OKC Cruisers

I must admit, as silly as they may seem, I do miss having a new towel animal each night! Even at my age. But then, I also miss my chocolate mint on the pillow at turn down, too! It kind of shocked me when I went on Carnival and got towel animals every night and even found that, on one morning, a towel animal had been left in EVERY lounge chair around the pool. Oh, and we still got a chocolate on our pillow!

Whew, that almost sounded like I'm a Carnival cheerleader! We love to cruise, but RC is our favorite...still!

Pete

We are casual cruisers and usually eat in the Windjammer on the ship's formal nights. We have found that some of the selections are the same as in the MDR, but they always have a number of other choices as well. We enjoy the different pace of eating in the Windjammer and the fact that you can mix and match the things you want. You can even use your wine package there when dining! Nothing goes better with a cheeseburger and fries than a nice merlot!

Pete

Wait...What??? They have sugar free desserts on cruises??? :eek:

In truth, though, I love the SF Coconut Cookies with a bowl of fruit.

Pete

Everyone has their own preferences. We have done an outside and a balcony, but for us, we almost always book inside cabins. For the little time we spend in the room, we just don't think having a window or a balcony is worth the extra cost. We can almost each get a drink package with the money we save. My DW sometimes takes a short afternoon nap and finds the darkness of the inside room conducive to restfulness.

Now, if it was more than just the 2 of us in the room, I might opt for a Promenade or something with a little more square footage. And I personally would love to try one of the new Panoramic Ocean View rooms with the floor to ceiling windows just for the experience...unfortunately, none of those on Freedom.

Tomahawk246: We're with you there! Using the CAS Special Cruise Rate and the M/LE/FF discount, we were able to book a 7 day on Serenade for under $400 per person!!

Pete

Log on to Royal's website, go to the C & A portion and click on Special Offers, then click on "New! Crown and Anchor Society Exclusive Rates." Once there click and View Cruises and you will find a very long list of cruises with special C&A member prices. We just snagged a heck of a deal on a January 2015 cruise on Serenade.

We are looking at booking the Falmouth Food Tour through Jamaica Culinary Tours dot com. Trip Advisor gives it high marks. Anyone taken this tour? Comments? Suggestions? Any and all help appreciated.

Hmmm. Carnival has always ported at Ochos Rios or Montego Bay. Falmouth has exclusively been used by Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Lines. Carnival may not have any excursions listed yet because they have not gotten tour contracts in place as it is a work in progress. Keep checking, I'm sure once they have some tour operators in place, they'll post them.

Falmouth is still a fairly new cruise ship port. The terminal facilities are excellent and there are a lot of shops, etc within it's confines. The area directly outside the cruise terminal is fairly poor and can be a little intimidating to those who want to walk outside the terminal confines. But it's only a short distance to the downtown area with some history to see.

We are returning in just a few weeks on RCL Navigator of the Seas and have booked the "Falmouth Food Tour" via Jamaica Culinary Tours dot com. On our last visit, we booked the Zip Line adventure through the cruise ship which I believe was the Zip Line at Rose Hall. It was a moderate ride on a bus to get there but we had a blast! Then on the way back to port we stopped at a very nice shopping mall that had some great shops with, what I believe, were some great prices on stuff like Blue Mountain Coffee and local made arts and crafts.

We were just on Navigator in February and my wife drinks a Bloody Mary morning, noon and night. We watched the bartender at our favorite bar, Bolero's. Usually they would use a commercial mix that came in a container just like a milk carton. The container had the Royal Caribbean logo on it, as did several other premixes that were in similar cartons. Our bartender would then add additional spice if requested. My wife said they were good, just the right spiciness (and she likes them moderately spicy).

So all we need now is a confirmation from a room steward and we will know its true.:rolleyes:

I'll call your room steward and raise you a bartender! :D

Pete

I remember when everyone was speculating on the name for Oasis 2 (now Allure) and my favorite was:

Behemoth of the Seas

There are the little "tubs" of creamer in several flavors available at the Promenade Cafe and in the Windjammer. Definitely saw French Vanilla!

I have not seen any Royal ships provide umbrellas. They do SELL umbrellas in the Logo Shops. Better pack your own just to be safe! :D

I understand that there are a number of different packages, but I was wondering if you are able to purchase bottled liquor (ex, vodka) once on board the ship? We are going on Liberty of the Seas! :)

If you mean for consumption while on board, the answer is, No. You can purchase liquor by the bottle in the shops on board, but they will be delivered to your room on the last night of the cruise for you to carry them off.

Lighthouse Parking...$55 for 7 day (with online booking discount)...covered parking.

http://www.lighthouseparking.org

We were at Bolero's every night too! I have a nice pic of both our wives dancing with the guy. LoL

Hmmm. Quite the cad, wasn't he? :D

Great review! We were in Bolero's every evening as well. We saw the dancing couple I think you are referring to...man they could dance! Gina danced with the guy several times cause I can't move like that! Thanks to Myra and Jean-Pierre, two of the bartenders, Bolero's became our nightly hang out!

Pete

We are going on our first Royal Caribbean cruise in April and are so excited but I wanted to get some recommendations for companies anyone has used for excursions in Jamaica and Grand Cayman. We already know we would like to go to Secret Falls in Jamaica but we are looking for the best guide. Any ideas for guides and options would be appreciated!

Best bet is to go to the Ports thread section. Go to "Caribbean," then choose the port of call. Here you will find numerous discussions about shore excursions, both cruise line and independent, with plenty of good advice. Also, go to Trip Advisor dot com and you can find tour information and reviews there as well. Good Luck!

You will find the PORTS forum here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

Wait....what??? There's a CHOCOLATE BREAKFAST!?!?!?! :eek:

You can get "The Drink of the Day," but not the souvenir glass.

Again, it really depends on what you want to do. Relaxation? Cultural history? Sightseeing? Drunken partying? :D

In Cozumel, we go to Nachi Cocom Beach Club. A pay one price all-inclusive day at the beach.

We've been to Belize a couple of times. We like to visit historical/cultural sites, so in Belize we've done Mayan ruins as they have some spectacular ones. For more of a "fun" time, though we haven't done it, many people rave about the cave tubing.

Whatever you choose, hope you have a blast!

DW has had massages on board before. She said that they do try to sell you products before the massage, but not during. She said a polite, "I don't want to purchase anything else." to the masseuse was all it took to stop the sales pitches.

Just curious how they enforce the 2 bottle limit. We're planning on checking in early and then leaving the ship for more sightseeing. I'm wondering if we could carry a couple of bottles on when we check in and a couple more several hours later when we return?

This very much depends on the staff at the terminal. On several cruises, I just had to show my bottles to someone at a table just past the magnetometers/bag scanners. They just looked at the bottles and sent me on my way. No one took note of my cabin number. On one other cruise, they asked for me room card and made some notation rather quickly on a sheet of paper, not sure what exactly they wrote down. The only thing consistent with the wine check in procedure is inconsistency! :eek:

It's quite annoying, actually. They try to put in "equal" (if you pardon the expession) numbers of yellow, blue, pink, white and brown (sugar in the raw) packages. Everybody uses up the few white packets that are available and we end up having to wait for more.

 

I understand some people prefer artifical sweetners but they don't have to go overboard. (about the sweetner choices, I mean, not the passengers).

Yes, they try to stuff as many different packets as they can in those little containers, but with the fact that there are so many choices, the number of each gets smaller! Now wait until they start putting "Truvia" in there!

Excellent! We'll be on NOS in just a coupla weeks, so we are eagerly awaiting your pictorial. I see on Galveston's webcams that she is docked and waiting for you!!

Pete

It seems to be a common misconception, since the packets all are made by NutraSweet the company. The packets are all generic, but contain the correct ingredients for their coloring...

 

Pink contains Aspartame

Yellow contains Sucralose

White contains Sucrose(Sugar)

 

etc...

Yes, thank you for making this point! The packets on RCI ships are correctly colored. A lot of people make the "It's NutraSweet mistake." The packets are produced by the company "NutraSweet," but are the correct sweeteners you would expect to find in the appropriate colored packet!

Splenda is a brand name, the yellow packets that say Splenda are no different than the yellow packets that say NutraSweet (or Great Value or whatever).