SnowManBob

I have booked directly with Atlantis? why is everyone booking with the Comfort Suites? we paid $129 per person for the Waterpark and beach.

I believe it depends on the dates. For the exact date that we will be there.

Cruise excursion = 189$ per person x 4 = $756

Day pass with Atlantis = $150 per person x 4 = $600

Comfort Suites one night room = $389

ONLY 15 a day?!?!?!?

When I was on Carnival, I had to wait 5 minutes between drink orders. I found their frozen drinks to be a bit weak, so I would order a shot of dark rum topper. But, I had to order the shot and then wait 5 minutes to order the drink. One day I hit the the 15 mark because it was a seaday and kept getting the frozen drinks and the shot that counted as 2 drinks. On royal, they just give me what I want with no problem.

We loved the Oasis of the Seas. We are an active family that likes to cruise so it suites us to a tee. So many fun things to do. I am a planner, so having to make reservations for shows and dinner is right up my alley. I disagree with some of the comments about lack of ocean views. There are so many places with ocean views. I love stopping during my run on the track and staring off the back of the ship. Watch the ocean go by sipping a margarita by the aquatic theatre . Hanging out in the solarium. Relaxing in the cantilever hot tubs. Star gazing on the front viewing area, or just walking the perimeter on the top deck. One day when the kids are gone and I feel like just chillin all day on a cruise ship, I could do the Celebrity style cruising, but the Oasis class fits for now. Harmony of the Seas next.

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My experience with using a TA is that typically the room is the same price regardless if I book direct or now. The TA usually adds additional perks and often they amount to a significant and additional savings.

that has always been how I have seen it. This is the first time that I have actually booked a significant saving for the actual cabin cost. (cabin+taxes+fees).

I have been researching my cruise for next spring break for about a week now. I priced out the RC website with multiple configurations for Harmony (3 rooms). I finally decided to call a well known 3rd party agency. I was able to save a significant about of $$ using the TA. I was very surprised in the savings. I'm talking 1000$. I just wonder how they can do that. Anyone have experience or insight?

The only purpose to have a copy of your passport is to show it to a consulate to assist in getting a replacement if something happens to the original. It has no official standing as an official document and shouldn't work in any other instance. Of course the consulate would be able to issue you a replacement without your having a copy, so it's entirely up to you whether you want to have a copy of it or not.

 

As for having your passport with you in port that's a personal decision and you need to do what you feel comfortable doing.

Off subject.... My wife is from Morrisville, VT and I lived all over Vt for 17 years.

I heard that it is OK to just bring a photocopy of your passport to shore for cruise stops. Is that correct?

Sorry to read about this. Disgusting how greedy Carnival is getting. Guess that is big company for you and supply and demand.

A big company with shareholders

I've been wondering why FTTF hasn't come available for my Vista cruise next year... just found out why!

 

Carnival announced yesterday that the price of FTTF for 7 days increased to $89.95, almost a 30% increase :eek:. I'm sure now that they've been holding adding FTTF to most cruises next year until this increase was announced, so that people wouldn't jump in and buy them at the lower price.

 

Well hopefully that boneheaded move bites them in the butt, and the net due to increased cost is MORE than offset by those who tell Carnival to stuff FTTF!

 

While it was marginally valuable to us at one point, they've just elevated it into the realm of outrageously priced!

With the fact that it is at a limited supply, they will continue to slowly rise the cost until the demand decreases. I feel like there will be enough people that continue to purchase it at that price point.

This is the type of corporate greed that gets me and yet people encourage it by paying the price asked.

Unfortunate this goes along with everything these days and is only going to get worse. People need to stop in my opinion.

I agree with with what you say and how your feel, but its basic economic principles. They will continue to raise the price as so long as it continues to sell out. Its not about people encouraging it, its about enough people with money to spend that still find a value in the product at the rising price point.

Hi all! Need some ship opinions. We are planning a senior HS spring break trip. My family has always sailed on Royal. Can I get some comparisons between Royal/MSC/Norwegian? Answer as if destination, ship size, and cabin costs are all about the same. Straight up - who is better? We will have kids with us from about 6 - 18 years old and adults that typically purchase the RCI alcohol packages.

 

Thanks!

My teenage daughters were not that impressed with the seaside in comparison to Royal Caribbean related to the levels of activities and fun geared toward their age group.

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Been about a month. Week of Feb 10th.

Love your attitude..... Can some things be done better or be improved?? Most certainly!! Are things so awful you would never set foot on this ship?? Based on what I've been reading .....even considering the most blatant negative feedback..... No where close to even considering not sailing on the Seaside!!

You mirror exactly the way that I approach cruising. I committed to cruising the seaside even after reading the negative reviews and looking at the overall ratings (it was at 2 stars when I reserved). There is only one way to know if you will like a cruise, go on the freakin thing and decide for yourself! I love coming to CC to gather information about future cruises, therefore I read all the reviews, positive and negative. I do notice that there are some people on here that claim to has the insight to judge other member's reviews based on their own perception of what is valid vs not.

What I like to do, is go on the cruise and enjoy myself. I always enjoy myself. I have my family, I am not at work, I am traveling to new and exciting places, what is not to love. BUT, I do like to ask myself a question about a week or two after the cruise. Would I go on that ship again? Would I forgo an opportunity to try something new or different to repeat the experience of that particular cruise ship? To me, that is the only review and perception that matters.

The smell was there on my seaside cruise. I did not think too much about it. We would just walk until the smell dissipated. My wife was more bothered by it than I. I would say that if you need 100% assurance that you would never have to smell the sewage smell, you should choose a different kind of vacation in general. From what I have read, some people never actually came across any odor while other did, like my wife and I. I do recall an instance on a past cruise with sewer odor.

Entertainment--- For my teenage girls, this was an easy one. They got bored quickly. The rule for them is that they have to at least give the evening shows a try with my wife and I. (except for rated R comedy) I have found that this works well, as if they are entertained, they always stay for the whole show. If they are not happy, I give them the freedom to leave. They started every show with us, but never finished a show. That was a first ever for us. For the wife and I, we were entertained and mostly enjoyed the singing. Now opera is not my cup of tea, but the shows were short I had no problem sitting until the end. The comedy improv did not do it for me. Maybe it was an off night, but we left a bit early on that one. We are not dancers, but we did enjoy listening to the music and singing that took place around the different ship venues.

SPA-- While my kids had no interest in the spa, the DW and I found it to be quite relaxing. The included massages were very nice, and we really liked all the different spa rooms that you could visit. The spa was nice.

Food/Dining--- We really enjoyed the "my time dining" of our package. It was nice to have the freedom to go eat in the dining room in a general window rather than a specific exact time. Now, what I do like about "traditional" dining, is having the same waiter team every night, especially if you get a good one. The food was good. Not great and not bad. It was right on par with what I have grown to expect for included dining on a cruise ship. We like to try new things, so running into something that we don't like is expected. We just order something different. Overall sit down dining was fine. The buffet food was good. The food was hot, sometimes a bit bland, but I'm not too picky. I was looking forward to actively joining into the great pizza debate, so that was the first thing that I went for on the first day of lunch. It was good, I got ahold of some slices from a fresh pie. I'm not a pizza "expert" but it was ok/good. I did not find myself dying to get more the next day and the next. What I will say, I really found myself wishing that there was more variety. By no means did anyone in the family starve. We all ate and enjoyed what we ate. But, if am going to compare the buffet selection to past cruise experiences its going to end up on the bottom overall. Late night snacking was a bit of a let down, variety was definitely lacking for us in that category.

Customer Service ---- Nobody was every rude to us. Staff smiled and were polite. There were still some hiccups along the way. We never ran into any major snafu's that required a trip to the customer service desk. (which is a good thing, because it always had a long line whenever I took note). The issues that we had were minor and things that we have experienced before on other ships in one fashion or the other. One thing that stood out to me, (just a personal pet peeve) was ordering cocktails/wine with dinner. I like to have a gin and tonic before the entree and a glass of wine with my meal. I would order and explain that they could bring both at the same time to make it easier on them. It was about 50/50. One time I got wine and no G and T. One time the opposite. One time nothing. I just started getting my gin and walking in with it. I want to say "no big deal", but when I waited tables in college, if I presented service like that, I'd be getting a bad tip if any. Also, it occurred with different waiters. We also had a few times in general where I felt like the language barrier was the culprit. We just smiled and moved on. My wife did have a little issue with her massage that she had scheduled. It was resolved, but she did note that it took up more time that she wanted to get it worked out.

Our room steward busted his butt. He was always running/working. I'm not sure if he slept. I think they gave him too much of a workload. We had to go out and get a few basic things off of his cart a handful of times and a couple of times a few things were missed in the room. If I did not always see him working, I would have not been so gracious but it was not totally his fault.

Bar service was overall good. Drinks were good and for the most part service was as expected. I did have to wait what felt like a long time for a few drink orders and a couple of times I just left and went to another bar after not wanting to wait. The bars were pretty busy in all of those instances. I really sincerly feel like MSC could reevaluate staffing levels at alot of their point of service areas and benefit from some changes. (one man's opinion)

25 cruises and first review here? what made you to do it?

Very fair question. I've been reading CC for a while now, but I have honestly never had the inclination to join and comment/review until just before this cruise. I have always just enjoyed sitting back and reading without adding my "two cents" if you will. If I enjoy the experience of posting my opinion, I will continue to do so for future cruises.

Just returned last week on the Feb 17th from the Seaside. It was me, my DW, and my two teenage DD's. I have been on 25 cruises now. We have sailed mostly in the Caribbean with a couple of Alaska, New England, and Hawaii trips sprinkled in. This was out first MSC cruise. We are "average joes" so to speak. We do not do suites, haven clubs, etc. For us, a balcony is an upgrade. This truly is the first time I have done a "review" here on CC. Please take it with a grain of salt, it is just one families opinion. My family has spent several hours discussing our vacation all between the trip home and a few night at the dinner table. I feel that a few days to reflect before forming an overall opinion works for me.

Our Seaside cruise was average. It was not close to our best cruise experiences and at no point were things so bad that I contemplated tossing myself over the railing to end it. It was middle of the road for us. That said, this without a doubt, was the least expensive cruise (using a $$ breakdown for what we received) we have taken in at least 4-5 years. The price point does play a row for my review. By the way, we were Aurea package and paid 3300$ for four in a balcony room.

I always ask myself two specific questions post cruise. 1) Would I go on that cruise ship again? 2) Could I in good conscience, recommend this cruise ship to a close friend?

That is it, because I am not going to get into the trap of telling strangers on a forum what they should or should not do.

Would I go on the Seaside again? This answer is not as straight forward as other cruises I have sailed. It is because of the price point. If in the future, I find that $$ is tight but I really would like to get away on a cruise, then YES, I would strongly consider the Seaside. This is of course only if she remains at the current price point that I see now. If in the future, I find that the price point matches her competitors in the Florida area, then the answer would we NO. I honestly feel that the Seaside would have to up their game if they wanted their price point to match the Celebrities and the RC's. ( I'm not sure, but I don't think that that is their goal)

2) Could I in good conscience, recommend this cruise ship to a close friend? The answer would be similar to above. My first question would be to ask how much money that they want to spend? If money is tight and choices were narrow, I could easily recommend the Seaside for getting them their $$ worth. On the other side, if you took the money part out of the equation, I probably would have trouble recommending the Seaside compared to my other experiences cruising out of Florida.

I am going to do a little bit of a breakdown, but it really is going to be short and sweet.

Embarkation-- No problems here. Since we were Aurea, it was kind of like the Carnival "faster to the fun" and we bypassed the main line.

Public Spaces-- Clean and new. Lots of shiny surfaces. No problem with cleanliness in general. We did run into a few backed up toilets both mens and womens room. I did not note the area, but a women's room was closed at one point with a layer of water on the floor. Some of the layout was just wierd to me. I have some design/architect background, so a few areas had me scratching my head. My thinking was "well, it must have looked good on paper". Getting across deck 16 with its layout was odd to me. The garage club and table pool area seemed under utilized for such a bit of prime real estate. But, nothing was ruined, I survived. I just noted it.

Cabin Room -- The room was average, at best. The bed was comfortable, and the kids liked the bunk beds (which stayed up the whole trip). The storage sucked. Granted, it is 4 of us in a room, but compared to other cabins in the past, we had a lot of trouble getting our stuff into the nocks, crannies, and drawers. My wife has become adept over the years with cruise cabin packing and storage. She is funny beacuse she watches how-to youtube videos and starts packing a week in advance. She was perplexed, because her cabin storage planning that has always worked out in the past was a no go with the decreased amount of basic storage that our room offered. I'm sure that two in a room would be fine, but it was tighter than we have grown accustom to in general. Also, the bathroom toilet was more cramped in general than I have gotten used to. ( just had to get that knee in) We figured it out and got over it.

Pools/Hot Tubs --- Not much to say here, they were pools. Except, the hot tubs were all more like warm tubs. I saw someone complain to an officer, I don't think it had any affect.

Recreation/Slides -- My DD's were pretty ho hum about this segment. This is all my fault thought. They both feel that other cruises that they have been on in the past have offered more, bigger, and faster in general. They felt that the slide board was just OK. They had fun, but that was just their general assessment. After I let them do the zipline, they said it was cool but they did not feel the need to do it again. We did not bowl. They really like mini golf, but obviosly not an option. I honestly can say that I saw my two girls more on this cruise than in cruises past. Not that that is a bad thing, but on past cruises, they are ususally gone doing something during the day. (arcade, ice skating, 20 slides in a row, kids game shows, rock walls, mini golf, etc.) They are both outgoing free spirits and have no trouble finding the fun things to do on cruise ships, but this time they just did not find enough things to fill their days.

Sewer Smell??--- I told my wife about all the hub bub on CC about the sewer smell. She said that she should be fine after 20 years with me. (not sure how to take that). I will make this short and sweet. Yes, we came across it a couple of times. We did not thing too much of it. It did smell pretty bad, but we would just move along and the smell did not follow us. I do feel better, because my wife retracted here statement that living with me prepared her. We spoke with people that never smelt anything and people who did smell it. I did not take a survey of smelt it vs not smelt it. I probably smelt the odor for a total of 10 of the entire cruise. Thats that.

I will return tommorrow for more. Thanks

While poor or lackluster entertainment is not a deal breaker, it is an important component of the overall experience to me. I don't understand someone questioning if they are missing something if another poster noted the quality of entertainment as a very important factor in their cruise choices. I know what you are missing. Your missing being that other person with a different set of opinions that has nothing to do with you.

Hmmm... Good to know. I do enjoy a cocktail while watching a show.

One of favorite lido deck pass times is to stand in the pool leaning on the edge and sipping a cocktail. Looks like I may have to sit on the edge.

Indeed. I am willing to give the seaside a chance. I've had a couple less that stellar cruises. I still manage to enjoy myself.

I simply...can't... resist... ;)

 

potential issue: food

1. Bring salt or seasoned salt

2. Avoid the buffet and eat in specialty restaurants or main dining room

3. Book Yacht Club

 

potential issue: sewer smell

1. clothespin for your nose, or put tea tree oil above your lip

2. avoid rooms midship

3. air freshener for your room

4. a cup full of water in your overflow drain in your bathroom

 

potential issue: crowds

1. Book Yacht Club

2. Try to go in fall/winter off season months

 

potential issue: lack of entertainment

1. Kindle or other reading material

2. Casino, learn to play on wizard of odds dot com

 

potential issue: customer service

1. Use a TA (there are discount web-based ones out there) if you typically would rather book your own, so they can handle any web issues for you

2. PRAY for wisdom and understanding...

3. ACCEPT this one is going to be the most challenging and probably never fixed to satisfaction!

 

potential issue: lines

1. When in Rome....

OK Thanks. I guess that I don't need to ask you to elaborate. I have read all of the reviews. I have seen all of the above mentioned at least once. Except for the smell, that seems to be a common theme. I have read good reviews, albiet those are the minority. I was just hoping that the issues were isolated to new boat problems. We shall see.

I believe that you will not be disappointed with the Harmony of the Seas. She is a big ship, but she carries her passengers well. I never felt like I was onboard with 6000 people.

The pizza on top looks much better to me. Never been a fan of that thin crusty stuff.