trajan

On Explorer next week. Was looking forward to Labadee but CC looks even better. I see the change in the itinerary but excursions not updated yet. 
Wondering if there were any real issues or they were just getting too much negative feedback from worried customers?

Great trip report!

We were on this cruise as well. Photos are making me hungry. We did two meals in the Salty Dog Gastropub and loved them both.

Kicking myself for not getting to the future cruise desk. Had been disappointed in their offerings before so didn't even bother this time. Sounds like you did well!

Count us as not fans of Magic To Do. Imho still needs lots of polishing. But I was completely unfamiliar with some of the music so appreciate your references.

And yeah, super easy embarkation and disembarkation. Great staff everywhere on the ship! Low crowds helped but we were thoroughly happy with our experience on the Crown. 

On 9/13/2023 at 4:44 PM, markf said:

I am 30 days away from sailing, and with the increase in COVID cases the last few cases, concerned about getting it.

Curious as to everyone’s thoughts, we hear that many passengers seem to arrive home after a cruise and test positive.

certainly want to go but want to be safe as well !

Been on a cruise with a bad norovirus outbreak and that was awful. No covid outbreaks yet, knock on wood.
Looking at our cruise in March, it concerns me going from Canada to a place with lower vaccination rates and higher infection rates. Getting sick anytime sucks but especially on vacation. Whether it’s covid, flu or noro, there’s basic mitigation we can all do to protect us and the crew to make sure we all have a good time. 
if you are in a high risk category, I wouldn’t go. Lot of other ways to have a nice vacation. Otherwise, get vaxxed, get boosted and go have fun on your cruise.

Sailing on the Crown 10/19, inside gty, bid $100 for upgrade to balcony; $5 above minimum. Notified today upgraded to BB, nice location on deck 11. Lot of empty cabins on that ship. I’d have happily bid to an even higher category but balcony was highest it would let me.

-

On 6/1/2019 at 2:13 PM, Tntt said:

I just got off the symphony and I rode the abyss, I followed directions like they told me to, but while sliding my mat shifted and i slid the remainder of the slide on my right arm, burning it so bad taking off the skin to the white meat on my arm. I was in alot of pain had to get medical attention on the ship. I think the abyss has a flaw and royal needs to fix it. When you got burnt on the abyss did you file an accident  report or did you contact royal Caribbean corporate office? 

The Abyss, as it’s currently operated, is one of those things that could only exist on a cruise ship because it’s so inherently unsafe. The big London slide does it right. RC does it cheap so a lot of people get hurt.

23 hours ago, seawyse said:

Just logged in and price has dropped to $20.99, 30% off, just shows how you need to check your booking every day to get a better deal.

Thank you all for your informative comments, greatly appreciated.

Truth. Ours just dropped from $43 to $30.

Whoa! March Explorer Key is currently $43 per day. Wonder why it varies so much.

3 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

This is the first time I haven't been able to do a royal up.  We are in a CLS, but typically have an opportunity to bid on a move up.  I didn't deal with a big box store, and my TA states she does participate in the program, but something is off.  The cruise is in 19 days and I keep getting a message when I try to bid stating must bid 30 days in advance. While honestly I am  very happy with my suite, and  the cruise must be packed, just curious why this is happening.   Is this happening to anybody else?

If she does participate then try calling RC direct and see what they say.

Imho the more a cruise ship or resort partitions individual amenities behind a pay wall, the crappier they are overall. I don’t like the idea of Princess going in the direction of the AI resorts that sell different wrist bands so you can access different categories of absolutely everything at the resort. Yet more and more over the years Princess has been doing that. A good cruise ship, like a good hotel, makes everyone feel welcome. Be happy if they tossed this whole ‘perk’ but that ain’t gonna happen. 
And 150 seats? Never seen anything close to that. Gotta be a story there.

11 hours ago, amby6063 said:

 That’s quick! How far out were you booking? We have 3 gty cabins for the same cruise (Jan 2024) so I have lots to check daily to waste time at least! Haha 😀

I understand the barcode trick but barring that or calling them, how do you know when cabin is assigned? 

15 hours ago, rockmom said:

I guess I'm extremely skeptical about them offering any sort of discounted 'refill'.  If they took away the measly can of soda and cookies from those with Diamond status and now everyone gets a couple of bottles of water, I don't hold out much hope for catching a break on things, lol.  And I know, not everyone liked the cookies.  But I did like the soda. Their email touting their 'great upgrade--you now will get water to keep you hydrated' was silly.  We have purchased the cooler bag that comes with 6 Truly hard seltzers in it for our September sailing--also for $43.99.  Since 6 Truly's purchased individually would cost $56 when you add the gratuity, I don't expect any additional deal will be offered beyond that.    

Dang, for Explorer in March ‘24 the Truly bag is $54.99. Did the price on yours ever move around?

On 7/11/2023 at 7:05 PM, amby6063 said:

I used ‘discover’ on two new bookings. Think it was about $60 in savings 

That code worked. Our offers included a WVT fare that’s non-refundable and is a fair bit cheaper and can’t be combined with other offers. For refundable fares, adding that code made for the best deal in refundable bookings.

Looking at booking a cruise thru Interval International. In the booking process their site asks if I have any RCCI or agency promo codes. Anyone able to share a current one or know how I can get one? Ty!

There’s a bunch of cruises next year where the price for 2 adults and 2 kids is a huge jump over 2 adults alone. In the past if it was a better deal  we’ve booked an interior for 2 people and a balcony for the other 2.

On 11/8/2022 at 10:15 AM, rolloman said:

4 night cruise with 2 stops was original itinerary. Only issue I have is there were 6 ships impacted and ours was the only one who did not get a port replaced. Captain said none were available …not so sure about that….Cozumel usually takes all comers and allows tenders when pier slots are filled. I think because the ship is not at capacity, burning all the fuel to Cozumel would just be more of a revenue loss. So much for the theory you have to visit a foreign port. Obviously there is an exemption available. 

Currently on Mariner, Cococay was canceled for yesterday, no replacement port. We are just slowly cruising down to Coz.

Bright side, crew, food, medical (cut toe), have all been excellent. 
Have a stay at Disney’s Vero Beach starting Saturday. Hopefully all will be ok there!

Quality wise, how does Playmakers and Jamie's Italian compare? Outside of a major sporting event like an NFL game or the World Series, is Playmakers typically really busy for lunch? Both menus look appealing. Trying to figure out which might be the better option. For people who have tried both what's your preference?

6 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Something tells me there is going to be a revitalized of the NOOTS squad.  Reborn as NOITS.  

 

(Hopefully folks know what the heck I'm talking about 😉)

Count me in for both. 
Main problems I’ve had cruising on the bigger ships is how popular areas get swamped with people, too many bottlenecks, some ports get overloaded, specially if tendering. Splashy features and elbow room too often do not go hand in hand.

Then there’s also my semi-irrational fear that one of these ships will someday suffer a disaster, like stabilizers failing in rough weather, and the outcome won’t be pretty for these top heavy super ships.

On 10/21/2022 at 8:10 PM, emdia43 said:

It looks great, but 7500 pax at full capacity … Hmm 

Holy @?$&! That is messed up on so many levels.

18 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Then that's what you should bid... whatever it's worth it to you. Just make sure you're bidding less than it would cost to just pay to upgrade.

 

As an example, we can upgrade (not RoyalUp, just pay) from an interior to a balcony for $100 total for 2 of us on our 4-night Indy cruise on Monday. On paper, it's a no-brainer, but we don't actually use our balcony hardly at all when we have one so we're debating. Everyone has their own values and preferences.

Good advice!

Strange thing for us is that on the Nov 7 Mariner sailing, suites have been shown as sold out for a while now. There’s literally hundreds of empty cabins but no suites. And it’s like that for Mariner throughout Nov. Weird.

Those cabins are blocked out because they are haunted. The ghosts of the damned, ie chair hogs, line cutters, people who sing Macarena at karaoke, their spirits eternally haunt those rooms. On the flip side those rooms are typically offered with a 5% discount so they sell out asap.

2 hours ago, Lady_E said:

This happened to us on Mariner a week ago. We had just changed clock time heading into Bermuda and I woke up super early and went down to the Solarium.  Every damn chair and bed and seat was claimed with towels. A couple other early risers and I complained and just started turning in towels. It was absolutely absurd, at 7 in the morning!

Nice!

We did one cruise where every morning an older woman would come around and collect every towel left on an unoccupied chair. She’d do the whole boat every morning. Not all heroes wear capes.

2 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

Pick the latest time. 

Does that actually help? For our Nov 5 cruise I am not eager to get on board that day; hanging out at Cocoa Beach is nice. Especially if it means boarding would be smoother.

$17.99 for Mariner Nov 5. Tempting but we are 2 adults, 2 kids 6 and 12. If it was just the 2 of us I would buy it. For 4, would rather save the money and bid on a suite.