Glad to be BACK!

The embarkation experience was not good for platinum VIFP members. One of the limited perks of being platinum is skipping the security line, which did not happen. Plus we spoke with several guests on board who were able to board early, around 11am. We were told over and over that the embarkation window was strict and would be enforced… so we honored that by showing up at the allotted time. Port of Tampa was unusually nice this time. Pre-covid sheriff directing embarkation traffic have normally been irritable and impatient, yelling at cruisers who were experiencing port of Tampa for the first time. A pre-covid customs official even threatened to arrest one of my teenage sons for a meaningless declaration “violation” which made a permanent impression on him. But this cruise was smooth, the sheriff directing traffic were pleasant and the customs officials were all business.

HUGE shout out to our waitstaff in the dining room at table 230. I have been talking up the incredible S’mores Parfait dessert for YEARS to my kids who had never been on a 7 night cruise before… only to find out that it wasn’t going to be offered on this cruise! But that didn’t stop I Kadek, Parman, & Rohman from getting us six S’mores Parfait desserts for table 230 on our last sea-day dinner! The waitstaff team for table 230 was the ABSOLUTE BEST. Thanks guys, for the maximum effort! That was above and beyond, and that’s the reason we will keep on cruising with CCL! Breakfast and sea-day brunch reservations started off badly, but ended well. On the first sea-day brunch and the second day breakfast, we reserved our table and got the notification using the app only to find the reservation canceled when arriving at the dining room less than 5 minutes later. We were told that after 10 minutes that the reservation was automatically canceled… which was interesting since we arrived at the dining room at roughly 7:05am and the Hub app reservation was made at 7:00am when the dining room was officially open. After those first two days, we did not have another problem and were always seated promptly. The point of the app reservation is to minimize human interaction during covid restrictions and get you straight to a table. I don’t think this was quite working as advertised, maybe 60% of the cruise. I personally like the feature and hope all the bugs get ironed out. I prefer to wait in the cabin or a less busy sitting area than stand in a line for breakfast. Guy’s Burgers was OK this time. Normally I am jonesing for a Guy’s burger & fries the moment when I get on a CCL ship on embarkation day. But on this cruise? Meh. They were OK and a bit greasy & messy. The Guy’s BBQ sauce & chipotle mayo made it all better, but I probably won’t be running to get one on future cruises.

Also much thanks to have the fitness center open all cruise long. Would have liked for it to be open before 7am, but that’s OK with me. Also thanks for not hassling joggers using the “walkers” loop on deck 10. Running 10.5 laps (3 miles) on the deck 10 loop was way better than 1000 laps on the deck 11 jogging track. The new big screen & sound system on the Lido deck under the skydome was FANTASTIC. Way better than the seaside theater screens on other CCL ships. And the sound system did not garble & echo dialog during movies, which totally ruins movies on the other CCL ship seaside theaters. Well done! Really enjoyed the two waterslides. The green one was especially fun. Maybe we will be smarter on the next cruise and NOT enjoy them during a sea day when the wind is crazy fierce.

All CCL team members were great to interact with, from the cruise director to the dining room staff to the cabin stewards. I really like staff who take genuine interest in my sons. Even Frankie got to know them without them hanging all over him and the entertainment team. You guys really like your guests, and it shows! The new gameshow “The Showdown” was awesome, total props to the creators on the Pride. Can’t wait to do it again on other CCL ships. “Deal or No Deal” was great too; I’ve always wanted something a little more adult than the Hasbro games. It would have been nice to have no less than three contestants; two was a bit too short. Frankie did a great job as gameshow host. Props to CD Frankie for keeping this cruise PG-13. He went out of his way to make sure that the vulgar stuff stayed out of the public presentations (think the obscene chants during Billy Idol’s Mony Mony). He kept the crowd profanity to an absolute minimum, and as a dad of young men I appreciate that. The best performers on the ship were the Shostoppas playing at the Red Frog Pub. Excellent music, worth the time to listen. - I could do without the 80’s & 90’s themed stuff forever. I get it, it’s a good formula that works. Plus I seriously liked Lobby Trivia on past cruises with CD Erin Weigand and CD Chris Williams the Flying Scotsman; those events were the most energetic, fun, and guest-connected I have ever felt on a cruise. It was awesome to hear the entire ship belting out songs in the lobby atrium. But dang it – come up with some better themes since us past guests experience this on just about every CCL cruise now. We can definitely “see” the formula at work on CCL cruises, and I think it’s a great idea. But honestly if I hear “total eclipse of the heart” on another CCL cruise in the future (I’ve got three more booked), I may just vomit all over the fun squad. The Marriage Show… what to say about this. I have ALL the questions now since they don’t change from cruise to cruise. If I wanted to win this game with my wife, we could crush it since the questions NEVER change and we know exactly how to answer. Please write some new questions for the frequent cruisers so we can start enjoying this game again. Comedians were not funny… again. I have stopped going to comedy shows on CCL ships, but decided to stay after Deal or No Deal to watch the female comedian. Really disliked her bit about how marijuana is totally Christian since it comes from the earth. With that, she convinced me to never watch another CCL comedy show ever again. Let me know when someone actually funny does a show.

The inside of the ship was super clean. We have rarely witnessed cleaning going on in CCL showrooms pre-covid. But on this cruise, drink tables were being thoroughly wiped down after every performance. Food service areas stayed clear of dirty plates, cups, & utensils. I hope this doesn't change after covid. Loved the ship design and the fact that there were only 1900 guests on board. Short walk from front to back of the ship, unlike the Dream class ships where you walk miles between the rear dining room and the front main lounge.

Very clean, lots of room, there was no door... it was just glass which was fine with me. It was nice to have a couch and small table in the room, which makes room service coffee in the morning very convenient.

The debarkation experience was outstanding, we were out of customs by 7:15am. That was tremendous for us since we had 8 hrs of post-holiday travel back to NW Georgia to deal with. This was pretty much the only real perk we got with VIFP platinum status.