cruzgryphon

I wanted to do something similar a couple of cruises ago. As I found out the hard way, Next cruise can't cancel a booking made by a TA - the TA has to cancel it themselves so I would advise booking through Royal Caribbean. Also agree with the points Bob has made.

I often find that for whatever reason they often don't post the last day excursion on the online planner. Rather you have to book it on the ship once you get there. This happened on my Jewel of the Seas cruise out of San Juan that I finished last Sunday.

I found myself going to the bars and getting cans of drinks/bottles of water from there since I didn't want the large number offered via the cabin (it didn't seem like there was a way to only order 3 or 4 cans of pop or just a couple of bottles of water).

Thanks for the feedback and information everyone. I double checked and some of the charges are still pending - so I'll monitor them to make sure they get dropped off. In the meantime I'll call about the charge difference between what was on my invoice and what hit my credit card (the transaction that was processed). Thanks so much to everyone!!!!:D

I was on the Jewel of the Seas last week and when I got into my cabin, the bar fridge was empty. Instead there was an order sheet that you could use to order drinks (pop/soda, water, juice) by putting it on your cabin door. Wondering if this has happened on any other ships or if it was a Jewel thing.

Hi all,

Last week I sailed on the Jewel of the Seas (cruise ended this past Sunday). I was reviewing my credit card transactions today and there are a bunch of charges from the cruise that I don't recognize and the "final" amount charged to my account is greater than what was on the final cruise invoice that I received on the last day from the ship. Who should I contact about this? I booked through a travel agent (if that affects the answer at all).

PS I'm from SW Ontario Canada - again if that affects the answer at all.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

I did the dolphin swim in Costa Maya and it wasn't very good. You had limited interaction with the dolphins compared to other dolphin experiences. Also they don't tell you very much about dolphins. Wouldn't count on any sort of inflatable device either. Would suggest if you can do it elsewhere that you do so.

I was thinking of purchasing the specialty coffee card.

 

I'm wondering if the 18% gratuity is charged on the price of the card or the price of each individual drink you buy. I'd be a little annoyed if it's per drink, which is really an incentive to buy the smaller coffees and therefore get less value out of the card :rolleyes:

If you're talking about the new coffee card that they just introduced - I'm pretty sure the gratuity charge is included in the cost of the card. I purchased one for my Jewel cruise last week and it was a pretty good savings - about $20 compared to buying individually. The only potential challenge is using them all up by the end of the cruise (they aren't transferable to future cruises).

If you can print out/received your cruise contract - there will be luggage tags pages at the end that you can print out.

Towel and maybe old pair of sandals I'd prefer to wear on the ride instead of watershoes would wear for Dunn River falls. Perhaps sunscreen and a coverup in case cold on trip back with air conditioning and wet suit. Nothing I couldn't live without but wouldn't want to take the time standing in line to lock up.

 

Walking thru waterfalls I'd make the carried stuff as small as possible. Not sure they have rules about what you can walk with at Dunn River, I'm guessing even a small backpack might not be allowed, but never been.

Wouldn't count on a bus with bathroom in Jamaica. In terms of bathroom break - an hour is borderline for them to schedule a bathroom break enroute. In terms of what you're thinking of leaving on the bus - I think you'd be ok with your list (with the standard caveat that neither Royal Caribbean or the tour company will be responsible for it if something happens). That being said it will largely depend on the driver - most drivers that I've encountered were quite ok with leaving things on the bus. However I've had one or two who definitely didn't allow it.

Yes they have gotten rid of that feature which is too bad.

While it's possible to find some reviews on here (cruise critic), having specific reviews of specific excursions was really helpful. Guess they weren't helping the bottom line very much or maybe the excursion companies didn't like seeing the bad reviews that public (those that had bad reviews). It would be interesting to be a fly on the walls of the board rooms where they make those decisions (or maybe in this day and age email servers) :)

Cruising for the first time next week. All of our more experienced friends had encouraged us to get to the port early & get a headstart on our vacay. So, we made arrangements accordingly to arrive early afternoon. Now, I see these "suggested check-in times" in our ticket booklet. Boo! How strict are they about these times? Will we really have to wait until 3:00???

 

Thanks in advance from a greenhorn.

Ignore it - Royal has been trying to do similar things for the last few years (you might even get an email from them with suggested check-in times). Ultimately they can't control things like flights and what not - so their suggested check-in times are out the window right there.

There's a Canadian Cruisers thread where you'll find the latest on this. If I remember correctly nobody has gotten lower than $1.40 for quite a while now.

Aside from the sofa/love seat item a couple of other differences between E category and D category cabins are:

1) size of the cabin - E are anywhere from 10 sq. ft to 20 sq. ft shorter (not a big deal in the whole scheme of things but a difference nevertheless). The balcony size on both is the same.

2) Location - E cabins mid ship will often be located above the life boats meaning that when you look directly down, you will likely see the top of a life boat (for me it wasn't really a big deal since I spent most of my time looking out instead of down). If you don't want to see the top of a love boat then you are likely looking at an E cabin further aft or forward.

Don't use the "luggage tag" associated with the Set Sail Pass - it is just watered down example of a luggage tag. As previous poster mentioned about print luggage tags. The luggage tags will also be part of your cruise contract (it will be the last couple of pages) - those are the ones you want to print out and put on your luggage when you hand it off at the pier.

I like the Sheraton Seattle (the one downtown by the convention centre) because of its location. Close to Pike Place Market and the Westlake Centre and transportation.

Yeah they have a 70's/disco night every cruise - it's a signature Royal Caribbean event. Lots of fun - the cruise director staff dress up in disco outfits and you have the "Village People" as well. Great fun.

The menus in Europe are very similar to the menus in the Caribbean - one noticeable difference being no lobster tails.

In terms of the quality of the food - there will be some locally sourced things as the previous poster pointed out - but really the quality depends on the Executive Chef and his team. I've cruised a few times in the Med/ Europe and haven't noticed any significant decreases in food quality compared to the Caribbean.

I wonder if the poor reviews have come early in the European season as there may be more crew turnover and thus things aren't quite as crisp (pardon the pun) as later in the season when the crew gets into its rhythm.

I start off by researching the port I'm going to visit and come up with the places I want to visit or things that I want to do. Then I look at private excursions and ship's excursions.

Depending on what you want to do - there are some excursions to certain beaches etc. that are only available through the ship's excursions and some that are only possible using private excursions.

If you're doing a private excursion - I recommend dealing with someone who gets good reviews here on cruise critic as these companies are used to dealing with cruise passengers and they know they have to get you back to the port on time etc. or else they will really suffer on these boards.

Can you post a link to the blog? There's a discussion thread about coffee cards and café latitude. From what I've seen individual ships will offer coffee cards typically the type where once you buy "x" number you get one free - but it varies by ship. It would be good if Royal would offer a standard coffee card across all the ships.

I'm going to be on the Jewel in a couple of weeks. I just need access (unfortunately) to the internet to check my email once a day. I won't be bringing any laptops or anything so I'll be using the ship's computers.

My questions are:

1) Does the Jewel have Voom?

2) I understand that there are different Voom packages - which one would satisfy my requirements?

3) Anything else that I should consider (I'm Diamond if that makes a difference)?

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

I'll need to check internet on my upcoming Jewel of the Seas cruise however I won't be bringing any sort of laptop/tablet etc. with me - so Voom isn't an option.

Does anyone know what the non Voom internet packages are (where you use the ship's computer terminals). Also I'm Diamond so does anyone know what the discount is on the packages (I know with Diamond I can get 24 consecutive hours free computer time, however I'll need to check every day).

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Just wondering what are effective ways to dry one's swimming trunks/ bathing suits in your cabin (cabin with balcony)?

If you ordinarily use a Travel Agent to book your cruises, I would get a quote from them for the cruises you're interested in ahead of your cruise for comparison purposes. On a couple of occasions I've found their deal to be better than the onboard deal.

Wow, didn't realize this thread would get this much response. :D :eek:

 

We will be staying at Sheraton Old San Juan. So they may have an late checkout.

I stay at Sheraton's quite often I'm in the Starwood points program and collect/ use Starwood points a lot. They're usually pretty good at letting you delay check-out until about 1pm. A lot of times on the booking (providing you can see it on their website) you can put in a request for late check out. If not just ask when you check in. Like I said Sheraton is pretty good about stuff like that.