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tallyho8

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Everything posted by tallyho8

  1. I have been on 64 cruises on 6 different cruise lines and my favorite 3 ships are the newest HAL ships, the Koningsdam, Rotterdam and the Nieuw Statendam. I find very little difference in these 3 ships except that the Koningsdam has the giant LED screens surrounding the showroom and these usually have some excellent movies with fascinating scenes from around the world. Celebrity is my next favorite cruise line but only on their older ships. Down the line are Carnival Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and MSC but only on their older ships because I dread traveling on a ship with over 4000 passengers.
  2. I've sailed on 72 cruises on 6 different cruise lines and never seen a disembarkation as horrible or dangerous as the one on the Horizon on January 6, 2024. Even though there were crowds of people trying to get off the ship, they kept calling more groups to disembark. There was a huge crowd on deck 3 and the line was not moving and people were coming down the elevator and could not get off due to the crowd so they had to wait in the elevators. This made many people have to wait for an elevator for a half hour and they try to walk down the stairs with all their luggage. The stairs were packed shoulder to shoulder and if one person had slipped it would have caused a domino effect where dozens would have fallen down the stairs creating a panic at the third floor where people would have been trampled with hundreds injured or killed. I saw 2 people vomit in the crowd as they were stressed out and overheated waiting for such a long time in the heat and carrying their luggage. If the fire department had knowledge of that situation, Carnival would have faced a hefty fine and have to change their debarkation procedure. It is a wonder that no one appeared to be injured during this time although one lady had a panic attack and some kids were crying. Imagine standing on the stairs with people crowding you so tight you could not move or sit down or even have a place to set your luggage down for over a half hour. I complained to a worker who was holding people back in line and he just smiled and said there was nothing he could do about it. Once outside we waited for our Uber in the designated area for Lyft and Uber rides but it was full of shuttle buses so many of the Ubers could not stop there and parked in an undesignated area where patrons could not find them. Ours left after a few minutes and charged us for missing the ride. We were finally able to get another one after 45 minutes. Luckily we had a late flight because we heard many people talking about missing their flight since it took them over 2 hours to get off the ship and get on to a ride to the airport.
  3. I used it a few months ago. The carts are not very old but they are well used. We drove around the whole island in a couple of hours and returned the cart early because there was no where else to go.
  4. The barriers do a good job of keeping the sargassum out but it also helps block the water flow making the water more stagnant but not real stagnant. I just got back from Costa Maya yesterday and the water was more clear than when I went last month. It is just a shame that the owners of the taxi company there are determined to rip the tourists off and charge twice as much as taxis are in Cozumel. Being there quite often I know that fares are $4 per person but I have heard some people who don't know better ask the driver how much it is and they usually tell them $5 per person. So, don't ask!
  5. We were there also. That was the most crowded that we had ever seen Crazy Lobster and we have been there many times. There were only 3 ships in port but they were big ones. If another ship had been in port Crazy Lobster would have been too full for us to get into. The barriers kept the sargassum out but the water looked like it was not as clean as the water outside the barriers. With the new larger ships being unable to go to many of the usual ports, ports that can handle the larger ships are getting much more traffic than they used to get. We need some new ports opening up to help relieve the congestion. I vote for them to open Cuba back up again.
  6. I would not cancel if I were you. My wife has difficulty walking and we were a little late getting to Native Choice. The bus had already left but they said no problem, we will drive you there. One of them drove us there to meet up with the group and everything worked out ok. We got back with time to spare so we asked them to drop us off on the melacon which they gladly did. I can not say enough good things about them.🙂
  7. On the Eclipse last year we got our choice of a drink.
  8. I love trivia if though I am very poor at it because I have a loss of short term memory. If they ask a question about something that I learned in school 60 years ago I can give a correct answer but if they ask about something more recent like an episode of Friends or the name of a song or singer from the 80s on up then I have no clue. One of my last cruises, not on Carnival, where you won a drink, it was a general knowledge trivia and every question was about geography, history or social studies. This was the last day of trivia and I had not even been close the previous 6 days and one party of 6 people had won every day so far while I was playing alone. The answers were easy to me and I wound up winning. My phone was sitting on the table because I had been playing a game of Free Cell on it earlier and I did not have internet on that cruise. One of the "ladies" who had been winning every night rushed over to my table, grabbed my phone and looked at it to see my recent views and exclaimed out loud that I was cheating because there was no way I could have beat her. Of course, only Free Cell was on my phone and she could tell I had no internet but I was so shocked at her conduct that I just sat there quietly in shock for a moment. It was lucky that she was a woman because if it had been a man I probably would have been kicked off the ship for knocking him out. All I could do was to walk past her table when leaving, with all her friends there, and tell her how arrogant she was to think that anyone who could beat her had to be cheating. I was a straight A student in High School and could probably beat her in any high school subject but Home Economics. She was so flustered that she spilled her drink on the lady next to her as I walked out the door.
  9. I booked my Celebrity cruise with 2 $500 AARP gift cards. Two days later my TA phoned me and said I had to make a $900 deposit on the cruise, that gift cards can only be used to pay off the balance of the cruise and not the deposit. So I had to use my credit card to pay the $900 deposit.
  10. I have to disagree with you. A rum and coke is not a fru fru drink. According to most dictionaries, a fru fru drink is "girlish, or fancy with a few obscene meanings also.
  11. Bartenders frequently screw up other drinks I order as well. As simple as a rum and coke is they frequently put a slice of lime in it which makes it a Cuba Libre and completely changes the taste. A mudslide is frequently ruined when they don't blend it long enough and it is full of chunks of ice. A Bloody Mary with vodka, Bloody Mary mix and ONE olive. A rum punch with so much fine crushed ice in it that 2 sips and it is gone. To make sure they make my favorite after-dinner drink, I print up some copies I bring with me and hand one to the bartender.
  12. I ordered Tom Collins in a few different countries in Europe and they were all made correctly.
  13. I did that once and when I got my final bill I found out I was charged for both drinks. Do not go to guest services on the last day to get a minor charge on a bill straightened out because the line is so long it will take you an hour.
  14. I have cruised on Carnival, Holland American, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and MSC many times. My favorite drink is a Tom Collins which I have been drinking for many years. It is essentially lemonade with gin and decorated with a cherry or orange slice. Every ship I go on mixes it with lime and puts a lime slice in it. Many ask whether I want gin or vodka. If you want vodka it is a vodka collins. I usually tell the bartender how I want it made and they usually get it right and I give a couple dollars extra tip to help them remember me next time. The problem is, next time there is a different bartender and you have to start over again. And if the tip isn't large enough, they forget how to make it.
  15. I cruised on the Celebrity Eclipse and the Holland American Rotterdam a while back and I discovered that the most refreshing cold drink on a hot day was the Mocha Frappe which I bought in either the Sky Lounge on the Eclipse or the Crow's Nest on the Rotterdam. Since I went on so many cruises in so short of a time I was a little confused as to which ship that was on. Looking up drink menus on these ships I have been unable to find either ship listing frappes. Can anyone answer this question?
  16. I cruised on the Celebrity Eclipse and the Holland American Rotterdam a while back and I discovered that the most refreshing cold drink on a hot day was the Mocha Frappe which I bought in either the Sky Lounge on the Eclipse or the Crow's Nest on the Rotterdam. Since I went on so many cruises in so short of a time I was a little confused as to which ship that was on. Looking up drink menus on these ships I have been unable to find either ship listing frappes. Can anyone answer this question?
  17. Just out today: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/large-cruise-ship-gets-shut-down-due-to-digusting-and-dirty-conditions/ar-AA1b0IAe?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=2984ed20534b4d4f858a90db2bc1c44e&ei=61
  18. The drinks at Pat O'Briens and the Carousel Bar are so good that you might not want to leave to go somewhere else.
  19. The 9" chocolate cake is amazing. The filling makes it very moist and delicious. I wish I could bring one home. I only order the small one because we always have so much to eat on Carnival that there is not much room for dessert and the cabin is always too crowded to try to keep it for a few days.
  20. We were on the melacon 2 weeks ago and they had a barrier up the whole way keeping the beaches clean. I was impressed.
  21. I've been on over 50 cruises. I cruised on the Mardi Gras shortly after the pandemic ended and it was only about 50% full. It felt VERY crowded compared to many ships I have been on that were full. I would never go on it again unless I knew it was sailing almost empty.
  22. There are speakers on the balconies that are used for emergency announcements.
  23. I have always felt very safe in OSJ but have never been to the La Perla area. The first couple of times we went to OSJ years ago, it seemed like everyone we met there warned us to stay out of that area because of all the crime there and much of it involving tourists.
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