NutsAboutGolf

As expected, “why don’t you give us ABC for free?” types of questions were ignored while “where do you see ABC cruise line going in the future?” types of softball questions were answered vaguely without many specifics

Uber is available and while they have dynamic pricing (constantly changes) I've found it consistently 3-5X cheaper

Your first mistake was calling X customer service…

So just wanted to communicate Just wanted to add to this as this just happened to us in Puerto Vallarta. Ship arrived an hour late, dive shop offered no refund at all, they claimed as an one time exception they'll give us 50% off our next dive booking... Another thing that I went through with them. They ASSUME the second the cruise ship pulls up you can walk off it and get right into a taxi. I did explain that the ship has to be cleared, you then have to walk for nearly 5mins to get to the mall-like terminal, the terminal takes at least 5mins to walk through and once you get inside a taxi, there's a checkpoint for them to leave the secured area

I've only be to fine cut and eden once on the Edge shortly after the restart EDEN = My pick...Great food (steak was far better than fine cut), atmosphere and experience Fine cut = it's very noisy with the atrium action seeming being piped in. The Tomahawk steak was on par with the Outback steakhouse which is good but not mind blowing; far below even the mid-tier chain steak houses Flemings/Ruth Chris. Blu's Filet Mignon lately has been very hit or miss but when it hits, its far better than what I had at Fine cut

It was touted that IVs save fuel so why not give them to us non-suite peasants…ha ha

Fellow M@$$Hole here, really enjoyed your review and am glad you enjoyed your cruise

I personally have never been offered a reduced cleaning in the morning and a full cleaning evening so didn’t even know that was option so thanks…Occasionally have been asked if in the morning if they want them to come clean early or late

I have no problem with those that enjoy them yet I’m hesitant to say “try for yourself” as there’s potentially many issues with them which could bring unhappiness. Chief complaints are the AC shuts off when open and if someone wants to sleep in while another wants to enjoy the balcony, due to the noise to open them, no way to block the light when open and possibly the AC being off, they prob won’t enjoy them. The traditional balconies are also pretty much floor to ceiling windows

So much mis-info… - Most sign up for the points - GoGreen simply reduces the turndown cleaning, they will straighten up perhaps wipe the bathroom counter but will not scrub shower like they do in the morning - a misconception is towels, if you leave towels on the floor you receive new ones regardless if you have gogreen or not -With cleaning times, occasionally they may ask for your prefer time but you can also request a time, just don’t get upset if they’re unable to

Here’s the easy way to determine if an IV is for you. If on a previous traditional balcony sailing, did you spend a least a few hours on your traditional balcony? If yes you’d probably dislike the IV; if no, you’ll probably enjoy the extra space the IV adds to the room. There could be other factors such an itinerary that has minimal seaday where you’re hardly in your room or perhaps an TA/TP with lots of seadays. Also the AC shuts off when the IV window is down so if you’re sensitive to heat/humidity and are planning on a mid summer Carribean sailing, maybe you want to skip the IV It should be noted that X had to choice to do whatever they wanted with the suite balconies and they choose to put zero IVs in any of them; they all have traditional balconies

I encourage folks when in an X casino, to have long conversations with the host and pitbosses about ratings and freebies. On my last few sailings on the Solstice including last month, I spoke with the host and the pitbosses. Since the restart, multiple pitbosses have told me their job depends on them rating players as accurately as possible. They’re also fully aware that their rating responsibilities are numbered as the rating will eventually be done with chips with microchips and sensors in the tables. They assume the day that happens some pitbosses jobs will be eliminated. An X host is nothing like a land based casino host; while the X host has a lot of backend admin work, they’re a glorified promoter to their games and contests, they’ll be friendly to you but not give you freebies. They can no longer give you free things like specialty dining vouchers or rate you higher. On the last night solely based on your play they may be able to provide you a sign and sail credit

Never tried on the E-Class. It seemed late spring-early summer some ships like the equinox (I was on in June) cited because of staffing issues they wouldn’t serve the MDR items other than the timeless classics. I was back on her in Sept and they would allow it again

In all fairness, they brought it back on at least on some sailings, it’s showing up on the first night for a Millie sailing next month and a summer Summit sailing. I can confirm it was not on the Solstice last month

I agree they do a great job of making guests happy. Yet I do get a chuckle out of their ironic solution to a Blu restaurant issue by offering a free dinner in another restaurant

Ha ha…On that topic, my last X sailing was last month on the Solstice and about a month later I was on the Carnival Panorama. My last three new bookings have been on carnival. On the solstice they had one comedian do two shows on the same night and that was the main show for the night. The magician was on a break so we got 6 nights of musical, which are the exact same production shows we’ve seen many times since X has the same shows (broken strings, rock city, life, etc) on all the M/S class ships. On the Panorama, they had 4 comedians and stated there was 24 shows, DAY, evening and night. You also had their production main musical show every night, trivia, karaoke, the main band in the atrium, a sing along piano bar which was shockingly a blast. For the food, on carnival sea days you have the seaday brunch which bundles menu items of breakfast and lunch; it’s also open early until 1pm so you can eat when you want if you table service. X’s Blu is open 90mins for breakfast and the MDR 90mins for lunch. On X for lunch I’ve never paid for a specialty dining or stayed in a suite, so I only have the MDR, buffet, mast grill and spa cafe. On carnival, the free BBQ lunch blows away any complimentary X offers for lunch; if one looks at X’s lunch offering they’ll see they’re not “gourmet” at all. Carnivals Guys burgers are great while X’s mast grill isn’t worth the calories. Many will say they don’t cruise for BBQ and burgers, but if they’re not in a suite, are they saying they cruise for X’s MDR/buffet lunch? X does destroy carnival in the buffet, X’s MDR/Blu dinners while better than carnival but since the cutbacks it’s only marginally better. So, I’m a rare example that X’s lack entrainment choices and declining food quality has me looking backwards at carnival and RCI

You basically have two main factors with cruise tours, one is the tour/attraction itself and the other is the tour vendor/operator. The tour/attraction rarely changes while the tour operator may or may not change. Often you can find the tour/attraction reviews itself on TripAdvisor; you can also get a sense of if it’s something you can do cheaper and/or DIY. The vendor/operator is tougher to track down as they can and do change

Just adding that many operators that catered to cruisers didn’t have those passengers for a year and a half so many either went out of business or they converted their operations to cater to land based guests

That’s the path RCG actual wants their guests to take, when one is younger with kids you book RCI, once you’re empty nesters you move on to X and once you get sick of X you book SilverSeas

They just want to do everything they can to prevent receiving a negative survey. The M’D doesn’t have much to do with the restaurant location/layout or the menu

I have no problem if passengers want to engage in a political conversation assuming everyone wants to talk about them. What we encounter way too frequently are people launching into a rant, you can literally see their blood pressure rise. Often it’s less about specific political policies and more about how much they love/hate certain govt figures. If it gets bad and we don’t want to leave the venue, I’ll usually patronize them by saying something like “You make some good points, why haven’t you ran for office yet?” That usually gets them off their pointless rant

Been there…What I find odd is those with strong political opinions don’t seem to want to talk with others who share their same views, it’s like they intentionally seek out people who don’t want to talk about them

Ha ha…Since one of the first questions strangers on a cruise ask each other is “where are you from?”, when I answer “California” it seems to be a huge trigger for some

I still can’t figure out why people want to know who the casino manager or host are. They can’t do much for you besides wiping out your some or all of your bill with enough play

Just playing devils advocate, how many adults have folks encountered who were loud and/or obnoxious on a sailing? Nearly every X sailing I go on I encounter someone who wants to rant about politics despite me stating life is too short to waste time talking about them