NutsAboutGolf

Great score on airfare! With the english tours my overall point was to research that the guide doesn't just "speak English" but speaks FLUENT english. Was on an NCL sailing, booked an English tour but the person hardly spoke English so she was very hard to understand and when you asked a seemingly basic question in English she wouldn't understand...Most of the tour group were very frustrated and felt like it was false advertising to claim this person spoke English but most couldn't understand her and she didn't understand our verbal questions so we ended up using google translator

The casino will be open most of the time, obviously not while in port

IMO these types of threads are pointless, get heated and locked/deleted...99% of us are not investments experts so you'll receive a lot of pointless comments. An investment forum which is generally filled with actual investment experts who will quickly steer one to the data they seek Many who own stock mainly do so to get the OBC credit with the investment itself being secondary In short, "cut backs" and also fare increases are simply one minor drop in the bucket of the stock price

Haven't seen this posted but just a FYI if you have a Chase Sapphire Credit Card

Just adding some datapoints -Was on the solstice during NYE, nothing was in the all about where to celebrate NYE (assumption would the lido) and what time the party started. Told guest services, they went to back for a minute, when she returned she said it’ll be updated shortly. And it was. Therefore I’m pretty sure they’re updating on the ship -This is was the Millie says for an upcoming class, I checked several of classes and all were different but didn’t “all sea days”, “all port days”, or even “gym”. Additionally, the class copy has a touch of marketing, the gym reservation is void of all marketing and is rather blunt

FYI on the multi charge cable, I bought one and at the end of the lightning/usb connection, each has a super bright green LED light. Some may enjoy the night light effect, I prefer pitch black. Yes you can throw a towel over them or something but just pointing out if you’re on team pitch black to try and find one without leds

100% agree with your second sentence; we agree to disagree that a mistake was made. Absolutely pointless to offer an expanded AQ RS menu which mainly adds the same salads you can get all over the ship if they’re going to charge a fee

RS fee with tips is $12.04 Far more hotels will offer room service coffee for under $12 than over $12. Many hotels have in room coffee makers or if you really want you can bring your own electric coffee maker. Since we’re on the topic of hotels, it should be noted that nearly all hotels offer free Wi-Fi. With the comment of someone has to pay for them (dinner/lobsters/shrimps), how much does 5 lobster tails really cost X, $25? How many people are ordering 5 lobster tails per sailing, maybe 3? Like it or not, suite passengers have always been “subsidizing” non-suite guests just like with airlines, biz/first class is subsidizing coach

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is someone without giving it any thought approved the RS fee for all rooms but suites. We’ll find out if a mistake was made if and when X removes the fee for AQ

Just curious, what do you think your son would like about the E-Class that’s better/different than the M/S class? I find the experience on all X ships, M/S/E to be nearly identical. E-class has 4MDR which I suppose could appeal to those who want to feel like they went to different restaurants but to me, only the atmosphere is the different, the service and food (you can order Tuscan exclusives in Cypress) is the same. The Eden which was a solution to a problem that never existed. Even X execs seemed upset when they had to eliminate the forced interactions from Eden entertainers; they claim passengers didn’t appreciate the whimsical dynamic of it all. Finally you have the IVs yet that’s been beaten to death, far more hate them than love them M/S/E class service, food quality and entertainment are the same. On a typical sea-day, if you’re lucky the highlight of the day time is a 45min lecture. At night, you have one show repeated twice which is usually a musical every night but two and a passenger participation game/show Cruising on X feels like cruising back in time mainly because there isn’t much to do. You have to adhere to a rigid schedule with your dinner time or else you’ll miss a show. The big three offer far more variety with entertainment and food venues. You can see a comedian, sing karaoke or walk into a piano bar every night. I still cruise on X primarily for the itinerary

I have nothing to add to what @davekathy already said

I would call them

On the TV yes; I'm not sure if channels are the same fleet wide. Another issue is that not all channels are the same as the US. Nat Geo for example has zero commercials and can show home design shows. ESPN/ESPN2 show varying content, not the same feed as US-based ESPN/ESPN2

The older generations calling the younger generations more entitled is nothing new

They could fix food waste with converting the self-serve buffet into more live cooking stations where things are made to order; the behind the scene buffet chefs only need to be brought to front. It wouldn't cost very much as they already have several omelet stations. Virgin was the first to try it and NCL followed

How does executive compensation factor into all of this?

Daily canapes are still being delivered yet I also swap it out to a cheese plate. Canapes are like slender breadsticks wrapped in deli meat, cheese, hummus, cubed cake, etc. Everything to me appeared to be the exact same food from the buffet

duplicate/delete

Thanks for the laugh! 😅

Fire sale #1...Fare difference between a guarantee and NON-guarantee is only $85/person. For a NON-guarantee balcony, with AI for two with fees and taxes is $2550, you also receive an $200 OBC which can be converted to cash using the casino trick making it effectively $2350...That's $1175/person. Its rare that a 7 night balcony with AI non-guarantee goes as low as that Fire sale #2...You do have to do research to locate the deals. This same sailing, in Concierge, guarantee, sail only, fare/taxes/PRE-PAID tipping (so only missing drinks and the internet) = $1,755/total or $877/person. For drinks, within the rules you can carry on two bottles of wine each and if you "forget" that you both already had 4 bottles in your checked luggage, that's a total of 8 bottles of wine. Maybe someone has Elite CC status and receives drinks in the morning and from 5-7, maybe someone willing to play penny slots to gain free drinks and you can always charge the rest of the drinks. With the internet, perhaps they have free minutes or the couple can buy wifi for one device and take turns

Here and there I've seen it fairly busy, couldn't get a treadmill, recently it was 10am-ish on a sea day. Any other time, I haven't seen remotely packed. If they want to require reservations I would imagine they'd have the spa desk perform entry control

X is actively participating in fire sales, in my post you quoted, I just shared the fire sale price

The statement is pretty specific, doesn’t seem to be a typo where it meant like a spin class. It would make logical sense that if the fitness center is consistently becoming congested it would take the next logical step of requiring reservations. The biggest negatives about cruising are passenger congestion and required reservations, wish they just made venues larger

Some of the reason tipping exploded during the pandemic at restaurants, helps with retention while costing the management nothing My credit card gets me a DoorDash (food delivery app for those who don’t know) membership meaning in most case you can have food delivery with no fees other than driver tips. Therefore for the same price as dining in or having takeout with a tip, can have it delivered to my house which comes in handy during weekday lunches when I'm crunched on time. While many restaurants set the food items higher than if you didn’t use DoorDash, some don’t and often there’s some sort of door dash coupon to offset it the price increases

Just adding a datapoint that on the Millie it doesn’t have this reservation statement