Ret MP

We just became D on our last cruise. We won't be able to take advantage of that status until our next booked cruise, which as of right now is Jan 2024 and as much as things are changing in the industry, I'm not sure the benefits will be the same or as pleasing, by then. Having said that, if I book a Balcony cabin and the C&A benefits don't change, the Deluxe Beverage Package, or any adult beverage package, doesn't make sense. We mostly drink juices, water, and soda anyway. If I do exceed the C&A limit of 4 drinks a day for D, I think it is, I'd be more than happy to pay for them as I/we wouldn't be ordering much more, pitchers of beer for me excluded. However, if I do my pitcher(s) of beer thing and they are probably not part of the voucher system, I'm not drinking much of anything else. So, D status and above is a great benefit for many folks, like us. If I have an adult beverage during the day, it will probably be a Bloody Mary or Screwdriver at breakfast, on occasion. The Refreshment Package is still on the table for us though. We'll use up the vouchers on our first 4 adult beverages, use the Refreshment package and pay for anything above and beyond the 4 vouchers. That should be a major savings for us.

I just noticed an error. "the day it showed up as NOT pending". Don't know why I put the "NOT" in there. It was pending when FNBO took my dispute. Now, whether they acted on it right away, I don't know. They could have waited for it to fully mature and then started the process.

Well, like I said, I don't have the answers, just the concerns. However, those that work, and I'll add, those that work and use up a whole lot of bandwidth, are using it as a business and should be considered an expense. I'd bet that those who work from home and own their own business/self employed, or are independent contractors and require Internet to do their business, write it off as a business expensed, at least partially. It's hard to write off NetFlix on a cruise as a business expense. If a person is working on a cruise ship and only using Excel, Word, Outlook, Et al, no problem. I'm talking about those, as I stated, that upload hours and hours worth of video, the bloggers for example, Zoom meetings for hours at at time and/or multiple times a day, you know, the bandwidth hog apps/activities, FOR BUSINESS.

I don't recall saying it was a rumor, did I? In fact, what I posted was an actual "cut and Paste" of the email I got as evidenced by the " and " before and after each paragraph. EDITED IN: disregard, I see what you were referring to, the title. My bad! I should have put a ? at the end of the title, I guess. My post would have then been more of a confirmation post!

We'll see, I guess. If it is a large and varied menu, I guess it could be acceptable. But, for us, if it only has a few main entrée items and someone is picky, like me, it can be very Booooooooring. Oh, and please note that I didn't say that it was a bad menu (note that you said I said it was, just for general consumption). Having said that, I know I don't and I don't know of anybody that goes to their favorite restaurant, up to, 7 or more times a week, consecutively (like a 7 night cruise). My wife and I used to go out for diner several nights a week, we didn't go to the Outback more than once a week. One night Outback, one night, Olive Garden, one night, On the Border (not really a good example of what we actually did but just as an example). Why, because at all the places the menu only changes once or twice a year and there are many things that we won't eat so that leaves a very limited selection that doesn't change often. At least with a daily changing menu, there is a variety of options in one venue. But, as usual, these are opinions and you are more than welcome to yours. I respect that and nothing I've typed is an attempt to change your mind about anything. Only presenting my observations, experiences, likes and/or dislikes.

If you actually read my posts where I start off with those statements, they are just posts that may regurgitate something, possibly a suggestion of how to do something, my opinion about how something is run, that may have been stated already. AND, I wasn't calling someone out FALSLY. That is all!

Ya, you know what, never mind. The attempt at humor went right pass ya.

Based upon what you said about the limited menu and only have scrambled eggs offered, that is what I imagine (humor) the server would say when saying what is available.

How do you want your eggs? 1. Scrambled 2. Scrambled 3. Scrambled And off Menu and you know the secret code 4. Scrambled

Never happened, that I saw, on Independence a few weeks ago. But, the location of it isn't conducive to drawing a crowd like Oasis Class.

The CEO's I worked for would all say that if the profit margin wasn't met, it was a loss, period, end of discussion. CEO's are employed at the will of the board. The board expects results.

Well, yaaaaaaa. Do you think I'm unrefined and/or uncouth. I even stick my pinky finger out while drinking my moonshine in a mason jar. Geeeeeeesh!

My new fast food, that isn't, Chinese. Not the kind that serves bait or throws shrimp at you and you've got to catch it in your mouth, either. Don't get me wrong, I love the Hibachi. Also, Mexican, I love Mexican, even Taco Bell. But, I do really love the small Ma & Pa Mexican Restaurants the best.

Boring. Boooooooooooooooooooring.

I ordered two extra once. After eating the first, I almost ate my left thumb. They are that small .

Great Info., I did not know that. I'll have to think seriously about that. One of the minor reasons why I stick to RCCL is because of the Crown & Anchor. I've always had the opinion that I didn't want to spread my loyalty and "points" around too much as they wouldn't accumulate as quickly and get diluted. But, RCCL and X honor each other's system, why not, they are owned by the same umbrella company. Question though: Do all "of age" people in the cabin have to purchase the "All In" package?

Well, the saying used go, "If you believe that, I'll sell you the London Bridge". I'll be damned, they did. Now it's, "I've got some land for sail in S.W. Florida for sale". Guess what?......

I hope they keep tiers. But, like I said, I believe in here some folks said that eventually with Star Link, the tiers will go away. I hope not.

And, years ago, the hotel industry and then shortly after the Cruise Industry decided that they were only going to change the bedding once every X days. I remember when I loved going to a hotel for several days and getting nice, clean, crisp, smell good sheets and pillow cases. Now, even when the bedding is cleaned, it isn't the same nice, clean, CRISP, and smell good bedding. However, I believe that, at least RCCL still irons, just enough to get the wrinkles out, the sheets. And no matter how much these businesses implement these cost cutting measures and try to put lipstick on the pig, the louder and louder the aristocracy yells that we aren't doing enough and we are paying more and more for less and less service(s).

I'm no IT or Internet Geek/professional of any kind and far from it. I also don't find fault with people that do business/work while on a cruise, for many people the world doesn't stop turning while on vacation. I also admit that I don't have any/many of the answers to the issue I'm going to bring up. I think $45.00 - $60.00 a day is totally ridiculous. I do expect that I will pay more for my Internet while on vacation, especially on a ship out in the middle of the ocean. That's a given. However, my home Internet coast about $2.65 a day, that's cable (not Comcast) and I pay for up to 200mbps, on average I get 156. Again, I understand that I will pay more while on a cruise, it's a whole different animal. So, I'm thinking that for those of us that (and I'm basing this on the premise that some are saying that with the new Starlink system, there may only be one option and that's the whole enchilada) only use the Internet while on a cruise only use it to check bank accounts, send pictures and short videos home to friends, and family, kids playing a few games (I try not to give my grandkids enough time to play games on their devices and when they get back to the cabin, they're too tired to spend too much time on them), watch an occasional Youtube video of an upcoming excursion, and a few other things. Those that use the ships Internet for business, like bloggers that upload their video(s) for hours at a time, have hours of Zoom meeting, and et al, if they need the faster speeds, they should have a special rate. I don't think the non-working/business folks should be subsidizing their business expenses. The problem is, how do you separate the working/business folks from those that just use a lot of Internet/bandwidth for entertainment or regular personal household business. Like I said, I don't have the answers just the concerns AND I don't have a problem with business, especially the self employed people having to work while on vacation, a working vacation. I was one of those, fortunately, most of that time was before the Internet a Cell Phones were mandatory!

From RCCL: "We know how much you love these drink vouchers, and we want to make sure you’re getting the most out of this benefit! We’re excited to share that we’re changing the daily schedule so that these vouchers are now redeemable from 5:00 AM to 4:59 AM the next day. What does this mean? It means that your daily complimentary vouchers will now reset at 5:00 AM every morning allowing you to get more out of this benefit during prime hours of each day, including your after-midnight drinks". "We will be rolling out these changes beginning on all sailings departing on or after December 16th, 2022". No particular reason for posting this other than for information purposes incase someone hasn't gotten it. And I do think this is a good thing.

Yes, I do think the way I wrote it, it is confusing. I did mean El Loco Fresh vs. Sabor. My intent was to compare El Loco Fresh to Sabor. Sabor is a full service, including a bar, Mexican restaurant and El Loco Fresh is basically a buffet with a condiment island. I really dislike condiment islands unless there is a lot of attention paid to it by staff, keep it clean, stocked, and organized. Something I haven't noticed at Guy's, for the most part. That's my observation and opinion. I said in an earlier post, I've seen people to include drunks (I'll add kids) walk by the condiment island at Guy's and hand pick things out of it, people that weren't even eating at guys. I have never observed that behavior at an El Loco Fresh and it obviously ain't gonna happen at a Sabor, who's days are numbered, unfortunately. Thank you for your input and opinion.

One word: Advertising Hey everybody, look at the shinny object over here. Nobody else has that shinny object! Aren't we great and worth you money!

Oh oui, mon ST<(I have no idea how it is really spelled). Merci. It's a bunch of merde!