Engineroom Snipe

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave." (Sir Walter Scott) What addiction is the strongest, the desire to gamble or the desire to smoke? I make no judgements but think of the irony here. Does the desire to gamble overcome the desire to be smoke-free but still gamble if there are no other alternatives but in a smoker environment. I tolerate smoke because I want to gamble. I tolerate not smoking because I want to gamble. This is deep.........., too much for a Friday! 🤔 I hope everyone enjoys their cruises, smoker, smoke free, drinker, non-drinker, gambler, and non-gambler. There is room enough for all of us onboard! 😁

That is really hard. My Mom had a similar problem and she tended to only taste the sweet and salt. She tended to snack on sweets and desserts which leads to so many more challenges. Good Luck.

I read your earlier post and I do not have any reason to doubt your statement. If it seems otherwise, my apologies for not being clearer in my writing. I am not worried as much about the salt in the MDR dinners as much as I am worried about the hit or miss of how the food is prepared. I should not have to be concerned over which vendor supplied them or what the quality is which can vary due to which vendor sells them the food. I would not like to lock myself in the night before as my wife and I tend to be a bit more spontaneous on cruises as we get older. We use MTD and try MDR once early in the cruise. If it fails the first night to meet expectations (I am talking a 6 or 7 on a 1 to 10 scale), we normally stop going and use the Windjammer. I am beginning to like the Windjammer more as I can have a small taste of this and that without being wasteful if I do not like that individual item. I am talking about maybe one tablespoon per item for tasting. I can always go back for more if I like it. I have no control of the salt added but I can control my portions if I feel it seems salty. If I am going to have salt in my food, I want that food to be worth it. I like salt. I just have to be careful. It does have to be added to many meals as part of their preparation. Odds are I would not like the taste and flavors of a no salt added MDR meal. There might come a point where I will have to do what you are doing but not quite yet. 😉

Understood. Whether the Jazz lounge becomes a smoking casino, and the main casino is smoke-free (speculation here) or vice-a-versa, has already been decided based on what in totality brings in more money. Should RCI decide that non-smokers who are willing to gamble but will only do so in a smoke-free environment, exactly how many of them are there? RCI has no idea because they are currently not gambling and going to the casinos due to the smoke. RCI already knows how many smoking gamblers there are as they have cameras everywhere. Do the smoking gamblers bet less money because they cannot get to their favorite activity in a smaller venue? RCI does not care about the general public statistical trends. They care about people who cruise and then try to figure out how to entice non-cruisers to give them a try.

I documented everything in my cruise afterwards when they sent me the electronic evaluation form. If I stopped to critique everything during the cruise it would have taken away from the time on board to enjoy and relax with my wife. The Guess Services line was long in most cases and the C&A representative was just non-responsive which I documented also. I will eventually just vote with my wallet. I was able to get great deals on these cruises. As long as I can finagle lower prices, I will hold my nose on lower quality food options. There are people who are paying twice as much when they get on board for my same cabin 90 days out. I will not pay those prices if the cruise quality does not improve.

On the menu, it was specifically, "Braised Lamb Shank." My wife and I ordered it and we looked at each other after the first bite like, "What the ???? Are you tasting what I am tasting?" We are foodies and we do not go on cruises for food. Someone else is buying, prepping, cooking, serving, and cleaning everything so we are just happy to get reasonable food. My wife is a superb cook (and baker) and I will hold my own in a BBQ or smoke cooker challenge. It was like a 9 out of 10. Wow! Unfortunately, on that cruise, it was like a blind pig finding an acorn. All of the other MDR items were very subpar. My salmon was under cooked (raw) and my wife's salmon was over cooked to the point of being evaporated. My beef tenderloin was so tough I had to saw through it with a sharp knife. I politely tried to hide the carcass with a napkin so as to not insult the server when he removed it. From the look on his face, it was not the first time that evening he took a napkin covered dish. Our eyes meet and he asked if I wanted another menu item. I said I was fine and he quietly took my plate. I have found something nice in every meal on RCI since 1988. This cruise left me perplexed. I hope this cruise was a one-off exception and not the norm as I return for three more this year.

I liked the braised lamb. I noted it as being a surprise special dish on my Oasis cruise in September with so many other meals missing the mark in the MDR. Nothing compared to it but what I was served in Morocco. Morocco specializes in lamb dishes. How does one do such a special difficult dish so well and miss on so many other plates? 😔

Thank you for taking the time to take these photographs. If one picture is worth one thousand words, you just shared a very long post with us. 🥺

I do not smoke. I have no bias. My point was, "How profitable is a smoking RCI customer in the Casinos compared to a typical average RCI non-smoker who does not gamble in the Casinos?" I do not care if they are Americans. This is a raw financial decision. "For the square footage of space available per ship, how many dollars of profit does the space generate against the alternative propositions?" I do not like it either but I deal with corporate everyday. This is their mindset. I could have had another degree in accounting with the courses I took to understand this mindset and figure out ways to justify investments in my projects. I know, it is hard to accept.

Sounds like a "vacation" to me 😁

Better question might be, "What percentage of RCI cruisers like Jazz." RCI is making a calculated decision to remove this venue in favor of what they perceive to be a more profitable space. Cold hard truth about those corporate bean-counters: show me the profits. 🤑

Need to start another thread: "From Six-pack Ship Shape to Cruise Keg in One Week: How I did it." Almost looks like a National Enquirer front page headline. 🤣

Are your symptoms the same on an RCI cruise or was it something to do with Viking?

Listening to those conversations can be brutal. I have enough drama in my life and I appreciate those who keep their private life, private. 😳

Many people get sensitive to sodium as they become "classic" which is right before "vintage" in life but before "antique." On cruises, we cannot control the amount of salt added to the food. For most people, they can have almost as much salt as they want without incident. How many people have an egg omelet with cheese with sausage, bacon, and bread more than once a week at home? On cruises, it happens every day for many days. Go to the Doghouse, sausage with sides (like potato salad) again have a substantial amount of sodium. Stop off for a late snack of pizza, lots of sodium to make it taste good and the cheese. Dinner, all the gravies and sauces need salt to work. The shrimp cocktail has salt in the shrimp and most cocktail sauces have 800mg in just two teaspoons which is not uncommon. Caeser salad dressings require salt and cheese as well as croutons which contain salt. Taco fillings have cheese, and the meats normally require salt for flavor. If you are sensitive like I am to salt, you can only control the portions and try not to have the saltiest types of food all in one day. Exercise does help as it moves interstitial fluids back into the lymphatic system and reduces the swelling. I enjoy cruising and cruise food, but I have had to adapt over the years as my body seems to be more sensitive as time goes on.

Very good quick read might answer some of your questions: The Bluetooth Standard - A simple guide to the protocol for beginners (technobyte.org) I do not use Apple Products, so I find it interesting that they "only pair when close" according to a post on this thread. My Android OS on my phone will pair as long as it is in range (normally 20 to 30 feet). Most devices will share a secret key after pairing and bonding. Most slave devices need to be put into "pairing mode" and the master device needs to be set to "inquiry" to start the bonding process. In many cases, you might be able to see all of the devices within range, but you will not be able to start the connection process without the other device being placed into pairing mode.

Leonardo Da Vinci might be an example where "coloring books" were good for adults too! 😁

One must be careful going from an analog world into a digital world. For all of our digital progress, our eyes, ears, and vocal cords transmit and receive information through analog processes. Everything digital must be converted to analog before it enters or leaves our brains and vice a versa. An old Long Playing Album (LP) was recorded and transcribed through an analog process. As such, it can play all of the harmonics of the recorded song in a far superior fashion than a 256 bit digital recording. This is why "vinyl" is making a comeback with audiophiles. I can teach anyone about engineering in five subject matter areas but I cannot teach them how to imagine. I find that people who draw, play music, and write can learn "systems" far faster than those who only focus on digital mastery. Just my opinion after many years teaching the next generation on complex engineering design and implementation. I can manufacture, install, and maintain any electrical, electronic, mechanical, or information system that I design. At the end, it is an artistic thing of beauty in a physical world.

I do not mean to make jest of a place that you and your husband enjoyed so much. 😔 At this time, it all seems to be about the "Benjamins" with RCI. "Times are a changing." (Bob Dylan).

Yes, leaving technology behind and "Going Back to the Future" to the land of Neanderthals drawing handmade pictures on the rock walls of the caves. Something very rewarding about a hand attached to a carbon pencil and sketching pencils to create an image on a parchment paper. 😯😁 Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most enjoyable. I loved doing mechanical drawings. AutoCAD made them obsolete in a ten-year span of time. The price of progress. Did I master AutoCAD, yes. Did I lament the beauty of hand made designs being left in the dust? Yes. 😢

Da dup,...........Da dup........, Da dup..., Da dup,..Da DAAAAAAA!!!!!! The RCI JAWS of progress might be chomping at Jazz on 4. There have been many postings and speculations about what is happening. Is it going to be a Casino smoking lounge (creating a smoke free main casino)? These are the first confirmations of some sort of change. The intrigue continues. Stay tuned for the next installments........

Like he said. You definitely have to be following the trends to know that the price on board is a good starting point which gets you an OBC with a smaller deposit. If you make changes after that, the advantages evaporate. You will find a plethora of opinions here and no one has a definite answer. Good luck on your decision, it can be like trying to play the stock market. 😁

The next responses to your personal observations will be: 1. "You will not find better on other cruise lines, they are all going through the same reductions." 2. "You just happen to have a crew who will be replaced in the future with a better one and the whole experience will be completely different." 3. "People tend to live in the past and cruising is different now." 4. "You are just asking for too much, don't you know that RCI has to be more competitive and change is going to happen and you just have to adjust?" 5. "All of the cruise lines are dealing with supply chain issues right now. Things will be different on your next cruise." You WILL NOT hear that from me. Thank you for your honest and sincere evaluation. The "Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Until unhappy customers stop buying future cruises, nothing is going to change. If I had your experience, I would be making your last final statements. I have three cruises this year. My last one in September was completely subpar to my normal expectations. Too many people are reporting the same thing you are on certain ships. I will not be reserving future cruises at the much higher prices being demanded if the service and food are not at least equal to my last good memory of the Anthem in April of 2022.

That and the four foot ground-rod would be a difficult thing to pack!!!!! 😯😁🤣 "Sir, I hope that is some type of golf club in your suitcase. Would you mind opening it for us?"

A well thought out plan of execution. The general design of a proper Faraday cage (I capitalized it in order to respect the scientist who created it) would most probably ring alarm bells in the automated security scanners since it would be identified as an "unknown object". X-Ray equipment would flag the opaque nature of creating a shroud hiding anything inside it. This would subject you to secondary screening as you explained the principles behind its design and your intentions to bring it aboard. Like yourself, I want to cruise to relax. When I have to create complex counter-electronics to enjoy my cruise, it is time to find another vacation venue. As always, no-one forces us to cruise. When the negative out-weigh the positives, we have to make decision. Until then......🛳️>>>>>>>>>........... 😁