rimmit

Yep, the Oceanic had metal keys in 1991 when i sailed. The NCl seaward had plastic cards with holes in it, that cracked easily. Had to get it replaced several times.

On the explorer there was a 50% off only cocktails drink special from 3-5 on cococay day. Vodka tonic and bourbon and coke would NOT count. I had a long island and my mrs had a couple cosmos. 3.75 for a long island was quite a steal. Only day it ran.

I accidently hit send. In 1993 i went rcl and the sea pass was in place then.

This is what i can remember and i might be wrongIn 1991 i was on premier cruise line and no sea pass, In 1992 i was on ncl and no sea pass, in 1993 i was and no sea pass

Fun couples activities would be the hot tub at night, couples massage or spa treatment or personal training, go to lounge and just have a slow dance, sit at schooner bar or any bar and have drinks, as mentioned before quest, love and marriage game show. My wife and I live doing trivia. Ballroom dance classes. There are a ton!

Congrats on your first RCI cruise. Personally, I think the drink package is expensive for my drinking habits. A standard vodka tonic is typically 6.25ish plus gratuity so 7ish a drink. Takes about 8 drinks a day drinking the wells to break even. If you like fancier drinks you have a better chance of getting your moneys worth out of it.

My wife gets the coke package, at 7 dollars a day and we dont even break even on it as most days she drinks at most 2 diet cokes tops. We get it as we collect the cups as we have a coke cup from each cruise we have ever been on. I typically have a couple sips of coke off her cup a day, but I estimate i don't even "steal" a total of 2 full cups of pop throughout a whole cruise. Again, touchy subject here, but just telling you my experience with the packages.

Have fun! Nothing like being in your 20s on a cruise ship!

I have been on EVERY major american line over the last 23 years. This includes rccl, princess, carnival, ncl, disney, premier (no longer around), star (asia) based, celebrity and holland america.

Each line had pluses and minuses. After hopping around, I settled on RCI bc the loyalty program was the best, got reciprocity with Celebrity, and I felt it offered best bang for buck in terms of service and amenities vs cost.

Carnival, while cheaper, I felt compromised too much and I would rather pay more for a little better ship and service.

Each cruiseline has specific groups and demographics they advertised to.

Carnival from my experience, tends to like to party more, drink more, and have more fun. Hence the fun ship. In general younger demographic.

Rccl can be very tame and boring if you like to dance and party. Many people do not like this and want to party and dance a lot on vacation. I have friends who took one cruise on royal and never again bc they missed the party atmosphere.

To each his own. Hence the multitude of cruise options.

Disney is in a class of its own. They strive for perfection and come close to achieving it.

The Disney cruise I went on 10 months ago felt like how RCI used to do things. Chocolates on pillows, white glove service, spotless rooms, amazing entertainment, free soft drinks.

On the same front i paid 3200 for the cheapest inside stateroom for 3 people. Just cruised explorer and paid 2800 for 3 in a junior suite. You get what you pay for in the cruise industry.

I understand the laws of supply and demand.

I totally agree that it is what the market will bare. When the cruise industry tripled their beds in the late 90s early 2000s with the building boom, they could not fill the ships at the price points of the earlier days and thus opening cruising to the middle class. They then had to lower the price to fill the ships. In doing so the revenue per ship drops and thus cutbacks. Also much harder to guarantee good service watching 23 ships vs 8.

Now to get that white glove service you have to move to the smaller more expensive lines. Worth it for some but not for me.

I was just on the explorer and they said it was a cruise compass error that the second sea day was not a formal night

Cruises in the late 80s and early 90s cost more than what it is now in 2014 dollars. Cruising used to be significantly more expensive, and only affordable by the upper class.

Now cruising is easily affordable on a middle class income.

As someone that started cruising in 1990, i would gladly save thousands of dollars and not have the midnight buffets, pens, postcards, bags, pillow chocolates, daily ice in every room, actual bathroom amenities, luggage tags, table flowers, and the truly white glove service.

Although, I do miss them knowing your name before you got on the ship and the free in cabin movies and the free soft drinks in the dining room.

I do feel that the service is definitely degrading more quickly in the last year than previous though. Hopefully it is just isolated incidents, but I had a cabin steward never make my sons pack and play sheets for a whole 14 night trip and one who when I asked to turn down the room state "I was just getting done, and was gonna go off shift" than turn down my room cuz we left a little later cuz we were feeling ill.

There are two slides. One that goes up a deck but i never saw it open.

I think rci figured out what they can cut without making most passengers angry. Alcohol is the number one thing that if they tried to cut or reduce the amount people would complain. For example killing the champagne at the captain reception would make people go crazy. Dining room flowers and pillow chocolates not quite the same outrage.

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Hopefully it was a one time thing regarding the donuts as i liked the donuts and my son really liked them as well.

I am filipino and liked the pandesal "salt bread" in the am buffet and that was gone as well. Hopefully that is just ship dependent but it has been on my last several cruises. Not likely cost cutting maybe just head chef preference.

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I forgot about the bogo drink. That was the only coupon i used this trip. I normally use the internet and match plays as well.

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They tried to reduce benefits once already which resulted in the nighlty diamond events after the massive outrage if trying to kick the diamonds out of the diamond lounges and make it just for diamond plus on ships without a dedicated diamond lounge. Hopefully they wont make the same mistake twice.

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I was just on the explorer.

Per my waiter it was a cruise compass mistake. He said there are still two formal nights. Most still dressed up cuz it was valentines day and most of the cruisers are experienced and assumed it was formal night regardless of the compass.

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The coupon books are missing the match plays and free internet as well. Before it was 10 credit, now it is a discount. They cut out all the useful coupons.

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Long time lurker. Have been on 20+ cruises and just turned diamond on this last cruise with rci.

I was on this cruise as well.

The formal attire but casual in compass was a mistake. Formal night is always the second to last sea day on this itinerary and it happened to land on valentines day. Most people still dressed up if you noticed for two reason, they knew it was supposed to be formal night or bc it was valentines day. This was also lobster night, which is also formal night. i asked our waiter and he said it was a cruise compass mistake.

They also now cut out the flower in the middle if the table and now there is barely any silverware on the table. Just two forks and two knives. Makes the tables look quite barren.

The food also has taken a hit. I am not a foodie and dont care about food, but the standard daily free steak option on the mdr menu used to be ok. Now it is dry and terrible. I asked our waiter about it and he said that since they changed the menus that the steak is no longer good.

I noticed that the ribs were not as good as normal in windjammer. Normally pretty juicy but dry and tough this cruise. Also cut out donuts. My son loves the donuts and they cut those out.

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