Cruise Raider

I heard this from several of the managers onboard and confirmed it with one of the officers. I was surprised to learn this, too. It still helps them on a corporate level but they are never informed unless it goes into a report which is published for each dept head unless it’s done within 3 days. We were actually privy to seeing one of the reports once and it was tallied up with names shortly after the previous cruise.

So, maybe this has to do with upgrading to the premier package via the app, my the erroneous charges have started up once again. I didn’t get any on the last leg but have about $40 in bar charges on my account from yesterday. I will send a CrewChat message to have them removed.

I am thinking it really didn’t impacted our ability to get off and back on the ship in a timely manner as we still had to wait in the terminal for another 10 minutes or so. The part that was funny was that while we were waiting in the theater, people were having to use the restroom and such and they were trying to keep us all together. It was a bit like herding cats. 😂

I heard this from several of the managers onboard and confirmed it with one of the officers. I was surprised to learn this, too. It still helps them on a corporate level but they are never informed unless it goes into a report which is published for each dept head unless it’s done within 3 days. We were actually privy to seeing one of the reports once and it was tallied up with names shortly after the previous cruise.

The B2B process was seamless. We were seated in a separate section in the terminal and boarded about 10 minutes after sitting down along with the elite passengers. We were onboard by 11:00 AM. All as quick and painless,

I’m pretty sure they have. While we haven’t eaten in the MDR as of yet and may not, be seen the beyond burger in the Salty Dog GastroPub and vegetable rolls in Ocean Now.

Now, everyone has gotten here .. only 45 minutes late for two passengers. I guess stuff happensand there are reasons. But, there are still guests disembarking and the theater has very comfortable seating so, it’s all good. I had to return my glass to the Take 5 venue and it’s all set up for a wedding. What a gorgeous venue for a wedding or a vows renewal. So elegant!

To continue, the in transit passengers are to meet in the Princess theater at 9:00 AM. I’m sure there are only about only 75 passengers currently in here out of the 116 B2B travelers at 9:10 AM I did find one little bit of information that I found interesting. In transit passengers are allowed to order room service in the morning on turnaround day. Those in full suites can do the same but not any other disembarking passengers. While we are waiting for the remaining passengers to arrive (there are always those that choose to not be on time .. holding up everyone else! It’s ok with me as it’s quite comfortable here in the theater. There is also a disembarking passenger in here that must have misunderstood the instructions on where to wait. We have all our luggage packed up except for the clothing on hangers. We are carrying our valuables in a small bag. They will move our luggage and clothing to our new room for us. We usually attempt to stay in the same room but we booked this second leg very recently and there were only a few cabins available. We understand the next sailing is sold out. we on,y have to move up one deck and are still midship so we will just have to take one more flight of stairs up to our cabin. We’ve built up our tolerance for that extra flight. 😂 I M going to take this time to fill out my survey. I understand that the crew onboard never sees it unless we fill it out within 3 days. We need to make sure they get credit where credit is due.

I think the total number on this current sailing was just over 3300. I did not hear the run down on how many were form each country.

Oh my word, it had asparagus, cucumber and small strands of crispy fried onions with a tomato on top. Truly excellent! Ask them to put the spicy sauce on it .. it was not too spicy at all. I think it was rolled in chia seeds or black sesame seeds. Yummmmm! Sheer perfection and with the pickled ginger .. it wowed me. Like I said, we are sushi novices but we found we love it so much, and since they treated us with such care, we now love it and know more of what we love.

Our lunch at the Ocean Terrace .. our waiter, Percio, now knows exactly what we love. Spicy California vegetable rolls and and spicy California rolls with edamame. He even knows to bring a fork as I seem to be so uncoordinated. I swear .. this is so good, I won’t be changing my order.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the beds and pillows. Everyone is different and to be honest, I really have been liking the mattress. Maybe give it a chance. even the pillows are fine now I’ve slept on them for nearly a week. The mattress and pillows are still worlds better than those that we had while on Royal Caribbean.

It’s too early to say what changes they will make for February. I can only assume they will change you from the Bistro to the Catch but keep an eye out on your app and email as you may be notified of the Bistro cancellation. And someone from corporate mentioned they would change the location of Sabatini’s to deck 7. Someone from the Bistro said they would not be doing that. So, you may just have to wait for how it will all work out,

We had ours in the Skagway last week. it was excellent, btw!

Of course, I keep thinking of things to mention .. there was actually lunch in the MDR today even though we are in port. They really have stepped up to provide food in many different venues even while in port. The other day, I noticed the Ocean Terrace was open beyond their normal hours for serving sushi. Oh, and I’m really starting to love the firmer mattress and even the pillows are now ok for me.

Awe, thank you and it’s my pleasure. After a little more digging, Sudesh from the Bistro, just told me that Nov 11th is the soft opening for The Catch and November 18th, they will be accepting reservations for full capacity. Either way, the Bistro was great but the Catch is spectacular. We are also on the Discovery next April so I really look forward to the new restaurant. BTW, I’ve heard that they will be moving the Catch where Sabatini’s is and move Sabatini’s to go upstairs where the Bistro is. Now, I’ve heard that is probably not happening. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t! I would not care either way. I also failed to mention, the entertainment onboard is fabulous. There is a duo of violin players that are phenomenal and I absolutely adore the guitar player, Jan Jan Repeso. of course, the production cast is incredibly talented and hard working! They are one of the best we’ve seen! Our cruise director, Duvaul is also fantastic. We also learned that the cut off for the most travelers passenger luncheon was around 600 days if any one was interested in that tidbit of info. Im am not counting on or even disappointed if we don’t get an invite to the MTP but will be most appreciative if I ever get one again. I don’t ever want to get to the point where I just expect something extra just because we’ve been lucky enough to be able to cruise as often as we do. I always say, we cruise because we love the crew so much .. it’s neve about the ports of call for us. It really is all about the wonderful people that work so hard onboard, the ship and the fabulous entertainment .. and nights like last night where we had such a great experience at the party!

The menu for the Catch just works so perfectly for us. Everything was just perfect. I posted photos back on another thread last month. While I rarely take pictures of food, I want We were on the Discovery for the naming ceremony celebration and again last April. I have to say, the Crown Grill is worlds better than back then. Those were very busy cruises, so I understand, but such an improvement over that first sailing we were on in 2022. The one earlier this year, the crown grill had already improved immensely and they kept being so good through this sailing.

I’ve meant to mention a couple of other things that have made this sailing so very enjoyable. Our cabin is in wonderful condition. I especially love that the Royal class ships I’ve been on don’t have those nasty blue mats on the balcony. I call them filth catchers. We got a note they’d be working on the balconies today. They do seem to be low on bathroom tissues but our room steward was able to find us an extra box. As noted, the B2B meeting was very informative and answered a lot of questions that first time B2B passengers might have. For example, your medallion and folio will automatically roll over to your next sailing. The only thing that won’t roll over is your casino account so you have to cash out tonight if you have any money left on your account. They suggested that you make reservations for the specialty restaurants and the sanctuary today for next week. There will be 116 in transit passengers (B2B) but only about a dozen people attended the meeting, which is fine as it is a port day and they did explain most of what they mentioned in a letter sent to your room. We have to move cabins so, we were told to pack up all of our belongings not on hangers and the room stewards would move our luggage and hanging clothes to our new room for us. We need to meet at the Princess theater at 9:00 AM and will be escorted down to the terminal and allowed to reboard around 10:45 AM. Everything seemed pretty cut and dried. They also mentioned there would be about new 3400 passengers boarding tomorrow (if someone was there and I heard the numbers incorrectly, please don’t hesitate to correct me .. I will not take any offense). So, along with the 116 in transit passengers, it seems like we will have about 200-300 more passengers than on this sailing. No place has ever seemed overly crowded so, hopefully the extra capacity won’t really impact the overall experience. If I were to have just one complaint, it’s the smoke from the casino. You can’t smell even a waft of it in Take 5. However, you can really smell it on sea days when the casino is open while in Crooners. We were just on the Majestic and they had glass doors leading into the casino. It really kept the smoke out of the other public areas. Smokers also have paid for their cruises so, I won’t belittle them but would prefer the casino were completely nonsmoking, as it is on Celebrity.

A photo of Take 5 .. so nice and quiet.

I completely forgot about mentioning Take 5. You are so right about it being a nice quiet spot. It is open once again and I noticed the slot machines I saw there earlier in the week are gone.

Just go down past Princess Live or the Crown Grill Bar. There is a whole row of quiet seats along the window and the Crown Grill Bar is not open during the day. There are also little quiet seating areas outside behind GiGis pizza and Sur La Mer. there are lounges beyond the walking path on both sides .. one side is for smoking but we only saw one person out there. The other side was completely empty. Up top, we were also able to find some nice areas are the forward pool area. Just walk around, there are loads of places that are so conducive to a nice relaxing reading spot.

I’ve been informed that the switch to The Catch will take place November 11th .. so it looks like you are in luck. As far as the premier seating, they release it about 10 minutes prior to the start of the production show. I would say you could go 15 minutes early but even if you make it just in time, if there are any open seats, they do assist in finding you some. Sometimes, they will ask people to move down one when they see two different empty seats within the row.

We never did end up going out in San Diego yesterday. Instead, we enjoyed a day onboard with the activities and then were invited to a private dinner party with some dear friends out on the back deck behind the buffet. Wow! That was most incredible time with some great pasta dishes. And the weather was absolutely perfect for the occasion. No shows after that for us last night. We are docked in Ensenada today for our last port stop on this first leg of our cruise. Another sunny day but as those that have been here before, the air is rather smoggy. Still, another beautiful port day.

Last night, the four of us went to the Crown Grill for dinner at 5 PM. Oh my goodness, it was outstanding in every way! I like how their portion sizes are so much more reasonably sized. I did not leave there stuffed for the first time ever. The orders at our table were lobster, filet mignon, Chilean sea bass. The food was hot and delish! That French bread they served was too hard to resist! We popped down to the Future Cruise office to see if there were any additions to the 50% off sale. We’ve already booked all the ones we were interested in on our last couple of sailings. Our friends found some good ones to book. We then went to Spotlight Bar production show. They had already released the premier seating but the Entertainment director was there to help us find two seats together just in time for the show’s start! If you’ve not seen Spotlight Bar before, you should make it a point to go! It’s one show I could see time and time again. The incredible choreography, great music, extreme talent and hard work of the cast and the set make this the most phenomenal production show. After the show, we just headed back to the cabin. We received instructions for our Back To Back procures and they have a meeting set up for tomorrow in case we have questions on the process. We are in San Diego today with gorgeous sunny weather. We are probably staying onboard as we’ve been here so many times and we really don’t cruise for the ports but for the ship and crew. I think we may head up to watch a movie up on MUTS and get a bit of sunshine and maybe a bit of exercise.

It doesn’t bother me in the very least. But thank you for your responses.