element of Surprise!

[Bingobaby0]

What ever happened to just going on your booked vacation and enjoying all the surprises to come.   these days, everyone wants to see the fun times before they get on board, they want to see the menus before they get on board, they want pictures of the entire ship before they board.   I think it is so exciting and fun to get on the ship and experience it as it comes at you.  Exploring a new ship is always interesting and fun.  Not so much if you have already seen all the pictures of it.   Going to the MDR for dinner and seeing the menu for the first time and you get to enjoy deciding what you want to taste tonight.   Or getting those fun times on a daily basis, its exciting to have that to look forward to and the surprise of finding out what will be happening the next day.   I love that part of cruising the most.  

 

How do you still have all that excitement and fun, if you have been looking at every detail for months before you sail?   I don't get it, but that's just me.   Old School, I guess!  LOL

 

[OddJob]

I like to read cruise reviews (I'm looking at you Willdra) and hear what they do on their excursions but I'm not necessarily looking for the Fun Times or the menus or even the photos of the food.

 

I do like to be surprised, and find my own way around, and experience the ship on my own.

 

I do like planning.  I do like Willdra's sense of humor and her photos.  But, like you Bingo, I like to be surprised.

[teknoge3k]

I do check out the ships if they're new to me, just so I can be acquainted with them. I don't care anything about the menus because I already know what I am eating before I step foot on the ship. As far as The Fun Times, I don't look at them before we sail, but I do look at the entire week once we're on board and mark what we want to do for the entire week. We don't use the paper copies for anything. 

[FSHLOT]

I like the element of suprise also. Even after being on a few cruises, i still like the anticipation of the whole cruise experience. From embarking to disembarking, its nice not knowing what to fully expect. 

 

However, everyone cruises differently and some  do want to know as much as possible. Which is cool too.

[pyropoodle]

eh, to each their own.  I like surprises, but I also like to be prepared. I research anywhere I go ahead of time, not just cruises.  I want to see places in Paris that I want to visit ahead of time, not just show up and be surprised.  but, I am a planner.   my husband is a 'just go along with it' person.  I plan and tell him what to do and he just goes along with it.   He usually says "I'm glad you planned all this, I would have no clue what to do here".   

[Alaskan Joe]

We my DW and I are on opposite end of the stick here. I love to review anything, and everything about the ship/cruise before we sail. However, my DW is like now that you have seen the whole ship, you have seen all the menus, and looked at all the funtimes we can just save the money and not go because you have already been of this cruise...LoL 

[Organized Chaos]

I enjoy researching our vacations, cruises & otherwise. That's part of my whole process and it's fun for me.

 

I do look at some pictures of the ships now & again, but to me, a picture isn't anything like the real deal, so it doesn't ruin it for me. I don't watch those walkthrough videos that seem to be popular with cruisers who post to YouTube. The only time I'll view those is if I'm looking for something specific, then I'll just skip to what I'm looking for. I don't care about looking at the Fun Times or menus ahead of time. I'll admit, though, that when I came across the menu for the Pasta Bella lunch that someone had posted in their live review of the Horizon a couple months ago, it has made us pretty excited to try it. If I hadn't seen the menu, there's a chance we wouldn't have even known about it. So I'm glad I saw it ahead of time.

 

Then there's situations where people research things and ask questions to avoid certain surprises. Surprises that they don't consider good that might be viewed as a negative experience. So finding out ahead of time helps them avoid those situations. Or looking into things to decide whether it's worth it or not. I'll research excursions, for example. Look at pictures, read about it. You might think it's ruining the surprise, but we want to decide if it's worth our time & money first. Like I said, it's all part of my process and that's part of the fun for me. Then again, there are plenty of times and situations where I was more than happy to go with the flow and see what comes our way.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Organized Chaos

[pyropoodle]

9 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

I enjoy researching our vacations, cruises & otherwise. That's part of my whole process and it's fun for me.

 

 

oh yes, and also because for me, big vacations are usually a year or more away, it helps me pass the time and find things to look forward to.  

[purplephenom]

For me, researching and planning is part of the fun.  I'll read reviews on ships/itineraries I have no intention of booking, just because I enjoy it.  I'll read over whatever fun times people post, but It's mainly for things that just pop out at me as looking fun.  I'm not planning my cruise as 7:00 wake up, breakfast from 7:34-8:-02, hunting for chair for 10 minutes, etc.  When I get on the ship, I still do what looks fun, not what people did on previous cruise reviews.

 

Also, I only cruise once a year, so I like keeping up with things that are changing, and just dreaming of future vacations.

[keywest1]

I love the research and planning.  It's a lot more fun to me than a surprise would be.  As others, I don't want to plan every activity for every hour of the day, but I like to compare ship features and itineraries when I'm figuring out what to book.  As far as menus and fun times, that's not part of my planning.  DH and DD don't much more than look at the booking before we sail.  I could switch to a totally different cruiseline and itinerary and they would probably never notice 😆

[RoperDK]

I am interested in menus because I have some food restrictions and like to see if there will be something available and that I like or I will make different arrangements.  I also like to book a specialty restaurant if I find a particular night not so interesting in the MDR.  Nothing worse that having reservations at the steak house and finding out one of your favorite menus is being served in the MDR. 

[Amadawn1]

I had read here on the boards awhile back about how hilarious the "Quest" game was.  I thought they had it on all the ships.  I was really looking forward to watching (not participating, tee hee) I scoured the Fun Times every day of our 7-day cruise on the Freedom last October.  No Quest.  At all.  That was about the extent of my planning ahead for certain activities.  I'm wondering if it is ship specific depending on the CD.  We had Emma.

[Butterbean1000]

My "vacation" starts when I book.  I research the ship. I watch YouTube videos.  If it's a port we haven't been to, I research things to do and places to avoid. I like to read reviews on food to get an idea of what I want to try or, again, what to avoid. If you want to be surprised,  then avoid frequenting places on the internet that will spoil your fun. 

[Homosassa]

49 minutes ago, Amadawn1 said:

I had read here on the boards awhile back about how hilarious the "Quest" game was.  I thought they had it on all the ships.  I was really looking forward to watching (not participating, tee hee) I scoured the Fun Times every day of our 7-day cruise on the Freedom last October.  No Quest.  At all.  That was about the extent of my planning ahead for certain activities.  I'm wondering if it is ship specific depending on the CD.  We had Emma.

"Quest" is a game played on all Royal Caribbean cruises. 

 

I have seen mention that it sometimes played on Carnival.

[Organized Chaos]

45 minutes ago, Amadawn1 said:

I had read here on the boards awhile back about how hilarious the "Quest" game was.  I thought they had it on all the ships.  I was really looking forward to watching (not participating, tee hee) I scoured the Fun Times every day of our 7-day cruise on the Freedom last October.  No Quest.  At all.  That was about the extent of my planning ahead for certain activities.  I'm wondering if it is ship specific depending on the CD.  We had Emma.

 

On the Glory last year, our Fun Times said "Adult Game Night" on the front page with "Carnival Quest" in very small print under that. Inside the Fun Times in the What's Happening section (where they list times) it just said "Adult Game Night." I'm not sure if it was available for you or not, but if you were specifically looking for "Quest," it was easy to miss. They did that one in the aft lounge, not the main theater. I thought it was pretty good, but not as fun & funny as I had read it was. I don't know, maybe it was the Fun Squad hosts or maybe it just wasn't really my thing. There were the main participants, but the room was also divided into teams and the participants could only use their own team if they needed something.

[Amadawn1]

1 minute ago, Organized Chaos said:

Inside the Fun Times in the What's Happening section (where they list times) it just said "Adult Game Night."

Thank you for the head's up on that Organized Chaos!  I will look for that other possible name on the Magic in Sept.  I had just thought it would be fun to check out.  I'm easily entertained, lol.  But I may be better off sticking with the Punchliner comedy shows!

[Lottacruises]

1 hour ago, Amadawn1 said:

I had read here on the boards awhile back about how hilarious the "Quest" game was.  I thought they had it on all the ships.  I was really looking forward to watching (not participating, tee hee) I scoured the Fun Times every day of our 7-day cruise on the Freedom last October.  No Quest.  At all.  That was about the extent of my planning ahead for certain activities.  I'm wondering if it is ship specific depending on the CD.  We had Emma.

 

There is rarely a quest out of ships on Galveston because the "Texas  cruisers leave negative comments on the survey cards". Surprising, because Texas cruisers are a rowdy bunch and we have fun at quest.

 

Once last year, Andy held it on the Valor, and Frankie (the CD) didn't take part. I saw it once on about 15 cruises on the Valor. It was not held by gary on the dream a couple of weeks ago.

 

Schwartz and Leigh  did it  on the breeze, two sailings and two quests.

 

Malcolm did it once on my many freedom cruises and it was very very tame.

 

[Lottacruises]

They use adult scavenger hunt as a name for it also.

[Amadawn1]

1 minute ago, Lottacruises said:

Surprising, because Texas cruisers are a rowdy bunch and we have fun at quest.

Yep.  We are Texas, too.  My favorite cruises are out of Galveston.  We had so much fun on that last Oct. cruise.  We met some fantastic people.  Everyone was having a great time.

[Amadawn1]

2 minutes ago, Lottacruises said:

They use adult scavenger hunt as a name for it also.

Thank you for the head's up on that, Lottacruises!

[Organized Chaos]

2 minutes ago, Amadawn1 said:

Thank you for the head's up on that Organized Chaos!  I will look for that other possible name on the Magic in Sept.  I had just thought it would be fun to check out.  I'm easily entertained, lol.  But I may be better off sticking with the Punchliner comedy shows!

 

I had watched old videos of it on YouTube (held in the main theater) and what we saw was similar, but different. It still had an adult scavenger hunt vibe to it, which is what I had watched in videos, but also kind of a "do this silly/crazy thing" aspect. Like the dare from truth or dare. Fun Squad members can make all the difference with events & activities on board, so I'm sure some of them can make Quest more fun than others.

 

I did have a memorable moment, though. They were challenged to bring back a set of false teeth to the host. The girl who was playing with our team came over to us and, without thinking, I popped my partial out of my mouth. Partials are a lot like retainers, but they have false teeth on them (sometimes 1, sometimes more, mine has 3). She didn't even hesitate to take my saliva-covered partial into her hand and I didn't hesitate to put it back in my mouth when it was done. LOL I guess we were both caught up in the moment. I think she was the only one to win that particular challenge. Later on, when I had time to think about it, I realized that was a pretty stupid thing to do on my part because partials cost hundreds of dollars. Live & learn.

[Amadawn1]

2 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

The girl who was playing with our team came over to us and, without thinking, I popped my partial out of my mouth.

I am laughing so hard right now!!  My husband has one, too.  He fell asleep on the couch one night a few years back.  The next day he was scavenging all over the house for something.  I said to him, "What are you looking for?"  He said, "My teeth!  I lost my teeth!"  I helped him back track.  Somehow the partial was wedged between the cushions on the couch.  Still  chuckling about that one. 

[Bookbug53]

7 hours ago, Bingobaby0 said:

What ever happened to just going on your booked vacation and enjoying all the surprises to come.   these days, everyone wants to see the fun times before they get on board, they want to see the menus before they get on board, they want pictures of the entire ship before they board.   I think it is so exciting and fun to get on the ship and experience it as it comes at you.  Exploring a new ship is always interesting and fun.  Not so much if you have already seen all the pictures of it.   Going to the MDR for dinner and seeing the menu for the first time and you get to enjoy deciding what you want to taste tonight.   Or getting those fun times on a daily basis, its exciting to have that to look forward to and the surprise of finding out what will be happening the next day.   I love that part of cruising the most.  

 

How do you still have all that excitement and fun, if you have been looking at every detail for months before you sail?   I don't get it, but that's just me.   Old School, I guess!  LOL

 

If wanting to be surprised is your thing then so be it. I like looking ahead and seeing 'where I am going'. I get excited looking at the pictures and videos. When I finally see it for myself it is still impressive and exciting to me and I am prepared. I have witnessed enough people walking in a daze of confusion around the ship and standing in long lines at the excursion desk because they wanted to wait until they were on the ship. They have no idea where anything is, how anything works, and can look pretty miserable until someone steps up to help. Maybe you find it exciting to be lost and confused for the first day or so but I find it a waste of time. My vacation starts when I get on board and not 3 days later when I finally find my way around.

 

But I think asking John Heald to stop posting videos and photos because you don't want to see them is a bit much. Just don't watch.

[SRQbeachgirl]

Researching, planning, and looking at pictures is the only thing that keeps me sane from the time I book our vacations to the time we finally get to take them. Also, I'm the only planner in the family. If it wasn't for me, my family would be wandering around dazed and confused (and they will readily admit this!). 

[beshears]

I agree with you!  WHY NOT go with the flow, and not be so "nit picky" in what will be on the ship.  YES, it is fine to ask questions, especially to make sure "if" something is not available on the ship, if needed, you can take it with you, etc. I have cruised over 25 years, and found something different on the many ships I have done down through the years.