SHICHIDAN

I found a copy of the cruise compass. It says "For the well-being of our guests 17 and under, Royal Caribbean has put a curfew of 1:00 am into effect. All guests 17 years of age and younger must be accompanied by an adult when in public areas after this time." I didn't see anything that said the adult must be a parent or guardian.

 

I realize that there are gaps in the story. The girls' parents may have sent them to the teen club and gone to bed at 10 org 11,u expecting the girls to return immediately to the cabin when the club closed at 1. The parents may not have realized that the girls were out after curfew.

 

My SIL probably should have called security when the girls admitted that they were hiding in the elevator because security had previously told them to go to their cabin. Initially my SIL wasn't going to say anything because the girls were together (safety in numbers theory), they weren't misbehaving (playing cards on the elevator floor is unusual but not necessarily against any rules), and the next day was a port day so very few people were awake to use the elevators.

 

Some of the posters are right. The situation may have been completely innocent. The man may have been travelling with his wife, who went to bed earlier than him. He might have been like my SIL and wanted a drink or snack before bed and found the girls in the elevator. He may have been a fan of the card game they were playing and asked to join them to kill some time. In any case, it was bad judgement on his part to sit in the elevator. It was their sitting in the elevator after admitting to hiding from security that made my SIL question the situation. If the group had moved to a table in the promenade to play cards, my SIL probably wouldn't have noticed them or thought anything was unusual.

 

My SIL wasn't sure whether she should say anything but decided that if her son was out after curfew with a strange adult, she would want to know about it and called for security when she got to her cabin. My SIL said she waited about 10 minutes after she called, then returned to the elevators to check on the situation. No one was in the elevator and she didn't see anyone from security to ask. The adult and teens may have gone their separate ways before security showed up. If security found the group, I don't know if they escorted the girls to their cabins or talked to the parents.

Rampant speculation; Carry it further, security never went, the guy lured the girls to his cabin he got just for this purpose as he does on every cruise, one girl went with him while two just went to bed, ships security talked to the girls and was infatuated with one and targeted her for improper advances using his pass key, security sent a female guard who really likes mid teens and invites them to see the secret crew quarters, the girls wanted to do a thrill killing and were waiting for a unsuspecting victim to try and escort them to their cabin.

Good and bad people. With the number of responses we know at least one bad man and one bad woman have posted to this thread. Am I one of the bad ones, or is it you.

From a security standpoint the sil should have asked for all to go to guest services together as a group if concern was heightened within her and told all were staying together until ships personnel were notified and taken over.

Of course they could be the bad person.

All you can do as the person in the situation at the time is to use your common sense, training, life experiences and good old gut instinct to make a call and go with it. Right action, wrong action beats no action. Trust your gut, always!

A few years ago we had a man pick up my wife's D 7000 and walk away from customs. We found him entering the car garage as he was pulling off the bright orange name tag with my wife's name embroidered on it.

My 27 year old son told him to hand over the camera. The guy said to ......... ourselves. I turned to get security and turned back as I heard the knuckles on jaw sound followed by the thud of thief to ground.

One son picked up camera, second son pulled name tag out of his hand, daughter screamed unmentionables at him and wife drug daughter away before kick was delivered.

I handed contact info to security in case some well meaning authority wanted to discuss western justice with us. No one did.

Thief removed self from ground to steal another day. I lectured boys and daughter on proper behavior then high fever all.

Sometimes you have to do it yourself.

Don't know the rules if there are any , but we ask and are served fresh squeezed every morning. Once the waiter or assistants know the tables that like it, they go somewhere and bring pitchers of it.

I have seen it reported both ways that they charge and don't charge. Our experience is that we have never been charged for fresh squeezed orange juice in the gold card restaurants. If they said they were told to charge we would tell them fine.

Having experienced upscale service on other lines and enjoying the top suites Royal offers, I applaud anything the company does that continues to tie us to them.

Exclusive areas and services that are suite and top tier only that do not shove within the face of other passengers can only enhance revenue flow at the high end and help tie that type customer to Royal

A haven type area in the future would be excellent but short of that enjoyable level any addition is appreciated.

I encourage suite passengers to keep getting your voice and expectations to the corp folk. They listen to all input I believe. And if it helps that profit line you may just see it happen some day.

I would like to add our personal experience for the benefit of those concerned by hearing of behavior problems and some level of entitled expectations from either suite guests or different loyalty levels, or even a combo of both.

We have sailed in every Royal Suite in RCL, 29 times at this point on all ships offering them except the two largest if they are called Royal Suite on those ships. Too this point in time not one person past the Concierge in the lounge has ever known or asked our cabin status or loyalty status.

We have experienced very little outlandish behavior and when we have I believe that was how the person acted at all times.

If We were asked to prove that we belonged somewhere by a member of some self or group appointed room police they would get to enjoy a good laugh with me, no words required.

If I saw someone talking down to anyone because of some self gaseous inflation of false ego, I would be happy to help them deflate. Some folks will never get over themselves but provide good teaching examples for the benefit of a little self humility.

We could all lose anything we have at anytime, then we would be proud to have anything at all.

Explain, I if you will be kind enough what you mean when you wrote:

 

"We have never missed our escort onboard ship though I understand others have and it could happen if something came up.

 

We always are met in the room for introductions to head of house keeping and "hotman" or hotel director."

 

I have not been on as many cruises as you have, and others may not have been either, and these things could be unclear.

These are items that come with the room. I believe it depends on the room you book. They are standard as far as I know for specific categories and have been on all our sailings. I don't believe we are unique. Ships tour by officer or concierge has always been included also. I have seen where others did and did not get the tour prior to general boarding. We have been lucky to this point.

It is the consistency of how well we are treated and made to feel we matter.

After 28 trips we have been greeted with a hello we have been waiting for you each time.

We have never missed our escort onboard ship though I understand others have and it could happen if something came up.

We always are met in the room for introductions to head of house keeping and "hotman" or hotel director.

And so on. These are not expected but offered by RCL and thusly enjoyed by us.

If I had complaints I would list them if they were of consequence.

We choose the Royal Suite because we make full use of it and add an inside close by for additional bath or crash pad.

Never a bad experience so far and the time something does not work, the concierge always has an envelope waiting with a discount ready for the next sailing for X % off the entire booking. Very fair always.

Toss up:

Crystal Serenity Penthouse

Silver Cloud Royal Suite

Using the jacuzzi type tub, especially at night when the moon is full and shining on the water as the ship slips along. One of my wifes favorite things to do is go out there late to just enjoy the hot water and tranquility of the space. Late evenings are our time since we let the rest of the family have the balcony all day and most of the night.

We also enjoy the kids of all ages bringing their new acquaintances onto the large balcony to talk or play music while taking turns in the jacuzzi. They love the privacy of their own area with the ability to still have large numbers on the balcony at the same time. It reminds us of having neighborhood kids in the house at all hours and the fun they are all having.

Am I being selfish??

 

DH, DS, and I are going on a New England/ Canada cruise in October on the Brilliance. I am excited to go on a non-tropical cruise and see some places we've never been.

 

We're also going on a 5-night cruise on the Liberty in November (Veteran's Day weekend- so he'll only miss 2 work days) with his brother, SIL, and our two nieces. We've never gone on vacation with them. We got an amazing deal with Kids Sail Free for this trip. This cruise will also make us Diamond.

 

DH just called me and said we probably have to cancel the November cruise because his employees are asking to take off the same days we're gone in November. DH owns the business. He never takes a day off unless we're traveling which is about twice per year. He doesn't ever stay home sick. DS was sick at daycare one day and DH brought him to the shop that day. The point I am trying to make is that my husband is not the type of business owner to always be MIA. He's there more than his employees.

 

I argued with him that he owns the business and he can tell his employees "NO, you can't take off on those two days." His response was "I can't tell them that they can't have their vacation time." I told him I have been told no by employers in the past, he can tell them no to those dates.

 

I'm fuming right now. Am I being selfish or is he a pushover??

 

... Sorry if this sounds incredibly snobbish, I was just looking forward to the trip!

Good day O.P.

First, I understand your frustration as my wonderful wife deals with the same thing with me on vacations and such. What works for us works for us and assuming I could advise you properly would be arrogant on my part, but here is my take if it were I making the decision.

I have 69 full time colleagues and I feel I have two primary responsibilities to them. First, that their check always cashes when presented. Second, that they feel they are my most important asset and will be put first by me after they put our customers first by them.

It works for us and I will arrange anything I can to make them feel they matter most once business is completed. They will break their back for me and I will do the same. This is one of the reasons small business can still be vital in today's business climate. I see my employee/colleague as my customer and they take care of my customers.

Here is our experience over time. And it does seem to vary some.

We have received the Captains invite on 35% of the cruises in the RS.

We have apparently been lucky in that we have had the onboard escort including ships tour on 100% of sailings. They have all been on ships offering a RS as we have never sailed the two Oasis class ships.

We still take the tour mainly because those sailing with us get a great kick out of it. I am surprised it varies so much in others experience because they make a point of making introductions as you walk the ship and folks hand you their business card with the call if you need anything talk. Meant or not they sell that they are sincere and our experience has always been top notch.

I hope Royal gives all the expectations they create in peoples minds, be it suite or top suite treatmen!t or any of the loyalty perks. They have been an excellent cruise line in our experience and on a par or in some situations exceeding more expensive lines.

I believe each lifeboat holds around 350 people. That would be 6300 guests with 18 lifeboats.

If there was a call to abandon ship and the lifeboats were all launched successfully to capacity of people "passengers, crew" that would leave approximately 1850 people to use the viking evacuation chutes rigged and located between the grouping of lifeboats.

Life rafts are launched by pod to the water below connected by the chute system on deck four. Jump into the chute and with a little luck slide into the waiting water. Testing of these systems presented some interesting scenarios but if that is all you have it would be welcomed.

They are technically for crew but available to all of course. 1850 people in life rafts is much better than in the water.

Have been in the Royal Suite onboard her twice. Preferred it to the Pres family for the open spaces. We turned the living area into a sleeping area also in addition to the master. They brought two rollaways and stored them in the service kitchen during the day.

The sofa had one bed and was large enough to let two crash on either side of the L shape if they wanted.

Had a family in the Royal family two bedroom but it felt very hotel room like to them. No where near the level of the Pres and Royal Suites but still nice with the perks. Long walk to get to and from the room.

We have done the RS on all RCL ships that have them. We have experienced the full escort plus ships tour every time. Guests sailing with us in other cabins have boarded with us and enjoyed the tour prior to others boarding.

Some rag on why we would take a tour we have seen before and that is understandable but I see it as part of the RS experience and new folks traveling with us get a great kick out of it. Some have said that the concierge or ships officer that escorted them did not offer to show the ship to them so I would mention it to your escort if they dont do it automatically.

Enjoy, I know you will.

We qualify to be ragged on by both ends of the spectrum because we book the Royal suite and an inside cabin across the hall, usually 1620 and 1605. We have done this on every Royal ship that has a Royal Suite.

We have never been asked what category cabin we book nor told anyone in 27 cruises with Royal. I can't even imagine what would bring it up in conversation. We book online only and pay what the computer says to pay. It is a lot of money when compared to the average cost per person per day you can cruise for but not a lot compared to other ways to vacation.

If you look at what you can do for roughly 500 per person per day for the first two then add the nominal increase for the 2nd through 5th we usually wind up about 288.00 a day for five in the Royal plus the cost of the inside for two more.

It is comparable to many top notch resorts world wide. Plus it just works for us.

JMO, but I believe D and D+ will only be allowed to use the D lounge in the near future and Pinnacle and Suite guests will use the CL lounge. I think the drink vouchers are to get D and D+ eased into knowing the D lounge is going to be very crowded very very soon. Again JMO.

I believe the CL should be for suite guests and whatever is the current top level of loyalty, be it Pinnacle or the next highest level to be created.

I also believe that suite guests should let their opinion be heard via mail straight to the operations group at RCL that makes these decisions and pass the word for others who think the same way to do the same. We don't have the huge numbers of the other very vocal " and rightfully so" levels of loyalty customers, but our wishes count also.

The great and growing numbers of C & A members at all the different levels can and should be cared for in designated lounges of their own and provided with drink coupons they can redeem anywhere they chose on the ship if their loung is overcrowded or they just want a change of pace or scenery.

Loyalty must always be recognized and rewarded for a business to prosper, and top accommodation seekers must also be treated as such. Businesses know this and will act accordingly.

Be you a loyalty customer wanting that loyalty rewarded, or a suite customer wanting the exclusive treatment the word suite denotes, let your voice be heard at the corporate level as well as the social median level.

We have booked the Fantasy class Penthouse 1 and or 2 for years but they are not listed on the booking reps systems.

We use a contact in the office in Miami and I would think anyone who called would be able to do the same thing. We started doing it back in 1994.

We have had two American gentlemen as Cabin attendants, both on Voyager and both introduced to us by the same housekeeping director who had been with the ship for some time. He introduced both guys as his very best and they both lived up to the praise.

First was Walter from Dallas. He was mid 40s born and raised in Dallas and still living there. He was on a six month contract and had been brought in from another ship because if some need on Voyager. We actually went to rival high schools and talked about taking each others school flags during football seasons.

Then there was Alex from Philadelphia. Father of five also 40s. Funny as heck. Lots of laughs with him. Got to meet his wife when she came onboard on a one day pass and they were on the same ships excursion as us. Great people it seemed. I know they worked crazy hours but he put on a happy face about his job for sure. He said he had worked a couple of three month contracts back to back then got the six month after a break. We had Alex on two different sailings within a couple months.

This was the second Alex we had, same cabin same ship. The other Alex was of some Caribbean back ground, also nominated as one of their best, and he he loved people, loved his job and would be seen dancing on the balcony while cleaning rooms. He just made the day brighter by being it in.

Out of over 50 cruises these guys were the first American attendants we had met other than a English trained American nanny we met working as a concierge on Crystal several years ago.

If the ship has not converted the two Penthouse suites overlooking the main pool, they both have good balconies which are very private. They do have life boats hanging below them but views are excellent.

Been years since we have been in the Penthouse and some were converted to children's clubs at one time. You can ask about them through the executive offices and book through your travel agent with their approval.

We have booked both Penthouse 1&2 at times and they make for a huge space taking up the entire width of the ship with inner access through the master bedroom closet doors. If they are not available on this ship they may still be on others. Worth checking if you like lots of space and watching the activities outside on the pool deck.

Down line from Kaseke Ohn. I fall on the hand to hand evolution side. More involvement with entry team training once task forces began kicking down doors and someone was designated hands on if it was not a shooting situation but still went physical.

Funakoshi had great impact on my long time co- instructor and his.

Not just passengers, crews officers and servers need additional training about how to treat Special guests. For example;

The ship kept hitting those bumps in the water when we were getting some shut eye. The Captain should have steered into the wave troughs during sleep then got back on course when we were awake. We let corporate know that for next time. Simple retraining.

Food service came without a server and assistant to the suite. They must send the linen and silver serving, then the servers with a runner to keep food hot and served one course at a time. They even came without a crumb remover, seriously.

I could go into great detail on legal and available items you can use to defend self or others as could other folks but let's stick to one item that is completely benign as a risk to others but can save you by getting what you will need most in an emergency situation. That is the attention of both any attacker and others.

The attacker does not want the attention and others will be drawn to you which you do want.

Buy a search and rescue approved SAFETY whistle of 120 deciblels. This will exceed that of solas requirements.

Carry that whistle around your neck 100 % of your time while away. The time you think you won't need it will be the time you do. Murphys law.

If for any reason your gut instinct says to blow that whistle, TRUST it without question. Better to blow and apologize than to not blow and ever get another chance.

Blow THREE loud vigorous puffs. They will be extremely disconcerting to all near or far. If the confrontation continues, you continue the THREE burst blasts while defending yourself to get away safe.

Three blasts are internationally recognized and accepted as emergency help needed now right now.

Trust your Gut, instincts, awareness, internal warning system, observations, feelings. They will not steer you wrong. Even if nothing bad happens you will be right to have called for help if you think you need it.

Good vacationing.

Southwest Arkansas. 27 cruises with Royal. All booked direct with the cruise line. Not one problem ever so far and I get to control everything. Works perfect for us.

26 or 27 Royal cruises. Letter on all of them.