Canadian1

My TA saved me a little over $1,500 from what Princess was charging for our full suite. So since we don't drink alcohol, it was no saving for us.

The agent from this 3 day sale said was charging exactly what Princess was going to charge. I was glad he was being honest with me.

We board with our own water & soft drinks. We are really picky about what Princess offers ( don't like fountain diet drinks) so it is a no go for us. Some of you might want to crunch the numbers also 😎

I haven't read the rest of the post yet but you can switch from the beverage package to a $300 obc

One other beef with charging for room service is that normally we order it if we're not feeling 100%

So now we're being penalized for ordering something.

Much better to go to the buffet green in the gills. I'm sure other diners would be happy with that; even if just a bit of seasickness, but, they don't know that.

The same reason every product on the market ends with .95. (For the reasons you stated; tricks the brain.) Gas is the worst, with every gallon costs $x + 9/10 of a penny.

There is psychological behind this. Because what we see $7.99 or in this case $7.95, at a quick glance it would appear to be cheaper than $8.00.

I beg to differ. $7.95 is not going to break anyone's bank here. It's the principle that people have issue with. How can RCCI expect us to be "Loyal to Royal" when they pride themselves on building the best loyalty program on the high seas, and then every time you turn around they are taking more and more away and increasing prices?

 

Worse, they make it seem like it's an improvement in service when the reality is it's an improvement in their bottom line. Have you checked the latest RCCI quarterly profits? The room service charge might be the latest, but it's certainly not the first nor the last of changes that will continue to line their pockets and empty ours. :mad:

[emoji106]

Some people may be intelligent and book smart but when it comes to empathy and feelings, well.....

Get over it. Take your lemons and make lemonade.

LMaxwell, thumbs up!

bUU It is in their signature.

 

Can't believe this thread is still going......;)

Oh okay, sorry the device I'm using right now doesn't allow me to see signatures :)

Thread might die down but it's good for people to express how they feel either way. It's also good to understand different perspectives and agree to disagree sometimes. Her/his reply was one of those moments; if you keep hitting your head against a wall it just hurts more lol!

Hope everyone enjoys their next cruise and happy planning!

cruising grandma, I hope you have a great rest of the day and 2017 [emoji93]

His/her quote says it all....."Sour people suffer sour lives."

Sorry is this in reference to me or bUU as sour?

A "principle" that's solely self ratified and inconsistent with the promises that were actually made. So the only effect of such principle being agitating one's self. Principle is perhaps best left for things that really matter, like life and death, health and employment, social justice, etc.

 

 

This message may have been entered using voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

It's unfortunate that you cannot even concede that people might not be happy with the changes in the industry. I understand your perspective but you are unwilling to understand other peoples.

Have a lovely day.

The two comments are talking about different sentiments.

• You were talking about the sentiments they were relaying to others. You made it clear that you thought those people were lying about being dissatisfied and were just bloviating out of proportion to their true grievances.
  
• The sentiments in my statements are those that those people are relaying to themselves: "This cruise line will satisfy me. It's offering me what I want. I'm willing to accept these terms and conditions because I'll be happy with the experience." It sure does seem like a lot of people are lying to themselves when they say such things to themselves.
  

Now: Why do those people do that to themselves? We could speculate. I suspect part of the answer is money - the lack of enough of it to afford what those folks actually want. The other part would therefore be an unwillingness to adjust their expectations to match what they can afford.

Money might play a factor but I'm pretty sure it's the principle. Seems lately every time we are about to go on a cruise something changes.

NCL stopped allowing people to bring on water and started charging for room service about 2 months before we were to go on.

Rccl now with room service. I don't know about rccl before with popcorn but charging $2 now seems silly. It may have changed on princess but we used to swing by muts and grab some popcorn before going to bed. ....free.

Just gets annoying after awhile. We started cruising a little over 10 years ago and you can see the changes.

Will it stop me from cruising, no. Does it get annoying fast, yes.

And to the other poster that talked about the 24 hour pub on ncl is right, that was pretty good. One of our favorite late night before bed snack places

OK, continuing the story of being at the helipad.

 

 

Saw some people there at the helipad area. Everyone wants to mimic the classic Titanic pose. Yeah, admit it, you want to do it also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wanted to, and...... did it! Not embarrassed to admit it [emoji106]

Good to know you are feeling better but you know if you are not well, getting rest if more important than reliving the prior vacation. This thread will still be here later on when you are feeling better – no need to stay up late to find out the results like a sporting event.

I'm a bit of a night owl to begin with so not unusual to be up late. Reliving vacation can be a form of resting! Right? :)

Now was that a "real cold" or a wink-wink post cruise blues kind of "cold" with some forced coughing in the background for dramatic effects?

 

Wow, you're in East coast Canada? Yes, you are up late. Have a good evening. I'm waiting for the pictures to be uploaded. Like watching paint dry.

Would be a real cold with a red nose from all the nose blowing [emoji40] , oh well starting to feel better!

In Ontario here, so east but not Atlantic time east.... was still pretty late.

Good morning and have a great day.

Happy writing and reliving.

Getting late over here in EST, checking out.

Looking forward to reliving my vacation tomorrow!

Hey, why do you think I'm still doing this?

 

Technically we've been off the cruise a month ago and I'm just looking at the old pictures and retelling the story as if we were still on vacation.

 

Cheapo dad scores with 2 for 1 cruise vacation and the second one is even better as besides being free, I don't have to be on the long plane ride...

Lol, good point. Also you don't get a cold the night you get home from said plane and then have to call in sick for 2 days.

Been back for 5 days now but reading your review makes me feel like I'm "sort of " still on it. Thanks for keeping the good memories alive :)

harryfat1,

I have to agree, we loved deck 4 too! Love the bump out where you can see along the side of the ship. First saw this on Indy and still continue to love it on Freedom.... never experienced it on any of our other ships. Also love the fact that you can go to the very front of the ship. Can't do that with many anymore.

Thanks for your excellent review! I found it because we are going on Independence of the Seas next month and there aren't many IoS reviews with pictures. I thought the ships might be similar enough. Your pictures are great and your commentary is even better. I totally agree with you about the MDR photographers and pirates. Also, the quote about Holland America being for old people and their parents was hilarious. :)

The ships are almost identical, only some small decorative differences. Both are nice ships [emoji3]

After breakfast, we made it back to the cabin to get ready for the tour. For this tour, I booked it through RCI to visit the Chacchoben Mayan ruins. I know what you are thinking, “Dude, how can you call yourself a cheapo dad when you paid premium price to RCI for a tour when you can just book it yourself for much less?” Believe me, I struggled with this tour for awhile.

 

Yes, you can go to Trip advisor and the port section here at CC to find many solid reputable local tour operators. You can save at least $25 per person over what RCI charges. I understand that. But the paranoid (anal) part in me always thinks of worst case scenario – what happened if we are stranded?

 

The official description from both RCI and private tours is that it takes close to 1 hour drive each way from the port to/from the ruins through the jungles. The entire tour lasts 4+ hours. Given we are in port only from 12 noon to 6:30, the paranoid person in me worries that if our private vehicle breaks down in the middle of the road coming back, what could happen? I have zero fears of car issues in Grand Cayman or Cozumel as I know there are tons of taxis in both places as they are big cities with lots of taxis everywhere. I have less confidence if something goes wrong when we are 1 hour away from the ship in the less traveled regions.

 

One can debate either end of the argument but for my paranoia/9+ anal scale, I opted to pay the RCI premium. The official policy is that RCI will NOT guarantee to wait for you even if you booked an RCI tour & your vehicle is delayed in coming back but they will at the minimum get you to the next port (Cozumel) free of charge. And they will try and wait for you to the extent possible if you are delayed on tours booked through the ship. So that’s why I booked the tour with RCI. Final bonus is I rather sit in the big greyhound buses than the smaller vans of some of the private tours in the 2 hour round trip drive – motion sickness and all…

Good call on this one. We did the tour (with Princess though in 2006) and it does take a bit to get there and back. Very very interesting and when we went it was being excavated by the Royal Ontario Museum. .... shout out to fellow Canadians [emoji12]

On certain occasions it is definitely better to book with the ship. When we were on Celebrity and we were in Panama a couple of tours through the ship were delayed and we waited more than 2 hours for them to get back. That wouldn't happen for a private tour for sure!

I know this was directed at someone else but .... it's a lovely island, I really enjoyed it. Beautiful and not overtly touristy. I know that in the daily they said to watch your valuables but lucky we didn't see or experience anything bad. Nice quaint island. Oh and they have monkeys at the port but you'll have to pay if you want to take a picture with them.

Oh and we did a tour of the island with rum tasting. I don't generally drink but it was an interesting tour on a pretty estate. They did have some nice flavours of rum too [emoji3]

I'm curious as to what you did in St. Kitts... we've never been there.

 

 

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I know this was directed at someone else but .... it's a lovely island, I really enjoyed it. Beautiful and not overtly touristy. I know that in the daily they said to watch your valuables but lucky we didn't see or experience anything bad. Nice quaint island. Oh and they have monkeys at the port but you'll have to pay if you want to take a picture with them.

Wait, the WJ closes at 3? When does it reopen?

(Sorry, OT but I promised 24 hour a day food everywhere when I sold this trip to my Disney addicted crew.)

So the daily will list the different places and their hours. That being said there truly food 24hrs a day, just in different spots sometimes. Trust me you WON'T go hungry [emoji12] [emoji481] [emoji484] [emoji488] [emoji487] [emoji507] [emoji509] [emoji505] [emoji523] [emoji519] [emoji535] [emoji485]

We enjoyed the car museum...On the west side of the island.

 

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I thought this would be a great idea but people on trip advisor say that it is now closed [emoji20] I can't access the actual website because it's blocked at work so I will have to verify later. Hope it's not true.

We boarded in Barcelona. No delay, no extra precautions. Have not seen or heard of any issues. Staff is wonderful, ship is amazing.

Phew! Thank you for the info

Just got off the Indy.... no corkage fee

Good idea, however I would use something other then duct tape. It can damage the walls. ;)

Strong magnet?