DCThunder

Captain Kevin of Oosterdam said she was due for a drydock session in 2025 during a Ask the Captain Q&A. Also, we scraped the sides a bit going through the original locks on the Panama Canal. The deck crew was busy painting the sides at the next port of Aruba. Capt. Kevin is VERY proud of HIS ship!

We must have eaten all the bacon on the South America cruise immediately prior to your TA since there was plenty on board for us!😁

I got off her yesterday too, and the Captain described her during a talk as an "elegant, classy, older lady who has aged well".

I just got off 31 days on Oosterdam and absolutely loved the ship and the South America itinerary. She set sail yesterday for the Med. Captain Kevin is a total hoot as a captain, but his comic foil of CD/ID Kevin left the ship for a vacation in FLL. Food was very good with good variety of options both in the MDR and the Lido. A good, fun ship of a very nice size. You didn't make a mistake.

For me, the value is in the itinerary of the cruise. I have no interest in 7 day Eastern or Western Caribbean cruises to the same old islands unless it's an extraordinarily low fare. I'm willing to pay a premium fare (not a Viking or Silverseas premium fare, I'm not Mr. Gotbucks) to do 28 days in Alaska or an Antarctic sail-by cruise or the like. I've also learned that life is too short to get all worked up if the lasagna isn't like what some old Italian mamma made or the steak in the MDR isn't "cut with a fork" tender. I'm eating that food on a ship going somewhere I've never been before and I'm more fortunate than 90% of the people on earth to be able to be on that ship. Only the individual can determine if the cruise they took gave good "value" for hard earned money. Take the advice on the CC boards (including mine) for what it's worth, which may or may not be valuable. Happy Friday!

You might not get the perks automatically so I'd check with GS towards the end of the first leg to make sure that they know to give you the mini-bar on the turnaround day for leg 2. And you have to hit the next level before the next leg starts, otherwise no dice.

Yes, unused OBCs roll over to the next segment. BTW, if your Captains Circle status changes during a segment, you can get a new color Medallion on the next segment from Guest Services. You'd also get any on-board perks your entitled to.

Enchanted had a Junior CD, promoted to Assistant CD, named Nicki who was also excellent and who worked closely with Marcus Junta. Since the above doesn't track the non-senior positions, I have no idea where she is now, but if you see her, you will enjoy her enthusiasm.

Thank you for this post. I find it very interesting and will be curious to see the British side of the issue when you get to the Falklands. Did you sense any animosity between Argentina and Chile given that those two countries have an interesting history going back into the 19th century.

Y'all were there in late spring/early summer, we'll be there in late summer/early autumn. It will be interesting to see how the weather compares. And yes, many of us on the March 10 sailing are doing 31 days back to FLL.

It's possible that I've watched the movie Casino too many times, but do the on-board casinos have the same type of monitoring of the table games as goes on in casinos on land? Is there the space in the ceiling where dudes are watching every move to make sure no one is cheating at the blackjack table? I haven't seen any Joe Pesci types watching what's going on, but you never know...😎

ITA is the airline that formerly was Alitalia. It is fully owned by the Italian government. ITA Airways - Wikipedia. Beyond that, I know nothing about them.

So what, exactly, did HAL or the tour partners do wrong that makes them liable for damages? Are you saying that they should have preemptively cancelled the trip because there MIGHT have been exceedingly heavy rain that would cause road flooding and prevent the tour from getting back on time? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth but based on the "facts" that have been presented, I'm failing to see the negligence that would make HAL or the tour operator as being at fault. I will concede that it's easy to be dispassionate about the events and the compensation since I wasn't personally involved, but it's also easy to say "blame the big evil corporation", when something truly beyond their control, goes wrong. I'll also concede that additional OBC might have gone a long way to restoring good will, but how much extra should that have been?

I watched Regal sail out of Port Everglades yesterday on the port webcam and based on the people lined up on the rail on the upper decks (and only on the port side of the ship), she's sailing at full or close to full capacity. That's between 3500-4000 people, so a lot of folks. If you're doing a Caribbean itinerary on Regal in the next 30 days, I'd plan for a full ship. Have fun.

The plug has a drawing of an electric razor on it, but it appears to be a normal US style plug. I'd think a Water Pik would plug in there without an issue.

I dare say that the president of HAL has received detailed reports on this incident and it has been discussed in depth with the General Counsel's office and the insurers regarding the liability that HAL may have. So it won't be a surprise to him if you write. While providing the "other side" of the story, I'd avoid the histrionics and stick to what your husband observed and experienced in a calm, respectful, and factual manner. Should you have received additional compensation from HAL? Probably, for good will if nothing else. How much should that additional compensation be? That's subject to negotiation with you and the rest of those on this ill-fated excursion. Good luck.

On the TA that I did on Regal in November, Alex the ED, arranged for a free "back stage" tour of the Princess Theatre including a panel discussion with two featured singers, several dancers, and a stage manager about their life as performers on cruise ships. We then walked through the back stage area, seeing the dressing rooms, the storage for the stage sets and other props for the shows and then walked across the stage. There were performers at various points who would answer questions about how the shows worked. A few days later one of the third deck officers gave a presentation about how you became a cruise ship officer, the promotion path to captain, and discussed other facts about the navigation and running of the ship. He showed a lot of photos of the bridge and other areas of the navigation areas. We didn't get a tour, but his presentation was very informative and he stayed behind to answer questions. Both of these were totally ad hoc events, but they were both highlights of this particular trip for me. If you ever see something like this offered on a sea day, besure to attend.

I did a transatlantic in one of these cabins on Enchanted. The biggest drawback to the balcony isn't a lack of shade, but the accumulation of soot from the ships exhaust. Little black "pebbles" of burned fuel accumulated on the deck of the balcony and would stain the bottom of feet or shoes. I had to put a bathmat on the floor inside the cabin to wipe my feet on. Also, as it was this was a TA cruise in April, the weather wasn't all that conducive to balcony sitting so I didn't pay too much attention to the amount of shade. It was possible to get out of the sun, but you ended up close to the sliding door into the cabin.

Exactly. I sailed from Southampton to the Canary Islands last spring and the ship was about 95% Brits and there wasn't a kettle in sight in the cabins. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Enchanted was supposed to be home ported in Copenhagen in 2022 for Baltic cruises and went to Southampton when this became unfeasible, but no kettle and plenty of room on the countertop for Bose (or Echo) speakers...

The boss move would be to go back to Princess and tell them what you'd want to move over to a different cruise. Put them in the position of responding or making a counter offer. Like the punch line of that old joke..."We've established what you are. Now we're just haggling over the price." Happy Valentines Day💗

I have been able to use miles to upgrade from premium economy to business on a flight booked through EZAir/Flight Ease, but only after ticketing and by dealing directly with United or American. I'm not aware of any way to pay for the main ticket when booked through the cruise line, but maybe others know if this is possible.

We can all band together to get a Cruise Critic representative on the CCL board! Then we can get towel animals, chocolates on the pillow, champagne fountains, and every other petty and entitled demand we can think of, enacted! CCL Shareholders Unite! We have nothing to lose but our "reserved-all-day-by-leaving-a-towel-and-flip-flops-at-6:00-am" poolside loungers! 🍻

Thanks.

Did the ship ever make any provisions for seeing the Magellanic Cloud galaxies or the Southern Cross constellation on clear nights by providing a dark space on deck to observe them? I've never had much luck with "star gazing" on ships because of the light pollution from the ship itself, so wondered what the captain might have done in this regard.

As was said upthread, the shareholder credit has to be renewed each year by the CCL board of directors. This has been routinely done every year since the benefit was created, sometime in the dim dark past. I suppose they could decide not to renew it for the next year, but I tend to doubt it.