WyKnott

About a month ago in my C&A account i noticed a bring a friend tab and saw that on my upcoming cruise, 2 other cabins meet the requirement of being first time royal cruises. (each cabin/friend referred equates to 25$ onboard credit) I filled out the form and submitted it, now one month later, its "pending". does anyone have any experince with this? should I call C&A or will it just get processed closer to sail date (dec 2017)

They probably want to make sure your friends are actually sailing. I had submitted some for my upcoming cruise, only one is left, the others cancelled. And we're still 5 months out. I was going to use the extra OBC for my gratuities, now I will probably pre-pay it.

I would not suggest HAL for you. They tend to appeal to an older crowd than the other lines. I've not sailed princess but haven't heard much good about them. Norwegian had the best entertainment of the lines that fit what you are looking for. Their MDR food leaves something to be desired but the specialty restaurants are very good. Celebrity has IMO the best food of the lines that fit your needs but their entertainment is hit or miss. Personally, if you are interested in the beverage package anyway, NCL and celebrity routinely include the beverage package in your booking so something to consider when price shopping.

 

 

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I sailed HAL on my first Alaska cruise, and would disagree. Yes, there are older people, but it's not a geriatric cruise, there's all ages on it, and since the OP isn't looking for dance clubs and loud bars, this could be a good choice. HAL is a mainstream cruise line that has a bit more elegant feel to it.

Not really, as the tourists bring badly needed MONEY in times like this.

Yes, this. I'm on Harmony in February 2018 with stops at Labadee, San Juan and St Martin. If the itinerary changes, I'm okay with that, but these islands will need tourist dollars to help them rebuild. I know in the past, the cruise lines have helped with deliveries of much needed supplies on their regular stops after a disaster like this.

I attained Diamond sort of the easy way, (at leas the cheaper way). My first cruise was way back in the 80s. A group of us would do the weekend Catalina/Ensenada cruise out of Long Beach every Memorial Day weekend for about 7 years. We were young and couldn't afford longer cruises. When RCL changed their loyalty point system, I suddenly found myself at Diamond.

I like the drink voucher system, because my traveling companions are not Diamond so I don't tend to hang out in the Diamond lounge.

Both my sister and brother in law had drug possession charges from many years ago and since then have changed their lives and are now upstanding citizens. They were worried they wouldn't be able to get of the ship in Victoria on our Alaska cruise but had no problems. That's not to say others might, but that's our experience.

But when my sister and I took a trip to Japan, they weren't going to let her in because she marked yes on the convicted of a drug crime question on the form visitors to Japan have to fill out. She didn't want to lie about it, but the customs official hinted very strongly to her that if she filled out the form again and marked no this time, they would tear up the original document and let her in the country.

For more than a year I've had problems with a blank page when I go beyond the main page at RCL. Especially when I do a mock booking. I'm on a mac using safari. When I change to firefox, most of the time it would be okay. When that starts acting up, I'll move on to chrome. Now I have to open a private window. Fingers crossed that's the solution.

By the same token, I couldn't actually shut the door into the bathroom/shower room - I'm assuming I could leave that ajar, though???

If you leave the bathroom door open while you shower, the steam can set off the smoke alarm in the cabin. Ask me how I know. :o

Security called and then sent someone out to check on smoke. And me in a towel.

We are booked on the Allure in Boardwalk Balcony # 12329, which is the very last cabin over looking the high dive show. Has anyone had trouble with noise from the high dive shows? I booked this room without thinking about the noise factor because we have stayed in Promenade cabins before with no trouble but then again they don't host dive show in the Promenade!!!!

We had 10329 on Oasis and loved it. The noise wasn't too bad, and the view of the ocean off the aft of the ship was amazing.

Not cruise related, but a few years ago, we had a flight to Paris from California, changing planes in Chicago. A month before our trip, the airline changed our flight to 45 minutes later and we were assured that we still had plenty of time to change planes in Chicago. Fast forward to that day, our flight was delayed taking off because of storms in Chicago, we wouldn't be able to land. "Don't worry, if the airport's closed your connecting flight can't leave without you" Uh huh. We finally take off, and when we land in Chicago, we find out our connecting flight left 30 minutes earlier. Because it's weather related, the airline is under no obligation to put us up for the night. We get on the phone to bypass the long lines at the counter, book a hotel for the night and a new flight out the next day.

The next day, we're back at the airport and get on our new flight. One hour into the flight we're told that there's smoke in the galley and we'll have to land in Toronto. We land very late at night and the fire department comes on board to check things out. No fire, but we're herded off the plane to wait in the terminal. We're told not to wander around because if that happens, we all have to go through security, but we do get escorted to the bathroom. After a while, we're told we're not taking off that night and this time the airline will put us up in a hotel we'll get meal vouchers, that didn't even cover a full meal. Each time we've been delayed, we had to call the car service that was supposed to pick us up in Paris and reschedule, finally just cancelling altogether. We already had to eat the cost of pre-bought tickets to the Eiffel tower. No communication on what time our new flight was, we relied on word of mouth from the other passengers. But we (finally) got to Paris. I felt bad for the people on our flight who were supposed to get on a river cruise. They missed the first few days of their cruise.

We had two men as tablemates on one cruise that were lovely until one night one of them showed up very drunk. It was mostly funny until he started listing to the right and ended up with his head on my shoulder. Then he started eating off my plate. :eek: His friend at that point got him up and hustled him out of there, apologizing all the way.

I would go with 9715 or 9315, the further aft the better the view.

 

I had 9727 last year, long walk to elevator but good view of the theater and the water.

I second the further aft the better. We had 10729 on Oasis and the view was great.

If you click on the link to cruisenovicesuk blog; burkes blog. They've loaded the dailies. I've just looked at one of them and it says Abyss open from 9am to 9pm.

Thanks!

CruisenovicesUK or anyone else on Harmony right now. Do you know the hours of Ultimate Abyss? I saw a post about hearing screaming from the slide. We booked a boardwalk balcony cabin and was wondering if that would be going on at all hours.

This is the view from 9729.

 

 

 

 

 

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We were on Oasis in February in 10729 and loved the view of the ocean and aquatheater from the balcony. We just booked Harmony in February 2018 in 12329 and 12327. Now seeing this, I'm not too thrilled about the obstructed view.:mad:

I'm not sure if other are having this problem but I can't see any of the pictures in your recent posts.

Count me as one who can't see any photos. :(

I'm still enjoying your review, though. We were on the Oasis in February, and loved the ship so much that we just booked Harmony for February 2018. A long time to wait, but it will be worth it.

This article says they asked to disembark the ship in Jamaica. Maybe they weren't missed initially because they weren't expected back?

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/2-San-Diegans-Reported-Missing-from-Caribbean-Cruise-Jamaica--377469661.html

Yes. As I posted above, the way Royal converted from 1 point per cruise to the current point system was multiply each cruise point by 7 and added another point as a fudge factor. So your 2 cruises (2 cruise points) X 7 = 14. Add that extra point and you get 15.

 

You are one of those folks who got slighted by the conversion formula. Cruisers with 3, 4 and 5 night cruises made out great.

I was one of the ones that made out great. My first several cruises were 3-night cruises out of Long Beach way back in the 80s-90s. When the conversion happened, I was suddenly Diamond. Now that I can afford 7-day cruises, it's still going to take me a lot longer to get to D+. :rolleyes:

My 1st cruise was on the Viking Serenade for 4 days fron San Pedro. It was amazing & I got hooked. Have been on many ships since but Viking Serenade will always be special to me.

Ditto!

For a few years running, each Memorial Day weekend, it was a 4-day cruise on Viking Serenade. Those short cruises helped me get to my Diamond status because back then the point system counted each cruise, not the days cruised. :D

Thank you for your thoughts on Cats. I saw it several years ago in Los Angeles and plan to see it again when I'm on Oasis in 4 weeks. I get that it's a long show, especially on a cruise, but I loved the songs and am looking forward to seeing it again.

Hello! Actually airplane chicken is an actual dish! It had roots back when airplane food was prized cuisine. It's mainly a piece of boneless chicken breast with the drumette attached. But If the rest of the food wasn't great, it probably wouldn't have been either,

I was going to post the same thing! To be honest, a dish named airplane chicken doesn't sound too appetizing.

So those are my thoughts. I had a great trip and visited some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. What I'm going to say next might run up the blood pressure of some of you Loyal Royals, just a warning. LOL ;)

 

Royal Caribbean is a great cruise line and they have a lot to offer their guests for an enjoyable and memorable vacation. However after sailing them twice now, I'm sorry but I just can't buy into the hype that they are so much more superior and better than Carnival. I just can't. To me, that would be like saying Wendy's is so much better than Burger King or Macy's is so much better than Dillard's. They all offer similar products but have a different way of doing things. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I know some people have tried Carnival and didn't like them, and that's ok. The same can be said vice versa as all have our preferences. However if you were to offer me a free cruise and I HAD to pick only one, I would choose Carnival. Again I think Royal Caribbean is a great company with a great product and I wouldn't hesitate to sail on them again. I have had my eye on some more of Royal's big international itineraries, but I would like to sail them from Florida one day as well.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read! The full review will be coming soon in the days ahead. :)

I agree with you there. I prefer Royal, because I've sailed enough to be Diamond and like the perks. Have also sailed on Carnival 4 (5?) times and the similarities outnumber the differences.

Not sure if there is a mix up on the cruise planner, but Chef's Table is available for my Oasis sailing on 1/9. DH and I are thinking about doing it, but I sure won't be happy to pay for it just to find out it's been cancelled. Oh btw it shows availability everyday.

We're sailing next month and it's available every day as well. I'm guessing its because people are planning on using OBC and don't want to pre-pay $95 ea.

Excellent news! Impatiently waiting for dining to open up for the 2/27 sailing.

I'm relatively new to the boards, but I haven't heard of it being discontinued. To my knowledge its one of their most successful dining experiences.

From what I understand, it's still going strong on other ships, but hasn't been on Oasis for a while. I'm not sure why, maybe the snafu over Dynamic Dining and the dry dock changes? Even their brochure about all the dining venues show it's not on Oasis. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/statichtmlpage.do?pagename=brochure_dining_guide_options:mad:

I thought Oasis was doing away with the Chef's Table?!? I was very disappointed in that decision, so I would love it if it is available in April, 2016.

I also would like to know this. Sailing Oasis in February and really wanted to try the Chefs Table, but was disappointed to hear it was discontinued. Did it twice on Carnival, loved it, and wanted to compare it to Royal.

My mother and I are coming In the day before the RCCL New England/Canada Cruise, it sails at 4 pm. How early in the day are you allowed to drop off you luggage. Check out at the hotel is 11 a.m, which means we will have our luggage to carry around with us until near sale time, which would limit us from say visiting a museum or shopping.

 

Thanks

:) Kathy --Arkansas to Baltimore to Canada in 4 days!

Make sure you're not late for boarding, all aboard is usually 90 minutes before sailing, later than that and you could be refused boarding. Depending on the cruiseline and ship, people can start boarding around 11.