kirtihk

We gladly discovered during our first Seabourn cruise (in March on Venture) that they had sunscreen available near pool to share for free.

It’s so true. Hate or whatever it is has been developing for last 5 years and not just around cruising sentiment. From the other hand, open mind is strongly prohibited (AKA dismissed) these days.

Yes, that’s how it is on Viking. And the same (or even better) is on Regent, Ponant, Silversea, Seabourn and some others. Viking is though still on our future list.

That’s correct. Regarding Viking, free international air (especially, to far away destinations) might bring the total trip for a cruise so much down. We did not have their cruises yet, but our friend (being flexible like you state) had a lot of them, and on many occasions he got free air and sometimes combined with a reduced price, too. Hopefully, when we become flexible, we will follow that route (with any cruise line), too.

Of course, when flexibility is not an issue, one might find “crazy”-good prices on any cruise line including luxury one (and it could be with a real free air deals, too, like on Viking).

Nicely aged wine, however, stays the same! One just has to find it (as the topic if this thread dictates).

Or get 3 cruises instead of such an upgrade and enjoy life!

This deck was available on a lot of ships (I do not remember exactly, but I think it was Celebrity and Carnaval) I cruised on until about 10 years ago.

And everyone loves Ramond!

As hundreds of times said, everything should be included in the fare (nice, clear, no discussion, transparency); you like it - you buy it, and here is the end of story.

I liked the steam room on Splendor, but sauna was just warm (about 140 F); it needs to be at least 170 F for a good experience; the best is around 190 F.

I thought (seriously) that is a common knowledge: for a proper sauna treatment body needs to be clothing free (so toxins leaving body with sweat would not be trapped), and a potential dirt from materials brings toxins to the air. I cannot stand when people come inside of sauna room dressed in gym ware after exercising (you can smell of sweat mixing with hot air - it’s so disgusting). Or even worse, when they bring dirty towels and shorts and trunks, put them on the bench and leave the steam room (so those who are inside are “enjoying” extra kick of aroma). I usually throw those items out of the steam room. Germany’s sauna rules are very strong about this matter.

The key word in the modern world is “free”.

Worse?! Don’t offend Germans, please. In Germany you are required to be without clothing in mutual sauna/steam room areas.

I don’t feel entitled to anything. Please do not make “blind” statements - if you do not like an item, does it mean you are entitled to what you would like in that item otherwise? No, you would just simply express your opinion (not expecting a harsh critique, because an opinion is just a … an opinion).

You cannot imagine how many individuals will simply dismiss you just for a fact that you attempted dualism in process of thinking.

It's good to know I'm the employer of the Earth.

and if we ask any department on ship (that interacts with us in one way or another) for as little as possible, because all of them because are stretched lately, then it will be very difficult to justify ourselves to cruise at all? What's the point to consider something for a holiday out of ordinary if in the end it becomes simply blunt and dull?

A simple typo: cruise lines

That’s always was that way for the majority of airlines: you cannot adjust or remove pre-paid gratuities, but you can do that for gratuities applied per-day basis on- board (you will see daily gratuity charge per person on you on-board account) - at the end of the cruise you may go to the service desk and remove those charges and pay by cash to whoever you want from the group of workers who topically getgratuitues (as in old days).

If all cruise line do that, it wouldn't make any difference (just math) AKA competition.

You are lucky he is not in a group who would simply dismiss you (a typical tactic for last 3 years).

For our December 2024 Cape Town to Dubai cruise the non-air discount is $5,600 per person round trip.

It is not $2,500; it is different amount for each itinerary (from $300 round trip for economy domestic destination flights to over $8,000 for international business class). Also, air discount might be taken for each way individually (I do not know whether it is half for each way or a specific amount depending on embarkation/disembarkation city).

They expect to book a few cruises like this one and then proceed right away to welfare.