BellKat

Just wow! Do I think the whole duck thing is a bit silly? Yes. Would I put anything on my door? Hmm, maybe if we are traveling with a group (yes we have done that a long time ago). But I usually laugh when I see what some people have put on their doors. Sometimes they are good as a marker as to where you are on the ship (large ships - am I on the my side of the ship). But do I care? No. People have fun in their own way. Falling down drunk? Disrupting other passengers? Being rude to crew? Going to a formal dinner in bathrobes? Those are all a big no for me. Be respectful and most things are good.

If they had an app, it wouldn’t have been as much as an issue. There were 7 of us trying to keep in touch with each other & we weren’t always in our room. We have booked another O cruise for 2025 so we’ll all be happier about that situation.

Yeah, I know. It was a stupid policy. I don’t know what they were thinking.

Elevators on Vista: Hi, I’m Jim’s wife Kathleen. I have only been frustrated with elevators on one cruise prior to this one (Ovation of the Seas - took grandkids to Alaska). When it was a busy time, it was difficult to get an elevator. Our bank only had two so when one of them was out, I’d go to the forward ones with four. However, there was at least one instance when one was out in our bank and two were out in the other bank. That is absolutely unforgivable! We had a lot of scooters, wheelchairs, etc on our cruise so it made it even more intolerable. It was so bad one night that Jim was scouring the ship looking for me frantically. And that brings me to my other least favorite thing - the one device only per cabin. I had no way of letting Jim know I was stuck trying to get an elevator! Heaven forbid that I had fallen and had no way to contact him (it has happened (fallen) so that’s a real fear for me). Edit: Just remembered other issue with elevators - only one went to decks 4 & 5 so if we were getting on/off at one of these decks, only one set of elevators was available. Whose idea was that?!

Mike is still publishing reviews. He has not stopped. He has a very lovely woman in his life who shares his passion for traveling.

Did all of you forget how chaotic our boarding was? And these were newbie cruisers. So many times there were broadcasts all through the cruise but if you were in a public place you couldn’t hear them. No one would shut up & listen! If you were in the Lido, forget it. And as far as the app goes, it didn’t always work for numerous people. They would get help and 30 minutes later, it stopped working.

The TV has always been on when we have boarded. This was a first to not have it on. I worried about a couple of people in our party who had never cruised before. How would they know to turn the TV on? Apparently theirs was on as they did their muster before we did ours. I should have asked them. But how many others who had not cruised before knew to turn the TV on for instructions? Especially those who 1st language is not English & there appeared to be a lot of them onboard.

I’m DrKoob’s (Jim’s) wife Kathleen. We mostly followed the rules and paid for it. Our onboard time was one pm. We thought we would head to the line around noon. Imagine our shock at seeing the lines and then watching how quickly they doubled. If we had waited until one, who knows what time we would have gotten on the ship. My daughter & her husband accompanied us - this was their first and LAST cruise. Left a very bad taste in their mouth. Lines, lines, lines! Poor Brian geared himself up for another 3 hour wait just to get off. To our surprise, we were HOME in 3 hours (Redmond, WA). Just remember also - you spent most of that time in line with 2 other cruise ship passengers.

Kathleen again - yes, we are giving the main restaurant another try tonight - all 6 of us agreed to try again. We are not usually keen on buffets either but have found theirs to be quite good. The only other time we have spent this much time in a buffet is when we were on Azamara in Southeast Asia. Their buffet was great. This was many years ago.

This is Kathleen, Jim’s wife, and the one who was ill. I feel 100% this morning so sitting here waiting for the medical center to open and call me. Although I may just call them. I want to be off the ship at 9:30. What really gets me is that if you have stomach issues, you don’t have to pay for the medical services. What? I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. I did get a call from the doctor yesterday because we were so upset about the handling of this. I was told because gastroenteritis and food poisoning have the same symptoms they have to treat it as if it is contagious. But they still let Jim walk around when he could have it but just hadn’t started having symptoms. I once again let him know I was sure it was the swordfish. I hope he made a notation of that. I wonder if other people who were ill let them know about eating the swordfish - that is if they went to the med center.

That’s us with him from a couple of years ago.

Also, can you let us know what other forum?

Thank you! We have been so worried about him.