Over Land & Sea

Thanks for all the updates looking forward to boarding on Monday,hope you are feeling better soon.

@insidecabin  Thanks for the heads up, always try to pace myself but usually end up lapping myself, we've been given 5 embarkation times on various emails so have printed the one that suits us best (midday) and going from there. Have a great time.

Thanks for taking the time for all the updates, we will be boarding after the end of your cruise for our first MSC voyage. Any tips for first timers to the Virtuosa would be gratefully received.

19 hours ago, JEH said:

Any chance the Tina Turner Concert will be shown ? I'm  a longtime  Princess cruiser and it's  been shown it seems  on every cruise   I've  been on.

Only noted UB40 & the Stones, there was maybe another 2 concert films but I don't recollect who they were. Had they have been Tina Turner I would've been dragged there by the missus!

18 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

John Heald announced the ones Carnival ships are showing since last week and through October:
 

Cruella

F9 Fast & Furious

Hocus Pocus

In the Heights

Maleficent Mistress of Evil

Nomadland

Raya and the Last Dragon

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

The Boss Baby: Family Business

The Invisible Man

 

Not too much difference timewise to pre pandemic delays, at least Carnival don't seem to be skimping on their movies budget.

21 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

Remember very few movies have been released in the past year so you will encounter less New Releases because they don’t exist.

 

Despite there being no cinemas open due to the pandemic there has been plenty of major movies released albeit direct to the Film companies' own streaming sites. 

Disney+ , Warner Brothers' HBO Max & Netflix have premiered films which should have been in cinemas, many of these could have been shown onboard as I can't see film companies turning down an additional revenue stream.

It would be interesting to know what other cruise lines are showing at the moment.

Worst movies at sea selection I have encountered on our Sky Princess seacation, all roughly 2 years old. Incidentally they were usually shown at such a low volume they were basically a backdrop, especially during the day when pool deck was crowded.

I medallion apped guest services who said they would sort it out but to no avail.

Usually on Carnival, Disney & RCL you get films about the same time as they are released to streaming sites or for DVD, which is about 3-6 months after cinema release.

Our choice was;

Big

Devil wears Prada

Tenet

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Martian

Ad Astra

Knives Out

Also a few concert films (I can only recall UB40 & Rolling Stones)

Very fair and accurate review, it echoes many of the things we noted on our 13th Sept. 'seacation' cruise both in our personal experience & comments from fellow cruisers.

47 minutes ago, UKCruiseRCL said:

We are booked on the 2nd August out of Southampton. Zero chance of it going ahead so just wish RCL would hurry up and announce it formally. Just made final payment as well (albeit 10 days late), nothing more than an interest free loan I fear

Same as us, we've held off on final payment and unsurprisingly have not been chased up on it yet. Just waiting for official cancellation to then sort out refunds on flights.

Scant info, however if it follows previous government orders it will add a further 2-3 weeks on existing ban. Getting closer to our August cruise out of Barcelona.

https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/international/2020/06/13/68409/spain-continuing-ban-cruise-ships.html

It most definitely wasn’t a normal RCI cruise. Some of our “travelling” companions really took over the bars and facilities and, tbh, spoilt it for the rest of us.

Yes I noticed a lot of travellers

I hope you don't have similar issues with the large groups of fellow travellers we had onboard, who had the drinks packages and who were determined to get full value out of them.

Some atrocious behavior, language, lack of manners, very interesting fashions, and I felt so sorry for the staff who barely heard a 'please' or a 'thank you' for the 2 days. Plenty of stag and hen parties too. If it was my first cruise it probably would have been my last!

In total agreement

I am amazed you were able to get on the ship by 10.30, we were on the 2 day cruise and I have never seen such a queue for guest services. We disembarked at 10.00 and the line stretched from the GS counter back over the bridge and snaked across the royal promenade almost to vintages, and there was constant announcements advising people to sit anywhere away from deck 5.

Masses of complaints of towel charges, excursion charges and bar charges added to onboard account. We had one erroneous bar charge (we were on the package) which I had removed last night, probably would not have bothered to do it today once I saw the queue. Recommend you regularly keep an eye on your account via the cabin tv.

Have a great cruise

Dear group, anyone else here booked on the Horizon for the 15th of April? Today I found out that our Cheers Package was refunded without any reason... just an email that our Cheers package was inadvertently cancelled and that a refund was processed... I began doing some research and I found the message about the possible delay because of the painting... now I am a bit worried. Anyone else here with a refund without any reason?

No delays, however ring Fun Shop & get Cheers reinstated at original price without tax as well as OBC for additional currency conversion charges your bank may demand for the various transactions due to their error.

Another CC thread had page from Il Piccolo de Trieste dated 14th March which I presume Walker cherry picked his info from before blowing it out of proportion. Totally agree any problems are probably down to the shipbuilders.

Of course he did. He's the brand ambassador and will say what the people want to hear. :)

I'd be more likely to believe him than that B/S merchant Walker who just manipulates facts or rumours to take pot shots at the big cruise lines for his sea ambulance chasing firm.

Is it not the 15th May?

Horizon is now leaving Fincantieri to start sea trials.

Ports

Our itinerary was Le Havre, Cherbourg, sea day, Bilbao, Gijon & sea day. Having gone through the excursions on offer before setting sail we did not find anything that took our fancy, so decided that we would wait and see whether we got off on either of the Spanish stops. We felt that we didn't want to see either of the French ports and would rather get used to the ship. Ultimately we stayed on board for the whole duration of the cruise.

Bars

As the cruise was from the UK the majority of passengers were on an all inclusive package as a result a lot of people looking to get there money's worth. Having sailed on the Anthem last year on a similar deal I knew what to expect. However there appeared to be a reduced number of bar staff in many of the bars often leading to extended waits for drink.

We didn't go to the late night venues such as Labyrinth or Olive'n'Twist but had at least a few drinks in most of the others.

Sky Bar & Windjammer Bar were the slowest & most inefficient service we encountered, at both bars staff just asked who's next & you had to hope for the good grace of the other drinkers. A couple of visits & these two were off my list very quickly.

Pyramid Lounge was mainly an afternoon visit and staff were pretty good, Schooner was often long waits especially evenings & quizzes one extra staff needed.

Pool bar was usually a wait, this was run by 3 West Indians who to say the least were laid back, they also were prone to talking patois to each other in front of customers often followed by much laughter. Apart from being rude quite a few people left the bar annoyed, also they would always make an excuse for not blending the alcohol in the Daiquiris and just pouring the mix onto the rum. The only time my partner got a Daiquiri how she likes it was when one of the other staff were on duty, I guess they didn't want to wash the blender jugs as there was always some in the bottom each time they started a new drink.

At about 2.00pm each day a pop up bar was opened adjacent to the lifeguard station usually run by Joy. This was my go to bar on the pool deck, it was usually run by Joy, a cheerful chatty guy who was one of the few bar staff I encountered who seemed to genuinely enjoy his job. As I would usually sit near the bar he would often call out to see if I needed a refill also he made our drinks exactly as we wanted them.

The promenade venues were usually rammed and as a consequence there was often a bit of a wait. The Dog & Badger had Guiness on tap but the staff couldn't pour a decent pint, the beer would invariably end up with a head bigger than Donald Trump's.

We probably spent most of our evenings in the champagne bar, the staff were very good and in Lorenzo had the best barman we encountered. The drinks were mixed well and he knew all the regulars by name and had a very dry sense of humour.

All in all a real mixed bag of bars and I found myself gravitating to just a couple rather than being happy to drink wherever I was on the ship at any given time as I had on previous cruises.

Just Cancelled next one, maybe never!!

For a 6am docking you should have no problems if transfer is pre-booked.

Got off Independence of the Seas last Saturday after a not very good cruise and salt in the wound found that £18.70 had been charged to our credit card in addition to final bill total. This was a separate transaction and no invoice or request was sent to us from RCL in relation to the charge. It's only that I was aware of these post cruise charges that I know it was for water.

Whilst on board I asked guest services to remove the water & ensure it was logged as I was aware of problems with charges for this ship. Cabin steward came and took them away, therefore he was also aware of situation.

It looks more likely that this is a head office directive to screw passengers for even more money on the basis that most either won't notice charges or not be bothered to go through a long premium line call.

I'll be taking this up with RCL and also ensuring that the cancelled pre-paid gratuities we requested on board are also credited, unsurprisingly no sign of them yet.

My dad bought one and got a lifetime guarantee. Unfortunately the mainspring popped out and slashed his wrist, I couldn't even sue for false advertising. ;);)

Thank you all so much! I have been completely stressed because 2 of my friends and I are celebrating the big 5-0 and this is our gift to ourselves. The ONLY thing that I wanted to do was this IFly thing. I didn't realize that you could book everything online in advance. I was DEVASTATED to learn that it was all booked up-- to the point that I called what I thought was corporate to see if there was anything they could do to secure a spot. I got 2 different stories: 1. There would be spots available when I board and 2. Whoever told you that there would be spots available doesn't know what they are talking about and they are going to look into who told me that. Too much drama. I was disappointed at the conflicting reports and that both parties worked for Royal Caribbean and two totally different answers. Thank you for reading and trying to assist. I will go immediately upon boarding to the desk to try to secure a spot.

If you get no joy pre-cruise I would suggest making it your first port of call whenever they open on embarkation day, just be prepared to get in the standby queue.

Those guys are absolute rock stars, they carried my 16 year old disabled daughter up two flights of stairs so she could do her flight. The disabled lift was not working & they could have quite easily pulled the health & safety card and refused. Then the following week when we asked if the lift had been fixed they said it hadn't but were still happy to carry her up again if a standby spot came up. One happy daughter one hefty tip for the team, priceless.

Review continues;

State of the ship

Having sailed on the sister ship Liberty we knew what to expect and Indy compared favourably at first glance. The public areas were fine and kept clean & tidy, however as the day progressed continued cleaning was often lacking.

Wear & tear was evident throughout most public areas with some make do remedial work carried out. Sitting by the windows on the pool decks I was surprised how much black mould was evident around the glazing, certainly a first on a cruise for me.

A dry dock is scheduled for next year hopefully this will reduce a lot of the negatives but I think also may have created a laissez faire attitude to freshening the public areas in the meantime.

Cabins

The basic interior cabin (9357) which I was in was fine, I shared the room with our 8 yr old daughter. Had I been with an adult space and storage may have been a bit tight. There was very little space between the sides ot the bed and either wall. Again wear & tear was noted especially around the shower which had several layers of bonding at low level.

The accesible cabin (9359) was very spacious not a lot smaller than an interior family cabin we had on a Disney cruise, as a result my youngest said she would stay with her mum and sister. I naturally took great offence and consoled myself with the late night pass I had got!

The fridge was not working so a small fridge had been left on the floor, this along with the pointless coffee table drastically reduced the floor space inhibiting my daughter's wheelchair from getting around the cabin. We got these two items removed by our cabin steward and just used the fridge next door.

Whilst I commented on the fabric of the cabins my partner wasn't impressed by the fabrics, feeling the whole look was dated and dull.

Both cabins had a kettle and a few sachets, approx 16 coat hangers, 2 of each US & euro sockets (we bought a 4 gang adaptor for the many phones, tablets etc). Basic shampoo dispenser in shower and soap and good bathroom storage.

Though 9359 was classed as accessible neither the cabin or bathroom doors opened automatically and there was a small raised threshold on both doors. This was not a problem for us as we pushed our daughter, but for anyone in a wheelchair travelling solo it may cause a problem as both are quite heavy. The cabin door had a lower peephole and most of the light switches could have been reached.

The toilet had a rail and emergency cord, the shower had a secondary hand spray and a small shower chair although this was very stiff to move.