jcc1025

Thanks for the post. We will be passing each other on Saturday as we get on Harmony. We have been on many Royal ships but our first time on Harmony and you review really has us even more excited. While we are not going to Cosa Maya this cruise but will be back in April we are really excited to try your beach break location. Have a fun few days left . 

On 8/23/2024 at 3:46 PM, Need-a-vacation said:

Thank you for this.  I'm arriving Sunday 9/29 on Grand Princess. Itinerary says arrival at 6:15a.  I'm leaning towards a 10:50a flight from Long Beach.  Is that too tight?

Or maybe I just book it and plan to rebook to a later flight if there's a problem (it's southwest, so same day changes are less painful).

On 8/23/2024 at 3:46 PM, Need-a-vacation said:

Thank you for this.  I'm arriving Sunday 9/29 on Grand Princess. Itinerary says arrival at 6:15a.  I'm leaning towards a 10:50a flight from Long Beach.  Is that too tight?

Or maybe I just book it and plan to rebook to a later flight if there's a problem (it's southwest, so same day changes are less painful).

We live about 5 minutes from Long Beach airport. If all goes right, ship clears customes and no ssues with TSA at Long Beach. a  SW an 11am flight is possible. I hate the stress of hoping that everything goes right but if your willing to take the chance on rebooking you have a shot at that flight time. It takes us about 30 minutes to get home from Royal cruises when we cruise but we park at the airport so have figure your transportation options into the equation. 

I live about five minutes from LGB and it takes us about 20-30 minutes to get to the Royal parking lot especially on a Sat. at that time you will be there well befor your assugbed boarding time. Enjoy the cruise. 

22 minutes ago, Shaded Lady said:

@ceilidh1 here on page 2- that's better than I've been doing on most recent lives!

 

We sail mostly out of Galveston- go figure, living in Florida with 5 ports within a reasonably short drive, so we have to drive to Texas! We do that 'cause DD and DGS watch the furbabies for us while we're cruising. 

 

The big advantage to that is we have our car and can drive wherever, whenever... I love the Spot! and we always stop at Buccees on the way to the island...

 

Looking forward to your review!

We live in Long Beach and sail out of Galveston a lot as well. For a long time Royal didn't sail out of LA so Galveston was the closest and I hated flying all the way to FL. We got use to the drive from Hobby and love the gulf coast seafood. We now also sail the west coast a lot but love the carribean and the Royal ships, which are a destination in itself for us. We are on Harmoney on 8/14. 

On 8/4/2024 at 7:50 AM, QTBabyNurse said:

We will be cruising on a New Year's Eve sailing and hubby has rented a tuxedo through RCI on past cruises which was delivered to our room on embarkation day.
 

Can't seem to find the link for the rental anymore on RCI website. Does anyone know where to find this?

Yes, I have used this service many times but no more. 

Several of the Long Beach resturants around Shoreline drive will be open. The Boatyard is good as is Parkers Lighthouse. What every you choose you need to make reservation way in advance. No one will have any reservations open for a weeks befor Thanksgiving. We have goine to Gladstones several times as well but if you don't for Thanksgiving we always make reservations at least a month in advance. 

5 hours ago, avatexrs said:

Exactly. The food in the main dining room on my last cruise was barely edible. 
 

The cruise I booked for 2025 cost only about 10% more my first cruise in 1989, when there was no specialty dining (and no need for any).
 

On my last cruise in 2018, I think Chops was around $30 per night, including gratuities, and considered a surcharge. Now it’s more than double that with the mandatory 18% gratuities added in.  
 

I’m not complaining - I think the concept of low fares and pay more for what you really want makes a lot sense to me. 
 

 

Specifically dinning options will go up based on their own cost of the elements going up. To maintain the quality that we want the price of those elements go up for Royal and like every business in every industry they will need to pass that on as an increase in price. The price/value equasion is always something that all businesses deal with and it is different for each person. Your price/value decision will be different than mine or any one else, its always in individual decision and no one can tell you what is right for you specifically. 

10 minutes ago, avatexrs said:

My sailing on the Independence next year is currently offering only 3-night and unlimited packages.  Does RC offer 5-night dining packages on its 7 night sailings?  

 

What is a "good" price for a 3-night dining package?  Current offer is for $105 + gratuity.   

No 5 nights, only 3 night and unlimited. That price is not bad. We have a sailing on Jewel next year as well. The smaller ships will have lower dinner package packages as they have fewer options. One option when you see a price like this is to book it and they check in on a regular bases. we do it about once a week and if the price drops you can cancel you first reservation and book a second on. They will refund your original purchase and recharge you. We do that with overall cruise price a well. We always book directly anymore but even if you use a TA you can get the lower price. Have a good cruise we sailed Independence once and she is a very nice ship. 

For all those pre Covid sailors I think we can agree that one thing that came out of that was the new safty drill procedure. For all that use to stand in large groups bunched togeter on the deck waiting for the captin to release us, this is something that Royal got right. I remember standing on a deck in San Juan in the most humid conditions possible many years ago and waiting for people to pass out. This is one of several improvements Royal made to sailing post Covid. 

We live in Long Beach, about 2 minutes from the airport. We have sailed on Royal several times and park at the airport. We carry our luggage off and in most cases we are back home before 9am. Getting a ride should not be an issue and you could make that flight. Also don't have to put up with the hassle that can be LAX although we have also traveled on Thanksgiving days before and its never crowded. 

10 hours ago, nanseev said:

Nav is actually not leaving - they are having both ships here 🙂. Excited for the comparisons!

Thats good, I thought since Quantum was running the same route we had taken Navigator on that she was going to replace her. 

We live very close to the port and were so happy with Royal came back and have sailed Navigator a few times on both the short and long cruises. We really enjoye this ship. She is leaving late next year and Quantum is coming in. We have tickets on her first cruise. Looks like the city and port are about to appove an expansion out on the outer port area that will support the larger ships. Hope Royal can develop some additional port stop locations on the west coast at some point. 

3 hours ago, sowhat said:

Anthem, Brilliance, and Freedom just what I recall, they were  all sold to the public  and  cancelled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So did you lose any money or did they refund your deposit and let you book a different cruise? I really don't see this as a deterient to booking early and then watching for cruise price drops which we do all the time and on our upcomming cruise actually repriced it twice and cut the price by almost a thousand dollars over the original price. 

13 hours ago, mattR said:

Largest we have cruised before was Freedom class.  What do I need to know about the Wonder of the Seas.  I hear you have to book shows?  Are the line up's huge for activates since there are so many people on these ships.  We will be sailing Sep 22/24 will that help with sport activities line-up since school will be back in or will they still be huge?   How long of a wait should we expect for the sport activities such as slides and zip line and flow rider?  We are looking at booking the 3 night specialty dinning will we have trouble getting reservations for Wonderland and the Japanese chef dinner?  Can you reserve any of the sport activities or is it just show up and wait in line? 

We agree with the others. Have sailed both classes and like them both but due to the way the Oasis Class is layed out we actully felt less crowed then on some of the other classes even with more passengers on board. The wait for the sports activities will be determined by the time you choose. If its the middle of a sea day there will be some waits but nothing terrible, at more off hours there will not be much of a wait. 

We also live in Souther California and sail out of Galveston a lot just for the reason you listed. The flight and hotel cost going out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdal got so out of hand, in addition the flight options were reduced and it was so the travel times were not good. We also sail out of LA on Navigaor a lot but like the Caribbean so are on Harmony in a couple of months. We also like to spend time in the Solarium and at first the loss of the pool seemed bad but then after thinking about it the little pools there are usually so packed we don't use it much so think we will like the additon space and dinning and drink options in that area. Its always a persoanl decision and you will have a good time in either way. 

6 hours ago, sowhat said:

Please supply the  information for which Royal Caribbean ships have shore side power connections retro fitted to them as I can not find any details

 

The Eueropen Union has required that all major ports use tie in power for ships by the end of this decade. Several already are in pllace so guess any RCCL ship that wants to sail in Europe will need to be set up. Miami has also installed them and are in use for cruise ships. The port at Galveston is working on getting the lines installed into the new RCCL termial to support plug in power. 

Oldest was in 89 on Nordic Prince. Newest and favorite would be Allure but will be on Harmony in September so she will be the newest at that point. 

Even if you sign up after and you provide the dates and reservation information from previous cruies they will give you credits once you have signed up. 

On 6/12/2024 at 2:26 PM, lovelife said:

Well heck. It used to be for an oceanview. Did it change?

Sorry, no you are right but we always book balcony so anything without one is consiered inside to us. Our bad and I understand the difference just didn't occur to me. 

We have used the points for cruises a couple of times in the past and also for on board credits but never though a TA. We would book the cruise for a balcony then use the credits for a cruise against the curruent cruise. The value they give you is for an inside cabin and you have to pay the difference for the upgrade. Again not sure how this works with a TA but we have done it a couple of times for 7 day cruises. 

One of the best use to be when Royal docked in Ocho Rios Jamaica befor the move to Falmouth. They had a long dock and you could watch the pier runners trying to run to get back and being met by the drug sniffing dogs at the end of the pier near the ship. We use to book our room just to make sure we were on the correct side of the ship for that locations. 

20 hours ago, philpcruiser said:

Yup, possibly.  So who anteed up the cash to pay for this.  Private investors?  Government? What were they thinking?I 

As I understood at the time it was a goverment project since the old pier was not really used and in poor shape and every cruise guest had to walk by it on the way to the city. I visited there and can atest to that. There is also a concert venue they can use for music or festivals. It is still pretty new, hasn't even been open a year so I think they are still filling in property's.  I watched them build it on that site, backfilled much of the ground. A way better improvement from what was there before. I believe RCCL is planing on building a private (cruise ship pasangers only) area on the island across from the docks. 

• So sad, we sailed with him a couple of times and he was special. Condolences to to whole RCCL family for their loss. 

We have sailed RCCL for a very long time and in the early days they used to sell a nice wood binded book with a tropical theme with all the dirnk recipies in it. We still have ours and break it out every so ofter for special occasions. 

On 5/27/2024 at 10:24 AM, philpcruiser said:

Regarding the port area: it appears a lot of $$$ was spent on upgrades/improvements recently.   However,  from looking at the area on the Nassau web cam, it appears that a large area is still not opened.  Reason?

Probably the lease cost to rent a spot there. I watched it being built was amazing given that it was an old dock. I think the building on the end looks to be designed as a resturant but my guess the cost to get those propertys is high and that would be why its not full yet.