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Pratique

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Everything posted by Pratique

  1. The lifeguards should not be distracted by locating the parents who walk away and then talking to them. They also can't just blow their whistle at very young children and expect them to understand. The guards need to be hyper-focused on everyone in the water.
  2. I concur, although the urine issue is unfortunately not limited to children and will not close a pool down. RCCL allows swim diapers in the pools on Coco Cay. The rules need to be enforced and not by the lifeguards but instead by an officer or a crew member with authority. Otherwise this behavior will just continue.
  3. Agreed it is bad parenting. The lifeguards are not baby monitors, they are responsible for everyone's safety. I constantly see young children throwing fits, collapsing to the deck to get their parents' attention, and most of the parents ignore it so the behavior continues. In the bars, in the specialty restaurants, in the Promenade, pretty much everywhere on the ship. Not using swim diapers is beyond unacceptable. Allowing the same child to do this two days in a row is concerning.
  4. Celebrity has some too. Reflection is doing this route I believe through the summer and fall.
  5. A 10-inch tablet will likely fit, but probably nothing larger.
  6. Although preferences are subjective, yes definitely there are also objective measures such as you mentioned with the ingredients. I am going through a similar thing with Panera Bread since their menu overhaul in April as a cost-cutting measure to prepare the company for a public offering. Ingredients are now gone or changed and the bread is delivered to the stores frozen instead of being freshly baked. The difference to me, as I mentioned elsewhere, is that the cruise line is good at recalibrating our expectations while Panera has been clumsy with their changes (and I can easily avoid Panera). Some people may still reach a tipping point where Royal is no longer of interest to them, but I reluctantly accept that as time passes we tend to lose the "nicer things" we previously enjoyed, and it is better to adapt than to scrounge around for other experiences that will inevitably be disappointing in some way or another. We still very much enjoy cruising and Royal's ships despite the disappointments with the food. For us, a cruise is still a better experience than a Hawaii vacation where the chair hogs by the pool are out before dawn, the restaurants are jammed and extremely expensive, and the traffic is horrific. Royal president Jason Liberty was recently interviewed by CNBC and he made it clear that they want to eliminate the "discount" they have historically offered over land-based vacations. In other words, to bring prices on par. My takeaway from that comment is that Royal will continue to raise prices while also reducing costs as a way of closing that "discount" gap. And they will do it in a way that effectively sets new customer expectations so that we are at worst reduced to grumbling about so-called first-world problems. They will wow people with new the Icon class ships and make the food issues seem minor by comparison. I suppose, anyway.
  7. One more observation from our Freedom cruise: these short cruises out of South Florida tend to attract families and large groups (wedding parties). The waitstaff bent over backwards to take care of me and my wife while the waiter was overloaded with large parties at other tables and even took pains to sit us away from some loud children in both Chops and Giovannis, profusely apologizing for things they have little to no control over. So I think the issue with the food (and it is an issue for us too) is primarily the decline in the quality of ingredients more so than preparation or service. But it may not be fair to generalize about it. Royal is definitely cutting corners though, in the restaurants and lounges and with the amenities too. It is not the same product that it used to be.
  8. This might be ship-specific. I've been on sailings where it seemed like the overall mood of the staff was dour and inattentive. But we just got off of Freedom and the crew were fantastic. My wife doesn't always finish her dinner portions because she gets full (or wants to save room for desert) and the waitstaff were in a panic that something was wrong with the food, every time. We were apologizing to them about it. So my conclusion is that it might have something to do with shipboard morale. Just a guess though.
  9. “I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.” ― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
  10. I always tell them to use the voucher or not use it. I discovered on CocoCay that although it is possible to use the vouchers there is paperwork involved and not all of the bartenders know how to do it so don't assume that they will use a voucher automatically.
  11. The only thing we look at on the ship TV is the live map. Nothing else seems worthwhile to us. I know Wi-Fi isn't an option for everyone but it works well for streaming. Also, we download shows onto an iPad at home as a backup option both during the cruise and traveling to/from port. The other night I slept under the stars on the balcony and it was the best TV show ever to fall asleep to. If I had that every night I would never need a TV. In fact, there are lots of creature comforts I enjoy at home that I don't miss at all while on a cruise, TV is the big one.
  12. YMMV but in my experience the crew will bend over backward to accommodate us as best they can because they live in fear of any review that is not a perfect "10." The other day someone in the WJ made my wife a grilled cheese sandwich to order. It wasn't a great sandwich but they made the effort and I have to credit them for that, the crew get a 10 and the sandwich gets a 5 or 6. I just think they are hamstrung by the limitations of what they can offer and the offerings have declined over the years. What happened to the chocolate dipped strawberries? Anyone seen those lately? Such a simple thing they can do so it's absence is conspicuous.
  13. One thing the cruise line is good at is forcing us to recalibrate our expectations.
  14. The quality of the ingredients seems to be the problem, not the preparation. On Freedom now, food has been very good but not excellent about par for my experience. Chops strip was a bit fatty but the meal overall was enjoyable. WJ has been good too. We will be on Symphony later this month so we’ll get another data point soon.
  15. Both Royal and Carnival are reporting very strong customer demand levels. Additionally, building out private destinations captures more spending. As long as this continues, they can increase profitability by cutting corners on complementary soft products such as food and housekeeping. IMHO the smaller cruise lines will need to compete on quality because it is very expensive for them to build new ships and private beaches.
  16. Glad to hear you are good to go. They probably just called this guy in. 😄
  17. Although the OP is more than 30 days out, I'll just note that if you book less than 30 days out it usually takes up to a day for the cruise documents/luggage tags to become available via email and the website.
  18. RCI agent told me to keep an eye on the website for price drops, but of course that doesn't work if the category is sold out. I am booked on a transatlantic in a suite where the suites are usually sold out more than a year in advance. It would be nice if there was an easy way to periodically check (or at least get a clue) for a possible price drop without having to call every few weeks for months on end only to be told that the price has gone up.
  19. Yeah same here. DW and I have a cruise planned for late May but at the last minute we decided to book another for next weekend because we need a mental health break and can't wait another month. So now I'm wasting time planning for two cruises in May instead of one. 😀
  20. Just one more point (I have learned not to stress about reservations): maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never been turned away from a specialty restaurant or CK when I show up thinking I have a reservation. There have been a few times where we were not sure if the concierge put it in and the maitre d seemed befuddled but they almost always find a way to get us seated even if it is with a caution that the server might be extra busy with other tables. Being a suite guest usually comes with some extra white glove treatment by the staff. To ease your concerns I suggest checking with the concierge once you are onboard if they are not replying to your emails so far, but no harm in pinging them if you want (they are there to assist you).
  21. I think this is the best perspective. The pre-cruise emails from the concierge are partly for their benefit so they can take care of some requests in advance and not face a crush on Day 1. But if they don't get around to it before Day 1 they will be able to once you are on board. Also, I have had concierges who quietly take care of things without acknowledging, so maybe the reservations have already been taken care of. And they don't show in the planner for me when the concierge makes the reservation (maybe others have had different experiences but I don't remember seeing a concierge-generated reservation show up in the planner or app).
  22. I think that would affect the next cruise either starting a day later than scheduled or being cancelled altogether. If the port continues to require tugs through the channel, that could also restrict the volume of traffic, making arrival/departure logistics more complex.
  23. The open sea can be fickle. The North Atlantic is notorious, but crossings further south may be better. The ships will navigate away from hurricanes, but strong ones can send swells out for hundreds of miles. My perspective is that it is better to be on a massive modern cruise ship with stabilizers than one of those rickety wooden boats that plied the seas a couple hundred years ago. Everyone has their tolerance level - some things that used to cause motion sickness for me no longer do, while others that didn't before may do so now - and if it happens then I am better at managing it now than I used to be. My wife finds that lying down with head and feet pointing toward the sides of the ship helps a lot. These cruises are really great for folks who like to be at sea and my humble opinion is that if you are one of those, then you should give it a go.
  24. Caveat is that this temporary channel is only for essential vessels (whatever that means) and will only be open until Monday or Tuesday. The Baltimore Sun reports the channel will then remain closed until May 10. "The Captain of the Port (COTP) plans to establish the Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel for commercially essential vessels on Thursday, April 25th until 6 a.m. Monday, April 29th or Tuesday, April 30th if weather adversely impacts vessel transits." https://homeport.uscg.mil/Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=89633&Source=/Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=89633
  25. Sounds about right for four people. True but I think we need to view these comments as people's relative experiences from cruise to cruise. Some say it has gotten worse and some say it has improved over time. The benchmark is usually the earliest one we can reliably (fondly?) remember. My wife keeps complaining about the wider salad selection in the Windjammer, which is most definitely displacing something less healthy (and probably more tasty). 🙂 We don't cruise for the salads lol.
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