deButler

LOL YES!! He is quite prod of his crew record in the weekly crew vs. passengers pool volleyball matches. With good reason They are virtually undefeated.

SO very TRUE!! We were on Radiance in Jan out of NOLA and the Rockin w/ the Captain show was by far the BEST we saw all week!!! He is SO personable with both guests and his crew. In talking with the manager over the retail shops she said that much of the crew stayed with Capt. Marek while waiting to go back into service during their hiatus even though they were one of the last ships back in service. His announcements every day were epic and everyone did stop what they were doing to listen. His straight forward attitude on dealing with issues like late comers is refreshing. It’s truly awesome too seeing how well he treats every single crew member regardless of their rank or role. I would certainly look forward to sailing with him again.

Looking forward to trying these. Hopefully they still have them as an option for our TA in March on Symphony.

Looks like a few of us on here will be joining Chris on his journey in March across the pond to Spain. We should plan a meetup at his office for a slot pull or something.

You have a Private Chef for just this meal and they will make ANY/All accommodations for food preferences. On our meal they prepared an entire other desert without the peanut butter for our Mom due to her food allergy to peanuts.

We had 2 ambulances 2 weeks ago on our port day in Progresso. First one met the boat as we docked and the second was similar in that we had to wait on the evac to pull lines and depart. It’s not only sad to lose time on a vacation but can be down right scary getting required medical attention in some destinations. Also $$$ can be unreal as most medical plans will not cover an expense out of the country. My SIL got food poisoning and had to stay overnight in hospital while on a trip to Cabo and came home with a $10K bill to add insult to sickness.

I don’t recall having to make a reservation for Quest on Oasis pre-COVID. Just show up in Studio B and pick your seats according to what group of people you want to be teamed up with. Last week on Radiance we didn’t have reservations for any shows but Quest was one of the lower attended so doubt it would have been needed.

We did Chef’s table last week on Radiance and it was truly one of the best dining experiences we’ve had. The Chop’s steak that we got for lunch on embarkation day with the Key service did not compare to the 9oz Fillet that we had at CT. We also had the exact same menu as pictured above and they did tell us that all ships use the same menu across the fleet. The experience and flavors of the “World” desert is also well worth the $. The wine pairings were also incredible. The taste and body of the wine truly changed after tasting it a second time with the food of each course. The whole event is a very elegant elevation of dining above anything else available on the ship. I would certainly do it again on another trip even with the same menus because each chef will put his own adaptive spin on each dish.

I have not been on a boat yet that has a Jazz on 4 club but I am very much looking forward to frequenting it on our upcoming TA on Symphony in March. I do however frequent the casino a lot more often and while I am not offended by the smoke I certainly won’t mind if they dedicate a larger portion of it to be smoke free. It’s definitely a balancing act to maximize customer usage in all available spaces.

Everyone has their favorite games they’d rather play and if they aren’t familiar with how to play craps then it’s on to something else. When it comes to the house operation it all starts with $$. Thanks for the insights.

I kind of figured that might be the case from how the Casino Host referred to sailing out of Australia. Will also have to keep that in mind as the wife would like to hit some of the Asian itineraries. Thanks..

Let us know after you get back of any updates. Being based in Galveston for a while we might look to get another chance to sail it hopefully with a comp trip next time.

Agree with Mr. Sanchos on Cozumel. We used take our kids there when traveling with them due to in water play features, the pool, and the interaction with animals and the staff. While not an “all inclusive” a favorite stop on Roatan with kids or even alone is Mayan Eden. They have a wide variety of native animals that you can interact with and take pictures.

Only thing showing currently for our Mar 9 TransAtlantic are kids menus. Curios to see which menus are repeated on a 12 night cruise since I think they only have 10 prebuilt menus.

Yep. Times have definitely changed in the casino too. The craps table energy usually feeds the rest of the house and keeps things moving. It was very quiet late nights on our cruise.

The casino host said they have been lobbying the powers that be in Miami to put it back so maybe they do it on the one repositioning day they have next week when they move the ship from New Orleans to Galveston. I wouldn’t bet my cruise bankroll on it though

Last week was our first cruise since making Platinum pre-COVID. Ours were not in the room when we got on, so the second day while at sea we also went up to Loyalty desk and LA quickly provided 2 to us. On the 3rd or 4th night we returned to the cabin after dinner and 2 additional pins were left on our bed as well. Guess it really is a hit or miss thing depending on the loyalty ambassador on your sailing.

I’d say it really depends on the performer. On Radiance last week, the guitar player in Quill & Compass invited someone up to accompany him for a song.

Another vote for the air tags. They can truly be a trip saver. On a recent trip to Canada where we were flying in to Saskatchewan and then driving 3 hours out, my brother noticed that his bag suddenly took a hop to Denver from our connections in Chicago. He was able to get them rerouted and returned back to Saskatchewan as we landed from our Calgary connection. This saved him from missing an entire day of our 6 day guided trip.

Just off Radiance and our attendant also provided them every night without being requested. My wife saves all cruise compasses or other docs to go into her scrapbook at the end of each trip. Evidently there is not a hard & fast rule for distributing/not distributing paper copies to each stateroom.

Just got off of Radiance and was sorely disappointed to find that they had removed their Craps Table. In talking to the Casino Host she indicated that when they were “Down Under” for a while cruising Australia that they “did not need it”. Not sure if it was due to local laws there or just no one was playing. I believe they may have swapped it out for another Roulette table as we had 2 of those in a smaller sized casino and usually only one of them was opened. We primarily just resorted to slot play this time but I much prefer the action around the craps table. I am now trying to make sure not to repeat this experience and wondered if there are any detailed lists available anywhere showing the actual tables in the onboard casino? The Club Royal site shows the number of tables and slot machines onboard each ship on the Casino Host list but that’s as far as it goes. Are there others that have sailed on other Ships that also did not feature a Craps Table in their casino?

Just off Radiance and they held a cash game every night at 9 PM.

Just booked our first TA while on Radiance this week, and THEN realized it was the boat Chris just joined. Excited to finally get to meet the Man, the Myth, the LEGEND after watching his videos the last several months. I hope to get enough Casino time to finally get my points up to better comp levels.

Just booked this trip while out on Radiance this last week. DW has always wanted to do a TA. I had seen the prices on this and it was similar to one way airfare. We will cruise over to Spain then fly up to Scotland for a week to do some family history site seeing. Looking forward to being back on Oasis class after sailing on the Oasis back in 2015. We will be traveling also with my Mom and her sister so a nice family getaway. Look forward to meeting folks onboard.

Looking forward to our next cruise here in 13 LONG days