2 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Not a cheerleader but I've done multiple ships even Bella cruise, on oasis and then a week later 10 day radiance. I havent yet found a ship I couldn't get the printed version. That's why people keep posting to ask stewards to leave it. There are no rcl ships that dont have it somewhere. .. my opinion.

 

Name a ship where it's not available... if you ask. 

Radience of the Seas last October.  We were having trouble accessing it from the app so went to GS for a paper copy.  No dice.  Said that none were being printed.  They even went searching to see if a few hard copies had been made but couldn't find any.  Then they spent 10 minutes trying to bring it up for us on our phone but it just wasn't working so we all gave up.  I'm sure they were glad to see us go away.

Luckily, for the days before and after that, the compass worked fine on the app.

15 minutes ago, Denversail said:

I’ve seen some post with people complaining about not getting drinks ordered through the app. I don’t think it was Royal though. NCL maybe?

You can order drinks through the app on Princess.  It was actually quite awesome!

20 hours ago, Traveller1212 said:

I recently booked online with RCCL - I noticed that if I switched to Canada the price was much higher than if I stayed as US - even when booking as US I could select Canada (BC) as my location - my credit card charged me 38% exchange, if I had booked in CAN$ the website was charging 60% exchange   😡😡

Hey neighbour!  That's crazy.  I wonder if it was some sort of glitch?  The cruise we booked a few months ago worked out at a fairly normal exchange rate.

2 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

I do not think this is true. We sailed with all of them. Celebrity program is new. Princess and HAL never had them.

NCL actually has programs when many things are included.

MSC has "experiences" with some or a lot included.

I dont know about HAL but Princess has packages with drinks, gratuities and wifi, plus some extras all included - the cheapest is $60 per person per day more than their base fare.  If you drink it's a really good deal.

2 hours ago, resetjet said:

I used to love them until i got a serious skin infection in an rccl hot tub.  Took me 1.5 years to finally get rid of it.  Scars all over my body from it.  Later i became a certified pool operator and in class we learned that public hot tubs are next to impossible to sanitize.  Too high of a bathing load in hot water.  

Oh, how horrible.  I'm sorry you went through that.  That does make one pause. 

3 minutes ago, pcur said:

I noticed in my Princess Plus add-on to my Alaska cruise this May an item called "Premium Desserts, 2 per day".  What is different about them, and do they make you scan/swipe your medallion to prove you are worthy of this uplifted culinary experience?  

 

(Of course my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. I'm not even a big dessert eater, but maybe I'm wrong if it's "premium".)

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I hope that this works.  I don't even know what to say about these except that if I tried to eat 2 of them in a day I'd probably explode.  They look...not appetizing for my tastes.  

8 minutes ago, nelblu said:

I'm more concerned with the pool as people stay and drink longer than in the hot tubs.

 

 

Especially in the Solarium!

46 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

You couldn’t pay me enough to go in those hot tubs …… 

I completely understand.  I just try hard to blank it all out and hope for the best because I really do love hot tubs.  

50 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Believe me, I have the same concerns.😁

Yeah, it's one of those things that I try not to spend very much time thinking about because I really do love hot tubs.  But, just...ewwww.  

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I don't understand kids in the hot tub at all anyway.  I remember seeing signs on some ships that state no children under 16 allowed.  Has that changed?

 

And Bubba, with his bucket of beer next to him, sitting the hot tub for hours with no breaks...ummm....🤢

The hot tubs in the Solarium are 16 and over but I don't think that there are age restrictions on the others.

My husband jokes about the people sitting and drinking in the pools and hot tubs for hours without breaks every. single. cruise.   At this point, I think he is just doing it because it amuses him to gross me out.  🤣

2 minutes ago, LobsterStalker said:

Problem is that it seems early is far and above peoples first preference . If they cannot offer enough early dining slots (which clearly never used to be a concern) , then they need to consider how to fix the issue .To make this much much worse they are also overpromising and confirming way too many people for early than they can accomodate. I did consecutive in the fall (Symphony/Explorer) and Wonder last month , and all 3 I had confirmed Early dining ( 2 of the 3 I had Email confirmations from RCL dining , with table numbers) .All 3 I showed up , headed straight to dining room to check my table only to find out I had none..... 

.... Embarassing the way things are being run at present . Hope they get their act together soon 1 way or another !

 

Cheers

I think it also might be a bit of a self-perpetuating circle.  They don't have enough room for MTD earlier than 6:45 because of all the people booking Early Dining, but many of those people are probably only booking Early Dining BECAUSE they can't get MTD until 6:45 which is too late for them.  

6 minutes ago, mugtech said:

Great, did it say anything about TA's?

Not needed for TA's effective today!  

1 hour ago, NeepierRoad said:

Where did you find this information?  My mom is traveling 5/1 TA and it will be one less worry for her and travel party.  I looked online and the info for pre-cruise testing has not changed.  Thanks so much!

I think it has been now - here is what is currently showing when I just looked.  No mention of TA's.  Yippee!  

38 minutes ago, basenji56 said:

Definitely not a pro.  But not a deal breaker.

Totally.  

1 hour ago, Pandamonia said:

 

What pros?

 

Touchless systems are a gimmick. If you dont touch the lift controls then you will touch something else equally dirty..... 

 

Hand rails

drinks handled by bar staff

chairs

drinks dispensers 

food serving spoons

tables

 

Any surface can be made anti bacterial and anti viral by a simple nano coating. I have one. The cruise lines were not interested or bothered. If you think they care about your health.. they dont... they just care about $$$ 

 

Touchless controls are a cheap gimmick to fool dumb people in to thinking they are safer

I think you might have misread the post - basenji56 was listing the elevator buttons as a con, not a pro.  

5 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

So what?

If it solves the issue - good!

People are so affraid of hurting the staff it is amazing!

They are STAFF their job is to make you happy - if they fail - let them know!

The point everyone is making is that your 'solution' to the problem is not going to solve anything.  I’m pretty sure you already know that so at this point I suspect that you're just trolling for fun.  Rock on, I guess. 

5 hours ago, GJustice said:

It was all meals in MDR last month. Wife wanted a croissant at breakfast and I had to wait for her to finish that before they brought out the entree plates. 

Okay, THAT is ridiculous.  A croissant is not a course, it's part of your breakfast.  Up until this post I have been thinking that it's no big deal but this is just silly.  I'm hoping that they become a bit more relaxed about this rule before my October cruise.  Sheesh.

1 hour ago, Magicat said:

Back bacon is smoked and peameal is the loin just rolled in cornmeal.  They sometimes have English bacon which is a lean cut of bacon and very good.  

I am apparently on the wrong side of the country for the peameal bacon (from BC) but would love to try it.   You all have gotten me very interested. 🙂

18 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

It's great stuff.  Nothing like the bacon us U.S. types are used to.  

I love back bacon (what you probably call Canadian Bacon), but this pealmeal stuff with the cornbread coating sounds a little odd.  If I'm ever in southern Ontario I'll give it a try.

Although my favourite is just the good old fashioned regular strips of bacon that you are used to.  

On 3/12/2023 at 8:32 AM, Ret MP said:

It's too bad that the WJ or other venues that serve breakfast, don't serve Pealmeal Bacon.  I know my Canadian friends will understand what that is.

I actually didn't and needed to google it.  Turns out I'm from the wrong part of Canada to have experienced this type of back bacon.  It sounds....interesting? 

My favourite Windjammer item is their breakfast hashbrown patties.  Yum!

10 minutes ago, F27TW said:

This is also called "gouging".    This is really  no different whatsoever than after a disaster of some kind, businesses raising the prices on water, lumber, baby formula, general supplies, etc. "because demand increases".  That's looked at as being a heinous practice.. yet its OK when RC does it?     Why?

 

 

I see your point, but I think the heinous practice label usually gets applied to life necessities ( as you mentioned, like water, baby formula)   A waterpark doesn't really fall into those categories so the outrage shouldn't be as high.  Although the parents dealing with whining kids because they refused to buy the ridiculously priced waterpark tickets might disagree that it's not life and death.  LOL!

47 minutes ago, beerme1 said:

Ah well sob. I saw this last night and thought too good to true and procrastinated. Ready to do it tonight and it's sold out. Damn it.

 Nah...you're lucky.  It's not actually sold out.  It was just an error and doesn't really exist.  Even if you had jumped on it and bought the package last night you would just be waiting for your refund after the cancellation.

20 minutes ago, cruisebabe50 said:

Actually from what I can tell, it means the opposite.  It seems like it would mean a short time but no.  

Yeah, it definitely used to mean a long time (I think the origin was that a hot minute could feel like a very long time) and now seems to mean a short time (with hot meaning rushed or fast instead of literally hot?).  Language is weird.  LOL!

32 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

When I looked at the descriptions and compariisons on line it appeared that only the udp received the discount on the wine.  Either that was wrong or they are using the same fine print for all the dining packages....could go either way.  

 

 

Thanks!  I think that I'll print out our description that lists it as a highlight and keep my fingers crossed.  

11 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Only the unlimited dining package gets the 40% off wine

Are you sure, Ken?  We booked a three night dining package for the Odyssey months ago and it has always listed the 40% off bottles of wine discount as one of the features.  We are not purchasing the drink package so I was definitely planning on using this perk.  Is my cruise planner description lying to me?  😢