MR LED

On Indy now. I love reading the CC posts. They are very entertaining! No is going hungry on the ship. Yes some fresh selections are limited like salad toppings. (Tomato’s, cucumbers, etc). But still a lot of food that is normal RCCL quality. Which has declined over the years. The Captain on the first day announced that the previous sailing had norovirus, they are not hiding anything. The crew is cleaning everything all the time. I think it’s great to have a clean ship. So far I have not heard if anyone on this sailing has norovirus. Hopefully that continues, they are making sure we clean our hands. Again I have had more than enough food and getting my money’s worth on my drink pkg. Great weather and fun times!

On Indy since yesterday. The crew is doing a good job with making sure everyone uses hand sanitizer and they are controlling food & beverage stations. Still it appears a lot of people are a little nervous. Of course it does not help that the ship herself appears “sick”. She is way overdue for the upcoming dry dock. I’m confident RCCL will address most of the appearance issues than so no reason to list them now. Except for the extreme sewage smell on deck 9 that needs to be addressed soon. RCCL I hope you are “listening”????

THANK YOU so much racerxspeedyfor posting all your photos and the daily cruise compass!!!

I will be boarding Indy this Saturday. I will try to upload the pages when we return.

Thank You in advance! Have a GREAT trip!

We used Uber, much cheaper and cleaner than a taxi.

The Internet on the Anthem work great. I was able to stream and use Facetime withoutany issues.

Anyone have a recent copy of the Independence of the Seas 5night Daily Compass?

Anthem – which specialty restaurant is worth visiting twice?

Just got home from a great 4 Day cruise on the IOS. I will post a review latter but thought I would share the Cruise Compass since I could not find one before I left.

DAY 1 Thursday 11/26/15 Departing Fort Lauderdale

We will be sailing Indy next week also. Does anyone from the Nov 12-16 cruise have the daily compass? Or remember some of the show times ? Was there any late night comedy, Quest, etc etc ?

Agree with a lot of what you have stated, however....on the Carnival Splendor for 15 days. Although we met some wonderful people....we were flabbergasted with most of the people. Honey Boo Boo attire...Walmart attire.....just floored with behavior and manners and attire. The worst were Texans. Don't know why...and I don't know much about Texans...but they were sooooo dirty. Their cowboy hats were disgusting. This was the only cruise that we regret sailing. The longest 15 days of our lives.

WOW … champagne123

I have lived in NY and found many people described people from NJ the way you described “Texans”. Then I crossed the river and found NJ, for the most part, to be very pleasant. I now live in TX and find that many that live here are more refined then a lot of people from other cities or states that I lived. Champagne123 maybe it’s time for you to explore the United States or at least TX before calling everyone dirty and disgusting.

Cruising is like a drug. Your first cruise is the best vacation ever. However, you always want more and you always want to top the last.

Many of the people on this board are long time cruisers that are chasing the high they got years ago. So they complain when that does not happen.

I have been a long time lurker and find some of the complaints entertaining but they do not stop me from taking another cruise. I look at complaints like this: If cruising has gotten so bad why do we keep doing it.

There is always room to improve. I say keep the complaints coming to help pave the way for improvement or last least for my entertainment. :D

Thanks for the wonderful review. I was also nervous about all the negative reviews about the IOS. So glad you had a fabulous time.

The Getaway is a great ship all around.

I do not think this is a good strategy at all. I almost left RCCL for good due to their BOGO price increase “sale.” The only reason I booked the Freedom of the Seas for May was due to the GOING, GOING, GONE sale in March. Otherwise I was ready to book NCL. Even though I may have paid a few hundred less than others, RCCL has already made that up by my purchase of full price drink packages and specialty restaurants.

Why would RCCL want to have empty cabins? They will lose money from the last minute passengers purchasing drinks, specialty restaurants, shore excursions, photos, merchandise etc, etc, etc… The only way to make up for the decline of onboard revenue is to create a BOGO Version 2.0 price increase to make up the difference. Then we all pay more.

Thanks for the review. We have been considering Carnival Breeze for our next cruise. Mostly due to RCCL’s current pricing. But I was very concerned about the quality of Carnival and nightly entertainment.

It’s nice to hear how they compare. It’s been hard to compare for the most part since either people sail only Carnival or only RCCL. But it appears a lot of RCCL “loyal” are looking now.

Does Carnival have shows or just comedians?

I wear suits everyday for work. I just want to get away from it all and relax on vacation. Also, it so much easier to pack. Not to mention the cost of airlines baggage fees.

I could not agree more with the OP. I would always tell anyone who asked to sail RCCL. But after looking for a cruise to do this year I cannot believe the price increase. This BOGO “sale” should be called the BOGUS SALE. I sailed the Oasis last May in a D3 balcony for $1825. If I was to book the same cruise for the same week this May it would cost $3080. I understand they need to increase prices from year to year but a 69% increase is crazy. Sorry RCCL you have a good product but NCL is catching up fast for less. I started cruising because the value it had over a land only vacation. Hawaii looks like a bargain now.

Spice H20 on the Getaway does not have a swimming pool but it does have waterfall that you can cool off in. They put out chairs during the day and it’s an adult only area. Very peaceful.

I do not remember the name of the bar. But I believe the taxi dropped us off at Kakao. We ended up walking to Waikiki. They had the burgundy chairs and umbrellas. This seemed to be the deepest part of the beach and it was less crowded. It may have just been the day we went but Kakao and Bikni had maybe 2 rows of chairs and the water was coming up past the first row of chairs making the beach look like a swamp from all the seaweed and the trapped water that did not recede back to the ocean. It was very windy that day with medium to larger waves.

This area is away from the elevators and stairs so no hallway noise. We could hear the music from Spice H20 deck party’s if we had the balcony door open, but they are over by 11 so no worry. I usually just keep the door unlocked so I could hear the sound of the waves & wake all night which is very relaxing. As for the motion, the entire ship rocked all week even in calm water. Not sure why. This was our 12 cruise and we have never rocked so much until the Getaway.

We just got back from a great cruise on the NCL Getaway. In St Maarten we shared a van taxi to Orient Beach. $7 per person each way. About a 30 minute drive. $10 per chair rental. BUT WARNING – Orient Beach was damaged during the last hurricane. It had very little beach and tons of seaweed everywhere. I wish I knew this before going but we made the most of it. I remember Orient Beach to as being one of the best beaches, but not anymore. I would recommend saving your money and time and just take the water taxi over to Great Bay Beach its only $7 round trip and much nicer at this time. Per the one of the bars at Orient Beach they are working on a plan to pull the sand back to the beach and clean up the seaweed but they are on island time so who nows when.

We just got back from the Getaway. I wanted to post this information on the Aft cabins since there is so little informaiton out there about them. I hope this helps anyone thinking of booking an aft. We had 3 aft staterooms on deck 11. Cabin #’s 11912, 11314, & 11310. The deck plans online make you think each cabin may be a different size or shape. They are not. All the cabins were the same size and layout of any balcony cabin on the ship. Cabins 11912 & 11314 had the bed next to the closet. Cabin 11310 had the bed next to the balcony. Now for the best part of an aft cabin, the balcony. They are LARGE. About 10 feet deep. Each aft balcony had 2 loungers, 2 chairs, and a small table. Nice and private too. You could only see up or down to the balcony above or below you if you came out to the rail otherwise no one could see you sitting down. They provide a great view of both sides of the ship and the wake behind. Plus the Captain backed into every dock which gave you a great view of the islands at port. NOTE: if you like to hear the ocean at night but want your AC to stay on just unlock the balcony door and keep it closed. Not sure if I can go back to a regular balcony again! It was so nice to be able to make a cup of coffee and layout on the balcony every morning. Yes I said make coffee. The balcony cabins each had its own small coffee maker. A first for me on a cruise. RCCL and DCL do not have in room coffee makers. Nice benefit NCL!