cruisindoggie

It will never happen. Royal Caribbean will merge with Norwegian like in 5-10 years. :eek: :p :rolleyes: :confused:

If RCI buys NCL they would be awesome. Just re paint the ships and lop off the ugly head of Epic.

One item that may affect wait times: While on Enchantment this weekend (whole other thread), I had an opportunity to talk with the bartender in the schooner bar about how the vouchers affected them. Since the way the vouchers were printing out on the bar tab showed both the drink price and the 15% auto tip, I asked what happened to the tip amount once the charges were reversed. Did they still get the tip? Her response was no, it will work the same way it does in the DL and CL - no charge, so no tip. They get nothing for drinks acquired with the vouchers. If that's the case, then my guess is eventually they will learn how to avoid passengers with vouchers in favor of passengers who purchase drinks. (or those with vouchers who tip on the side :) )

Hopefully people with half a brain will give the bartender a cash gratuity

I can get the Radisson Ambassador Plaza Hotel for $97 a night. Anybody ever stay there? It has lots of bad reviews on Trip advisor.

We stayed there a few years back and found it to be a bit (shall we say not clean) in public areas. However, the location was good.

Pepsi rocks

You get whatever 1/2 liter water that is available. Evian is just regular water anyway. It is so over rated and not really that special.

Ronn Lucas, a great ventriloquist that rivals any in the world including Jeff Dunham.

Very good show, he has been around for over 30 years.

Is there an area for Diamond and above breakfast?

If the Ice show is anything like it is on the Liberty you don't want to miss it.

What makes the ice show so spectacular?

We have a friend that call it Lamberdeen.

Okay, seriously fellow cruisers. I am a huge RCCL fan. I am a middle class american who hardly eats at 4 or 5 stars restaurants. I am just an "average Joe". I have taken many RCCL cruises, and by far this is the worst Windjammer experience.

 

In the morning, pancakes, french toast, toast, etc were all cold! So bad there were a few times I couldn't even swallow it.

 

The meat is ridiculous. The infamous CC honey stung chicken is as dry as a bone. The hamburgers are something that would be served in a school cafeteria. No quality meat at all.

 

It takes the entire cruise to figure out what to avoid.

 

I do give credit to the salad bar, it was nice. But even the dressing was so cheap. I had Blue Cheese dressing that squirted out of a bottle with a very small tip. So it was runny, not creamy or chunky like it should be.

 

At what point are we going to all agree, the Windjammer is like eating at a local grocery store food cafeteria line. After you finish eating, you are full, but there is never anything you have to get seconds. It just wasn't good.

 

Go ahead and flame me. But I wish they would use flames in the Windjammer to at least keep the food warm.

No flame here, I agree. The food is not that great and I avoid the windjammer with the exception of getting a quick snack. And I will not make any friends with the following statement as well: Honey Stung Chicken is the most over rated crap on the planet!

Wouldn't it be nice if Royal would build a couple NEW smaller ships?

Here, Here

Never won anything. Ever.

Us too!

Hi all,

 

Posting as castlebride14 but I'm actually her fiance. As some of you may know, we were originally booked to sail on the Allure from Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd February sailing that has now been cancelled. Over the past few days, we've been trying to find a solution as to what to do now.

 

To give you a bit of background, we're Irish, we booked directly with RCI through their website last July, and we're flying into Fort Lauderdale on the 22nd February.

 

We found out that the sailing was cancelled last Thursday, via the forums here (which have been immensely helpful for us) and the press release on the RCI website. The next morning, I rang the Irish contact number on the RCI website and got their UK office. At that time they were not aware that the sailing was cancelled and asked that I call back. At about 4pm that day, I finally received confirmation from RCI by email that our sailing was cancelled.

 

RCI gave us three options

1) Book a sailing on the Allure/Oasis on earlier dates, the latest being the 22nd Feb, with the same accomodation at the same fare, depending on availability.

2) Re-book on another sailing, with the guest responsible for the extra cost if the new cruise is more expensive, or alternatively receiving a refund of the difference if the new cruise is less expensive.

3) A full refund.

 

With the first two options, we would receive $200 OBC for the replacement cruise - if we had a Suite this would have been $400 OBC.

 

We decided to go for option 2, to take the 6 night Western Carribean cruise on the Independence out of Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd, as this meant that we wouldn't have to change flights etc.

 

However, this is where it starts to get a little frustrating. When it came to the total price (for both of us) for the 6 night trip on the smaller Independence, this was only €100/$135 dollars less than the 7 night trip on the Allure. Yes we had the $200 OBC but we weren't happy that the price was so similar for a shorter trip on a smaller ship.

 

Bearing in mind that we would now have to pay an extra night at a hotel, along with meals for an extra day, we were less than satisfied with this and rang RCI (always the UK office) to express our disappointment.

 

They came back with two further offers:

1) A Junior Suite on the Independence, at the same total price as we had paid for a D5 category room on the Allure, with $200 OBC.

2) A D1 category room on the Independence, at the same total price as we had paid for a D5 category room on the Allure, with $400 OBC.

 

To be honest, I am still less than happy with this. I completely understand that the Allure needed the repairs, and this was the week chosen to do it - that's life sometimes. But what I can't understand is why RCI are asking us to pay the same price for a 6 night cruise on a lower class ship, as they were for a 7 night cruise on the Allure. If we do take either of the offers for the Independence, it will cost us more per person per night than our original booking for the Allure - even when the OBC is taken into account.

 

Maybe I am being a little too precious here, but it just seems to me like RCI aren't overly worried about those that were booked onto the cancelled Allure sailing - those who can change their flights/holidays can book onto one of the suggested sailings, and the rest can either get their refund and try elsewhere, or take a pretty miserly offer (in my experience) and cruise with the Independence.

 

I'd just like to know if anyone has any suggestions as to what we should do - at this stage I just want to get it sorted so that we can go back to planning our wedding. I've been very forthright with RCI, and told them I would more than likely cancel after getting the above offers today. We've looked at other cruise lines around that time but none are really giving us the 'wow' factor that Allure did when we first booked - so I guess I'm here for your advice, which as I've said has been very helpful to us since our honeymoon got thrown this curveball last Thursday.

 

Should RCI be putting down better offers than those mentioned, or am I expecting too much?

 

Thanks for reading :)

 

Danny

To be honest, I am still less than happy with this. I completely understand that the Allure needed the repairs, and this was the week chosen to do it - that's life sometimes. But what I can't understand is why RCI are asking us to pay the same price for a 6 night cruise on a :mad:, as they were for a 7 night cruise on the Allure. If we do take either of the offers for the Independence, it will cost us more per person per night than our original booking for the Allure - even when the OBC is taken into account.

It's not a lower class ship, It's a different class ship!!!

Stupendous and totally awesome review! I enjoyed the cruise with you like I was there. We'll be on her in January and looking forward to every moment! I only wish I could write a review as well as yours.

Lets be coservative.

 

10,000 people, average of 300lb.

 

That 3,000,000lb, or 1500 tons.

 

On a ship that is +200,000 tons.

 

So even if you can move all that mass to a single point (which is impossible), the weight of the engines by themselves will counter that.

 

More realistic is 9000 people, 220lb average (staff, kids, bring down the gross average), 1.8Mlb, or 900 tons. Not much relative to the ship.

200,000 tons is not the actual weight of the ship, it is a term used for displacement. 100 cubic feet of interior space equals 1 GRT

It's a blast and you should have an awesome time, we did.

We have never done Oasis class ships and choose my time dining and eat in windjammer for dinner at least 2 times on a 7 night cruise. We just like the casual atmosphere.

Must have a family member with lots of money! Don't care!! Not jealous, just don't care. Flame away, I wear fire proof clothes.

I don't really get into the nightly diamond event although it is ok. I really like the diamond breakfast and use it every morning.

There must be someone else

There is no fee. The equipment will either be by the tables or stored at the Schooner Bar. It can definitely be busy and sometimes the self-leveling tables are broken.

I see by your signature you have never sailed the Serenade so how can you say the tables may be broken, I sailed on her 3 times and the tables were always operable.

My first cruise was October 26, 1985 on the Carnival Holiday and it was the best week of my life. I am now hooked on Cruising.

My first cruise was October 26, 1985 on the Carnival Holiday and it was the best week of my life. I am now hooked on Cruising.

Graham Seymore gets my vote followed by Becky Thompson.