in and try to make another one. Unfortunately, now all options are blanked out, and my original bid is lost to the ages. Hopefully, this will sort itself out pretty soon, and I can try again. But for now, well, I feel like a big old dummy!

Sometimes, a quick walk down to Guest Services is a better use of time than a post on CruiseCritic.

Little bit of dredging up old topics, but *where* in Manage my Booking can this be found? I've been looking for this drink package for days. Is it not always offered?

I get what OP is saying, but I have to think that correlation does not imply causation. In this regard, letting the cabin steward slide on turn down service does not equal that HAL thinks people are perfectly fine without it. If cruisers demand turn down service, they need to be vocal about it with HAL. Not with the cabin stewards. At the same time, we must be cognizant that unless it has effect on the Bottom Line (read: money), they probably still won't care. Sadly, it seems that the only way to really affect the change is to first give strenuous feedback on post-cruise surveys (which, again, may or may not be considered), and then to demonstrate with dollars - cruise elsewhere. Large businesses exist solely to make money; there's no altruistic intent within the cruise industry. They want as much of your money as they can get, while giving back the least amount of service possible. Again, not the fault of the individual employee, but the corporate management. As usual, the people who make the most money are the ones who decide how much, or how little, service you're going to get in return for your hard-earned cash. Me, I'ma let my steward slide, and tell HAL where the grass grows greenest.

My only request from Virgin Voyages is to enhance the child-free experience by ensuring a gkbiiii-free experience. Which really, is just about the same thing, so please just carry on being awesome.

A helpful thing that everyone always just immediately forgets, usually in favor of getting all up in arms about their circumstance, is to just simply ask for help from people who can actually help you. A good example of a helpful person to talk to would be the gate agent, and the flight attendants. If you've got a tight connection to make, a few questions can help you get off the plane first, rather than having to wait for everyone else to disembark. As this is a Holland board, though, I'd expect that the wait from First Class probably isn't as long as those of us back in steerage have to deal with.

Is it possible? Sure. I would encourage you to give our friends at Virgin a call, just to see.

The short answer is: not so much. Longitudinal stability (front to back) is barely even studied in large ships as it's 100-110 times greater than transverse stability (side to side). The long answer is: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Friendly reminder that telling you something you don't want to hear/don't like does NOT equal Rude.

Main deck it is! I consider it my contribution to civilization.

We shall soon be in a J cabin on Nieuw Amsterdam. I am literally bringing a tape measure and a brand new camera. It will be the most highly documented measuring of a ship's cabin dimensions ever. I'll probably win an award, too. And get promoted to six-star mariner. But for real, I feel the pain, and am going to clear it up for everyone who comes after me.

I have successfully used the tap water on every cruise I have ever been on with absolutely zero problems!

The simplest answer is to just take a test anyway and not work yourself into a lather over it. To me, my time and peace of mind are absolutely worth the extremely minor inconvenience.

Know where I stopped having any sympathy at all?

Perhaps they could also enforce safety - like start with the old Wilford Brimley guy on our last cruise out of Tampa who refused to put out his cigar...DURING REFUELING. Staff's response? "There's nothing we can do, he's diamond." I'm thinking next time I see something like that, if the staff can't help, a couple of phone calls to first the port, and then to the Coast Guard might change that up. Maybe a video uploaded to the internet showing the blatant disregard for safety might cause some fines. It's been almost a year, and I'm STILL mad about that. I should have pushed it into his face and told him staff to buzz off, I'm UNOBTANIUM.

TL;DR verision: Low down is what matters most. I have a very limited understanding of the math behind this, but think I can give you a "Explain like I'm Five" version: When you're worried about the ship moving around a lot and causing you to become seasick, the best thing to do is get as low as you can. Most of the times, what people feel are actually the ship "heeling," or rolling side to side because of winds/waves (mostly winds) coming in from the sides. This is called "Transverse Instability." Fortunately, the lower you are on the ship, the closer you are to the center of gravity: the very bottom of the ship. Consider that to be the point that the heeling pivots around as the center of buoyancy changes with the change of angle. So, lower = better. Also, ships do have side stabilizers to help with this as well, you might have seen fins sticking out of the sides before. They're there to help prevent the ship from rolling side to side. As for front to back rocking, the longitudinal stability is in general much, much greater than the side to side transverse stability, so it's barely an issue that's looked at. But my dad spent three years on an aircraft carrier, and he swears that the back is better. I, on the other hand, would prefer midship simply because at some point, I am going to need to do something other than sit in my room being green, and I don't want to walk all over creation to go grab a fizzy drink to settle my tummy. Interestingly, a ship with a low GM (metacentric height) will roll significantly, and is referred to as "Tender". Think about that next time you're pulling into Half Moon Cay. There's so much to learn out here on the wild seas of the internet. Know where your life preserver is, and don't forget your towel. Sources include: The excellent article, "Ship Stability, Understanding Intact Stability of Ships" by Soumya Chakraborty, 2021 From Wikipedia, ""Metacentric Height"

I, too, am interested in this.

1 - Passengers are fully vaccinated. 2 - Passengers will be staying in the same room for both legs. I can't get a good answer out of HAL - they keep hemming and hawing, and it seems like nobody really knows for sure. We're planning to test pre-boston anyway, but don't know what the deal is with getting back on board at Montreal. Is there some kind of testing facility at the port that handles this? TIA if you have any help!

Instant pariah. A nice thing to do would be to put an upside down pineapple magnet over that magnet, they could make exciting new friends instead!