Herissica

It's really strange and maybe it depends on the specific itinerary or time of year you cruise, but most of the things people like to put Carnival on blast for I've only encountered on other lines.

The only time I've ever witnessed someone who consumed booze beyond their means and was just vomiting all over the place in a public area was on Royal Caribbean.

The only time I was overwhelmed by the amount of unruly, poorly parented children was on Royal Caribbean, although my most recent NCL cruise did come close.

The only time I ever had a safety concern and witnessed people fighting onboard was NCL.

Maybe I've gotten lucky on CCL?  I have a cruise on the Magic coming up this summer so we'll see.

Just received our upgrades for the Gem 4/9 sailing.  Went from interior to balcony, absolute minimum bids for both cabins.

I hope your bag turns up!  We are up next on the Gem, so thanks for starting this - have a great cruise!

I found it pretty cumbersome as well.  I was bouncing back and forth between the app and the website trying to figure out what was going wrong.  I had to type and retype my phone number several times to get the prompt to click the Verify Phone button.  I had to resend the verify email a couple of times for that to complete as well.  The photo thing?  It wouldn't accept anything it seemed, so I also just gave up and took a crappy morning no makeup and bad hair selfie.  It looks horrible, but at least it worked. 

26 Days until the Gem!  First time on NCL for us.

1 hour ago, turtle1947 said:

Just got off the Anthem today after a 12 night southern carrib sailing. Good lick trying to find a lounger after 7:00am! They post their 30 min rule in Solarium and in the daily compass but nobody enforces it. 

That was the same situation on our sailing at the end of November. Only once during our cruise were my husband and I able to find two chairs together and not have to share or just sit at the bar.  Beautiful venue, yes, but very very crowded like any other pool area.

Hit the 30 day point here!  

Thanks for posting this!  I just checked mine and it is cheaper as well.  Sorry if this is one of those "you should know this" questions (first timer with RCI), but do I need to call for the adjustment or do I need to cancel and repurchase on Cruise Planner? How is the money refunded - put back on my card, added as onboard credit, etc?

192 days!  Too long!

Who has sailed with Simon Lindon? Does he do a good job?

He was the CD on our cruise a few weeks ago on the Triumph. He is great! He was absolutely hilarious during 90s trivia night - probably one of my favorite memories of the trip. I'd be happy to cruise with him as the CD again on any ship.

Well, my last cruise happened to be my first cruise so I learned a lot. Mainly, that I really like cruising! Our family has been talking every night since we got off the ship on the 18th about which ship/itinerary to do next!

Contrary to what we thought beforehand, we ended up really enjoying sea days and wouldn't be opposed to going on a cruise with more sea days than port days.

I also learned that my kids (except the youngest) really aren't "kids club" type kids. The teens prefer to be with each other doing their own thing or with us. I expected the opposite, but I guess I was wrong!

Another thing I learned was I need to plan better on the next one if I want to go to evening shows/activities... We had YTD and didn't plan our timing well enough some nights that we either missed the event entirely because dinner service ran long or we were too late to get seats. Oh well, live and learn!

How was the air condition on the ship? Was it cool in the room?

It was very cool in a lot of places onboard! I thought it was a little too cool for me, but my husband loved it.

We just sailed on the Triumph Aug 13-18. This was our first cruise, and we read all the reviews and heard all the horror stories beforehand. We went in with a "prepare for the worst, hope for the best". We had a good time, overall (even the kids are currently shopping for our next cruise), but yes there were things that were not up to par and even as a very inexperienced cruiser I'd agree prove the ship is in dire need of a rehab. In our stateroom alone, the safe didn't work, the rails on the Pullman were loose and in the middle of the cruise simply fell off, the hairdryer was held together with duct tape, the ceiling in the bathroom was covered in rust spots, the closet doors got stuck, the lights were finicky like there was a short in the system - sometimes the switch turned all the lights on, sometimes some of them, and then they flickered like crazy, you just never knew... And unfortunately it lived up to the "poop ship" reputation when the drains backed up into the bathroom and covered the floor in sewage... Maintenance came by to fix it and our room steward cleaned after he was done, but our room was a not a pleasant place to be around that afternoon.

There were other cosmetic things around the ship like broken décor, chipped paint, rust spots... In one of the elevators that overlook the Capitol lobby, the railing along the back was broken off and just hanging there. A lot of lights in various fixtures and chandeliers around the ship were broken or burnt out.

That said, like we said, we had a good time, enjoyed the experience of cruising itself, had tons of fun at the activities onboard, and really had a blast at ports, especially Cozumel. Service on the ship was fantastic - our room steward was awesome, guest services was great, as were the bartenders and the majority of the waitstaff. Dinner service on elegant night and the last sea day brunch was terrible - it took forever, food didn't come out right, a long time would go by without having someone stop by to attend to the table, etc, but I guess that could be because those were very busy times...during the rest of the cruise service was top notch.

The ship definitely needs an overhaul, yes. Can you have a good time before dry dock? yes. But don't go in expecting 5 star quality.. So "Is it THAT bad?" is up to you. We're looking at different ships - heck, maybe even the Sunrise to get a before and after comparison, because if nothing else, this cruise sparked our interest in what cruising has to offer.

The message feature on the Hub app was terrible on the Triumph last week. The messages came through ages after they were sent if at all. I was nice to have the MDR menus on there, though.

94!