abridalmaven

Another vote for the Premier Inn. The desk was very accommodating with arranging cabs to the port in the morning. But sadly for us my husband left something behind at the hotel. He left me at the terminal and walked back. It was a short walk. It all worked out nicely.

When we arrived at this lovely hotel we saw their nice restaurant and thought dinner there would be perfect as we were in need of a nap after our transatlantic flight. Much to our dismay after we got up and ready for dinner they were all prebooked and no available seating.

We did not know we needed to make a pre reservation or we would have as soon as we registered.

Luckily we did reserve the breakfast when we checked in for the next morning.

So if you plan to stay there before your cruise make sure to make reservations.

Real sugar free desserts should be available. Baked goods are carbohydrates that become sugar.. Thus for people who have issues with diabetes a so called sugar free cookie/cake/pie is not really acceptable.

At dinner in the MDR there is always a sugar free dessert choice. Most are very good. There also used to be those options in the WJ, but I have not seen them lately. But you could ask.

I certainly agree with you about desserts. RCI needs new dessert chefs.

Nothing wrong with the Creme brûlée.

Arzeena, I think that that may be unique to the Explorer. :)

No it was on the Adventure also. But it was a 12 day cruise.

They don't pass them out on the ship because they don't want to hear how their product quality has dropped due to the cost cutting. A lot of people don't have computers so how do they make their voice heard?

I seriously doubt in today's world there are many without computers. My 90+ year old in laws have one along with my 85 year old Mom.

On our recent cruise to Bermuda on the Voyager of the Seas we were told at the end of the cruise that RCI would email us a link to an online comment form.

 

 

 

The email would go to our email address on file with RCI.

 

 

 

Well the email arrived about 5 days after the cruise and the online comment process was almost identical to the old written card.

 

 

 

With one exception!

 

 

 

There was a large space at the end where I could type in suggestions and comments not covered in the questions.

 

 

 

This was great!

 

 

 

 

 

I have always hated trying to write a comment in the tiny space on the old paper form.

 

 

 

 

 

Well Done RCI! This is a big improvement on the method of selecting post cruise comments.

Very true. Loved the additional space to add comments.

Day 8 - dock at Trondheim at lunchtime

We spent the morning enjoying a lie in, breakfast in MDR, next round of the progressive quiz, a mooch around the ship, sat in the solarium and read my book then lunch in WJ.

 

We decided not to leave this ship today (we found out later most of the shops were shut as it was Sunday)

 

We had a lovely afternoon in the sun on board a pretty empty ship which was soooooo relaxing

We found a lovely cafe on the canal to stop at. Plus the church was open along with a few ice cream vendors. A very pretty port.

[Q UOTE=gerif;44163735]Coconut ranger cookies. My absolute downfall. Shrimp salad sandwiches are particularly yummy.

Amen. Love them both. Missing them now that I am home. And their oatmeal cookies are good too.

I have sailed all the classes and prefer ones with at least an inside promenade. In not so perfect weather it is a nice retreat.

A close friend thinks one day they will all sink.

I don't recall any.

No they weren't giving anything out whilst we were queuing [emoji20]

When we got there at 11 pm

There was a white tent set up to the left of the line with hot chocolate. They were not handing it out, you had to have someone in your group go in and get it.

Day 4 ended with a very long queue (about an hour) in the cold to get back on the ship. I got a sandwich from room service for tea and retired to bed!

Did you grab a cup of hot chocolate in the tent they had set up on the pier? I thought that was a nice touch.

We were supposed to have three on our Nordic cruise but for some reason one of the nights were cancelled.

Since you have to present your seapass to each drink it would be trickier than you think to get drinks for others. And again as others have said an abuse of the program. I think the waitstaff might be alert to the possibility also and keep an eye out. They are pretty sharp. We had drinks in the bar outside the Diamond lounge on AOS and they knew us by name and what we liked it drink by the second night.

How are you so sure?

Several members of the crew brought it up.

You missed the point. Yes, there is lots to book with all cruise lines. More than enough, actually more than too much. Have you never heard of the straw that breaks the camel's back? Well that is what I was talking about. I thought that was clear.

 

BTW, if your TA is booking your shows, and dinners, and excursions and spa treatments for you, in additions to air,hotel and transfers, with out additional compensation, well then you have found one real gem. Hang on to her.

Amen. This last cruise we were on we made lots of plans for car rentals and private excursions along with the ordinary stuff like air and ground transportation for our small group. Some days I was ready to pull my hair out because so and so decided that they did not to be part of the car rental and some excursions thereby driving up the cost per person. If shows and dining times were added into the mix I would have just given up. My husband and I were even at odds over some of the details. If others were not involved so close to sailing I would have cancelled the whole thing. So something like this can be that last straw for some of us.

Adventure is getting DD during her 2016 Refurb.

just an observation, but why would someone with 62,000 posts have an issue with planning a few dinners and shows. :confused:

Because it is no longer a relaxing experience. Just off the Adventure and we had perfect servers and food was great. Why do we need to give that up. Some of us have tried freestyle on NCL and know how bad it can be. Indifferent waiters with dinners so uneven in service planned shows were missed.

We used them on our trip on the Adventure staring August 31. Very efficient as the Diamond lounge was crowded every night. We used the crown Loft lounge and were allowed to bring out appetizers.

Yes. The photography has nothing to do with it, I enjoy looking nice.

Why I would prefer traditional main dining room experience:

 

Top reason: Meeting new table mates each cruise AND GETTING TO KNOW THEM through the rest of the week. We have often made friends of our table mates, made plans to get together to go to the show, or have drinks later. Sometime we arranged excursions together. One couple we even ended up cruising together again.

 

No making reservations.

 

No need to be shown to my table each night. Our table is ready and waiting for us every night.

 

Same waiters each night, who have my water with lemon and hubby's wine ready as soon as we show.

 

I like the different food themes, but also having "always available items" for when the food is too strange.

 

Having the timing of our dining match up to the timing of the traditional main show. No worry about getting done on time.

 

Love the elegant atmosphere the MDR has always had.

Amen.

Was just on this cruise too one negative was the loss of one formal night. Second was the show schedule on long port days. Missed shows because by the time we got back from excursions and tested and got ready it was late. I dislike a 7pm show those days.

Other than that I had a good time and felt very well taken care of on the ship. And MDR food was very good as was our one night in Giovanni's.