ARandomTraveler

Someone wrote a trip report that I read this week that mentioned using the luggage valet in Seattle, so I assume it's up and running again.

I'm aware of it. My cruise will be spending 2 days in Hong Kong.

I do more all-inclusive than cruises (about 3 AI's to every 1 cruise). But I have to agree here. Cruise entertainment is far superior, even to the most high end expensive all-inclusives. Especially for kids and teens. For teens, a cruise is absolutely a better option. Now, if the dad getting unlimited drinks for the least money is this family's #1 vacation priority, by all means, go with the all-inclusive, but if he's open to suggestions, then I'd suggest he pay up for the drink package and let his family have the most fun.

Huh? Who said anything about a travel advisory. And how is Singapore and China apples to oranges? They go to the same Asian ports. If by "travel advisory" you mean the notice about it being an immersive cruise and 90% Asian etc, I did get that same email for my Singapore cruise. Other than that I don't know what you're referring to, or why you think my cruise around Asia doesn't count as Asian.

Uh oh. I hope my sailing doesn't get cancelled. Spectrum was built by Meyer Werft. It sounds like the only reason MSC cancelled was because they refused delivery of the ship, so maybe it's not something so serious that all the other ships in operation have to be removed from service, but just something that gave them the right to refuse taking ownership until it was fixed.

I'm headed out on a cruise that leaves from Singapore, stops in Nha Trang Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. I'll be spending several days in Singapore before the cruise, and a couple weeks in Japan at the end. I know Singapore and Japan are really good about accepting digital payments, so using Apple pay and credit cards will be my primary method of payment. However, I'm not sure about Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I'm also not sure if there are instances in Singapore or Japan where cash would be preferred or necessary (like food stalls and taxis etc). I'll bring US dollars onto the ship for tips, but should I bring additional US dollars to exchange for local currency at any of the other places?

That's my cost for the whole trip, we're spending several days in Singapore before the cruise, and a couple weeks in Japan afterwards. Airfare alone cost me $8,000.

Do they still offer points for the nights you stay in a hotel that's booked through them? I'm guessing the answer is no, otherwise people would mention that when talking about ways to get points faster. The only time I booked a hotel through the cruise was back in 2004, and they provided a shuttle from the hotel to the ship, and we got extra points for the nights in the hotel.

I'll be on an Asian cruise out of Singapore at the end of the month and they gave us the same disclaimer, but the announcements (as far as I know) will be in both English and Mandarin. I've watched a few videos from the ship and you can hear announcements in the background in English. Signs are also in both English and Chinese characters. I'm excited to experience the cultural differences. It's the whole reason I'm taking this cruise. Traveling to Asian countries seem more intimidating to me because of the language barrier, and a cruise is a great way to do it while still having an English speaking home base. I certainly don't want to pay $30,000 and spend 20 hours on a plane to get a carbon copy of the same old Caribbean cruise I could get out of Florida.

Did that have anything to do with smoking laws in Australia? I'm curious because Singapore doesn't allow public smoking (which is close to Australia). I'm going on a cruise from Singapore and hoping it's smoke-free because

What time does lunch go until? 3pm? 4pm?

Me neither. In fact it looks like prices went up.

Not sure about excursions, but when we went to Roatan last year, I read the "port of call" forums to find the best beaches. I kept reading that "Infinity Bay" was the best, so we tried to go there. All the taxi drivers were quoting $30/person for a round trip ride there, but we found one to do it for $25/person. The whole drive, the taxi driver kept trying to convince us that "Paradise Beach" was better. I definitely got the sense that he receives some kind of kick back for taking people to paradise beach, and it was annoying. However, when we got to Infinity Bay, the front desk tried to charge us $40/person to get in, even though they list the price as $30/person. They said it was because we didn't make a reservation, even though nothing we read online said we had to do that. I felt like they were shaking me down for money, and since Paradise Beach was literally right next door, and since the resort didn't really look like anything special, we relented and went to Paradise Beach. Paradise Beach and Infinity Bay are basically the same place. They're the same beach anyway. But one is a resort and the other is just some lounge chairs that are stacked on top of eachother in rows so tight you can't even walk though them. They were hard plastic, no cushions, and in order to get to your chair, you had to squeeze past whoever was in the chairs next to you and you'd get so close you'd sometimes brush skin. It was gross. And the excursion hawkers and trinket hawkers come by every minute and a half to try and sell you something. It cost $20/person for a chair. I'm a pretty easy going person, so it was tolerable enough to stay, though I would never go back, and I wouldn't recommend it. The good part about the day was that we signed up for a snorkel tour with one of the annoying hawker guys. The snorkeling was AAAAmazing! The second best snorkeling we've done in 17+ trips to the Caribbean, falling only behind Belize, which still holds my #1 spot. Tons of colorful fish, clear blue water, and warm even in November. This is all to say, if you're looking at a beach excursion with the cruiseline and it costs equal to or less than $55/person, then you may as well try it, but otherwise you can get yourself to a beach on your own. And if you're looking to do any snorkeling, Honduras is great. If there's one that takes you snorkeling in the vicinity of Paradise Beach or Infinity Bay, it's probably going to be a good snorkeling tour, but don't go to the actual beach unless there's some other resort or beach bar that rents loungers.

I don't think the quantum class ships have the smoothie bar. I think they're only on Oasis Class.

I had that happen a couple days ago. Turned out there was an update available and that fixed it for me.

I did my first Oasis class ship last November (Thanksgiving week). I had avoided trying that class of ship since we docked next to the Allure 9 years prior. I thought I'd hate them (thought they'd be too big, too many people, too confusing with all the different room types and restaurants and shows to reserve etc). But it turned out that I loved it. It's my favorite ship class now. I can definitely see how one could feel like it's a bit too busy if they'd prefer a lower key, relaxing vacation. Being on Oasis class can make you feel like you've always gotta be doing something. It's just a huge ship with so many different places to go and things to do. You can walk around all day and never really sit down to relax. But that's what I liked about it, surprisingly. I never felt trapped. Contrary to the OP's feeling that this ship was better suited for them in their younger years, I felt the opposite. The whole time my daughter was a kid, I never sailed these big ships with all the "stuff" to do, but honestly, I think there's more to do for adults than kids, and if I was trying to keep up with kids on this ship, I'd feel worn out and tired trying to chase them around to the kid stuff instead of being able to enjoy the adult stuff. Now that my daughter is an adult, I think we were both able to enjoy it more. We're heading off to join the Spectrum in a couple weeks. I've been even more hesitant to try a Quantum class ship. The fact that it's so "indoors" focused, and that they've just never seemed to be a crowd favorite makes me nervous that we'll get bored (it's a 12 day cruise), but I'm hoping to be as pleasantly surprised with Spectrum as I was with Symphony. I can see why someone would appreciate the smaller, less busy ships more, they certainly have their place, but I definitely liked the Symphony way more than I expected to.

Get ready to check for some accidental sales when it comes back up!

Spectrum July 31st only had day 1 posted yesterday. Today they have day 2 posted. Nothing for days 3 through 12 🙄. Something tells me it's not accurate though. They've got a "Family Hula Hoop Competition" happening at 12am 😂 Sounds like there's nothing to really book on Quantum class ships though so I'm not gonna stress about it. I also figure that with a longer cruise, there will be enough opportunity to see and do everything (or at least I hope).

You can eat breakfast in chops instead of the windjammer in the morning. I don't know if you can actually order anything off a menu, I just recall being able to bring my plate from the buffet in there. The benefit is just that it provides additional seating when the windjammer is full. This was on the Freedom though, not on Explorer. They're not the same ship but they're similar so I'm not sure if the location of Chops is the same.

I got a good Black Friday deal on Internet for my upcoming 12-day cruise. It was something like $15.99 for the first device and $11.99 for the second. Averaged out to $13.99 each. I haven't seen the price that low any other time and I've had the cruise booked for almost a year.

I get seasick and I've noticed that the front of the ship actually has the most noticeable movement to me. I always have rooms mid-ship, and I CAN feel movement in the mid-ship rooms, but it's never as bad as the movement I feel in forward located venues and restaurants. If sea sickness is an issue for you, I'd pay the extra money to make sure your room is mid-ship. If you feel nauseas one day, you're going to want to stay laying in bed, and you want your bed to be located in the part of the ship that's rocking the least (even though mid-ship rocks too).

Same, I've done it twice. Highly recommend.

My luggage tags just became available yesterday (July 3rd) for my July 31st cruise, so 28 days before.

On Symphony Thanksgiving sailing last year (2022) the UDP was available. No upcharges at any restaurants for the Thanksgiving meal, and the total was only $207.99/person ($245.43 with the 18%).

I've never had trouble getting them to honor a drop in price. I always book refundable deposits though, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it (because if the sale is for new bookings only, I can always cancel and rebook, so they may as well just save the hassle and apply the new price).