jticarruthers

Thanks for the feedback, hoping to do both ziplines but one is still a better day than the office 😉

Is anyone seeing this excursion available to book?

We had a 5 nighter booked for October and reserved both the zipline's (Dragon's breath is the original and Dragon's fire apparently is a superman style on right next door).

Just rebooked on Allure for May and it only shows the Breath, Fire is not listed. Wondering if it got damaged, is just full, etc.

THis explains why they are "unboarding" the people who just boarded Sky this afternoon ... they didnt even make it to sailaway 😞

Itineraries and pricing are available for all to see (only through October 2020 or so though).

No info on how you book, just a popup saying "see your email if you put down a deposit", but nothing in my email :)

Website is open to review itineraries and price, but no email yet telling us how to book.

Nothing catching my attention that I feel like paying for, refund time for me as well I guess.

Pity, fan of the Virgin brand but just not feeling it for Virgin Voyages.

Received email today with the link to the cabin info and also a link to destinations.

Cuba (as previously announced)

Costa Maya

Peurto Plato - Dominican Republic

and one still TBD

Sounds like 4/5 night itineraries not 7 night though ?

Email today revealed some more ..

Costa Maya and Puerto Plato in the Dominican Republic, almost seems like they are going to be doing 5/5/4 night rotation instead of 7 night cruises though.

Talks about  4 and 5 night Cuba and 5 night Costa Maya or Peurto Plato .... it also leaves a little bait with "one more destination still to be announced though".

We swore we would be loyal royals but after a few years of (in our opinion) gradually declining service/value decided to give some other options a try. NCL Escape was a good alternative to Royal, really impressed by Carnival Vista and looking forward to trying MSC Seaside, still like Royal but not longer feel it to be the clear "best" option.

In regards to NCL we thought the value for the $ was much better, room including drinks package cost less than comparable room on Freedom class never mind Oasis class.

Food was generally similar, we expected to miss the "main dining room" experience but found the free options and flexibility on Escape to be a nice change.

Shows were definitely not as good as Royal but we aren't big production show people so no big deal.

Water slides, ropes course, etc. were a nice alternative to the offerings on Royal/Oasis, whether they were more or better depends on what you would use and what ship you compare to. Harmony has slides. Oasis/Allure don't for example.

In general I would say the cruise experience was about the same, but the cost was lower so the value was better.

RCI has had a continuous sale since May 2014 ,,, the name keeps changing but the sale never ends and the price just gradually increases as it always did ... but its much more likely to bring in new cruisers who think they are getting a great deal because its "on sale".

Adventure was partially refurbished last year.

AFAIK no cabins were refurbed in last years aborted drydock.

I saw posts from people who were told that they were going to try and refurb cabins "on the fly" but I have a hard time seeing any significant refurb work being done while the ship is sailing.

No policy change ... it has been RCI policy for years to tell us that we are getting early access when in fact we are not.

Bob, don't think we can claim "as intended" not sure RCI even knows it has a website ... I believe they chalk it up to magic that somehow their customers are able to make reservations for their product.

Just so folks know, you can get pretty much ANY drink at ANY bar!

Not necessarily true ... we had several instances on Adventure where they directed us to a different bar. One of the bartenders explained that they were trying to create a "theme" for each bar and deliberately did not stock all ingredients at all bars.

I think they talk about "1 day" early but as many have already noted it never works.

I'm convinced service issues like this are cruise to cruise and can change on a whim. Last year, on Oasis, our waiter was great, nice, but everything was slow - especially getting drinks. Painfully. We also did Carnival Glory last year and the waiters were anything but overwhelmed, the service was honestly nearly spectacular. The bar person was a rock star and our drinks were nearly instantaneous. Of course, you now had the opposite experience. Would be nice if the lines could be more consistent.

Its definitely hit and miss, just wish I could figure out why.

Havent had anything close to good drink service in the MDR on my last 3 RCI cruises. Most recent cruise we didn't even see a drink server until the last night, meanwhile an acquaintance who was on the other side of the room was posting that it was the best drink service he has experienced in MDR in a long time.

Its been a while since I was in either of those specific cabins but every aft cabin on Voyager/Freedom that I have had offered loungers along with the chairs.

Cant recall the bed/couch layout for those cabins specifically, sorry.

As noted generally more similar than different, I would say that Carnival has generally an older more seasoned fleet but I loved Vista and would match it up against anything in RCL's fleet as a solid alternative.

My 14 year old (5'6" or so) son is still able to use the Pullman, its starting to get uncomfortable for him but not too bad so far.

The bed is high enough above you that you are unlikely to hit your head on it unless engaged in athletic activities of some kind ;)

The only issue we have ever run into with him is finding a good place for the ladder where it isn't in the way of one of the adults trying to get up to go to the bathroom at night for example.

We started with Carnival and "moved up" to Royal ... over time found that for what we looked for on a cruise Royal dropped back to the pack and there wasn't a huge difference. Sailed NCL, CCL and RCL last year and found them more similar than different.

I think a lot has to do with the ships ... I would pretty much the whole RCL fleet above most of the CCL fleet in terms of quality of amenities and ship itself but if you start comparing Vista and NCL Escape for example, I found them very comparable to what RCL has to offer in terms of ship.

Then you get into the cruise flavor and what you cruise for ... production shows, edge to RCL, comedy clubs, edge to CCL, etc.

Generally speaking I am finding better value at NCL/CCL's top ships at the moment which is why my cruise $ are sliding that way but still looking for RCL options that catch my eye.

The point made of having 2 people reserved in a cabin for 3 or 4 is correct & can get you bumped. I've never had an aft balcony but here is what I've heard you can do & in fact, I was told this on our last cruise by someone who booked a corner aft balcony for just two. It worked for them.

1. Add a third person.

2. Pay the minimum required.

3. Drop the 3rd person right before or at due date.

4. Receive your paid monies back.

5. The cabin is yours.

Not sure that is would work as I almost did it by "accident" and it was not working out this way.

We are a party of three and had a corner aft booked, right before final my wife was thinking she might have to back out but that my son and I could go without her. Called into RCI to ask what would happen and was informed that dropping from 3 to 2 would mean that I would have to move from the E1 cabin to the E2 cabin class, losing the corner balcony and incurring a reprice ... at which point my new 2 person cabin was going to cost more than my original 3 person cabin. I decided at that point that we would be better off just having her do a no-show if it came to it and at least getting her taxes & fees refunded rather than paying more for a lesser cabin.

Ended up being a non-issue as she was able to go so I cant state that the above "did" happen only that I was told it "would " happen if I followed through on dropping the 3rd person before final payment.

So nice that you've locked up a cabin that you'll never sail in. ;)

I didn't make up the rules of the game, I just play with the rules I am given.

Given that the prices frequently go up hundreds or even thousands of dollars between when the cruises become available to book and when I am able to lock in work and school schedules its worth it to me to put down deposits to hold options.

Rhapsody vs Oasis is almost like life boat vs mother ship. Personally I like the mid-size ships quite a bit but if you are a big ship fan then Rhapsody is probably going to disappoint.

Not sure exactly what the OP means by placeholder but there are a couple of time I have done what could be considered "placeholding".

One is as described above ... the benefits of booking on board are good enough that I booked a cruise I knew I would not take just to get the benefits locked in and then later changed the cruise to one that I wanted to take (in my case I was waiting on the schedule to roll forward so that the cruise I did want would be available to book).

The other I do all the time is throw deposits on cruises that I might be interested in as "placeholders" to save my cabin/pricing while I consider options. For example, I currently have two cruises booked for this Thanksgiving ... clearly I wont take both but have not yet decided which one I will take and in the meantime I have "early booking" price and cabin selection locked in.

Done Balcony on Allure and it was good, did an oceanview on Escape and thought the overall cruise experience was comparable ... given the choice of Have on Escape or Balcony on Allure I would be in the Haven without a second thought. If you want to do an O class just to see if you have been missing anything I would do Harmony.