baileybrad

Just a reminder as well that people often post with difficulties in booking connecting cabins because one side of the pair is often already booked. Folks, if you don't need connecting cabins, please do everyone a favor and try not to book them. I realize sometimes it is inadvertent, and sometimes that may be the only option available in the cabin category, but you'll be helping out the family travelers if you try to leave those open.

Best case is, as Nats said, if you do not require a connecting cabin, try and not take it so that families that need one will have more availability.

I would guess that it might be St.Kitts. The AOS does the ABC and St.Martin one week. Then does St.Thomas, A, C and St.Kitts. So I would hazard a guess that it might be St.Kitts. Did not see much about too much damage there. Just a guess, of course.

Thenford Grey has a great tour that ends at a beach.

The hurricane season begins on June 1.

We had people in Houston who came down early for their cruise, because they knew it was likely that their flight would be canceled the day before the cruise was supposed to depart. They came early, into a storm, because RC said they would not get their money back if they weren't here when the ship left.

Really? My wife is teacher, school here does not get out till the after first week of June, then teachers are held over for another week and then she has 6-7 days of continuing education to complete, which most of those are only offered in the first weeks of June.

So your next choice would seem to be July, still a not an extremely busy season for hurricane activity. We have cruised once in June, twice in July and even one in early August over the past few years and have had no storm issues. We drive to the ports (Canaveral and Everglades) from SC.

SO if you REALLY want to cruise with your wife..........July it is.

Caribill and others -

Just wanted to say, I feel your pain. We were scheduled on Royal Caribbean when Hurricane Jeanne struck in 2004. We faced all the dilemmas that current passengers are facing.

 

Our cruise was to leave Miami on Saturday - the day the hurricane was to hit Miami. On Friday morning, RCCI was insisting our ship would travel as planned (that's why I'm suspicious of that big list of ships they currently claim are still going this weekend).

 

We were a family group flying from the West Coast and celebrating our dad's birthday. We had to leave Friday morning to have any chance of getting to Miami before the storm hit and being available for the still-scheduled sailing.

 

Our group included two elderly parents and a four-month old baby. Coach airfare to fly us all to Miami was about $6000. I purchased trip insurance for everyone. I was also treating the entire family group to the cruise.

 

On Friday morning, we had to make the decision to fly to Miami -- straight into a coming hurricane or stay home. Since RCCI continued to claim the cruise was going as scheduled, we felt we had no choice but to fly.

 

Also, I called the insurer explaining the situation and that the cruise was unlikely to go given the hurricane.

 

The insurance company response:

If your flight is going to Miami and you're not on it, we will NOT reimburse you for the airfare.

If your cruise sails and you're not on the ship, we will NOT reimburse you for the cruise fare.

 

So insurance is often not very helpful in these situations.

 

With no further information and unwilling to forfeit $6,000 of airfare and approximately $8,000 in cruise fare, we boarded our flight from So. Cal. on Friday morning, flying directly into the hurricane's path and having no idea if we would have to evacuate to a shelter. Our Friday night hotel rooms were at a hotel on South Beach.

 

We arrived in Miami about 4 pm on Friday. About 5 pm on Friday, RCCI announced that our 7-day cruise would leave the following Tuesday for a 4-night cruise. Those who took the 4-night cruise would get a 25% credit for a future cruise and a 50% on board credit. Those who didn't take the cruise were, if I recall correctly, entitled to a 100% FCC.

 

Meanwhile, we now had to figure out if we could stay in our hotel rooms until Tuesday (or if we'd be evacuated by the authorities). We spent Friday night at the hotel. Saturday, we learned that the port of Miami was closed. We also learned, however, that the storm likely would shift further east at the last minute. Our hotel was able to let us keep two of our four rooms (which made for crowded conditions but at least we weren't in a shelter). So, we hunkered down and stayed at the hotel.

 

What did insurance pay for? Two hotel rooms for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, as well as documented food expenses for those days. It wasn't a great deal of money on the insurance claim, plus I'd paid over $500 in premium for the insurance. My biggest frustration was that travel insurance was of no use in helping us in a tough situation.

 

Once on board, the 50% on board credit was nice. We bought a couple of things and then used the rest for a refund to my credit card. The 25% FCC was useless. I had paid for airfare and cruise for our entire family group. But, I only was entitled to the FCC for my cruise fare. The FCC was personal to each person in our group. So, the FCC could only be used for a future cruise if the person holding it had enough money to cruise again during the year. The people in my family did not. So, 10 FCCs went unused.

 

We've since stopped cruising and the way things were handled with respect to Hurricane Jeanne (and our incredible stress at being put in the position of having to fly elderly parents and a baby straight into a hurricane) is one reason why.

Those with school age kids or teachers can only cruise during peak hurricane season. So which time of the year should these people cruise?

I think there is some disappointment because other lines are straight cancelling their sailings and offering full refunds. RC set a bad precedent two weeks ago when they waited way too long to cancel Liberty, all those people that showed up to Houston because they couldn't afford to lose their money got nothing from RC for all the expenses they incurred while trapped in the flood for several days.

You still have folks defending the way RCCL handled matters in the last few days leading up to the belated cancellation of the 27th scheduled departure. The whole RCCL meteorologist malarkey was beyond belief. Not saying that this is easy stuff because it is certainly is not. These decisions involve lots of moving parts.

I would just be inclined to avoid mid-August to late October cruise trips and even then that might not be enough.

I would way the pricing and the stops. Only you can decide how that works best for you. I believe that the FOS is taking over for the AOS out of Puerto Rico and that allows you to go much farther south in the Caribbean. We did the AOS in late July and loved our stop in Curacao (our first time there).

You can get similar pizza and coffee on both (as Bob mentioned the beans can change depending on the timing). We have been on the FOS 3 times and loved it. We sailed the NOS for 8 days over the New Years' and had a blast.

I really think that, again, look at the pricing and the stops and go with what works best for you. I really do believe that you will be more than fine with either of these 2 ships.

The tired comments were not evident to us. A lot of that depends on your cabin. When we were on the AOS last month, we had new carpet and chairs in our cabin that looked better than any we have ever had on any ship. I have never seen a RCCL ship that was not in good repair.

Thank you for an informative and balanced review. Man I really do not care for rude, crass behavior. I know I can't say that it is necessarily confined to one cruise line but your examples sure were eye openers. Almost without exception, the teenagers that our 3 sons have met and hung out with on 6 RCI cruises have been very polite and well mannered. Our kids just will not hang out with rude kids and blab about what they hear and see to us. We have even selected particular ships and stops when they found out some group of kids were going to be sailing at that time. So just because of that we will stick with RCI for now.

Common sense has to kick in at some point, and you utter the words "Regardless of what someone in a call center 1000 miles away says, there's no way this cruise is happening. No Way. We can see it on the news. We're not making that drive. We'll just stay home and have our T/A hash it out with the Travel Insurance people if it comes to it (because we NEVER cruise without getting the insurance). Which it won't because there's no way this cruise is happening."

 

And the reason our T/A is our T/A isn't the OBC or bottle of wine, it's because she'll go to bat for something like that.

 

For those who "Won't sail with RC again because of how they handled this," we'll happily occupy your cabin while you continue your search for a line that's going to never get anything wrong, seeing as how even the local weather folks are marveling how old Harvey's about to make a second landfall.

That being said, there is "never get anything wrong" and there is WRONG in how RCI handled advising folks sailing on 08/27 in regards to the cruise is still leaving on Sunday when the port was CLOSED.

Really enjoyed reading about your planning process. Look forward to more updates. Thank you.

RCI screwed the pooch on telling people to travel to Galveston during an ongoing weather disaster the likes that have, most likely, never have been seen in an area this large.

People should always evaluate the pros and cons of the various insurance products available out there and make their decisions accordingly.

This weather event is ongoing and will more than likely impact many potential cruisers planning to sail on 09/02. RCL gets another shot at doing the right thing. Wonder what the outcome will be this week?

see above in red

But I have seen no posts indicating Royal will reimburse expenses for those who flew to Houston and went to Galveston under the threat of losing 100% of their fare if they did not show up.

 

The choice they had was to either lose 100% of their fare or travel to an area under watch for a severe tropical storm. Since Royal said confidently that the cruise would take place, the choice to make was greatly influenced by Royal.

Just think what the PR hit that RCL would have taken if they could have bullied the port authorities in Galveston and "dumped" all those passengers at the dock.

To watch how the spinners change the discourse about what RCL did or did not do would be really funny if not for the fact that this disaster ongoing in Texas will impact the everyday lives of real people for years.

I first posted on here days ago, as my large family group was trying to decide if we would keep our flights from Portland, OR and Seattle, WA on Saturday morning. We had over $14,000 tied up to Royal Caribbean for the cruise, plus about $3500 in airfare. No trip insurance. Fast forward to now, 5 of the group got stuck in Los Angeles when their flight was canceled from there to IAH. Two got canceled from the get go and luckily never got on an airplane. My family of 4, consisting of my husband, myself and two young daughters, have been stranded in a hotel near IAH since 9pm Saturday night. By the time RC had said they would not board until Monday, our flight was already in route to Salt Lake City. No change in status when our flight boarded in SLC headed to IAH Saturday evening. Shortly after we landed RC was still saying Monday boarding. Sunday morning, around 9:30am, is the first time RC offered a voucher if you couldn't make it. By that time we already knew Houston was in trouble and we tried to get out. But all car rental places were shut by the time we tried to get one to drive to Dallas to go home. Soon after that the roads flooded and we could not have driven even if we had a car. We are grateful we have a dry, safe place to sleep. I have contacted the various companies we had things booked with and gotten most, but not all our money back for canceled hotels, shuttles, rental cars, excursions, etc. But our travel expenses starting Sunday, when we should have been on the ship, obviously grows every day with food and hotel. We were charged money to originally rebook one of our flights due to a fare change. We have now rebooked 3 times, as it is unlikely the airport will be open before Friday at the earliest. My husband is out of his vacation time. We are out the money spent to have someone take care of our dog at home. We are out our airfare to get somewhere for another vacation in the future. But the money is just one part of this. The mental and emotional toll this is taking on my family is really challenging. I am not a drama queen. I am not a shrinking violet. I am not a "fly by the seat of your pants" type person. I am an 11 year stage IV cancer survivor. I got married and had two beautiful kids after being told I had a less than 15% chance of living past a year of diagnosis. I bought a house two years ago with my husband, only to find out the sellers lied on the disclosure. Which lead to a year long lawsuit to seek compensation to do repairs on the house. I never give up. If we didn't get on our plane Saturday we risked losing all our money. We figured if the flights were going, and RC was saying they were docking, we would be okay despite the news so we risked it. I now get to live with the guilt of putting my family at risk and hopefully get home sometime before school starts for the kids next week. We are lucky though- our home is still intact in Oregon, and for now our hotel is dry and safe. This has just been a horrible situation all around since last Thursday. This was our first experience with RC. It is also our last.

It is humorous that a few of the apologists are still posting in this thread but have now become all about the victims of the flooding. You think! What is happening in Texas is beyond comprehension. Heart breaking doesn't even begin to describe it. Brutal beyond belief.

As it continues to rain and the flooding just gets even worst, the decisions that RCL made that did not take into account the safety of their customers looks worse and worse.

Hopefully, you will be able to return safely home in due time. RCL should be made to pay for all of your expenses for sending you into harms way but, of course, that won't happen.

You're joking right?

 

People call RCCL on Friday

 

Caller: Hey this Harvey is looking pretty mean. Any chance the sailing will be canceled or I shouldn't go to the port?

 

RCCL: No. You need to proceed as planned. The sailing is still on.

 

Caller: What if I don't feel comfortable making the trip.

 

RCCL: You risk losing your fare unless you have the applicable insurance.

 

There's not doubt reading the multiple threads folks were told that.

 

WPC painted 25-40 inches of rain over the Houston-Galveston areas for days but I'll be damned that sailing was going to go on as planned.

So sorry. As I have said, my posts were regarding our issues with the cruise for the consumption of fellow cruisers who might have a similar situation. These problems are less than trivial compared to what you folks are experiencing. I in no way mean to minimize what is happening in Texas. Vacation issues are meaningless by comparison. We do hope that the proper help reaches you and you are able to put things back together. We have been through hurricanes and had property damage but nothing even close to what you are going through. I cannot even imagine. Continue to have faith and hang on to each other. Also, we are "dog people" so I am glad your dogs made it with you. Please do keep us updated as to your situation. You have our prayers.

They had such an opportunity to lead in this matter but failed so miserably. If they had made passenger safety the reasons behind their decision points it would have been a somewhat successful resolution in what is overall, a horrendous natural disaster for the people of that area. They could have diverted some of the food for this week's cruise to an area shelter, etc. Instead they wallowed in their decision making letting financials get in the way of their customers. Again it is sad when a company that has brought our family so many good times screws the pooch.

Hope you enjoyed a nice meal for your anniversary. We celebrated our 25th, ironically on the Adventure of the Seas, last month.

Please Lord let that dang storm disapate and move out of the area so the tough task of rebuilding lives can begin.

I would have MUCH rather been a passenger on LOS Saturday and Sunday than been a passenger on the next cruise who was being directed to the disaster area right up until cancellation on Sunday. I have no doubt that the cruise ship itself was being well directed and never in real danger, I think you would agree with that.

 

You still haven't answered why it was with "passenger safety in mind" that those folks were expected to travel to the disaster area.

I will probably regret weighing in on this but, oh well. You have hit the biggest issue where I believe that RCL erred from a public relations position from the point that the huge amounts of rain were being forecast for the area. Telling people to continue with their journeys to the area with the port being closed was wrong on every level. Traveler safety should have been the most important consideration. Airlines were cancelling flights, the port had been closed, and the weather forecast was getting more dire and RCL was still not acting in the best interests of the August 27 cruisers. They should have said if you feel uneasy or at risk with your plans, a full credit on a future cruise will be honored. Once things became so bad flooding wise, someone finally came to their senses at RCL and saw the PR mess that had been created. So now full refunds are available, you would have thought that the light bulb would have come on sooner. There were some posters on here who went ahead and flew into the area because of RCL's self interested wallowing. Those folks really should be compensated by RCL. And I know people will bring up trip insurance. This was poor behavior by a company whose product that most on here have enjoyed in the past.

For a few people on here to keep blindly defending the behavior is sad. I have noticed some of the more strident folks have slunk away from the issue of how this was handled. Putting your customers at risk because of the all mighty dollar is not a very good look.

While some of the events going on the Liberty as to how the Captain was relaying information to the passengers seems a little alarming. I do not think that RCL would have put those passengers in direct harm's way. Sending one ship through a hurricane should have been enough. It did seem that the "home office" was pushing out most of the information coming from the Captain. It is just sad that it took RCL so long to get their act together.

Folks throwing around stuff like: will C&A points be awarded, are the drink packages free, etc. is kind of sad. I know everyone on here cares about the devastation happening in Texas and most likely headed to Louisiana. Unfortunately, reading some of the posting on here makes it seem that is being forgotten.

The soft drink package seem to hardly go on sale. We did get the Royal Replenish package on sail on this ship back in July. It seems to go on sale quite a bit. I got it for the Oasis in December on sale a few days ago, also.

Not sure what your interests are but Bernards Tours in St.Martin is a nice book your own tour. We have done it twice. If you have interest, you can check out the reviews on Trip Advisor.

Thenford Gray has a really nice tour on St.Kitts that we enjoyed. You can see reviews for that on TA, also.

San Juan is all dependent on when you arrive as far as any tours that you might want to try.

Hope your trip is great. We really enjoyed our recent trip on the AOS.

My husband and I are going to Aruba next month on the Carnival Vista! We've never been to Aruba, but my parents travel there often and suggested we rent a car and drive around the island our selves. Has anyone else done this? Are there car rental companies at the port-and should we reserve in advance?

 

Thanks!

We stopped in Aruba on Wednesday, July 26, while traveling on the Adventure of the Seas. We were in port from 8:30AM thru 10:30PM. A representative of Royal met us just outside the fence with our name on a card. We rented a Hyundai Sonata. It was $87. We used a credit card and kept the vehicle until 7:00PM. He was there to meet us at 7:02PM. We received the car with 7/8 tank of gas and we spent $8 on 2 gallons which pretty much filled it up. We bought the gas at a Citgo adjacent to the port. I would rate our experience with Royal an A.

We drove to Ling & Sons grocery store and purchased a 30 quart Styrofoam cooler, a bag of ice,11 individual drinks of various kinds and 2 cans of Pringles for $24 US. We brought around 6 bottled waters from the ship with us. I would rate the Ling & Sons experience an A.

We drove to Arashi Beach sightseeing the Palm and Eagle Beaches areas on our way. We parked in the asphalt lot and walked out and did not find any of the Palapas Covers available. We hopped in the car and drove about 40 yards down the road to the unpaved area where around 8 more Palapas were located. The one nearest the main section of Arashi was available. This worked better for us because we were parked adjacent from it. There were 2 portalets nearby. My sons and I walked up to the chair vendor to see about getting chairs for us. We asked about getting 5 chairs and he said $7 each. We pointed to where we were and he said we couldn't have chairs there. We turned to walk away and he said to wait that it was $2 more per chairs because of some county such and such tax. I said fine. Then he said it was $50 total. I asked about the $2 more, not $3 and he seemed confused. I did not care. The $5 was going to be his tip anyway. They actually brought the chairs down to us. And said to come get them when we were through with them (yeah like that was happening). The chairs were wicker and very comfortable. The beach area was not crowded where we were because of the gap of about 40 yards between the 2 areas. Up at the more "main" Arashi beach area was much more busy and densely packed. We had nobody near us at all. The water was beautiful and clear and very refreshing. There were one or 2 rocks that you could see clearly. We walked out a great distance and I was able to kneel in the soft powder like sand. Looking back to the shore, you could see the California Lighthouse in the near distance along with lots of Cacti. We spent almost 6 hours here. A wonderful day. We drove back up to Oranjestad and stopped at a Wendy's that we had seen earlier for something light. Warning: they tried to overcharge us (actually the clerk did) and went back up and asked about it. She was overcharging us by about $5. It was $35 for the 5 of us to get a sandwich of some kind. Orginally, the clerk charged us $40. When I questioned another person about it after we ate. She conversed with the manager and we received $5 back. I checked the conversion that Ling & Sons used earlier (Ling also showed US prices in addition to Aruba prices for all of their items right on the shelf and that was very helpful) to verify the math and it was close. It is one of those principle things, not the money. I would rate Arashi an A. Wendy's a gets a C+ for trying to rip us off and for the nasty cherry soft drinks.

We did some driving up to the old Arch Bridge that had fallen years ago. Compared to Curacao the rocky side of Aruba was not as pretty as Curacao. We had been here 20 years ago and our memories of that part of the island were fuzzy. We saw lots of large dogs while driving around the island. Also, be aware that the road past the airport is under construction once you pass the airport headed up to Baby Beach. A somewhat slow go.

Shocking! Seriously, one of the worst websites that I have ever used. I know there are a bunch of moving parts on their site but it can be a real bear at times to use.

We had a decision a couple spring breaks ago concerning these 2 ships. For us the IOS was more expensive and we could not get adjoining cabins that we needed. We were so concerned about the BOS being older. We had never been on that class of ship.

We opted for the BOS and loved the experience. Sitting outside in the back of the ship for breakfast and lunch was great. Kids survived not having as many amenities. We loved the Park Cafe in the pool area.

Your situation is different. For us, if we would most likely go with an additional day for a cheaper price. But I can assure you that the BOS was a good time for us. We have done ships in the IOS class and loved those, also. As to your stops, the private islands are usually quite good. Falmouth is a no-go for us.....we would just stay on the ship. We love the Key West stop and Cozumel is a great stop. Of course, you would be looking at twice in a 9 day period. Just say'in.

We are going on the BOS again this coming Spring Break on a 5 day cruise with stops at Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

Good luck in your decision.

Not discounting Government warnings but we have been lucky to not have any issues on multiple visits to Aruba. Seem like one of the more modernized islands that we have visited on cruise stops.