Mark-Sheffield

Somebody on our roll call said it was starting in June 2016 ?

These behind the scenes tours are brilliant. We did the all access tour on Indy and the galley bit of the tour was very interesting and if this had just been offered I would just done that.

The only problem with fly cruises are luggage. That's another thread. But the advantage is that when you get off the plane it's fantastic weather. Some great islands

Been on the Azura twice and cannot think of any bad balcony cabins. The aft cabin balconies are a good size on Azura and offer fantastic views. You will have a unforgettable holiday.

It was not that we felt any sea sickness, just the noise and inability to move around the cabin - as most journeys through the bay, outward, are at night it was most uncomfortable. Oh and we do like the sun, so never from Southampton again, it will always be a fly cruise for us in future - cannot be beaten.

Where's your spirit of adventure !!! LOL,

Problem with fly cruises is the luggage allowance which causes my wife horrendous decisions about packing. Grrrrrr

We always book as soon as the dates are released in order to get the cabin we want. We try to negotiate with the travel agent to get the best possible price and any accompanying offers.

I agree with check in / check out of towels with RCI as this discourages chair hogs. On P&O you get blue pool towels in your cabin so chair hogs are rife. Walk around any deck area at 8am and there is row upon row of blue towels with the assorted books and magazines and no bums on seats !

Yep, I was deemed a chair hog since I got there at 7 and stayed till 1. Never really took my butt out of the chair the entire time.

 

Apparently that is not fair to the late risers

Maybe the late risers should have one less drink and set there alarm clocks and stop whining ! :-)

Waiting for the next update!

As a Gold Sea Pass holder I cannot understand why the chair hog was mingling with the minions? Rather than annoying his fellow suite buddies in the reserved area ?

Its good to hear that RCI have a fleet wide policy :D

From the Wolf of Wall Street film, it's only a bit of chop !!!

No it was made to order for breakfast. Very nice, well perfect to be honest how it was cooked.

Is breakfast and lunch in Chops free for suite guests on the Independence? Is it open for lunch on embarkation day?

On our last cruise on Indy, Chops was closed on embarkation day at lunch time. Breakfast and lunch thereafter in Chops is complimentary for Gold Card holders.

We have done a lot of research for the RS on Indy because we have booked it for next year. And we are sharing with our daughter and her friend and there is two bathrooms, although the smaller one just has a sink, WC and a shower.

I can't tell from the layout picture. How many bathrooms does it have? (Please say two) Thanks!

Liberty is a Freedom Class ship so the Royal Suite should be the same as Indy and Freedom of the seas, which have two.

If you search on You Tube for royal suite Independence of the seas, there are a couple of good video reviews, two from Mike Cruz.

We also did a Caribbean Christmas cruise a few years ago and the decorations were magical and you could see that P&O had spent a lot of time and money to make it special. Father Christmas does make an appearance :-)

Been once through the Bay of Biscay in August and it was really calm. Our next trip is next May so that could be different. My adult son who is travelling with us is hoping for rough seas ! We are not.

The last TC plane that we flew on, from Barbados after a cruise - was a wide body A330. The experience was not good:

 

seats were uncomfortable and did NOT recline even a little - 7.5 hours flight

 

insufficient overhead storage, much in our area was used for crew stuff including plastic glasses etc for cabin service

 

where we were sitting did not reflect the cabin layout on personaliser meaning that screens etc were offset by 45 degrees for us

That was exactly our experience in January this year. In our party of 4 we all said that we would not travel with a TC flight again to the Caribbean.

We flew in January to the Caribbean and the limit was 23kg on a Thomas Cook flight.

I personally like formal nights/formal wear, it makes it extra special and it is nice to pamper yourself and get all dressed up. My kids in mid 20's enjoy formal nights as well. I do think however for those that cannot afford a nice evening dress that it is fine to wear evening wear not formal evening wear. Men should have no problems wearing a suit and tie for the few hours. I do not think it is acceptable to wear shorts, sneakers, flip flops and jeans to dinner. That is plain lazy. I think to save mrn on cost that nice dress slacks, button down shirt with a sports coat would be fine. Just my opinion.

Totally agree, we have adult children in their 20's and for them it's the formal nights that make it extra special. We have seen people around the ships on formal nights with shorts on and they just look out of place. In my opinion.

On our last Indy cruise, we removed the items out of the fridge and showed the mini-fridge person where we had placed them and said that we would not be using anything and that we will put them back in before we left. Which we did and there was no charges on our final bill or any subsequent charges. I would have certainly challenged any charge, regardless of how small it was because it's the principal involved.

I am sure that we could fill a thread quite quickly with laundrette stories ! For me it was all about the timing, getting up early to put a towel and book on a sunbed and then fill a couple of washing machines ! What bliss, no stress !

We were upgraded on our last cruise from an Oceanview to a Balcony. We were notified by an Email that stated "Notification of Change", it was new documents with the change! We were thrilled! I did have my preferences checked to upgrade. So yes there is an upgrade fairy!

We would have been thrilled as well. From a business point of view, they must do free upgrades after they have exhausted the upsell route ? This must be to sell less expensive cabins after they have move booked passengers up the grades ?

Have a great cruise with the Ukulele. It will cause lots of discussions on board.