teddy

The recent Netflix release should help Carnival’s reputation. Quite a coincidence.

If you want to tip, then tip. If you don’t want to tip, then don’t. It’s not rocket science. You’re not going to be vaporized if you don’t leave a tip.

There may be some rules as far as preexisting conditions coverage.

Having cruised out of Ravenna once before, I’d take the train again. From the airport, you could grab a taxi or take the bus to the Venezia Mestre train station (located on the mainland, same as the airport). Then take the train to Ravenna via either Bologna or Ferrara. We left from Venezia Santa Lucia (located in Venice proper) and changed trains in Ferrara. Ferrara is a small, easy to navigate station. The train from Ferrara to Ravenna is a regional train with Ravenna as its last stop. We bought tickets through trenitalia.com. If the site is Italian and you want English (or another language) change it by clicking at the top right.

Our first ever visit to CocoCay was on Adventure during the restart. It’s hard to not reminisce about the good old days on CocoCay

My wife and I had a port call in Rotterdam last October. We went out on our own and had a great time. We found it to be an interesting port with cool history. There’s a huge outdoor market we really enjoyed wandering around. We took the obligatory pictures of the cube house too. .

Hasn’t been my experience when traveling in Europe the past couple years. Good to know where you stand though.

Ain’t the internets wonderful?

Meh We’re on Symphony later this year. I have no concerns.

The first time we ever went to Coco Cay, we planned nothing and spent a couple hours slowly wandering around getting the lay of the land. After that we just relaxed at Chill Island. On subsequent visits, we knew what was where and knew what we liked/disliked.

Does throwing a fit actually work for anything?

MSC will give a status match in their own program but they will not give drink vouchers. That’s a Royal Caribbean benefit not an MSC one.

I agree. C&A Diamond matched to Voyagers Club Gold. It really didn’t do anything for us.

We've been on two MSC cruises. We found an incredible deal on a 7-night northern Europe cruise out of Southampton on Preziosa back in October of last year (2024). $2200 for Yacht Club so we grabbed it, fully expecting to be told it was a glitch. After we booked it, we decided to try a short MSC to see what we thought, so we booked a Fantastica 3-night one out of Miami on Divina (same class as Preziosa) in January 2024 . After those two cruises, we decided that unless we find another smoking deal on a Yacht Club sailing, we will stick with Royal. We are completely happy with our experiences on Royal and really enjoy every aspect of cruising with them. Our experiences: Steerage class on Divina (out of the US) was interesting. The buffet was good but the MDR was underwhelming. The entertainment was where we said "blah". There is no comparison to Royal's live orchestra and production shows. Even the daily entertainment was blah. Crew was ok, but hit or miss as far as basic customer service. Ocean Cay was enjoyable and seemed empty with just the one ship able to dock. Yacht Club on Preziosa (out of the UK) was nice...as long as we stayed in the Yacht Club. We went out a couple nights to explore the nightlife on the rest of the ship and went back to the YC pretty quickly. The food in the YC restaurant was amazing, but then again, we are amazed by Royal's MDR...Foodies we are not...so our opinion of what constitutes good food might not be the same as other people. Entertainment was blah again. We acutely missed Royal's shows and entertainment staff. Crew was outstanding in YC but meh outside of it. As I said at the beginning of this, we will only sail MSC again if it's an incredible deal for YC....although we aren't really looking at any one else besides Royal. I think the most telling thing is we ate the $398 NRD on an MSC sailing this coming June to book an 11-night Inside Guarantee on Odyssey next January. We have Royal cruises booked through Sept 2026. At that point we will be 15 points from Diamond Plus. It's kinda a no-brainer to stick with Royal at this point.

We flew in to Heathrow, took the Underground to Victoria Station and walked <10 minutes to our hotel, where we spent two nights. Then we took the train from Waterloo Station to Southampton where we spent one night. Going home, we walked to the National Express bus station when we disembarked, took the bus to Heathrow, and flew home.

Although this can be brutal at the wrong time of day.

This is why we love cruising out of Bayonne. We actually changed a cruise booked in 2026 from Miami to Bayonne because it’s so nice to drive.

In 2024 we brought our son, daughter in law, and two granddaughters (1 and 3) on a cruise. We got them two connecting inside cabins and they were very happy about that. It made things a lot easier, and not just the extra space…for example, Tthe girls could go to sleep in one while our son and dil stayed up in the other.

We’re on the opposite end of the spectrum. We like boarding in the cold and waking up in progressively warmer temperatures.

It’s not cruising specifically. it’s being around masses of people. I worked retail from 1983 until September of last year when I finally had enough. I was constantly coming down with all kinds of respiratory crap. I haven’t had anything since last September. I’m not isolated, but I’m not around hundreds of people daily either.

Odyssey has it. I ate there a couple times over the last week and a half

I read this differently the first time around.

It’s been hit or miss on Odyssey this past 11 days….sometimes thin and watery, sometimes nice and thick.

Where have I been? Until Odyssey this week, I thought the only place to get Powerade was through the Freestyle machines. This changes everything for me. No more vouchers leftover for water at the end of the evening. Is it available on every ship? (No, I don’t drink alcohol anymore)

This is a very good way to put it