Travelling2Some

Great tip. My first job (back when dinosaurs ruled the earth) was in an airline's lost luggage department. The job was mostly about being verbally abused all day, lol. (Luckily I had attended parochial schools.) But the most important thing I learned was to make your luggage stand out visually in some way. We had a huge room full of black suitcases with no distinguishing features. Frankly, nobody ever bothered to look through those. We focused on the bags we had some hope of spotting from the description.

We have cruised in Celebrity's Aqua class in Europe and I have no recall of people being especially dressed up at dinner at all. It is possible I didn't notice but I assume clean and presentable is just fine. We usually have extended plans for a land trip after or before the cruise. There is no way I am dragging fancy clothes I don't need through train stations and from hotel to hotel.

Good idea. I always bring a bit of duct tape in case we get rough seas and things start going bang in the night. Clear packing tape would work for both things 🙂

Also pleasantly surprised that nobody has (yet) felt the need to start a political rant at the mention of the network. It's a Cruise Critic Miracle, folks!!!

We had several itinerary shifts for our next cruise so today I called to adjust our specialty dining reservations since we prefer to book them on sea days. On the survey at the end of our conversation I was asked if I would be happy to use the person who helped me in the future. I said yes because she was both sweet and competent. However, if left me wondering if I had just done and unwitting disservice to our regular PCC, who we are quite happy with.

Hey, not a bad use of a jetted tub (unless it sucks up your socks!). My husband took a video of me doing the laundry like a grape stomper in the bathtub at a hotel in Venice.

So a few people have said:) Must be a bit of a new development. I have noticed they now come with sandwiches in The Local. Just to be clear, I did mean "chips" in the American usage, the things people in the UK call "crisps".

Yes, exactly.

We usually travel light and I learned a good laundry trick. Bring along a few smaller plastic trash bags (not the big kitchen kind). Take the flimsy, easily ripped paper laundry bag and put the plastic bag inside it as a liner. Roll up your stuff as tightly as you can (keeping inventory on the check list as you go so you don't have to unpack everything again to count it). You will be shocked at how much you can stuff in that bag now that it does not rip easily.

I too was taking something a few years ago that caused a chronic cough. Had to stop taking it but up until then I never realized there were meds that can cause that. Also, two of my kids had asthma growing up and I would get the stink eye from other parents who did not understand that my kid's cough was caused by asthma rather than something contagious.

My point was that she was on her first cruise and following someone's bad advice. She seemed like quite a sweet, quiet type of person actually. You are painting with quite a broad brush. Actually, judging by her accent, I would have said she was Jamaican.

W Welcome to Cruise Critic. Agree that the wording in the ads is a bit deceptive. However, there are actually many excursions that are only $50 and under on many different itineraries, so this can be a worthwhile perk, especially for solo travelers. The perk is per cabin. For both you and your wife to receive it you would have to book two separate cabins, one for each of you. You cannot make two reservations for the same cabin.

I would give it a few days. We recently had a snafu where my husband (who normally does not get involved in travel arrangements but does love tech) downloaded the app and (not knowing any better) got himself a brand new lattitudes number. Suddenly we had a bunch of little charges still due on cruises that were already paid in full and I was getting threatening letters about those cruises being canceled if we didn't pay these little charges. A few days after straightening out this mess with our PCC we got a bunch of little refunds on our Amex reflecting the discounts he was entitled to without our even making an issue of it. Not quite the same as the OP's question but very similar. I think they will re-do the math and refund you automatically.

Good to see Carnival intending to take action on the chair hogs. But they have also trying lately to take measures to deal with brawling passengers. Just thinking that reigning in the entitled chair hogs might increase the fisticuffs. I can see where the poor crew is between a rock and hard place on this stuff. I was once chatting with someone on their first cruise who told me that a wonderful "cruising tip" she had received was to get up super early and put a towel and a magazine on a lounger and then go back to bed. She was very proud of having done this and had no clue it was frowned upon. I broke it to her gently, lol.

Wow . . . had to pause and give that idea some serious consideration!

I guess bringing a recliner would be pushing it, lol.

Recliners are obviously a huge hit 🙂 People running hotels (and cruise ships) should take note. And, WOW, I never would have expected so many posts about toilets. Really? On the subject of comfortable chairs, I noticed all the deck loungers on the last ship we were on (Oasis of the Seas) made it impossible to read a book in comfortably. If you put the seat back even a single notch the angle already had you leaning too far back to hold a book in front of you comfortably. We've mostly sailed NCL and I don't recall having that issue with their deck loungers.

I would bet there are two opposing lines of thought on this. Some people view a vacation as an occasion to buy new clothes for, dress up and present a nicer appearance. Others view a vacation as a chance to relax and take a break from the standards they normally maintain (probably for business purposes). I'm guessing that much depends on what kind of work you do and where you live (urban or rural environment).

Wow - the unexpected sight of this can is so nostalgic for me. One of my kids was allergic to both cow's milk and soy so I remember using this stuff to make baby formula many years ago.

OMG! I was kind of hoping she was an urban legend but there seem to be plenty of people who have "experienced" her.

A ship's library is useless to me because I need large print books. As I said, I DO use my Kindle when I must. However, I still prefer to bring real books and discard/donate them as I go. There are excellent sources of inexpensive used large print books online. We travel carry-on only so packing books can be a challenge, especially since I need a new book every 3 or 4 days depending on the size of the book and the voyage's itinerary. However, I have work-arounds like shipping my books ahead to the first hotel we will be staying at or to a relative or friend in the city we are embarking from. I never fly home with books as I have "consumed" them all by that time.

We are on the Sun's transatlantic and many people on our Roll Call are already aboard doing B2B (Seattle to Miami/NYC) and then staying on for the transatlantic to Lisbon. I specifically asked about the current situation regarding the odor. The person who posted from the ship today reported that there is no smell now in the areas cited on the previous cruise (aft elevator lobbies and cabins/hallways from the aft elevators to the stern).

Clearly you have not yet run into the infamous woman who walks her . . . ahem . . . "service animal" around in a baby stroller and hand feeds it at the table in the MDR. She also dresses it in outfits that match her own clothes. Disclaimer: I've never personally seen this person and she is said to sail mostly RCI.

Too bad I'm not especially adaptable - haha! I use my kindle only when there is no alternative.

I once booked a hotel because there was a lovely big fat recliner shown in the pictures of the room. You rarely see that and it was the main reason I chose that hotel instead of their many competitors. An upholstered chair with a good reading light always carries a lot of weight with me too. Wish more hotels would have them instead of just a hard little desk chair.