MISTER 67

Thanks, we are on the same page. We sailed on the Infinity on Oct. 1st for 7 days had a wonderful cruise, everything was great especially the entertainment. Food was outstanding and I had one of the best cuts of Beef Wellington one night in the MDR that I have ever had on a cruise chip. The Infinity for her age was in great shape and also has a nice promenade deck with loungers in curtains spots, not as comfortable as HAL steamers but they worked. Enjoy yourself on your next cruise whenever it may be.

68 cruises and I have never had a hamburger on a cruise ship, no hot dog either, just seems strange to me to not try the great offerings for lunch in the buffet especially on 4 cruises we had on the Equinox, what great selections. Just off the Infinity 3 weeks ago and the buffet area was a lot smaller but there was still a pretty good variety.

Excellent review, we sail on the NA on December 4th, she was the last ship we sailed on in Dec of 2019, right before the pandemic hit and changed everything and as you said she is beautiful and in great shape. We started cruising again at Thanksgiving in 2021, almost a year ago, we have been on 6 cruises, 2 on Princess, 3 on Celebrity and 1 on HAL. All the cruises have been very good but when push comes to shove I'd have to say the 3 cruises on Celebrity were the best especially the food and entertainment. I'm thinking that Carnival Corp. is having some cash flow problems which is why we are seeing more cutbacks on HAL and Princess. We did have morning and evening cabin service on all 6 cruises without asking, the Princess cruises were about 60% full, the Rotterdam cruise was just about sold out except for Covid cabins and the 3 Celebrity cruises were at about 85 to 90% of capacity. Some differences were steaks and chops are available every night on Celebrity ships as are shrimp cocktail and French Onion soup. On one of our Celebrity Cruises they brought us 2 orders of shrimp cocktail at no extra charge like on HAL, on one of the dressy nights passengers were given 2 lobster tails. The entertainment on Celebrity is excellent, Princess was pretty good and HAL has really cut back to where it's almost a joke. We were on the Rotterdam in April and the group in Lincoln Center was fabulous, couldn't say the same for Billboard Onboard and Rolling Stone Rock Room, embarrassing bad singers with passengers looking at each other, shaking their heads and walking out. Entertainment in the main show room is a joke, how many more years of Planet Earth? We did like the talk on the history of HAL but that's not entertainment in the main showroom, that talk should be held some time in the morning or afternoon. All that said and with agreeing with all your points, here we are taking another HAL cruise in 4 weeks, it will be interesting to see what changes are in store since the Rotterdam cruise last April. One thing I know for sure is that we love Signature and Vista class and they are our favorite ships with the traditional promenade and steamer chairs, my favorite time on a cruise is reading a great book on the promenade deck on the older HAL ships.

Don't want to meet and hug a grizzly bear either.

A lot of my golf buddies have had hip surgery and have done very well, as my orthopedic knee doctor tells me, " you'll know when you will need surgery".

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. I think the quote makes sense, sort of. Good selection of days but I'm not hugging any bears today. I love Chili so I'm sure I would like the meal. We stopped in Cabo San Lucas on a cruise in 1984 when it was not much of a place to visit, unbelievable what it's like now, my son and family visit a beautiful resort there every year on a time share. Another hour and I will be on the phone trying to make the appointment with the hand specialist to get this finger infection cleared up, I need to get back on the golf course plus we have a cruise coming up. Thanks for The Daily, stay well and have a great day.

Yeah, I can see where that left some doubt in people's minds, should have added "instead of shorts".

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. Hope everybody remembered to set their clocks 1 hour back, daylight saving time has ended. Quite a quote, more like a love letter. I like potato leek soup. Congratulations to the Houston Astros, 2022 World Series Champions. Never been to Iceland and never will, we don't care for cold places, we have lived in Florida a long time now and I hate it when it gets cool here in January and have to wear a sweater and sometimes pants. Thanks for The Daily, stay well and have a great day.

We sail away on the NA 4 weeks from today.

Give it a try, everything is really fresh, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Carol, since eveything is almost back to normal I haven't had any trouble logging in on the pad. I think most Chinese restaurants are not using MSG anymore.

It's called the Big Bamboo and is on El Jobean right before the bridge over the Myakka River on the way to Englewood Beach.

Thanks Sandi, going to have to manage somehow. We have a cruise on December 4th, hopefully this is all cleared up by then.

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. Not sure about the quote, just because a famous person said something doesn't make it gospel. Good days especially since DW had red hair in 1969 when I met her and married 6 months later. We love Chinese food and have a great Asian Fusion restaurant in Port Charlotte which we visit once a month. American Football is not my favorite sport, I'd rather watch Baseball, Hockey, Golf and English Premier League Soccer which should make Graham happy. If there is nothing else to watch, I bite the bullet and will watch an NFL or College game. Astros can clinch the World Series tonight. The fingertip wasn't getting better so we went to the emergency room at 8AM this morning, they drained the abscess but I need to stay on the antibiotic and see a hand specialist on Tuesday, some minor surgery might be needed, initial diagnosis is I have Paronychia, I probably won't be playing Golf for a couple of weeks. Thanks for The Daily, stay well and have a great day.

I think we have you beat, we live in Charlotte County Florida and were hammered by Hurricane Ian. Power along with Comcast was lost. We weren't going to sit around for who knows how long without basic services with no air conditioning. Ian hit us on Wednesday Sept.28, the only thing working was my cell phone and we were able to book a cruise on Thursday the 29th for Sat. Oct 1st on the Infiniti, that's 2 days. We drove over a day early and we had one of the best cruises, beautiful ship, with excellent service along with great entertainment and food. I was able to do all our boarding requirements at our hotel as I brought our laptop along. One other thing, our SUV was pretty banged up by the storm, we live in a condo and the SUV sits in a carport, I think every shingle from the condo next door plus other flying stuff hit our car. We were going to trade in June as the 3 year warranty expires but instead we found a Nissan dealer on Federal highway in Fort Lauderdale and walked out 2 hours later with a new 2023 Rogue.

HAL has a lot of new people and have I have noticed customer service has taken a turn for the worse. We are sailing on the Nieuw Amsterdam on December 4th but on our last cruise with HAL back in April, the personnel during the check in process were trying to do a good job but just weren't ready to do the job. Its obvious that HAL did a rush job and these people were not properly trained, hopefully in the last 7 or 8 months things have improved.

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. Good selection of days but the quote is strange. Pass on the meal. We stopped in Mazatlan in 1984 sailing with Sitmar's Fairsky in her inaugural year. Wonderful ship and a great line, we still miss them. Finally on my antibiotics and I had some drainage with the fingertip this morning which is a good sign, hopefully the swelling will subside and with it the pain, still looks uglier than sin. Thanks for The Daily, stay well and have a great day.

Princess is our choice hands down, we have taken 1 Carnival and it was horrible, ugly ship that offended the senses. Food was bad, entertainment not bad and service was good.

No one will turn you away if you show up in Country Club Casual on Gala Night.

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. As a voracious reader, I like the quote. Pass on the food. We have probably been to St. Thomas more than 30 times on cruises, heading there again on our Dec. 4th cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Down through the years we have supported the economy in St. Thomas with many purchases from watches to cameras to globes to china to Lladro and many other items plus a lot of beach time at Magens Bay, one of the great beaches on the planet. Had a snag starting my antibiotics for my infected finger as the nurse at my MD's office either forgot to send the prescription to Publix or sent it to the the wrong pharmacy. Heading to the office at 9AM and will insist on a written prescription and hand carry it to our pharmacy, I need to get on the antibiotics like right now, don't want any septis problems. I have already had bloodwork done at 6AM this morning, first customer of the day at Quest. Thanks for The Daily, stay well and have a great day.

Thanks Graham, that's exactly what he did, waiting for the Publix pharmacy to call me so I can pick of the prescription.

Have an appointment at 3PM today, the finger tip really looks ugly and infected.

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. A couple of strange days there except for All Souls Day. Can't argue with the quote. Glad to see Cruise Critic is up and running again. Playing golf soon even with my bumb finger as it doesn't bother my swing, seeing the doctor later today and I'm sure he will give me some antibiotics. Thanks for The Daily, stay well and have a great day.

Have a great cruise!