RFerrington

I have had trouble recently trying to "alert" my CC banks when we go away. For reasons which I really cannot fathom, BofA (RC Visa) no longer accepts "foreign travel notifications". Really ? They told me that they would text me if they have a suspect transaction. I just laughed...what ? I will be in a FOREIGN COUNTRY or on a ship...ever hear of Airplane Mode ? I just don't get it. There is virtually NO way to let them know that I am going to be out of the country. Stupid beyond imagination. So I just don't use my CC when I'm away. Simple. So far I haven't had any issues with onboard charging (casino, mostly) but when that finally does happen...and I have no doubt that it will, eventually....there is going to be a reckoning.

Boarded Freedom today and smelled skunk weed out on our balcony before we even left the port. Ugh.

Yikes ! We had one of those faucets when we lived in VA and to my knowledge it never activated by itself. It never even occurred to me that it could. I actually hated that faucet. 😂

I guess I’m not grasping the cause for this one. If nobody is home, why would you need to disable the motion activation on your faucet ?

Sky Pad is still there but of course the bungee and equipment have been removed. They are using the space for various special events, none of which I personally attended, so I can’t really comment on what they are. Seems like they use it for corn hole was one… Indy is great. Have a great cruise.

WOW, that went by fast ! I hope you had a great cruise and thanks for helping with the recon !

For our May 2024 sailing only Mason Jar is showing lunchtime availability on Day 1 (which we have booked). Kinda surprised that nothing shows up for Giovanni's....but there isn't even a lunchtime option for GT so maybe they aren't even open for lunch at all. I can't recall.

That's unfortunate. Not very much help re: dining reservations. Write back and tell the Concierge that you want THEM to make your dining reservations. That's part of their job. Just put the times and days/dates/venues of the reservations that you want in the email response. Sorry that you got that rather piss-poor response. Very disappointing.

5 days prior to sail day seems to be standard these days

@orville99, yours was one of the most interesting and informative blogs I have ever read. Thank you so much for taking your cruising time to provide so much useful information to those who are going on these incredible voyages. I know they are grateful. Thank you

On Indy right now and I noticed this morning that the cows were gone. I wondered if they had removed them temporarily in favor of Christmas decorations but now I wonder if they are gone, permanently.

@shirazcruiser touched on an interesting thought. If a D/D+ suites passenger decides to visit the Crown Lounge during Happy Hour would they have to use a voucher or would their beverage be “free” ? I assume (guess) that they would have to use a voucher since beverages are not complimentary in the CL.

For our 4-5-24 sailing on EX there are no specialty restaurants showing “open” for embarkation day. All of them show “open” for subsequent sea days but nothing available for day 1. I’ll keep checking.

Ditto

No. The only 2 upcharge locations on PDCC (as far as I know) are the Beach Club (meals included with the admission charge so not a true upcharge venue) and Cap’n Jacks. Neither of these venues are included with the UDP.

We are on the second leg of a B2B on Indy. When it was time to do the health questionnaire for the second leg, the app wouldn’t load the questionnaire so neither of us completed it. We tried several times. We assumed that they would just ask us the 2 questions when we were processing back on for leg #2. Nope. Nobody even mentioned it.

OMG that looks horrible. I hope they do something soon !

Super glad to hear that you were able to get at least half of it fixed. Fingers crossed for you to get the rest of it changed over. It shouldn’t be that hard to do….

Seems unlikely that PlusGrade could/would make a change like this without authorization from the client.

Me, too.

Thanks for this info. I guess my question is slightly nuanced. If non-suite, low level (NSLL) Pinns have been exclusively banned from the CK (in the “Top 30” situation) where does that leave the JS ? As a NSLL Pinn I cannot even request CK rezzies in this situation (as I understand it). I’m out. Period. Does that mean that JS are also out. Period ? Pat, I realize that you don’t know since you haven’t had to deal with this situation. Just wondering if anyone else knows the answer.

That's an interesting question. So, if they are blanket-limiting access for lower level Pinns (or in some cases, limiting access for almost ALL Pinns), then are the JS SOL or can they still try and get CK rezzies ?

After several recent experiences, I have come to the conclusion that they have abandoned the spirit of MTD as a reserved event. Over the last several cruises, I have seen MTD evolve from true reservations, resulting in a long initial line (which always moved fairly quickly, TBF) at ~6:30 to an event where you basically just show up whenever you want to eat and reservations-be-damned. Last night (Indy) we had 6:45 reservations....which we always do....and around 6:15 we sauntered down to the podium (it doesn't matter which one you go to, apparently....reservations or no reservations seem to work the same these days) and were seated immediately. IMO they realized that if they stuck to the 6:45 time that they were going to have a never-ending problem so they seem to be sequencing the MTD in with whatever open fixed dining tables they have at any given moment. For us, it works VERY well... I think this makes it particularly difficult for the servers as they no longer have a "routine" of apps, mains, desserts for all diners at the same time. It's basically ALL MTD now....a hodge-podge of everyone eating at a different stage of their meal unless you are dining at a big table with a big group. This new scheme works well for us b/c we don't care about having the same servers night-after-night. For those that want to stick with the same servers I think they try and accommodate that but this is when you may have to do a bit of waiting. Going earlier rather than later to MTD seems to be key. The later you choose to eat the more likely it seems to be that you will collide with the late traditional diners and end up waiting. It's all a big experiment, it would seem.

Time and time again. I quit trying. It’s unfortunate.

I have almost 10,000 points and -0- offers. 😫😫