Pratique

1 hour ago, time4u2go said:

I'm guessing the $190 is for more than one person.  OP did say "we" in the original post.

Sounds about right for four people.

1 minute ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Food is SO subjective.

True but I think we need to view these comments as people's relative experiences from cruise to cruise. Some say it has gotten worse and some say it has improved over time. The benchmark is usually the earliest one we can reliably (fondly?) remember. My wife keeps complaining about the wider salad selection in the Windjammer, which is most definitely displacing something less healthy (and probably more tasty). 🙂 We don't cruise for the salads lol.

I was booking some things for Freedom and I also got error messages that something in the cart was not available, but while I was scratching my head the order went through (email confirmation popped up) and my credit card was charged.

4 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

The same reason many US companies are incorporated in Delaware and many semi trailers have Maine plates.

Another reason is that foreign-built ships generally cannot be flagged in the U.S. (even if they wanted to) due to the protectionist laws intended to support domestic ship construction. These laws seem to further incentivize foreign-flagging as long as they still permit those ships to call in the U.S. as they do now.

Walk around the harbors in South Florida and count how many mega yachts are registered in the Marshall Islands.

Looks like a beautiful, relaxing day at sea - a "perfect day" as they say!

Curious why the captain is taking a more northerly track than Odyssey and Scarlet Lady. He has more time to kill than they do, maybe he wants to swing by Bermuda to wave hello. lol

On 4/18/2024 at 9:57 AM, JessyCruises said:

 Yes they used to bring up several members of the audience to be background actors in the scene.  I have been selected a few times. There was always one they picked that was actually a plant and was one of the stunt performers. 

21 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

I agree with you both.  If I remember correctly the audience members were actually cast members, as they were involved in “stunts”.

 

As for the plane fire/explosion portion of the stunt show, you could feel the heat from the top rows of the theatre.

I was part of the team that built the Indy stunt show way back in the early 2000s (lots of late nights on that project). There have always been plants in the audience (the performers rotate through). The flame effects were my favorite part of the show creatively, but adding more heat to the Florida summertime weather was not my idea of fun. 😀

8 hours ago, Hogbay said:

Save the Waves . no printer   printer cartridges ,lamanator  ,plastic sheets and cable ties x 2  ....  Never had a missed place bag . But each walk this Earth as they please 

No worries, the ship emissions will offset that. 🙂 More seriously, you've had more luck with bags than we have had!

Looks like you are having a great time at MK today. I used to work at WDW (12 years) so I've had my fill of it and my free passes are long gone. My favorite things to do at MK are anything with air conditioning. Dark and cool is even better (Mansion, Pirates, Space Mountain). Have fun whatever you do today!

I will just mention that 3848 opens into the corridor near the escalator that is used for gangway access, so there will be noise there on port days. If you can move (even if it is deeper into Deck 3) it might be quieter.

28 minutes ago, doghog said:

My wife doesn't either, but that's where I step in. 😂🍻

Ha I used to do that too until my wife figured out she could use her vouchers for bottled juice. Now she's using up all her vouchers and asking me if I have any unused ones.

I used to do the zip tie trick with packing tape, but now we have the reusable tag holders. One recent cruise I didn't have the holders and one of the tags fell off, so the bag was very late arriving to our cabin. Of course it was my wife's bag that was late, so she was not happy about my cheapness with the zip tie thing.

Has anyone ever told the app that they are unwell when answering the health questions? Serious question - what actually happens?

3 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I agree with you on this. Businesses will often chase a dollar today even if it costs them 10 dollars next week. And when you really think about it, just one year as CEO of RCI pretty much sets you up financially for the rest of your life so even if he screws up and gets the boot....

These new ship builds are pretty big investments. How many years until they break even on those? When the MBAs took over Disney Parks 25+ years ago they did the math and decided not to build a fifth gate at WDW even though attendance was high. Most attractions are designed with a 20-year lifespan but obviously many of them are much older than that. At this point I presume the parks have paid for themselves many times over and they are just a cash cow now.

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

There was a survey done about a year or so ago that found the number of first time cruisers who said they planned to sail again was significantly up.

How many of the new cruisers were sailing because of pent up demand from the pandemic? Will these numbers eventually sink back to pre-pandemic levels? In other words, was there a temporary surge of new cruisers who liked it and will come back versus the one-and-done crowd. I mean, Royal is still building more mega ships that will probably sail full but how close are they to reaching maximum capacity to fill these ships.

Most empirical studies of loyalty programs show that the effect of loyalty status on perceived brand value is higher for high-engagement customers (frequent return customers) than for low-engagement customers (infrequent return customers). And studies have also shown that brand loyalty often exists even without a corresponding loyalty program because it is based more on things like product quality and customer satisfaction than rewards (although everyone enjoys being treated "special" such as "early" boarding of airplanes).

If higher fares are causing people to cruise less frequently (because they have less spending power - paychecks not keeping up with inflation), then it is not clear that having a higher status will have much effect on repeat business because these customers are financially constrained.

Presumably there is value to the company in offering these loyalty programs, but it is likely tailored toward ensuring maximum revenue rather than specifically targeting levels of new guests versus repeat guests. In other words, the mix or new and repeat should always be such that revenue is maximized. So higher fares do not necessarily translate into a need to welcome more guests into higher loyalty tiers but rather a need to increase the number of new, infrequent customers (who may have to forego another vacation in order to afford a cruise).

I will happily take the free drinks and other perks but it is not as big a factor in whether I decide to cruise with Royal (or do something else) as bottom line costs. I may be willing to spend a little more if it comes with substantive loyalty perks, but not much more.

I am also checking in and New Hampshire is not on the list either (app or website). I left it blank.

My problem with FLL is that the best and least expensive flights always tend to be in the morning, and then there is a black hole in the schedules until mid-afternoon. While I don't like having to rush to the airport, 10:00am is doable and better than sitting around the airport for hours. If there was a noon flight, that would be ideal for me, but there never seems to be one.

50 minutes ago, chodnett said:

Now, they've gone to a system where we're told when our service is happening. For this cruise, we were told our service would happen between 8 am and 1 pm. Not ideal for sleeping in or catching an early nap. On the other hand, my parents were told their service time was between 4 pm and 8 pm.

This seemed inevitable to me. There were going to be too many instances where everyone wanted an AM service and the attendant needs to have them spread ~50/50 across the shift.

We've also noticed the same thing regarding the decreased quality of the free food. I would even say that if I had nothing to compare it to, I would still be disappointed.

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

There is an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by a civil engineer who proposes rebulding the bridge before the end of the year  by keeping what is left in place, the approaches,  and just replacing the 1200 foot span, truss design and all. I hope not. The design is outdated and I would hope that lessons would be learned from the catastrophe and that they would  not rebuild it like it was built. . 

They have already said the new bridge will be built to current standards, so replicating the original truss probably won't cut it. Also, truss bridges are heavier and more expensive than cable stayed bridges, which is the most likely way they will go with it.

Largely it is doable. My biggest problem is my employer’s VPN is super slow from large distances (such as cross-country). But video conferences are possible. (I even had a Teams call from an American Airlines flight recently.) Hiccups happen when sailing through weather or after dinner when everyone on the ship is FaceTiming at the same time.

Just now, chengkp75 said:

The key improvement to the Key bridge will be to build large "islands" around each footing, so that a ship is stopped before it can contact the bridge structure,  as they did with Florida's Sunshine Skyline bridge. The "dolphins" they placed in response to the Skyline bridge failure are a joke, and totally inadequate. They need to be increased in size as well as creating islands at the footings. The power line supports need increased protection as well.  Going higher does not make the bridge safer from accidents like this. 

I was not referring to safety, I was referring to expanded capacity for taller ships. I agree that new bridge designs should incorporate defensive fortifications as well. Although incidents like this are very rare, we just witnessed one of the most expensive ones in history, so it makes sense to fortify the new structures.

26 minutes ago, alfaeric said:

That part I understand.  But the switch to that subject is intertwined into this main story.  And to accomplish what you want, 2 more bridges need to be lifted.  Which is well outside the timeline of this accident.  So when you come in randomly to see if the current news is updated, and you see discussions about the replacement being in a bad place- it's natural to think this is about the FSK bridge, since it HAS to be replaced right now.

 

That's the confusing part- a bridge that has no choice but to be replaced vs. the other two and where they are, when they will be replaced, etc.  Again, IMHO, the cruise aspect of this area is minor compared to the rest of the shipping.  So I don't see the other two bridges changed anytime soon- especially since this bridge gets replaced now.

 

The discussion's diversion to the other bridges seems like putting the cart before the horse. They can future-proof the new Key Bridge by making it higher. They can also go back to the drawing board on the other bridges in light of these unexpected circumstances.

11 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

The end of May seems a long time. I assume they've just given themselves some buffer there.

The Army Corps of Engineers said that these are "ambitious timelines" with weather delays and the complexity of extracting the wreckage, which sinking into the mud. We need Yoda to come and do that force thing he did on Luke's X-Wing. No doubt they are trying to set expectations for everyone who wants the port reopened yesterday.

51 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Agreed.  I was addressing those who seem to think it is simple to just take a crane of lift off the bridge steel.

What did you do to the first part of my post before “unless?”

Just now, BND said:

Sigh.  This only happened due to a major tragedy where people lost their lives, but hey, complain about missing a day.

In larger perspective it seems trivial. I read today how most of the shipping companies except Maesrk are going to dump the inbound containers at different ports and told the receivers to come and get it, not our problem to get it to Baltimore. The pain will be spread far and wide and everyone who feels it will be unhappy to some degree. But it is just another bump in the road of life.

6 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Never, ever, ever happen

 

Interesting first post however

Maybe some enterprising guests can pool up for a charter bus.