vsclausen

On 7/7/2024 at 1:15 PM, Old Fart Cruisers said:

Aren't there still around 10 other bars on the ship?  How much more "vibe" do people really need?

I play table games, I don’t smoke, don’t find the need for much concentration on those games and you need absolutely none on the slots.  I have missed the live music in the casinos and now now buzzing at the bar.  Been on an 8 day in January and the casino was closed at midnight,

It did when rest of ship closed down

Even a dumber move than the trampolines and roller coaster the entire fun vibe is disappearing 

Just now, vsclausen said:

 

Excuse me for the double click lol.  We sailed yacht club Royal suite on Meriviglia and did have a comped cabana. I’m curious though was your every day cabana on seascape comped?  There are only four cabanas on Meriviglia so with a 14 just wondering

On 6/24/2024 at 10:32 AM, Corriegr said:

Thanks for the feedback so far.

 

Yacht Club Deck 20

 

Having already talked about the Deck 20 buffet, it's good to talk a little about the wider Deck 20 area as this again was a big worry before embarking upon this cruise. Would we be able to get a sunbed? Would we be overrun with the dreaded interlopers? Again all our worries evaporated in the heat of the Caribbean sun. Beyond the cosiness of 16041, our other home from home became Cabana 14 which we pretty much had to ourselves all twoo weeks bar two days the whole of the trip. Just to qualify here we are are not sunbed hoggers, and nothing frustrates me more than those that think they have a divine right to reserves areas with all means of paraphernalia not be to seen anywhere near them for hours on end. I am just an early riser who enjoys an early morning coffee to kick start my aging body  and we just seemed to end up there most days until after 6pm at night. We were not big port people having previously visited most of the islands on the cruise so pretty much the world was our lobster (!) with choice on port days but Cabana 14 had us in it's gravitational orbit. Now this Cabana is pretty adjacent to the smoking area and neither of us are smokers but we never really been smelt any smoke the whole time we were there. 

 

The service again on the sun deck is second to none and our glasses had hardly evaporated before Michaelangelo or "Mrs Michaelanagelo" was offering us another drink of choice literally from dawn until dusk... well until 6pm anyway . Daily fruit kebabs or pots of ice cream brought to your bed completed the heaven on earth scenario.

 

The pools and hot tubs were also great never feeling overcrowded and the pool especially refreshing after too much time in the tropical heat. Deck 20 is also a great vantage point for our favourite mid afternoon diversion...the (what should be an) Olympic sport of Port Running. Best day for this was San Juan where we had some very late entrants who sprinted gallantly towards the one remaining gang plank amid a plethora of encouraging catcalls.

 

Overall we much prefer the space on Seascape as compared Virtuosa, with the pool, buffet and bar being in the centre of the deck area . The buffet and pool are much larger and the whole deck 20 is probably at least double the size of the on Virtuosa even though the overall YC capacity is only slightly larger

 

TopSail Lounge.

 

The other main area to consider is the TopSail lounge. Here we are much more familiar ground with a similar arrangement to Virtuosa albeit with the addition of an outside area. However,  it also comes with some of the same benefits and challenges. Again great service and pretty much every drink under the sun at your fingertips. Just like Virtuosa though the entertainment can be be patchy and lacklustre at time. I love " What a Wonderful World" as much as the next person but done to death by a talented Brazilian guitarist and I begin to struggle, which was pretty much it for the first few days. Things only came you life later in the week with with a talented duo who combined an eclectic mix of 50s/60s/70s  standards and Kiss yes Kiss!!.....plus as a Prince fan  I am usually against  anyone one covering his songbook but the guitar solo they did for Purple Rain, even someone as cynical as myself was impressed.

 

The other highlight in the TopSail lounge was afternoon tea. Somehow we had missed this daily ritual on Virtuosa and even on our first week on Seascape. We were not going to make the same mistake during our second week and as Brits we are anyone's for a cream tea or in this case high tea. All the elements were there from the tier cake stand to fine selection of leaf teas although in or case we went very British with the English Breakfast as well as lots of french bubbles as you must on these auspicious occasions. With a soundtrack from 50% of our new favourite jazz quartet this was an hour not to be missed.

 

To be continued

Well the 9 points from cancelled cruise from 2020 have disappeared. There goes a really good promotion idea down the drain.

35 on carnival, by far the most cost effective especially without packages. We are liking Norwegian. Did 30 days around South America this March.  The free at sea comps even with the extra gratuities are really reasonable compared to carnivals drink package and there are no restrictions.  Music is good however not as wild except in the dueling pianos which is great.  We are doing an MSC cruise in the Carrebean this fall mostly to maintain our black card.  All of the lines are leaning towards these mega ships their all huge but the bells and whistles get in the way of elbow room.  With that we have 33 days booked on Carnival and 9 on NCL in 2020 25 of which are in Northern Europe.

This site used to be easy. Can’t even find my active participated in roll calls.  geez guess I’ll stick with John Heald