twangster

Wait...if two bots claim the other bot is real, what does that prove?

Keep an eye out for 10 drink cards, or 10 draft beer cards mid-cruise. Saves a few bucks. The 10 beer cards have limited draft choices so make sure you like the beer before going this route.

Empress, a couple of cruises after you.

Hello. My name is Twangster and I have this problem...

Have they opened again? Awesome. My favorite hotel in San Juan. Love the dried fruit by the pool. This is where I learned the proper way to set up a lounger. One towel rolled into a pillow hanging over the back as counter weight, two on the lounger tucked in just so.

In the past were the private Diamond events truly just Diamond and up? The C&A benefits now simply state something to the effect "Nightly Diamond Event" which now equates to Diamond Happy Hour as near as I can tell. The 'Top Tier' event, platinum and up, is sometimes in Studio B with a small ice show, or in the Aqua theater with a small water show, or in a lounge with singers and dancers, etc. That's once per cruise and not nightly. Location varies by ship.

This blog is getting to be an expensive place to hangout. Since I'm going to Alaska in a few weeks I've picked up a Sony A7 III to see how it compares to my Nikon D750. I blame @Hockeyman55 for this unexpected expense ? The low light level performance of the Sony looks amazing and I like to do low light photography. Nikon is threatening to release a mirrorless system next year but they have the legacy baggage of a million Nikkor lenses that Nikon enthusiast keep in their closet. The reality is a mirrorless system calls for a new approach to a lens mount. No doubt in my mind Nikon's first attempt will be super expensive with the impossible challenge they face of appeasing a vested user base with a million lenses. Since a switch to mirrorless will likely call for new lenses to do it properly, my investment in Nikkor lenses becomes somewhat a moot point. Enter eBay. Between an Alaska cruise in June and a Cuba cruise late July I'll have some cruise photo ops to help me decide which one ends up on eBay. Unfortunately that means slugging both around until then.

I first read of this in a blog post of a lawyer who has displayed a trend in his coverage of such events. It's one side of the story, written by a lawyer. There are often two sides to a story but in this case the judicial process found with the victim. Without being in the courtroom to hear the arguments I can't form my own opinion but I'm always careful to adopt the position of the media simply because the media said so. Personally I thought the $21M awarded to a man who walked into a sliding door on a cruise ship a few years ago was excessive. Granted he was injured in the event but it seems like certain lawyers gravitate to these types of cases where a jury can develop an emotional connection to a victim versus the big faceless corporation. Only in America. Not saying that happened in this occasion because I don't know - I wasn't in the courtroom. I simply don't know the facts of this case beyond what has been written by the media. Fortunately they never get anything wrong or sensationalize so I guess we just accept what they say.

If you are an American corporation, chances are you have or are being sued. People sue Apple weekly for things that make me SMH. No wonder iPhones cost $900. No idea of the merits of this case, but welcome to America!

You can take the Canuck out of Canada, but you can't take the Canadian out of hockey.

What city? Is this even Canada? or Toledo?

I was on the Adventure repo cruise in May from San Juan to Bayonne. Muster was in English followed by Spanish. It was much longer than 13 minutes.

A couple of months ago I found reference on the RCI website as if it was still a thing but then I found reference on the website to it being killed off.

True. There was that day in 1947... I'm just happy to see Canada finally got the internet and folks could find the blog. Probably explains the increase.

And the stubborn Canadian brings it all back to Hockey...

Right now there is a cost to use the island. There always has been. You don't see it, it is contained within your cruise fare. The island has never been 'free' just like meals are not 'free' and entertainment is not 'free'. They are included in your cruise fare. Using your logic, why stop at Coco Cay? "Welcome to Cozumel! $100 to leave the ship please" - I never see that happening. Coco Cay will be remain the same. Included in your cruise fare for those activities that are complimentary. It would be disastrous PR to deliver guests to any pier then charge a fee to step off the ship. Imagine how the competition would gobble that up and use it against them.

Quantum doesn't. I am also booked on Quantum in 2019 on a refundable fare. Voyager does.

Not on this cruise, it's only 5 nights. RC direct only suites get any OBC. It's well into 2019 so I'm hopeful pricing will improve over the next 400 days.

NRDB

Yikes. Not good. I guess that's the danger of prepaying a 3rd party transportation company. I just use Uber or Lyft. I check both because if one doesn't have any drivers close by the rates go into demand pricing. On my last Galveston return to Hobby airport Lyft wanted $135 while Uber was $50.

While that is displayed during the booking process, it isn't required at this time (it used to be a while ago). I booked MTD almost exclusively and prepaid gratuity isn't required. I usually choose to add prepaid gratuity but that is my choice, it isn't required.

Pop quiz... who thinks Royal's website is totally awesome? For those who doubt why a travel agent can be a great resource, how did you answer the pop quiz? What makes you think the best price is always displayed on the totally awesome Royal website that you think is so great? Here is an example of one of the three cruises I just booked with MEI travel. Using my D+ C&A balcony discount for a 6D balcony the Royal website the total is $2,122.85. That doesn't include gratuity and no OBC is offered. I though this was going to be the price of this cruise. Jacki York with MEI responded to my request for a quote for the same cruise, same 6D aft balcony. I asked her to include gratuity. The total is $1,471.35. That's $651 cheaper and it includes prepaid gratuity plus $50 OBC. YOLO! Book it! Seriously if you have ever had issue with or grumbled at the Royal website, why would you trust it so much booking your own cruise? If I had booked this on my own using the Royal website, I would be paying $2,122.85. What did it cost me to save $773? Zero. MEI doesn't charge fees for their services. This doesn't happen on every cruise I book, but since I book a lot of cruises I've seen enough examples to know the value of a free quote from MEI Travel.

Likes It's San Juan. Love this port and embarking there is like getting an extra stop on the cruise. Evening departure, gives more time to explore San Juan and enjoy the lights of the city during sail away. Relaxed day one. You start deep with the Caribbean so you can visit islands that are harder to reach from the US Mainland without longer cruises Often cruises fares are better (fuel costs are lower on some itineraries since you start deep in the Caribbean) Dislikes Airfare can be higher than flying to Florida (often offset by lower cruise fares) Fewer flight options coming from Colorado, flight times

People never like it when you change anything, especially a web site. Carnival has gone through several iterations each drastically different and was 'shocking' each time they did it. If these recent changes had gone perfect and everything worked out of the gate people would still be moaning and complaining. I don't think any company has to warn or notify users they intend to give their website a facelift. People are upset because it changed. The fact that it was executed poorly just amped that up a notch.

For now? Working on the stubbornness are we?