JoCo Cruise Crazy 3 Post-Mortem Discussion

BassBone

So how was everyone's cruise? I had a wonderful time, all told! Great time hanging out with the celebs and the regular seamonkeys. Highlights include talking beer with Wil Wheaton, getting a sketch about cancer from Randall Munroe, playing in the ukulele melee, having a solo in JoCo A Capella, midnight pizza, Watching a movie that cannot be named in the pool along with Learning Town, dancing my ass off while wearing a fez, snorkeling on Sint Maarten, singing Birdhouse in Your Soul at the final karaoke night, detouring to Nassau and seeing the largest class of cruise ship in the world docked alongside (though the reason for the detour was a medical emergency... There are too many awesome moments to list. The only bad part was our debarkation procedure, but that was no one's fault. Shit just happens when the ship is an hour and a half late docking. Now that we're all back on dry land, how about a #sexparty?

Bry

Welcome back, everyone!

I have to know: Were you folks on board aware at all of what was going on aboard Carnival Triumph at the same time?

mikesphar

Yes, though as Hodgman joked, we didn't hear about it from the ship's crew.

BrettGlass

While on St. Thomas I heard crew members whispering to one another about the Thomson Majesty disaster. Not a good week for cruise ships. I am glad we fared better.

sandman

@Bry Not until we caught the flu and spent way too much time in bed watching TV... and that was around day 4 of their ordeal.

I will be compiling my notes I took during the cruise for a single post.  Will this be the official feedback thread?

kate

@Bry, I caught the Carnival news (among other stories) via CNN on the cabin television.

mrgoldenbrown

• I think I speak for everyone involved when I make this suggestion to the ship's photographer:  If you are trying to communicate with hundreds of people on a windy boat deck, mute the giant TV blasting lame music.  Or better yet, use a microphone and pipe it into the audio system of the giant TV :-)
• I had a Promenade room this year.  I did not have any issues with noise.  We were on deck 6, just above the Promenade "floor."  The windows seemed to be double or triple paned, and relatively soundproof.  Note that my windows seemed to be different than most - they didn't "open".  Maybe this is because we were closest to the elevators?  I suppose YMMV.  
• If you want any privacy in a promenade room, you need to close your curtains - the inside of the room is quite visible to folks on the promenade floor, and people in other rooms across the way.
• CocoCay had a mix of payment options for services  - some places accepted the ship card, some did not.  This could have been made clearer by RCI.  (Aside:  this is RCI's private island.  They control everything.  Why don't they accept the ship card everywhere?)
• Staff was all pleasant to me, and I did not witness any negative Snork interactions, though I have heard of at least one

BrettGlass

I was involved in only one snork interaction in which a snork said something very nasty about one member of our group. I did my best to defuse the situation while defending that person.

origamislayer

I put most of the blame on debarkation on the port. Ft. Lauderdale did a much better job with their warehouse-like space with our luggage spread out. Conveyer belts for the quantity of people getting off the ship seemed silly.

Anyone else ever debark at Port Canaveral? Is it smooth when the boat's on time?

RangerRick

As someone who carried his luggage off the ship rather than checking it, holy crap that was the easiest disembarkation ever. If you're carrying your bags off, they shunt ou to the elevator, past the main line, right to the customs guy. I think we went from deck to outside in 5, maybe 10 minutes tops.

Protip: carry your bags off if you don't have too many to carry.

BrettGlass

My bags have wheels, but rolling both of them behind me required a path 3.5 to 4 feet wide so I let the ship unload them. Fortunately, this was still quick and painless. It was surprising how little Customs said to me; they just waved me through.

Uisce Beatha

My girlfriend & I got picked for a random luggage inspection. Had to go through every bag. Fun stuff.

villicious

One of the cruise line's requirements for carrying bags off is that they be few enough and small enough to carry on your own safely. (I don't remember what the actual rule said, but I do remember "one small bag only.")

I was in the 7:15 a.m. debarkation group (or would have been without delay ... we actually got called at more like 8:30), and we made it through quickly and fairly painlessly. Of the 10 of us on our shuttle, I think more than half of us had bags to get from the conveyor.  Only one bag  took a while to come around. I would imagine that for groups later than ours, the gradual backup of luggage on the conveyors would have made it a progressively slower and more difficult process.

Most of my feedback is more about the cruise line than about things the Home Office has control over. Overall, I was much more pleased with the way the events were scheduled and spread out this year ... while I often chose to go to bed because I was tired, I never felt like I HAD to choose between a late event and an early morning one, as I often felt on JCCC2. So my only thought on that front was with last-night scheduling. Since the deadline for getting bags out was 11 p.m., and we learned about that late in the afternoon after seeing it alluded to on Twitter, we had a choice between going to last-night karaoke OR packing our stuff.

So: Either tell us in big bold letters way in advance about luggage needing to be packed and ready by 11 p.m. so we can schedule accordingly, or schedule the last night so people don't have to do a sad/rushed packing job during official events, please. (The deadline was much later on HAL, so it took some of us extra by surprise.)

If there were some big bold letters telling us of that and I missed them, tell me that instead.

mikesphar

Re the 11pm packing I was lucky to catch it earlier in the day on twittarr and we went back and did a big chunk of pre-packing earlier in the day, then back up after the cocktail party ended at 10pm to finish up and get the bags out just in time. I also don't recall ever seeing the ship inform us of this in a noticeable way other than mentioning it on the ship info channel which I never watched.

I also read the "express" disembarkation requirement as *one bag only*, so I didn't even try. We had considered the luggage valet service but you had to sign up for that earlier in the week and missed the deadline. (Again, to us it seemed under-advertised but maybe we just weren't paying enough attention.)

Other than having to wait extra long to disembark because of the unavoidable delay, once we got to the luggage carousels we had all our bags within a couple minutes. And we were one of the later disembarkation groups (19). The only clusterfudge for us was getting on our pre-paid shuttle after that. That was kind of a stressful long wait in surprisingly cold weather. I don't think Home Office nor RCCL could do anything about that though, and sailing out of a port where the airport isn't 45 minutes away presumably eliminates that problem regardless.

The one occasional fly in the ointment I noticed were some scheduling snafus where conflicts resulted between "shadow" events and ship's official events. It seems to me part of the problem was the ship doesn't appear to publish what rooms are reserved for what more than a day in advance, so it wasn't easy to know that you may be trying to schedule a room that overlaps with some kid's dance party or something later in the week. That may just be a working-the-kinks-out situation between us and RCCL though. It seemed to me there were only a couple of unfortunate situations from that.

Overall I thought everything seamonkey-related went shockingly smoothly for me. Maybe staff and helper monkeys were going insane scrambling all the time fixing things but they kept that well-hidden from me if so. Even with some people having a few bad interactions with snorks, I never once had a negative interaction with snorks or cruise staff.

keeksg

First - absolutely incredible experience. One of the best weeks of my life, just kicking myself we didn't start going on these sooner!

As a complete Sea Monkey n00b (and one who can occasionally be a little shy), I would have appreciated a little meet and greet type event with other newbies and maybe some helper monkeys or experienced Sea Monkeys on Day 1, just to acclimate a little and meet people in a similar boat who are trying to figure things out. Being immediately surrounded by people hugging and picking up on previous conversations was a little overwhelming and isolating at the start. Obviously this quickly dissipated and I had an awesome time, but the first day was a little wobbly.

My biggest regret was trusting that RCI could handle simple and common food allergies. They can't. Flat out. So next time, I'll be packing a bag with my own food. 

I'm already planning my karaoke performance for next year, and trying to come up with idea to make the fanciest of pants. The bar has been set very high!

mrgoldenbrown

@keeksg - Your experience mirrors a lot of others on past cruises. As a result, there was a "speed meeting" event in the Crypt on Day 1. This was an unofficial event, but was quite popular.  I am sure there will be a repeat next year.  Perhaps the challenge is that the people most likely to benefit (new cruisers, shy folks) might be least likely to know about it ahead of time.  So, from your perspective as a first time cruiser, how can we improve the process next year?  What information streams (facebook group, forums, official emails from JCCC staff, JCCC webpage) were you most likely to follow?  I have two ideas:

• Ask Home Office to send an email to all cruisers a week beforehand with tentative schedule for Day 1 unofficial events like the speed meeting, so people not active on the Facebook groups and forums can be prepared.
• Have a speed meeting area as part of the Official Welcome Cocktail Hour.  This might increase exposure, at the risk that meeting people in a huge noisy room might still be overwhelming.

chetman

We had SUCH AN AMAZING TIME. It was our first JCCC, but we're already booked for next year. I can't imagine not going, and am honestly feeling a lot of let-down about being back in the regular world. I imagine it's what folks feel post-Burning Man; maybe this is sort of nerd Burning Man, but with showers, air conditioning, and constant cocktails. What's not to love?

somewoman

One thing that I didn't really care for was the scheduling of afternoon concerts on sea days.  Those took away most of the relaxation/pool time that I was able to have on the previous cruise.  If we could have had a late seating, I think a pre-dinner concert (at 4 PM or so) would have been a lot more palatable, allowing for plenty of time to clean up and change without feeling rushed.  As it was, basically all we had time for was lunch before we had to go clean up for the concert/dinner. 

Saint Toad

While I'll have a scathing review of the Freedom to post on CruiseCritic, I thought everything the Home Office had control over was great. Only comment would be the game room. Would it be possible to open St Thomas and Jamaica rooms (or next year's cognates) to the rest of the game room when they're not in independent use? The game room seemed very, very full to me a few times.

keeksg

@mrgoldenbrown - I think that was a misperception on my part. I was aware of the Speed Meeting events, but for some reason thought that they were primarily for people traveling solo as opposed to everyone/anyone. I'll know better next time!

mrgoldenbrown

@keeksg - maybe next year you'll be the one to approach a scared/lost/overwhelmed looking newb and invite them to your game/dinner table/whatever, and explain why everyone is shouting #SEXPARTY and giggling.

R343L

The shows at 2PM did seem a bit early --  I didn't get much sun-lounging and swimming in and I was trying to (on JCC2 I only got in the pool once for about ten minutes). But it didn't really bother me since I assume it was to work around RCI's existing entertainment schedule serving the many more other guests on the boat.

I did like that the scheduling seemed more relaxed to me, though that might just be due to intentionally choosing to not go to certain stay-up-late things because I was anti-social and/or tired. Alternately, since I actually used twittarr this year (and it was better), I managed to find more cozy events I wanted to go to which helped prevent burn-out.

FYI, the luggage valet service was noted in the ship's printed materials on Monday and Tuesday I think (papers on one day, reminders in Cruise Compass on later days). We ended up asking Guest Relations some questions but it wasn't that hard. It was also totally worth what we paid as I had to carry very little while disembarking and while hanging out in airports (just electronics and toiletries basically). So convenient: we checked into our airline via RCI, the staff printed our boarding passes and gave us luggage tags (delivered to our stateroom Saturday). We mostly packed between lunch and the last concert and put our bags out around 9PM or so. We didn't see them again until we got to Seattle (which is amazing since we missed our first connection in Denver and United had automatically rebooked us on a later flight).

But there was one annoying thing (that is, this is the one thing I actually remember because it happened repeatedly and was jarring). The way the main dining room handled drinks just doesn't seem classy. There were different waiters for food orders, "free" drinks (e.g. iced tea), wine orders and cocktail orders. If you asked the wrong waiter for your wine or cocktail, they would have to go find the right person to come take your order (rather than relaying very simple orders like "glass of house red" or "ginger bourbon"). That person would appear anytime from immediately to ten or fifteen minutes later. I can see why they have different servers with different areas of responsibility, but it was frustrating to not be able to order beverages in a fashion fairly similar to most restaurants. We got the hang of it by the end of the week, but I stopped ordering anything but tea or water at dinner ...

origamislayer

@saint_toad We took games from the game room and played them in other places a few times (including the covered area near the main pool). I think that might be something we encourage next year,

I'm curious what your thoughts on the ship were. My only real issue was the shower stall (or torpedo tube) in our room.

paulandstorm

@Saint Toad That was partly a miscommunication on our end; the other rooms were theoretically free for sign-ups to be used by anyone, and during unclaimed times (as reflected in the sign-up sheets next to them), people could use them at will. That said, those rooms were not as well set up for tabletop gaming--one was a generally open space, one more theater-style--but it was an option. (To reset them repeatedly back and forth for gaming an other uses would have been cumbersome, and, not to put too fine a point on it, expensive)

Also, next time, we'll attempt to reserve some of the spillover areas--specifically, the card rooms next to the Viking Crown Lounge up on 14--for our exclusive use during peak times; and at the very least, make those rooms' existence (and other possible spaces) more generally known for potential spillover.

@somewoman Indeed, early afternoon concerts weren't our first choice either; they were partly a practical result of our not being able to use the main theater/Studio B on some evenings, and partly the best way to work in the many different types of events over the course of the week. And daytime concerts seemed more natural than, say, daytime dance parties.

There'll be more room for everyone to respond to all this in your feedback surveys (which are being drafted as we speak), but the thinking on the early dinner seating was this: the past two years, we had a later dinner seating, with the concert immediately beforehand. We received numerous complaints, both internally and externally, that this setup let to a very long night that involved rushing straight from concert to dinner, and then to post-dinner events scheduled immediately thereafter and often quite late. This year, we thought an early seating might give everyone some more time to relax post-dinner (when, we felt, would be natural for relaxing, winding down with a drink, and/or taking a disco nap) and make everything feel a bit less frenetic.

The early dinner was also somewhat dictated by availability of venues. But it was, to some degree, a conscious decision on our part.

Obviously, in an event like this with so many moving parts, no one solution will ever make everyone 100% happy; but we do genuinely value all feedback, both positive and negative. So please feel free to keep it coming here, and don't worry that The Overlords are watching. (Although WE ARE WATCHING ALWAYS)

P

Zolton

As a first-time Sea Monkey (and overall cruise n00b, and one-half of the couple who only caught up to the tub in St. Thomas on Wednesday), I had a spectacular time.

It was a little bewildering / intimidating to join up with plans and routines and people already at full steam (and disappointing to miss some of the early-in-the-week events), but it was still a great experience. We had no particular issues on the ship or at ports, though by Sunday, I had the simultaneous-and-totally-not-contradictory opinions that I would NEVER want to go on a non-JCCC cruise, and that I ALWAYS want to go on future JCCC cruises.

Very most special thanks to @paulandstorm and others for alchemizing behind the scenes to make it happen, for helping us salvage half our Sea Monkey-ness, and for providing a welcome and calming elixir to ease our transition seaward. (IOW, the wine was delicious!) Cheers to next year!

somewoman

Thanks for all your hard work, Paul (and everybody else, of course).  I know you had a lot of different variables to work around.  In the grand scheme of things, afternoon concerts weren't the end of the world.  Something is always going to have to give with that much stuff going on. 

And I did appreciate how you expertly planned the intermission for exactly when we would be at our surprise stop in Nassau. 

arenson9

I was very happy with the afternoon concert followed by dinner followed by fairly relaxed timing for evening activities. I spent zero time hanging out by the pool, but never intended to do such. I never envisioned this trip as a lounging vacation. I think I expected that to be a component of JCCC1, but since have not.

I'm actually a bit concerned by the move from six nights to seven. It seemed that everything barely fit in now. How to downsize by an entire day?!

I am seriously considering eschewing shore excursions for JCCC4, or at least limiting them to things like building sand castles and short trips. These are places I've been before. It's not clear to me that there's a whole lot more to see and do, but I bet I could really enjoy hanging out with people and or in hot tubs during that time.

paulandstorm

@arenson9 Agreed, we're a little concerned about the time crunch as well; but all considered, it was the best combination of timing and itinerary and ship of the choices available to us.

And that said, JCCC1 was only 6 nights, and that one seemed to go off okay. But yes, there will by its very nature have to be fewer official events, and/or a few more events packed into some days.

Workin' on it,

P

sgrandys

I had a stellar time on this trip, but really missed 2 things from the Westerdam. The back lido deck on the Westerdam was a great hangout spot with tables and a bar and fresh air and a place to watch the ocean. You could almost always go there and find Sea Monkeys. There wasn't an equivalent hangout spot on the Freedom. I wish there was a designated hangout spot on the upper decks.

The other problem I had with this ship was - no benches in the elevator bays. My feet hurt a lot and my ankles swelled up, which made waiting a long time for elevators sheer agony. I missed the whimsical carved, padded benches by every elevator on the Westerdam.

Gina

Very much agree on your number one there. 

villicious

I'm 100% in favor of the cruise not feeling frenetic, and I felt like the show/dinner/break/other stuff rhythm helped with this a lot. Conventions are draining things, with a chunk of people going home from them exhausted and sick, and sometimes taking an extra day or two to recover. But conventions are also usually, at most, a long weekend. The cruise has as one of its barriers to entry its length: People in a typical 9-to-5 job are going to have to find 5 vacation days to use, and for a lot of Americans that's somewhere between "half of them" and "all of them" (or "infinitely more than I have because my employer doesn't offer paid vacation" or "I am self-employed, you jerk").

So, since the cruise can put such a big dent in a person's time off in a year, I think it's important that people still be able to have a relaxing time with family and loved ones, rather than packing it to the gills with 24/7 official activities like a landbound convention does.

R343L

To write even more words, I see I've neglected to mention that I think that Paul & Storm, etc. did a really great job. My only problems are not anything they could have done anything about (or indeed likely anything can be done about ...) -- it's just the weirdness of cruises being cruises.

LeeAnn

For JoCoCruising, this was an awesome ship.  The Arcadia was great for shows where everyone wanted to sit down, while Studio B was much better for shows that make dancy people want to dance.  It was also awesome for seguing from concert to dance party, and for non-windy cocktail parties.  Plus, nice and cool for those of us who easily get overheated!  Although I understand some poikilothermic people found it a bit cool.  I liked the variety of venues available to us, around the ship.  And, Bifrost Bridge!

Bestest moments:  JoCo Live Band Karaoke was so awesome there aren't words for it's awesomeness.

Celebrity Artemis.

John Roderick and David-the-14-year-old.  That was soooo sweet, and adorable, and....  ahhhhh!

Mr. Scrimshaw should be arrested for assault.  I haven't laughed myself to pain that hard since...   Wagon Train to the Stars.  Clearly, a repeat offender.

Meeting Sea Monkeys.  I don't understand how that many nice, awesome people in one place doesn't form some kind of nice-awesome singularity.

Worstest moments:  The realization that Sloop John B is now and forever the saddest song in the world. And a total lie.

Saying goodbye to Sea Monkeys.

Disappointments:  While the ship was great for JoCoCruise activities, it was disappointing on a non-JoCo level.  Definitely the worst food of all the cruise ships I've been on.  Giving us crappy OJ and coffee, and then making us pay for fresh-squeezed OJ and Starbucks is just rude.  Standard cabins lacked customary amenities like conditioner, lotion, bathrobes, wine glasses, ice buckets, tote bags, umbrellas, and nightly chocolates.  And it's just a huge ship with way more people on it than I prefer.

Although mini-golfing at midnight was quite fun.

somewoman

@LeeAnn, we tipped our steward a lot extra for keeping us stocked with ice. We asked for an ice bucket and used it to chill our wine.  When she saw that we were chilling wine in the little metal ice bucket, she brought a big plastic bucket to put our wine in and filled both buckets twice a day, every day.  

I think robes were upon request, which is kind of lame. 

BassBone

@mrgoldenbrown I think the places that did not take the ship's card on CoCo Cay were locals from nearby islands bringing their wares to sell on the island, and as such could only take cash.

somewoman

@BassBone, I actually thought that was actually kind of great, but the cruise line should have told us about that in advance.  I never bring cash to the private island because on the other cruise lines I've been on, it's a ship card environment exclusively. 

lostluck

@somewoman, I seem to remember reading about needing cash for some places on CocoCay in the Cruise Compass, maybe I heard an announcement, or perhaps one of the staff mentioned it as I was heading out, but I definitely knew about some locations only taking cash before getting onto the tender.

It was probably easy to miss though.

In any event, the cruise still has me reeling from all the feels and the awesome.  Thanks Home Office! You guys rock, and I can't wait for my second cruise next year!

avnerdsdontgetchicks

I thought everything with the JoCo side of the house was great. 

Paul, I think you deserve special thanks for how much work you put in.  I know there were plenty of other people behind the scenes making it all happen, but you were the face of jccc3 (to me, anyway).  Everywhere I went, I saw you hustling.  The good kind of hustling!

My only complaint (which is out of JoCo's hands) was the food.  I really was underwhelmed with the food.  It wasn't that it was bad, it just wasn't particularly good either.  Very bland...no flavor.  This was my first cruise and I had visions of myself gaining 10-15 pounds from stuffing my face.  Not a problem I needed to worry about it seems.

Karaoke with the live band was indeed a highlight.  And Zoë Keating was shockingly awesome.

paulandstorm

On a personal note: thanks to the two Sea Monkeys who helped me assemble MtG decks this week. You told me your names, and I promptly forgot them. But I am very grateful.

I shall go forth to PAX East this year prepared to whup the Creepy Doll deck's ASS!!!

P

mikesphar

One thing I learned is that Paul is very possibly the best karaoke host in known space.

More hosts need to jump on stage and scream at the singer like a drill sergeant to HOLD THAT NOTE! HOLD IT!

Saint Toad

@paulandstorm thank you for the response.  I understood that St Thomas and Jamaica were available when not in use, but it would have been nice if they were physically open to the rest of the game room.  But I understand that it's not feasible.  That said, I thought everything else that home office had control over (my problems were with food quality, room service, some of the MDR service, the shallow beach on CoCo Cay) was amazing.  I thought the timing of the concerts and dinner this year was a lot better than last.  Thanks.

arenson9

With a few notable exceptions, I actually thought the food was very good. Seconded on the annoyance at the low-quality OJ.  The omelets were noticably worse than I was expecting. The true horror thought? The 'cheese plate', which I suppose can be technically called such since it was, indeed, cheese on a plate.

BUT I rather liked virtually every appetizer and entree I had.

arenson9

Also, this has been said a few times, but I think it bears repeating -- Respect for all of the official and unofficial organizers. I am amazed at how smoothly things went. Perfectly? Of course not, but damn close.

Thalandor46

Alright, think I'm just gonna keep this window open all day and jot things down as they come to my mind.  Here we go!

-(JCCC4) I am incredible concerned over having one less day next year.  Schedule management this year was an absolute nightmare, and now we want to do that all again in a shorter time span?  And there are still 3 ports?  That strikes me as terrifying.
-(Personal) I'm starting to resent the ports, only because they take up so much time that could be used for other Sea Monkey things.  I had a blast on my excursions, but I think at this point, I'd rather just spend 7 days at sea.
-(Ship) Both the Arcadia and Studio B were fantastic venues.  There were plenty of open spaces no matter where you wanted to sit, and there were lots of great seats.
-(Misc) Port Everglades > Port Canaveral.  The boarding processes were about equal, but between the clusterfucks that were the MCO shuttles and the ridiculously inefficient exit process, I'm definitely glad we're returning to Ft Lauderdale.
-(Ship) Freedom buffet > Westerdam buffet.  I was so thrilled to be able to eat breakfast at 10:30.  Westerdam MDR > Freedom MDR.  I felt a lot less wowed by the MDR food this year.
-(Shows) Separating the JoCo Band show from the JoCo acoustic show was a fantastic idea.  I like the band, and I like acoustic, but I tend to resent band sets in the JoCo shows because I have a small preference towards acoustic, and I find the band to be taking time away from that.  That being said, there were a handful of blatant band songs in the acoustic set (Good Morning Tucson, for example), and I didn't really understand why they were there.
-(Shows) Why was absolutely nothing played from One Christmas At A Time?  Not all of those songs are seasonally dependent.  Found that kinda disappointing.
-(Karaoke) I feel like the Karaoke list needs some improvement.  Can we get more performer songs in there beyond just JoCo?  And maybe some Doctor Horrible and the like?
-(JoCotels) I didn't go to Cocoa Beach Suites, but the party definitely seemed to be at The Radisson.  Did the Sea Monkeys who stayed at Cocoa Beach Suites feel left out at all?  Seems to me like we should only have one JoCotel next year.
-(Misc) The group photo felt like a complete clusterfuck.  No one knew what we were supposed to be doing, no one could hear any instructions, that god damn morning show kept playing as loud as it possibly could, and no one seemed to understand the Harlem Shake thing.  Side note, I came home to like 10 different Harlem Shake videos in my YouTube feed.  Would have been nice to have the week before...
-(Home Office) After the first wave of famous people were announced, the additional performer announcements felt lacking.  I'm glad that Roderick and Scrimshaw were able to join us, but they felt more expected at this point than pleasantly surprising.  If it's viable, I'd like to see more entertainment surprises throughout the year.  Scalzi would have been a great example, despite his unofficialness.
-(Shows) As a particularly punctual Sea Monkey, the late starts were absolutely ridiculous.  I don't think a single event on the official schedule started on time.  Late Sea Monkeys is not a good reason to start shows late, particularly when we're under such strict time windows.
-(Shows) Tardiness aside, I did quite like the 3 hour/3 performer format to the shows.  The official schedule felt a lot cleaner than last year.
-(Misc) Is it me, or did King Boss feel less significant than King Troy?  He was a good king and served his people well, but he didn't get a king hat, he rarely got fanfare (hmm hmm hmm hmmmmmm hmmhmm), and he just seemed to have less opportunities to do significant things.
-(Misc) If we ever have another singalong like we did with Learning Town, less volume, more singing.
-(Random thought) Do we have exact attendance numbers yet?  I remember they were announced on board last year but not at all this year.
-(Suggestion) Collaboration night!  Since many shows have many collaborations with other performers, maybe have one full show dedicated to such things?
-(Shows) Live JoCo Karaoke was all sorts of awesome!  Could we A) have more of it, and maybe combine it with the JoCo live show?  Seems like an effective way to cut down some repeats.
-(Shows) Get Marian back.  I miss her lots!
-(Helper Monkeys) Line management was a bit chaotic at times.  Sounds like something helper monkeys could actively assist with.

Alright, that's enough for now.  I'll post more as they come to mind.

somewoman

@arenson9, the omelets were noticeably better when ordered in Leonardo's.  There was a buffet in Leonardo's with meh omelets, but if you ordered one from a waiter, it was fluffy and delicious.  

ThatGuy

Overall RCI > HAL

The food had flavor, and dare I say it, a bit of spice!  It wasn't all bland like HAL's.

HAL wins on Bread Pudding, though.

The RCI buffet was much better than HAL, all around

Except for the seating with other Sea Monkeys, I would have chosen the buffet for all dinners

Drink stations were much better run than HAL

The RCI staff seemed friendlier and more capable

- We saw our caretaker so many more times this time, always with a smile and hello <name>

Except for the pillars, the venues were great - I'd actually prefer B to Arcadia for every main show

The schedule felt much better this time:

- Performances didn't seem rushed

- I prefer earlier dinner anyway, and the evening events felt much less compressed

- There was adequate time in the official schedule to do other things

Game room was too small for prime times - opening the other rooms with game configuration would help, as well as putting other events elsewhere

Deck 2 layout was confusing at first, then just annoying

Made a conscious decision to not line up this time, which worked out great.  That said, lines were more difficult due to layout and could have used more management.

I didn't see much of the performers on-ship in non-dinner, non-show situations, making me miss JCCC1 playing games with performers on occasion

Didn't see much of Storm at all - I know why (meetings, etc) - but I sill missed just seeing him around

Live Band Karaoke was best time ever

Group photo was strange - both the location and the loud endless TV preventing communication, what happened to ship's bow or other location that would have fit us a bit more efficiently?

There seemed to be less guest performances/collaborations than previously

Final Disembarkation was a cluster, could/should have been WAY better managed

MCO needs more than 3 outlets in the food court, suggest 30+

Seekrit Indian dish was awesome, should be on menu instead of song-and-dance with waiters (meant both ways)

According to Paul's statement, ~698 was the total for the entire JCCC3 entourage - I bought 800 dice, so in theory everyone could have gotten one.  I handed some out personally, and put others in game room.  Not sure what the actual % turned out to be.  Not sure how to improve that %.

bethbny

I really liked the early registration in the Radisson. I also liked the afternoon concerts. I think it would be good to have the venues open a few minutes before the concert so they could start on time. Of course, that is dependent on the ships scheduling as well.

Jenipurr

A bazillion kudos to everyone at Home Office who was involved in organizing JCCC3, and all the Helper Monkeys who were doing tons of running around behind the scenes while on the cruise. We had even more fun on this one than we did on JCCC2 (our first), and I will gladly volunteer to assist as a Helper Monkey for JCCC4, should there be need for additional people involved. 

I recognize that our ability to schedule large events is limited by the ship's schedule of events, so I was fine with the early dinner slot and the occasional afternoon concert. There were food options available throughout the day if you had to miss a scheduled meal time due to other activities (which we took advantage of more than once throughout the week).

I really appreciated having those two extra rooms in the Game Room to use for other activities (rehearsals and so on), so I hope we're able to do that again. 

The two different concert venues were terrific. We never really bothered to line up, as it was pretty hard to get a bad seat in either of them. 

Live Band Karaoke was awesome and I bow to all of the Seamonkeys who had the guts to sign up and do it!

Re. scheduling (and I will be putting this on the Feedback Survey when it comes out). I think starting the week off with a giant blank sheet in the Game Room for each day, on which people can list all official / unofficial events (not to be used for the discussion / planning, as that should still take place on all the other giant sheets, but just for the final times / locations) would be invaluable, because it would allow people to see very quickly what things (official or otherwise) are already planned for a specific time slot on a specific day, and be able to try to schedule things *around* them. This would help alleviate the often-frustrating situation of there being half a dozen awesome things scheduled all at the same time. 

Lissa

I've never been a fan of the food in any cruise MDR. I'm a picky eater, so I don't like the limited menus. While we enjoyed meeting people at dinner, we wound up eating more evening meals at Chops (always good and worth the $30pp IMHO) and the Windjammer. FYI, many of the MDR entries are available in the Windjammer at night. I think next year, we'll do the Speed Meeting to meet more people and possibly make a MDR Temperance pledge. Except breakfast, that is. MDR breakfast is actually good. We were never thrilled with the evening wait staff there either.

I loved Twit-arrr! Thank you, thank you, thank you to the wonderful people who made it happen. 

Having been on Freedom 5 yrs ago, I liked the upgrades they made to the ship. I'm happy to see that the same upgrades are going to be made to Independence in April. 

ZombieBender

@Thalandor46 RE: JoCotels I stayed at CBS, there was a prearranged shuttle Radisson, although some I know drove there, I think not many others made it based on how jammed the Waffle House was the next day. #shuttlebuddies

Kvort_the_Duck

The variation in food quality is fascinating to me - my wife and I ate mostly in the MDR and thought it was great. She has food allergies and our waiter (we had fixed seating) and the head waiter were awesomely helpful. Considering we only eat at restaurants a couple times a year because of her allergies, the fact that we made it through an entire week without a reaction was AMAZING.

On the other hand, I thought the buffets weren't that impressive. Other than the crispy bacon of which I ate about six pounds, I didn't find much for breakfast that I really liked.

@keeksg - sorry that you had trouble with the food allergies, I know how infuriating that can be. If you didn't try fixed seating, you might want to try it next time - they took great care of my wife.