vjmatty

48 minutes ago, AZaTaz said:

Your assumption is incorrect. I like the Island.   I sailed on the Island twice before they added the new cabins and twice since. I will be on her in less than a month for 31 days and have no worries. Could something go wrong, of course!  But then that is true of all ships. If you cruise enough days I would suggest it is a very lucky sailer that does not have incidents. 

I think that poster was referring to how the aft was butchered, as well as adding passengers while losing common areas.  Not just about the current incidents. 

29 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

 

They ARE uncomfortable, as are a LOT of the chairs in other areas of E Class ships.  

But the veranda chairs are horrible.  I suppose the "powers that be" think that with horribly uncomfortable seating it will make people get out of their rooms and spend more money in stores/bars/restaurants. All this does for us is give us yet another reason to be looking elsewhere for our cruises. 

 

We have one X cruise left this fall on Equinox.  The next 3 after that are on Princess. On the first one, among other things the balcony will have a table, 4 chairs, 2 lounge chairs and 2 lounges. We looked at the nearly identical itinerary on Celebrity, same number of nights, and in similar accommodations Princess was several thousand less..... no brainer for us......

 

And Princess still includes gratuities in their $60/day Plus package. 

3 hours ago, 3Shelaghs said:

As to the bed vs sofa location. It is a mix up dependant upon deck. Most of deck 9 are sofa beside Bathroom. Deck 10 more aft showing bed beside bath. 

I'm wondering about kids on Cabana deck, kids in jacuzzi, large groups, guests using deck but not registered for that deck? Noise/smoke from casino below or restaurants?

If you’re not booked in a Deck 9 cabana mini, your medallion will not open the door to the cabana deck. So guests will not have access unless they are registered. 

2 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

There’s less demand for lie-flat seats on day flights, largely because many corporate travel policies only allow employees to fly business class if it’s a red-eye.

Interesting…. I don’t even need lie flat on daytime flights, just prefer business for the space and perks. 

7 hours ago, RobInMN said:

 

Our thoughts on TA's is that we would rather have the long crappy flight at the front-end of our vacation and have the shorter not so bad flight at the end of our cruise. So for us, we booked the West bound TA on Allure for fall of 2025, and someday (post retirement), We'll be looking for an East bound TA (with a number of B2Bs in Australian & New Zealand preceding it).

I’m kind of the opposite because the long flight is a lot less crappy on the way back, since it’s a daytime flight rather than an overnight one. For some reason they’re also cheaper and I don’t have to spend miles for business class since I can find business seats under $1k. Also there is no short flight, since we usually either sail out of NY or Bayonne, or take the train and stay with the kids and grandkids for a few days.

Once I’m retired in a few years and don’t have to fit vacations into a 2-3 week box, the ideal thing is for there to be no flying. With Cunard crossings you can match up reverse directions so there is no flight necessary as long as you don’t mind staying in Europe for a week. 

1 hour ago, georgemoe said:

Considering our first TA for 2026. How would you rank the months best to worst? Does it matter East or West bound? TY!

May and October will always be warmer than March and December. Some people prefer westbound because half the nights will have an extra hour. 

On 6/8/2024 at 12:31 PM, 3Shelaghs said:

Port side Cabana Mini suite, couch beside bathroom. If you booked online, it is noted when cabin is chosen. It does not refer to location of couch when you receive booking confirmation, only in ("notes- in cruise summary"). But diagram is conflicting to what "notes" depict. 

Which deck?

2 hours ago, Blue Eyed Belfast Belle said:

I am booked on the Feb Allure TA. I was on the Enchantment TA last May and it was rough...lying in bed the pictures were coming away from the wall! At least if we are staying inside for a few days on Allure at least there will be more to do

I was on that Enchantment TA as well and yes those first couple of days were rocky!

1 hour ago, bilyclub said:

Saw a liitle twist to the pier running last Tuesday in Cozumel.   Had the usual runners, but the latest two people actually got a ride in a cab on to the pier all the way to the gangplank.

I’ve seen that before, in Chania. Not much fun for the spectators. 

59 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

I never ever said that!

All I said is:

a cruise where I'm trapped inside and with people barfing left and right (because they get seasick because of the to be expected high waves) is not my idea of an enjoyable time!

BTW trivia would not something I would enjoy either....

I must have misinterpreted the term “barboat.”  The Pacific Princess crossing did have some huge waves during the last couple days. Racks of dishes were falling and crashing, bottles had to be Saran wrapped to the bar shelf. No one got sick that I could see, although there were sick bags taped all over the ship in case anyone needed one. That ship tended to have very experienced cruisers. Hubby had quite the audience while trying to carry my sidecar, which comes in a martini glass, across the room to me from the bar. Managed not to spill a drop lol, but he’s retired Navy so it’s almost like cheating. He actually likes rough seas, but even for him it got a bit old by the second day, having no elevators and grabbing furniture to keep your balance.  Our ship didn’t get to Ft Lauderdale until after 8pm. Whether an Oasis class ship would move this much I don’t know. 

50 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Do you mean they like or unlike X policies re balcony furniture?

Good question

1 hour ago, Liao said:

I believe that they are appealing to the mass market right now, not the vocal minority here on CC.  If you read FB posts about Celebrity, overall they are firing on all cylinders.

Interesting, didn’t realize the masses had a thing against loungers. I don’t check into FB as much as I used to. 

18 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Well you are assuming something.... being a sun worshipper and being trapped inside only on the "barfboat" are totally different things!

Looking at weather data you will find December is not that bad - while February is the worst month of the year for a TA!

I think we’re both making assumptions here, for example I disagree with you that being inside a ship is all about drinking. Just so you know who you’re dealing with, that December transatlantic I referenced was on the 600 passenger Pacific Princess. If I can keep busy for 18 days on that ship, surely I can find things to do for 12 days on an Oasis class. 

As for the changing weather, I once did a world cruise segment from NY to SF on the Queen Victoria. In January. We started with the outer decks covered in snow and watched it all change within a week. From the same window at our favorite table during trivia, we’d see a snowy Statue of Liberty, a glorious Ft. Lauderdale sunset, and the walls of the Panama Canal. This was the coolest part of that cruise…. feeling like instead of the ship bringing us through parts of the world, it brought the world to us, by virtue of the views through that same huge window. Of course we spent time on the outer decks as well, especially during the transit, but it eventually got way too hot for me. Maybe that is why I don’t need a lot of tropical weather all the time. 

I realize this perspective is not for everyone, and that’s ok 🤷🏻‍♀️

15 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Yes she does seem to be listening to bad suggestions, implementing them, and then reversing those decisions back to what it used to be.

 

she needs to better and more thoroughly assess and say no to these bad ideas

Or get better advisors if she’s unable or unwilling to do the research herself. 

14 hours ago, jcc1025 said:

One of the best use to be when Royal docked in Ocho Rios Jamaica befor the move to Falmouth. They had a long dock and you could watch the pier runners trying to run to get back and being met by the drug sniffing dogs at the end of the pier near the ship. We use to book our room just to make sure we were on the correct side of the ship for that locations. 

Schadenfreude is fun, but you really can’t predict what side the ship will dock, so you may be disappointed. I value balconies more for usability including while underway so I stick to the aft, which doesn’t provide the benefit of pierside theater. 

20 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

 

We were on a catamaran in St Lucia where that happened.  We were after all aboard but just before sail away.

 

On both trips I’m glad we booked with the ship.  

 

 

It would not have made a difference. If ship and independent tours are late, they don’t take the time to sort out at the pier or try to suss out who was on a ship excursion and therefore has the “right” to be late. 

22 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Winner of the worst cruise of the season!

Atlantic in February is nothing you want to do!

Princess had one in February of this year and outside decks were closed due to weather 11 out of 14 days....

Having done transatlantic sailings in December, I go in with the expectation that the outside decks won’t always be an option, but hubby and I aren’t sun worshippers anyway.  Sometimes I forget that so many on CC are very Caribbean oriented. Sorry 😕

1 minute ago, RobInMN said:

 

 

 

It was a Reddit AITA post. No other info. AFAIK, the OP was a new account and hasn't posted any follow up.

 

 

Looks like a karma farm thread, TBH

5 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

What folks should appreciate is that in many cases, leaving late requires the ship to sail faster to the next port. And sailing faster means more fuel. It would be great if that cost was added to the room bill of every passenger boarding after the all aboard time. 

Not the room bill since it wouldn’t be fair to an innocent roommate who was on time, like the OP for example. The bill should be assessed individually. 

9 hours ago, juanarcin said:

Is this somethign that can be done? Basically, My wife and I are going on a cruise with her parents. 2 seperate rooms. Her dad and I are the only ones that drink and we want to buy the deluxe drink package. Since everyone in the room has to get a package, we are thinking of putting her dad and I in one room (we buy the package), and her and her mom in another (they dont buy the package). Once on board we give each other access to both rooms so wife and I can always stay in our room and her parents in theirs. At first glance this seems simple enough but I'm wondering if this would be an issue in any ways that I'm not considering, including causing issues against RC policies. Originally we figured wife and I would buy them and she would just buy drinks for her dad, but I think this is much worse as it would be "sharing", even if she doesnt drink. So we are now considering this room solution. Any thoughts?

Yes this will work fine…..there are no “sleep police” 🙂

7 hours ago, Poplin said:

We were on a New England/ Canada  cruise and did a RCCL shore excursion.  The bus was over 30 minutes late getting back to the dock. We were told the captain made an announcement that they were waiting for a RCCL shore excursion to arrive. I don't know if the announcement kept the hecklers at bay or the age of the passengers made a difference  - haha. 

They still heckle. I was on a ship excursion in St Lucia that was late, along with a several other tours totaling over 50 passengers. There were still shouts and catcalls from the balcony. Somebody in the group yelled “it’s a ship excursion, stupid” and everybody shut up all embarrassed 😂

8 hours ago, doghog said:

One tip. Each leg of the B2B cruise is two different cruises. So your onboard account will be closed at the end of the first leg. Nothing carries over to the second leg. Spend all your nonrefundable OBC or you'll lose it.

This is only true if you book the b2b as two separate cruises instead of a single cruise. It’s good to try pricing both ways to see which is cheaper and which gives you more OBC.

ETA: Whoops! Sorry, I don’t think Royal offers multi legs as a single cruise. I was thinking of Princess.

3 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

I have never been invited to a pre-meeting!
 

Are they well attended? I am not sure I would want to spend time on vacation hanging out at a meeting when the necessary details are adequately explained in the letter on the bed. What is the purpose of a meeting?
 

It is bad enough getting to the meeting point on time on the day and hanging around waiting  for those that are late as mentioned above.  I wouldn’t want to spend more time prior to the cruise end. What do they explain that isn’t in the letter?

I used to have a supervisor who said “all meetings should be emails.” I tend to agree. 

8 hours ago, Southern Dan said:

I want them to go in the opposite direction and do a 10-12 night on an Oasis class ship.  Sadly I do not think that will be happening unless you can do a Transatlantic which I can’t for many years…

There is a 12 day transatlantic on Allure in February of 2025…probably the shortest one you’ll see. Would that work?

12 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

The problem with the back to back theory is that you basically lose half a day waiting to disembark and then waiting to embark again.  No chance to sleep in.  No Elite breakfast.  Fighting with new passengers for elevators as they embark.  Its just not fun.

This ridiculous practice tends to be a US thing.  Mediterranean ports don’t do this, and some lines like Princess let you book multiple b2bs as a single cruise. These options along with the interporting that is common in Europe makes embarking and disembarking days less chaotic and even the true b2b bookings a lot more seamless.