rjweber3

21 hours ago, 0_0 said:

Cabin all the way forward or aft on lowest decks. (Or any deck for the walking distance.)

Anchor noise, docking noise, and stabilizer noise.

Fairly sure a stabilizer was broken on one cruise, middle of the night you'd hear a loud SLAM like something metal smashing into the side of the ship. It would wake you up and you'd have to deal with trying to sleep over the sound of it doing this slamming noise randomly all night long. 

Or a cabin below the pool deck/buffet restaurant. Deck chair noise at all hours of the night while crew stacks/unstacks them or drag them across the deck.

The chair noise made us book suites on any deck but the one immediately below the pool/windjammer deck forevermore. Moving chairs over nonslip surfaces is noisy in a way that transmits well through a steel overhead. 

Nassau for me  also. 

We just sailed from St. Maarten on Millennium, the protocols were pretty reasonable. It's hard for me to imagine what these passengers could have done. If, in fact this is what happened. My impression is that the government of St. Maarten was bending over backwards to accommodate tourists. 

We are primarily destination cruisers. We look for new places to see and new things to do. But, I will admit that the allure of high energy places has waned as we have exceeded 70 years on the planet. 

Purely for ease of movement between places aboard we prefer Radiance class ships. We love the glass and class they offer. 

We will never get on a flowrider again. Too likely to break something we need afterward. Plus, we feel like Oasis class are really slow. It seems like it takes forever to get anywhere. And RCL has made most of the Voyager class 3-5 night cruises. We don't do less that 7 nights and prefer 9-18 nights.

If the destination is right, we will sail on any RCL class. (Full disclosure, we have not sailed on a Quantum class yet.)

My lady and I started in a balcony cabin on Explorer during its inaugural year. (Hint 2000). We moved up to a Jr. Suite because of the coffin-like shower for cruise 4.  Then a Grand Suite for cruise 7. We were hooked. We can't go back. I don't even bother to suggest it to my wife anymore. 

We'll be celebrating our 50th anniversary in February 2022. So, it works for us.

Seeing new places. We cruise for the itineraries. I am Ok with a few sea days. My wife..is...not. 

Trying new foods is also one of my favorites. Until we started  cruising I wouldn't even consider eating escargot. Now I get it all the time.

I will echo the comments about the Chair Hogs. And it is worse in the Solarium!

The website is terrible. Frankly that's what drove me to my TA. I can tell her where I want to go and she does all the frustrating, boring work. I have tried to book a B2b on RCL's site. Almost impossible to find out to where a ship is sailing on the next sailing. Finding out how much you owe after booking seems to be impossible.

I am so angry about FCCs that I have given up on them and routinely get a refund. Another good idea terribly executed. 

Finally, since our first cruise on RCL in 2000, it seems like the experience has deteriorated. At this point my wife prefers Celebrity because of the treatment on board. We still have some RCL cruises booked but only if the itinerary is unique enough to justify the additional ill treatment. 

On 3/27/2021 at 4:12 PM, esmoov said:

For the benefit of everyone on this forum, I decided to book the June 26th Millennium cruise sailing from St. Martin to BVI, St. Lucia and Barbados. 50% capacity, verandas only. As of right now everyone over 18 needs to be vaccinated, PCR test 120 hours before the cruise and everyone 2y and older to have a rapid test by Celebrity prior to boarding. Ship departs at 10:00 pm.  I am sure all of these protocols will change before we set sail. Millennium is currently off the coast on Ensenada and I do not know if it has a full crew as right now.  Hopefully it will have a full staff and get through the Panama Canal in time! Let me know if you are on board. I would offer everyone a drink but we are all required to buy the drink package now so I guess we can order round together!

We are on that cruise also. We'll see you on board!

We are both vaccinated. The fly in the ointment for us is the PCR requirement prior to arrival. Locally here no one will commit to a certain time for results. As present we are planning to get tested at several places in hopes that one of them comes back in time.

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Millie is open for booking.

Retreat going fast on some dates.  Going, going... almost gone.

We got ours for 26 June 21. Retreat Royal Suite. Happy, happy, Joy Joy! Airfare to St. Marten is outrageous, though.

Benefit of a great TA.

18 hours ago, twangster said:

Negative news generates interest.  Interest means ad revenue.

Positive news is great but doesn't tend to generate revenue for the media.  

Several cable news outlets put out blatantly incorrect stories because it generates interest and ad revenue.  They aren't reporting "news" they are creating it because it sells and they make more money.

It's all about money.

Here Here! Journalism as it was conceived in the last century is dead. Sacrificed on the altar of profit.

I think we all have to realize that the CDC is, in fact, a government agency with all the inherent hesitance to action of any government agency. (At least in the US, I can't speak for other countries.) They cannot keep up with the changing COVID landscape. As soon as they write, then staff, then rewrite, then restaff, then get administration guidance from the new administration, and then repeat, the situation has changed. There is a terrible tendency in the US to do nothing. Remember, "If we do nothing, we can do nothing wrong!" I don't see that changing before the summer.

Those sailing aren't  showing on the web reservation system as of this minute.

25 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

Are you far enough back to get the "air gun", or did you get the needle?

Airguns. One on each side. "Take one step forward and do not Move!" Several fainted at some point and many had blood running down their arms. All went into our Shot record. 

When I was young we had an immunization record to show our vaccination status for things like polio, TB, Plague, etc. Later the military gave us a Shot Record for every member of our family. Remember, there was no electronic system before the last 20 or so years. My military shot record was a part of our official personnel record and our health record. 

16 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

It’s worth it for sure. Bring water shoes as there are sharp shells blanketing the beach. I would recommend skipping the cabana (much better options at coco cay). 

Ditto the water shoes. But we love the cabanas. They are reasonably priced compared to Coco Cay. IMHO the cabanas at CC are prohibitively expensive for just a couple. Drinks served at the cabana are the best. Also includes cold water in a cooler. 

We've had the RCL card for about 8 years. No annual fee. It's nice to get the points as OBC. So much so that we don't pay for the drink package. But we only use it for RCL and Celebrity purchases.

Any bus tour in Mexico. We've done several. All were hot, smelly and slow. Gotta be a better way to spend a day.

The article stated that the privately owned pier would probably be litigating with the city. The owners of the pier just took a terrible hit to their bottom line. 

The lawyers will get rich. 

We have sailed on both Brilliance and Radiance in aft cabins. One on deck nine and one on deck six. Both were great. I didn't notice any unacceptable vibrations on either.

YES. That's what happened to our Celebrity cancellations. 

Given the time and cost that RCL paid to convert Empress back from Pulmantur, seems like they will opt to scrap. 

Stephanie Hudson @ MEI  has been fabulous! She has booked several cruises on Celebrity for us. She saved me $980 today!

I cannot recommend MEI too highly.

On 5/17/2020 at 8:16 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

There has to be tons to do without actually going into Paris, nearly 2 1/2 hours away from the port, though.

Concur. We are going to stay as far from Paris as we can. Basically, there are too many Parisians there.

Lost our England Ireland to COVID. Rescheduled for 2021 for a 12 night on basically the same itinerary on Reflection from Amsterdam using FCC. Added a stop for Paris. 

We are not enthused about that one because we lived in Europe in the 1980s. Paris was not  favorite place. But...OK.

We currently have four on the books with Royal and Celebrity. If this holds we will have to cancel them all. Our PCP will NOT assume that liability. I doubt many will. 

I hope RCI changes this policy or many of their most active cruisers will bail. It's a shame.