undercat

I apologize if anyone got offended by my posts yesterday.

 

I did not intend to cause offense, nor did I try to link drugs with being gay because that is not the case. What I was meaning was that there are several ignorant and homophobic people out there who may use this as a way to justify their bigoted beliefs. It is not right, but unfortunately it does happen.

I read your post and completely understood your wording...no need to apologize to those that jump to conclusions or misunderstood.

 

 

 

Happy healthy life and travels to you.

I’m with Ashland, I understood what you were saying Joe12 and the unfortunate reality behind it. Thanks to you both for sharing your thoughts.

Part 4

 

 

 

Excursions-St Kitts' date=' Rail and Sail, The sail was wonderful, catamaran ride just beautiful, the rail was horrible.

To Be Continued.....[/quote']

 

We sailed the 9-day Indy holiday sailing last month, whose itinerary was basically the 8-day Freedom in reverse and with Antigua added (props to harryfat1 aka Cheapo dad for that description)

 

I’m curious as to what led to your description of the St. Kitts rail as “horrible.” We did the rail (minus the sail part) and enjoyed it, but it’s good to hear different viewpoints so that others who are considering booking these excursions can make informed choices.

 

Especially disappointing since we have been collecting ship shaped Christmas ornaments from previous cruises with the thought of starting our own fleet but Indy doesn’t have that. Only a big round ornament for 9 dollars.

 

 

 

I like collecting ship shaped key chains and/or ornaments. I too was disappointed at the lack of a ship shaped ornament or key chain. I bought the pricey pewter toned Indy magnet because I collect those too, I think it was $9 or something outrageous and it didn’t have ship facts stamped on it like occupancy, length etc but it was the closest thing they had to what I was seeking.

Husband collects the model ships, so we added model Indy to our collection.

I read someplace on CC that her UK-home-port audience isn’t as interested in buying Royal logo items as the Florida audience, which might explain the limited and basic (IMO) logo item assortment. Somehow a smattering of neon rubber and plastic Dollar Tree items printed with Independence of the Seas isn’t that special and “cruise-y” especially at 5x the Dollar Tree price.

(ETA: Nothing against Dollar Tree. I love Dollar Tree. I know how much things will cost in Dollar Tree. Just don’t tell Dollar Tree how much more they could mark up the items if they printed a ship’s name on them.)

We like to be comfortable on vacation, and standard cabins are TIGHT! A JS is most like a hotel room, with plenty of floor space, a larger bathroom than a standard cabin and on most ships, a lovely walk-in closet! Because the JS is wider than a standard cabin, so is the balcony. It's just a comfortable way to cruise!

This is exactly why we book a JS over the standard balcony cabin plus the double points. It's not a vacation if we are crammed into a cabin and have a small balcony.

Both of these. We bought up from a balcony to a JS guarantee on our recent Indy cruise when the prices dropped post-hurricanes. Loved, loved, loved the size and the layout of the cabin, closet, balcony. We do spend time in the cabin and on the balcony, and having room to spread out over nine days (technically nights but disembarkation day was really just a few morning hours) was great.

Thanks OP for asking because I was curious about the same thing, and thanks Bob for the insight!

Oh, good. It wasn't just my imagination that it was a fast muster drill.

 

 

 

I see from your signature that you are looking to the Navigator - is it the same time frame in late December for the 9 days ABC island cruise?

That’s the one - December 21, 2018 - which I have subsequently discovered is the last cruise before Navigator’s scheduled dry dock in January 2019 (which could explain why the pricing wasn’t too bad IMO for a 9-night holiday sailing)

We were recently on the Inde TA and following the stop at St Kitts there was a significant and very visible increase in the number of uniformed security guards all over the ship. I thought the ship was lost and we were going through the Gulf of Aden or something.

 

 

 

All of the guards that I saw had body cameras and some had zip ties in their belts. There were rumours going around that there were several thefts and assaults on board but again, just rumours.

I too noticed the suddenly increased security presence on the Dec. 21 Indy cruise, and wondered what might have spurred it. I hadn’t heard the incident rumors.

But before that, we had to do the mandatory muster drill. This one seems to be faster than the Freedom one for whatever reason.

I've only taken a handful of cruises, but this was the fastest muster of all of my cruises. I was pleasantly surprised.

Looking forward to your report and experiencing this wonderful cruise again!

Currently on Indy. There is daily Mass at 8am, Christmas Eve Mass tonight at midnight, Christmas Day Mass tomorrow Dec. 25 at 8am and Christmas non denominational service Dec. 25 at 9am.

On Indy now. Received handout in the terminal about delayed embarkation but we were onboard just before noon (sailing in a JS). WJ is self serve except for drinks. Cabins won't be accessible until 3pm.

Multiple posters have recently described Indy’s cabins as looking “tired”. Might anyone have photos of the wear and tear in these cabins? Are the mattresses U-shaped with wear and carpets and upholstery threadbare? Are there signs of lack of maintenance or is housekeeping substandard? I know she’s headed for dry dock in 2018, but I’m curious as to current condition in light of recent cabin condition comments.

And because I inquired, I’ll plan to post a photo or two of any *notable* cabin exhaustion I encounter (related to the furnishings and not the occupants, of course [emoji4])

If it’s clean and well-maintained, I’m good.

Bob. Drink cards were on the compss today. $85/10 drinks.

 

 

 

They are taking two punches on the coffee card for large and Iced coffees at Café Prominade even though it’s incorrect.

 

 

 

We have clarification from Miami that it’s any size any type, and have had to fight them each time, even after the food and beverage manager said he’d fix the problem.

Thanks for the report. I purchased a coffee card for our upcoming Indy cruise, and it sounds like I might as well prepare for a daily barista coaching session coupled with a printout from the Royal website in order to have my Americano billed as a single drink (and single punch). Not my idea of a good time, especially not on vacation, double-especially not before coffee.

Royal may ultimately prevail in this one for me, because I’m considering canceling the card and opting for (the much pricier) Royal Replenish so that I can get my sparkling water plus all the hassle-free Americanos I can handle.

Thank you for your live report! It was great sailing along, and the ship was wonderful! Happy Holidays!

Thanks for the heads up about Capitano. I saw another recent poor review of the food there so I will save my time and money instead.

"Java Joe", coffee, latte, etc. maker extraordinaire seems to be on 100% of time. Super nice young man, and just the smiling face one wants to see in the morning.

Java Joe rocks!

Love2Cruz2015 and Rosethorn40, did either of you sign up for the Behind the Fun tour? It was sold out with a long waitlist when we boarded around 1.

Great posts so far! We missed the Christmas tree lighting, wandering around checking out the sights. I agree, Matt is great.

Congrats! Enjoy the Vista!

It really is strange at all. Cruise TT is very inaccurate. I have run in to that a lot that is why I stopped looking there. There are errors on most of the sites but I use also use the cruisetimetables most of the time.

I stopped using CruiseTT a long time ago due to inaccuracies. I find cruisetimetables to be the best for me.

Same here!

We did the BTF tour on Glory this past January and we loved it. BTF is something one can only experience on a ship. We live near a major city and can have gourmet dining or molecular gastronomy experiences anytime, plus we don't drink so we wouldn't get the full dollar "value" for the CT price. Not to say CT isn't still a lovely experience, it just holds a different value for us. For us, shipboard geekery (I mean this in a good way!) won out. We plan to do BTF on the Vista as well.

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Keep the photos and "live from" coming! Wishing you a great sailing!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Thanks for posting! I'd originally thought we'd be on this sailing too, then our work schedules changed. I'll follow along in this thread and ADS94's. Wishing you a great sailing!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Thanks OP for your review and for the heads-up about the "watering down" of the fruit juices. DH and I don't drink. Did any of the tour operators hold out some of the juices and keep them virgin? I'm assuming (although I know what happens when we 'assume') that they could hold some out upon request, otherwise we'd just bring bottled water from the ship.