smears

Like imagine you're someone who sees me a few times a week, and I just walked up to you tomorrow and said something like, "so yeah I just booked 3 cruises so yeah I'm doing that". You'd think I was nuts. 2 might even seem nuts.

It just feels completely irrational to book that first one last week on a whim, and then to book this one today, and then to be considering booking a 3rd one on the same day. I know that if I clicked through and did it that I would be sitting here laughing, but it seems crazy.

Something is wrong with me. Now I'm looking at ones to Alaska. They sent me 3 offers for free rooms, 1 interior, 1 balcony and 1 oceanview and apparently I can use each one 2 times. So I could book one for next year to Alaska and it would just be the taxes like under 300 bucks. Seriously. Someone has to talk me down.

here's a shot from the Freedom in October of 2012. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but maybe it helps?

I think olives are a reasonable request. Like bitters and vermouth. Any bar with even the most rudimentary selection would have those. Most people don't drink a drink that has an onion in it, and most bars don't have onions. My friend should have just gotten a dirty martini and eaten some olives and called it a day.

I've got 2 solo cruises booked right now. 1st one this coming November over Thanksgiving. 8 days on Carnival Glory. Then another that I just booked on the same ship for December of 2023 for 14 days that hits the Panama Canal. Exciting!

Where do those tuxedo t-shirts fit in to all this? Does a person in a tuxedo t-shirt get any points for at least trying to match the crowd? Or is it a more egregious offense because it could be seen as mocking the whole fanciness of it all? Has anyone ever seen a tuxedo t-shirt in an mdr? Or has anyone here ever worn one?

There's a place in my home city that used to do these "escoffier society" dinners, where they'd bring in a chef from some random place in the world and they'd cook some crazy meal for about a dozen or so people on the top floor of this fancy building downtown. Most everyone who went to it was either some professional university admin or some banking executive type or like some rich old philanthropist couple. The kind of people who dress like they're going to a fancy dinner pretty much every day of their lives. I had an in to get to go to these dinners, even though I'm just a regular random person who was nowhere near the socioeconomic status of the average attendee. Like I was probably the only person there who had ever been drunk in public or who had a net worth of less than a few million bucks. A real ownership class/shareholder class type of crowd. For them, because I really liked getting to eat all that food and drink all that wine, I'd throw on a jacket and tie and make sure my socks matched. The environment was such that if I didn't, it would have been the most noteworthy thing happening in the place. If I walked into a dining room on a cruise ship and the scene was like that, I'd adapt to make sure I matched the scene, even though I generally hate wearing suits. But since for the most part these mdrs are a lot less formal, I think as long as I'm dressed in a way that isn't objectively offensive that it should be ok. I think the photo someone posted above of a guy in shorts would be acceptable on a cruise. Some may disagree. Some shorts might not be as acceptable. No one wants to look over and see an imprint of someone's junk in a wet pair of gym shorts while they're eating dinner. But to be upset about a desire to enforce a hard rule that someone's lower legs be covered just feels like a waste of a good vibe. For the cruise, I think a clean outfit that you just changed into, that isn't vulgar should suffice. A lot of this should just boil down to common sense and having one's self attuned to some reasonable standard of decency, but someone is always going to show up in those gym shorts or with a boob hanging out and it doesn't make for a nice evening to allow one's self to get upset about it.

Well...

Well no one is going to have perfectly good manners. So I'd have to come up with a way to rank which violations carried what amount of weight. I think being judgmental of others is as least twice as much a violation as something like say....wearing shorts.

I had no idea that people got this mad about what other people wore to dinner. I'll put on a button down and a pair of pants, but I'm not tucking it in or wearing a jacket to dinner on a cruise ship. If someone else wants to wear something else, I can't imagine myself feeling affected by their choice. I think good manners are more important than what someone is wearing. Just my 2 cents.

I'm doing the one in November solo, and this one as well if I book it. I'm not sure why I haven't clicked through and done it yet. Seems like a big commitment. Plus it's so far away being December 2023. I should probably do it before the ship fills up, or before this deal expires.

I used one to book a sailing on the glory for Thanksgiving and just paid the taxes. 138 bucks. Balconies were sold out, (at least the ones allocated for the offer, but I got the lido deck and 8 days for 128 bucks, I certainly can't complain.

This is awesome. Basically the same deal I got, but yours includes drinks. Kind of jealous over here!

I think I'm gonna book it. the balconies are sold out though. I could pick another sailing and find one with a balcony available, but this one does the Panama Canal, and that's a big draw for me. Not sure why really. I haven't been there and so it just seems like a good opportunity to go and so I can get an inside room on the lido deck, or an oceanview on the main deck. I think I'll take the inside on the lido and call it a day. I certainly can't complain. by the time I get the obc, it'll be 363 bucks for 14 days with a room near the pool. That'll be the best deal I ever got on a cruise I think.

ok so i figured out how to get it to let me book the verandah deck interior, while still using the code for the balcony. does that mean that if one of those capacity controlled balconies becomes available, that i'd still have a shot at it? This one has allowed me to actually select a room number, but it's still under the code for the balcony.

ahhhh

If I remember correctly, you aren't allowed to drive a car in Bermuda if you don't live there, or something like that. With the ships staying overnight the moped really came in handy. I didn't book any excursions, but I saw the whole island from one side to the other 2 or 3 times. The roads if I recall were relatively narrow and the busses were huge, taking up more than half the road, so it was an adventure at times. Also they drive on the wrong side of the road which was fine until I got to a traffic circle and for a second I was really confused.

Depending on the date of the sailing, it could be because there was no vaccine approved for kids under a certain age.

I could do without the balcony to be honest and I wouldn't pay extra for it either way. I'd take it if it were free. Gonna call the casino people one more time and see what they say before I book just to be sure I'm not missing anything here. I think 563 bucks on the verandah deck midship w/interior cabin and 200 obc is a pretty good deal for 14 days. Would be an insanely good deal if I'd snagged the balcony but either way, it may still be the best bang for the buck I've ever seen for any kind of vacation.

Aft and midship there are interior cabins as high as the verandah deck and in the front I can get as high as the lido deck. They're all the same price. 563 total with 200 back in obc.

Ok so as of right now, there are no balconies available. I can take oceanview but the only ones available are on the riviera deck. If I take an inside cabin I think I can move up quite a few decks on the ship. It's just me going and I don't particularly care so much about having a window, because I'd not be spending too much time in my cabin. I'd take a balcony because that would be an incentive to spend more time in the cabin, given that it kind of allows me to be not exactly inside the room so to speak. So what should I do? Oceanview on the bottom of the ship? Or interior cabin closer to all the amenities? They're the same price. I've always booked interior rooms for 2 reasons, 1) the price is usually a bit less and 2) (more importantly) I'm kind of one of those people who doesn't really have a normal sleep schedule and being able to go into the interior room and have it completely dark is kind of nice.

This hadn't even occurred to me but now I'm interested. I'm wondering how much light pollution the ship itself will give off. Last year I trekked around to a bunch of national parks all over the country, many of which were classified as "international dark sky areas" and I've gotta say that it's a sight to behold when you're out there and the skies are clear with no light to be found anywhere nearby. Great Sand Dunes, Canyonlands and Black Canyon of the Gunnison in particular were pretty amazing.

I did stayed off the boat almost the entire night in Bermuda once. Took a nap on horseshoe bay beach when the crowds were all gone and I had it all to myself. Felt like one of the coolest things I ever did. I rented a moped for the duration of the stay there and they dropped it off right by the ship and I just treated the ship like it was a hotel room until it was time to go. In and out a good number of times.

I'm booked on for a thanksgiving cruise right now and as I've continued to browse the available rooms they seem to have been filling up pretty steadily. On the Glory November 19th.