GTMoose

We did the Navigator back in 2006 when my wife was 5 months pregnant. Other than the no drinking, we had a good time. I can't imagine that RCL would give you a hard time about refunding your drink package.

We're still angling to give out daughter cruise point credits for that trip. She's 5 points short of reaching Emerald, and getting credit would put her over the top, and that much closer to Diamond! ;p:D

We were on the 4/21-5/1 part of the cruise, and my family had a great time. It was me, my wife, our 11 year old daughter and mother in law. We loved the ship and the itinerary. Tamarind was our favorite specialty restaurant; we ended up there twice as well. As you can see, we usually sail on RCL, but we plan on doing HAL again. We are just at the age where can take these trip every so often.

We just got back from a great 10 day cruise on the Koningsdam, and I had a question about the music that played in the evening at The Crow's Nest. I don't know if it's some music service like BMG or even Pandora, but I was curious on the what the name of the station or mix that was used. I really enjoyed the music selection that they played in the background. Does anyone know the name of the station/channel/mix that is played there?

I applied for Global Entry about a month ago. Finally got the email advising me of the pre-approval and asking me to schedule an appointment. Foolishly, I thought I might be able to do this within the next week as I'm doing an overseas trip beginning this Saturday. HAH! There are two interview locations that are relatively convenient to me: LAX and the Long Beach Port. First I checked LAX: the earliest appointment available was OCTOBER 31! So then I tried Long Beach -- and they have NO appointments available at any time!

 

Oh well-- maybe it will be ready by the next trip. (And the TSA Pre-check wouldn't have worked for this trip anyway, because my carrier doesn't participate.)

Go ahead and book the appointment time, then keep going back to check on times to see if any opened up. Like I said in my post, my original date was in mid-September, but I was able to get an appointment for three days later the next day. I'd check it every 15-20 minutes until you get an opening. Good Luck!

I'll add to the "check back after you book your initial appointment" parade. I'm in Atlanta, and the earliest they had initially was mid-September. I booked it. The next day, a slot opened up for the Saturday 6/18 (which I couldn't make). An hour later, a slot opened for Thursday 6/23, and I grabbed it! You need to keep trying. :)

Weird thing about Atlanta. They have two locations in Georgia, one at Hartsfield Airport, and the other is at a US Customs office, which is about a mile away from the airport. :confused:

I am REALLY looking forward to the day that we can take a two week B2B cruise. Thanks to work, family, etc responsibilities, it will be a while before we can do this, unless my work will allow me to work remotely.

That being said, we'll probably end up on one of those 60 or 90 day cruises when we first retire. :D

As I understand it, the ship will show one 1 PM game, one 4:15 PM, and all Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night NFL games. You may not get the game you want on Sunday, but you'll at least get to see an NFL game.

On the other hand, they will only show ONE college game on Saturday, and it's usually a prime time game. You might get lucky and get the ESPN Thursday night game. If you want to see a college game during the day on Saturday, you'll be out of luck. You're stuck watching the ESPN crawler for updates while getting treated to some European soccer game. :(

I am a moderator on a message board for fans of a major Division 1 school (take a wild guess ;) ), and I do know that they will periodically take a look to get a pulse of what some fans are saying. They won't look at every single thread, but if there is something of concern, they do know about it.

About 95% of the threads on here are redundant, so RCCL doesn't have to look at every single one. But in this age, companies do need to know what is going through the minds of their customers, especially the loyal ones. And I'm sure there are several people that monitor these boards on occasion.

I agree. I've never been on a bad cruise. Even the one Carnival trip I took, I managed to have a great time and enjoy myself. Most of the people who leave bad reviews are members of a group known as "The Society of the Miserable", and they are generally not happy unless they are miserable. There are some of these on every ship, you just simply need to avoid them. Some others have unrealistic expectations; they still think it's 1960 and that every cruise ship is a luxury liner. The people who truly have bad experiences on a trip will take it though the proper channels with the company, and not put anonymous posts on a message board.

Go book that trip, and have a great time! You won't regret it! It'll be a while until our next cruise, and I miss it already.

I'm up to 128 points. At this stage in life, D+ is a realistic to reach, but Pinnacle will be a stretch, especially with me wanting to hit more exotic locations later in life. At least I should be able to try Celebrity or Azamara and get the equivalent privileges with them.

Doing a cruise for a Super Bowl has just been added to my bucket list! Unfortunately, that may have to happen when I retire many, many years from now. :( Workwise, it is probably the worst time of the year for me to take a vacation.

Oh, I agree that the longer cruises are not the current target market for RCL. If they were to start offering them on a regular basis, I could not go on them for a very long time. However, with the new ships that they are constantly adding to the fleet, I wonder if they may hold onto the smaller ships and start offering longer cruises several years down the road? When the current target market gets older and the kids start moving out, it would at least present an option that we might enjoy. I guess they could also move these ships over to Celebrity or to Azamara, and start offering targeting the longer cruise crowd there.

I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. Like I said, this is not going to be an option for me for many, many years. ;)

I think it would be a great consideration. Princess has probably some of the best itineraries, however they have priced us out of sailing with them, so have stayed with Royal but feel a change is needed with their itineraries. We have yet to do any Med cruises and would love to see more of the world yet cost is a big factor for us.

If you get a nice bonus, or you otherwise get a chance to do a Med cruise, you should do it. It is a great opportunity to hit the highlights, and see a lot of places while not worrying about transportation or food. It isn't a "relaxing" vacation, but it was rewarding. We were very fortunate to go on two Med cruises B.C. (Before Child) :D, and we are glad we did. She's eight now, so we want to give it a few more years before we go back so that she will be old enough to appreciate it. Taking her now would be a waste, which is why we're stuck with the Caribbean for a few more years. ;)

Currently, Royal Caribbean seems to be building big ships with a lot of bells and whistles, and seeing how far they can go with the type of entertainment they can provide on a ship. I don't have a problem with this at all, as this can be a lot of fun (and profitable), especially with families. In the longer term (5-10 years), would Royal Caribbean consider moving some of the older Vision Class ships to do longer trip, more "worldly" destinations? Maybe transfer them to the Azamara line? As more people my age get older, they will want to continue cruising, but not just hit the same Caribbean islands that they saw a half dozen times with the kids. However, they still want to have the Royal Caribbean experience, and not have to resort to sailing on Holland America to do these type cruises.

I'm just throwing this out there. What do you guys think?

We sailed on the Serenade out of New Orleans last February, and there were not a lot of kids. Just enough to where our daughter wasn't lonely in the kids club, but the kids that were there did get to know the kids club people a lot better. It was definitely an older ship. It's what I envisioned what a Holland America cruise was like! :D ;)

We were on Allure last week and they served escargot one evening. However, the menu noted there is a worldwide escargot shortage and that supplies were limited.

I heard that the worldwide recovery has moved at a snail's pace.

I sailed on the Allure a couple of weeks ago, and they did it 2-3 times a day, plus a "Name That Tune" in the evening. They also did Progressive Trivia during the four sea days. It was a lot of fun. :)

I had the pizza on the Allure a couple of weeks ago a few times. It was okay, not as good as a Brooklyn pizzeria, but not awful either. It's good for a snack as you're going through the Promenade, but I wouldn't eat it for dinner.

So..... would "any other football game" really have been ok? Sounds like it was really that one particular game you wanted them to show. ;)

Somehow I'm guessing you really would not have been ok if they were showing, say, the Wyoming/FAU game. :D

After being stuck with cricket, I would have been thrilled with Wyoming/FAU. Heck, I'd be happy with Northeast Southwestern State taking on Sisters of the Poor. :D

Cruises that originate in the US have large numbers of American passengers, and those cruises generally cater to American tastes, not in all things, but in many areas, such as food, beverage, and entertainment. Therefore, it is certainly valid to raise the question as to why the cruise industry makes so little effort to show college football, which many Americans are passionate about.

 

To start with, I should acknowledge that RCI ships do show a reasonable number of NFL games, but I think they had no choice. I know many people who would simply not cruise if it meant missing a certain NFL game. The NFL is just too big to be denied. It is an exception.

 

In general, however, cruise ships do a lousy job showing televised sports. Some of the Radiance class ships I have been on, such as the Jewel of the Seas, had a sports bar. But anyone who went into that bar would soon discover that it rarely showed any sports, and when it did, there would be only one channel available, usually the international version of ESPN. To me, a sports bar is a place with lots of screens and dozens of channels. Whether for technical reasons or because RCI just doesn’t get it, what they call a sports bar does not even come close to what a sports bar should be.

 

On the topic of ESPN, there is probably no hotel room in the United States that does not have access to the two channels ESPN and ESPN2 (and I mean the full US version of ESPN). This is a testament to how important those channels are in the US. On a college football Saturday, those two channels are filled with games all day long, usually some of the best games in the country. Alas, RCI ships carry mainly the international edition of ESPN, which is terribly lacking in college football. You may find one game on a Saturday.

 

One thing I have noticed is that most people like to combine multiple types of pleasurable activities with cruising, and people find different things pleasurable. While most of us like combining fine dining with cruising, some people like to combine shopping with cruising, or gambling, or rock-climbing, or using the FlowRider. My point is that people have different tastes. For me, I would love to be able to watch a lot more college football while I’m on a cruise. That would be fantastic. I am not optimistic about this happening any time soon, and I understand the opinions of others who prefer different types of entertainment. My point is that you should not attack a person just because they would like to see something new added to the cruising experience.

 

Also, I would not suggest showing college football on cruises that originate outside the US, although I would bet that many nations have their own sports that they would like to see more of while cruising. When I am sailing out of Florida, just give me ESPN (US edition), ESPN2, the Big Ten Network, and the SEC Network, on a set of screens within hailing distance of good bar tender. Now that would be nice.

 

Finally, for those who suggest that sports fans simply record the game and watch it later, they don’t have a clue. When it comes to televised sports, it really has to be live. Watching a game is not like watching a TV show or movie. The live aspect is an essential part of the attraction.

 

Anyway, I have done my best to explain the point of view of a college football fan. Thanks for reading.

Very well said. You hit on a lot of points that I was going to use in my response. I certainly would not begrudge others for wanting to see big events that I don't care about. I've never sailed on Oscar night, but I can see a bunch of people gathering somewhere (maybe even in formal wear :cool: ) to see the Oscars. I have no interest in awards shows, but I imagine it could be really festive!

As for sailing on a cruise during football season, my in-laws treated the whole family to this cruise (with my family staying in a Junior Suite), so I got over missing the game in person pretty quickly :) . I normally attend all Tech games (home and away), but I think I'll survive missing this past game. :D It just would have been nice to see live on TV somewhere.

If the majority of the cruisers were from the Caribbean (or India, another place that loves cricket), I would not have brought this up. I would have cheerfully watched cricket and soccer. However, most of the people on the ships are from the USA, and it would be smart to carry shows that cater to them.

But, that's just my opinion. :cool:

I just got off of the Allure of the Seas, and we had a great time celebrating my in-laws' 30th anniversary. The food was great, we enjoyed the entertainment, and the entire crew was awesome. I would have loved to have stayed another week.

My only bone to pick is the lack of college football games on Saturday. They had NFL games going all day on Sunday, but they only carried one game, the Clemson-F$U game, at 8:00 that night. The rest of the day we were treated to cricket on one channel, and soccer on the other. :( I get it if the cruise is in Europe or someplace overseas, but for Caribbean cruises, there is no reason to not carry at least ONE game for each time slot throughout the day! I would have loved to have seen the Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech matchup, but I would have been okay with something besides cricket and soccer. I could have lived with any other football game. It's not like there were massive crowds gathering at On Air to watch cricket and soccer. There were a lot of other college football fans that day that were not happy about the situation.

When we sailed on the Serenade in February, we brought our 7 year old daughter to the DL before the Adventure Ocean was open for the evening. Our server would make her a Shirley Temple, and our daughter enjoyed some of the snacks. We kept her on a tight leash, and she was pretty good. We have to be vigilant in a venue like that because not everyone will agree that she is the perfect child. :D

Life is too short to waste your time worrying about people like this. Concentrate on the people that do care about you, and your life will be a lot easier and more pleasant. You really don't want people like that in your life.

Still waiting for some sad sack to comment that you are a bad person/cruiser for not ordering a drink. :eek:

As for me, I always get a soda. Got to make those soda stickers worth it! Most times when I go to play trivia, they have my Diet Coke ready for me by the third day. :D