Kay S

I cruise to relax, and hunkering down with my Kindle is my favorite thing. But that's me. What kind of activities are you talking about? Trivia? Game shows? Dance contests? My teenage grandson can spend hours playing shuffleboard. What will make your GF happy?

Seven months, twelve days, sixteen hours, four minutes and 22 seconds.

Or that it never worked right in the first place.

Self-fulfilling prophecy: if you go expecting a bad time, you will find it.

I'm guessing you will be among the walk-up diners? This new system has everyone worried that their preferred way of dining will be a big mess. I'm in the fixed dining camp, where enough of us complained about eliminating it that Princess gave in and restored it. I suspect the DMW reservations people are worried about their new rules as well. In the past, the overflow walk-in people would be redirected to any empty tables in the fixed MDR. I saw it all the time. In any case, I don't see how this new system could be any worse than the zoo of reservation people lined up with the walk-ups in queues that went on forever. It was a nightmare and put us off Princess for the past year. I'm waiting to see how it all shakes out, and I guess you are, too.

If they aren't on strike--which is more often than you might think.

Yes. I'm waiting to see if Princess does as it says it will with this system. I won't consider booking again until I'm convinced they won't go back on their word to provide traditional dining again.

Getting to the aft MDR is not especially easy, and waiting for an elevator can be a pain. I can't do stairs, but a trick I have is to go up a few decks from somewhere else on the ship with a more available elevator. Then I make my way to the back elevator and take it down to 6. Catching it at 7 is nearly always a big hassle. Also, I like to tell people asking where the aft MDR is that "you can't get there from here." 🙂

I'm wondering if these things are mutually exclusive. Can a singer who stays on key have a European (whatever that is) accent or does having a European accent mean he can't sing in key?

And then there's the incremental difference between price tags... 😝

In the Los Angeles area (where you and I live) we are spoiled by the authentic international restaurants so abundant around us. My favorites are all owned and operated by people who immigrated from their various countries. I think I have a better chance at "authentic" cusine because of it. It's not better or worse than mass market cruise food, just different.

Someone will always be unhappy, but the three dining rooms on most of the ships are similar enough that decor, etc. should not be a valid problem. The trek back to deck 6 for the aft dining rooms could put people off, but I's hoping those will be the TD dining rooms.

No Lennon sisters? 😄

My expectations are tempered. This cruise is the right itinerary and precisely the right time, so that's the main reason we booked. We have HAL in the pipeline. Despite the problems (classical music being the big one for DH) HAL has still seemed better post-covid than others.

Well, this might be good news for my pizza loving friend. We will be on the Nautica in the fall. I can take or leave pizza generally, so not a big deal for me.

Sounds like you really liked Celebrity in the first place. Sometimes a new thing will not measure up to our favorite old thing.

Question since I have not been keeping up. The Sun casino has no smoke-free sections?

It might be as it was before. When the Anytime dining room fills up, they will direct the overflow to the traditional dining room. That always seemed to work before. As traditional diners ourselves, we would see new people come in and sit near us at what had been an empty table.

Post-covid cruising has been a mixed bag for us. Depending on the ship, HAL has been the least disappointing. Princess the worst, on each ship we tried (three, in total, had lots of FCC to use up.) Two domestic river cruises were pretty much awful. In my opinion, the lines are making a mistake by running off the older, more traditional cruisers in order to attract the young money. Yes, I know they need to make up the shortfall, but isn't there a happy medium in there? We're trying Oceania ourselves to see if it's any better. Covid really caused problems.

Thanks. Yes, that does seem a bad design.

The one Azamara bought from Princess (maybe there were two?) The name has left my brain. 🙂

Discovery, Majestic and Regal.

I don't see restrooms for Horizons on the Nautica deck plans. The last R class ship I was on had restrooms just inside the entrances on both sides. What is the story?

So Rick Steves...🙂

I have watched that muster video I don't know how many times. It's a great improvement over the old method of gathering in one area with life jackets and trying to hear the crew official over the room noise. Of course, you miss out on the fun of watching people get the jackets on wrong or--my favorite part--"hold your nose and walk, don't jump" overboard. 🙂