cello56

We need to also remember that the second evening cleaning was much less work than the morning clean. Rarely see Henry in the halls in the evening. Beds might be a bit messy, but unlikely they have to completely remake every single bed like the morning. Bathrooms get a deep clean in the morning, but a touch up in the evenings. 

So instead of doing 18 morning full cleans and 18 evening touch ups, they will now be doing 25 full cleans every day - just split into half in the morning and half in the evening. The two current cabin services are not an even amount of work for the cabin steward. 

DH and I are very unhappy about this reduction in service. CAN we hang our towels up to dry - yes. Do we WANT to hang them to dry? NO. We like fresh towels each time. This is not home where we hang for several days. This is supposed to be a vacation where we are pampered and get services that we don't have at home. I can't wait to see all the dirty dishes put outside the doors in the hallways. Interesting that RCI reduced the services they are providing us yet continue to raise the onboard gratuities. 

Myself, husband and neighbor were all very disappointed that we were not actually on a cruise today! 

Was there a sale on rice? SO much rice on the new menus.

Your son will 100% NOT be allowed to go to the teen activities in Adventure Ocean. There is a huge liability issue of including an adult - regardless of their functional age.

Keep an eye out for open activities that you think your son might enjoy. Does he like music? Maybe he would enjoy going to karaoke and listening to people perform? Is he into sports? There is usually a big mixture of ages playing basketball and pickleball. Maybe some of the games and trivia would keep him entertained? You might find some craft activities that could be appropriate. Good luck. I hope that your son enjoys his cruise. 

All these 'vapers' claiming that it is harmless, and just water vapor remind me of the mindset back in the 1950's about how 'cool' smoking was and what a great thing it was to do. Yeah, that attitude sure killed a lot of people. Just because vaping 'might' be a better alternative to smoking cigarettes doesn't make a safe choice.  Safer does not make it safe. Sort of like saying that drinking bleach is better than drinking arsenic. Both will harm you!

That would be a tiny Playmakers compared to some ships.

Why do we care? How about because the rules clearly state that VAPING IN YOUR CABIN IS NOT ALLOWED!!!  It's NOT up to you to decide if this is a good rule or not. It is a rule that RCI have clearly told you about in advance. I used to know a guy who thought 4 way stop signs were a bad idea so he ignored them. Yeah, that ended well ....

Why do people seem to feel that rules are for everyone else and not them? Selfish.

I would get a good quality reclining umbrella stroller for on the ship and then 'wear' him on the beach. Sand will destroy the wheels of anything other than a heavy duty beach wagon. Wheel him as far as you can on sidewalks then fold up the stroller and then pop him in the carrier or hold him in your arms for the short walk through the sand to the water. 

I have not used this service myself, but from what I have found online the cost is around $6 per hour in the daytime and $8 per hour in the evening. I'm not sure if these prices are current though as most postings were from a couple of years ago, but this should give you a general idea.

Your 2 year old will not be allowed in Adventure Ocean as this is for children who have already reached their 3rd. birthday and they must be 100% toilet trained. They will have a pay by the hour Royal Babies and Tots program. 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-activities/babies-and-tots-programs

Not all the ships have baby splash areas! Make sure you pick one of the newer ships that have water areas SPECIFICALLY designed for non-toilet trained children. I would recommend Oasis class as it will have something for everyone of every age.  

Keep in mind that a. table for 12 will not really allow for conversation among all of your guests. You might want to consider asking for two tables for 6 that are side by side with the same wait staff. That way you could play musical chairs each night and get to have easy conversations with all of your travel companions. 

As someone who has many food intolerances - not allergies, but I simply CANNOT eat certain foods, the very idea makes me nauseous and feel like I will be sick - the fact that these new menus are lacking the everyday classics is a huge disappointment to me. It looks like our waiter is going to be asking the kitchen to make modifications to my entree pretty much every night, and the results will be only just  bearable to me. They really should have left on the classic everyday dishes to please the plain eaters on board. How difficult is it to offer a simple chicken breast plate/spaghetti bolognese/salmon choice?

Naturalized American Citizens cannot use their foreign birth certificates for cruise travel. They need to have a passport or use their naturalization certificate for sailing.

Maybe we should bring a sign paddle like they use on Game Shows and let the staff/manager know that their post cruise score is decreasing down to zero? Use a dry erase marker to label the top Chops Grill Survey Score and keep crossing it off and lowering the score? THAT might get their attention and action!

We boarded in Port Canaveral last week and the only priority boarding was for Suites/Key/Pinnacle. We are Diamond Plus and there was no special seating or early boarding for anyone else. Everyone sat in their assigned CHECK IN time slots and were called in that order. 

18 hours ago, Ret MP said:

  I don't think the non-working/business folks should be subsidizing their business expenses.  The problem is, how do you separate the working/business folks from those that just use a lot of Internet/bandwidth for entertainment or regular personal household business. 

So you want RCI to charge for internet based on what people plan to DO with this internet? You think my family should pay more because my husband gets up at 5AM and works for three or four hours each day? Well I think that people who are streaming NetFlix should be charged more. Neither of those scenarios make sense! You buy a product and how you chose to use it is up to you as long as you are following the rules. 

I am a fairly plain eater. I can't eat cheese, eggs, butter, cream sauces, seafood - except for shrimp, salmon and tuna,  olives, mushrooms. These are not 'preferences' they are food aversions. That means that I simply cannot eat them - the very thought of eating cheese or eggs makes me sick to my stomach. I sincerely hope that with whatever new menu they decide on they will take the 'plain eaters' into account. I also hope that the 'theme nights' will not make the menu out of reach for me. 

So if you don't like Italian food and it is Italian night there will be nothing on the menu that you will like? Sounds like a bad idea to me. I have a number of food avoidances - foods that I 100% can never ever eat. Those classic dish entrees have been my dinner many nights. 

13 minutes ago, Plum Happy said:

As I stated, who knew so many had maid service.  Some of you all act as if you can't live without the room being cleaned.  Stop being messy, then you won't have to worry about how many times they clean up your mess.

This conversation has absolutely NOTHING to do with people feeling 'they can't live' without their room being cleaned twice a day. It has everything to do with a major corporation selling us a product and then changing the terms of the product AFTER they have our money! Would anyone purchase a new car with four doors and then be OK if at delivery the car dealer said, that in the interest of making the car manufacturer more money they only have a two door car for you? Of course not. When you buy something - whether a vacation or a car - you expect to receive the item you bought - not a substitute of lesser value. YOU are the only one who gets to decide if that alternate item has the same or equal value. For some people one cleaning per day is fine and they don't mind - their choice. For others it will have a negative impact on their enjoyment of the cruise and is unacceptable. 

P.S. We leave our room neat as a pin but still want twice a day service!

I don't go on a cruise to have the same level of service or comfort that I have at home. I go to enjoy myself and to be pampered. I love being able to have a long hot shower without worrying about running out of hot water before my husband has his shower. I love having fresh towels to use after every shower. I love having my bed made and my room cleaned and the trash taken out - all done by someone else. I love coming back to our room at the end of the night to see the cabin prepared for sleeping, and the bathroom clean and tidy with fresh towels for the morning. This is what I am paying for! Those things are all part of the cabin stewart's job. There is no shame in expecting the service that was offered when the cruise was bought. That doesn't mean that we are not polite and respectful to all of the crew on board - we are. I'm just not willing to 'make do' with less and still be charged the same amount. 

I too enjoy the twice a day cabin service. The main thing is the bathroom towels being replaced. We like to shower in the morning and again in the evening before dinner. While we DO hang our towels up at home and reuse them, quite frankly I don't want to do that on vacation. I want to be pampered, and part of that is having fresh towels for each shower. Will this cause me to change cruise lines? No, but it might cause me to reevaluate our tipping habits if we are receiving less service. 

On a serious note, what about the passenger that expects to be eating Sole and has an allergy to Tilapia? Very dangerous practice that could potentially end badly. 

Wow! I most certainly do not appreciate being called a liar. What I wrote in my original post was exactly what happened. Some of you seem to want to accuse me of fabricating the story - why on earth would I want to do that? 

Ok - no, the man in the suit was NOT the Head Waiter - we knew who the HW was as he had already introduced himself. This was someone else who had a list of specific people he was looking for to ask his questions. Our friends were not on his list so he ignored them. Our friends felt that they were ignored because they were 'only' Diamond level which may or may not have been the case. Could have just been a random list of people corporate wanted him to speak to. He should have been more polite and less obtrusive about how he approached our table.

I never said I was rude. In fact, being raised in Canada, I am an extremely polite and respectful person, that is why we didn't say anything prior to the last night when I had just had enough. Our friends - also from Canada - land of the polite - were ready to give up on the main dining room they were so frustrated with the interruptions.

No, I should not have to readjust my expectations of how I spend my mealtime in the dining room. If we want to use this time to talk among ourselves that is what we should be able to do. That is not being 'entitled' that is called eating in a restaurant. Pretty sure in most land based restaurants the staff come back and ask the table as a whole how their meal is. They don't go around the table one by one and specifically ask each person how their soup is, how they salad is, how their entree is and on and on for every single dish brought to the table. People know how to speak for themselves and make the staff aware of any problems.

My DH and I are very low maintenance on cruises. We ask our cabin attendant for two extra towels in our cabin. That is it. In the dining room we normally have no requests at all. We are always pleasant and polite to all the staff. Ask them how their day is going, wish a good evening as we leave. The service itself in the dining room was excellent - we were not complaining about that at all. All we asked for was to have fewer interruptions to our meal.

Just got off Serenade and Diamond Plus were NOT allowed in the Concierge Lounge that cruise.