bcarney

This photo was posted in the Royal Caribbean Dining Facebook group by Joel Alderman today from Independence of the Seas. The image pretty much sums up the devolution of dining quality in the main dining room (and it also explains why I now ask for the off-menu Indian food).

Wasn't EasyCruise more like a youth hostel at sea? Basically, a tiny room, communal bath, and vending machine for a cheap daily come-and-go-as-you-please daily rate? I remember checking them out after one of their ships were docked next to us in St. Lucia. Soon afterwards they moved operations from the Caribbean to Greece, and I forgot about them.

I think if cruising was a new and emerging industry that would be possible, but they've had decades of operation under the old all-inclusive model that it's hard to, umm, change ships at this point. Many of us - myself included - have bemoaned the loss of perks, additional charges, lowering of food quality, etc. If they changed to 'giving people more options' - i.e., charging for every little thing - they'll likely lose past customers. If I can't budget adequately when I book, I won't be booking.

Until last weekend I only played the desktop version. I installed the mobile version, and holy smokes is it more generous with the coins and experience points! It would take me weeks to get 100,000 coins on the desktop version, and right now I'm stilling on 1.4 million on my phone. Much easier - and more fun as I can play longer.

I only had about 100,00 points so I selected one of the slot games, set it for the minimum bet, and let it autospin for two days straight. Of course I had to look at it periodically to click on the mini-games it puts within the spinning, but I did manage to get my points up to 37,000 from 34,000. Does anyone know of any games that don't have the mini-games within them where you have to interact with the screen? I'd like to be able to just set it up for autospin and never have to interact with it while it runs.

Meanwhile, after 5 months or so of playing, I'm stuck at 33,070 points. Sigh.

I was a consumer judge at the Miami Rum Fest; Bones entered their rum and it was one of my favorites. Unfortunately my next cruise skips St. Thomas so I won't be able to pick up any.

Went there once. Loved the refried beans so much we went there again the next year, just for the beans*. * Almost. But they did weigh heavily in the decision making process!

Yes, MDR. I've only eaten dinner in the Windjammer twice - they had curry there when I was there, IIRC, but it was a very long time ago so things may have changed.

I didn't ask for anything specific. They offer a vegetarian and meat-based curry each evening, and after the second day they started to bring me both each evening.

I've been playing since February and have only managed to gain 25,900 points.

I think the changes also vary by ship. We were on Rhapsody in April, and they were still using the "old" Giovanni's menu - much to my great joy, as there was a dish on there I really wanted to try that isn't on the new menu.

For us, there was the 4 miles I need to take to get to the freeway, and then the 4 miles after exiting the freeway to get to our hotel at Fell's Point. All 596 miles in between was interstate highway. Complete bliss! :)

I'll be honest, I don't follow your math, but in our example (I'm Diamond) the three free drinks a day for my wife and I (at $12+tax per drink) is worth $594.72 on a seven day cruise. And by going to the Diamond lounge you are not quite limited to just three (thank you staff on Rhapsody!) ... The Diamond lounge also gives my kids free Shirley Temples and other gifts, and frankly they make them feel like they are the Kings and Queens of the World, and that means a lot to me personally. The loyalty program weighs on me heavily when I think about trying other cruise lines. So clearly it's effective since I'm normally a cynical bastard. :)

On the other side of Lansing is East Lansing, home of some fairly important university from what I understand. I've been to two Korean restaurants there, and have purchased kimchi at a local market. In fact there's a place near my house where the proprietor makes her own for sale, surely without the proper permits and such. And it's fantastic. It's the marriage with eggs that is blowing my mind.

Why?!?! Why has no one told me of this kimchi and eggs dish until now? Why?!? So many days of my life wasted.

Sage advice, that. Wish I would have thought of that before I started stuffing my face. Regarding Giovanni's, I will be the first to say that I don't care for Italian food. With that out of the way, Giovanni's was one of the best meals I've had onboard any ship. That's saying something!

MSC Cruises will also match other companies loyalty programs with a comparable level in their loyalty program. I keep wanting to try MSC out, but my wife vetoes me.

One of my best disembarkation experiences was when I drove to Baltimore and sailed from there. We walked off the ship, the luggage was literally right there at the end of the gangway, and then we walked to the car without even having to cross a street (the parking is a large flat lot literally right where the ship was docked). We had a leisurely breakfast and were still in the car and on the road by 8:15am or so. I've had rougher times getting out of movie theaters.

Pretty much any Soca music gets me in the mood...

That's what I thought when we went on our honeymoon cruise....14 cruises ago. :)

I love you. :)

I think the most likely reason is that a slot opened up at the facility where they do the refurbs, so they decided to take it rather than wait until some distant time in the future.

And now we know why the Mayan civilization disappeared - it was too far away from the cruise ports.

Canned, with green peppers added as an addition. But it was a good quality canned hash, as far as canned hashes go.