mentor1000

Just off b2b on Independence. Extremely friendly dining room waiter who went out of his way to serve us for both cruises. He explained that it is, in fact, a new rule on RCCL. I like to have streak and shrimp on the tiger shrimp night and I still had to choose which one to get first and which one to follow. (Then, he’d bring another whole plate of shrimp after those 2 entrees were gone 😂).

So yes, you can order unlimited apps, entrees, and desserts. All usually served with great attitude by very hard working people. I, frankly, do not see a need to complain just because I’m not served 2 dinners at the same time. There is usually not enough room on the table for that anyway, lol.

Just my 2c worth.

3 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Keep in mind that Cozumel is an island, not part of mainland Mexico like Cancun.  As a female who travels solo (and who was in Cozumel ten times in the last year on cruises), I have NEVER felt unsafe on the island.  The taxis are all regulated, and the various beach clubs are private (no random vendors coming up to sell you stuff).  

The snorkeling in Roatan is AMAZING.  I like to go to West Bay Beach, where you can snorkel right off the beach.  (It's nothing for me to spend 4-5 hours snorkeling in one day there.) 

Here's a video that @Sea Dog put together for me when I used @Ozark_Kid's GoPro at West Bay Beach in January of this year:
 

I can highly recommend Let's Go Roatan Tours -- I've used them probably a dozen times now.  They have access to a variety of vehicles and drivers, so if you don't want to do something with the whole big group in a bus together, you can instead break off into smaller groups and each group has their own vehicle and driver -- some can do monkeys and sloths with an island tour, others can zipline and go to the beach to snorkel, others can just do an island tour, others can do monkeys/sloths and zipline with no beach time... completely customizable, and amazingly affordable considering you have a private driver for the whole day!  Just email / WhatsApp with Josue Elias and he can work out whatever different groups you are interested in.

Thank you for recommendation.  That does look amazing! I'll check that tour place out.

4 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

- I love CocoCay, but I lean towards ONE beach day in a one-week cruise (I like variety), and my husband really wouldn't go for two CocoCay stops in one week.  But the real question is, How do your people feel about this? 

- If you go with Independence, I assume your other stop would be Nassau.  If I never go to Nassau again, it'll be too soon.  I'd choose the Honduras and Mexican stops before Nassau.  

Thank you for such a detailed reply. You brought up so many great points!

Yes, we'd love 2 days at CocoCay as my group is all about beach days. But I'm with you about Nassau.  The last 4-5 times we docked there, I didn't even get off the ship.

4 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

When we drove into the parking deck for our 3-night on Independence, we were surprised that the machine demands payment up front (not as you leave the deck days later) ...

 Funny regarding the parking.  Our last cruise on Indy, we were frantically looking for the parking ticket in the car as we were trying to leave. We thought we lost it and then driving out, we saw that the gate was open and no parking attendant to even ask for help. So we thought it was broken and they just let people out for free. Only when we came home and looked at credit card receipt did we remember that we prepay for a certain number of nights. 😆

4 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

We did our first 3-night in December, and this is true.  Maybe take away the adjective "totally", but -- in general -- it was a younger, harder-drinking, wilder crowd. 

Yea, that's a huge negative. DH & I are Royal all the way but fell for a 3-day NCL cruise with drinks included once. That was the worst experience ever!! I felt like I was at an ever-ending frat party for 3 days. Drunk college kids EVERYWHERE.  It was horrible.  I know this wouldn't be the same since Royal's drinks are too expensive to get drunk on for college kids on, lol. But the idea of a more "party" crowd is still a big turn off.

4 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

 

On the way home we discussed the differences and agreed that we'd do another 3-night ... but we wouldn't pay more than $150 for a cruise that short ...

 

 

Yea.... These are summertime cruises so we're looking at a $1000/pp in a balcony for 7 days - on either cruise ship. With all those points in mind, it would be too much to pay to put up with all that.

19 hours ago, brillohead said:

It sounds like you're not interested in Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel as port stops.  

Have you looked around to see what other things might be there that WOULD interest at least some of the people in your group?  And not everyone has to do the same excursions, so you could mix it up quite a bit.

Roatan has ATV riding, horseback riding, AMAZING snorkeling (from beach or boat), lots of zipline and monkey/sloth options, and all-inclusive excursions (all of which can be booked separately from the ship).  

Costa Maya has golf cart rentals, Maya Chan resort, ruins, etc. (which can be booked separately).

Cozumel has so many options -- the amazing race, a large variety of beach/pool resorts, booze tours, cooking tours, snorkeling, shopping for drugs (at the drugstore, people!!!!), etc.

 

 

We went to Cozumel several times and really liked it. Right now, with all the news about Mexico, our friends are just scared of going anywhere near Mexico. I'm not saying they're right, I'm just trying to figure out how to please the group.

We've always done excursions on our own but maybe I could look into ship excursions. They are more money but my group may feel safer going that route. Snorkeling and ziplines are our 2 favorite activities so I need to look into Roatan more as I have not been there before. Thank you for the suggestion!

This is very helpful!! The turnaround day was one of my latest added cons as I just thought of it yesterday. Now, I think it would be the most bothersome thing for our group (that consists of half adults and half kids of various ages). I'm imagining, after a few days, finally fully relaxing... Kids want to go to the pool...parents to a spa... nope, got to get off the ship. If it was just 1 family, it would be easier.  

All great points! The party cruise is what I was thinking too and it would be a negative for us.

I agree that with the price of drink packages, it would be beneficial to be able to buy it for just half of the cruise.

So hard to decide!

Quick facts:

• I organize a cruise for a group of our friends (30is people - families with kids)
• About 6-7 previous cruises for this group - all 7 day Caribbean on RCCL
• We like Freedom class or above ships
• A mix of cruising for the ship amenities & activities AND ports

Here are 2 options for summer 2024:

• A 7-day cruise on Oasis to Caribbean with ports none of us care about (1 Honduras and 2 in Mexico). Love the ship
• A B2B on Independence (3+4 days) that would stop at Coco-cay twice (we all love it). Like the ship

I was leaning towards a B2B because of Coco Cay but then started thinking of the cons. Can any seasoned B2B pros share some opinions on these CONS:

1. Turnaround day - do you feel like you lose a day of vacation? You have to go through customs, may have to change rooms (meaning pack and unpack again), second muster drill, 1st day crowds on the ship (until they open cabins) are painful. Can you even get in your cabin during that time?
    
2. Dining menu - would they repeat for the 3 and 4 day cruises? We always do the dining room and like the food there. But would this mean we'd repeat the same 3 menus twice?
    
3. No lobster - I don't think they do lobster on shorter cruises, right? Our group is all about lobsters
    
4. Formal nights - we're those rare people that love to dress up nicely and take photos. Shorter cruises do have "dress to impress" nights but I think the attitude is a lot more lax (shorts and flipflops) than on longer cruises.
    
5. Shows and game shows - would the headliner and guest shows repeat? Also, I guess, there would also be 2 of each main activity - love & marriage, belly flop, sexiest man, and the likes… We do like ship shows and activities.
    
6. Service - maybe it's me but I always felt that service was better on longer cruises where the staff (cabin steward, bartenders, dining room) felt like getting more involved (probably more tips in mind). On 3 & 4 days, I felt like they were just churning over batches of passengers.

PROs

1. 2 days at Coco Cay! We'd spend a week there if we could. We probably wouldn't even disembark on the longer cruise (which gets really boring).
2. Twice the Diamond benefits - internet days, wine coupons, photos… (we have a few Diamonds in the group)

The B2B is slightly more expensive (about $150/pp) due to addl. set of port fees but it's not the biggest factor.

Any advice would be greatly welcomed!!

I had a different experience with surf only. This was on Oasis 2 years ago and it was about the speed of dial up. Skype calls were impossible due to slow speed. I gave up checking email because every page would take couple minutes to load up. When I went to the internet desk, they basically told me you get what you pay for... after which I upgraded to surf and stream (at higher prices) and it worked well. Since then, I’ve always bought stream even though I only use it for the same items as you - email, Skype & whatsapp calls and light browsing. 

Maybe it got better since then but even surf and stream is very slow if you’re used to regular cable internet. You might find wanting to upgrade on board. After ending up having to pay $25/day ship prices, I now always prepay the $19/day beforehand. It’s only a few dollars more than surf but I think it’s worth it.

Hopefully, others will chime in with their experiences. I’d like to know if it got any better.

JRod, you're going to love Allure!

I've been on Oasis class 5 times,  I usually cruise with a group of around 20 people and I'm in charge of planning... 

Here are some suggestions... 

1. Do a search for "Allure cruise compass + your itinerary" (for example "Allure cruise compass 7 day western Caribbean").  Find the latest cruise compass by date and either save it or print it out.

2. On Allure (and other Oasis class), you will want to book your shows very soon.  The cruise compasses uploaded by other very helpful cruise lovers will have a weekly schedule of the shows PLUS the shows that will not be listed in your reservations options (such as Love and Marriage, The Quest, 70s disco night and etc).  Armed with the weekly show schedule, you can figure out what you do when.  Usually, if you want to do most of the shows, you can schedule them by the process of self-elimination.  Start with headliner shows (which are usually very good) and then go through the rest in order that you are interested in them.

3. Once you know the shows, decide if you want to reserve dinner times or just wing it.  We usually do My Time Dining but then reserve dinner times based on the shows we reserved and times in port.  Again, this is based on a group of people that loves to eat at the main dining room every night.  If you want to go low key, go to Windjammer and there is plenty of good food to eat.  If you want something nicer, you can reserve (and pay extra) for specialty dining.  No right or wrong answer... Just personal preferences.

4. Internet packages - if you want internet, get it beforehand.  I've done both and it's always cheaper to get it before.

5. Drink packages - do a CruiseCritic search for "drink package" on RCCL board and you can read for the next week about them.  The gist - at about 4-5 drinks per day, you break even.  If you drink that amount, a drink package makes sense.  If not, buy individually.  If you buy it ahead, you'll save money off on-board pricing.

6. Dining package - it depends on your personal preferences.  Food is subjective and it's another search you can do and spend a week reading.  If you prefer 4-5 star restaurants, a dining package may be for you.  3 star - main dining room is about right.  Buffet, fast food and lower grade restaurants = Windjammer buffet.  I love cooking and we usually eat at the main dining room and find something that we really enjoy.

7. Shore excursions - Out of 15 cruises so far, the only ones I booked through the cruise were on my first cruse... when I didn't know any better.  You can do a Google search and find the same excursions for a lot less directly.  Best way to find them?  Go to each specific port of call forum here on Cruise Critic and do a search for what interests you.  For example, go to "St. Thomas" forum and search for "snorkeling" (one of our most favorite places to snorkel :-)).  You will have a ton of suggestions from fellow cruisers on different places to check out.

8. RCCL's sales... What can I say?  They package the same animal with different names every week.  One week, it's buy one get one 50% off, next week, it's 25% off for everybody.  You do the math... It's usually very close.  As Ourusualbeach meantioned, if you buy something and it goes lower, you can cancel it and rebook.  Many times, it's within a few dollars so it's not even worth the hassle.

Enjoy your cruise!!!

Kat

On 1/2/2019 at 8:21 AM, stevendom57 said:

DW and I did the escape room on Mariner in November. It was a lot of fun and we felt it was worth the $20 pp. Mariner has just one room, all the clues are there (apparently it is where the chapel used to be). There were 10 people trying to solve the escape and we knew none of the other people beforehand.

 

We solved the 50 minute escape with 29 seconds to spare. 🙂

 

Thank you for the info!  Did you sign up before sailing or did they have availability to sign up on the ship?

We are going on Mariner in a few days and would like to do an escape room.  I'm trying to decide if it's better to do the ship's escape room or the land one?

Mariner OTS - $19.99, seems to have good reviews here on CC

Blackbeard's Escape in Nassau - $32/pp - has good reviews on Trip advisor

I hear that most ship escape rooms do get booked up so that would make sure that our party of 2 would have companions.  Not sure if we would end up just the 2 of us in Nassau one (which would probably be too hard to solve).

I know that most land-based rooms have couple secret hidden rooms to unlock.  I'm not sure if Mariner is just one room or has those secret rooms too.

Has anyone been to both and can compare?

Thanks!

What about the forward facing oceanview cabins?  I have a choice of 10106, 10104 & 10102.  I would like to get the bed by the window.  I saw a video on Youtube of 10108 and the bed was by the bathroom.  At the same time, I saw videos of 10100 & 8510 on Harmony and both of them were by the window.  If they are set up every other cabin, then could it be that Symphony and Harmony have opposite setups?  Thank you.

Thank you for all the suggestions! I love this forum! :D

Great! Thank you for the info. I don't mind paying a little extra to run into the store. It beats having to deal with renting a car.

I have read all the posts that search found on this subject but didn't find an answer.

We are going on a quick 4 day Bahamas cruise and unfortunately, we have to fly in the same morning of the cruise because DH works the night before. We arrive at 8 AM to FLL and then need to get to port of Miami. I am trying to figure out how we can get some wine to take on board on the way.

I understand that shuttles will not stop anywhere. We've rented cars at FLL to POM before but it sounds like an overkill. I see many people suggesting Uber and Lyft. Are they open to stopping at a grocery store on the way? I've never used either so I have no idea how they work.

I would appreciate any advice. Thanks :D

I have been looking at this cruise and cannot figure out what is going on. On the third day, Royal Caribbean's website lists it as Grand Bahama's, but when you click to explore the itinerary it says Coco Cay. On some online travel agencies, it is listed as Coco Cay, on others it is listed as Freeport, Bahamas, and on others it's Grand Bahamas. One cruise timetable website, it says Freeport.

I called Royal Caribbean, and the rep only said the same thing I was seeing: Grand Bahamas is what is listed but then it says Coco Kay. The best he could say is that it is probably a glitch.

How would you know who to believe and where the actual port is?

We are on the 6/2 sailing and would really love to know if they are doing the 70s disco night or the rock britannica one. Can somebody please let me know?

We have a group who all love the 70s night. Yep, we are the crazy bunch that loves to dress up and all :D so we were disappointed that last year it seems they did not do it.

Anybody just off the 7 day Alaska cruise on Explorer? Would love to hear from you :)

I'd like to know the rules for "moving" your on-board reservation to another cruise. In post #3 above, it says that it's not possible. However, couple people in this thread said they were able to do it.

Is it one of those things that depends on the agent that answers the phone at RCCL when you call and their mood?:confused:

We were on Independence 3 weeks ago and our friend got a drink package. He was told by the bartender that the limit is 4 per hour (which would correlate to 15 min waiting). Ultimately, it's still up to the bartender to enforce the rule. If you try to get 10 drinks an hour, they know you're sharing. He did get 2 drinks at the same time couple times when we were heading to a show and they served it to him.

Thank you for all the answers. It sounds like my boys will enjoy it and I'll try to get used to it. Can't wait!

We'll be in Cozumel in 2 weeks. The weather is showing high 79 low 69 degrees.

I'm a "hot weather" pool person. At home, I like it to be 85-90 to go in the pool. My DH and kids are tougher :)

If you just returned from Cozumel, what does the water feel like right now?

We usually go to Chunkunub to snorkel but I don't want to spend the taxi fare and the admission if we won't get in the water.

Thanks

 

The NextCruise booking is more attractive in that you can book a specific cruise while on a cruise, with the deposit and OBC being the same depending on length of cruise...

 

•5-7 night cruises

◦Interior/Oceanview: $50

◦Balcony/Junior Suite: $100

◦Grand Suite and above: $200

 

I read this before but wanted to double check about the deposit and OBC being the same...

The deposit is per person but OBC is per cabin, right?

So if we book 2 people into an OV cabin for 7 days, we'll have to pay $100 deposit and get $50 OBC.

Just checking if I understand it correctly.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here are the menus in the dining room. Think about it... When have you ever seen waiters disinfecting the menus? In fact, unless somebody spills something on a menu, they never get cleaned. And people in MDR don't wash their hands any more than in WJ.

So if you wash your hands thoroughly, use the hand sanitizer station when walking into MDR, sit down, get the menu and order your food... What's on your hands? The gems from dozens or more people before you. The next ting you do is grab that bread roll...

One thing we started doing a few years back on land restaurants is first ordering our food and then going to wash hands. On a cruise ship, it's not as convenient. So we order our food and then use either hand wipes or hand sanitizer (whatever I bring in my purse for the family to use) before touching those bread rolls.

Our biggest rule is no touching eyes, nose or mouth without washing hands. I don't wipe down everything because I can't wipe down the whole ship. So even if our cabin is desinfected, I'll still get germs on my hands somewhere. As long as those germs don't make it to one of those wet openings, they can't affect the body.

Of course, airborne viruses is another story and a strong immune system is the best defense for them. I do use essential oils at home when anybody is sick and there are plenty of studies showing their antiviral and antibacterial properties.

Our go to essential oil is lavender. Any time somebody in our family is sick, I diffuse lavender in their room and around the house. We also apply it topically each day. Since we started doing this about 5 years ago, the number of times a second family member would get sick from the first went down drastically.

Last year, DH got the flu twice and none of us got it even though we were in very tight contact.

So for about a week before the cruise and every day of, we make it a point to apply lavender oil.

Ultimately, it goes back to living a healthy lifestyle your whole life that creates a healthy immune system (unless there are medical conditions that prevent it). Common sense goes a long way on land or at sea.

The only thing is... Why do they call it "common sense" when it's so uncommon? :D

I just booked a cruise last night at 11pm to take advantage of the OBC. It was $100 for an interior cabin for 2 people. This morning, with the new "further" sale it's only $50 OBC for the same cabin. So they do change it around some. I hate that I didn't book the other cruise we were thinking of taking later this year.

So it pays to watch the prices and offers.