Mark-Sheffield

A colleague of mine is going on her first cruise ever next month to the Caribbean with her husband who is a very reluctant cruiser and we was duscussing Irma the other day. The first thing we talked about was the safety of the residents on the island's that they are due to visit which includes St Maarten, the second was the damage to the infrastructure and lastly their cruise to that island.

I suggested that P&O like the other cruise companies will probably be making numerous phone calls to the harbour authorities of the other islands that have not been in the path of the hurricane. The past thing any company would want to do is cancel a cruise because of the significant loss of revenue.

My family and I have been on two Caribbean cruises and we have some fantastic memories of visiting St Maarten and we are planning on going again in a few years time.

How my discussion ended was that if they cannot visit the affected islands, then its a good excuse for another cruise ! However, my colleague said it was unlikely they would be going on another cruise for a number of reasons and they are bitterly disappointed that it is highly likely they cannot visit St Maarten.

Now that is not a selfish or unfeeling emotion, its a fact that they have saved for this holiday for 18 months and for them the highlight of that cruise is likely to be bypassed.

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We are booked in a suite on Vision of the Seas and will be embarking at Barcelona. My question is do RCI still have priority boarding at that port ?

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We stayed in the RS last year and our son in a inside cabin got his luggage before us, nearly two hours !!!

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My wife, daughter and I did the tour a few years ago on Indy. Well worth the cost. Really enjoyed it. I thought for us it was nearer to 4 hour's, lots of walking as previously mentioned

Really interested to find out how they manage the ripeness of fruit using different temps in different rooms.

Also what happens to all the waste produced on the ship.

You'll never look at a ship the same way again.

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Like many we picked this cruise because of the itinerary not the ship. So we are looking forward to exploring a new ship for us.

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We have sailed the Vision twice and it is one of our favourite ships.

 

We had ample storage for the 2 of us (we don't travel light), but no fridge. We really like the service & food on the Vision in the MDR. Probably the best we have had. Chops was awesome. Giovanni's service and food, not so good.

 

We found Capt Marek to be a pain in the backside. We didn't care for him at all. The major annoyance was him doing birthday announcements at 7.30am. It was audible through the door from the speakers in the hallway & woke us every day.

Just read this posting and it did make me chuckle quite loudly, probably not as loud as a PA speaker next to your door at 7.30am !!!

I suppose every Capt is different, some you rarely here from or see.

A P&O Capt a couple of years ago used to do Thought for today. Which we used to look forward to.

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We have booked the 12 night on Vision next May from Barcelona, the ports were the deciding factor, rather than the ship for us.

We are going on Vision next year, so i will follow this thread with interest !

We have used a company in Europe called Cruisingexcursions.com and we thought they provided a good value alternative to RCI. I believe they also operate in the Caribbean as well.

We're going to book for May 2018 in Europe, when the brochure comes out next March 😆

We go on next cruise in two days time and this time i am going to be more aware of portions and types of food. Having lost over 3 stones i don't want to super size myself so will be picking meals more wisely now.

9 days now until boarding Indy 😎

We are going on Indy in less than 2 weeks and i am tempted with the 30% off deal. But is this just another marketing ploy to generate revenue before departure ?

It probably doesn't make a diff on ships without real Voom - there's likely no diff between the two tiers. Making calls might be iffy, but you should be able to do the rest.

But what's real Voom ? I have not seem any quoted speeds of the upgrade on the ships that this has been added too ?

Well if these changes to the loyalty programme start on the 1st May, let the countdown begin.

I would be interested to see some speed tests. If anyone is currently on a ship that has had the upgrade ?

14 days for us boarding Indy 😎

I have not seen any mention of speeds for Voom that has been added to ships recently.

No speeds have been quoted, but the various packages and options include media streaming.

Just checked out the RCI online booking page and sure enough Voom internet will be available for our cruise on the 14th May 2016.

Will check that out. I was wondering whether it would be available. Even though the message from RCI said it would be!!!

21 days for us boarding Indy. 😎

We last sailed on Indy 3 years ago and every sea day in ate in Chops. It was a lovely treat.

Just got off of the Liberty and there is breakfast everyday and lunch, with menu, on seas days.

Looks like the infamous fleet wide consistently with RCI is again being implemented.

That was my understanding in terms of a 20% discount. But i suppose if they get sufficient bookings on the first night then they won't offer the discount.