lostchild

Usually if a survey result would affect financially, they will let you know before you fill out the survey.  Years ago, we were on a cruise, and our dining servers told us if there is anything we don't like about the food or food service, please let them know immediately and they would fix it.   If they receive less than full scores on the after cruise survey, it would affect their contracts renewal.

Similar thing happened at a car dealership long time ago.  The sale person told me that if she did not get all 5 stars on the after survey (even with the questions about appearance of the dealership and such), she will get a reduction on the commission of the sale. 

7 hours ago, helpmenew2crusing said:

I don't see them drinking over $400.00 worth of sodas. I'm thinking if I pay by the drink it might be somewhere around $200. The package in my view would be convenience and not having a bill at the end of the trip.  

It's almost impossible to drink enough soda to worth the drink package.  We (adults) don't drink alcohol, and we didn't get the drink package.   The soda 12oz price was like 3.50 euro.  That means we have to drink like 6-7 cans of soda per day to break even.   We ended up drinking mostly free drinks from buffet.  They have fountain drink of ice tea, POG, apple juice, etc...    We mixed ice tea with POG making it a tropical ice tea.   The mocktails aren't very good.  We tried 2 different types.  One tasted okay but super sweet.  We ended up diluting it water to 2 glasses.   The other tasted absolutely undrinkable.  My wife and our son both took a sip and give the whole thing to me.   I can't drink it either.. tasted like a bad tasting cough medicine. 

You may get faster response if you post your question in roll call thread here:

2 hours ago, Smileyonthego said:

So glad I found this topic....just to confirm a WiFi question I had.  We currently have the basic WiFi package, but my daughter "needs" the premium package.  If we were to upgrade just her WiFi, I could use it on my phone once in a while as long as she is not using her phone?   Also, she could of course alternate between her ipad and phone?

Thanks so much!!

It would be easy for her to switch between iPad and phone, because it is the same account.  The device will remember the log-in for the premium WiFi account.   But if you are also using that premium log in from time to time, you will have to forget WiFi, re-log in every time you switch accounts from your slow one to her fast one and back.

37 minutes ago, Liz315 said:

Is it possible to text cruise mates using the app but not buying the wifi package?

Yes, there is a free message app you could text any guest on the cruise if you know their full name.

The app is nice for onboard communication when you met new friends.   Not everyone got WiFi and the app messaging app works for everyone.   

On 10/24/2023 at 3:02 PM, Georgia_Peaches said:

We arrived at 10:45 for an 11:30 boarding time at FLL.  Nobody asked about our boarding time.  We checked in and then sat in a holding area until the benches filled up.  Then we were escorted on the ship as a group.  Got on board in approximately 25 minutes from curb to martini bar.

 

Similar experience at Rotterdam boarding Apex.  Check in time was 12:30, but we got there around 11 because we have to take a cab from Amsterdam and the cab was driving quite fast without traffic.   I thought we will just go inside and wait but no one asked for check in time or names and we just got all way to the counters.  And they didn't care about check in time either, and we boarded before 11:30.

3 minutes ago, HSBC said:

spearmint,

You mentioned that no Seapass at the pier.  After boarding the ship, how can we open our cabin door, order drink or buy things at the ship?  

Thanks!

Last time we board, the seapasses were outside our cabin under the room number where they put your reminders for specialty restaurants.

Eat some tacos at Cabo for us!  The tacos and seafood there are so good.   Our favorite was the tacos from El Paisa.

Maybe they forgot to update your account after you upgraded?   I premium is now capped at 5Mbps, but basic is capped at like 1.   0.9Mbps sounds like you still have the basic?

On 10/9/2023 at 3:27 PM, lynnespace said:

 

 

The thing that's wrong is the icons. Fish isn't a vegetable 🤨 

 

You do you -- enjoy your lunch! 

 

I asked my coworker one time that he said he is vegetarian (which he is mostly as he eats a LOT of veggies) but he also eats fish.  He said fish is not meat because Jesus ate fish.    So, whenever I met someone who said they are vegetarian, I usually asked them if they eat fish.   And a lot of them do.   I guess there are a lot of vegetarian fish eaters out there!

2 hours ago, Jjohnb said:

Thanks, I don't think we would be happy with that swap, it's probably best to stick with the other specialty dining options.

It was actually quite full.  Not sure if it was because there was no refund on the swap or people actually enjoy the food offered.   It is the same exact view as the free buffet.  

2 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

We’re now talking about Vegas from 50 years ago. 🤦‍♂️

It is the same now for Vegas room upgrade.  It's called the $20 trick.  Except now you probably need to do the $100 trick because of inflation!   You just fold it twice and put it under the credit card to hand over at check in.   Ask if there is any free room upgrade available.  If they have it and you take the upgrade, the bill disappears into the receptionist pocket.  If there is none, it just gets returned to you with your credit card.  It is not going to get you a penthouse suite, but usually a higher floor strip view room with resort fee waived is possible.   A 3 nights resort fee alone is about $100.  

27 minutes ago, nijh said:

Used to be quite common for a hotel in Europe to hang on to a passport for 24 hours after checking in, shouldn’t be a requirement these days but definitely worth checking.

They don't do that anymore.  They did ask for it at check in but handed them back during check in process.   Maybe a smaller hotel would keep them longer but not sure.   

If that's what AI thinks human looks like, no wonder Skynet wanted to kill everyone.   I don't blame it.

1 hour ago, Jjohnb said:

The Edge will be sailing in Alaska in 2024.  The Magic Carpet is available for booking for dinner.  I'm surprised as I would think it would be too cold, are there any type of heaters on Magic Carpet?  While the view would be breathtaking, thoughts on how comfortable it would be dining outside in the evening?

When we were in our Baltic cruise, most of the nights were too cold or windy for Magic Carpet.  The Magic Carpet dining was moved to the Solarium.  I watch people dining when walking to the buffet. 😆

Apex Europe cruise from the 4 MDRs.  All the red meat are mine and fish were my wife's.  

Lamb shank, some kind of fish, short rib, some kind of fish, panna cotta.  All really good and plate looks great too.

Not only the stuff in there is not free with a premium drink package, even if you have no package and want to fill it up with something like 20 Diet Coke and you are willing to pay for them.  The room attendant can't do it.  You have to do it yourself LOL.   BTW, I don't think they restock it at all.  Because when we first got there, I noticed that the mini fridge was missing a Diet Code (according to the list of things in there).   I told our attendant, so I don't get charged for it when it was missing at the first place.   That diet coke was never replaced.

We were on Apex's anytime dinning and only have to use the pager once.  We just walked out to the live band area and listened/watched the band for about 5 to 10 minutes.

You can order Mac n Cheese in addition to lobster on lobster night, and make yourself some lobster mac n cheese.  They used to have that at a food stand at Disneyland near next to River of America that sells it. 

I don't have any upcoming cruise, but if they have any sales on excursions, check them.   When they had the Memorial Day sales, I got some amazing pricing on excursions.   Some that had normal $150+ per person became $35 per person.   At first I thought maybe the tour really only worth $32, but after taking it....it was like 7 hours long with lunch included.   I was paying like $4 per hour with free lunch at a nice restaurant.  I booked like 4 tours for the price of 1.

On 8/24/2023 at 9:47 AM, terrydtx said:

I was reading a post on a cruise media site that talked about how RCL was going to start charging for the Pizza on their ships. Before they did this, they sent out questionnaires to get an idea of how their loyalty members felt about this. The responses were 10 to 1 against charging for pizza and RCL backed down and decided not to change.

That's not smart.   Okay so they want to charge for the previously free pizza because they want more money, okay fine.  What not smart is why sent out surveys?   What did they expect?   "YES!  We would love to pay for things that were free before!"   I also want to know who is that 1 person out of 11 that says, yeah you should charge for it! 😆

Interesting.  I was actually looked at the cookies at the gelato station last time on Apex.   I ate quite a bit of ice cream there and I thought the cookies there do not look that great, so I did not get one.  However, I see that a lot of people ordered it with their ice cream in a cup.   BTW, I have never seen anyone ordered the gelato because it is not free.  I only get my free scoop for the entire cruise.   To be honest, I found the regular ice cream there tasted better than the scoop of gelato I got.   And there is no way I would pay $2 for that tiny cookie.   Maybe they will start charging for the ice cream and toppings next.

The only thing about US currency is that they have to be in perfect shape.   Paper Euro is usually in perfect shape and no marking on them as they are not really paper.   European don't usually mark on their money.   US paper is a different animal.  People use those marking pen to test if it is real or not.  They get torn up or missing a corner.  I was told by foreigner that it is hard to exchange US money when they are not in perfect shape.

Last year, wifi calling was blocked (by ports blocking) on E class "basic" or "surf" internet pacakge.   It was working on S class "basic" or "surf" internet pacakge.   Wifi calling always work on "stream" or "premium" package as far as I know on all ships.