rudeney

In the past, we've had concierges who helped us with all sorts of things and I tipped based on the amount of their time I used. This time, the only thing he did for us was to pre-book our UDP reservations when I responded to the email the week before we boarded. Once onboard, we decided we wanted to try the Chef's Table, so I asked him about it and his response was, "You can book that in the app". 😮

I don't believe Mariner has Playmakers or Dadong. You'll have Chops, Jamie's, Izumi and Johnny Rockets. For Izumi Hibachi, you pay an extra $10pp, or you can order the "one small plate + two large plate + dessert" meal. You can also pay $50pp for the Chef's table.

That's how I took it. Years ago, we used to joke about milk costing $20 because every time we went into the store for a $1.50 gallon of milk, we came out with $20 worth of groceries. Now, it's well over $100 for a milk run.

Well...it can be. It depends on how they port employees handle it. Some think it is 2pp. Others have a big disconnect between where your bags are x-rayed and where the bottle-check table is. If they send you as a couple, just have one bag inspected. Or have the other person just walk by like they aren't supposed to stop. I was trying to see where in the Boston port they did these checks and I saw no one checking bags after x-ray.

I know many people scoff at box wine, but it actually helps keep air out of the unused portion and makes it last longer once opened. I've always thought some of the mid-range wines would do well if they offered a box as an option. It reduces the reliance on glass, which is heavy to ship and harder to recycle. I mean, we've already gone through the horrors of expensive wines using synthetic corks and now even screw-top lids, so why not a box? You may be able to sneak a box of wine onboard, but according to the rules, it's not allowed - only 2 (up-to 750ml) bottles can be carried on. As for the corkage fee, I don't believe anyone has been charged in many years, but of course there's always the possibility of a rogue crew member who decides to charge. To mitigate that, open it yourself in the room and bring the bottle with you to the table. You can bring your own corkscrew or ask your stateroom attendant for one.

Every embarkation port is my favorite - I'm getting on the ship! 🙂 Every disembarkation port is my least favorite - it means my cruise is over. 😞

I fly to Chicago fairly regularly. Sometimes I'm out of Midway, sometimes O'hare. I found O'hare to be a little less efficient than Midway, but of course it's a busier airport. Regardless, I've never taken more than about 15 minutes to get through security with Pre-Check. When we flew out of Nashville on Oct. 1st, it was a little busy. What was really annoying is they had one Pre-Check agent feeding one X-ray and metal detector, but they had three lines instead of a queue. The agent had to try to remember which of the three lines was "next" in line and he wasn't always correct.

I'll bet they won't use the "colossal" shrimp. Lunch for The Key is not prepared by Chops - it's made in the MDR galley by those cooks. The giant shrimp are likely stored in the Chops refrigerators, and the MDR uses whatever they have on hand in theirs. I'm not downplaying The Key lunch - it is definitely better than fighting the crowds in the Windjammer, but I think people expect it to "be Chops", and it's not truly the Chops experience. Jan and I ate in chops about 7 times on our last cruise, and we have decided it's our favorite RCCL dining experience. We love the atmosphere, decor, the view and it's quiet. The staff is excellent and each waiter serves less than half the seats that the MDR staff does, so you get much more personal service. No back to the question at hand, I'd pass on The Key and eat at Giovanni's. Again, small venue, more attentive staff, and the dishes are prepared in the cook-to-order kitchen by the chef and staff of that restaurant. As for the MDR menus, I noticed that it changed on Voyager. Prior to the cruise, they had "lobster night" listed on Day 6, but once on the ship, it was actually Day 5.

Before we left the ship, Nadja had let us know that Ricardo was doing well. I think he returned as concierge a few weeks later. As for the note-taking, I was in a Usenet group for Disney fans and we always did "trip reports" for our visits. I got in the habit of taking notes and writing reports for myself. I know it's a bit geeky and strange, but it has been fun to go back and read some of my reports from when we took the kids to Wal Disney World and on cruises over the years. I'm actually working on a full trip report for this cruise. I won't post it anywhere, but it will be on my computer (and on cloud backup) in case I want to go back later and refresh my memory. Who knows, when I'm gone, maybe the kids will get a kick out of reading them.

Yeah, the app is wrong. I think it shows all the specialty restaurants open every day for lunch, even though they are closed on port days. I magically gets "fixed" on boarding day.

There are many things on the "not allowed" list that people successfully bring onboard. Probably the biggest one is booze. I know two people on Voyager last week who snuck booze in (not us - we had DBP). I carry a Leatherman tool in my toiletry kit and it's been on every cruise with me, no problems. I've even brought heavy-duty extension cord in my checked bag with no issues. We know they x-ray checked luggage, but I just don't think they scrutinize it too granularly. My guess is they are looking for obvious things like real knives, guns, booze bottles and maybe heaters.

OK, I had to look this up where I had taken notes (yes, I take electronic notes on all our vacations). It was 2015 on Navigator. Ricardo was the concierge, but he had a medical emergency (heart attack) and had to be taken ashore for treatment. Nadja filled-in. They were both great.

Voyager will only have one specialty restaurant open for lunch on embarkation day, and if they keep using Chops for Windjammer overflow, it will be Giovanni's.

I think we had Nadja on one ship because I remember the name and her telling us that!

I have a friend who had hip replacement about 5 years ago and she's still having serious problems due to an infection that won't heal. My wife still gripes about her knee, but it's not pain, just "noises". None of this scares me at all - my hip hurts enough that I'm willing to do whatever it takes so I can walk, sit, stand and sleep without pain! As for flying, I'm headed to Tampa for a conference in two weeks. Before the end of the year, I will likely be flying to my company's offices in Richmond and our contract software development team's offices in Chicago. I am really supposed to be traveling more than I do - at least once a month - but COVID slowed that down a bit. I suspect things will get back to "normal" for travel next year.

I am definitely thinking we may want to take a road trip to Bar Harbor and Portland. The cruise just whet our appetites!

This guy was hard to miss - he was a big, tall, nice looking young man - think young George Clooney. We'd see him walking the halls with a stack of about 20 towels slung over his shoulder. He always greeted us with a huge smile.

I fly out of ATL often as my office is in Richmond and it's easier for me to drive the 2.5 hours to ATL for a 1 hour direct flight than to drive 1 hour to BHM for an 8-hour odyssey of connecting flights. I love TSA Pre-check for that! My wife has an artificial knee, and she always sets off the metal detectors! I should have an artificial hip by the end of the year so we'll see how that works out for me.

It seems that every tipping thread always ends up discussing how all of these "behind the scenes" crew members get and need a piece of the gratuity pie. The only time official mention I've seen is this: I believe "Other Hotel Services" are crew directly related to serving staterooms and not dishwashers and the crew cleaning the decks. I noticed a crew member on our hall whose only job was to collect dirty towels and replace them with fresh towels. I assume he would be art of that "Other Hotel Service" crew.

So not this? We had dinner in chops 4 nights on our last cruise with the same waiter, Vlad. Jan ordered the Colossal Shrimp Cocktail each night and . Vlad always delivered the shrimp with the comment, "Wow! Look! This is amazing!" Every time I saw it, I always flashed back to that scene in the movie Beetlejuice:

The lowest price I saw for Voom on our cruise was $19/day for 1 device, $31/day for two devices, so that means it was $12 to add the 2nd device. I think a 3-device plan was maybe $42, so that would make the 3rd device $11, and I think going to the 4-device plan was even less additional per day - maybe $10 more for it?

Great review and pics! We were on Voyager last week for pretty much the same itinerary (ports in a different order) and it was fantastic. The crew was amazing. I'm sorry you had to miss Bar Harbor - that was our favorite port. And it sounds like it won't be on many future cruise itineraries as the city has placed some pretty low limits on number of allowed passengers per day.

I carried a six-pack of Holy Donuts on Voyager last Tuesday. I just ran them through the x-ray machine. We also carried some homemade fudge onboard from Saint John , NB. We were warned upon return to Boston to not carry off any food or drinks that were not factory-sealed.

Go into Cruise Planner and make sure it shows that you purchased it. If not, call RCL. It will show on your SeaPass cards once you get on the ship.

We had breakfast in Chops a few days and they used real eggs - there were still signs of the whites in my scrambled eggs. Before COVID when they had the omelette station in Windjammer, I'd get my scrambled eggs there and they cracked them fresh (and would cook them lightly as I prefer).