ksuds

In regards to the drink package.

 

Is RCI just eliminating certain liquors from the drink package, or on the ship.

 

Would the liquor (canadian club) be available on the upscale option for drinks?

 

My DH will not be happy:mad:

 

Thanks for any info.

No they are eliminating it from their inventory on RCI. For the first 3 nights, we couldn't get any CC in the Pub, and R Bar. They only had about 3 bottles left on the ship. When we were in Cozumel, they moved some inventory from the Indy to our ship.

They said they were not purchasing from the vendor any longer that carried Canadian Club, and other alcohol's. It appears that this may have already happened and their stock is just getting depleted. I'm hoping they will work out whatever with the vendor or find a new one.

Thanks for your post. Doing a b2b2b next month. Glad you had a good time. Saw you mentioned breakfast in Chops. I had read that it was Gold card only, but you mentioned Diamond +, that would be great if we could access Chops as Diamond +. Did you go to any shows? Was the Casino smoky? Thanks!

Yes, as Kathy (PH8) said, on the Brilliance they allowed D+ in Chops for breakfast too.

Didn't do any shows in the theater since we had recently been on the Brilliance and didn't want to go again to the shows.

The Casino on the Brilliance is the smokiest at sea. You can smell the smoke when you get off the elevators.

You will be spoiled by the Concierge Derick. He's from the Guest Services staff on Monarch.

Yes we love Derick.

Care to say what this item is? Inquiring minds want to know............

Canadian Club, VO and Canadian Mist.

They are keeping Jameson's but it is just too strong.

Thanks for the review. Welcome back! Hopefully the alcohol section remains good, despite some changes. I hope it's a change and not a decrease of options.

From what the bar manager said, there isn't going to be additional items added. We are just losing options.

We just got off the BOS Christmas cruise. I must say it was very nice. There were just under 400 kids. I had actually thought there would be more. I don't do big reviews, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Boarding time- we got to the port early that day and were excited that they were able to board early at 10:25.

Upon boarding, we hadn't even gotten to the elevators and were mobbed by bar staff trying to sell drink packages. As some of you might have read, the person that sells the package now gets the 18% gratuity. This really creates problems because essentially, the guys the get to sell the packages on deck 5 where you walk through the doors gets to cherry pick. The bartenders that are stuck up in the bars, get very little. This is a bad system and talking to the officers on board, they are not happy with this either.

Just an FYI.....we recently learned that RCI is changing their distributors for booze. They are discontinuing a lot of specific items. Of course, one item is what my partner drinks. It is very specific and along with discontinuing it, anything similar to what she drinks is also going away. We have been noticing that things we could get before or now not being stocked.

Each day at the pool, they places anywhere from 1 to 3 staff members around the pool to watch the kids. These guys really watched the kids like a hawk. With that in mind, I didn't see a lot of parent's watching their kids themselves.

Specialty dining- we ate at Giovanni's on Christmas. Service and food was excellent. I usually get the lamb chops, but wanted to change it up so I got the filet. They cooked it perfect! I only wish the grade of beef was a little higher quality.

Breakfast we switched up between Park Café and Chops (Diamond + and Gold Cards access). Food and service was excellent.

My lunches I stuck with the beef sandwiches from Park Café. I ate one everyday. We did try and have a lunch in the Windjammer when we wanted a quick salad. Unfortunately, they had no Ranch dressing. We asked and they told us they didn't have any.

In the evenings we hung out in the centrum or pub. I love listening to live music and dancing. Steve the pub guy is really good.

They seemed to play a lot more trivia on this sailing than normal. I enjoy the trivia even if I have no clue what the answer is. Some of the trivia really got the kids involved and they knew all the answers before the adults.

They still had the Quest, which I thought was unusual. My last X-mas cruise they cancelled it since it really wasn't a family event to them.

Weather was beautiful, even sailing back to Tampa. Couldn't have been better. It did rain a little in Cozumel, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. We used that time to see Train wreck in the theater. By the way, not a movie you want to watch with your family. :eek:

Disembarkation from the ship seemed smooth. They seem to start letting people off like clockwork at 7:30.

WOW.....I remember at one time their stock was about 6.00 per share.

Your sign and sail card usually has a large number on it. Those number correspond to your muster station.

I'd go with the longer one. But Grand Caymen does also have a risk of missing the port since it is a tender port.

I had watched a 60 minutes or dateline type show recently that had an episode on children drowning. They described how quickly, and not noticed that a child could drown. They don't typically thrash around. When they are in trouble, they tilt their heads back which as soon as they go under water, the flow of water into their lungs is quick.

I don't know the how this happened. But sitting on a ship recently looking at how many people were in the pool, and it was cloudy and kids were playing. I thought that in the situation I was watching, a child could very well drown.

Positives: ALL of the paid restaurants are 10/10!!! Best food ever!

The staff are absolutely amazing!!!

The ship is in great shape!

It's an amazing experience!

 

Negatives:

13 days wasn't lost enough- he he.

We sent our laundry to be done & they don't read care instructions because they wrecked over $700 worth of my husband's clothes. (Only bad thing though!)

We did the 10 day in November, and was very disappointed with the paid resaurants. We at 3 nights at Giovanni's and 2 of the 3 didn't have several menu options available. They told us we couldn't have Gnocci, Shrimp, or the Crepes app. Also, the lamb chops on that sailing were smaller and cut thinner than any other ship we've sailed.

Staff is excellent, with an amazing Captain. Nothing very exciting on the Vision to see as it is one of the older smaller ships.

First of all, I love cruising - the Vision will be my 13th (I think). To me cruising is the best type of vacation. I loved the entertainment on the Oasis and also on Norwegian Epic (March 2015), but wasn't thrilled about it on the Jewel (Jan 2015). So my question though I admit was somewhat vague was if people liked the entertainment on the Vision.

FYI - to the OP that told me to bring a book, my IPad is loaded with them for the cruise.

Thanks all!!

I agree with you! I was another one who thought that entertainment on the Vision was aged, and not up to par compared to other RCI ships. I think the OP's question is a valid one. I know a lot of people have their comments that we should be wrong for thinking this way just because we are on a cruise and not at work. My thought is, I just got off a 10 day Vision and had I known ahead of time that all the entertainment was geared toward someone double my age, then I probably would have chosen either a 7 day Freedom, or the 5 and 4 day B2B on Brilliance.

Everyone has their own preferences, and I was specific to my reason for not liking the Vision. There was obviously a reason the OP asked the question. So if someone liked the Vision, good for you. But don't knock those of us, that it didn't fit our cruising likes.

I really appreciate when I see a true service dog on the ship working and well behaved. However, when someone flat out tells you that their little dog is an emotional needs dog, that is wrong. They are using other people true disabilities, to take advantage and bring their dogs because they chose not to leave it at home.

I know there was a post a year or two back that a passenger brought a small dog. The dog barked at people, sat on the owners lap in the dining room and got fed food off the plate, got left unattended in the cabin while it's owners went out for the night. I don't see that dog being any type of service animal.

Under the ADA, the cruise lines are allowed to ask what type of service the animal performs. I think they should do this, and then disallow the comfort dogs as they are not recognized under the ADA.

My aunt just went on a 5 day cruise and they talked her into this. She is 81 years old for gods sake. Over $3000. It cost more than the cruise. I'm not going to let this go.

Did she look 35 when it was done :D

 

If you want excellent food, there are many paid options available and most of them are an excellent value for the dollar. The WJ, to me, is still my favorite place to eat, and I have yet to have any real issues. The one issue I had (November MJ sailing) I mentioned it to the restaurant manager and in moments he had it fixed for everyone and checked in with me the rest of the cruise.

I've noticed the changes also over the years. Paid options are not the same as they were in the past. You can read several threads of how many cruisers feel Chops is no longer worth the dollars after the menu changes. Most prices are going up, but they are cutting people's favorite items off the menu and replacing them with lower cost items. Tater tots and french fries isn't something I prefer to pay for in my upcharge.

Formal night on our cruise was Day 3 (as they count them) Day 1 is the day you board in Tampa. Day 2 was Key West. Day 3 is a Sea Day and also the formal night. Day 4 is Cozumel. Day 5 is another Sea Day and Day 6 is when you disembark back in Tampa.

 

 

 

"Behind the scenes" is a paid on board excursion. It's not cheap, but we had an OBC to use, so for me it was worth it. There were only 8 people on the tour and they have a 5 person minimum or they will cancel the tour. They did a very good job. Whether you can justify the price is another matter.

I hope you took pics of the crew area. I've always wanted to see the areas they ate and partied in.

We had almost a hundred pinnacle members on our last cruise, and about 900 diamond and up. Getting a diamond plus status with significant other doesn't bother me. But if they split up, the significant t other status should revert to whatever it would be based on cruise history. So he/she can't give diamond status to his significant other until he's earned it himself

When you link a SO to yourself, the C&A reps are very clear in saying that in the event you should break up, that your SO will lose that status and revert back to whatever their actual points make them.

Weather...weather...weather. That is the main topic for today. Most of the excursions were cancelled as we had lots and lots of wind and rain. We were looking forward to snorkeling in the beautiful warm clear waters of Cozumel, but I guess that will have to wait for another time. We did get into town some in the afternoon and left a few USDs. LOL

 

As far as the Schooner Bar, there has been one Irish lady who was there most of the time. She has a nice voice and is a very good pianist. However her song selection was not my taste as she played way too many Irish songs for a small group of her fans. The music in general around the ship has been excellent. They have had a number of special events in the Centrum. There is a guitarist who has played quite a few Carlos Santana numbers and is quite outstanding.

 

We are getting ready for dinner now. Catch up with you a little later.

I believe her (piano player) name is Menden. Her husband is in the orchestra so they let her play in the Schooner. She is OK in small doses from what I remember.

How is the pub entertainment?

We have had different experiences when booking suites.

Most recently we had the Royal Family Suite for our 9 night on the Vision. The room was nice, but dated. The stateroom attendant did nothing above and beyond what we experience in a normal cabin. We had to ask for bar soap when he didn't provide it the first day. Second day, no towels. Most days he didn't touch our room until 12:00-1:00 even though we were out by 8:00. We were his only suite, the rest of his cabins were normal.

Pressing- we didn't get to take advantage of that because it was only offered one day, and that happened to be our port day so we missed out.

MJ the concierge went above and beyond any way he could to take care of our needs. The special breakfast was the best meal we ate each day. We visited the lounge, but we bought the drink package, so the drinks don't mean anything to us. Plus with our status, we get access to the CL lounge regardless.

For us, I don't really see much benefit to the suite except square footage. But the space is what we booked the cabin for in the first place, not any benefits.

Agree, we had a hard time on the Vision. Sometimes we couldn't even get a login screen. Data flows very slow! If you need to open up an attachment or something, you might not be able to do it.

On the Vision we pre bought one and got the other 50% off. I think the promotion was specific to our sailing because I haven't seen the deal offered on any of my other cruises. We also were able to take advantage of the Premium to Ultimate free upgrade.

It seems that each ship I've sailed has basically the same options. I haven't run into an CL's that didn't have hot apps. Early morning is limited to cold items.

I enjoy the smaller ships as well. Enchantment is one of my favorites and their lounge entertainment is excellent. Music is one thing that is very important to me, where others it might be the shows. Enchantment hands down has better lounge entertainment than Vision. I love dancing in the centrum early evening.

We just got of the 9 night on the Vision. Based on age demographics and what they catered to, we were bored. We don't do shows any longer, but did watch the magician who was good. The disco was basically empty each night. The lounges that had music were geared toward a older generation than what I am. If you like to ballroom dance or salsa dance you will be OK.

Don't blast me for having an opinion. But this just wasn't my favorite cruise.

I wouldn't sail this again because everything was geared toward an older crowd. I don't prefer the older, easy listening music selection. The ship closed down very early each night and the disco was empty. It just wasn't my thing as I indicated.

The police were at the port directing traffic. The reason I didn't listen to him and go home and get another Uber an hour later was because I knew we could board at the time we did. If you knew the ship was boarding would you turn around and go home just because someone directing traffic told you?

No he wasn't sailing on our ship. He came on to get free lunch, which most security do.