ajtaylor29

Thanks! I love to hear this! We've sailed on older RC and Carnival ships, also the new, bright shiny RC ships. Love them all! While i do enjoy some of the variety on the bigger ships, we also seldom take advantage of all the bells and whistles (no slides, flowriders, go-carts needed for us!) We tend to take the new big ships when the itinerary doesn't really matter (what? Cozumel again you say? Ok Sure!!! Let's go cruising!) But, when we sail for a special itinerary like this one, what's most important is a good cabin, great crew and a few good dining options. I'm sure we're going to have a great time!

Totally agree! We always start out saying we'll be fine in a nice balcony cabin....then slowly talk ourselves into the suite because well - the suite life is so wonderful! Glad at this stage in life that we can afford to pamper ourselves a bit! I'm hoping that Luminae is as good as Coastal Kitchen, because we're perfectly happy eating most of our meals in Coastal. We will usually have one or 2 specialty meals mixed in, and i'm sure on this 3-1/2 week cruise we'll want to do that a few times. Which are your favorite restaurants? I'm really looking forward to trying something new, since i've eaten in all the Royal restaurants multiple times!!

yes, we are splurging on this cruise since we're on for so long! 1st leg in a Celebrity suite, 2nd leg in a Sunset Sky Suite!

Hubby and i love cruising, have enjoyed every cruise and cruiseline (some more than others, of course!) and in recent years we've been pretty loyal to Royal. We started on Carnival years ago, then shifted to Royal, with 1 on HAL and 1 on Crystal sprinkled in. However, I've been wanting to branch out and try some new lines, particularly Celebrity (i know, sister co. to Royal) and eventually NCL, maybe Virgin, maybe MSC, etc. Hopefully we'll get to spend our golden years cruising all over the world! (we're 60-something now). So, we started looking at cruises for next year in Northern Europe, and came across a B2B opportunity on the Eclipse: Best of Scandanavia (13 nights), then Iceland, Ireland and Scotland (13 nights). They both sounded so amazing that we couldn't pick so we decided to do both! It's may/June 2025. We've never booked that far out either so the waiting will be something new for us. I'm a little nervous as we've never sailed this long, and it's a new ship/new cruiseline for us so i hope we like it!!! I know it's an older ship, and we're fine with that. But, for those who have sailed on Eclipse recently please let me know your thoughts! I believe i read that Eclipse will be in dry-dock next March, so when we board in May we'll hopefully have some new carpet!

First to make a correction - I'm platinum on CCL, not Diamond. 🙂 I guess really it's not much....most of our feel goods come from the suite life! For being diamond on RC, i get those 4 free drinks per day. I get to use the suite lounge for coffee and pastries. um.....what else do i get?!? I guess not much, a few discounts maybe. Book a suite if you can. 🙂

We cruise both cruiselines but i admit i'm partial to Royal at this point. We still book Carnival mainly for a great itinerary, i'm diamond on both so i guess i get a little "special attention" on both although it's not really much?!? If we're booking for a specific itinerary, those seem to be older, smaller ships, which is fine with us as we're cruising for the ports. If we're just cruising to get on a ship to go anywhere, we do try and book newer, bigger ships on Royal. I love them all. 🙂 We tend to cruise in suites these days which definitely does give us those special feels like first on/first off which is nice....a few free drinks here and there and maybe a free bag of laundry! I'm sure you will enjoy Odyssey, i think she's a beautiful ship!

I hear ya. The only people who will bother to read it are vp players and that's who I posted it for. For everybody else....a boring post with tmi. 🤣

My husband and I both having issues with RC's website, and have been on and off for months. for me, i have to log in every time i go to their website (even tho i've selected "keep me logged in". For him, whenever he clicks "plan my cruise" it logs him out. That's been going on for a while....

So, first of all - i'm pretty loyal to Royal! And still am after last weeks cruise. But this was one of the worst casino at sea experiences i've had so i'm sharing with others for information purposes. It won't prevent me from sailing with RC again (already have 3 more booked) but I will definitely hesitate to sail on Navigator again. My hubby and I sail several times a year, we're big video poker players, and spend a lot of our free time in the casino. We always research each ship before sailing and when we watched youtube videos of the Navigator we saw a whole wall of VP machines (supposedly taken less than a year ago) so we felt good knowing we'd have plenty of machines to play! Once on board, however - we discovered they had rearranged the machines, and now all (8) VP machines were crammed in a corner, back to back, very close together. If you were against the wall, and needed to get "out", at least 2 people had to stand up and move so you could squeeze by. It was pretty uncomfortable for sure. So, the casino solved the problem in this way: starting day 2, 1 of the machines messed up so they shut it down. Next day, another one. Next day, another one. By day 4 we only have 5 (of the 8 machines) working. Less crowded.....but of course, lots of frustrated players who can't get a machine. I saw no attempts by them to fix any of these machines. Day 6, another machine messes up, but they reboot it and it appears to be fine so they leave it online. Then, on day 7 i'm playing on this messed up/not messed up machine, when i see 4 Aces deal across the screen. That's $1600 and a handpay! But i don't even have time to nudge my hubby and tell him before the screen goes black and "call attendant" pops up. Long story short - the machine lost all data regarding this handpay. They spent time looking in the logs and found zero data, no record of it, no error messages or anything that would give them any hard proof that it happened. Therefore, they would not pay me the $1600. (Only later did i wonder - why didn't they look at the cameras?? there was one right over the machine. Maybe they don't work either....??) The staff was very "nice" to me in dealing with this, and apologetic that they could simply not pay without any proof of it to go by. . I actually understand why their policy mandates this (in theory, i guess we could all scream for payments of non-existent hands, if we're cheats....which i definitely am not and they knew that but still....). They did come back and give me $200 free play My biggest complaint was that the machine had messed up the day before, almost exactly what happened to me. The difference there was, when they rebooted the machine the "lost" handpay popped up, so they paid it. And, kept the machine in play. My argument was that it was their fault for having a machine on the floor that they KNEW was having issues, yet they let us continue to play it. (i asked them to shut it off after my fiasco so it wouldn't happen to anyone else, which they did). I also told the Casino manager that i felt bad for those VP players boarding the next day, because they would have only 4 VP machines working?! So, for those boarding Navigator any time soon, just beware of the video poker situation. I will also mention that last year, we sailed on Explorer and had the exact same "machines crammed in a corner" scenario. However, that sailing was in Europe, with family, so i spent a lot less time in there. And, there weren't 4 broken machines....it was crowded but at least we could play!!

As i've seen others post about, Labadee is VERY removed from the populated areas of Haiti (something like a 7 hour drive from Port-au-Prince??) so the likelihood of there being trouble is probably pretty slim. However - maybe part of the consideration for cancelling these excursions might be that some of the locals who normally staff these excursions are not available right now?? Maybe their country is in the middle of a civil war and they don't have time to take us jet skiing??? I think everybody should enjoy their beach day, swim, eat the food, sit int the cabanas, tip the locals?!?! Be happy for a nice day at the beach instead of worrying and/or complaining that you can't go swim with pigs and therefore RC must be trying to steal your hard earned dollars. Many of the islands we all enjoy in the Caribbean are unsettled and deal with poverty, unrest, political struggles. They usually hide this from us but sometimes it rears it's head. We all (most?) can go home to our nice warm beds. They will live with it.

We sailed last October on Explorer. On returning to Ravenna, we took the RC shuttle to the airport (to wave our kids home!) then we grabbed a taxi in to town where we stayed for another couple of days. Loved Bologna! I don't remember exact times, but there were several buses so i think they left as they filled up. I would recommend the RC bus transfer to get you to the airport, then taxi over to the train station? It sounds like the train to Bologna may be really crowded and uncomfortable; the bus was comfortable and easy.

I second other comments that you should try to do private excursions in the med if you can. Taking the ship excursions will involve a busload of people, which is slower and harder to get around and see the sites. You spend valuable time loading and unloading the bus! We've been several times now and almost always book private excursions. We feel like we get to see more and beat the crowds, especially if you're headed to a tourist area. BTW, you might try looking on the ports of call boards here for advise of others who are doing this same route. I always find great tips and advise there! Also, look for a roll call for your sailing?

I just came back to add - once we shift to daylight savings time this weekend...the ship time may be the same as local time now?!? Why can't we just keep time the same?!?! It's so confusing.... 🙂

This makes sense! I had always heard that it was the captains decision that's why it varies from ship to ship. Don't know why it would be his/her decision but that's what i've heard?!? Aruba/Curacao - they WERE an hour ahead....once we realized that we did have to contact our excursion company to adjust our arrival time with them.

We were on Symphony the end of January! He waws NOT our room steward, thankfully!

Which is important to remember because the time in ports will be different (Aruba and Curacao) so if you've booked private excursions you need to make sure you coordinate the local time vs. ship time!

We just did this itinerary in January and had a great time! I'm not always a big fan of the shows, but i loved Hiro and Hairspray!! We also saw 1 comedy show late night, and the ice show, enjoyed them both!

A couple of weeks ago there were a lot of cabins in all categories. So, they must have sold a bunch and now getting pretty full!

The good news for us is that this cruise now shows up again on the website! SO, hopefully it was just a glitch in their system and we're back on track! Now i have to worry about no hot water - what have you done to me?!?! 🙂 That would NOT be good....let's hope they have everything worked out before we board. Interesting that you're going to have so many ships/choices sailing out of LA. This is our first west coast cruise out of LA, so we're looking forward to a new ship and itinerary for us. We live in TX so often sail out of Galveston but usually fly to Florida. We still occasionally do a Carnival cruise (usually because of the itinerary) so hope you enjoy your Firenze cruise. We've done Alaska twice on Carnival ships. I pretty much love every ship I'm on, anywhere and anytime! Haven't had a BAD one yet....although definitely can rate some better than others!

oops

wow, that's amazing!!! so, yes they still sell it! i buy in giant bottles then pour it in to my travel size bottle!

well, everybody's hair is different, so i have no idea if this would be good for you or not!! But - i have very fine hair so most conditioners add weight to my hair and any style i try quickly falls flat! I use a product called Infusium Pro 23, it's a clear (looks like water) leave in product that helps untangle but doesn't weigh my hair down. I've used it for years.

My hair care routine is pretty easy BUT i have a certain conditioner that i have to use or my hair will not be good!!! So, i always take a carry size bottle of conditioner. The other products work fine for me.

😮

What does this even mean?!? i'm old i guess.... 🙂