parallax

I was on the Seashore last week and thought the lobster roll hit the spot.  I'm not a lobster roll expert nor from NE but I'm not surprised if afficiandos thought they were mediocre.  It is why I don't eat crab cakes when outside of MD.  I know that it is extremely likely to not meet my expectations because of what I can get locally.  

Thank you for this wonderful review.  We are looking at doing a Seabourn cruise next year in Europe and the information is very helpful.  I am a litte surprised by some of the questions and the concerns raised by others about the degradations in service but I take it with a grain of salt.  I do not care who the cruise director or who the captain is.  My concern woud be who are the bartenders.  Those tend to be the people I develop long-term relationships with.  I  think many of the complaints are picayune but to each his/her own.   

I recommend Pancho's Backyard  in Cozumel if you want amazing food and drink.  When we go to Cozumel, we always stop there.

I find this outrage very strange.  These are two different concepts.   MSC is not a luxury cruise line while Explora Journeys is trying make its mark in the luxury space.  It is like comparing Royal to Silversea.  The YC is a great concept and we enjoy it very much.  However, the YC is an enclave in a large ship that can have in excess of 5000 passengers.  It is great to have you own restaurant and pool but at times it can be confining to some.  On a luxury cruise line, there are significantly less passengers and the staff to guest ratio can almost be 1:1.  

Before it went under, we sailed a couple times on Crystal.  The service and experience surpassed what we received in the YC.  The advantage at the end was the whole ship was a yacht club and it was more freeing to us.  

Very nicely done.

A few years ago, when my daughter was 7, we went on cruise on the Summit out of Puerto Rico.  Every morning we had breakfast at Cafe al Baccio.  Everyday the captain, who was on the younger side, was having coffee with a member of his staff.  On the first day he waived to my daughter.  On the second day, he gave her a high five.  The third day he called out to my daughter and used her name.  We were confused as we had never talked to him other than say things like good morning.   On the forth day, he cracked some sort of joke that resulted in a good laugh from her. That afternoon we were looking at photos and saw a picture of my daughter and the captain.  We were like what the heck is going on.  Based on the picture, we knew it had been taken at the kids club.  When we dropped her off that evening, we asked the staff about the captain.  Apparently, on most nights, he tried to stop by for a few minutes.  He had young children himself and enjoyed spending a few minutes with the kids.  For the remainder of the trip, he always took a few minutes to chat with our daughter at the Cafe.  She still treasures that photo.  

Celebrity is a great option for your child and for you as well. My daughter, between the ages of 5 and 8, did 3 cruises on Celebrity and loved them.   She cried when we had to get of the ship on the last cruise. The kid's club is fabulous and is not overrun.  The staff is very attentive and got to know our daughter very well.     On one we cruise, when we stopped in Rome and were in front of the Colisuem, we heard someone yelling out our daughter's name.  We turned around and discovered  it was one of the counselors from the kid's club.

There is a group on this board who thinks that children have no place on Celebrity.  Ignore them.  When on Celebrity, I have discovered the more repugnant behavior comes froms the adults than the children.   

We just booked the Spirit for the cruise over Christmas and New Year's.  I'm sure the deck the halls with all sorts of ornaments.  Do they do any other special or fun things? 

2 hours ago, erber said:

Just checked our credit card account this morning and see we received our refund for our cancelled Holland America April 5 cruise. We chose the full refund option on March 15 and now have been made whole! So, the refunds are coming!

We also just received our refund for the April 5 cruise.  

Delta and other air lines are waiving the cancellation penalties for March and April flights.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/03/09/coronavirus-travel-airline-change-fees-delta-adds-waivers-flexibility/5002855002/

Last week we got off the Crystal Symphony with our daughter.  Yes, Crystal actually has a childrens program and it is very nicely run.  We were talking to the director who runs the program and she stated that it is one of the most important investments they make.  While the number of children on board are a small percentage of the guests, the program allows for younger families or multi-generational families to sail on Crystal.  This introduces a new customer base to Crystal, many of whom become part of the next generation customer base.  Basically, she indicated that the small investment they make in their kids club creates tremendous returns and helps expand their customer base.  

In talking, I mentioned we were doing a West Coast cruise on the Eurodam in April.  I told her that when it came to bigger cruise lines, our daughter liked HAL's kid club the best.  She indicated that she had worked on HAL ships and thought they had one of the better ones in the industry.  When she worked on HAL, they didn't under staff, treated the staff well and the ratio of children to counselors were reasonable and allowed for more individual attention.  She indicated that when she was on board, the HAL kids club always did very well on the survey.   It was a strong contributing factor for some customers when they booked another HAL cruise.  

Based on the feedback and outrage from this topic, HAL is damaging a once positive and critical attribute with parts of its core customer base. If High Score had been rolled out in addition to the HALs kids club, it would have been a win for everyone. 

This is shocking.    While my 12 year would likely enjoy this environment and the freedom, it would be overwhelming to younger kids.   

If you are staying in the YC, the concierge has several board games such as Monopoly, Life, Clue, etc.

During the At Seas day, they are also open for lunch.

I just got off the Seaside and I thought the YC dining experience was better than prior cruises.  I thought the wait staff was very efficient and friendly.  I also thought the menu was more diverse than from prior sailings.  I also like the changes they made to the grill.  Having the buffet and music at the pool deck the evening in San Juan was a very nice change of pace.   

I never have super high expectations with cruise food.  Unless I'm going on Crystal or another luxury cruise line,  I'm not expecting high end dining.  Instead, I'm looking for food that I will enjoy.  The Seaside hit that standard last week.

We will be on board in three weeks.  If you plan on using the water slides, I would sign up for the waivers right after lunch today.  You can then avoid the chaos of the lines on the first sea day.  The table is in the jungle pool area towards the front of the ship.

Much younger.  Tweens.

We will be on the Seaside the last moth of June with our daughter and some friends.  I agree that taking care of the waivers is one of the first things you should do.  Our preference is to have lunch, either at YC  dining room or at the pool grill, and then hopefully unpack.  To me the vacation does not start until you are unpacked.  We will then hit the pool if time is permitting. 

I enjoy HAL and have sailed in the past and will do so in the future.  I would consider it a mass market cruise.  It's style and approach is different to a degree than other cruise lines.  Some of the loyalty is based on those differences.  It is the same for people who prefer Carnival, RCCL, etc.   Having done a Crystal cruise last year and doing one this year, there is a clear difference.  The personnel attention to service, the quality of the food and how the ship operates is different than you would find on most mass market lines.  However, many people do not see the value in the extra cost and are happy to cruise on less expensive cruises lines.  It is all subjective. If you are comfortable with HAL, there is nothing wrong with sticking with them.

We received the 30% off voucher and used it for a YC booking in June.  It was actually 35% because you can combine it with your 5% Voyager discount.  Nice deal.

We always to a taxi back.  There is a taxi stand when you get off the ship.  I think it a set fee of $28 to get to the airport.  

Why do people like cruising? It is very affordable and provides the opportunity to see exciting places around the globe. Why is it affordable? It is because ships are flagged in jurisdictions that have labor laws that allow a company to provide extremely low salaries. The low salaries allow for the low rates everyone loves. So for all those proponents of employees receiving a living wage, the cruise line could do so but your cruise fares would be much higher. I have a feeling if there was a precipitous climb in fares, the proponents of the living wage would prefer the current construct. Their idealism goes out the window.

I have no problem with the gratuities. I realize that this is a mechanism to keep rates down. I'm fortunate that I make a good living. Any supplemental tipping I give will have no impact to me but can impact the staff member I provide it to.

BJ is 3:2 and is continuous shuffle. Minimums are $10 but they have happy hours where the minimums are lower.

A violinist accompanied by a piano player usually played between 6-7 and then again later for another hour or so. 4 or 5 nights a trio, accompanied by a singer, sang old classics. Usually, it was right after dinner ended.

Did you have to make reservations for shows at the Metropolitan Theatre?

We did not partake of any of the shows but the general feedback was that they were pretty good.