north29

the royal promonade especial in bad weather. It is my favorite feature of any ship that has it. Not a deal breaker but I do like it. I'm sure, the new venues on the Quantum will have something desirable, well we hope. RC seems to do a great job in cruiser likes and options for, well most things.

As International drive in Orlando, heck maybe safer if you are reasonable in your behavior.

We got a Brita filtered water bottle. MUCH easier than dragging in a lot of bottles of water. Works very well. Just put in 'brita filtered water bottle' in Google and find lots of info about it. They are on the shelf at Walmart and most any other store that sells Brita water containers.

 

No more running out of water when on-shore. Just fill up the bottle with the local water and it will taste great.

Better than fighting/lugging a case of water and the replacement filter is only about $6 only way to go.

Yes I am sensitive to ships water( I can drink a little), and taking a brita water bottle keeps me from drink too much beer, not allergic to beer LOL.

Is it legal? NO

Do I take mine? YES

Have I lost it? NO, however I am very careful in how I pack it in checked bag.

Traveled much of this planet and always take multitool.

Now days I always take two one in my wives checked bag, and one in mine. I had mine confiscated in Port Everglades once, actually had two of them with different functions, both had knifes, but one had a knife with a 3" blade and the other ones blade was 2.5" they gave it me back the smaller one on inspection, and gave me the other at debarkation.

Strange rule, a stolen streak knife can do as much harm.

and eat when you want, or pick a time slot that is available. Remember older people tend to eat early. so some times early dining times are not available even in MTD.

I would guess around 6-7 would be crowded times to try and have dinner. I have always found MOST NIGHTS around 7:30 is usually not too crowded for MTD depends on what activities are happening around the ship. Formal night, for those who chose to be formal, usually is a more crowded MDR.

almost emersion cruises, not full emersion ones, get ready, but but they are fun, I do believe the Latinos have more fun. We really enjoyed the change from the norm of a cruise It WAS FUN.

I just started 2014, I cannot think that far ahead LOL

We are well above D+ on RC, older but active cruisers/travelers

We found that there were few overall differences, servicer was the same, food about the same, but buffet was slightly better on X but did not offer much variation as RC. Entertainment was equal, but overall entertainment was (NOtiCE) not to our taste. Activities were more for older people, no organized sports or sports things like Free throw shooting contest etc. Ship is not designed for children simply not enough to do for them, maybe a good thing depending on your outlook for a cruise. One big plus for X is that it never seemed crowded you could almost always easily get to guest relations or shore excursions with out a long wait. I should say the ship was immaculately cleaned and well maintained, but it is a new ship, 2010, so we cannot compare it to any RC ship not having been on the Oasis class which are actually older.

I was writing a review but my lady booked a Cruise tour with a TA this spring on a trans atlantic on the Equinox so I will wait to compare and contrast our experiences.

Above Germancruiser said it well, some Cruise lines meet your style of cruising better than others.

I was expecting to see(according to this board) TUXs every where on formal nights, yes there were a number of them, but suits, and sports coats, or shirt and tie or with out was the norm, and yes even jeans with t shirt were seen on formal night. So dress as you like, or are comfortable with, just look nicer, than usual, please no shorts, or used big overhauls.

If money was no issue for me, I would go with the Windstar cruises, or similar company. We are non formal people be dress classy modern if we can find something modern that fits right at our age. LOL

Music in all decades, maybe a blending of the two would be nice. I was at Sams club yesterday and for some reason, they were playing "Staying Alive" of course this means something since it is near a Large retirement village, LOL, but many people old and young were singing and sort of dancing to it. The same thing happened when a bar played some old big band stuff, especially "In the Mood" had every one young and old enjoying the music.

I will agree a change is needed and what great choices to add to a music party.

I think that, as the kids say,sucks, as the Travel Agency did nothing to get the booking. It is my money, cruise etc I should be able to do what I want.

If they give me a issue I will try and switch to another agency for spite LOL.

I have no problem with the Agency, at least right now, but they are not offering me any perks or any other reason to use them.

I am hearing impaired, legally deaf under certain conditions, I must have missed the question of giving it to my travel agency.

Thanks

We booked a cruise more than a year ago onboard a RC cruise. I guess the person who made the reservation, though that we wanted to use the same Travel agency and gave it to them with out asking.

I would like to take the travel agency off my cruise as they will not do much for me if any thing other that making it hard for me to manage my own cruise, which I usually do.

Before I call RC, and request this, has anyone ever done this?

You ask for options, for formal nights, but why?

Out side of worn out bib overhauls and shorts, sadly, most any thing is accepted on formal nights. Sadly is not my best choice of words, and does not reflect my feeling, we are not formal dressers, but just look a little better on formal night.

If you use MTD as traditional dining but the time is at your choice I doubt that you will see much change if any. However, if like us, we just show up and we are seated almost any where, once in a while we do seem to notice a different level of service. Not necessarily the staff fault, since you are new to them and they do not know your likes and needs. Now days after a couple of days(on long cruises)we find a wait staff team we like and ask for them every night, we might have to wait a few/several minutes but that is OK with us.

If I'm misinformed. How would TBAC know if you bought alcohol abroad, with the exception of from the ships store(some how) unless you are caring it out in the open. Are they going to inspect every piece of luggage, have trained dogs to sniff it out? I can see a "smuggling is fun thing" developing

Another thing, is the tax on goods going to actually pay for the employees needed to collet it? Some how I doubt that, especially after most everyone deciders not to buy anything.

I would never fly into MIA unless absolutely necessary. Been there and done that.

We have a 7 night itinerary where there are no sea days. Its a med cruise and as we are travelling from Australia I'd love it if there were no formal nights. Our second night doesn't depart until 8pm with a lunchtime arrival so I can't see people being back on board in time for the first sitting and rushed for the second sitting.

 

The sixth night is Ephesus which is a popular touring place but it does depart at 6pm. So that night is probably ok.

 

Will be interesting to see but we will be eating at the buffet on formal nights.

You do not have to eat in the Buffet no matter what anyone says, I was just off the Eclipse Dec 14 cruise, and formal night was well anything goes or went. Lots of Tux, but also, god forbid and JEANS and a t shirt a travesty according to this board. Personally, I would not down dress that far, but just look nice.

Cruise on the Eclipse, I should write a review, since this is my first on X. How ever, IMHO, this ship was not designed for people under 21, there was just not enough for them to do. Heck not enough for me or my lady to do on sea days, well that interested us. We were lucky only a few well behaved children on board, but they seemed to get antsy by the end of the cruise and I can understand why.

We were on a the Freedom last year though that we were going to miss the spring break crowd,LOL there were 800 kids of all ages on board. I do not know where they came from but, they were super well behaved. I guess the types of kids or should say parents that lack control of their children on a cruise ship is the luck of the draw.

If reservation was done by a Travel agent or self serve, what a potential mistake.

I would not do it again, lots of reasons, but if you are a foodie, it might be for you. Qsine was our favorite, LOL i guess we are food travelers, and enjoy cuisine from around the world Qsine gave us a fun, food experience from many countries. Our service in there was great.

And that is the way insurance companies want it. LOL

This thread has made me look again at what I have and what I may need or better off with, we travel at least 60 days a year. On short cruises/trips I do not use trip insurance, but on longer ones(expensive) always buy trip insurance.

I have a program called "Emergency Assistance Plus" I found this evacuation insurance, if call that, through the Elks club, and The American Legion in their magazines and is available on line.

he price per year is less than $150 ( it is not travel/trip insurance). I now have the time so I will check out the benefits of the one I have other options such as AAA travel insurance(yearly) program.

Every where, generally 20%. In the cruise lines specialty restaurants,depending service, which has been good, and poor on occasion, never super. I usually tip from $5 to !0 a person depending on service. With the 15% fee on everything from wine to water, I think my amount is more than enough, even maybe too much. Now that I thought about it, if it is a BOGO deal I might lean to a higher amount for the tip.

Never needed anything other than the sea pass card. How ever I always take a id of some sort with me. The only thing you might have to have is a bottle of " Old Man Guavaberry Brand Liqueur" in your hand LOL. PS> it is GOOD

One of our favorite cities, a week is not enough to do everything just in the city, not counting a train ride to Tarragona or a trip up north to the The Pyrenees. We have spent more than a week there a couple of times. If you are able to walk you can walk many places easily some might need a cab or the metro.

I have not done this, and it came from the RC board. It is a food tour which I would love to do. Here is a link to it http://thebarcelonataste.com

If time permits do a Flamenco show as well, we did one on Las Ramblas toward the port/water area, it was a dinner show, but might try another next time.

Lots of good ideas above. REPEAT watch out for pick pockets.

Just off the Eclipse Christmas two week cruise. On formal night from my

vantage a point, dress was all over the place from tux, black suit, some ill fitting, sports coat, shirt and tie to yes god forbid jeans and a T shirt LOL. For women, a few gowns that looked out of place to modern designer clothes to just a basic dress with a some decorations, lets not forget about outfits, just because they make it in your size maybe you should not wear it, lets not forget designer jeans LOL.

I took sport coat and shirt and ties, do not own suit, and never will, and designer t shirts. I wore the shirt and tie once put them away and went to the designer T shirts and sport coat was MORE than comfortable and fit in just as well as the formal dressers( they may not think so LOL) some people just love to dress to the nines or what they think are the nines. A comment, it was amazing to us to see a several gentleman dress to the nines in formal wear and the lady beside him just in mundane plain clothes.

On formal night dress nice, nicer than usual, or as elegant as you want, you will be happy.