luckybecky

I'm trying to apply for a tourist visa for our March 2024 cruise. It has been a total PIA! In fact, so difficult that I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I've spent at least 3 hours on this so far and that's just for me -- haven't gotten to my husband yet. For example, It wants to know if I'm working. When I enter that I'm retired, it still wants my dates of employment, profession, employer address, phone number, and email, etc etc. Wants to know where I worked: when I enter Texas, I get an error message because I didn't select "Tex as" from the drop down menu. When I tried to submit my photo, it said I have two heads. I mean it's just ridiculous. Wants to know my financial situation. And on and on. I still have not been able to successfully complete the application. Is this typical? I feel like I'm applying to get something much more complicated than a typical tourist visa, like I'm wanting to move and work there or something. Am I doing this right? And I still have to do Australia 😬

So I take it from your comment that the hot tubs weren't hot enough -- which was our experience on the Spirit a few years ago. We got in the hot tub one time and that was enough. And to make matters worse it was a cold weather cruise so the lukewarm hot tubs weren't working for us at all. We missed being able to get in them. Good to know it wasn't busy at night, though! It's going to be my private balcony 🙂

That would be great! I'll be interested to hear what you think about this location.

It's a shame to read these comments. I was hoping maybe it was just us. Fortunately we didn't encounter rude behavior like the person quoted above, but we just noticed that the vibe from crew was definitely less outgoing, friendly, or helpful. Too bad. Like you, UPNYGuy, we aren't really going to be eager to sail RC again after this experience. I won't rule it out -- the cruise wasn't that bad and we did have a good time -- but it won't necessarily be at the top of our list.

We've also done a couple of cruises on the Breeze. I'd be interested to hear your opinion on how they compare.

That's what I was afraid of. NCL has done this before. We had a Miami to Los Angeles cruise last year. They dropped two central American ports, and replaced them with a few hours in Acapulco. This is done months before the cruise. I understand ports can change due to weather or something but this is annoying. 🙄

Our cruise line (NCL) just notified us that one of our ports has been changed from Lyttleton to Timaru. I am finding very few tour options from there. Any suggestions of what to do? The cruise line does not yet have any excursions posted. Even when they do add something, I probably won't choose an NCL excursion because all of the excursions they are offering on this itinerary are very exorbitantly priced. So I'm looking for anything we can do on our own. Thanks!

20231107_144638.mp4 This is a video of our cabin @Shiner6, I just completed a detailed review of the Voyager. We were in an inside Promenade View room. We liked it. I talked about it here:

Yes, it was nice! My daughter is a great travel buddy. We've done several trips together. I agree about the time at Chops. I checked the time on my photos to make sure I was right about that. As mentioned, it took half an hour just to get drinks. Apps arrived at 6:34pm, almost 45 minutes after we were seated. Entrees at 7:14pm, another 40 minutes later. We had arrived at the restaurant at 5:50pm, so that's a long time to get the entree on the table. Dessert came at 7:48pm so almost 2 full hours to the minute. By the time we finished dessert we had been there about 2 1/4 hours. That is a long time. I don't like being rushed through a meal, but this was too long even for me.

Day 6 Debarkation We woke up at 7am. We were already fully packed. We dressed quickly, tossed a few last items in our suitcases and ready to go before 7:30. We kept waiting for announcements. Every other ship I’ve ever been on is making frequent, loud announcements, trying to keep the process moving efficiently. At the bare minimum, they usually announce when the ship has been cleared and debarkation is officially open. Bad Radio silence. Finally a few minutes before 8:00, I suggested we just head out even though there had been no announcement and the feed on the TV had not indicated that debarkation had begun. As expected, a madhouse. Forget getting an elevator. We expected that and were prepared to carry our luggage down the stairs. Joined the line which snaked from the elevators through the dining room to the outside deck and around the back. Good Once we reached the terminal, it was a very fast and easy process. Facial recognition only, no passport check or customs or anything. Took about 45 minutes to get from our cabin, to off the ship and in our car. Overall, we had a good time. As I said before, we never let small concerns ruin our vacation. I’ve made numerous comparisons to our past cruise experiences and I don’t think this particular cruise compared particularly well. However on the positive side this was the best inside cabin we have ever had. I know that some people disparagingly refer to Carnival as “the Walmart of the Seas.” Well, truth be told, I think Carnival is doing a better job for cruises out of Galveston in terms of dining and entertainment. The steakhouse and production shows have definitely been better on Carnival. And this cruise did not compare favorably to our only other RC cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas. I’m sorry, RC loyalists. These are just my opinions. I’m interested to hear what others think about all this. But we still are grateful that we have the opportunity to cruise. There’s always good and bad on every vacation, some things are great and sometimes things can go sideways. It’s OK. We enjoy ourselves no matter what. Thanks for following along. Happy cruising!

We had a beautiful sunset for our last night. The helicopter pad is a great place for watching sunsets, pier runners, or port arrivals. Here are some pics from supper. Sorry some are loading upside down again. Beef carpaccio Chicken parmesan. Our waiter brought a very generous portion of shredded parmesan to sprinkle on top. I asked for a small side of broccoli or any vegetable to go with my chicken parm. I got a whole plateful! I think this was a lemon tart.

The good: Our assistant waiter Soma in the dining room was one exception. He was very cheery and helpful – and by the way he is going home tomorrow after 7 months on board. Maybe that explains his happy mood. Our room steward was also very nice and greeted us by name, but we only saw him occasionally and didn’t really have much interaction. (By the way, we got only 2 very simple towel animals on this 5 day cruise. Not a big deal to us but I know some people enjoy these.) In general, I would say everyone was just doing their job but I didn’t get the friendly, personal vibe I have had on other ships. The cruise director was not as animated and ever-present as some others we have met. He didn’t really make much of an impression on us. Good: Battle of the Sexes show was hilarious. Go early to get a good seat. Afterwards, we saw Steve McGrew again. Another great show. We really enjoyed these. 20231108_220633.mp4

Day 5 We had a very lazy day. The pools and hot tubs were so crowded. We didn’t even try that. Especially after the raucous behavior we’ve seen in the past few days in the Solarium hot tubs. On some ships (many) the adult areas are more quiet zones (even called “Serenity” areas) --- but they are nothing like serene on this ship except during port times. There weren’t a lot of activities we were interested in. The usual trivia and bingo. If you are into the rock climbing or flow rider, this would be a good time to do those. We didn’t try them. We packed in the afternoon, hit the casino, took a nap, read a book. Just generally took it easy. Went up to the helicopter pad and took pictures of the sunset. Lunch in the buffet. Windjammer is a very typical cruise buffet IMO. Nothing that stands out (except the omelet station as already mentioned). The only other free options for lunch are the dining room, and pizza on the promenade. They also serve a very limited selection of sandwiches and desserts there. We missed Guy’s Burgers and Blue Iguana cantina from Carnival which serve food made fresh to order. The bad Staff were not as friendly as on other ships. This was really quite noticeable to me. On many ships, we have had bar waiters learn our names and drink preferences on day one, or just crew in general being very friendly and helpful. Greeting us, asking how our day was, that kind of thing. On this ship, we experienced much less of that. Nobody was rude, they just seemed all business. It was actually quite striking, compared to our past cruising experience. Also bartenders on other ships are like whirling dervishes, pumping out drinks at high speed. Not so much here. My daughter wondered if maybe there have been staff cutbacks, resulting in poor morale.

Good: Izumi was our best meal so far. I had yaki udon noodles with beef, excellent. Pork dumplings were delicious. Tara had Tonkotsu ramen and it was very good. Also the crispy rice spicy tuna, and truffled creamy losbster tempura roll. Everything was very good and service was excellent. I don’t like sushi but there was plenty for me to eat here. Meh: The production show was disappointing. Just a hodgepodge of songs. I stayed for most of it but left a little early. The performers were great, I just felt that the show itself wasn’t that exciting. I know, I know. I've carried on about how much I want to see all the shows and then I complain that I didn't like this one. Sorry. 😳 But the Majority Rules game show was fun.

Day 4, Cozumel The good: Breakfast buffet was very good. I was really impressed by the omelet station. You order your omelet and they give you a pager so you don’t have to stand around waiting. This is a huge improvement that I have not seen on any ship. Because many people were already off the ship by the time we went, it didn’t take long at all to get my omelet and it was very good. We have been to Cozumel before and didn’t plan an excursion. We got off the ship for only about an hour and walked around the shopping area. My daughter was very put off by the aggressiveness of the vendors. We didn’t stay long and got back on board. The good: Went to the Solarium which was very uncrowded. Tara got a clamshell and I had my choice of loungers. The hot tub wasn’t crowded at all, unlike other days, and things were quiet – also unlike other days when some groups were very loudly enjoying the hot tubs. We enjoyed this quiet time around the pool. The bad: Windjammer is completely closed when the buffet is closed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this on any ship. Usually the seating area is open, and you can go in to get ice water or tea. I’ve often seen people using this area to read or play games even when the buffet is closed, but on this ship they close and lock the entry doors so you can’t go in. Bad: Music from the promenade was very loud on 70s night in our room. It ended shortly after 11pm. If you are an early to bed person, this could really be bothersome. How did people know about 70s night? Many passengers dressed in 70s garb. We had no idea about this.

I'm glad it's not just me feeling that way about the entrance tables! There were only cabins above and below. I always try to get a deck where we are sandwiched between other cabins, never with a bar or nightclub directly below, or buffet directly above. We never heard a peep from the cabins above, below, or to either side. The window did muffle the noise from the promenade (2 decks below), but was not completely soundproof. We could hear whenever there was music down there. This was pretty much every night apparently coming from the Pig and Whistle Pub which was below and to one side of us, usually up to around midnight. Also on embarkation day there was a parade and dance performance in the early evening that we could hear from our cabin. You're right, if we went to Windjammer we could make the shows. But we really enjoy the full service dining experience on board. If we could go to dinner before 6pm, we could make the early production show and then the later game shows. Most ships that we've been on do the "big" show in the theater twice each evening, usually 7-7:30pm, and again at 9 or 9:30. But not being able to start dinner until almost 7pm (or later) means we can't do that early show. We have not run into this scheduling issue on other ships. As long as we are back from excursions early enough, we can eat early and then make the early show, and the later game shows or comedy club as well. Oh well. First world problems, right?

Good We finished supper just in time to race over to the main theater. Saw Michael Holly, a comedy act. Very funny and entertaining. I really enjoy the shows. After this, we quickly went directly from the theater to Studio B, the ice rink, to see the show there. It was also very entertaining with great talent. We really enjoyed both shows. After, I went to the casino. I have not been impressed. As noted, it is very crowded, smoky, and they don’t have my game of choice (25cent video poker). But I decided to give it a shot. The ugly (not RC’s fault): So I sat down at a slot machine. I had a drink that I had almost finished. It still had a sip or two. Some guy walks by, points to my drink, and says, “are you finished with that?” I was a little taken aback, this guy didn’t look like a waiter. I was like, what? He repeated, “are you finished with that?” I was so confused because why would some random dude be asking me this? Does he want my drink?!? So I sort of shrugged my shoulders, or something, I’m not sure what I said. And he says “OK because I can’t find anyplace to put this” – and he drops a cigarette in my glass!! Right in front of me on my slot machine!! And walks away. I could not believe it. Are you serious?! Because there was still ice in my glass, the cigarette did not go out but sits on top of the ice, smoldering. After half a second of disbelief, I got up and went after the guy. With the glass. I said, “dude! You can take this with you. Do NOT leave a smoldering cigarette in front of me!” and I put the glass in his hand. And just to be clear, we were not in the smoking section of the casino. Although the smoking area is not well defined and the smoke is noticeable everywhere. But still. This was the most dickish move I can ever remember. Like I said, I don’t want to be a Karen. I’m sorry about the dining room seating; maybe that wouldn’t bother you but it did bother me. But this guy? Seriously?? Who the heck does that? Anway, I'll be back tomorrow to finish this review. We have Cozumel coming up and then another sea day.

Bad: We had 6:45 “my time” dining reservations. As stated, we prefer to eat earlier. We have never encountered this late dining time on any other ship, and we don’t like it. We don’t do set time dining in case we have a late shore excursion or whatever, but we usually eat quite early so that we can spend the evening seeing the shows and doing other evening activities. And even though it is “my time” dining, you still need to make a reservation (although there was a “no reservation” line). So there is really no flexibility at all. So we go to the dining room and they try to seat us – again! – at the table right at the entrance. Are you kidding me?! I mean this dining room is huge and they are going to seat us at the table right at the entrance again? These tables are awful, IMO. There are about 4 of them that are directly at the entrance. Everyone going in and out is going to be going right past your table. That is not the dining experience I want. We asked for a different table and they moved us 10 feet away, to the exact table we had last night. Look, I don’t want to be a Karen. But it doesn’t seem unreasonable to not want a constant parade of passengers brushing against you for your entire meal. I would be happy with virtually ANY other table in the dining room but this one at the entrance is ridiculous. I'm not sure how well my photo shows the problem. This is the table where they wanted to seat us. There was a nonstop stream of passengers directly behind it, and also coming from the other side. Photo taken from the table where they moved us. At the end or our meal, someone came and apologized. He said he will make sure we are not placed at the entrance next time, but will give us the same table 10 feet away. OK, that’s better than nothing. I appreciate that they are trying. Dinner: strip steak was not bad – cooked to medium rare as requested, but was very thin. French onion soup and caesar salad were very good. Chocolate cake also was delicious.

We went down the pier to meet our excursion. We were first in line. Signed the waiver, waited about 20 minutes before being led to our bus. The pier was much less busy than normal, because of the delayed debarkation for many. We had the Beach Break with Open Bar excursion. It took about 10 minutes to get to the beach. We got loungers right at the water edge. The water was quite cloudy, much more so than the last time I was here. We swam a little, lounged around, checked our phones (which we have had in airplane mode for the last 2 days), had a couple of drinks. Called home while we have service. We only stayed at the beach for about 2-3 hours. My daughter hated the unrelenting parade of people trying to get us to buy stuff. She just wanted to read her book but kept being interrupted every 60 seconds by someone selling bracelets or cigars or Hawaiian shirts or a kid trying to give us a “free” rose. Headed back to the ship when it started to lightly rain. Crammed into a minivan taxi with 7 of our new best friends. Quite a cozy ride. Back on board we went back to our room to take turns showering. Went up to bar for a drink. Then went to deck 4 to watch pier runners. Amazed at how many people are just ambling back to the ship 15-20 minutes after 6:15 all aboard time. Here are some pics from the beach

Day 3 Costa Maya Slept late again. Good Dining room opened early for lunch due to port time, so we went there at 11:00. Buffet wasn’t going to open until 11:45. Our excursion was scheduled for 12:15 so we needed an early lunch. We had a nice table by the window and were able to watch coming into port. I had a hamburger, daughter had caesar salad with chicken. Both were good, nothing really amazing. Service was excellent. While at lunch we noticed the waves looked really high and we were surprised we couldn’t feel the ship rocking more. Went to the theater for our excursion at 12:15. A bit of a line to get off, scanned our cards and approached the gangway. A lady with a stroller was in front of me. She started to push the stroller on the gangway when a huge wave hit and washed over the gangway, missing her child in the stroller by inches. It was quite startling. We joked that she might be getting wet a little sooner than she bargained for, and we proceeded across the gangway. My daughter was right behind me. As we crossed the gangway we heard voices behind us shouting at the passengers to stop. My daughter was literally the last person off the boat at that gangway. There were one or two other gangways open and they were all on walkie talkies, and all stopped debarkation. We proceeded down the pier with no one at all getting off after us. Debarkation had only been open for I think 10-15 minutes at this point, so not a ton of people off the ship yet. I don’t know how long debarkation was halted. We noticed a bunch of passengers arriving at the Beach Break about an hour after we arrived. This video was taken later, when we got back on board. The seas were still very rough, but I think a little less so than when we debarked. 20231106_171138.mp4

Bad Due to our dining time we had to choose between the production show and the game shows. We picked the game shows. This is why we like to eat early when our port excursion times allow – so we have plenty of time for all the evening shows. Good We went to Finish That Lyric show and Perfect Couple show. Both were a ton of fun. Disappointed to miss the production show. We really liked all the game shows that we went to, led by the entertainment staff with passenger participation. As you can see, the participants were very enthusiastic -- as was the audience.

After lunch I had a short unsuccessful spin in casino. Bad The earliest reservation we could get for dinner tonight was not until 7:15. This meant that we could not see the 8pm production show. We were seated at a table at the entrance. I mean, right at the entrance. With a nonstop stream of diners coming in and out right by the table. It was an awful location, I don’t even know why they would put tables that close to the entrance in a high traffic lane. We asked to be moved and they accommodated us, moving us to a table about 10 feet away. Bad The menu seems noticeably shorter than our last (and only other) RC cruise last year. Fewer options. I wish I had taken photos of the menus so I could be more specific and do a side by side comparison, but I’m sure that we had fewer options. The menus I saved from last year had about 10 appetizer options, including four rotating choices along with six “classics” such as french onion soup and escargots that were on the menu every night. The menus we saw on this cruise had only about six choices and no classics that were always available. For entrees, last year we had about 7 rotating choices each night in addition to two “classics,” salmon and NY strip. On this cruise that number was reduced to about seven total. Also, lobster was never available at no charge, not even in the steakhouse. This change in the menu was a huge fail IMO. I’m really sorry that the classics menu has disappeared. I’m sure this has been discussed extensively here but I haven’t been following this forum because we hadn’t planned an RC cruise until this one came up at the last minute. There was a long wait for first course, then everything arrived at once. The food was not bad. Pretty typical MDR dining. Good but not amazing. Portion sizes were plenty. Sorry, I'm not sure why some of my photos are showing up sideways or upside down. French onion soup This is the cheese plate that is on the dessert menu. We ordered it for an appetizer. Wedge salad Beef tenderloin was good. I honestly think it compared favorably to the Chops filet mignon

Day 2 I slept late. It was DST time change, we gained an hour. Daughter went to breakfast 8am, buffet was packed. I did a brisk walk on deck 4, several laps over about 40 minutes. I had checked out the gym yesterday; it looked very small for this size ship. The weather was nice so I didn’t try to get a treadmill. Just walked outside. Bad Then we went to the solarium, which is poorly designed because the only way to get from the forward elevators to the main pool area and Windjammer is through the solarium. So you have lots of traffic including families and kids through the adult only area. The hot tubs were extremely crowded and the solarium area was very loud. Security came and asked one large group in the hot tub to tone it down. They were enjoying their cruise very much. The whole area was super noisy. Definitely not the “serenity” adult area we have experienced on Celebrity and Carnival. Good However it still is a nice space, quite a few loungers where you can look out at the ocean, some by the pool, two very large hot tubs, a bar that usually wasn’t too busy, and this is one of the few areas on the ship where we received waiter service. Good Lunch at Giovanni’s Table. Better deal than steakhouse and better service. Chicken piccatta was the best thing we had. Cheese board was excellent. Service from Michael was very good. Cheese board appetizer Chicken piccata, very good This is the fish, I think a Branzino? Don't remember for sure. Tara wasn't crazy about it. Desserts were really good

Good: After dinner went to welcome aboard show. Very funny comedian, Steve McGrew. I really enjoyed the show. Bad: Then, casino. Very crowded, hard to move around. Seems small for this size of ship. Very busy. Very tight passing by slot machines, the bar, etc. Smoky. I was told by crew that only one corner of the casino is designated smoking, but it seemed like people were smoking everywhere – including a woman chain smoking at the video poker machines which are directly in front of the bar where staff should have noticed this. The pool area also was very smoky. Which seems kinda weird since this is an area where many kids are hanging out. My favorite game is video poker. There are only 4 video poker machines. And $1 minimum. No 25 cent VP. I didn’t play. Lost a few bucks very fast on a penny slot and said no thanks. During several spins in the casino over the next few days, I never received waiter service. Had to go to the bar to order drinks. Back to cabin. Can hear music from I guess Pig and whistle 2 decks below, at least until midnight. I don’t go to bed early so it wasn’t really bothersome but you might not like it if you are an early to bed person. Sorry, I did a bad job of photos on this trip. I don't have any photos of the welcome aboard show or the casino.

The Bad: We reserved my time dining. Not impressed. Doesn’t start until 6:45! Every other ship I’ve ever been on, I’m pretty sure they all started at 5:30. We like to eat early so we have lots of time in the evening for shows/activities. And you can’t just sign in on the app when you are ready to eat, as some cruises have us do. You have to reserve. I don’t know what happens if your plans change and you miss or want to change your reservation time. This does not seem like “My Time” dining. It seems like the times are actually rather limiting. The earliest reservation time we could get for tomorrow was 7:15. We reserved dinner for 6:45 for a couple of nights later in the cruise. We don’t like this at all! On 15 cruises, I’ve never had one that didn’t allow my time dining until almost 7pm. Back to our room to change for dinner, and Tara unpacked. I watched sail away party while she did that. Sail away party: Watched a parade/show in the promenade. Kinda weird. Went to the Viking Crown lounge at top of ship for about 20 minutes while waiting for our Chops reservation time. No waiter came to us during that time. It’s a really nice lounge. Here is the view from there: Good and Bad Arrived at Chops at 5:50 (6pm reservation time). It was not crowded. We got a nice table by the window. Service was hit and miss. Our waiter was very personable but there were a few issues. Small things but they sort of added up. It took about half an hour from the time we were seated until we got drinks. The bar seemed to have trouble with my daughter’s cocktail requests even though they were items listed on the Chops menu in the app. Salad: I ordered the goat cheese salad that is supposed to have apple, cranberries and pecans. Mine came missing the apple. I asked to sub blue cheese for the goat cheese and this was done. Bacon appetizer was OK but not amazing. My daughter enjoyed the crab cake. Filet mignon was disappointing. Was served at room temperature. I don’t know how long it was sitting before it came out to our table. We had the opposite problem on our last RC cruise. Is it that hard at a supposedly high end steakhouse to serve a properly cooked steak at the proper temperature? Yes, apparently it is. The filet was good, but I have definitely had better. Not really juicy. Chocolate cake was delicious! Very rich. Apple pie was very disappointing. Did not taste freshly baked. Crust was hard, not flaky. Dinner took approximately 2hrs 15 min. The steakhouse does not have upgraded glassware. Just the same very ordinary wine glasses as everywhere else on the ship. Carnival has (as of my last sailing) really nice larger glasses. Apple salad missing the apple, with gorgonzola instead of the crispy goat cheese: Filet mignon This dessert was really good The apple pie was just OK