Ardennais

I prefer a bar of soap too and bring two - one for the shower and one on the sink for hand washing, never on the face.

All I know is that my TA puts a note on bookings to request a preference so it is possible to do it that way. As I said, I never book direct.

Yes you’re right.

I don’t think that you’re even guaranteed to have your first choice even with select. You state your preference and have priority when on select so that usually means that you’ll get what you’ve asked for unless it’s a very late booking.

As I said, we almost always book select. However, on the odd times we’ve gone for saver, my Cruise Consultant (TA) always asks us about our dining preference - although she knows us well by now - and puts a note on the booking. We were lucky to be assigned freedom once but had to accept club on another occasion. I never book directly online.

I don’t think you’ve got it right. With select fare, you can choose any club or freedom and have priority over saver fares. With saver fare, you can again choose but you won’t have priority. We nearly always book select and opt for freedom. However, in the past we have booked select and opted for club dining when there were 7 of us.

I honestly didn’t notice them! Are they also helping with clearing tables etc?

I have enjoyed reading your posts and glad that you’ve had a great cruise.

You have every right to be grumpy! It’s not right. These are people who might only be cruising once a year, unlike many of us here who have several holidays every yearl You can brush off a so-so cruise if you know that you’ve got another holiday on the horizon.

But you only used the MDR 3 times in 3 weeks!

It was very different during the half term cruise.

Understaffing was indeed a problem - I think we were on the same cruise. So what exactly are the cabin staff doing now if there’s no turndown?

‘Usually works ok outside the busy school holidays’ - that’s just not good enough is it. School holiday cruisers deserve better.

I was wondering how 7.30 would work. That would be my ideal sitting down time if given a choice. However, I would imagine that the first cover wouldn’t have finished by 7.30 and I suppose they wouldn’t leave the table empty from opening time to 7.30. As you say, what’s the point of booking 7.30!

Just to say that it’s not just ‘traditionalists’ who use the MDR. When we cruised with 3 teenagers (on a few 19 nighters), our budget wouldn’t allow us to use speciality dining!

Ahh, you actually didn’t mention that you leave your cases in the hotel room. The hotels we stay after our 200+ mile journey (which takes almost as long as yours as it’s over 100 miles before we get to a motorway!!) will let us leave our luggage after check out at 11am. But as we park with CPS we take everything in the car and enjoy a few hours mooching around some stores.

I don’t quite understand. If someone has a car, then they’re not pulling suitcases around. One only has to take their luggage out of their car once and that is when they turn up at the terminal. Makes no difference if that is at 12 midday or 4pm or any time in between. If someone can’t manage, then there is assisted boarding. But there is still no need to turn up well before their allocated boarding time.

We booked Ventura (Jan 2020) in September 2019.

Gosh, we don’t even lock our vehicles at home!

But why would you be pulling cases around if you have your car? My parents last cruised with us 5 years ago - my mother having had a double knee replacement and my father with a walker so plenty of medication between them! We left the hotel at 11 and spent a few hours in Ikea (my father in the cafe with his newspaper) having parked in their car park. Not inconvenient at all. Yes, early embarkation would have been nice, but it is what it is and we wouldn’t dream of arriving well before our allocated time.

I was responding to Graham who does have a car!

That’s true. I loved the port talks because they provided some historical information too. Also gave you a flavour of a place.

Why is it inconvenient? We go to Ikea or M&S/Sainsburys. No problem.

I miss them too. They were great for introducing a new port and some good hints and tips.