PolicromaSol

Well, that's a shot across the bow if I ever saw one...

Methinks that might be in time for my upcoming cruise! 😄

I always say to never believe the excessively good or bad reviews. There was a thread here about a supposedly terrible experience, particularly the main dining room's food. The strange thing is... I'd already seen a series of youtube videos of a family going on the exact same cruise. (The subject matter of the youtube channel is usually different stuff and I'm not entirely sure how I found it.) Parents with kids, all crammed into an ocean view that was as small as an interior using pull-down bunks. (I didn't even know that particular room existed.) They were very clearly cruising on the cheap. And, well, they were just lapping up the entire experience, especially the MDR food. (Come on, watching kids eat escargot is always a little amusing.) But the whole thing made me curious if something more had been going on that had led to the "terrible" experience on the same cruise. The real answer is likely somewhere in the middle. In more personal experience, booked a suite in one of the hotels on the strip in Vegas this spring. We were getting excited to go. Didn't look at the reviews until after the booking, and they were terrible. People were claiming the rooms were disgusting and dirty and that the service was terrible. We got there... The furniture was old, there was a decorative table that was falling apart, wood chips coming off most of it, and ancient burns from cigarettes on the nightstand....but the rooms were clean, the bed was comfy, and the service was great. They kept hauling things up to my room I expected to have to run down and get myself. (Like a roll-a-bed for the kid.) Left a middle-of-the-road honest review with suggestions, so others could have a more realistic expectation. Most of the middle-of-the-road reviews were the same: Good service, clean, old furniture.

VZW employee here... On Verizon the apple watches are set so they will not roam internationally. My guess is this is more to prevent redundant roaming charges than anything else. However, the apple watch uses bluetooth like any other smartwatch and this means the cellular and wifi are not necessary so long as you keep your phone with you. Everything should work. I would go one extra and disable wifi on the watch while on the boat, because the iPhone will sync settings to it, and we don't want it connecting to the wifi without the package and getting confused. I can't fathom any way the watch could enter in the account info to be allowed online anyway.

You laugh, but it's tough having a 2 way conversation when it takes a second or two to respond to each other. Yeah, you'll get through it, but it's confusing for the brain to be met with a few seconds of silence every time you say something. There tends to be a lot of "did you hear me" and "did you get that" on these calls. Now add some echo to the mix and your brain will feel like it's melting. I've taken many calls from roamers over the years. Cruise ship = lag. It's just part of the "fun" I guess.

I'd say rather than daily, tip them small amounts for when they do you extra favors, and you can leave a bigger extra at the end. An amount of cash or a loaded prepaid sim. Stuff like that.

Whatever you do, don't drop it off the side! 🙃You know what the waiting list is on those things? Also, to answer ckruetze's question, some of the Starlink routers just look like an antenna sitting on a stand. They don't even have LAN ports unless you add them. (I think they're battery powered to make them easier to use outdoors too.) The only thing that might give him trouble is if he uses it in an area that isn't covered yet. Starlink works by use of many small low-orbit satellites. So there have to be some available where you are in order to make it work.

IMO, it's more likely they'll give up the tests entirely by next year. The CDC is backpedaling like crazy. The remaining tests on the unvaccinated seem to be mostly a formality. Moral panics can't last forever. If they're still doing tests next year (doubtful), buy extra so you can retest to rule out false positives if you get any positives.

I predict many drunken passengers... 🤔

All the carriers are. The rates are pretty much being passed down from the cruise ship. Just forego data on the ship. Use the ship's wifi, or wait until you're on land.

If you have iPhones you can use iMessage. Aside from that Telegram, Whatsapp, Discord, etc. while on wifi. Depends on who all you need to talk to and where they will be. There's also the cruise ship's official chat app for what it's worth.

You know, there is that little chapel on the very tippy top of the ship, IIRC... ... Oh wait, that got suggested already. 🤣

Wow. Sounds like shopping at Kohl's! 🤣

First off, if you are even *thinking* of using roaming data on a cruise ship, stop right there. The cruise ships charge the cell carriers ridiculously high roaming rates (fair disclosure, I work for Verizon), and that cruise package AT&T is offering only gives you a mere 200 MB. That is a loss-leader rate, and they are making no money from it. You're going to use that up in about 3-4 webpage loads depending on what you're doing. If you're not tech savvy enough to make 200 megabytes (NOT GIGABYTES) last an entire vacation, you should block all data roaming on the ship. I would pick the voice only option, and leave data absolutely off unless you are on land, where roaming is much cheaper. (Check with the carrier to see the offerings there.) Should be noted that the cruise ship's tower is running off satellite internet, just like the wifi. Neither are going to be particularly reliable, but the ship's wifi is likely going to have better options. Okay, edit to add, sorry if I'm being harsh on that. I've had to give many, many customers bad news about their roaming bills over the years. Better to prevent the pain now. Use the ship's wifi at sea.

🤔 Sounds like my husband would like it....

All I gotta say is "ugh". Personally I would have poked at it a bit more, but hopefully they at least allowed you to get out without losing your deposit.

I feel like trying to fight it would just put us into a slippery slope, where the cruise just charges more, and yes, the employees are paid better for a while, but then people want to tip for "exceptional" service again, and people start feeling entitled to tips again, and then we start this "if you give a mouse a cookie" situation where it turns into a cycle, inevitably ending back where we started, just with a more expensive cruise with stewards still living off of tips, but the difference just gets pocketed by Wall Street. Let's just skip all that and either leave it as is, or get rid of tip culture entirely. Both have their pros and cons.

My experience with travel ratings is to take both the amazing and terrible with a grain of salt. Personal experience on this one was booking a particular suite room on the Vegas strip, thinking it was a steal. Went to go excite myself before the trip (because, well, I do that), and the reviews all made it sound like the entire place was an absolute dump. When I actually got there...okay, the furniture was old and showing its age. Aside from the overkill air freshener trying to cover up the smoking (which you'll get at every hotel there), everything else was fine, the customer service was great, and everyone had a great time. I went back and left an honest middle-of-road review so that someone passing by could make an informed decision and not a kneejerk one. The other thing is... I know someone personally who will exaggerate every slight infraction. The kind of person who will say something is "ice cold" if it is not absolutely boiling hot. Me personally, being irritated at slight infractions is too much work...especially if you're out to forget the rest of the world. Life's too short.

Fair enough, though the place seems reputable and is in a larger fenced in ocean area rather than a glorified swimming pool.

My asthma's been in control for years, and I can't imagine I'd be allergic to critters that don't have any fur... Not going to ruin the trip as there's other options I'm looking at. Just going into the decision process.

Given the hot debate over a previous thread on the subject, sounds like the head waiter gets paid no matter what. 🤣

Late to this discussion, but satellite internet by its very nature is slow, laggy, and unreliable. Even light can only go so fast, and your internet connection is sitting way out in outer space. And they have to split it among how many users? Sheesh, as recently as 6 years ago, some lines were still charging by the megabyte! (And in case someone brings it up, I always figured airplane wifi is less expensive because there's less people who have to share it at a given time.) A hotel, on the other hand, can request a fiber line be dug straight to their establishment. I suppose they could attempt using terrestrial wireless connections, since cell signals can bounce off water, but that's probably too much work, considering they'd be roaming 99% of the time regardless of where they set up shop. Maybe when starlink reaches its full potential, we'll see better options available.

The kind of straws they're talking about are plastic, but have a different texture and are more translucent than transparent. There's a coffee shop a block from me that favors them.

Yeah, that's gonna be my "final decision" date.

I've been checking the refreshment package daily since booking. I feel like I wouldn't suck down enough mocktails to make it worth the money, but people are claiming they've seen it drop down as cheap as the soda package. At least I've got until March...