CarnieAddict

What date are u sailing in feb? My wife and I are going on the 15th.

Will they have the new canal and port for the large ships done in time for 2014 in Venice?

You might consider the Norwegian Spirit........a truly unique ship with a capacity of about 1,800+.

That is the ship I would recomend. My mom and dad went on it on the 12 day cruise. Plus the Spirit will be allowed right in Venice cause of her weight.

From what I can tell the room I'm looking at is almost bellow the main pool.

Is 8190 a regular balcony or premium balcony?

Anyone have experience with this level? How noisie is above you? We are looking at room 8168 for Hawaii. Its a premium balcony. Looked at the deck below but the only premium balcony left is 500 dollars more and its tucked behind an elevator. Any advice?

Maybe they are just trying to save money on fuel. .

For the price of the Allure, I wouldn't want my options limited by a ship malfunction. Even if it's Nassau. I can understand why anyone would be upset. I was gonna book my next cruise on allure but now I will wait.

Om surprised the news isn't all over this. If it was a Carnival ship they would be.

I don't think so

I was thinking the same. I watched a video on the Allure the other day and the props are HUGE.

So you came over to the RCI boards to defend Carnivals honor? Too funny. :D:p:D:rolleyes:

No. I was just looking to see what people were saying about RCI cause I was thinking about trying the Allure or Quantum in 2015.

With all do respect you opened up your self for some flames when you said you looked down on some cruise lines. People will defend what they like.

The following is a letter I wrote to RCI after returning from recent cruise on the Grandeur and I wanted to share it to see if there are others that feel the same way as I do.

 

We boarded the Grandeur as a small group of 8 for a mini-family reunion. My husband and I have cruised ONLY RCI for all of our cruising since 1983 and just became diamonds, even though we have not retired yet. With this being an 8 day itinerary we were expecting things to be a little more "special" when it came to the dining experience (particularly the food choices). But we were quite disappointed in this, ANOTHER, new menu. It seems that every time a "new" menu comes out, its worse. There were at least 3 days where I could fine NOTHING on the entree menu that appealed to me, and I am not a picky person. That has never happened on any of my previous cruises. In fact, just the opposite, where I had 2 that I had a hard time to pick between. The food wasn't very good, in our opinion. That, and the shape of the ship was our biggest complaints. Instead of building new ships all of the time, why don't you take some of that money and keep the older ones in better shape, or sell them. I can remember RCI on my first trip... We couldn't get over the fact that almost everywhere we looked (behind the scenes, for the most part) there were crew members cleaning, painting, wiping something down all day long. We were in a junior suite and didn't enjoy the balcony for all of the salt built up on the banister and furniture. With paying extra for the JR suite, I would have thought that it would have been part of the every day clean up. The wood in the room was well worn and the bed was very uncomfortable (hard, and we could feel the crack where the bed comes together). We had to ASK for robes (even though we were Diamonds and in a JR suite) and for stationary (come on, really?). RCI seems to be slowly but surely taking away all that makes them the special company we've come to know and love. You took away the nice welcome back gifts, lowered the crown and anchor amenities, even took away the stationary, the mints on the pillows, and so much more. Those were all the things that made us "feel" like "royalty". I have brought SO MANY people to RCI cruising. Many first time cruisers have joined us, and we always recommend RCI when someone says they are thinking of cruising. But, its not like it used to be. NOW, with that in mind, it brings out our biggest point... WHY is RCI trying to keep their prices down so much and then it forces you to lose the great things that make her what she was always known to be? The prices havn't gone up with the economy. We've said it many times... Raise the price a little if you need to in order to pay for those little things that makes a person walk off that ship feeling like they were just treated so special that they can't wait to come back! I'm wanting to come back less and less, the more you cut things, truly... Keeping your prices a little more than the other cruise lines will make the people that don't care about the classiness take Carnival again. Instead, I'm hearing more and more good things about the ships I always looked down on. Sure, because Royal Caribbean is lowering its prices to fill all of these new ships and consequently having to cut costs - then its quality is no better. So "WHY NOT" try the other cruise lines??? I'm really disappointed, and from what I heard from other long time cruisers (in the diamond lounge), so are they. This is serious, RCI, you might want to re-think what you are doing here...

 

With all of that said, the entertainment was superb! But unfortunately, that leads me to another complaint. When we choose the Main dinner seating, we should be able to finish our meals and go to the show and not have to STAND to watch it! I don't know if its My Time Dining people filling it up or its all of the people choosing to go to the Windjammer (for the better food selections), but it is out of control. Please look better into this because this was NOT unique to this ship. Its been a problem for several cruises now. We shouldn't have to inhale our entree, skip our dessert and run to the other end of the ship to try to find a seat period, let alone 2 together!!!!

 

I'm not trying to get some onboard credits on my next cruise because I'm complaining... I'm trying to get RCI to look at these complaints seriously and reconsider all of these cuts in amenities instead of just letting your price be a little more than the other cruise lines, because you want people to FEEL like "Royal" Caribbean cruisers... If you do, I know we'll still pay extra to be on it, otherwise, we might as well lose our faithfulness to RCI and try the other cruise lines.

Im not sure if you looked at prices, but RCI are more money then a lot of the other cruise lines.