MadManOfBethesda

No, you don't need to be told how to dress like a child. You seem to be doing that all on your own. What you need to be told is how to dress like an adult. Adult men wear slacks when they go out to eat in a nice restaurant. At least the mature ones do.

Here's your answer, lol. Lunch started at 12:00 and I took this photo a few minutes ago at 12:15, but before doing so, I stood nearby to make sure she spoke (and by inference read) English. The placard is right in front of her. ETA: I should note that there is also a line item in today's edition of the daily newsletter that the Opus Main Dining Room is open from 10:15am until 3:45pm specifically for "Board Games & Playing Cards." But I guess that rules and requests don't apply to the typical self-centered cruise passenger.

And the fact that your presence at an unscheduled time causes other people to wait longer than necessary is of absolutely no concern to you whatsoever, right?

I'm not sure that you can blame the "Me Society" as much as the "Celebrity Society." I'm currently in the middle of a 14-night TA on Reflection and I've never run across so many self-centered, self-important people on a cruise. And it began with many people ignoring their assigned boarding times. And as reported by another cruiser, this was followed by people attacking the library like locusts and emptying the selves of books walking away with as many as they could hold. And don't get me started on the people in the buffet. But I saw something this morning that put a smile on my face. It has been exceedingly difficult to find a place to sit down and eat because numerous (and once again, self-centered) people taking up space playing card games at the tables. I've even seen couples playing cards at four-tops and six-tops, oblivious to the people searching for a place to sit down and eat. Finally this morning as breakfast service was ending, I saw an officer going around placing placards on all of the tables which read: "Dear Valued Guest, We kindly request that you refrain from playing cards during our service time. It allows us to provide you and other guests with the best dining experience possible. We want you to fully immerse yourselves in the delightful ambiance and savor every moment of your culinary journey with us. " I'll be curious to see what, if any, effect that has on the inconsiderate card players going forward.

One doesn't. Just because that is one person's preference, that doesn't mean that is a standard or majority opinion. Just sayin'....

I'm on the Reflection right now. There is no vegan menu; however, I've been given a special vegetarian menu each evening for the next night in which to order items to be prepared vegan.

Wow! I did not appreciate exactly what you were saying. I assumed that you meant that there were four or five options available in the buffet that just happened to be vegan. I didn't realize that there was a dedicated section of entrees that were prepared specifically for vegans. To wit: Vegan Chicken in Tomato Salsa; Creamy Mushroom & Brussel Sprouts; Vegetable Black Bean Stew; and, Vegan "Meat" Balls in Napolitana Sauce. There was another rice-based item as well, but I don't recall what it was labelled. That was all yesterday at lunch. I've never seen anything like that on any other line on which we've cruised. For dinner, I wanted to give the MDR another chance, and although there wasn't much on the regular menu, I found out that they had a separate vegetarian menu which included several vegan options. For a starter, I chose the "Chop Chop Composed Salad" which consisted of peppers, celery, carrots and romaine lettuce. Much better than the previous night's plain lettuce wedge. There were several entrees to choose from as well. For those of you who are complaining about the same old tired items on the regular menu, you might want to take a look at the vegetarian menu to try something different. For example, on tonight's menu, I've pre-ordered the Grilled Vegetable Napolean appetizer, the Wild Mushroom-Barley Soup, and the Herb and Garlic Marinated Portobello Mushroom on a bed of Arugula Salad. The desert will be Carrot Halva. Other choices on the vegetarian menu for tonight include Chicory Apple Pear Salad, Red & White Belgium Endive, Frisée and Avocado Salad in a Pink Grapefruit Vinaigrette, and Tikka Masala Tofu, which includes spinach, green lentils, and red peppers, and is served with Paratha. It's only been a couple of days, but I, for one, have not been disappointed with the food or the food options.

Thanks; I'll give that a try today. Last night I went to the MDR and ordered the cous cous main course; but there were no vegan options on the starters side of the menu. When I asked the waiter if they had any vegan options, he mentioned a salad and then brought me a plain wedge of iceberg lettuce, lol. In Celebrity's defense, however, I didn't have an opportunity to speak with the maître d' or anyone else before sitting down last night. I would expect they could and would do better with some advance notice of my dietary preference. ETA: I should add that my wife fared much better with her gluten-free requests. She started with onion soup which she said was "just okay," but she raved about the sea bass which she stated was one of the freshest, and best servings of fish she'd had anywhere in quite a while.

Wow. We board this afternoon with a scheduled time of 1:00 - 1:30. I hope the problems have been corrected by then and that boarding goes a little more smoothly than it did this morning! I've enjoyed reading your previous live thread and am curious what our experience will be in the MDR & buffet. We usually order from a special menu in the MDR or have items specially prepared as my wife is gluten intolerant (Celiac) and my diet is plant-based. We've been in Valencia for the past two weeks and moved to a hotel in Barcelona last night, where we are currently relaxing and awaiting our scheduled boarding time.

That may be true for Caribbean cruises, but it certainly isn't the case when comparing longer cruises to other destinations. I took a two-week transatlantic cruise on Carnival this past April from Tampa to Barcelona and a two-week cruise out of Baltimore to Greenland and Newfoundland last month and I will be taking a two-week transatlantic cruise on Celebrity next month from Barcelona to Port Canaveral. I am Elite on X and have found very little difference in the demographics and conduct between Carnival passengers and Celebrity passengers on these longer cruises.

Fine, neck purse. You still have to take the money out of it to use it. And if you use cash in ports, it is subject to being taken from you. Even you have to admit that if you use cash there is a greater-than-zero chance of having it stolen and then you and you alone are out that money. But if you use a credit card that is hacked or stolen, it is the credit card company that is out the money. You have lost zero, nada, nothing. So once again, explain how using cash is safer than using credit cards?

You're comparing apples to cats. Cruises to Alaska and Hawaii spend the majority of their time at those two destinations. This was a 14-day cruise in which a grand total of two days were to be spent in Greenland. And one of those days was at a tiny village with hardly anything to do other than to be able to say that you set foot in Greenland. Now if people wanted to spend $8k-$10k in order to do so, that's on them. But it certainly isn't Carnival's fault that they couldn't make it to these two tender ports. If missing Greenland was the result of ship propulsion or other problems, then I could see where remuneration would be warranted. But every seasoned cruiser knows that when you take a cruise, the passenger contract clearly states that the specific port stops are not guaranteed. Full disclosure: I was on the Legend's cruise to Greenland & Newfoundland last month, which I had only booked a little more than a month earlier at a heavily discounted casino rate. Had we missed the Greenland ports due to weather, I would have been disappointed, but I would not have expected any remuneration from Carnival. I would have considered $400 credit for something that wasn't in Carnival's control more than adequate. But then again, I would never have spent $8k-$10k to go on this cruise in the first place.

And speaking of taking stupid chances... You seriously believe that it is safer to walk around crowded tourist areas/cities with a wad of cash in your pocket rather than a credit card or two? LOL Worst case with a credit card is that it gets hacked or stolen and you contact your cc company to have it cancelled. But you are out no money. But with a wad of cash, not only would you be out that money if you were pickpocketed or robbed, but you could also be seriously injured if the thief decides that getting your money is more important than your life. But that's okay, you do you.

It was a ship called the Ocean Explorer.

One doesn't need to be on a tight budget to enjoy what you so derisively refer to as "the Carnival experience." However, it may first require a trip to a proctologist to have the stick removed so that such a person could relax and enjoy themselves. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford to take whatever cruise on whatever cruise line I want. I usually choose based on the itinerary rather than the cruise line. Last fall, I took a Windstar cruise from Athens to Barcelona. Last month, it was a Carnival cruise to Greenland and Newfoundland. And next month it will be a transatlantic cruise departing Barcelona on Celebrity. I'm also in the process of researching a cruise to Antartica on Seabourn. I enjoyed both the Windstar and Carnival cruises, and I am sure that I will be equally enamored with my upcoming cruises on Celebrity and Seabourn. But then again, I'm pretty easygoing and don't look down my nose at others.

You must have made a wrong turn somewhere because last I checked, this is the Celebrity board.

I guess you didn't pick up on my sarcasm. I was agreeing with you.

How dare you suggest that these duplicate threads complaining about Celebrity cuts be combined into one all-purpose complaint thread??!! Don't you realize that some people's comments are just too important to be relegated to just another post in an existing thread? It should be obvious to all that their comments warrant a brand new thread so as to stand out from all the peons complaining about the very same things that they are unhappy about.

Umm, you have to remember to RE-adjust a watch as well. But whatever floats your boat....

Wouldn't it be simpler just to go into your settings and manually make the adjustments? It should take no more than 5-10 seconds each time there is a time change.

Hey, thanks for that tip! I hadn't even noticed that there were large plastic glasses there until I read your post. I hate those tiny green and/or yellow plastic cups that are in the Lido for water, juice, iced tea, etc. The "beer" glasses are much better to use. You've just improved the remainder of my cruise for me!

Thank you; that's interesting and helpful.

I don't know how they worked back in the day, but in the era of computer chips, they operate using RNGs. You can Google the term "random number generator" for a complete explanation if you're interested. But there is no dispute when it comes to how tight or loose a casino wants it's slots to be; just how it goes about accomplishing that. It can set a slot machine to return 97 cents of every dollar or can make it tight and only have it return 80 or 85 cents for example.

This won't be of interest to many here, but would you mind going into a bit more detail about your train experience? We moved to Savannah from Miami last year and we're looking for alternative ways to get to embarkation ports. Last Thanksgiving we drove to Port Canaveral, but the parking situation was horrendous. There were 4 ships in port and they ran out of regular parking and eventually opened an employee surface lot for us and many others to use. Then in April we chose to fly to Tampa, but there were no direct flights from Savannah and we had to change planes in Atlanta. It would have been quicker to drive! Then, due to a bad experience last month when we again had to go through Atlanta for a (non-cruise) trip to Montreal (we ended up sleeping in the airport when our delayed flight was finally cancelled at 1:00am & rescheduled for 8:00am), we decided to drive the 600 miles to Baltimore to board our current cruise on Legend. We love living in Savannah now but miss the easy access to nonstop flights to almost anywhere from Miami's international airport, not to mention the close proximity to the cruise ports. I'd be interested to learn more about your experience taking a train out of Savannah to nearby ports such as Jacksonville (and perhaps others on the East Coast).

Slot machines are not set to pay off after a certain number of spins. They use a random number generator (RNG) that is constantly selecting combinations - even when no one is playing the machine - to determine when and how much a machine is going to pay out at any particular time. It is possible, although highly unlikely, for two successive spins to be jackpot wins. What is determined by the casino is the hold percentage, say 80%, 85%, 90%, etc., so that the RNG is programmed to pay out the remaining percentage over time on a completely random basis.