dfishner

We have been on almost every class of ship in the RCL fleet except Vision class and have liked them all I am not sure why but the Quantum class of ship does not appeal to us at all and I cannot tell you why. The ship does not have the wow feel for us of an Oasis or Allure.

What a well written post and have to say we are starting feel the same way.

I like NCL and had book a cruise on the Pearl(great ship) but have to say when I saw the changes to NCL decided that NCL and I were going in different directions and decided to cancel and book on RCL. I will miss the Pearl but I think some of these changes have me shaking my head and trying to figure what they are up to. And reading the news portion today on CC from the President of NCL I am now sure I did the right thing...They are out of touch with their customers.

I find this interesting I had the same conversation with my TA I saw a great fare on NOS for a balcony what they do not tell you is that the price you see is the combined price so the first rate is higher then the rate on line the second price is 1/2 of that and it is average together.. I do feel it is somewhat of a con believing that the rate that was shown on the site should be the first person rate not a jacked up rate and the 1/2 price should be off the rate that is shown..

My TA told me that people really like BOGO sale I really cannot see how this is so popular I find it somewhat deceiving . Bottom line I did get a good rate and am happy with it. I just do not like how the BOGO is handled

I think it's better to give an honest review of the good and the bad. There's no need for the set-up question of "would you rather hear the truth or how wonderful everything was?" That comes across like prejudging anyone who dares take issue with anything you say as not being interested in the truth.

 

For what it's worth, I haven't been on the Adventure, but have been on three other Voyager class ships and not noticed any significant vibration, no matter which part of the ship we were on (and we have been on or near the "hump" most times).

Bingo the man wins a prize I could not say it any better myself

I agree with what the OP wrote. RCL is our cruise line of choice but we are by no means loyal to any cruise line. I believe what Richard Fain said is just posturing and that is it, I have seen this before over the years with RCL but if in fact they do what he wrote then some people will probably look at different options.

We are not looking for a bargain we are looking for value for price paid for and when we no longer see a value in that then it is time to look at different options and I believe some people will do just that.

I do find it hard to believe that RCL will let ships sail less than full. Losing cabin rate in addition to incremental revenue that just does not make sense but we will see. What I have learned with RCL is they what they say and what they do are two different things.

I was not sure what I was expecting when I booked the escape but when I looked at the dining I said oh wow great when I look at the entertainment I said wow what happened.. I hope they add something more to the entertainment I did not see anything that capture to much of my interest.

We were on Allure in December all though we had a good time I have to say I did not feel the wow. I could not put my finger on it and have to say maybe it is time to try something else either a different type of vacation or just another cruiseline to give us a change. We like RCL but to much of the same thing can get old and for us maybe we need a small break.

As our valued customer you have earned a free cruise.....

small print

does not apply to any sailing on any date

cannot be combined with any RCCL discount of any kind do not even ask.

We value your business so we have made this very difficult for you. (we figured you were smart enough to get to this level you might be smart enough to find a loop hole)....Our IT dept could not find any so we doubt you could of course our IT dept is not to swift.

I think to treat your most valued customers this way says more about how this company feels about its customers..It is really unacceptable if I were a Pinnacle member which I am not I would be furious.

This is the second time we have been on an Oasis size ship first being a few years back on Oasis and for having a few more places to dine and different shows the ships are about the same.

Decided to just list what we liked and what we did not(which is not much) and just some random thoughts about the ship.

What we liked the staff on Allure is great very personable and approachable we cannot say enough nice things about the staff it was one of the highlights of our cruise.

Shows We really like Chicago, Blue Planet 5 stars for that show Ocean Aria was also very good. We thought Mosiac the headliners were not so good to much bass from one of the singers made it hard to hear them thought the sound was mixed bad so we left after a few songs. Ice skating show is always good and we enjoyed it. Parades were fun.

Food-Was surprised by both the windjammer and MDR normally stay away from them but found both to be very good there was quite a bit of variety. We also found the staff at the WJ to be quite attentive with getting drinks and clearing table.

We dined in the MDR twice both times very good.

Izumi like the Rolls did not like the hot rocks felt it had very little flavor and food would stick to the rock. We did Izumi for Lunch on another day and we did not care for it.

Giovanni was very good so was Vintages with the Tapas

We did the Chef tasting menu also very good and entertaining.

By the way we did not purchase any of the specialty restaurants prior to boarding and when we boarded found we could book 3 restaurants for20% off thought that was a good value and did save us some money for the specialty restaurants which did include the chef table.

I did feel the ship to be crowded at times did not feel that when we were on Oasis. Maybe we were at the wrong place at the time.

We did not book any excrusions we have been to St Thomas and St Martaan many times so we just walked around and had lunch.

What we did not like and there was not much.

Motorized carts going zooming around at unsafe speeds some lady almost knocks me down with her cart she was going so fast.

Saving seats in the theater, The Aqua show and the ice skating show. I do not mind if someone is saving one seat but 7-10 seats is just plain rude. Telling people who are trying to sit in that row that you could not sit there just blew my mind, I challanged two of the people and just sat there. Would say I am sorry but there are no saving seats and just sat ourselves down. There was not much they could do. Of course the evil stares were priceless. Think RCL could do better in policing it

In closing we had a very nice cruise think going forward we are going to move to more itinerary based cruises. Caribbean is getting old for us and need to give it a rest for awhile. Allure is really a nice ship and would do An Oasis class ship again but not for awhile

Or upcoming cruise on Allure on 12/7 we used membership miles from Amex and RCL visa card points to pay for this cruise cost was $100 for a D5 on deck 8.

Wow there is quite a bit of back and forth on this thread. I have to admit I am not a fan of Quantum while watching it being built the bumper cars, northstar and the air thing did not excite me like Oasis or Allure. I do like the idea of dynamic dining and 270 other than that not much else.

Calling a ship an epic failure after one cruise is a bit much there is just to much that can go wrong. We waited a year after Oasis came out and glad we did it was flawless cruise. I believe what the OP wrote even though it was all negative but you take your chances on a new built ship especially one that has so much new tech on it. It does not surprise me that so many things did happened but as I said it is a new ship, first cruise and that can always be a bit of a problem this one seemed to have more than usual.

Judging Quantum will take time after all the kinks are worked out to see if this ship works or not all I can say is sorry for those who had mishaps with the first cruise.

It would have been much easier to fix/change the menus and satisfy the complainers a little bit than totally change to this.....I just hope they don't put DD on every ship, that will force people who really like the traditional dining format, to move to other cruise lines.

 

There needs to be a way to satisfy both cruise customer types.

I think that would be extremely difficult to satisfy those who are not happy with the food in the MDR. We have been cruising with RCL since 2006 and remember how unhappy people were about the food program back then and it continues to be a topic on CC almost every week since. Food is just to subjective a topic and it is hard to please everyone because we all have different likes and dislikes. I do believe DD addresses some of these food issues. I also believe RCL is reacting to their customer wants of more flexible dining.

I do think the Grande restaurant addresses some of those concerns of a more formal place to dine which is a throwback to an earlier time where everyone dressed up for dinner.

The choices are going on some of the smaller ships that do not have DD and still have traditional dining for now. Or find a cruise line that still supports traditional dining. I

Also, many frequent cruisers have complained about the traditional menus--that they are tired of the same thing. And how many threads have there been complaining about people not dressing appropriately for formal nights. I think one reason Royal created DD is to give us new menu choices, and those who enjoy dressing up can go to the Grande for dinner--every night if they choose.

Could not of said this better myself but I know after a few cruises people on here will start complaining about the DD Menus as well. It never seems to stop

Not having a rib eye in a steak house just does not make any sense and to pay on top of what you have all ready spent in Chops to get a steak that should be on the menu in the first place also makes no sense. We went to Chops on several RCL Ships and have always enjoyed ourselves we are going on the Allure on 12/7 and this will be the first time we are skipping Chops. The new menu is just to limited in what they now offer.

I am glad I am not the only confused with RCL BOGO sale which really not a sale at all. I spoke with my TA yesterday am looking for a balcony on NOS in 2015 find the pricing for a wave season expensive and even looking at the BOGO price it makes little to no sense it seems like a semi high price for a standard balcony cabin during a slower period of time and did notice that most of the hump cabins are still available. And when you see Oasis and Allure for the same time frame much less than the Navigator that really gets me shaking my head.

So to me I guess what you intend to book will either work with this or not as of right night I am not seeing this working for what we want..So we will either wait until the prices are somewhat normal or book something else. Not a fan of this marketing program it is much to confusing and not sure there is really a good deal here.

We did both on Oasis I was underwhelmed by the meal we had at 150 CP we did the wine pairing at dinner and felt it was really not a good value also thought the meal was just so-so would have to think really hard to do that again. The Chef Table was a pleasant surprise we enjoyed the dinner and wine pairing and had a wonderful evening. I would do the chef table again without any hesitation.

We have done chops on everyone of our cruises that had one, we will not be doing chops on our Allure cruise there are no longer enough items on the menu to interest us while other restaurants on Allure have a more varied menu.

I just wanted to take a look at the new enhanced loyalty program from A my oh my this reminds me of the last takeaway A did that drove us away and they are at it again. What a shame I am not sure how much more A can take away from their repeat customers before they look at other options which looking at this thread seems to be happening.

I find it very sad and disappointing. I loved both of our cruises and the staff are very special and glad we had to opportunity to cruise with A but I find myself shaking my head and saying how sad.

I do like the idea of the new dining program as a long time cruiser on RCL I have seen so many reviews over the years about the MDR food going downhill over the years I feel RCL took the right approach in doing addressing it. I do understand many on here like the same servers for the entire cruise also like the same tablemates most of the time and I understand that will be an issue for some on here. I will not miss it we tend to avoid the MDR as much as we can. Mass banquet settings is not our thing and we tended to stick with the speciality restaurants and peppered in the MDR. It would not surprize me if more cruise lines do not move in that directions over the next 5 years.

With the MDR you have more of a banquet situation where the food is produce in mass quanities that the quality tends to suffer. Not saying that the same will not apply to Dynamic dining but cooking for smaller amounts oppse to cooking for mass qaunties of people should improve the quality of what is produced.

Dynamic dining offers more choices from what I see is offered on Quantum and Anthem. Last time we were on Oasis we did not even see the MDR and had a wonderful time trying the different speciality restaurants with dynamic dinining now you will have more choices and some are no fee so that is a win in my book.

The downside to DD is is making reservations and getting the time you would like as well as timing it with the shows.

Have you seen more RCI cost cutting?

 

Here is what I saw on Explorer 2/9 to 2/16.

 

Drink/Cocktail napkins no longer have the RCI logo.

 

No ice bucket in the cabins - only on request.

 

Steward would not empty re fridge or remove Evian water from dresser.

Just plain refused - First time I heard a flat "NO" on RCI ...

 

Past Passenger event held @ 10:45 AM - on a day when you arrive in port @ 1PM - Saving drink alcohol drink costs?

 

"Top Tier Event" - Formal attire required to attend when casual is the MDR dress code.

Again - More alcohol savings?

 

What have you seen?

Did this really adversely effect your cruise? I would say not not sure why you started this thread

Sorry op that vision lacked the wow we once did majesty and after that cruise we decided we would never due anything less then a radiance class.

So for those of you who often cruise in early Dec, between thanksgiving and Christmas and not on - when do you book to get the best deals? We have never booked this time of year but I thought I read what a great time it was for pricing. I'm looking at the Dec 7th allure sailing and pricing is higher than our end of May sailing when I thought pricing was high. Trying to figure out when is the best time to purchase for the best deal. I've got my parents and my sister and her family talked into a family trip instead of everyone traveling for the holidays to each other. BUT I want to steer everyone in the right direction here and get us the best pricing. I use a major online travel agent to get free gratuities, dinner, and OBC and would prefer to still book with them.

 

Thanks everyone for your expertise! :)

Mary, I am actually on that cruise and booked it a year out and got a super deal on a balcony If I remember correctly it was around $779 for an ocean view cabin. I am seeing some great deals on Oasis around that time frame in 2015. Hope that helps

I had started to look at prices for 2015 during wave season for us that is right after thanksgiving and before Christmas and was blown away at how high prices were I will wait a little while to see if they come down if not will make other choices for vacation. So much for saying that cruising is the best value out there not with the prices I am seeing.

Take into account that what someone spend at home on groceries is the retail price, even if you go to a discount warehouse for groceries like BJ's or Costco; vs the cruise line paying wholesale and buying in huge bulk quantities.

Bingo you win the prize I have been watching this thread and am in the food business. Cruise ships have contracted with major suppliers like Sysco and US food Services. They have special contracted pricing on what they purchase so that $13 goes much further then what anyone could spend on their own in a supermarket or a Costco etc. Not to mention the rebates that they get back on the amount they purchase when they hit certain $$ amount %