mommabean

I am breaking my self-imposed rule of not posting on cruise critic only for this occasion.

Our first cruise on Radiance of the Seas was in October of 2008 through the Panama Canal. We took an instant liking to Juan Diego and booked another Radiance cruise while we were on board just so we could go back to visit him. Apparently no one told him he should be there. We went around the horn of S. America with his replacement concierge and he boarded the day we got off in Valparaiso.

No problem, we just booked a Mexican Riviera cruise so we could enjoy his services and what turned into a growing friendship. We ended up doing 23 Radiance of the Seas cruises over the following years.

As Juan Diego switched ships, so did we. From Anthem, to Explorer, and now back to Radiance where we will see him for one last cruise in August.

He is not only a wonderful man but an excellent concierge who gives everyone his best, even those who are difficult to please.

No one can sell Alaska (or Australia for that matter) quite like Juan Diego. He knows every port as if it's his home away from home. It is only fitting that he finishes his time with the company on the ship where it all began for us.

He will no longer be our concierge after next month but he will continue to be our friend forever.

The biggest loser in this is Royal Caribbean International who's senior concierge has served them well. No, better than well. Better than they can even imagine.

I second thanks to Daniel. I had to work on a GoogleDoc set up by a paid consultant for work and it was a nightmare. Daniel did a great job and it is pretty easy to maintain the spreadsheet.

Sherri, If you know how to contact Daniel, it would be good to ask him to password protect the list. Or maybe you know how to do that. Someone who is very child like has been adding things to it. Those things are gone now but you can look in the revisions to see what was there.

Rita, others have reported "Coastal Kitchen privileges" for Spa JS. :)

 

Other than that, as you said, NO to all the other questions.

On the cruise you and I were on, Dec. 1, the SJS was allowed in Coastal Kitchen for dinner, not breakfast or lunch. I saw a man get pretty nasty to the host about that policy, too. It was the guy who wore the giant fake glasses for the entire cruise. He was demanding to be allowed in for breakfast since he was in a JS.

Ok a little frustrated here.

 

It seems that once again RCI is changing the perks once they offer them, and this comment is in regards to the suite perks.

 

Mind you I have spent our last 5 cruises on RCI in suites and enjoyed sailing on the Allure and looking forward to sailing on the Oasis.

 

Lets just hope it is RCI having a brain *art, and once the pressure is released, things will go back to normal.

 

Sea Ya

At least you are making me smile. :)

I think it's more than pressure. They are really backed up it seems. Nothing will be normal. They continue to major cutting of any and everything.

I prefer the thick terry cloth over those waffle ones so if he gave us the wrong ones, no problem. That was the only thing that kept me warm when I got out of the shower. You couldn't get enough steam in there to keep it warm.

 

Your cabin layout was opposite what ours was. Our bed as on the right as you walked in and the bath with the shower was also on the right. When I opened the door of the shower into the bathroom and stepped on the bath mat, I had to use my feet to slide it closer to the tub so that I could close the shower door!!

 

It was definitely not designed by a woman!!

Maybe they know our preferences. LOL

I prefer the waffle robes and I never could get my room cold enough. A limit of 68 is not good enough for me. I keep my heater at home set to 62 at night in the winter. You live up north. I live in FL. You know how that goes. The only thing better than cold to me would be if it snowed.

I really wish they would let us make the room as cold as we would like it to be.

Great pictures. I noticed that you got the waffle robes given to GS cabins and above where we had the thick terry cloth robes. Wonder why?

I think your stateroom attendant gave you the wrong ones. I thought spa junior suites would get the nice ones. Or maybe my stateroom attendant gave us the wrong ones. :)

Our shower door opened left to right but should have been the other way. Apparently they reversed the doors in all the rooms. I feel sorry for heavy people who have to get around the open door to get into the shower. It should open into the bathroom - opening facing the bathroom entry door. The way it is now, the shower door opens and you are there in the little space in front of the sink surrounded by sink, tub, door, and shower - boxed in.

Here's a link to the album of the spa junior suite photos. I'll editorialize it later. I'm sure I have plenty to say.

http://s194.photobucket.com/user/mommabeany/library/Quantum%20of%20the%20Seas

As soon as the Christmas rush is over around here, I'll get right on it. I promise. I haven't forgotten. I need to move them from iPhoto to a standard jpg and them to photobucket. I'm out today but should have time soon.

We got a couple of good deals on the first BOGOHO promotion, but only the first couple of days it was out. For the most part, I agree that RCI has simply jacked up prices and then given a "discount," but I don't know that it constitutes fraud for them to do that. Retailers have done that for decades now without any apparent legal consequences.

 

I imagine that the state of Florida won't get involved unless somebody lodges a complaint with them.

I never saw a problem with not stating the taxes up front prior to going more fully through the booking process but they were told to do it from what I understand. I don't know what happened initially to bring about that change. I don't know what constitutes fraud either but the pricing still seems bogus to me since no one ever pays or has paid the first person price for the respective cruise.

I always think of the KB Toys class action lawsuit over their jacking up prices then redlining them and repricing them - on every item in the store. They resolved it by offering 30% off everything for a certain period and then proceeded to go out of business. That's the simple version.

With 250+ days on Seabourn and 28 days on RCCL (with three new cruises booked on RCCL) I dare say: Try Seabourn. We are far away from being 80 years old and enjoyed every single day on board. But also be aware: To cruise on Seabourn is a quite different thing than cruising on RCCL.

We have a friend who just finished a Seabourn cruise and kept us updated along the way.

Nice - to put it mildly.

We saw a lot of really cool experiences he had on board and on shore. Officers were extremely involved, too.

The least expensive rooms are pretty great and not at all tiny. This is something we are considering doing at some point but it might be a couple of years from now.

Thanks for your input.

a few months back, I posted about this very , what i call, scam of a pricing system and got ripped to high heaven on this board... good luck

I've always supported anyone I've seen mention this. I'll let people say what they want about it. You and I know what's going on as do some others who might not want to step up and say anything.

The state of Florida got onto them about not exposing the taxes up front so now they show that on the pricing page. I'm surprised they haven't gotten approached by the state concerning this bogus pricing technique.

This is why we don't just take cruises for vacation. We typically do a cruise for a week or maybe two, but we do 2 or 3 land vacations too. We will, also, go camping... there is nothing like 3 days in a Kayak in the rain to make the regular balcony or a room at the Marriott seem wonderful again.

 

:cool:

 

jc

And we say there is nothing like a balcony room on a ship to make a regular room at the Marriott seem wonderful. That's why we don't book regular balcony rooms on ships. :)

We do spend at least as much vacations doing land time as we do on ships, maybe more. The balance in the coming year is definitely in favor of land time with plans in place. And with land time, we can cancel up until the day or or occasionally a few days before are required for cancelation with no charge. I find land time to be much more flexible with no pressure for a return time each night during the vacation.

Hi Gina! Hope all is good with you. Pleasure meeting you on Q :)

 

 

 

 

Then maybe you should try Q/Anthem. Absolutely and totally different than anything RCL has offered so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd love to hear how much Gina liked or hated various aspects of Q as she's the most experienced cruiser I personally know whom I spoke to on board... this thread started out as "dumbing down" of the cruising experience and transformed into "I'm bored with the same old same old"... RCl addresses this with Q, an upper scale model of Radiance morphed with Solstice in my view, with the best entertainment ever on any of my sailings and excellent activites on board. Yet Q is getting called out by many in a negative way with too many changes and all the "I want my MDR back!","Long lines everywhere","Poor service" threads.

 

I would suggest to LMaxwell, papaflamingo and others that if you're bored and want something new... but still "come back to" Royal as you like Royal the best after straying to other lines, you have to try Quantum Class to see for yourself. I personally loved it... and I'll probably love my old standard smallest-ship-in-the-fleet "broning" same-old same-old cruise on Legend in March also :D

HI! It was great meeting you, too.

How much did we like Quantum? We LOVED it. Anthem is the only thing extra we have booked in the coming year. We had already canceled 2 next year's cruises previously this year. We came home from Quantum, canceled the other 2 cruises that went with the 2 canceled cruises (had already planned to cancel them at the last minute but decided to dump them and get it over with) and booked an Anthem cruise.

What did I absolutely hate about Quantum? The Philly Cheese Steak sandwich I ordered for lunch in American Icon, the only time I ate there.

I hated my spa junior suite at first but adjusted to it. It's pointless to have the 2 partial baths separate. There is no counter space to speak of in either. But I don't live there so I adapted for that short time. The spa junior suite is smaller than every other junior suite on RCI's ships. Square footage it may not be smaller than Vision class, I haven't checked closely, but it feels smaller with the lack of seating space.

I hated the lines I had to stand in at guest services and to change a reservation the first 2 days. Then I spoke to someone who explained the entire concept to me and I began exploring the Royal IQ app. That changes everything. Seriously. First I didn't need to stand in the first day rush of guest services which was gone for most of the cruise. My business could have easily waited. Second, I could have canceled my two dinners I wanted to change and rescheduled them myself on my app or on an iPad. It's a lot easier than people realize. It would have saved that hour wait in line to have them do it.

I thought Two70 was so fabulous that I never even thought about the lack of a Viking Crown Lounge. Two70 beats VCL by far. Two70 Cafe is even better than Park Cafe. Vintages is the most beautiful yet and so easily accessible and open. I'm surprised more people don't sit there and enjoy their wine or another drink (with their 3 preloaded drinks for D and above) which is available right at that bar.

The solarium is the best yet. It's nice that there is another indoor pool separate from the solarium along with an outdoor pool and the shallow wave pool to keep kids occupied - when it's warm and kids are on board which I didn't see a whole lot of around the ship.

The crew was fabulous. We became reacquainted with many from ships we've been on over the years. The only slow seating night was night one in Chops because of the BOGO offer I would assume. Also, The Grand would have been a mob scene on night two but that's one we switched when we found out that everyone is treating that night like the traditional formal night, as we had done.

Oh wait....I better quit. I don't want to hijack this thread since it's not a Quantum thread. But you get the picture.

After our Anthem cruise, we won't book anymore of that class unless we find a nice deal at a convenient time. We only have 1 cruise booked at the end of 2014 because we got a good deal at a military rate.

I won't play their BOGOHO game.

I did book a short cruise for February with no C&A benefit as in no balcony discount. The Vow to Wow sail for everyone was a better deal. So much for loyalty.

RCI is also causing me grief over other loyalty milestone benefits right now, further diminishing my feeling for booking anything further with them.

There is more that they are doing as far as policies which I think are wrong and not treating people fairly which I won't even get into here. There are just too many negatives right now.

But Quantum is a big positive. We've been doing dynamic dining on our own for a couple of years. We've been on Oasis and Allure a total of 4 times in the last two years and have only eaten in the MDR once. So DD is a non-issue for us. The food was fine, better in some restaurants than others, but all good. Wonderland and Chef's Table were great. Jamie's is NOT Italian food but is still mostly fine.

I totally agree with you OP.

I'd add to it that the biggest turn off for me lately is the deceptive pricing practice/scam they have going now. The prices are higher than ever in most cases with the BOGOHO pricing. In fact that so called single person price is not a price they even even sold those cruises at. Booking a cruise has become a hassle and time consuming chore.

We have a few booked for the coming year, mainly to visit people we want to see on board, but nothing at all considered for 2016 - other than land trips. Maybe that will be the year to combine land with the river cruise we've wanted to try.

I'd say all of your observations are correct. The only time I was on Celebrity, they had dusty fake plants/flowers, too.

Anyone have anymore pics of a SJS ?

 

 

 

Jimbo:)

Yes. I'll try to post them soon.

Dan is at home right now.

I won some contest and have now been invited to go on a free 2 day cruise on Freedom of the Seas on Jan. 30. Does anyone know what that actually entails? It said that I have a double occupancy stateroom but does not specify if it is a balcony or an inside. Also, would drinks be included in this??? I am trying to decide if it is worth the airfare to go. Sometimes free trips can cost you a lot of money! :)

Everyone that entered that agent's contest was invited - not actually winners. The winners won trips to Germany to see Quantum while she was still in the shipyard.

Normally these post refurbishment cruises include alcohol. But if there are any paying passengers on board, it likely doesn't include drinks. The terms only state that parking and gratuities are paid for. Did you read the flyer that came with the invitation?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hKBiGZ9Gqcp2G2owtX3RyQy7yQ0ijgxCL0nPjQKK8j4/edit?pli=1#gid=0

I updated Butcher's info on Independence in the DL - current info as of today. He'll be there a while longer.

Thanks for keeping the Google Doc up Gina. As you know, I was cruising.

I just got back late Friday night and realized you were gone. I hope you had as much fun as I did. :)

Rahim is now with Oceania.

 

Raj is back in the CL on independence and Gustavo now in the DL until end of January.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for that, too. Changes to the list have been made.

I can't edit the list from my iPad. I'm just off Serenade, and Rahim will not be filling in for Nizar when he goes on vacation (he said January). Alan will move over from the DL and somebody from Guest Services will be trained to run the DL.

 

I have heard that Rahim left the company, but I don't know that for a fact.

Thanks, Jean. I made the change to the list. I also heard the same about JJ on Radiance but don't know if her leaving is permanent. Maybe it's just rumor but there is a new person in her chair.

Hello everyone, long time lurker, first time poster...

 

My girlfriend and I recently decided to cruise regularly with Royal Caribbean. We are looking to sail once a month or once every other month out of Florida ports. We both own our own companies so we have reached a point we could leave last minute no problem and snag up those last minute unsold cabins.

 

Therefore, I was wondering what the best price everyone has received on a Junior Suite or higher? Obviously do not include travel agent names, websites or how you got the deal if it violates forum rules. Just curious to know the price you paid for your suites.

 

I feel like we might have overpaid for our Junior Suite last cruise and having comparable prices would be beneficial before we pull the trigger on a last minute deal that isnt much of a deal.

 

Thanks everyone.

Asking for best prices will get you unbelievable prices that are rarely available. We got them for various reasons that are not the norm. We paid $917pp total including discounts and taxes for a 14 night cruise in South America - for a Grand Suite. This was in April 2009 when the economy was tanking and there was major availability. Of course it started out at a higher price for a D category balcony and the price kept dropping. In the end, almost all the diamond plus passengers got major upgrades for free.

I consider $1000pp for a junior suite on a smaller older ship to be a good deal for 7 nights. Alaska will be higher but sometimes military rates will get you $1200pp for a JS in Alaska.

The variables are tremendous depending on ship and itinerary.

Here is the current list in case anyone is looking for it. It's probably not totally accurate. I added the info I know about.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hKBiGZ9Gqcp2G2owtX3RyQy7yQ0ijgxCL0nPjQKK8j4/edit?pli=1#gid=0

Could someone just list the email for whoever is the Concierge for Suites on the Oasis - I can't seem to pull the list up. thanks so much!!

OA_Concierge01@rccl.com

OA_Concierge02@rccl.com

Either one will work. There is an underscore after the OA

Just off Quantum yesterday...LOVED it.

Dynamic Dining is great. We enjoyed it.

Love the app. Used it.

Found crew members that we've known over the years on other ships - they were the best. No wonder they're on Quantum. They're still the best.

Traditional diners need to book the other 19 ships that will remain traditional. Leave the big 4 to us!

Eleven days wasn't enough. We've never had a bad cruise. This one was up there with the best!

The only bad part were the C&A members who do nothing but complain and demand. They were a total embarrassment at the Captain's Corner. Save it for the e-survey/comment card. Shame on them for what they put Capt. Srecko and HD Darren through.