tfred

Blu menu is somewhat edgy so be prepared for that. We like it but if you are a "selective" eater you may be uncomfortable. There is the everyday chicken, steak or salmon selection. You also may be able to order off the MDR menus but I wouldn't alway count on that

this a land hotel would never allow on site upgrades at a low price since it trains customers to wait until last minute for low cost rooms or upgrades

most of these food discussions are related to "I dont like that kind of food or I never had it like that -aka selective eater'. Too much fish, not enough fish. Meat but I dont like lamb, pork or sirloin.... This forum is littered with these comments . I would like to see what they eat at home. If the menu had stayed the same from whenever most people sailed the complaint would be - "the menu never changes" to my view the menu has evolved like any restaurant from 5 or 10 years ago. X isn't crazy - they follow food trends and try to replicate that in the menus. We have eaten on S class and E class in MDR, Blu and Suites and find the food selections pretty good and prepared well. X isn't going to have a 10 page Cheesecake Factory menu available to flip through

I don’t believe it. I have eaten the buffet for breakfast and lunch and it was very good. What do you consider good food ?

we booked a 10 day Silversea Italian cruise (Rome-Venice) in f 2024 at the same price as X Suite. SS had smaller ports with excursions included. SS isn't as casual on board as X but we can deal with that SS also doesnt have the big nighttime shows but these cruise is more port intensive so I am sure that a full day off ship will put us to sleep earlier than normal. I can survive without Silent Disco this time

not always money, but one way flight to Barbados to board a ship are $300-400. RT ORD FLL are 200-300. Plus the general complexity of flying to Barbados, hotel there etc. Not difficult, but not as easy as FLL sailings with easy hotels, flights, transfers

pretty easy to get to FLL or MIA with a direct , inexpensive flight from almost anywhere in the USA. Flying to Barbados is an expensive multi stop flight. San Juan is better but no much in the way of direct flights add all of that together then X looks like an easier deal

why would they start discounting big time now? Still plenty of time fro last minute people with money to book. Move up lookers are always on the prowl even last minute

25 inches was the 2 day total in many metro FLL locations

- I see that the bed size is queen in classic, superior or deluxe. Is king only available in upper suites ? Can the queen bed be converted to double?

We are also looking at a SS sailing - Venice to Rome 2024. The cost of the 10 day SS is actually the same as a 10 day X cruise in The Retreat. Also, the SS cruise includes transport from home to airport via limo and a variety of included excursions. We like Retreat but the SS is a better fit on a port intensive itin. Royal Caribbean Group should do a better job at showing pax that there is a path for different stages of cruise vacation experiences. Kids? Royal. Adults? Celebrity. Adults with money? SS. Talking with SS, there is no reciprocity with X or RC in any way. There isn't too much that SS could offer as it is all inclusive, but some X points would be great. It would be a natural that RCG would steer upper level pax looking for the next step to SS instead of wandering off to Seabourne, Regent et al..

We are booking our first SS cruise. May 2024 Venice to Rome 10 nights We have been cruising Celebrity Retreat (suite) rooms after we retired and like it. The Med cruise on SS was actually the same price as a Celebrity Med Retreat 10 nighter, the bonus was that SS had excursions and airport transport included. The Celebrity port choice was also the bigger ports with all the big port hassles of bus rides and more people Some questions We are probably going to book direct (as we normally do - also no real relationship with a TA. We have a neighbor that does it but I dont know the advantage to us - other than him getting the commission ) Any disadvantage booking direct? We would book Classic Veranda. Any advantage booking next level up? The flight program wasn't available for some reason. We would spend a few weeks before and after anyway. My concern in general is weird routings - has that been an issue on SS? Its a year off so I dont have an issue finding flights on my own Prices ever go down or special promotions that I would be protected on? Sport coat needed? Acceptable? on this route General quality of the included excursions on SS? Thanks

the Trek review is also about the onboard experience outside the cabin - the staffing is the big issue. Various waits for requests and no one paying attention to the deck experience. That doesnt seem to be room dependent. running a hotel is not the same as a ship. Rc knows that and FourSeasons will soon discover that even with the management that FS has on top interested to see what your experience is dvalentine........

Absolutely. X wants people 50 and up that have money and don’t mind spending money on vacation. These people are coming from full service land resorts that are pricey 90 % of what is complained about here never comes up at a land resort. they don’t complain about where is my prime rib every night, free elite cocktails and trying to game the system. X doesn’t make money on that clientele so why bend over backwards

interesting start. Looking at RC for a cruise next year and am interested if it is 'worth the money" for such a new cruise line how did you book the cruise - TA or direct? Did RC offer any OBC?

Baltic cruise even without St Petersburg. We did this is 2022 and loved it. Ports are great and a different vibe than the Mediterranean Got any money? Book a suite.

Maybe. Don’t count on it. They always have baked chicken, steak or salmon. Also kid meals which a few adults order. that said, half the reason to go Aqua class is Blu. If that menu doesn’t appeal to anyone you are on the wrong place

The Blu menu has morphed into creative and drifted away from spa like over the years. We like it but it isn’t for the “I like what I like” eaters

Generally the answer is on on Apex especially since there are 4 MDR rooms to choose from. If you don’t like the Blu menu then go to the MDR that you like that night. the Blu menu isn’t weird but there is an edge to it so that word makes you nervous then maybe AQ isn’t the right choice.

Luminae is a good choice. We have eaten there twice and always found something good. Depends on your eating style as Luminae is not a meat and potatoes type of restaurant. I would call it inventive. If that word concerns you then maybe a night or two in a specialty is warranted

I don’t know but I could believe it. I worked professionally with the outside concessionaire group a while ago. The guarantee minimum that they had to pay X was high and they also had to give X 70% of the gross per week. Hard to make a profit we were on Apex a few week ago and there no no embarking photos and limited while on board. Green screen and photo studio was just about it. x would just use the space for something else by the photo kiosks that actually makes money.

not all airlines have that no change fee option. Southwest is one thing but Delta and most legacy carriers dont allow it without some penalty

many land based resorts do this already. Sometimes it is "you have 3 days to cancel" after you make the reservations. other cruise lines will follow after some initial dithering. No business is looking for this type of late minute cancel customer

we will use your numbers. $500 (with tax) x 6 nights = $3,000. Meals (2 people) and a few drinks are $250/day x 6 = $1,500 (its actually more than that realistically) Total $4,500 Beaches Ocho Rios is $4600 for a week Both of these are standard rooms - not suites Just a look at an X week cruise same time frame was $4700 for IV on Apex in March There is a whole range of AI land resorts out there - some are great many are so so. People choose a faction spot not just it is in the Caribbean

you get get all of that on smaller ship cruise lines. Those prices are not "reasonable" either, although there are values to be had per day. We have looked and sailed on those lines - Oceania, Seabourne. For some people those lines create another problem depending on how adventuresome they are of how much time they have . The small line ships generally dont have weekly roundtrips from an easy to get to part. Many of them are more than 7 days (not good if you are not retired) or are one way from different ports (airfare gets expensive and multiple legs) . The appeal of cruising for many is the simplicity of flying someplace easy to get to the night before, sail on Saturday and fly home the next Saturday . X (and others like MSC) have figured out that there are enough well off.non-retired people out there that are now going to expensive land resorts that are potential X customers