Petronillus

From your lips to God's ear!

In our day-to-day "real" world I'm a mallwalker. Management holds off on the Xmas decorations until shortly after Halloween, and Santa takes his throne just a little after that. The three people serving as Santa's helpers are chiefly focused on the picture-taking and vehemently prohibit parents from taking their own snapshots. Right around the corner is a Victoria's Secret. A red tshirt in the display window caught my eye, on which was emblazoned "Santa, I can explain . . ." BTW: the photo shop racks up the most $$$$ on the three days when customers are invited to bring their pets in for a picture with Santa.

I recently saw the following in a church basement: "Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate."

We've never done a B2B, although our upcoming 28-day Asia cruise has pax coming and going at various stages. I'm curious: what is the "In Transit Procedure"?

We too are transplanted Michiganders. Our days at the U of M go back to the Woody Hayes/Bo Schembechler rivalry, when "OHOWIHATEOHIOSTATE" bumper stickers were ubiquitous.

I haven't witnessed it personally, but I've heard tell on this board of folks who, in the process of getting used to their scooter, back up down a stairwell (inadvertently). The thought always gives me a chill when I see people trying to navigate their scooter.

To quote Gilbert & Sullivan: "If everybody's somebody then nobody's anybody."

For rj59's sake, it's a good thing that attendance is never compulsory. His/her opinion, it seems to me, is the view of a small minority. Choice of suitable venue was a problem in the early days, after LCS supplanted (and surpassed by a good margin) the Adagio Strings. Eventually, the space on the Pinnacle-class ships was carved out to share with BBKing's, and the architecture was fine-tuned at some expense for better acoustics. Programming was prescribed somewhere at headquarters -- don't know whether HAL's or Lincoln Center's -- but sometimes had to give way to exigent circumstances. On one of our cruises the pianist suffered (off-stage) a slip and fall as a result of which her right hand was out of commission. The 5 (yes, at that time they numbered 5!) of them scoured the literature for piano pieces composed for only the left hand, and the results were delightful. Perhaps because DW and I were fans, the LCS was a frequent topic of mealtime conversation. We never heard a negative viewpoint. We learned, however, that for many people the LCS was their first exposure to chamber music, and that many folks were surprised at how much they enjoyed it. I and people like me lament the loss of LCS. Our 14-day Norway cruise on Rotterdam last summer was our first since the suppression of LCS. Oddly enough, signage referring to LCS remained on display here and there -- as painful reminders. I buttonholed the cruise director at one point and voiced my displeasure. She rattled off the company line, that LCS would come back as ad hoc entertainers in the World Stage, but without a shred of enthusiasm.

Don't laugh. I used to work for a company (which shall remain nameless) that had an employee cafeteria and an executive dining room and a senior executive dining room, in ascending order. There were no guest privileges; i.e., no one in a higher-ranked eatery could invite anyone into that sanctuary. The higher-ranked executive could dine in a lower-ranked venue but rarely would because in that case he/she had to pay an out-of-pocket charge. (A flat sum, in a nominal amount, was deducted from the executive's monthly pay for his/her dining privilege.) Talk about creating and maintaining silos! Sheesh!

I find the raves about the hamburgers at Dive-In Grill puzzling. I've tried them twice and each time that it was awful. Now the hotdogs on the other hand! I think they are Nathans. Is there some trick I should follow w/r/t the hamburgers? Like, perhaps, insist that they be freshly made and not languishing in a foil wrapper?

Many thanks to the OP for starting this thread! We booked a "bucket-list" cruise for late January-February 2025, Oosterdam starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina and ending near Santiago, Chile with a few days cruising along the coast of Antarctica. Following the info provided here, we just had our PCC re-fare it for us, starting with the lowest-fare category-V cabin (VH), adding Club Orange, upgrading to a category VA, and thereby saving ourselves a few thousand $$$$. Best of all, I now know how to go about it when I book far enough ahead to be able to factor in CO.

We had the same experience on our last cruise. The CD was the universal and ubiquitous emcee. She was the one I dumped my displeasure onto about the loss of the Lincoln Centre Stage. (She parroted back the namby-pamby company line, in desultory fashion.) Suffice it to say that despite her ultra-high visibility I never found a place in my heart for her.

Amen to that! This has been a delightful thread -- lots of information peppered with a lot of humor. Some of the early posts had me thinking that cabanas are not my thing, but later ones tempered the potential negatives with depth of perspective. One further set of questions occur to me. Is the cabana a suitable substitute for a verandah? Assuming you book your cruise early enough, before all the cabanas are claimed, doesn't it make sense to book the lowest-fare inside cabin you can find and then use your cabana during daylight hours? Add in Club Orange and maybe you get a poor man's suite?

With all the hullabaloo about smoking, this comment surprises me. How surreptitious can you be when exposed on the starboard side of the aft pool on the Lido deck? As for using in your cabana, wouldn't the staff be all over you in an instant for violating the no-smoking restrictions, whether tobacco or cannabis?

The one question I have: when the ship is underway, is the noise of the engines and the wake a problem? While walking the promenade I notice both the noise and the steady vibration.

For me the major takeaway is that the PVSA and the Jones Act are attempts at protectionism (largely futile because they don't have significant benefits to stateside commerce) and horrid examples of featherbedding. Who really benefits from all these contortions?

Oakridger Nancy covered the waterfront. All I would add is that the dollar-figure limit is applied to the "menu price" of the drink you order. I suppose that's to clarify that you don't get the benefit of any reduced pricing, not even during happy hour; it all counts the same with the drinks package.

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but one gentleman posted that he liked to bring a stack of $2 bills (with Jefferson's portrait) to distribute to bartenders and servers, particularly at the beginning of the cruise. He figured that it made his generosity more memorable. I find that I tend to save my $1 bills in anticipation of an upcoming cruise. Then I hand one or two of them to the bartender and/or server when I'm trying to establish (and later occasionally to sustain) my status as a regular. With the HIA drinks package it feels more natural and less extravagant/flamboyant. Since I never get close to exceeding the daily 15-drink allotment, what I appreciate most about the drinks package is that it takes the on-the-spot economics out of the decision of what to drink and when.

If I've already heard about medallions, I wasn't paying attention. This thread prompted me to take a look at my cruise history, and I've just discovered that with our last cruise we have completed exactly 100 cruise days. Does that mean that we'll get bronze (entry-level) medallions at some point in our upcoming cruise in February? Will I also be schooled in the secret handshake?

The only benefits I see from a signature suite are (1) doubling the number of cruise-day credits awarded toward Mariner status and (2) the tiny lights that momentarily guide your feet to the bathroom and back when you get up in the night.

When I was in school in Montreal we used to joke that the four seasons of Quebec are June, July, August, and winter.

Oddly enough, the same was true in Chicago. The fall colors didn't turn until much much later than usual. IIRC, the trees were just turning at Halloween.

Maybe it was a stroke of good luck, but the PCC I work with now is everything the one I complained about wasn't. It's as if the supervisor I talked with took note of my gripes and custom-tailored a replacement for me. Makes for tons of good will.

FWIW, I thought the "click bait" comment was a cheap shot. OP's post has stimulated an interesting and worthwhile thread. OP should keep on keeping on. One man's opinion.

If you don't work well with the PCC you got assigned to, you can insist on a change. I have worked with a number of PCCs over the years and none of them required an appointment for a consultation. I usually start with an email to my current PCC, who got saddled with me after I complained about her immediate predecessor; she typically asks me to suggest a time when I'll be available to talk with her, and she calls me and has never missed such a prearranged rendezvous. And, yes, as Crystal said, she tells me that the call is being recorded. There is no reason for you to feel reluctant to initiate a change. It's simply a matter of the two of you having incompatible communication styles. It's in HAL's interest to match you with someone you can build a long-term relationship with.