Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community


  • Content Count

  • Joined

About TexasCruiser84

  • Rank
    Cool Cruiser

About Me

  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call

Recent Profile Visitors


  1. THIS. I am not a confrontational person but by day 5 I had no problem saying "excuse me, may I get off first???" aggressively to those who tried to bowl me over getting into the elevator. It was absurd.
  2. Also recently off the Joy - not a smoker, but traveled with smokers, and they could smoke only in the enclosed casino or a small designated section in Spice H2O. If you smoke frequently, it may be in your interest to get a room on one of the upper decks and towards the back, to minimize your "commute".
  3. This is me 100%. I make a list of the different outfits I'll wear each day and night, but then I have to throw in extras because I might change my mind about how I feel in something. I treat cruising like 7 date day/nights with my husband. Love to get dressed up for dinner and have an excuse to buy new bathing suits, etc. Might sound high maintenance, but with some luggage straps and muscle, I can maneuver my own over-packed luggage just fine. If you are an over-packer like me, my tip is to save wire hangers from trips to the cleaners. Cabins typically don't have enough hangers and a stack of wire ones takes up very little space in the front pocket of the suitcase.
  4. Unfortunately the large hot tub in Spice H2O is lukewarm. I only went in it because it was the last day and high 60's while sailing towards Victoria. I would not have used it in colder weather, but a few brave souls did!
  5. I recall hours varied on port says but it was open pretty much all day on sea days. I recall some days it went as late as 9pm. I didn’t have the unlimited pass, only did it once. If I was going to recommend an unlimited pass, I’d go with Galaxy Pavilion. It will keep them busy for longer periods of time and they’d be less likely to get bored.
  6. The observation lounge got pretty packed. The buffet is directly on top of the observation lounge in the front of the ship and also has large windows. Saw lots of people camped out at tables in the buffet during Glacier Bay day.
  7. Plan in advance. I was on the 5/4 sailing and my experience was mostly fantastic. Are the elevators crowded? Sure. They are especially heinous around muster, port days and disembarkation. But, what do you expect when 4k people are trying to get on and off the ship at once? If you're physically able to, just plan to take some stairs during those times. If not, understand that you will have to wait and don't make time sensitive plans. Tip - just get on an elevator, any elevator, and ride it. If you want to go down and the elevator that stops on your floor is going up, but there is room, just ride it up and then back down to where you need to go. You never know how long you're waiting for the down elevator with room on it. My agent booked my specialty dining reservations in advance. If you haven't been able to do that yet, go to a reservations kiosk (on every floor by the elevators and throughout the ship) as soon as you get on the ship and make them. Don't wait until one morning you decide, hey let's eat at Cagney's tonight, and get upset when no reservations are left. I read negative reviews before my cruises because I like to see the common complaints and problems people encounter so that I can plan to work around them. I find that more often than not, the problem could have been avoided with better planning on part of the complainer. Sure, this cuts against the concept of "freestyle" cruising, but at the end of the day you have up to 4k people trying to get into the same elevators and limited seating shows, restaurants, etc. If you want to make the most out of your experience, you absolutely have to plan. If you've managed to snag a last minute show seating or reservation at one of the busier restaurants, you got lucky. Our MDR (Savor) service was pretty bad on the first night. The servers seemed stressed and it was a bit chaotic. The bar between Taste and Savor was making all of the drinks for both dining rooms AND its own patrons, so drink times were suuuuuper slow. Food was good though. The Manhattan room a few days later was much better. If you plan to eat in the MDR, I suggest giving yourself at least an hour an a half, up to 2 hours, to eat dinner. I also learned to show up to dinner with a drink in hand and order a second one when I sat down - because it would finally arrive by the time I finished my first.
  8. I can't speak to whether there is a coffee maker in each room, but I had one in mine - mid ship mini suite. I don't recall the brand of coffee pod, not one I recognized, but the coffee maker reminded me of this common hotel type. It wasn't K-cup or nespresso style - https://www.nathosp.com/product/2pd4_c/popular?gclid=Cj0KCQjwt_nmBRD0ARIsAJYs6o2eFhTg0gNRlLEoW9PJcdidSd9GTZnYz93KpmuBtdw2u_CnAa4CCSoaAsDGEALw_wcB.
  9. I’m a pretty overzealous packer (3 large suitcases and 2 carryons for 2 people lol) so I didn’t really feel like I was missing anything. But if I had to do it again I would pack a large coffee mug! The tiny little teacups they call coffee mugs are an abomination!
  10. We received our pressed clothes back the next day before dinner so less than 24 hours for pressing. I didn’t do the laundry bag special mid week but I believe the paper said it was a 2 day turnaround.
  11. Reviews are so subjective, please don’t let them ruin your excitement. First run of a relatively new ship, it’s bound to have issues. I encountered some Debbie downers on the ship who looked like they were having a gawd awful time and melted down over the most minor inconveniences. Is it going to be a perfect cruise? Probably not with 4K passengers on the boat. Are the food and service comparable to the Four Seasons? Nope, but I didn’t expect it to be. It will probably be hard to find a table in the buffet, you’ll encounter a wait for elevators, you probably won’t get reservations for things if you don’t book in advance, there is bound to be an occasional language barrier, etc. I just read a review and the person said that Q wasn’t good. I thought it was fantastic. Different strokes. I actually enjoy reading negative reviews - gives me a preview of the kinds of things people gripe about so I can expect them, try to avoid them with proper planning, and let it go if it happens. Hope you have a great time!
  12. I didn’t notice any movies being played in the Atrium or the Spice H2O screen but I think I recall seeing something in the dailies about a movie being played in one of those venues. I was in Spice H20 while we sailed to Victoria and the screen had some information about Victoria on it all day. Had the stateroom TV on the movie channel while in the room getting ready for the day/night and I recall the stateroom movies included The Proposal, Night School, one of the Mama Mia movies, and Central Intelligence. On one of the last days we discovered a documentary on the TV about alaskan wildlife (really cute documentary about a family of bears) and I regretted not looking for stuff like that sooner.
  13. I didn’t notice either in the dailies. The only tastings I saw were for Sugarcane mojito, the whiskey bar, wine and beer. It’s certainly possible I missed it in the dailies but I don’t think I did because I specifically complained to my husband about the lack of martinis on the various drink menus. As for 18-21 year olds, I didn’t notice anything in the dailies but could have missed something for them as I wouldn’t have been looking for it. Does he like video games? If so, he’d probably like the galaxy pavilion, go karts and laser tag. I don’t recall how much they were, but the ship offered unlimited use passes for those activities. Spending time there might be a good way to connect with others his age!
  14. Internet was pretty spotty as a whole, I didn’t notice any real difference between the observation lounge or my room (both on 15 so maybe that had something to do with it). I only used my phone for uploading photos and checking email though, no streaming.
  • Create New...