jlawrence01

My schedule this week: Dinner at 5:30 Show at 7:30 Music walk at 8:30 pm Late night buffet at 11 pm

On my current cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam, dinner starts at 5 pm and the 1st show is at 7:30 pm. That was my experience on the Eurodam and the Konigsdam.

I think that a lot of cruise lines would be more than happy to send their personnel to small towns like Tucson and Scottsdale in winter months when the wealthy are in their winter homes. When I was at the show, I saw a good number of c-level executives of smaller luxury lines like Ponant and Windstar Cruises. It is NOT just about writing orders as much as planting seeds ... TAs may be in decline in general but not so much in the cruise area.

The food in the MDR on HAL has been consistently better although X had better service overall. You can always get a seat at the HAL buffet as it is right sizes On the Solstice, it was very difficult to get a seat unless you got their when it opened. The X buffet had more variety but there were a lot of misses, especially at dinner Timing between dinner and shows was bad on Celebrity. If you have early dining, you will NOT make the early show. Going to the late show is tough when the port stop is at 0630 in Alaska. The naturalists are much more geared to Alaska on HAL and they visit Glacier Bay. In general, you get longer port stops on HAL. Personally, I will return to Alaska next year as part of a 29 day cruise from Seattle to Singapore on the Discovery Princess. I would only sail to Alaska on HAL, Princess, or Cunard in the future.

Our local agency does that every year in Tucson. It is really a great way to determine which cruise line meets your needs. And that was in January 2024.

I was on the Solstice last week and the HAL Nieuw Amsterdam this week. I was very disappointed in the food and the service in the Oceanview. I thought that the scattered stations in the Solstice would be an improvement over the traditional buffet set up in the Millennium. I was wrong. The size of the buffet is grossly undersized for the ship. You can walk around for 10 minutes trying to find a table throughout the breakfast and lunch periods. Also, while there were some very good dishes in the buffet over the course of the week, there were really a good number of real misses at every meal. It has always been my contention that there is a lack of supervision in the kitchen to ensure a quality product goes out. It was really not enjoyable to eat in the Oceanview. It has been a nice change heading into HAL Nieuw Amsterdam's Lido Cafe and always finding a seat and having one of their staff members serving me my beverages.

On Celebrity Millennium, we were seated with three other couples. At the end of the meal, the wives went to the staff and requested a table together for the entire cruise. We do NOT like the timing of Celebrity's meals and shows. We wish to eat early and see the early show as we do on HAL and Princess. If you get fixed time dining on Celebrity, you are stuck with it. You cannot switch even if you have a shore excursion run long. This makes it hard to enjoy a Celebrity cruise in Alaska where the port times are usually late in the day. If you get "any time" dining, you can eat whenever BUT you get different wait staff nightly and they will not know your preferences.

There is a Catholic priest available on the September 8th cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam in Alaska.

We booked this week's 14 day cruise in March. The round trip was priced very similar to the 7 day northbound cruise. The price per day was a lot better on the round-trip.

I am currently on the Celebrity Solstice finishing up a 7 day inside passage cruise. Tomorrow, I am on a 14 day RT cruise on the Niece Amsterdam. There are several things that need to be considered. 1) What ports and glaciers will you see?? 2) When do you arrive at the port? Arriving mid day and only getting 6-8 hours in port is disappointing. Also, make sure that you understand where you will be docked. Is it convenient to what you will see? 3). How do the timed jive with your MDR dinner schedule? 4). What enrichment programs are offered? We only book inside cabins so I cannot answer your major question.

Wouldn't it have been easier if you had just asked them for your bacon to be more well done??

There are only two things that I did not like about the Millennium. First, the sound and light systems in the main theatre are really outdated and mediocre. It does impact the quality of the shows. Second, if there are tough seas and the outer decks are closed, the inside decks feel really crowded. I thought that the facilities and the staff was excellent.

Most of my cheap cruises have been on Princess and HAL recently. It is more a function of the particular week you choose to cruise.

I have seen many cruise ship security staff. Many of them are former Filipino military or mall security guards. In those situations, it is OK to have smaller people as they generally work in groups of three to five. You cause trouble and you are very quickly surrounded. Ship security would have fewer problems if the staff consisted of former football 🏈 players, bouncer types. By the way, would you as ship staff enforce the chair rules of doing so would affect your customer reviews and ultimately your income?

Three days ago, I booked the 29 day Seattle - Yokohama - Singapore sailing departing September 2025 in a guaranteed inside cabin. The latter portion of the cruise was not available. Personally, I had planned to sail on the Discovery Princess to Yokohama and then fly Tokyo to Manila for 10 days, return to Tokyo, and them catch the Celebrity Millennium to Singapore. Actually, that would have been about $1300 cheaper per person.

I am heading on the 29 day Seattle-Japan- Singapore cruise on the Discovery Princess. What we are planning to do is to ship MOST of our "cold weather" clothes home when we reach the postal station in Whittier, AK. After we complete the cold weather portion of the trip, we are planning to spend several weeks in Singapore and the Philippines and I will not need a lot of warm clothing. In hindsight, it would have been a lot cheaper (and easier) to take the LA - Hawaii - Sydney transpacific on Carnival and fly into Singapore.

I had them in May 1992 on the Costa Riviera. They served canned and dried fruits at most meals.

On what dish is this sauce served at the Dive In? It sounds like something that would be interesting.

My problem with Cabo is that vendors constantly harass you to take a tour, to jump on their boat or visit their restaurant. Usually a "no thanks" in other ports; however, in Cabo, they want to grab your arm and the like. On the last trip, we were more prepared and walked past the gauntlet. We ended up about two blocks in and caught a pedicab and visited the new supermarket which was welcoming and very upscale for Mexican ports.

Personally, I am tired of the standard three points, especially Cabo. Different ports is a welcome change and would make me a lot more likely to take another Mexican Riviera cruise.

About $600 out of Chicago. Maybe less if you use a consolidator. Some of the consolidators, especially ou tof Manila include two free bags per person. We did a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Splendor a couple of months prior to its relocation to Singapore. We were within a week of booking that cruise when my nephew announced that he was getting married during that time. I think that cruise lasted longer than the marriage.

First, you will occasionally see rooms open up when the final payment date hits 90 days out. Then, as you get down to the last 30 days, there is occasionally some cancellations. Do not expect a lot of great deals on a sold out ship.

Just a reminder. Carnival Panorama leaves Singapore for Los Angeles on Oct 12 on a 25 night cruise and is currently priced at $46 pppd. There are five stops: Vietnam, Manila, Malaysia, Guam, and Hawaii and 19 sea days.

Bimini is about a 45 minute stop. I do not want to make another stop there.

I really try not to eat a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs but Dive In is really outstanding. The NY Deli is one of the biggest disappointments. The food is really underwhelming and in the evenings, they run out of everything. On both of my HAL cruises, it was impossible to get a salad after 8 pm.