chrisb74

Does anyone have the physical card? What does it say?

I'm not going to cancel my pre-order but i'm certainly going to cancel it onboard if they insist on counting 1 drink as 2.

If this is anything other than 1 punch per drink it is incredibly misleading and it completely changes the value. Below is the text on the website right now. _any_ coffee. Size is not mentioned. If i want 15 iced coffees that should be completely with the rules but that's not what people have said here.

Indulge in your favorite brews any time of day with a card that entitles you to any 15 specialty espresso-based coffees throughout your vacation, all for one low price. Start the morning off right with a macchiato or latte and reenergize your afternoons with iced coffee or an espresso, then finish your meal with a cappuccino. Or enjoy your favorite cup of joe any time you'd like and save up to 50% on individually purchased coffees.

 

Specialty Coffees do not include any beverages served inside licensed Starbucks® stores/cafes. Limited time offer. Prices subject to change without notice. 18% gratuity not included. You must present the coffee punch card to your server when ordering your coffee selection onboard. Card valid for this ship and sailing only

 

I would suggest you book Virgin or Qantas - with more flights they're far more likely to be able to get you there if things do go wrong for whatever reason.

That sucks. How stupid is that? - my first ever cruise maybe my last...

I don't go that far, we just don't participate in the "formal" nights. Packing and then having to deal with paying for washing and ironing formal wear is just too much effort for a holiday.

I agree with Daghis. RCCL gets to exploit the flag of convenience and in return they push the passengers into port.

But I agree it the way of companies claiming their product is cheaper then it really is. It is almost like they're lying to you.

This is exactly why it is the way it is. It is the law that all advertised prices must reflect the actual price you will pay including all "compulsory" fees and also taxes. It was determined that the gratuities on cruises were fairly much a required part of the service and hence must be included in the advertised price.

It's quite nice that in Australia if anything, including a cruise, is advertised for $2000 you must be able to buy it for exactly $2000 cash. No hidden extras for tips, taxes or anything else.

Everyone was expecting some kind of "we are aware of this and will be sure to keep you safe" type of announcement during the muster drill announcements and there was nothing.

The captain wants to live and RCCL wants its $1.5billion boat back in one piece - so they will definitely keep you safe. Its what happens to your ports and when you return that will be up for debate and they probably have no idea at this stage.

We did an RCCL cruise into Bali - it was all handed by the cruise line automatically.

I wouldn't worry about it - Generally all entry procedures are handled by the cruise line in bulk.

There will be a formal investigation - it will be interesting to read. Unfortunately these things take months.

http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2017/mair/329-mo-2017-003/

It's a 90min flight to Sydney. What's the issue?

Try being in Perth. RCCL hates us. :)

I agree...I like to watch tv before I go to sleep...and it is VERY limited!

We had a running joke on one of our cruises - EVERY night when we came back to the cabin for bed the Sixth Sense would be playing.

At least mix it up a bit guys, people tend to watch TV at the same times every day. (before bed, getting ready for dinner, etc)

So aside from what I've already written nothing TERRIBLE happened on this cruise, but enough things went wrong that we simply have no reason to cruise RC again.

This was the executive summary of our last cruise too. Lots of little bad things adding up and the complete lack of big WOWs to offset it.

For the first time in a while we don't have any cruises booked and no real excitement to do it.

The Casino will be closed unless the cruise docks outside WA. I've done a few of these 3 day ones and they're definitely closed.

Parking kind of sucks. http://www.fremantleports.com.au/Visiting/Parking/Pages/Parking-at-Victoria-Quay.aspx

Since you're from Mandurah the train might be a better option. It's a short walk from the station to the ship.

Duty free - This has always been offered. I'm not really sure why but they're usually open and trying to sell off anything that's not bolted down.

This is all a little creepy.

the kid is 8, so not really.

I haven't seen a single article on this being an issue on cruise ships either (granted I have not done any type of exhaustive search).

The US Coast Guard explains the issue:

http://www.uscg.mil/tvncoe/Documents/safetyalerts/SurgeProtectiveDevices.pdf

OK, so who is correct? :p:eek::confused:

I assume Powersboyee2's comment were based on a cruise that arrives early morning as most do. It looks like yours docks the day before and is in port for the entire last day.

Call RCCL to confirm, but i'd tend to trust iipa. I doubt they'll stop you leaving.

I just got a post cruise survey four months to the day after we arrived back. It was a little pointless being so late - maybe they just realised that cruise was a complete disaster.

Money is money. They'll accept anything.

This is my story from yesterday on the Legend.

Tuesday I had a bit of an upset stomach and (according to the ships nurse) a fever. I felt otherwise Ok. On Tuesday afternoon i finally got sick of feeling a little off and went to see the doctor. He poked around and decided I might have appendicitis. He gave me some antibiotics and discussed the possibility of having to get off Wednesday for a CT Scan. After seeing the doctor we went out and watched the nights show, so you know I wasn't near death.

By Wednesday morning i was feeling better and the fever was gone, but I went back to the doctor as requested. I still had some minor stomach pain. (I gave it a rating of 2. It was annoying at most. none of the other ‘stomach’ symptoms you’d expect). Still they gave me more IV anti biotics and told me I’d have to get off to be checked out as there were 3 sea days coming up.

Here’s where it goes south. The weather was completely **** and we were anchored waiting for tendering. I asked my wife (via text) to bring my wallet down - I figured i’d go in, get checked out, come back. No problem. Meanwhile without telling me a nurse had called my wife and told her we were being offloaded and she had 20mins to pack and get down to medical. We were being offloaded and then the ship was leaving port due to weather. She ended up getting our stateroom attendant to help. I got wind of this via text and tried to go help her - the doctor refused to let me go and then the nurse sent 2 people up to help her with our two bags.

We got in the tender complete with our luggage - and the other people did too. So they were running tours. I should point out that (apparently) sick me had to carry two ~25Kg suitcases down the stairs to the tender and back up the dock stairs at the other end.

We were told by the doctor that royal would organise everything on shore. It didn’t work that way. The port agent escorted us off the ships, put us in a taxi and sent us away. Thankfully we’d had the forethought to get some Thai cash so we could pay. No one ever asked if we did. When we got to the hospital the ‘appointment’ didn’t seem that way - they just treated us like any other walk in (except we did have a referral letter from the ship doctor) and we got shuffled around between departments, over to another hospital, then back, and ~ 6 hours later i was cleared - Bacterial infection, probably from food.

I will say, at one point someone from RCCL in Miami called via the hospital to check up on us. There wasn’t much he could assist with as he was working under the assumption we were offloaded and we’d already talked to our insurance and started researching a hotels for the night. We were working on the assumption that if we could get the scan done and get back to the ship we’d continue. If not, there were heaps of hotels with rooms available online.

I texted the port agent to ask where the ship was (since we hadn’t really paid attention and no one told us) and while we were aiming to be back at the ship for last tender at 7.30, he said we needed to be back at the ship by 6pm. It was about 4.55pm and we were about an hour away. We grabbed a taxi and made it back with about 5 mins to spare, got onboard and were escorted to medical for a different doctor to sign off on us being onboard. I was cleared and we’re back onboard.

so that was our day in Phuket. ~$1600 in medical later (yes, insurance) and a story to tell. Getting a full lights and sirens ambulance transfer between hospitals because the one we were sent to for a CT Scan didn’t have a working CT scan machine was entertaining. :)

Don’t get sick on the Legend Of The Seas.

In your room. If you want soda before you're allowed into your room (or at any point you don't have your cup with you) just flash your seapass at any bar and they'll give you soda in a normal cup for free.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com.au/customersupport/faq/details.do?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&faqId=255&faqSubjectId=334&wuc=AUS

Suggested guidelines for these nights are:

Casual: Polo shirts and trousers for men, sundresses or trousers for women

Smart Casual: Jackets and ties for men, dresses or trouser suits for women

Formal: Suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women

Is that actually policy or just an above and beyond? That is nice, but it really isn't their fault you got sick.

No but their employee decided to restrict your movements while you were paying for the facilities of the cruise ship and they do it to protect their interests in not making other passengers sick.

ie: if i was sick i might like the idea of sitting in the hot tub all day. Royal might disagree and prevent me from using the facilities that i choose.

You know, DW & I were wondering if the reason that RCI has the 24-hour plans is because the 24-hour plans are simple to operate, sort of like a 'fire & forget missile' in that PAX can't bother customer service with complaints like "I thought that I logged off, where did my minutes go?"

More likely that -

• The Internet on cruise ships is slowly getting better and more affordable which allows people to do more things with it.
  
• The current generation want to be connected 24/7. You may only want to check in once a day but for the Instant Messaging generation it's just not practical.
  
• Encouraging people to Tweet and Instagram from the ship is excellent free advertising.
  

Is there any advantage of having the JS when it comes to tendering?

I was disappointed that the networking tech wasn't covered on the Allure Behind the scenes tour.

Ok, the machine that spits out bread rolls was cool but so is interconnecting thousands of crew and passengers and on a ship like Allure/Oasis the network holds the ship together.