kccrzr

We took ship tours in both Bahrain and Qatar, but according to the Cruise Compass the shuttle in Bahrain from port to town was $20 roundtrip per adult not $20 each way:

The shuttle in Qatar was $10 per adult round trip:

We just got off Jewel on December 31.  Things sound very bad now with Iran attacking not just military bases in Iraq but threatening UAE, with first priority target being Dubai  including resort area according to recent media stories. I hope the conflict can be de-escalated quickly.  

We found the cruisers on cruises we took from Bayonne were much more diverse than those from Galveston (where it seemed 95% of the cruisers were from Texas).

We saved $671 with the Senior rate last year on the Radiance sailing from Honolulu to Vancouver.  

With only one day, a hotel in the circular quay or rocks area would be my preference. We have stayed at the Marriott Circular Quay twice - it is a nice hotel in a great location to do either a walking tour, take a ferry ride, go to the bridge, etc

15 minutes ago, dj71 said:

Looking to book cat. 8D or 7D balcony on Western Med. / Harmony for week of June 13 but none are available through RCCI.  The itinerary just opened up 2 hours ago, how is this possible?

Did you call or just check the website?  I checked 4 different cruises on 2 different ships and each had only 2 categories of suites listed. It doesn’t seem likely so many suites would be reserved even by travel agents.  

Radiance Vancouver to Hawaii Sept 2021 is available for booking. 

Nevermind!  Just saw someone else posted earlier 🙂

18 minutes ago, Hogbay said:

We just of Radiance  transpacific, invitation card in cabin 4 days before , was lunch in Giovanni was fantastic wine and beer included 😉

That sounds great. I have been to 3 luncheons on 3 different ships and they were all in the MDR with the regular lunch menu. 

Last month we spent 12 nights on Vision on a great Med cruise.  The ship is in good condition.  We were in an aft JR suite so I can't comment about the OV cabins but our cabin and balcony were great.  The solarium is fine and is covered, which is a plus.

We purchased the 3 night dining package and also used both our D+ BOBO dining offers.  When we did eat in the MDR we had no issues with the food  except for the night the crew put on a little singing show - that night our food came out more lukewarm than hot.  Our MDR servers were excellent - I substituted some side items almost every night (because I'm on the KETO diet) with no problem.

All things being equal I would probably choose a ship with more specialty restaurants and entertainment venues.  However, all things are rarely equal and we sail Vision quite a bit because she seems to consistently have some of the best itineraries RCI offers and we almost always sail for itinerary vs ship.

The Activities Director staff was energetic and fun - a bit edgier than any other groups we've seen, but we enjoyed that.

I would not hesitate to sail Vision - especially a port intensive cruise.

When I booked the 3 night package I chose night 2 online.  Our experience on Vision was that no reservation was actually made and you choose the restaurant once on board.  Because we are D+, I asked if we could move the first night of the 3 night package back to later in the cruise so we could use our BOGO on nights 1 and 2 and we were allowed to do so.

It is available now for next week:  http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

On 9/29/2019 at 7:10 AM, kccrzr said:

Just returned from a great Med cruise and now have a duplicate Vision crystal block to trade.  I am interested in Anthem, Rhapsody, Jewel or Mariner.  If you have one of those blocks and are interested in trading, please let me know.

My Vision block has found a new home. Happy collecting everyone. 

Just returned from a great Med cruise and now have a duplicate Vision crystal block to trade.  I am interested in Anthem, Rhapsody, Jewel or Mariner.  If you have one of those blocks and are interested in trading, please let me know.

My young adult daughter cruised by herself out of Shanghai to Japan on Quantum and had a fantastic time.  Announcements were made in English as well as Mandarin even though there were very few native English speakers on board.

Much of the grumbling by other English speaking passengers on her particular sailing were that ship excursions were cancelled because insufficient people signed up to take them.  She planned to do and did all ports independently so was not bothered by this.  If you are arranging private excursions it will not be an issue.

My daughter enjoyed the food, particularly the hot pot in the Solarium Bistro.  She also enjoyed her time in Shanghai (she was there for a month).

We have seen the Northern Lights several times,  including on a Vision TA in 2017 which included Iceland in the itinerary. We will be on the Brilliance  in September 2020 which includes Iceland and Greenland and hope to see them again. 

This is is a photo we received on the Vision sailing....

The Northern Lights  are always magical but the our land trip to Iceland had even more beautiful sightings than from a ship.  

I usually have a vodka with club soda and lime; a vodka with sparkling water; a martini or wine. 

On my my last two cruises in addition to taking two bottles of wine on-board I also took six cans of sparkling water to use as mixers and ordered vodka for delivery to the room. 

On 8/15/2019 at 9:30 AM, travelgoddess1 said:

 

What Royal says and what Royal does are two different things.  They always promise C&A members a 1-day advance booking opportunity, prior to release to the general public, but I have yet to see it happen. 🤷‍♀️

The one time I recall getting early booking privileges was when Quantum first opened for bookings. 

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

^ Few would have guessed a few months ago Empress would be in Bayonne as the second ship for the '20 summer season.

Great itineraries but I wish it were a different ship.

30 minutes ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

That really helps!  Thank you so much!

Glad to be of help.  Have a great cruise.

On 7/27/2019 at 10:58 AM, DrivesLikeMario said:

It sounds like you were in a suite.  Can you tell me where you met the concierge for the escort off the ship?  

We met the concierge at Chops Grille.  Attached is a photo of the disembarkation letter we received from the concierge. 

The concierge also escorted us to a tender at our stop in Portofino - which was very helpful. 

We were just on Jewel a few weeks ago in an aft 2BR.  One night, we could not get internet access at all in our suite. The other days/nights, including on the pool deck, it was adequate but not stellar. 

Thanks for posting your thoughts/information.  I will be on the Mariner for the first time in 10 years in January, so this was helpful.

Although the printed information on the “Stay Awhile” program on our cruise the week before last shows two different late departure times (12:15 and 2:45), only one price was listed: $44.99 for adults and 22.99 for children 4-12. 

I transferred two reservations to a TA today. He asked if I wanted insurance and I declined.  The authorization form I received did not include a charge for insurance.  The TA called me back a few minutes later and told me that RCI had unilaterally added the insurance to both reservations when the transfers were approved. Luckily, he noticed and followed up. The TA told me this issue began about two weeks ago. 

Do not expect to be able to get off the ship shortly after docking. Last Sunday, we docked at 5:00 am. I had previously made arrangements to meet our driver from a Rome Cabs at 6:30 am but the departure letter I received from the concierge indicated disembarkation was not expected to begin until 6:45am 

We ended up doing self-assist (lugging/carrying our own bags) and being escorted off the ship by the concierge. We were in the first wave off. The notice that the ship had been cleared came at 6:50.

Rome Cabs (and some other companies offering transfers) pays for a special license to be able to pick up in the line of vans shown in the foreground of the photograph posted earlier.  We were told taxis are out at the exit to the port. 

Because we we were able to get off the ship and through the terminal quickly, traffic out of the port was not bad. We made good time on the road until just before we got to the airport, where it was stop and go due to weekend summer travelers. It took just at 1 hour to get to airport and pay the driver.

We we had a 10:40 flight to the US. The line at Alitalia to drop bags for US flights was very long but moved along consistently and fairly quickly given the length of the line  due to the number of desk agents working. We got through security in no time and ended up with about 40 minutes to spare before boarding.