juliesVacation

On our recent sailing they were advertising a 'buy more, pay less' promotion, up to I think four meals. Unfortunately I can't say whether it was better than the online price, but the advertised price worked out such that you paid about a dollar less for each additional meal you purchased.

Sorry you were disappointed in your trip. We were on that sailing and had a wonderful time! Found something to do at each of the ports. A lot of vacationing is so subjective I guess.

I'm going to back up OP on one thing - embarkation that day was a mess no matter what time you arrived. Our friends arrived early and had a long wait, we arrived late and had a long wait. They simply did not have enough staff available at the unloading station and the line backed up.

We actually tried to avoid watching the pool tv as most of the day it seemed to play weird YouTube-y videos. We did see a glimpse of Mary Poppins one night while walking by =P

Nothing specifically against it, but I don't think names like Monarch and Sovereign would play well with the current target audience. Those names suggest luxury, and Royal these days is more about family, relaxation, and pizazz.

This is an impressively entitled sounding review. Royal is not considered a luxury cruise line.

New England Aquarium is a great place to visit. For food, I recommend walking a block down to Fanuiel Hall. It's a local landmark, basically a multi-block food emporium.

Glad to hear you had fun, we sail on her next week!

Anything but swimsuits. And, no bare feet. Was on Alaska cruise where several kids bought slippers, and saw many bear feet (for real) :)

 

 

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I see what you did there.

Is it really that hit or miss with being able to tender in to CocoCay? We're heading there next week and I was looking forward to finally seeing it for the first time. Is the iffy weather more an issue in the fall when hurricane season ramps up?

This isn't my story, but on our last cruise there was a couple that became semi-infamous on the ship. They were younger and on their honeymoon, and apparently at the very first port the guy gets drunk, tries to jump off some rocks into the ocean, and breaks his leg. They didn't put him in a cast though - the buzz around the ship was that for insurance reasons, they elected to only have it splinted until they returned to the states. For the rest of the week, you saw the new wife pushing him around the ship in a wheelchair, sitting forlornly by the pool, and both of them looking progressively more disgruntled as the week went on. I can certainly imagine that I would have been none too thrilled with that honeymoon, and knowing what awaited when we got home.

I've never had a bad experience with CS on Royal. I very much think that customer service is often dependent on the customer side of the equation - the customer's attitude I mean.

It's an incredibly frustrating job, CS.

Can anyone explain to me why the 5-night Bermuda cruises on Grandeur and Anthem/Adventure are so much more per night than the 9-night cruises? Is Bermuda a more expensive port to visit somehow? Looking towards the future it's so much easier for me to plan for a 5 night trip, but at the higher price per night it just doesn't feel like a good deal.

That's just horrible :(

I'm guessing it must have been one of the longer zip lines, for her to have been out of sight enough that it wasn't obvious she was stuck.

I think if you've got money to throw at this, you're totally going about it the wrong way! Reaching a new loyalty tier is more a bragging rights thing than anything. The real perks are what...access to another bar and priority wait listing and seating? Those things are cool, but are they worth thousands of dollars? I'd so much rather take that same money and book a suite, which gets you plenty of benefits as well, plus double cruise points, plus you're actually ON the cruise ;)

That is a steal! Have fun!

I suppose that there is a simple solution to this problem though if enough people complain...no more room service! ;)

Question: Do they still bring you the corkscrew to open a bottle yourself if you ask? If I bring a bottle to MDR to share with my table and we open it ourselves, is there still a fee?

I doubt people are trying to be gross with this, because on land-based hotels it's pretty typical that you would place your room service tray outside the room to be returned. Not everyone wants the attendants to enter their room. I do agree though that it's kind of gross if they don't get picked up in a timely manner.

They have lots of experience with this =)

On our October cruise a hurricane followed us basically the whole way home. They ended up skipping one port because it had closed in preparation, and we did have mostly cloudy skies, but there were none of those 'rocking cruise ship' issues like you see on youTube.

My general tip is don't feel obligated to do *everything* together. It's the biggest pitfall of traveling with family. If they want to do a bus tour and you want to snorkel, and you don't actually see them that day until dinner, that's okay! You'll have more to talk about!

I like the vibration =) It's like a little wake up signal that you are docking somewhere new!

So happy to see the Viking Crown is still well...my favorite spot on the ship!

If you happened to do the refundable deposit route, could you just cancel and re-book?

They've been trying to lock in that millennial generation and if they really want to seal the deal, they're going to have to give new things a shot. As is, the under 40 demo seems to gravitate towards Carnival and NCL. Heads up Royal - in 20 years a lot of your current "loyals" aren't going to be around anymore.

I totally agree...that's my demographic and craft beer is what we drink, not bud light. I'm happy to stick with wine as an alternative, but what inspired this thread was talking to a friend about the cruise and her asking what kind of beer was available. I might suggest she look into Norwegian since so many people are mentioning it.

Thank you all for the input! I'll check in at the promenade pub and see what's available.

I think this will end up going on my comment card at the end of the trip. I drink very little mass market beer and I think that's pretty typical of my demographic, so I'm actually less likely to buy beer on the cruise. Although as someone else said, with all the wine and mixed drinks I'm sure we won't go thirsty ;)

On our last cruise they hadn't really caught on to the trend yet and the available beer was mostly mainstream. Has that started changing? Thanks!