LovedTheStarsTooFondly

I know this post is nearly a month old, but I don't see any replies. All cruises 6 nights or longer have the 80s Rock and Glow Party and the Mexican Mega Deck Party. In the dining room, there are 2 elegant nights, a Mexican theme night, and a Caribbean/island theme night.

The Bubbles package is included with Cheers. You do not have to purchase it separately. Only alcoholic beverages count towards your 15 drink limit.

Sorry, I forgot to take pics of the menus. They still have the lobster - you just have to pay $20 for it now. Supposedly (according to our waiter) the lobster is still no charge on 7 days cruises for one of the formal nights.

No problem. I meant to take pics of the menus on our last cruise and forgot too. Good to know about the charge. Thank you!

Missed the lobster on Elegant night. No more ‘free’ lobster or steaks on 5 day cruises.

That's disappointing. We were on the Dream earlier this month for a 7 day, and steak was an option every night. We're going on the Triumph in January, which will be my niece's first cruise. She's never had lobster before, and this would have been her opportunity to try it. You don't happen to have pictures of the menus, do you?

I've noticed that too. Some people seem to drop hundreds or even thousands of dollars while onboard. That would ruin my entire vacation to get a bill at the end for that much money.

The fact that cruising can be cheap is one of the reasons we love it. To us, spending money does not necessarily equal fun or enjoyment.

Interior cabins are fine with us. We're only in the room to sleep, shower, and and change clothes.

The food in the MDR is as good or better than any restaurant we've been to at home, so we are perfectly happy with that.

I don't drink at all, and my husband drinks once or twice a year, so we'd never get our money's worth out of an alcohol package. He does get the soda package because he's addicted to Diet Coke. Lol

The casino just isn't my thing. I've been gambling I think twice in my life.

I don't go to the spa at home (I'm a low maintenance kind of person), so I see no reason to go to an overpriced one on a ship.

We don't do shore excursions in every port. For us, the ship is the vacation. Ports are just a bonus. We only do excursions that we really, really want to go on. If we don't see anything we're just dying to do, we just walk around.

As for wifi, another reason we enjoy cruising is because we can truly get away. No drama, no work, no stress. I can post pictures when I get home. If there's a real emergency, we can be reached through the cruise line. Everything else can wait.

We consider the gratuities part of our fare. Granted, we haven't cruised enough to have a problem yet, but I can't think of any reason we would ever remove them. I know some people choose to remove them and tip personally in cash. I think that leaves a lot of "behind the scenes" people out. If someone goes above and beyond, I have no problem personally tipping them extra, but the recommended gratuities are a minimum for us.

So other than gratuities, my bill has been less than $20 at the end of each cruise. All the money we saved can go towards the next one.

:pWe just finished our March 5 sailing on the Dream.

I heard that the hot tubs and water slides were closed for a significant part of the first sailing after dry dock. Were there any problems with them on yours?

I am thoroughly enjoying your review so far. Thank you! And congrats on the engagement!