Cakemeister

Nah, I'd rather have Icon 2 or 3 in Galveston!

We had a snafu with our Covid tests. They would not take Mrs. Cake's test result. She had to take a taxi to the nearest testing place, get tested, wait for the results, then bring them back to the ship. We don't arrive at the terminal until 2:00 or so since we drive in on the day of the cruise, so there was a time scramble. She arrived with her test results 15 minutes before the doors closed.

I was not looking forward to British night, but I loved the fish and chips! I had the goat cheese tart, which needed more goat cheese but was otherwise good, the delicious fish and chips, and the trifle (tolerable, but would not get again), the sticky toffee pudding (good) and the no sugar added chocolate mousse (surprisingly good considering it was no sugar added) for dessert.

Is there priority departure with junior suites, or just priority arrival?

Howdy, I purchased it for my most recent cruise. I would say that it is worth it if you can find it for a decent price and you were already going to purchase an Internet package. For my next cruise, in May, I bought The Key for $22.99 pppd and I was happy with it.

I was a little disappointed with the ship and with our room. The ports were nice, just to do something different.

If you do buy the key, then keep your eye on the pricing. If they have a sale for less than your booked price, then you should be able to cancel and re-book. I just finished my first cruise with The Key. Since I drive to Galveston on the day of the cruise, I always arrive late enough so that I can just walk through all the security and check-in. This was even more true at the new terminal, it's great! Also, I was on the Radiance, a smaller ship, with only 21xx passengers. Therefore, I did not use the priority embarkation or the welcome lunch features of The Key. Mrs. Cake and I love the shows and we did sit in the reserved spaces. There was only one night where someone checked. There was only one activity that had exclusive times, the rock climbing wall. I did that once several years ago when I was in better shape. I did not use this benefit. For us, almost the entire benefit was on the last day. The departure breakfast was great, I had the steak and eggs and wow that was the best breakfast I had all week. Mrs. Cake has some mobility issues and she also gets a bit grumpy waiting in line, so we got her a wheelchair and after breakfast we went to the wheelchair area and they zipped us right off the ship, skipping the lines. We went straight to the Key luggage area, got our bags, boom and out of there, lickety-split. I calculated my cost for The Key at $126. Was it worth it? For me, not really because I don't mind waiting in line, but to keep Mrs. Cake happy it was definitely worth it! I am currently seeing a $32.99 pppd price on The Key for my cruise on the Allure this fall. That's a lot. I think I paid $27.99 pppd for this cruise, which wasn't a bargain.

Test, test, test every scenario you can think of before you make the commitment. -- What kind of cabin is sufficient for you? -- Do you get seasick? How will you get your meds, if any? -- Technical issues, as others have mentioned. -- What about the missus/friends/ social isolation? -- Do you have a home? What about your possessions? I strongly recommend doing some test cruises. One week to start, just to get your feet wet and work out the technical challenges. Then a back-to-back for two weeks, so you can work out other issues like laundry. Then you might be ready to go. Good luck!

I confirmed no craps table on the 2-18-23 cruise on Radiance.

We're on a 9-night cruise now on Radiance and the ninth menu will be.... drum roll.... another Mexican night. Night 3 and Night 7 will be Mexican night. The menus are: Welcome Aboard, French, Mexican, Caribbean, Italian, British, Mexican, Royal, and Bon Voyage.

Starlink on Radiance, 2/18/23: It appears we are throttled.

I saw this. It arrives in Lisbon but leaves from a different port. You normally don't see a round-trip TA this close together, normally they sail from North America to Europe in the spring and return back to North America in the late fall. It would be perfect if you wanted to spend some time in Europe between the sailings. It's like a super-long land tour! What an interesting six-week trip!

I'm not complaining.

Yeah, during the restart it was easy to make Diamond. Like L2K said it could be done in four cruises. It took me nine with interior cabins only, thanks to one transatlantic and two double-points cruises.

There should be, if this info is true.

Does Mr. Bayley need a better razor in that video, or is he going for a scruffy look?

Typically I print in color, then fold, then tape them together with packing tape, then staple. But, inspired by this thread, I'm ordering tag holders.

I can understand why they eliminated the souffle. They're time-consuming and more difficult than many other desserts. But they were so good! I always ordered two.

I'm excited to be on this one. So different from the usual Roatan/Costa Maya/Cozumel again and again. I'm looking forward to seeing Perfect Day at CocoCay for the first time. I hope this cruise is a success as I would love to see longer cruises out of Galveston.

I hope so, I'm sailing on her on the 18th. Craps is my favorite casino game.

Any idea what they will have for the 9th or 10th night? I'm going on a 9-night cruise in February.

Sure. I've planned out some megacruises that go for a month or so, ending in a transatlantic repo. Here's one: Megacruise on Brilliance: 7 nights Rome to Athens on 10/30/23, 7 nights Athens to Barcelona on 11/6/23, then 14 nights transatlantic on 11/13/23, then 5 nights out of Tampa, 33 days

This was me when I saw that there was no more Grand Marnier souffle. I always had two of them, it was so good.

We loved MTD on our last two cruises, but they were low-population cruises with no lines. We never made a reservation and walked in whenever we wanted. Our next cruise in a few weeks is likely to be a full ship, so we'll see if we still love MTD after that.

Amazing video, thanks for posting.