Bryan S

Looking forward to this cruise as a preview on her. Also sailing JOTS in 2024 in the Norway Jyords.

When I sailed solo in October I was seated alone butt surrounded by other two-top tables with couples. We got to know each other without the presume of having to wait for others to be seated before ordering. I was initially offered to sit with others but found this arrangement worked really well for me.

Thanks. I was wondering this myself. I enjoy a taco salad on a beach day. I'll plan to enjoy the ribs.

I was wondering this myself. I'm going solo in October on Mariner so I'm trying dinning I normally wouldn't.

My experience is that Chops often is not available as it's being used for the continuous cruise guests.

I see many people ignoring dinning suggestions with the exception of them nights. I've never seen anyone turned away. My partner dresses too far down for my taste but like @Pooch, I'm not luging formal attire anymore since so few are dressing up.

The freestyle machines in July on Allure had a lot of maintenance issues. However, we found the bar waiters much more helpful with ordering by the glass than we had previously. They also were using the single wall uninsulated cups but I've been seeing posts that the traditional two-walled cups were making their way back to the fleet.

I wish it worked this way consistently but this hasn't been our experience. As recently as July on Allure we were sat as a couple at a 10 top and were told we had to wait for the others who never showed. only after 40 or so minutes were we allowed to order. We changed to a two-top to avoid a nightly recurrence. Regardless, I enjoy the consistency of having the same server and assistant. I order iced tea each evening. After the second evening they stop asking.

The same on Allure. I was surprised.

We typically will tip $50 to our cabin steward for a 7 day cruise on top of prepaid tips. We often will greet and give half on the first day as this insures excellent service. We typically tip our wait staff much lower do to inconsistent service. However, we received excellent service during our July cruise on Allure so tipped $40 to the waiter and $30 to the assistant. We’re not convinced prepaid tips are allocated accurately for the way we cruise so we like to share a bit extra. My mother as always tipped extra on drinks and had the similar experience of extra attentiveness.