Lady Chew

4 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

 

Oooh, we want to come visit you!!

(incidentally, Mr Chew & I are another John & Laura)

Our experience with HAL (and we have lots of experience with them!) is that the longer the cruise, the older the crowd.  

I don't know what the statistics are, but it always seems like an older crowd.  We started cruising with HAL in our 50s, and even though there have always been cruisers younger than us, and even children, on the longer cruises, we felt like the youngsters on board.  Now we're fitting into the older crowd ourselves!

2 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Bathrooms 

I'm wondering if they will simply close all or some of the public bathrooms to force passengers to go back to their cabins when needed.  (which is what we do most of the time, anyway)  

There are probably regulations about having public restrooms, minimum needed for X number of passengers, locations near restaurants, etc ??

We will be doing this for the first time in early February, from Oasis of the Seas (7 days) to the Nieuw Statendam (21 days).  We've done many b2bs but have never before done a "cross deck" which I believe is the correct term,  We're planning to take a taxi from one to the other.  I believe the taxis in Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades) have the fare for this posted.

We are already booked for both cruises, but we are watching the whole re-opening scenarios very carefully to see how the cruise lines handle cases on board.  We do not want to miss our second cruise because we are quarantined for 2 weeks on the first!

We have cruised many times on both lines, but have many more days on HAL because we like their longer itineraries.  We cruise in balcony cabins, occasionally suites.  On some HAL ships balcony cabins are called "suites"  They are not.

So much of cruising is subjective, there is no such thing as a "right" opinion.

Having said that, in OUR opinion:

There is more storage in cabins/bathrooms on HAL.

Service on HAL is better & more consistent all around the ship.

We find the food on HAL to be slightly better.  In all venues.

Celebrity has a more active, modern vibe.  The public areas are much nicer than HAL.  

HAL definitely skews older.  It can be very noticeable at times.

The smoking in the casino is horrible on HAL.  

We find that HAL has slightly better (and longer) itineraries.  When we feel like exploring, we pick HAL.  When we just want to relax in the Caribbean we love Celebrity.

We have always found the storage in these cabins to be barely adequate for two adults with a reasonable amount of stuff.  So you will definitely need to keep any extra items in your cases under the bed.  

We don't live our lives on our phones, and have no desire to participate in any cruise activities on phones, other than checking our statements every day or so.   We have learned how to use the technology, we just don't like it!

Having said that, I do think that may things that used to be done face-to-face, or person-to-person via the phone, will soon be done via our smartphones.  

2 hours ago, mafig said:

If they're broadcasting from home, maybe they're doing their own make up.😜

Exactly what I was thinking!

We never tip until the end of the cruise ... the exception being on our long cruises when we sometimes tip our cabin stewards half-way through.  We don't tip anyone else until the end of the cruise.  

An earlier poster apparently envisioned some of us walking about the ship carrying huge wads of small US bills to tip every waiter/bar tender we come across throughout the cruise.   

I realized the other day that I had not worn any earrings (or any other jewelry except for my wedding band) since we got back from our cruise on February 23, and this whole mess got started.   (I can't wear earrings with a winter hat that covers my ears, so figure it would be the same wearing a mask.)

I started to worry that my holes would close up, even after 40+ years.  How dumb is that??

So I've started wearing my earrings at home in the evening ... even my fancy ones.  I may even start pulling out some of my other jewelry to wear around the house ... I wonder if feeling "pretty" will make vacuuming or dusting more enjoyable??

7 hours ago, Computer Nerd said:

Nope. If the autograts go up we will pay that but I see no need for additional tips above the autograts.

 

There is certainly nothing wrong with that!!  Tipping isn't mandatory for anyone ... 

We leave the auto-tips on and pay extra at the end of the cruise.  We take longer cruises, so we have more contact with workers on the ship.  We'll usually give our room steward $100 per week.  If it's a really long cruise (50+days) we'll give it out at intervals during the cruise.  

If we have fixed dining, we'll tip appropriately.  If we are eating My Time (or whatever it's called on whichever line we're on) we only tip for outstanding repeated service.  We don't always have the same waiters every night.

We may or may not tip the headwaiter; depends on what s/he may have done for us during the cruise.  And yes, we know that we can't see everything they do, but sometimes you can just tell ...

I save my $1 & $5 bills all year long to have appropriate bills for tipping, bartenders/bar wait staff, porters, etc etc

On the longer cruises, we also tip the young woman who is always cleaning the public bathrooms, and at least one of the crew members who are always cleaning the handrails & other surfaces.  They are kinda at the bottom of the heap and have the least appealing jobs.  We also send tips to the laundry for outstanding service.

Well, if you sneeze into a tissue, whatever you sneeze goess in the tissue, not in your hand.  Of course, your hand is holding the tissue, so there is probably something there, but sneezing into a tissue is ideal.  I think??  You just throw the tissue into the trash ... 

24 minutes ago, clo said:

Well, what are they concerned about then?

I thought they were afraid of getting the evil eye - or worse - from people around them, just because of the cough or sneeze, regardless of wearing/using a mask/hankie/tissue

We do wear our masks and carry tissues (well, I carry the tissues, not Mr Chew) ... and my allergies have been absolutely terrible this spring.  Even with a mask on, when I sneeze I aim into my elbow or under my sweater, and people still give me dirty looks.  I don't care that they do so, but some people might.

It's kind of interesting that most of the people giving me the stink eye are NOT wearing masks!!

We take a lot of cruises, most of them are over 2 weeks.  We do try to keep the number of cases down to what we can manage on our own, but my advice is -- 

Take however many suitcases you need for the things you want to bring!!

We have some friends & family who are absolutely paranoid about catching the virus.  Others who are a little more relaxed, still cautious, just not paranoid.  They all know how much we like to cruise and I have no doubt some will disapprove when we start cruising again.  

But we are paying attention to what is happening with the virus, are exercising caution when we do go out, and will determine for ourselves what we want to do and when we want to do it!

We were just in Grand Cayman in February.  There were 3 ships in port, two Celebrity and one ??? ... It was very crowded & congested.  Don't recall seeing a single scooter anywhere.

We have cruises booked on Royal C for late October, 21 days in Australia & NZ, which we are expecting to be cancelled.  Hoping to switch to another cruise(s) in the same time frame, even if it's "just" the Caribbean.  We usually fly down to Florida, but could take an extra day or two to drive.

Booked on Nieuw Statendam early Feb 2021, and keeping our fingers crossed it will happen.

Planning to book the 2021 Voyage of the Vikings, but are waiting to see how things unfold in the next few months, after cruising starts again.  If it sells out before we are ready, we'll book some other European cruise.

We don't do carry-on-only when we fly, but we keep our luggage to whatever we each can manage.  That gets a little less each year but we still check a bag each, occasionally one additional bag if we have snorkel gear or something of that sort … if we're not cruising, we can manage with slightly less, but we still check our bags.

From now on we'll be taking an extra 15 days worth of our meds, extra underwear, and face masks.  When we fly, we buy our toiletries after we've arrived.  From now on, we'll be packing some hand sanitizer and buying a lot more when we get to where we're going!!

35 minutes ago, hcat said:

I clicked on that..what sexist sterotyped  terminology....as well as for some of the other ones listed.  Glad I am not " hip " or in sync with mean modern culture!

I agree … that's a pretty nasty stereotype … 

We almost always book a "regular" balcony, occasionally a suite.  But I've been wondering - if cruise ships are going to be required to have space onboard to quarantine passengers, and if they are required to spread out crew quarters, if they would take inside cabins (at least on the lower decks) for that purpose.  That would greatly diminish the number of insides for passengers.  And maybe even some of the ocean views on the lower decks. 

Quite a few times!  It's very quick, you have to be paying attention

On 4/28/2020 at 2:46 PM, zekekelso said:

 

I’m picturing something like a Jawa Sandcrawler. 

Need more windows … 

On 4/13/2020 at 9:22 AM, shipgeeks said:

US: pantihose;  UK: tights (right?)

US: tights = heavyweight, usually dark, + what ballet dancers wear

In the US, we get "runs" in our stockings, and I think in the UK you get "ladders"  ??

On 4/14/2020 at 5:54 PM, cruise kitty said:

when I was a kid growing up in S. California, we called flip flops "zories" (late 1960's-early 70's)

When I was a child growing up in NORTHERN California (late 50s-early 60s!) we also called them "zories"  I still do, and no one knows what I'm talking about!

We also watched … talk about a hot seat!!  But he always handles himself very well …  We'll all just have to wait and see what happens, pray for this pandemic to get under control,  try to get all of our lives back to Normal (or what passes for normal, for some of us!), and then we can think about traveling again.  Hope Carnival Corp will end up in decent shape …