Engineroom Snipe

Formally known as "Jumping Ship". 🤣

I know I have stopped booking more RCI cruises since last October, 2022. I am finishing my third of 2023 cruises with another one booked for November 2024. I normally would do at least one spring (2024) but I am on hold until after my Jewel cruise this November. I will have a good time but it will the added to my opinions of how much I cruise RCI in the future.

Such a shame, on our cruise in April of 2022, the braised lamb was one of the best I tasted, a 9.5/10, when all the other dishes were a 5/10 at best in the MDR.

Your opinion sounds logical. That is why it should make RCI Crown and Anchor members think long and hard about why they cruise. Would they cruise without the C&A perks if they were taken away tomorrow? Is the cruise itinerary, service, food quality, and experience satisfactory for the investment of your time and money? How do you feel when the cruise is done? There has not been a cruise that my wife and I regretted taking for the money that we paid for the experience, with or without C&A perks. Currently, we are not booking future cruises with RCI beyond our existing cruises because in general, the prices have doubled and the experience has been degraded by previous "adjustments" to RCI service and food. I have not found the things changing in a positive manner in meaningful ways to justify a doubling of the cruise fare. "Adjusting" the C&A policies is just one more consideration to throw into the decision matrix.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to do live postings this cruise. I will be on the Jewel for a 9 day in November. I plan to do the MDR every-night and take pictures of the food with my opinions which I will post when the cruise is complete. I try to disconnect from technology on my cruises which I work with everyday. I would be irritable too about the internet connection problems considering the prices paid for the service on onboard. I feel it is worse to have intermittent connections than no connection at all. Again, I thank everyone for sharing.

I have found it the same. If the lines are short for screening, they want to move as many passengers as possible to the check-in counters. The only consideration after that is if you need to use the elevators versus taking a longer walking route through escalators. The walking route is about eight minutes versus the elevators which can handle about ten to fifteen people depending upon carry on luggage taking space in the elevator. The elevator waiting times upon my best guess from watching the flow is about 20 minutes. Almost seems to be pre-pandemic and makes purchasing The Key a waste of money if you want priority boarding. Maybe a 30 minute difference at best.

So the crew members sign-up knowing that they do not know what they are doing and suffer the abuse in order to get internet access. Somehow this seems very much like the American worker experience. I understand so much more about why the Voom experience seems more like the Sloth experience. This is why I like to disconnect from the technical experience while on vacation. Trying to make the Internet connection work seems like going back to the office! 🤣 🥶

It is only double my original booking price, just like yesterday, Still, the price has doubled in less than 12 months, good for me now, not good for me in the future.

Sorry, correction, for some reason my search today was not in USD. My apologies, I knew something had to be wrong.

My latest example of sticker shock: I booked a spacious hump balcony on the Jewel of the Seas in September, 2022, in Next Cruise on the Oasis on September 11. Today, on RCI's website during a mock booking, it is more than 4x my total booking price. This is an almost double from YESTERDAY when I did a mock booking price. It seems like a price fishing expedition as I cannot justify or understand a doubling of price in a 24 hour period. 😬

As of now, I can sign in through my Android phone app and the website.

As long as the captain sees it too, everything will be OK. 😁

The more years we get under our belt, the more we enjoy watching the world go by and appreciate the moment as we leave all of our technology behind.

With a little imagination, it is Ahsoka from the Star Wars Series. 😉

In your first picture about the sunshine, I see a ray of hope for better weather. 😁

Yes, on the Anthem, the passage way is narrower and one crew staff could block the area and control the flow of about 6 sinks. On the Oasis, the outgoing past the sinks is about 15 feet wide so it would take about three or even four staff to try and do something as you describes. If they focused their attention trying to stop one person, there would be a gap and two could get by. Kind of like playing zone defense and getting one zone overloaded. I thought the Anthem's setup was much better for flow control.

Looks delicious! Great Pictures, thanks for posting. I saw the twenty miles per hour winds on the ship information screen and then add the ship speed if you are heading against them. Whitecaps in the background of the sea picture. Your pictures tell the whole story very quickly.

My Oasis cruise, this month, 7 days out of Bayonne, I ate almost all of my meals at the Windjammer. The washing of the hands is optional as far as I could tell. Especially for the opening bell at 7am. Some mornings, there were about 100 people waiting in line. When the server removed the fabric divider to allow passengers into the wash area of about 8 sinks, more people just walked through than washed their hands. I spent about 15 seconds waiting for an open sink and another 45 seconds washing my hands and getting the paper towels (some times they pack them in so tightly it is very difficult to pull them out, they just start to tear). I had a good viewpoint and did a quick count to how many people passed by in that 45 seconds (maybe off by three people, they were moving fast). About 25 people went through and I tried to not count those that seemed to make an attempt at the hand sanitizer dispenser. Everyone was worried about claiming a spot near a window that nothing else seemed to matter. Maybe some of them came back to wash their hands after they claimed their tables. There were so many years before the pandemic that I was happy just to see people use the sanitizer. Our biggest fear was noro-virus but that can ruin your trip if you get it.

This is not something that is happening only on RCI. I call this a possible downside of the Unlimited Drink Package meets "Oh, there are lifeguards on duty" combined with "I want to get my money's worth out of the drink package (which normally means at least 6 drinks in general per person or more)." You were onboard a ship that can easily handle 6,000 passengers and it has been sailing with more for almost all of this year. Even if a small percentage, say 5% or 300 tend to drink more than they can handle, those 300 can seem like 3,000. I have seen this happen on many vacations to include non-cruise vacations. I wish I knew the answer. Different ships have different vibes at different times of the year. Maybe talk to your travel agent about a "quieter" ship at a different time period.

That is encouraging. I can deal with a small portion. I would rather have a small portion of heaven than a large portion of hell. Thanks for your input. Things are looking up and I am really hoping it continues when I vacation on the Jewel in November in the MDR. Much easier to request two good pieces of meat instead of regretting one. 🤣

My wife makes it look so easy. I might not appreciate the intricacies and nuisances that are needed. I can bake but she is so good that I leave it to the pro for the same reason the smoker and grill is normally my domain. She can do it all but we both have our strengths so why compete? Bottom line is that so many supermarkets and bakeries can supply a reasonable pecan pie and RCI used to do it on a regular basis too. Almost all of the desserts I have looked at recently seem to appear perfect. Then you take a bite...............

@BND I think it needs some southern hospitality or South Jersey care from my wife. She is a baker extraordinaire by hobby. Her cheese cake is luscious.I have not met a cookie of hers that I did not savor.

Was the pecan pie dry or was something wrong with the texture? I only ask because this type of pie is normally quite forgiving when you cook it.

I think the best meal overall in general has been the WJ breakfast. That says it all. Sigh.....

I sailed on the Enchantment with my wife in April, 2023. We loved the views from the front in in the Windjammer on all of our mornings. Absolutely spectacular, similar to any Viking Lounge view from ships in the past. Lots of warm woods and varnished tables are everywhere on the ship. Please go to the Viking lounge and watch the sunsets. They are a dying breed like the dinosaurs in the tar pits. Most cruise lines are only reserving this view for elite suite guests. Enjoy them before they become extinct for the standard passenger. It was a very good cruise, especially for what we paid. Our days are numbered as the prices increase.