Anton

Chops on Voyager has a great team working there. Everyone, the managers, waiters, cooking staff really make it a pleasure to be there. I spent a couple weeks aboard recently and made a point of going there for breakfast daily. The food and service was excellent. Great pancakes, but order two of them. The standard order was one thickish pancake, probably plenty but not for me. The Suite Lounge was vacant every morning save for me and maybe a couple others. They have the new coffee machine so it actually works reliably. I didn’t go in the evenings since I wasn’t in a suite so I didn’t get free drinks (pinnacle access).

I've done a lot of Freedom-class cruises in a JS. My favorite things are the full bathroom with the tub, the huge closet (I don't have to use the drawers because of all the rack space in the closet), just having a bigger cabin to amble around in, and the extra cruise points. The silver seapass card is cute but doesn't mean anything where it counts.

And Carnival wants people to think it’s all because of Texas law and not a Carnival decision.

Someone asked Bayley if they were going to build some new smaller ships because the current ones are all pretty old. A translation of his response: he said they were real serious about needing to look at building some new smaller ships, and they were looking at that, but they had no specific plan at this time.

I'm on that first cruise too. September 17.

They put the suites, key, and pinnacles in the same line, which is the closest one to the terminal doors on the right side of the entrance. I think they opened the doors around 10:15 last month. Bear to the right when you enter the building and you'll see signage for suites and pinnacles. The lounge is on the right side and you can't miss it.

Grilled Cheese is also a room service item, of course that has a fee these days.

It takes 6 hours to drive from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien, the nearest city to Labadee. It's around 120 miles. I'm not at all concerned about it.

A friend of mine was a manager of a hotel several years ago and told me about a couple who always stayed there and then complained at the end to corporate about every little thing, and as you say, they were looking for some compensation. Finally he had enough and saw they were arriving again. So he was at the desk when they arrived and pulled them into his office and apologized to them for always failing to meet their standards and it had become clear that they could never be satisfied at his hotel, and so he felt it necessary to cancel their reservation and make an alternate booking at another hotel nearby, no charge. He then called a taxi for them and sent them on their way. He said they were speechless and also embarrassed. He got rid of a problem.

I recently was in cabin 1235 on Voyager. It was the most quiet cabin I’ve ever had. It has a communication room on one side and one cabin next to it. Then a crew corridor aft of it that I never saw anyone use. The captain’s cabin was forward and I saw him sometimes. So with the communication room next door I had stellar air conditioning (I saw the room open and it’s just some electronics, no people), and with the bridge and captain’s cabin nearby I had great Wi-Fi and water pressure. This is a virtual inside cabin.

They had the champagne squirt guns out yesterday for the Moet & Chandon celebration on the President's cruise. Will that do?

RCL stock is up 9 this morning based on the spectacular earnings report. Those H&H cuts no doubt played a huge role.

I'm convinced they use this stuff for the ham on the Eggs Benedict. One slice per order, cut in half so they have a piece for each muffin.

It’s supposedly true. They will sell the giant diamond ones on every ship and they include a cruise as part of the $39,000. No word on cabin category. They will also sell a normal size version for people who have fashion sense and less money to waste.

And be careful not to get impaled by the massive diamond and gold logo anchor on a chain* he’s been wearing. *$39,000 and soon to be available for sale on all ships.

And usually it's shelf stable milk too, so it has 'that' taste.

Last year I was linked with someone. I could do a lot to their booking and vice versa. I could check them in, change their arrival time, even answer their health questionnaire. I could book things for them such as excursions, dinners, whatever. I could see some personal info such as passport information but I don't recall seeing their credit card number. I thought it was quite invasive. My friend was incensed enough to complain to RCI Corporate. He said they never responded. So now we just have our agents link reservations for dining and that doesn't fully mesh the bookings.

You can also buy a 6 pack of hard seltzer or beer in a cooler bag online from Royal Gifts.

Interesting. Indian food was a daily thing for both lunch and dinner on the Voyager two weeks ago. However it was often the same things.

It's a liability issue. They don't want passengers trying to open and close pullmans and sofa beds. Plus for the pullmans, only the cabin attendants have the key to unlock them.

This is Luggage Valet and I don't believe they have started doing it again since the Covid shutdown. I've sailed from both ports a lot and have not been offered Luggage Valet.

No. A 7 night Caribbean cruise in a balcony cabin regardless of the current price as long as it isn't in one of the blackout periods and the ship is over one year in service. If the Wonder was $10,000 for a balcony cabin and it was not during a black out date, I can use a pinnacle certificate to book it. 700 and 1050 points are balcony. 1400 points and every 350 after that is a Junior Suite. To use the certificate for a longer cruise (they are quite strict about the 7 night thing) the cash value is $2400 for 700 and 1050 points, and then it bumps up to $3200 at 1400 points.

When they did the changeover to Starlink internet as provider fleetwide they stopped having two tiers of internet, so bye bye Voom Surf.

I think that project was put on the back burner. They certainly aren't talking about it in any media updates.

A couple years ago I decided that I was tired of buying insurance for every cruise and now I buy an annual Allianz travel policy with the focus on the medical and emergency evacuation coverage. It does cover up to $5000 per person trip cancellation, luggage loss, and medical payments among other things. Annual policies have limits though, such as it's pretty much a use it once and it's done thing. But I'm quite sure if I ever needed medical evacuation I won't be traveling again anytime soon.