Anton

OP: Along with variations based on the port, it also depends on the ship. Earliest for my Symphony cruise from Port Everglades in three weeks was 11:30am for arrival time (note it's an arrival time and not an embarkation time). Also, those 11:30 times were snapped up by early birds doing check in the moment it opened and by 4am the earliest available was noon. From the same port on the Adventure I've gotten 10:30am.

I'm pretty sure we were told that we could leave to go ashore but we would have to wait until they started boarding new guests before we could return.

It's not combinable. You can either use the C&A discount on the drink package OR the ship bar sales promotion but not both. I've asked before.

I've done a lot of B2Bs over the past 2 years and always check in for both online when they open, so for my upcoming Symphony cruises I did the first cruise check-in and then 8 days later the second cruise opened and I checked in for it. They are always considered separate cruises in the system and not one continuous sailing. However when checking in for the 2nd, and sometimes 3rd or 4th cruise I never select an early arrival time since I'm already there on the ship. So I take one of the last time slots available and leave the early ones for the new guests doing check in. I do not think they really care on the ship if you do the online check-in for the followup cruises but I'm a process oriented person so I do it anyway to make sure. It only takes a couple minutes. You do not need a set sail pass for the followup cruises, only the one for your first cruise. For US sailings, your seapass card for the new cruise will be handed out at the B2B passenger meeting on the morning of turnaround when everyone else is leaving the ship. This is held in a lounge someplace on the ship. At some point, when they get close to zeroing out the ship, you will card out of the last cruise using your old card, and then card back aboard the ship with the new card. They always place great emphasis on using the correct cards for each scanning. As simple as this sounds, someone always seems to screw it up and this creates some angst for security. Sometimes they have taken the old card after we scanned it, other times they have just put a sticker on the new card so we know. For most US ports the process involves leaving the ship and doing a walk through with Immigration and then going back aboard. For some ports we did the facial recognition and for others we had an officer just glancing at passports and telling us to go away and the guest services shepard herded us back aboard. Once we had to sit in the terminal for about 30 minutes. I've done a couple out of Galveston lately and they have set up a security kiosk in the lounge and had us do the card scanning exercise right there, and then a CBP officer came aboard and did the passport check in the lounge. That was outstanding.

Yes indeed, because it's quite usual for the crew to not mention that you have a discount you could use even though they see it on their screen.

Note that there are no physical coupons anymore. The various discounts are electronically loaded to the specific C&A member's cruise card.

A friend emailed Bayley’s office about the missing DP340 a few weeks ago and they responded that sales and / or IT was aware that “some” 2024 and 2025 sailings had been loaded without the DP340 being available, and they were working on it. He responded that they still hadn’t fixed the problem because the sailings he was looking at still didn’t accept the code. They then asked for the specific sailings he was looking at and said they would forward them. He ended up having his agent call and they manually added the code and booked him. Being an admittedly cynical person it just seems to me that it’s not necessarily an oversight, and it’s apparent the problem still exists and they are not in any hurry to resolve it. DP340 is supposed to automatically load for us pinnacles if we show 1 person for the booking and it’s not a blackout period.

Note that they want the cabins empty by 8am and the ship zeroed out (cleared of all passengers) before 9:30 or so at the latest. Earlier if they can make it happen. The entire focus of the crew is getting the ship emptied and turned around for the next cruise guests to board.

I know several outstanding bartenders who have been with the company for years (10 to 30 years or more) who have been on new builds as the "take out" crew that want nothing to do anymore because it's simply a pain in the butt to set up new bars and deal with the shipyard work environment where the crew gets sent everywhere to do grunt work because they are a warm body. I know that two of them were offered Icon and turned it down. They are content staying on particular classes of ships, typically Voyager and Freedom class although a couple really like the Vision class. After a certain number of years of continuous employment they get a lot of consideration for their preferences. Some also want nothing but the 3 and 4 night market no matter the ship because they make more money from bar sales with the party crowd.

Well, it depends. They ran this sale a few months ago and for some cruises it was age 62, some 65, and that’s just the two ages I remember people reporting they were and being able to get the 35% discount.

Yes. I did two cruises from Nassau in the summer of 2021 on the Adventure and we did two days at Coco Cay, mostly because we needed some places to go and I think all we had was Coco Cay, Cozumel, and Freeport. I remember everyone had to test negative before we got to Freeport or they were removed from the ship there and flown home.

The five words that always mean they are screwing you out of something. Like when they enhanced everyone out of their cookies and soda/beer in exchange for another bottle of water.

I've been seeing some questions in other online places asking whether Repositioning includes Transatlantic and Transpacific since the list of destinations on the website shows each one separately.

I'd hope that would be the case. I assume the crew was worn down after the transatlantic, perhaps some crew transfers for vacations when they arrived in Tampa, maybe some re-supply things to work out. I think they were using up some supplies they got in Europe given some of the items on the buffet. New captain too. I actually like cruising out of Tampa even though I fly there. West coast Florida seems to have a less frenetic vibe as compared to the east coast.

I was on Enchantment the first week of December out of Tampa. It was a good cruise but I was happy to leave. To be fair this was the first 7 night cruise they did after the transatlantic, which was followed by a 5 night, and then our cruise started. So they could have had a small learning curve and some kinks to work out. I felt the dining room food was generally good at dinner. The dining room is significantly understaffed though and meals took a while. Our assistant waiter seemed to be covering twice the usual number of tables and the waiter was having to do a lot by himself. I didn't eat breakfast or lunch there. The Windjammer was disappointing for lunch and as usual for this ship it was always a mine field to wade through at peak times simply because of the cluttered layout. Dry burgers (hockey pucks) and burned hot dogs, otherwise it was boring repetitive choices for the most part. I walked through one morning to see the breakfast and the scrambled eggs were more like scrambled egg soup they were so watery. I noticed nobody was touching them. Someone remarked that one morning they had no bacon, just several pans of sausages. The staff did try hard though. I had breakfast in the solarium usually, just getting an egg muffin or breakfast burrito. They were filling. Didn't use room service. Bar service was fine and prompt. The ship's band was excellent. The entertainment staff put on good shows. We had a headliner who had played Frankie Valli on Broadway in Jersey Boys and he was great. Casino was stingy and cluttered, again this is because of the ship being old and they are trying to pack as much as they can in the small space. VERY smoky. They were installing a couple new banks of machines. We had a JS and it had two problems - cold water was impossible to get. Lukewarm was as cold as it got. Hot water was the opposite - too hot but plentiful. The AC did whatever it felt like regardless of the thermostat setting. Usually it was cold enough to hang sides of beef. They never fixed either issue. The bed was fine. Of the two elevators that go to deck 11 and the Viking Crown, only one worked and it wouldn't stop at deck 5. The other worked but not to go to deck 11. A friend stayed for a second week and departed this morning. He said they fixed the elevator that was not stopping at 11, but then the other one broke. So good luck getting to the Crown or Concierge Lounges. I had to play elevator tag often to get up there. A true high point was the ship's wifi worked very well all week. Fast and never lost the signal. I was impressed. It was more reliable than the wifi on many newer ships has been lately. The crew was pleasant and helpful.

No.

I had that happen to me for Adventure in October. It was also a Next Cruise booking and it had the C&A balcony discount and the DP340 single supplement. That was it, so any proof that I rated those had to come from their records not mine. Nobody asked for anything from me. So far it’s the only booking that showed the warning.

I'm another pin who has zero interest in using the suite lounge in the evening. Those in suites should be able to enjoy their complimentary drinks without tripping over the council of elders.

I’m aboard Indy and talked to a family who were on the tour boat. They said they were on their own for a while helping each other out of the boat. They had to grab life jackets, which as anyone who has been on these boats knows are not always stored in an easily accessible manner. They said that took a while to get on everyone. Lots of panic. They said the crew scrambled to the top deck leaving the motor running and the prop was churning up the sea bottom. One of the other boats that eventually arrived was yelling at the boat crew to turn the engine off. Lots of people with bruises. Lost wallets, phones, this family took their passports and they were lost. The father said he really feared for their lives. He said it was two big waves that hit them along the side. It was very windy in Nassau yesterday and you could surf in the waves coming in outside the breakwater. It was a ship purchased excursion.

Maybe her breakup song will be titled “Travisty”

You can see the refundable fare on the website but you have to do a dummy booking to include adding your name and contact info and moving forward to the next screens where you see the option for refundable fare. You can still back out of the booking at that point since you haven’t given payment details, so they are just making it difficult to find.

Luggage tags become available at 30 days prior to boarding.

The policy is that you lose any C&A discounts and I think OBC depends on where it came from. When I booked my first free pinnacle cruise I also applied it to an existing booking but managed to get the $2400 value. They let me keep the sale price in effect at the time, so the rate was essentially like a new cruiser booking under the 30% off offer. Since you are paying more out of pocket for the cruise fare (not the taxes) you will get the points for the sailing. Lately I’ve read that they are being stricter about things and at least one pinnacle recently posted in a social media forum that he only got $1800 in value out of the certificate. Going forward, for my 1050 point award I plan to use it strictly for the primary offer of a balcony cabin on a 7 night cruise and I’m going to pick the most expensive one I can find because if you use the certificate that way (instead of using the cash value) it doesn’t matter how expensive the cabin is. I won’t get points but they can keep them.

An Oasis Lagoon cabana was $383 last night for my Adventure cruise that leaves this Saturday. That is a great price relative to the norm these days. I think I paid $800 in 2019 while on Harmony when the Perfect Day was still exciting and new. A friend booked one and invited me. I'll pay the attendant's tip.

I've had bookings where I got the DP340 and shouldn't have. It flew through the system and I never had a problem. And of course, the revised blackout periods has the non-specific "Spring Break" which apparently is whenever they think it should be. Last year in a pinnacle group on another platform someone said he was told a specific week in March - for this year.