OSUZorba

I think RCL would love to go to an all paid restaurant concept, but that it'll never happen. They will walk a fine line to encourage as many people as possible to go to the up charge restaurants, while at the same time trying to keep as many people as possible from swearing off RCL.

But the whole concept of cruising will fall apart if all food becomes an upcharge, and it would be very hard to get new cruisers. It is completely different than airlines, because generally people have to fly, especially for corporate traveling where the majority of the revenue comes from. No body has to go on a cruise, if they make the experience too unpleasant or expensive people will go elsewhere.

So I agree with the person that said they will make DD just as annoying as required to fill up the specialty restaurants.

I think after a few months they will have to do something with the menus, the 3 menus available on most ships would get old quick.

If you just want a plain salad, ask. On last two cruises we got iceburg lettuce with carrot shavings every night. The Mytime headwaiter (Sebastiano) put in an order for this for the entire B2B on Navigator.

 

Also, since they added the sliders they have steak fries available all the time. These stay screaming hot much longer than standard fries.

Thanks for the tip on the fries! I generally don't care much for most of the sides, but can always eat fries ;).

Not in MDR, but one time on Oasis I asked for Peanut Butter at Johny Rockets (for pancakes), the waitress left for a long time, I figured she had forgotten about us. She finally comes back with a little bowl of PB, she'd had to go down to deck 3 galley to get it. Very impressed.

Discounts are offered to small groups of people so that cruise lines can fill up remaining rooms without devaluing their product. The best discounts are almost always for airline employees, these rates are hidden generally only posted on websites that require a login with verification of airline employment.

Why airline employees? They are a relatively small number of people, that can (and do) go anywhere in the world on a moments notice. It is also easy to restrict access to the rates, so the general population doesn't realize their cabin neighbor paid 1/3 as much.

EDIT: Like all deals, the majority of the time the really good discounts are just a few week to a couple months out, usually after the cancel window. There are some cruises that post good ones 6 months out, like TAs and holiday cruises.

For what it's worth, here is a part of the reply I received from C&A (after a week-long wait) regarding the availability of an "alternative menu" in the complimentary restaurants:

 

 

 

Could be worse...we're some of those who will miss the MDR experience, but some others in our group sailing think it will be the best thing since sliced bread. I guess we'll find out...still, a little nervous about possibly being one of the FIRST sailings on the Oasis after the change.

Well that is very good news, makes the menus appeal to me much more. I wish they put that on the website.

Just like anything,people dont INITIALLY like change but in the end most people find out that they like the change after actually experiencing it and all the initial worries turn out to be unfounded.

New Coke really proved that. ;) Having valid concerns, is not the same as being against change. I know some people think all change is great no matter what, but a lot of change isn't, especially wholesale changes.

I think a lot of people will enjoy DD more than MDR, but I think a lot of people that really like MDR will not enjoy the DD experience. I personally would've liked to see them combine them somehow, like making my time dining DD and leaving MDR the way it is.

At the end of the day the goal of DD is to increase revenue and decrease cost, at lot of changes were those goals in mind do not benefit the customers.

Bottom line... we'd sail the Navigator again if we could get the cabin we like for a reasonable price. However, it would not be our first choice out of the Galveston/Houston area.

What would be your first choice out of Galveston if you don't mind me asking?

For everyone mentioning the Windjammer's food, was it worse on this cruise than normal or about the same? I've always thought the Windjammer had pretty cheap food, but good enough to eat and be happy with the meal.

I am getting the message anytime it tried to move over to the secured site. The non-secured parts of the site are working for me.

Having a truly formal dining room, where the dress code is actually enforced, is probably the only part of this Dynamic Dining that appeals to me. I know I would make reservations there for at least two of the nights. That's IF we book a ship that does the DD. Unfortunately that formal dining room is not enough to make up for all the negative aspects of it, so we'll likely book elsewhere until we hear how it works. Perhaps the reality will not go as is being touted. Hopefully, when the complaints come rolling in, Royal will change the system back to a more cruise-like one. There is a reason cruising became popular. IMHO Royal is moving farther and farther from it all the time.

I really like formal nights on cruises, but I am not sure I'd like it if only a small fraction of the ship was dressed up. IT is really fun having basically everyone all dolled up and fancy, but not sure it would be fun to be in a tux around a bunch of people in swimsuits. Although I am weird about being over dressed.

I disagree. I am presently much more likely to choose Speciality Restaurants because I find the MDR menus boring and repetitive. The choices offered by Dynamic Dining make it less likely that I'll choose a Speciality Restaurant as there are more things on offer which take my fancy.

But the MDR menus change every night, the DD menus will be the same every day for years. I am a picky eater and looking at the DD menus I found maybe 8 entrees that interested me, maybe 3 apps and 1 desert. Seems very boring and repetitive to me.

Usually in MDR there are at least 1 app, 2 entrees and 1 desert I am interested in, plus the everyday menu that has a few more options.

I think either the DD menus need to double in size, or they need to rotate the menus around.

My wife and I are going to be in Falmouth on the Disney Fantasy on October 29th. I've been thinking about trying the river boarding or the raft trip. I haven't been able to find any reviews of the river boarding on Cruise Critic.

The tour I was specifically looking at was the Jaital tour: Link

Or maybe the Braco tour: Link

Does anyone have experience with these trips?

I have made it to MCO by 8:30 using Disney and RCL transfers, but I have self disembarked, and gotten on the first bus out. I've done this as a standby passenger, so the only way to get out was to beat all my fellow cruisers, but I also wasn't out any money if I missed the early flights.

When flying standby, the priority (for my airline) is done by check in time and if I missed the flight I'd loose my check in time. So I would "book" a 11:30ish flight, generally the first flight before the earliest flight allowed by the cruise. If I got to the airport early, I would ask to be put on the next flight out.

With how far MCO is from the port, how bad their security lines can be, the fact that you will more than likely have to check bags, traveling with kids it may be hard to move fast and that you could be out a lot of money if you missed you flights, I would personally book a later flight. Even with all of our successes getting to the airport early, if I am actually buying tickets I buy them for after noon, just in case. It does make for a much more relaxing morning and I actually get to eat breakfast on the ship.

Not to Hi-jack the thread, but does anyone know if you can do a transfer from the ship to a WDW resort?

I've done the rental from MCO to the port a few times, but always take the bus back from the port to MCO. I work for an airline and the only way to get out of MCO is to get on the first couple of flights for the day, otherwise I would be stuck until the next day or I'd have to drive to FLL or MIA. The buses will leave as soon as one gets full, so they start pulling out pretty quickly.

The reason I do the bus instead of a rental back is because I've seen lots of people waiting around at Budget waiting for someone to drop off a car so they could take it. Of course this is later in the day (10am-ish) so all the early birds may have gotten a car quick, idk.

I love cruising from FLL because you can get a taxi from the port to FLL for $15 and takes just a few minutes. On an Oasis cruise my wife and I were the first taxi out of the port and got to the airport before 7am.

I'll throw in my two cents. I've done 5 RCL cruises and 1 DCL, thinking about getting in on the great Fantasy deals over Halloween.

The 1 DCL cruise I did was on Magic over Halloween. BTW: I am not much of a Disney fan in general, first time I went to Disney World was when I was 28, and I still don't care for Mickey.

Pros over RCL:

• Much better shows
  
• I enjoyed the adult only entertainment a lot
  
• I liked the food stand on the pool deck, RCL only has this on Oasis class ships
  
• Very little nickle and diming, included soft drinks, only 1 or 2 speciality restaurants, completely free room service
  
• Servers never hounded me to buy drinks, almost to a fault.
  
• I personally really like the attention to detail, on the ship and with the staff
  
• Castaway Cay (IMO) is much better than CoCo or Labadee, and all the snorkeling and water toys were free (IIRC)
  
• Even though I am not much a Disney person I enjoyed the characters around the ship, which they did a lot to make it enjoyable, RCL characters generally just stand in one spot. They would also take pictures for you with your camera.
  
• Food in the buffet changed at least a little everyday
  
• In general the crew seemed overall more happy
  
• All ships have fresh water pools
  
• Disney actually enforces adult only areas/events
  
• I like that I will never be forced to do My Time Dining, which RCL made me do on my last cruise (complete personal preface, of course)
  

Cons over RCL:

• The buffets on all RCL ships are laid out better
  
• RCL has a much better sports deck area, with flow riders, rock walls, full size basket ball, etc
  
• RCL Generally has more pool area, especially hot tubs, than other cruise lines
  
• RCL has casinos
  
• In general I think similar size RCL ships offer more to do
  
• RCL has more "mature" shows/games
  
• It is a lot easier to meet other kidless people on RCL
  
• RCL ships (post Voyager V2, at least) have nice balconies because they over hang the hull
  

In general I would say my experience on Disney Magic was only equaled by my cruise on Freedom, all of my other RCL cruises have been slightly lower. That being said, I would pay a small premium for DCL, but I wouldn't pay twice as much, which seems to be the going rate a lot of the time.

I think the boardwalk should have like Carnival Games like a real boardwalk has... Keep Johnny rockets and the Mexican restaurant. Add another carnival ride... I think the appeal over there would be huge.

 

 

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THIS!

And they really need a popcorn stand on the Boardwalk, at least some of the times I would even pay for the popcorn if they had specialty types. But Oasis has the abandon sales kiosk by the carousel that always makes me think of a popcorn stand, and then I get sad that it isn't one :(.

That is a lot of public space being taken away to make a few hundred dollars a day. After all the included stuff, they are probably only netting out $500-600/day, but are willing to hose over all the other people that paid to be on the ship.

I used to enjoy going to Vegas a lot, went every couple years and I always though it was a pretty cheap trip. Last time I was there, everything was more expensive, up charges, etc. I tried to sit a bar in the middle of the day in Harrahs and was kicked out because I didn't want to pay a cover to watch people doing bad karaoke. So I've had no desire to go back. It seems like everyday each cruiseline has figured out another way to get the nickles and dimes out of people, which really rubs me wrong - especially since they aren't lowering the base fares to make up for it.

The soft-serve machines have ALWAYS been frozen yogurt.

 

:)

lol, must've been the power of suggestion. On our last Oasis cruise they had signs up saying Yogurt, but I at least never saw signs saying that on previous cruises. I was bummed, tried just a little and didn't like it. So I probably didn't like it just because I was expecting to not like it, considering I've always enjoyed it in the past.

I guess the solution on our next cruise will be to just make my wife go get it for me, so I never see the signs :p.

BTW: I do get the real ice cream in MDR pretty much every night. But you know, once a day isn't always enough :eek:

The dining room generally has ice creams and sorbets (or sherberts maybe). I don't know if the same flavours are available every night. Some ships have Ben and Jerry's as well, but it is an extra charge.

The MDR has Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry and ice cream every night, they also have one rotating flavor of ice cream and one of sherbert every night. I ask the waiter what the sherbert flavor is each night, never ordering, until it is orange sherbert night, then I ask for four scoops. They always seem to find it humorous.

I have to wear a badge everyday at work, definitely have no desire to wear one on vacation. But to each their own.

I really enjoy the pool deck ice cream, but last June I was on Oasis and all the soft serve machines had only Yogurt. When I was on her in 2011, it was ice cream. I don't like yogurt, so it was a pretty big bummer for me to not be able to enjoy the soft serve.

Does anybody know if all the ships have yogurt, or do some still have ice cream? Right now I am booked on Navigator for New Years and am hoping for Ice Cream ;).

I doubt anyone would question a 17 out past curfew, unless he looked young for his age or he was causing trouble.

The city I grew up had a curfew, I knew a lot of people that got busted for it when they were out being stupid. But I was out all the time when I was 16 and 17 and never got questioned.

I've never had a bag lost, but I have carried off my own bags on all but one cruise.

On my first cruise, however, Royal destroyed one of my bags getting it the room. I think it probably fall off the top of a chart. Ripped the whole side panel off and a little more, I was really worried I wouldn't be able to my stuff home. But I went to guest services, they had me fill out a form with estimated value, etc. Then they took the bag and patched it back together best they could. After I got home, I had to get an estimate for repair and since it was more than the value of the bag, they paid me for the bag.

I will say they did a very good job patching the bag, I rarely use it but it is still going, while every other bag I had on the cruise is fully dead now. This was back in 2006.

Although on my last cruise, I had three bags fail on me. Not the cruise line's fault at all, just three random things.

BTW: I always watch the porters put my bags on the cart.

I usually eat a big breakfast and take water from the ship. I have bought some water on shore before, but I don't think I've ever eaten on shore. My wife is a little paranoid (only when cruising) and I am cheap, I figured I paid for the food on the boat, no need to buy two lunches ;).

Very sad.

I have seen many dock workers that don't put on their life vest properly (not saying this was the case here). I see this sort of thing at work all the time with fall protection equipment, which I never understand. We had a 3 workers die at my company last year due to not properly using fall protection equipment, when it was provided and they were supposed to be using it. It has lead to a massive company wide safety push, that seems to be working, hopefully this event will result in better safety for dockworkers, even if it just makes them stop and think about it a little more.

I think it would be nice if they just rotated their shows around the different ships some. The cast already changes out every 6 (IIRC) months anyways.

I enjoyed Hairspray the first time I was on Oasis, but felt no need to see it again the second time. I also skipped Come Fly With Me the second, which I didn't really care for. I really like going to shows on ships, but I've kind of decided I have to not repeat ships to avoid seeing the same show.

When I was 13, in a port like Labadee I would've been allowed to do whatever I wanted, I just would've had a set time and place to meet up. When I was 10 I would've definitely been allowed full run of the ship maybe Labadee too, that would've been a case by case call. But I always proved myself to be responsible and never got into trouble or did anything I wasn't supposed to.

I was allowed to freely roam amusement parks by 9 or so, must of the time I had my older brother with me, but sometimes I'd go do something by myself. But again, I always knew where and when to meet.

I just think it depends on the kids, I have known many 15 year-olds I wouldn't let out of my sight on a ship, and plenty of 10 year-olds I'd see no problem with roam, especially with a friend.