cruisinforabruising

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Somehow I can’t see them being any different than Quantum, Anthem, Ovation and Spectrum.

 

Also, I believe that having balcony dividers able to open is now a SOLAS requirement for firefighting requirements. 

That's what I thought but you know the internet

So may dad said it and he may have read the same comment I did but are the balcony dividers going to have clear glass and not able to open on the Odyssey?  Seems like an odd and awful choice to me.

Can confirm this is 100% false.  All the games are around 2.00 per play

My dad was trying last night to book an excursion and it was not working.  Not sure what error message he was getting or if it's related but I know he had to call royal to book it.  

My dad always goes through this when he wants to take my kids with us to a specialty restaurant.  You have to pay for the kids ahead of time. 

FYI 

IF THE KIDS ARE NOT IN YOUR ROOM WATCH TO SEE WHERE THE REFUND GOES.  My dad has done this twice and the refund always ends up on my kid's rooms.  It's easily fixed by a trip to GS but ask somebody at the restaurant first when you go.   

Jamies usually is.  We ate there for lunch in April.

Ignore the check in time that you select online.  They don't enforce it and it's more of a suggestion.  

I can only speak to the refund portion of your question.  My father had to pay for my children before hand to get them a reservation spot (a chair at the table) prior to being on the ship.  This was to make sure we had the right table size.  Just waiting until you get on is not the best way to handle the situation.  However, our waiter was able to refund the amount for the kids without us going to guest services.

One last caveat though.  My father was in a different room than my boys and when it was refunded it went to the kids sea pass accounts not his.  

4 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

Sheesh, that sucks, and I'm sure they didn't take into account when they were purchased when delivering them.

Nope they did not.  1 of my other bottles that was not oversold was "lost" and they did not get me a replacement until well after my bags had already been taken.  I won't purchase from the shops anymore.  Especially since they are just vendors that RC uses and are not RC employees.  

6 minutes ago, jaygee77 said:

Morning of, or night before? 

They deliver your alcohol the last night.  Unless of course you are on the Anthem and they don't actually take your bottle out of circulation and just resell it to the next person who comes in the shop.  I learned this past week that if their system shows a certain amount of inventory they don't actually pull the bottle you purchased.  They just put it back on the shelf.  Unfortunately they oversold a few bottles on the Anthem last week and screwed myself and at least 50 other people out of bottles.  

Thanks for the help everyone.  

I have been on tons of cruises with RC out of Florida but on Saturday my family and I will be leaving out of NJ on the Anthem.  Not sure what exactly to pack clothing wise.  

At what point in the cruise will I hit the warmer weather to bring out the shorts etc and at what point during the return is it going to be too cold to wear them?  It's going to be 70 on embarkation day and 59 on debarkation day.  

It seems like a lot of the ships activities for the family can be done indoors.  Do people just usually walk around in shorts and t shirts like a normal Caribbean cruise (beginning and end) or are we talking pants etc.?

Thanks in advance  

2 hours ago, Psycho and Barb said:

Something not right.  Our friends got switched over to the Allure on the 18th of December.  They had a Boardwalk balcony on Oasis and got the same on the Allure

It depends on what you need. If you are a family of four as we were with two young children they have not had any quads available since they canceled the oasis sailing. Kind of a crappy thing to do since spring break is a big time for families to cruise. 

Thank you.  This helps

On 12/14/2018 at 10:52 AM, Biker19 said:

I suspect this (cancellations) are such a routine thing, that there's no need for CC to weigh in - plenty of user threads discuss the issue. What could CC say that is not already reported in the user threads?

Reaching out for a comment from RC as to what the reason and timing of the dry dock would be nice.  Not everyone follows the RC threads so putting it with the news threads would expose it to more readers.  I have seen plenty of stories of cruise cancelations in the "news" section before.  The timing of the dry docking right at spring break makes it news worthy along with the fact that they offered a nearly sold out ship as the only equivalent option.

My family and I usually cruise solely on Oasis class ships so we know very little about the Anthem.  We usually cruise in suites partly because the noise in the MDR really gets to me and the amount of people cramming in at once isn't something we enjoy.  I have been trying to read reviews about the Anthem but they are all over the place with how the dining rooms are on the Anthem. Can somebody please explain or answer the following.

1.  Since the ship started out with Dynamic dining are the MDR's smaller and quieter than traditional ships?

2.  Is the menu now the same at each dining room?

3.  It seems like the amount of specialty restaurants is less than Oasis class so is an Ultimate Dining package worth it at 200pp

4.  What restaurants can we eat at that include a $ amount in place of it being included and how much?

5.  Is Izumi only sushi on the Anthem?

Thanks in advance,

Scott 

I always love the people who come on the boards and just blindly defend their favorite cruise lines.  People don't always expect their "rants" to change the policy of a large corporation.  These posts educate people on bad cruise line practices.  Sometimes believe it or not people just post in a "Cruise Forum" just to discuss with others that can relate and show some empathy (Something RC has none of).  I was impacted by this sailing and RC made a difficult issue even more stressful by the way they handled it.

If you can defend the way RC handled this "business" decision then I am pretty sure that RC can do no wrong in your eyes.  That's your prerogative but don't be rude to others on the board.  Plain and simple RC did not do right by its customers in this situation.  

I am one of those guests impacted by the cancellation.  The way RC handled this was horrendous. My kids are on spring break so choosing another week was not an option.  Offering the Allure was such a slap in the face.  We were on the Allure at the time of the cancelation and the staff on the ship was appalled by how it was being handled and even listened over the phone to the customer service reps.  We could not book on the Allure because it had no quads left for my brother and his family and no connecting rooms for myself and my kids.  The Rhapsody was never an option really because it lacked the connecting rooms for us.  I also find it amazing that CC has not done any story about this yet since there is such curiosity as to what "Emergency Maintenance" needs to be completed on the ship.  

In the end we booked on the Anthem which I really am not happy about since we lose 2-3 days of warm weather.  Also while they are giving 200 of OBC I lost 100 for each room of OBC by booking the Anthem because they are no longer running that promo.  So in reality my compensation was 100 of OBC.  After the dust settles from this cruise I will consider other lines since Royal has no interest in my business.  Loyalty means nothing to them so from now on I will just cruise based on my bottom dollar like they treat their customers.  We did not take the full refund option because this is for my Father's 60th birthday and he still wanted to cruise and was hesitant at the time to try another line.    

CC staff it's an embarrassment to your members/readers that you have not put any effort into reporting on this.    

1 minute ago, anoth said:

I have to imagine the decision was made earlier, but the communication was sent at a time when fewer people would be checking emails, and TAs might not be working to quickly react to the change. By the time many knew of the cancellation, the few quads left on Allure were gone. 

See my reply above. I am currently on the Allure and the Staff are all puzzled and disgusted with how this is being handled. 

26 minutes ago, mugtech said:

And the shady thing about 6PM  Friday emails is?

Take this for what you will everyone. I am curious to know the date that everyone booked this cruise. I booked my oasis cruise in May. My father and I spoke to the customer resolution department and when it was mentioned how they were doing this to thousands of customers on spring break he stated “they actually knew about this a few months ago and stopped taking bookings for this sailing”. If this is true than there is your shady business practices. 

FYI everyone if you are able to the Anthem of the seas is sailing out of NJ and I was able to get 2 connecting balconies for 500 less than the oasis and 100 dollars of obc for each room. The quad rooms are still more than the Oasis though. 

6 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

So we were able to switch our 3/31/18 Oasis booking to the 3/17/18 Oasis booking, which allowed us to add our three grands in an interior. The switch from a CP balcony to OV cost $360 (we had a free balcony from Club Royale), but the triple interior was $2810.  Cost us some $$ but happy we can now sail on their spring break. 

 

Before I get too excited, does anyone know what is wrong with Oasis? 

I know the Oasis was scheduled to be dry docked in 2019 so that they could upgrade/change the amenities. That’s my guess as to what’s going on. 

My my kids are on spring break the 31st which is why we booked that time frame. I just took my son out of school for a week this week (on the allure now) so I can’t take him out another week. This oasis cruise was supposed to be when I hit my diamond level. After their handeling of this I will probably give a few of the other lines a chance. 

It’s such a huge maintenance issue that they need to wait 3 months to fix it. Let’s call it what it is. The oasis was scheduled to dry dock in 2019 for upgrades. They probably had an open spot for dry docking and that’s what they chose. Either way their alternative sail dates are absolutely awful. We had a booking for this oasis sail date.  We had 2 connecting balcony rooms. How do you offer a alternative that’s basically sold out.  I’m currently sitting on the Allure and even the staff here is baffled on how they are handeling the situation.  They don’t even have a Quads for families on the 3/31 allure sailing.  

Honestly, go talk to the Concierge or email them if you don't want to put them on the spot. It's not an unusual request and as much as people want to huff and puff about paying for the extra it won't make one difference to them on the ship. I won't mention what ship it was so as to not put the concierges on the hot seat with you all but we went with neighbors who were in a JS and the concierge went as far as getting them a blank key card so that they could come into the suite llounge and the suite sun deck without us. We payed for a cabana at Barefoot Beach but we were told if we didn't want it he/she would get us extra wrist bands. Don't expect anything and whatever you get is just a bonus. We also rarely used the suite sun deck because it was so windy.

My boys will be 3 and 6 on our next cruise on the Allure. We asked them when we were on the ship without them in May about this since it will be the first time the 3 y/o is not in the nursery room. They will allow the 6 yo to stay in the 3-5 room since he is only a year past the cutoff. We may give it a go on their own first but the option is there if needed. This was confirmed by staff in both age rooms

All three concierges that work on the Allure are amazing. Dexter and Dudley were on our last cruise and Nancy was on my fathers cruise. Dudley and Nancy went above and beyond the call of duty for my father and I. Dexter is fantastic and funny as hell.