dlong1969

I'm jumping RCL ship for Azamara. I think I'll find what I'm looking for there. You hit the nail on the head with this, "So those of us who have been cruising for a while know the differences" I'm sad about it. I have a huge invested interest in cruising. ;);)

Question to anyone who knows... how has Celebrity fared? Has this downgrade of service and quality hit them as well? They are supposed to be RC's upper tier cruise line... I might consider trying them. What are the ships and the general atmosphere like on a Celebrity ship sailing in the Caribbean? I am in my mid 40s, wife in mid 30s, and we don't do the party scene/night life stuff so much...

How well to the Crown and Anchor benefits translate over to Celebrity?

Thanks!

I'd say that if you want their best steak, there is an upcharge.

 

I'd skip Chops altogether and go to Giovanni's. Very nice filet there.

The last time I was at Chops before this cruise (2014), everything on the menu except for drinks and specialty coffees were included in the cover charge. this included my favorite, a really nice, large porterhouse steak. This is the ONLY time I ever allow myself that large a steak, is when we go to Chops on a cruise.

To my dismay, THIS is what they are upcharging... you pay 35 dollars a person to go to Chops to begin with, and then they charge you 20.00 upcharge for that steak. They also have a dry aged strip steak that I believe they are upcharging another 30 bucks for... and lobster also about 30 bucks.

Our cabin steward was good as well. She was efficient and took care of things very well. We actually didn't end up drinking a bottle of wine we carried onboard, so we ended up giving it to her as a gift at the end of the cruise.

The bar and wait staff, like you said, just couldn't seem to care less. and it wasn't just our main dining staff either.

One standout.. Andre from Jamaica was a bar server in the deck 4 main dining room. He was good. He was attentive and kept my glass full (Diet Coke). he even went to a different venue to fill me up because the fountain was putting out crappy tasting diet coke... and he said he wouldn't serve it to me.

The Freestyle machines on Freedom could be spotty.... but we were on Enchantment last year, and the machines were in great locations that made sense, and worked most all of the time.

This is all on perspective.You can read ten different reviews on same exact cruise with veteran cruisers and get ten different takes on everything.Its all a very personal experience.Some people are much harder to please then others and thats just a fact.Not saying the OP is just stating the obvious.

 

Two years ago I had my best ever vacation on oasis..I came back to this forum and read a review on same cruise that ripped it to shreds..Just different perspectives..

Exactly... but when you post things on here that are not positive, you often time get the snot kicked out of you, with people indicating that you must be crazy or an idiot if you didn't have the most amazing time of your life...

The turning tides in cruise vacations saddens me more than anything. I used to LOVE being onboard, and would usually have 2 or more cruises on the books at a time. Now we have to find something else to do with our vacation time....

Well, it seems as though I am not alone. I was starting to think by the responses I was getting on this thread that I was some sort of a Grinch, or maybe I just didn't get on the same ship as everyone else.

Again, I didn't have a horrible time... we really did have fun... but these negatives have tainted our opinion of cruising as a vacation. My wife is one of the most accepting, forgiving, accommodating people on the planet. She HAS to be.. she is married to ME.. :) BUT even she made very similar comments to me, and some of the reflections I shared are a combination of her thoughts and my thoughts.

Internet: Slower than dialup, when you could get on.... EXCEPT, surprisingly, Skype. Skype clarity, once we got connected, was remarkably clear... clearer than any other time we have been online on a ship.... which surprised me to say the least. I even sent a Facebook message to my daughters saying to not expect much from Skype, the internet was so horrible.... Connecting to any website other than the Free RC Sales websites was slow as dirt... however, connection to any site where you could buy something from Royal Caribbean was remarkably and noticeably faster.If you are planning on using the internet connection for work (A&L), you may want to set expectations low. If I were to have considered working from the ship, productivity would have been sub-par to say the very least.

Diamond Lounge - forget about it. We went up there at 7:00 PM on the second night... forget finding a seat. It's not gonna happen. I imagine unless you get there right at the open, you are pretty much out of luck. The experience was not relaxing, so we never went back.

San Juan... I agree with an earlier response.. what's the point if you are gonna get there so late? We got to spend about 45 minutes at the Fort, and that was about it.

A don't miss would be David Curtis each evening in the Schooner bar, if he's still on board. If it hadn't been for the "hijackers" (as my wife refers to them), we woudl have been there every night until he quit. Amazing guy...

As for the pool bar staff.. there was one young guy working in the Solarium. My wife pointed him out to me... he constantly walked in circles, head in the clouds, nothing on his tray, not talking to ANYONE or asking anyone if they wanted a drink. This was every day, each day. We saw him with a drink on his tray 2 times the entire cruise... AND when we saw this same kid in other venues, he was doing the same thing. Completely oblivous to the world around him.... and we were not the only ones to notice. Other people would be talking about him, and we would get a good smile and chuckle out of it....

Just goes to show how opinions and perspectives are very subjective and unique to the observer, yes?

Glad that they had a good time. Does that mean my observations and opinions are somehow invalid?

:rolleyes:

You make a good point about the ships. The Freedom is much nicer than the Sovereign, which was our first ship back in 2006.

We had a good time. Don't misunderstand. The time alone with my wife is really what it is all about. We love the caribbean and the sea and the sun... so believe me, we really did relax and enjoy ourselves.

The problem is, when you use a product for a long time, you would expect that the product, over time, would improve and would refine itself. Especially in the hospitality industry... but not just there. When you buy a Mercedes, you expect a certain amount of refinement and quality that you don't expect from a Ford. You expect that from anything you purchase.

When we started cruising 10 years ago, the service is what made the difference. It was nice to be taken care of so efficiently, so professionally, so courteously.... and with that attitude on the decline, it is bothersome to us.

The price increases on board the ship... they appear to be a shameless attempt by corporate to push people to their overpriced all-inclusive packages.

It really does feel like the focus is on new customers, and not repeat cruisers. That's the consensus of alot of seasoned cruisers that we met on board.... that's really hard to swallow after spending 10 years of vacations with the company.... Another good example is the Windjammer. How long has it been since they changed the food in there? I mean, really? ON the way up there to get lunch the first day, we were joking around with each other, and we set out to guess exactly what food would be in the Windjammer, and exactly WHERE in the buffet it would be located. Do you know that we were probably well over 80% correct? And we had never been on this ship before! That speaks volumes, in my book!

I really do think that this is gonna be the last cruise we take for awhile. I don't post alot here, but I do read ALOT here... and I hear the same kind of contention from other repeat cruisers on other lines. The ships are sailing full... so there is no reason to go out of their way to entice their repeat customers.... kind of like how the airlines ended up... used to be a big deal to fly... now they cram you in so tight, one flight = 1 month in the chiropractic office to recover.. :)

 

I have a few questions, if you don't mind:

 

Though you hit on service in the MDR, you didn't mention food. My mom, grandmother, and aunts really look forward to our dining experiences on board. I know corners have been cut, and cut again. How did you find the food to be this time?

 

And what did you do in San Juan? I'm struggling to organize something to do here, since the forts close at 6pm and the trolley stops running at 7pm. I even contacted a few recommended tour guides from the SJ board, to no avail. No one was interested in our business due to our late arrival.

the food was quite good in the MDR. No real complaints there. Chops was another story. The steaks were very good... but they are now upcharging for certain items like the porterhouse which they didn't upcharge for before.. AND they raised the cover charge. Service was pretty much non-existant there as well. very disappointed.

San Juan, we walked to the fort, looked around there for a bit, and then just walked around Old San Juan until we headed back to the ship at around 8:00 PM or so.

Thanks!

Just back back from the Independence Eastern Itinerary, and thought I would jot down a few thoughts about the cruise.

First of all, this is our 10th cruise, all with Royal Caribbean. 4th time on a Freedom Class, first time on Independence.

The Freedom has it, hands down over the Indy. Even though they are the same class of ship, the Freedom is just nicer.

No Freestyle machines on Indy. The fountain pop tasted weird all week. I think the servers knew it too, because often you would see them pouring from cans instead of using the fountain wand sitting right there.

Opinions are subject, but my wife and I, along with other veteran cruisers that we met onboard, agree that the over all experience is being cheapened.

If you had never cruised before, you would probably go "WOW" and be fairly impressed with your experience on board. Our cruising experience spans almost a decade... so we have definately seen some degradation.

First of all, Diamond benefits. In one short year, they reduced the onbouard benefits for Diamond members by what I would estimate as about 50%. Maybe not that drastic, but enough.... one thing I really disliked was the change to the internet benefits. I am on vacation. I don't WANT 24/7 access to the internet. Especially since I work in IT for a living. I want a BREAK from it... BUT... I need to be able to check on the kids via Skype once a day... so the Diamond benefit of 60 free minutes (120 between my wife and I) was about perfect. 15 or so minutes a night to talk to the 5 year old at home.... but this is no longer the case. Now, you get 24 hours continuous access or 40 dollars off of a package... oh, and you can't combine the 2 diamond benefits and get 80 bucks off a package. In order to use both diamond benefits, you gotta play the system... get 1 free day... then get another free day... then pay for unlimited access for the rest of the cruise at 20 bucks a day.... so what used to be a "free" benefit for us, enabling us to Skype home for 15 minutes a day, now has become a 100.00 add on if we want to talk to the kids each day.. and on TOP of that, now we have access to the rest of the world 24/7 again... which means that either you use it, or you waste the money. Very irritating. They are pushing people to pay for the expensive unlimited access plans... but the internet is ridiculously slow... at one point, we couldn't get access for over 36 hours... missing talking to my son one evening... Why? The system was overloaded, they say... funny, the free links to RC sales websites worked just fine. Overloaded my keester. The IT people on the ship are as adept as the IT people in Miami it would seem.

Service: Lacking. Just plain lacking. Our servers in the main dining room just couldn't seem to care less. The past 2 cruises (since they started charging gratuities directly to your seapass account) have shown a vast difference in service than what we had become accustomed to. If you asked a server for an additional entre or appetizer, they seemed to be put out by it.... little looks, etc. The main waiter chewed out his assistant for something stupid in front of EVERYONE.. made a big production out of it, pulling in his head waiter and everything...

Bar service: I can't count how many times I saw bar service people just walking aimlessly around the pool areas. Not asking people if they wanted anything. Before the "purchase unlimited booze" packages became available, you had to beat the bar staff off you with a stick. Twice I tried to flag someone down to get a drink only to be basically ignored. I had to get out of the pool and go to the bar. Now, yes, I know that is really whiney... and i really don't care if I have to get out of the pool to get a drink. I am just showing how things have changed. Not to mention bar prices. Yes, they have always been high.... but the price point was at "yeah, it is a little expensive, but I am on vacation, so what the hell".... now it is "really? you really want 10 bucks plus tip for a frozen drink with cheap rum in it?".... usually my drink of choice on a ship is a frozen strawberry daquiri... this time, I drank beer... and most of the time it was during the 5 to 8 PM window when I could use my diamond drink "coupons". I couldn't help but feel like they jacked up the already ridiculous prices so that they could push "ala carte" drinkers to the overpriced all-inclusive drink packages. Looks like I shoulda broke out the rum-runners again.

The shows were pretty bad, as people mentioned on another thread. Tired... old... same old/same old....

The one shining aspect with Piano Man David Curtis. The guy is amazing and funny, and is a genius at the keyboard... we had a LOT of fun with him... that is, until his show got hijacked. There were a large group of very talented performers cruising as a group on our sailing. most of the nights they ended up at David's show and basically took the thing over.... He didn't seem to mind and was probably having fun with it... but these are old vaudeville type performers, doing all kinds of old broadway type show tunes... not my cup of tea... when they weren't there, David played a great mix of tunes... he even actually talked me into singing, which I don't normally do in large groups... but he was fun, witty, and engaging. When this group took over, they were the only ones who mattered. We ended up leaving when they started up, because we knew that David's time was pretty much over. I really wish they had found other things to do... but alas, they were having fun, he was having fun, and we were outnumbered greatly... so democracy in action, yes?

Cigar lounge.... one of my favorite spots... mostly overrun with cigarette smokers. If you don't smoke cigars, you wouldn't understand. I used to smoke cigarettes years ago, so I am not an anti-cigarette person... BUT... cigarette smoke does not mix well with cigar smoke. Cigar smoke is nuanced, delicate, etc.... and when someone is smoking a cigarette near you, that is all you smell and taste... The bartender in the cigar lounges are usually the most engaging, friendly, knowledgeable, attentive servers on the ship. It's a small venue with easy regulars... this time, not so much. The dude in there may as well not have been. He sat at his little bar and said nothing to no one. He didn't look up from his book or whatever the heck it was he was doing. He never once made the rounds of the room to ask if someone wanted a drink. He emptied the ashtrays dutifully about once every 30 minutes, not speaking to anyone....

Maybe I am expecting too much. I would think that as time went by, the experience would be more refined and get better/more wonderful. Unfortunately this is not the trend I am witnessing....

Don

Just got home from the Independence. Slapped a luggage tag on a 12 pack of Diet Pepsi and it was delivered. 2 cans were punctured, but the rest survived. I would get plastic bottles, or just be prepared to have your cans beat up a little. No big deal.

Thanks! I did a search and didn't come up with that. Must have used the wrong keywords!

can't seem to get an answer or find the main dining room menus for the Independence of the Seas, Eastern Caribbean... so maybe I can get an answer to this.... what are the formal nights? Trying to decide when to eat a Chops.

Thanks tons!

Don

Doing some planning for our upcoming cruise in September and are trying to figure out when to visit Chops....

to this end... does someone have the menus for the main dining room for the eastern itinerary (not that they change, I don't think), and can you indicate what days the menu was for?

Thanks in advance!

Don

Thanks for the reply.

Do you recommend getting a car? I am not necessarily opposed to it... but if I can avoid the hassle of the rental counter without it being too much of a detriment....

thanks

Ok, ok... I know that there are probably better venues for this question. I DID post it in Florida departures, and got SQUAT for responses.

I also tried to search, but came up empty.

Since I know my Royal Caribbean sisters/brethren are very active on this forum, I thought I would try my question here. Hopefully the forum moderators will show me some love and let it stay...

We usually cruise out of Port Canaveral....

Part of our pre-cruise rituals is to get to Florida is to get there a day early and go up to FishLips in Port Canaveral to watch the ships leave.

This year, we are cruising out of Port Everglades. We haven't cruised out of this port since 2009, so it's kinda hard to remember what is there.

A few questions:

1) For those of you familiar with both ports, is there an equivalent in Port Everglades to Fishlips Bar and Grill in Port Canaveral? We would love to be able to watch the ships leave while sipping on a cold one, eating conch fritters, like we usually do from Port Canaveral.

2) Is it possible to "not rent a car"? We are thinking about booking a hotel that will allow have both airport pickup and port drop off.... is that feasible?

3) What recommendations do you have for hotels? When cruising from Port Canaveral, we stay at the Radisson Oceantfront in Melbourne. We are looking for something like this.

Thanks in advance!

Don

Good afternoon

We usually cruise out of Port Canaveral....

Part of our pre-cruise rituals is to get to Florida is to get there a day early and go up to FishLips in Port Canaveral to watch the ships leave.

This year, we are cruising out of Port Everglades. We haven't cruised out of this port since 2009, so it's kinda hard to remember what is there.

A few questions:

1) For those of you familiar with both ports, is there an equivalent in Port Everglades to Fishlips Bar and Grill in Port Canaveral? We would love to be able to watch the ships leave while sipping on a cold one, eating conch fritters, like we usually do from Port Canaveral.

2) Is it possible to "not rent a car"? We are thinking about booking a hotel that will allow have both airport pickup and port drop off.... is that feasible?

3) What recommendations do you have for hotels? When cruising from Port Canaveral, we stay at the Radisson Oceantfront in Melbourne. We are looking for something like this.

Thanks in advance!

Don

Running of the drunks, for sure...

A submarine off the coast of Miami

Flying fish - lots of them.

Yeah, nekkid people on their balcony...

dolphins

F16 fighter jets

got lots of pictures, but they are at home, and alas, I am not.

So I am going through my documentation today, making sure I have everything in order, and getting ready to complete the online check in.

If you recall, the original question of this thread was concerning the fact that my neice's address on her drivers permit was an old address. I got good responses and confirmation from RC that this didn't matter...

Today I am looking at the permission to travel document (notarized) that I got from her parents... and of course, they put their CURRENT address on the document... so now the document on her permit and on the document is not going to match.

I am gonna call RC about it.... but I want to know if anyone has any insights on this.

This is quickly breaking me of taking kids other than my own out of the country, let me tell you...

Thanks in advance

Don

Ok,

I know that this is probably not the correct place to post this, and if moderators move it to a more proper location, so be it... but you guys are some of the most well traveled, intelligent people I know..

I have been reading both on here and in other articles that the airlines are cracking down on carry-on sizes, specifically the width measurement of 14 inches.

We are getting ready to purchase a couple of new carry on bags. IT IS FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE to find ones that are within their exact 22X14X9 measurements... and since checked bags are not exactly cheap, I want to carry on the biggest possible bag....

The ones we found that we liked are hard sided and fall under the total length of 45 inches dictated by most airlines (in our case, Delta)... BUT... the measurements are 20.5 X 14.5 X 9.5.... so we are .5 over on the 14.5 measurement...

In you recent experiences, are the airlines being militant over .5 inches, especially if the overall measurements are UNDER 45? I don't want a 50.00 surprise at the airport when they make me check the bags...

Thanks in advance for your insights and experiences...

Don

I was able to upgrade cabins on our upcoming Enchantment cruise from a D1 to a JR Suite... for both cabins... and not just JR Suites.... AFT junior suites, right next to each other.... for 25 bucks a cabin! If you have a D1 cabin, call them... there are more Jr Suites available....

Question... when upgrading this close (9 days), has anyone had any problem with their RC Credit Card OBC being misplaced or not transferred to your new cabin(s)? We have 350.00 in OBC that I don't want to lose. Should I call the points redemption place? Does anyone have a phone number for them?

Thanks

Don

If your niece is a minor, you should also have the notarized letter from the parents granting you permission to take her out of the county and make medical decisions on her behalf.

Yeah, I got all that stuff, notarized, etc.... and I asked her for her permit so I could get a photocopy of it to keep as a secondary.... but it didn't even dawn on my to check her address on her permit...

I just checked with Iowa DOT to see if we could expedite the process to get the plastic... and they said no, that Iowa doesn't even print the cards anymore, that they are outsourced.

They issue a paper license to you while you wait to get the plastic one in the mail. I don't know if I would want to take/trust that at the pier.

Thanks Bob...

The online check-in DOES ask for street address.

I will put in the address on her documentation. Heck, her parents move so much, her current address might not be valid in a couple weeks... how would DHS or RC be able to keep up?

LOL

Thanks for entertaining the question. Last minute jitters, trying to make sure everything is in order. Never took a not-mine kid out of the country before and I don't want to be standing at the pier waving goodbye to the ship.

I finally DID get ahold of C&A (way after YOU guys answered... of course) and they agreed with you. Doesn't matter as long as the face and birthdate matches the person and the birth certificate.

so for online check in, would you use the address on her permit? so at least it matches?

All,

Please, no passport lectures...

My niece is coming with us on a cruise in 13 days. She just informs me that her drivers permit address is not the same as where she currently lives., but is her last address... In Iowa, it takes up to 27 days to get your replacement...

Is this gonna be a big deal? Do I just check her in with her old address?

She is a minor (16)

Thanks

And just remember that officially you have an adult and child in each cabin so you will be able to bring two bottles of wine per cabin on board.

That was the first thing I thought of....

Strawberry wine, some reisling, and a bottle of cognac.... here we go!