cherylroslyn

As many as you'd like to lug with you.

 

 

 

I don't know about a cockage fee--and let's not go there ;)--but corkage is on all bottles and calculated at embarkation not when the bottle is actually opened. So, it doesn't matter where you drink it, there's still a corkage fee of $15 per bottle.

But they will refund the corkage fee if you do not drink the bottle on board. all you have to do is bring the sealed bottle down to guest relations and tell them you never got a chance to open it.

Now of course many things have changed with the advent of FDR but I have not read that his policy has changed.......so don't bring 20 bottles and then be upset if I'm wrong.

Thank you for posting this Charles. It was very helpful.

Oh that is a bummer! On Celebrity it can be used in all the bars. Thank you for ur quick response.

Not true, it was not usable at Qsine which had a specialty cocktail menu. It was also not usable on the ergonomic wine machines that were in Cellarmasters. It was also not usable at the molecular bar when that still was around......

When that happen... Last time we went.. not while at port not international water .. Bermuda don't allow casinos

About 18 months ago. It was voted in by the people, in an effort to keep Bermuda attractive for visitors and to stay competitive. It was very controversial at the time, but it actually has gone off without a hitch and everyone seems happy.

Heard that RCL purchased the license for Bermuda to keep casino open when in port. Anyone recently to Bermuda that can comment on casino open or closed?

The Bermudan people voted on this change about 19 months ago. This is a law that applies to all cruise lines, it is not specific to RCCL. The casinos may open at 9:00 pm while in port.

Just curious, have attended and organized a number of "Slot Pulls" in conjunction with a M&G.

Does anyone have a Slot Machine Type ( Wheel of Fortune, 1 Line $5 Reel, etc.) that you prefer to use over others ?

 

cheers...the Ump...:D

Everyone I have ever done with the exception of one was on a Wheel of Fortune machine. It lends itself well to this type of thing because of the top wheel which spins during the bonus and everyone can see it and cheer "big money, big money" like they do on the show.

I once had to do one on a machine that was not wheel of fortune and it was much harder, then we got the bonus and it involved picking....and then who picks?

And if the person spinning picks....and picks wrong there are groans and its hard on the person picking.

Good luck and have fun!!!

When I was there in early June, the shuttles were "Beach Shuttles" and they did take us to Warwick. I thought they only went to Horseshoe but the signs clearly marked Warwick as well. I asked them and they said they would take us. When everyone got off at Horseshoe, we stayed on and they took us (group of 3) over to Warwick.

We enjoyed an empty beach for a while, then leisurely walked back to Horseshoe, stopping to swim along the away at the different beaches. When we were done, we grabbed the shuttles back from Horseshoe to the Dockyard. Warwick but definitely my favorite beach!

Thank you for this information. I was wondering about this because I want to do exactly what you did. You took one more thing off my list of worries :)

I guess the staff should have the same guts that you have.

I can't imagine how they can fairly enforce the rule by monitoring the continuous vacant time of each and every chair.

Cruisers should also do the same as you did.

At times I've seen slips of paper put on the loungers on Celebrity, and if you don't come back by the time the guy goes back around the stuff is removed.

In all fairness though I have never seen a scene like that pool picture on a Celebrity ship. That is not a north south thing...it is to some extent and age thing and the fact that I never travel in the heat of the summer break or spring break.

Celebrity also has a generally older clientele that in some respects are less likely to be sun worshiping at this stage in their cruising careers. That is not to say the pool area is not well used, but it seems to be roomier and there is more of a rotation. Again the age of the cruiser seems key as most, not all, but most people in their 50s and 60s regret the extensive time they spent in the sun as youngsters without sunblock and most are not out their working on their St. Tropez tans......there are obviously exceptions to this.

Regardless great review Smitty!!!!!!

Thanks for this upbeat review. Really looking forward to my turn in 14 days !!!!

Did you use the casino at all?

We will be in the Garden Villa on the Dawn this Friday, and asked to upgrade from Smirnoff Vodka to Gray Goose. We were told there would be a charge of $40 to do so, but were offered a list of alternate vodkas (Absolut, Kettel One, Svedka, etc) that we could replace it with at no extra charge.

 

Hope that helps...

Fonrouge82 toyou get that list for trading from the pre-concierge desk?

We like Titos or Kettle one, that would be great news.

Thank you,

I hadn't considered that option. That wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Thanks for your response.

Canada and Maine are part of a beautiful scenic route that is only really available for a few weeks out of the eyar and therefore the sailings go at a premium. You would be lucky to do that route as well.

Bermuda is Great, but Canada is nothing to sneeze at.

Enjoy your cruise and don't worry....the weather is one of the only things in life your really can't change....

Better late then never but here it is! :)

For those of you not familiar with my vacation videos, I invite you to check out the link in my signature to view my other videos. Included in the link below is a video tour of our 2 Bedroom Haven Suite that we had for this particular vacation. Hope you enjoy!! :)

https://vimeo.com/176053626

Excellent as always. Wow kids are getting so big.....

I look forward to your video every year!!!!!!

We just got back yesterday from a wonderful 8-night sailing on Norwegian Escape. This cruise was to celebrate our 25th anniversary (although legally married for 13 years), and the officers and crew did a fantastic job of helping us do that.

 

Part of the excitement of the cruise was the "Newlywed, Not So Newlywed" game. My husband and I were extremely fortunate to be selected by the audience to be the middle couple. (The newlyweds were married just one week, and the "oldyweds" have been married for 62 years.) Tyler Gray did a fantastic job and made the game exciting and full of energy.

 

One of the things that he said during the game show was that he's never had a same-sex couple before, but I saw here on Cruise Critic where someone reported that he had a same-sex couple in the game on Norwegian Sky in late 2015, and then he had also said he'd never had a same-sex couple before. I'm guessing that it's just a line to make the game more exciting, which leads me to this question...

 

Does anyone have a sense for how many times same-sex couples have been included in the "Newlywed" game?

 

My thinking is that's probably not common, but it probably happens more than I had previously imagined.

I've seen it on Celebrity.....and yes they won!!!!!!!

There is no need to do the NCL transfers. The $7 Minibus shuttles take the same road. You can stay the same 3 hours and not miss the ship.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree with Charles 1000%.

Everyone is always so "scared of missing the ship" the last day in Bermuda.

Most of the time you have until 4 and sometimes 5.

In a regular port nobody stays on the ship or stays in the port because they are "scared of missing the ship". I use the same cautiousness on the last day in Bermuda as I use in any other port where I only usually get 1 day.

If I am in St. Thomas, and the ship is leaving at 5, I make sure I am back around 3:45.

Same rules apply in Bermuda on the last day, but you insert your time and make sure you are back in port at least an hour before you sail.

If you took a shuttle mini van for $7.00 each way you could take off right after breakfast and get a shuttle back at like 1:00 or whatever time......then allow yourself a little time to roam around Dockyard and shop.

Bermuda is very very small and there is very little traffic......the reason you see people missing the ship a lot in Bermuda has nothing to do with traffic....it has to do with the fact that they are idiots......

Have a great time and do it on your own.....it is the easiest port to do on your own......

http://www.watersportssomersetbridge.com/jet_ski.html

There is also this option Somersetbridge Watersports

So here's the deal. We booked a short 4 day repositioning cruise. We have a well-located OceanView room and NCL threw in a drink package.

 

As we approach sailing date, the price of the balcony (guarantee) is now about net $90 pp less than the oceanview cabin. But...we'd have to give up the drink package.

 

Would you:

 

A. Go for the balcony with no drink package

 

B. Keep the OV and drink package.

 

Again, 4 day cruise with only one stop.

Without question I would keep the oceanview with the drink package.

Its nice to order whatever you want whenever you want, and to be able to experiment withnew drinks and try things out.....

And if you don't want to drink alcohol you can get plenty of virgin options as well.....so its not just about the alcohol.

It is short and inexpensive repositioning cruise. That might have something to do with it..

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Its a balcony guarantee. They are not giving the perks with any of the guarantees.

Its a way for people to take advantage of a low price with no perks.

I see the guarantees in each of the categories for my two upcoming cruises do not include any perks.

My wife and I were booked on RCCL's Legend of the Seas for a cruise from Brisbane to Hong Kong for next April. We had booked our trip to Brisbane using American Advantage miles, traveling from DFW on American and Hawaiian Airlines through Honolulu.

About four weeks ago we got notice that RCCL had sold the ship and was cancelling the cruise since the Legend would no longer be in service. Of course, they refunded our deposit but, when it came to refunding the $200 we paid to reinstate the frequent flyer miles to our account, they refused to pay.

 

Here's the RCCL policy statement:

"To accommodate guests booked on the affected sailings, Royal Caribbean will provide vacationers with a full refund of their cruise fare, the opportunity to re-book on another Royal Caribbean ship as well as an onboard credit to use during the newly booked sailing. In addition, vacationers who purchased airfare through Royal Caribbean will receive a full refund. Guests purchasing their own airfare will be given a refund for their airline change fee. All refund transactions will be automatically processed back to the original form of payment within four to six weeks."

 

From my travel agent:

"I again have pleaded our case and received the following answer. You may want to contact Guest relations to see if you get any farther. I again apologize. Robert

 

RCCL email to my travel agent:

 

Hello Robert,

 

Thank you for your email. airline change fees were being reimbursed for any

reservation that moved to a different Royal Caribbean sailing. Airline

change fees do not include restocking fees for airline miles.

 

Here is the direct information on Air Change Fees from the compensation

letter

 

o If you incur a fee due to the change in your airline reservations you

will be reimbursed up to $200 per person, for Domestic Flights & $300 per

person, for International Flights.

 

If you are unable to re-book by 6/22/16, a full refund for the amount paid

on your current reservation will be processed to the original form of

payment. Please note future compensation will not be available due to this

circumstance, including air change fee reimbursement.

 

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

 

The "INCONVENIENCE" is taking $200 out of my pocket to reinstate my 120K+ miles when it was their decision to sell the ship and leave us "high and dry". I gather that, if we had rebooked another cruise, they might have paid the fee for us to "change" to a new destination for a different cruise.

 

I have expressed to them my extreme displeasure with this policy. I have vowed to never sail with any of their affiliates again: RCCL, Celebrity, Azamara (and I have over 300 days of cruising). Admittedly, this is a rare occurrence when a ship is sold but to be penalized for being an award flyer versus a fee paying flyer is outrageous discrimination in my opinion!

 

I would like for others to know of this policy should another of their ships be sold in the future! I'm sure there must have been others on this sailing of the Legend of the Seas who are in the "same boat" (so to speak!!). This sailing was sold out. I believe RCCL cruise patrons should be aware of the potential for this kind of corporate abuse and extreme customer unfriendly treatment. NEVER AGAIN FOR ME!!!

I agree with you. I feel if they are willing to pay $200.00 to someone who paid for tickets why shouldn't they allow up to the same $200.00 for restocking fees for air miles.

And while you would think this is a rare occurrence, it isn't as rare as you think. This time they sold the ship, but more often the "Charter" the ships for specialty cruises with outside vendors...like Jazz Cruises, Gay Cruises, Nude Cruises, or something like Dancing with the Stars or some musical acts.

Last year I was the victim of two chartered cruises, both canceled by the cruise line. I was offered the same deal, the kicker was that I did not find out from the cruise line, I found out on Cruise Critic and I waited for notification and still to this day was not notified for one of the cruises.

So, DH is thinking it could be cool to mount his Go Pro on his helmet or chest. Anyone done that before? Guess the better questions is can you do that - any info greatly appreciated:D

You couldn't even wear wedding rings. But all of your relatives can photograph you or film you through the tube. If he had his Go Pro on it would simply record the guy operating the wind in the tube, because you stay facing one direction basically the whole time.

You probably can't but that doesn't mean I wouldn't try.

I think CAS is allocated a certain block of rooms and for that reason I think they control the prices once you are under their control.

But I would just innocently call upsell and not even bring up anything about CAS and see if it works.

For my money I really don't get why they make it difficult sometimes for CAS player.....if a normal non-CAS player could do this upgrade for $20.00 bucks each it makes no sense why one of their best customers, a customer that likely drops thousands in the Casino each trip can't, its infuriating.

I dealt with that issue for a while with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean when they started including the drink packages and other perks in their fares.....initially their casino programs were not comping the rooms with the perks.......it made no sense....if you think I deserve a free ocean view or balcony and a normal ocean view or balcony comes with perks, then why can't I get perks....the debate waged for months and then finally they saw their policy made no sense.....

Its a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

The North East, though loaded with people still does not fill every room of these ships. Many people fly from out of town with plans of seeing the city and enjoying all it has to offer.

Unfortunately one badly timed snow storm can have a terrible effect.

Or choosing to sail through a storm can have a terrible effect.

I live locally and the poor Anthem was headlining the News every other week in February. And when those poor passengers got off the Anthem the live coverage was really startling and it was pretty obvious that most of the people on that ship would never ever set foot on a cruise ship again, and for good reason.

I think the bad publicity and news coverage makes Royal Caribbean Int. loath to bring another billion dollar ship into the northeast for another raging winter season.

For the safety security and comfort of its passengers it doesn't seem worth the risk to bring another ship to NY or NJ.

But I would love it if they did.....

Oh excellent post, thank you more than I can tell you. We were thinking of the glass bottom boat tour, it looks like so much fun and I think our son would really love it. The aquarium would be awesome as well, he would again love that I am positive of. He is extremely smart, which he got from my wife, because it definitely didn't come from me. :D Thanks for the post.

I agree with the suggestions of Arsa. I think its important to emphasise the little beach near the ship. Its called Snorkel Park. They sell an excursion there on the ship, but do not buy it. It is a place you can walk right up to and save tons of money buying direct.

I never recommend this beach for anyone without little kids, but with little kids its a godsend. You can snorkel and you will sea fish....you can even grab some sealed cereal and feed the fish.

You can get chairs and drinks and when your son gets cranky and needs a nap no cab or bus necessary just walk back to the ship and take a nap.

It is so much better than trying to take we sandy cranky kids on a bus or in a cab.

And one day you might also like to stay on ship....it is nice when no one is around. Also as Arsa said the ferry bus pass is great and the ferry to Hamilton is great.....and its nice to just go back and forth or get off for a little while and then go straight back.

I hope you have fun and that you set your expectations realistically, sometimes its okay to just chill when the kids are so small......and other times the kids are raring to go and since you only have one its more manageable.......

Last year I added a person to my reservation - was in AQ1 on our Transatlantic cruise last November - I was booked as SOLO and only had to pay port charges for a second person - no price difference in fare.

Yes I have had the same experience at least five times. I have never paid "prevailing rate".

There's one I didn't know, but I've never done this yet. Do I have to be an actual Captain's club member, or is my equivalent status in Crown and Anchor good enough? Maybe that would only work on my 2nd X cruise?

You just need to get a number now. Since you are Diamond on Royal you will be Elite on Celebrity, you already have the status, you just need to sign up for an actual Captain's Club number and you do not have to have completed a sailing to get one.

We've been to Bermuda 4 times (2014 and 2015 on the NCL Breakaway, most recently). My parents just returned from the NCL Breakaway. They have been to Bermuda 7 or 8 years in a row now on NCL cruises.

 

I think Bermuda has reached a point where they are struggling with the influx of massive numbers of cruise passengers and need to balance the tourism with the quality of life for local residents.

 

On this trip, my parents said that one of the bus drivers was fairly hostile towards cruise passengers, even making a tourist (kid) give up their seat for a local rider.

 

I'm not quite sure though why they would eliminate the Horseshoe specials, as this just means the local will be crowded and this is to the detriment of the daily commuters.

 

It also seems like there are more and more cars on the island now and fewer mopeds. Eliminating buses and making people more reliant on cab transportation will only add to the congestion.

 

I wonder if demand for the 3 day pass was reduced when the NCL Breakaway moved up its departure time by a couple of hours last year and that is why they were eliminated, or if they just thought that by selling only two day passes, more people will stay in the dockyard area on their 3rd port day thereby reducing congestion and strain on the rest of the island.

 

I also wonder if they are trying to figure things out in advance of next year's America's Cup sailings, which will be bringing even more people to the island in late May through June of 2017.

That is not hostility it is manners. I have seen over and over Bus drivers ask local kids to give up their seats for cruise ship passengers. I am quite sure this "kid" was pubescent male, not some five year old. This is the custom and it is expected that a young man give up his seat for an adult.....no news story there......