Zou Bisou Bisou

I want no issues on my cruise. We are D+ but always get the drink package ever since it has been offered. Makes life onboard so much more relaxing. I like to drink cocktails and wine , but also like many bottles of water per day. My husband drinks cocktails and beer, but also drinks specialty coffees and the occasional soda.  Some days we come out ahead money wise, some days the cruise line comes out ahead. All I know is we find it worth it. Do what is best for you.

Most experienced cruisers know better than to report anything to the ships medical staff, unless it is an emergency. If you get sick, stay in bed or stay in your cabin or on your balcony. Order room service or have your cabin mate bring you a tray. Take basic cold or flu or fever and headache meds which you should always travel with, and drink plenty of water or other fluids. Isn't that what you would do at home or would you run to the doctor with simple cold/flu symptoms?  

17 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Wow, this is an amazing new offer!

 

Thank you Cruise Gopher. I paid off my January cruise tonight and planned on using another card but saw your post. I had the offer waiting in Amex and got an email from Amex saying thanks for using the offer after making final payment. They said the points would be on. my statement. Cheers!

Thank you for your answers. Norwegian announced an end to the nonsense over a week ago and I was expecting the same from Royal Caribbean.  I'm sure the announcement is coming soon. The Royal Caribbean website is pretty clear that you don't have to show proof of Vax to board their ships in America traveling to the Caribbean.  The website also says testing only needs to be done when "applicable' which they clearly mean for ports of call and duration.  I NEVER wore a mask, took a test or danced with the Devil. I also have never had Covid.  If the Devil asks me if I am Jabbed with the Covid serum, I am under no obligation to tell him the truth. Why would I be?  

As they aren't requiring any proof of vaccination to be shown, how would they even know if you were vaccinated or not?  They say a test is required where 'applicable' on their website and my reading and understanding of 'applicable' in their FAQ's is that they are referring to ports that require it. Anyone cruise lately and not be asked about their Vax status or testing?

I gave up on being Loyal to Royal some years ago.  After over 30 cruises with Royal Caribbean, having been Diamond Plus for some time we just saw the service go down and the lack of appreciation for anyone really 'Loyal".  But we still sail Royal about once a year, down from the 3-4 weeks we sailed her per year in the past.  2 years ago we booked a full suite on Princess for  a special occasion cruise for 12 nights in Northern Europe.  First cruise with Princess and we loved it!  We booked another Princess cruise last minute a year ago and I realized they had bumped us up to Ruby.  I thought cool, didn't know why just accepted it.  We booked a third cruise we just took a couple of months ago on Princess and we were offered a last minute upgrade to a full suite for a nominal price and took it. When we boarded we realized we had been bumped up all the way to Elite and they comped a bunch of stuff for us.  We received a letter with our Elite pins that said we had been "fast tracked" to the top tier on Princess.  Needless to say we are sailing Princess next month and have another booked later in the year.  We do have our one cruise on Royal Caribbean for 2019 booked.

Obviously the Cruise lines, like every other business, knows exactly what all of us are doing.  They saw our history with Royal and wanted us to book mostly with Princess instead.  They saw our spending habits, we always buy the drink package, we sail to Europe often, we book most excursions through the cruise line, we eat at the specialty restaurants often and we buy Art onboard and use the Casino.  Meaning....we spend $$$ once onboard.

As far as the topic of the Royal Caribbean Diamond/Diamond Plus lounges, we long ago saw the writing on the wall.  We buy the drink package and that's that.  If we ever want to go in the lounges we can, but we usually don't.  I do wish they would comp us for the 3 free drinks we never use because we have the package, but I can usually find it on sale for 20-25% off.  But they offer that to everyone, so no big deal.  I do appreciate the Diamond plus balcony discount of $250.  I just wish they wouldn't continue to diminish the loyalty benefits.  I used to care more about that, but I have moved on.  Still love to cruise and find it a good value overall no matter what perks one gets.

We have sailed in JS 1100 and Balcony cabins 9256 and 8168 on Jewel and Serenade. They all have the extra large balconies. Book any of them and be happy you got it.

I have always purchased the Cruise line insurance through Royal Caribbean. Never needed it after 25 cruises with them until this year. Had to cancel last minute (2 days before cruise) because of illness and every single dollar was refunded minus the cost of the insurance. Was so easy and stress free.

xxx

I have just read somewhere that select will be "honoured" until its gone??

 

how can a lesser package run out? unless they mean until all people in my situation have had their vacation?

 

that would make sense

 

is there a difference between Premium and Deluxe?

If you pre-purchased the premium package before the change you will automatically be upgraded to deluxe. Yes, there is a difference, the deluxe is pretty much what the old Ulimate package was. They are no longer offering any alcohol packages except the Deluxe for purchase now.

I was just looking for this myself and I swear the PDF i found said the delux package only covered drinks up to $11 a day, despite cocktails costing $12. Was going to ask what's the point of getting the package if it doesn't even cover basic cocktail drinks (hard for me to drink $55 of just beer a day even at cruise ship prices)

I just got off the Allure on Sunday and never paid an upcharge on drinks or wine with the deluxe package. My understanding was that the drinks that are covered are up to $12, but I regulary ordered cocktails priced above $12 and wines above $12. Not saying you won't get charged, but I never did.

Where's the Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire gins??!! I got off the Serenade and they were on there.

I agree, they have been on all the ships I have sailed with the drink packages. I have been getting the Premium drink package on Royal Caribbean since they have been offered and on all my sailings out of both American and European ports, Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire were included in the premium and ultimate package.

It was just those loud whiners... I'm sure the meeting at RCI went something like this:

 

"Sir, we have complaints about dynamic dining"

- "How many?"

"4, sir."

- "4 out of 10 passengers?"

"No sir, 4.... 4 passengers"

- "How loud are they complaining?"

"Very loud, sir. Very loud"

- "Get rid of dynamic dining"

 

Yup. I'm sure it was just a very small portion of the passengers, maybe 5, maybe.... No other factors are all. Just a few loud whiners. Nothing from the staff or onboard management. No studying, no nothing. Just a few loud whiners who got their way.....

I think you hit the nail on the head. It wasn't just a small group of really loud, random whiners. It was feedback from people who sailed on the ships that had DD. We all get the Royal Caribbean survey, usually within hours of leaving the ship. When you answer the survey they know who you are, they know which ship you sailed.

Maybe others complained about Dynamic Dining in ways other than the surveys and maybe some of those people never sailed the ships with DD. But Royal Caribbean no doubt took the feedback from those that had sailed the DD ships and the low bookings on the DD ships and put 2 and 2 together.

Insurance won't help you

Yes it will if they purchased the cruise line insurance or other insurance that includes a cancel for any reason clause.

Ok cool thanks. I am still working on her to get it signed. I haven't given up yet but we will see. I did purchase the trip insurance. So if she doesn't come I will wait until we get there to tell them.

If you purchased the insurance through the cruise line and your niece can't go on the cruise you will be refunded for 75% of her cruise fare under the cancel for any reason clause. You must cancel first, if even the day before, and then contact the insurance company. They will email the paperwork for you to download and you can mail it in. The refund comes pretty quickly. If you booked through a travel agent, call them to cancel and they will inform the insurance company.

You will also be refunded for taxes and port charges, any prepaid gratuities and of course any prepaid on board options. These refunds will happen automatically to your credit card as soon as you cancel.

I hope your neice gets to go, but as long as you bought the cruise line insurance you will only be out 25% of what you paid for her cruise fare if she doesn't go. Just remember to actually cancel and inform the insurance company.

Yes, we have had this happen a few times on our many sailings. You may not find out what exactly happened, but may hear rumors. That is our experience.

Have a great cruise!

Having just been on the Ovation the shops and their goods are diffidently not crap.

All high end boutiques selling goods I could not afford...Gucci for one.

Oh sorry, should have said things, not crap. With high markups.

Ah... the age old question about flights out of FLL. We always book a flight

@ noon or later to be safe. But could we have made a flight scheduled for 10:20am? Yes, several times and if we had done express departure? Sure, usually. But.....and here is the but. No guarantee.

As far as being in a suite or D+, unless you do the express debarkation carrying your own luggage with no help you are not the first off. Also, be aware of the wheelchair lines. Now please folks don't take this the wrong way and attack, I respect people with disabilities. But we cruise OFTEN. Lately, I have noticed long lines of wheel chair folks with big "families" (group/friends/family) who get to depart when they basically want to. Far more wheel chairs than I ever see on the ship. I hate to think people are ordering wheelchairs to jump the lines, but go ahead and call me a skeptic.

Several years ago I was watching one of the business channels and they were interviewing Adam Goldstein when he was still President of Royal Caribbean. The interview was mainly about how Royal was heading into the Chinese market in a big way. I swear Adam was literally wetting his pants when he talked about how in the Chinese market all they want to do is gamble and shop. He said they couldn't keep enough crap in the shops. The Chinese would buy it all up. Now mind you he didn't actually call it crap, but the meaning was solidly put across. Gambling and shopping for overpriced stuff. Pure GOLD for the Cruiseline, no wonder they call that casino the Golden room.

thanks for a great review and advice! i took notes, as we will be on the CP in August…i am going on amazon next to look for the book you mentioned…

as frequent visitors to France ,and Paris in particular, i am sorry you missed what would have been a really special day.

only advice i would offer is that taking a train to Paris own your own from the port…even on a perfect day…is a HUGE risk…we don't look forward to the long ships tour "on your own" bus ride to Paris…but we do it every time to make sure we don't miss the ships departure. its worth it for 6 hours in Paris.

again thanks for sharing.

Be careful when you have a long day excursion and the bus/car ride is long. Traffic gets backed up. On one excursion in Italy the bus had a mechanical problem, they sent another bus as quickly as possible but we were definately delayed. In 2013 we were delayed coming back to the ship from Rome and of course the ship waited for us and wow, we left that port really quick after we boarded. Once while leaving Le Havre we kept hearing the same names called on the intercom. Then we left port. The waiter in Chops said 5 people didn't make it back. Had they been on Royal sponsered excursions the ship would have waited. In Amsterdamn our excursion on the canal boat actually got stopped by the police for a ticket....yes, lol. With traffic backed up going back to the ship we thought we would miss the sailing but they waited, we were on an RCL excursion. For the long haul excursions, be careful, they don't always wait if you book on your own.

I enjoyed your review. We will also be going on the British Isles cruise on June 24, and I had a question about how dressed up you need to be on the 2 formal nights. I am a platinum Carnival cruiser and have never cruised on Princess. On Carnival formal nights I usually wear dress slacks, along with a long sleeve dress shirt and a tie. Is this formal enough for the main dining room at the 8:15 seating, or will I also need a jacket or suit. Did you notice if any other men were allowed into the main dining room without a jacket/suit?

Yes, that is fine for formal night.

Ha ha ha.. Right on. Perfect

 

I have been snubbed by hot shot nobodies in the Cl lounge many times. Its just part of the deal. I have been sitting in first class on an international flight wearing my short pants and enjoying my pre flight cocktail and was asked by another passenger if I was "upgraded to first class?" I just smiled and pretended that I did not understand the question. She repeated the question and she looked even more like a bully the second time. I again pretended that I did not understand what she was asking....:)

So this stuff is every where.

Hot shot nobodies...love it. So many people judge others and they are so often so wrong. The "judgers"...or "hot shot nobodies" are gonna feel the heat of Karma one day.

Anyone that is going to directly comment or question if I am allowed to be somewhere I'd engage and have some fun with them; maybe something along the lines of "Oh, good, you work here, we need some vodka tonics here; doubles." ;) It's not really stooping to their level of pettiness or mean spiritedness, but it should quiet them down from then on.

Perfect!!! Love this.

First off, I want to thank the OP for her review.

So I read (almost) every comment on this thread over a period of several days. We have sailed the Liberty 3 times. Once in 2009 out of FL to the Caribbean when she was pretty new and had no real complaints. 2nd time was out of Barcelona in the fall of 2013 for 7 nights in the Meditteranean. Was one of our favorites overall not just for the itinerary but for the service. Most recently we sailed Liberty in March for spring break with our kids and grandkids, 10 of us with five cabins.

I have got to say, something is a little "off" with the employees we came in contact with on the Liberty 2 months ago. We had some awesome servers as usual and compensated them generously, but for some reason the crew doesn't seem very happy on that ship anymore. I can't quite put my finger on it. Food was ok overall in the MDR. Our servers in the MDR were great (but overworked), again we compensated them generously. Specialty restaurants were very good, Sabor being excellent in service and food, we ate there twice. Just wonderful. We really enjoyed our dinner at Giovanni's and Chop's was very good but they are getting more pricey than they are worth in my opinion. Been on more than 25 Royal Caribbean cruises where I have eaten at Chops so not a biased opinion.

Our experience with Guest Services wasn't too bad. We rarely complain but had just a couple of small issues and they seemed to always have someone work the line, which is smart to easily deal with people with simple issues. So that worked out.

Derek Lewis as the Entertainer and the whole British Pub staff were awesome. We enjoyed many of the other entertainment offerings.

Port of Galveston needs work, but we embarked fairly easily and quickly and disembarkment is ok as long as you get a porter who were being rationed when we debarked. I was told to "step aside and wait for a porter" while I watched people coming after me, especially in wheel chairs who got porters. I took matters into my own hands after a point and flagged down a porter before they got to the "line keepers" (I have another, not politically correct name for them). He was more than happy to help us and off we went. As far as the wheel chair people getting to jump the line pretty much continuously ahead of many of us (we were a family of 10 and my husband and I are seniors), I really hate to be so critical but I will tell you I have never seen so many wheel chairs in line for porters certainly more than I ever saw on the ship. Just saying. Blast me if you will, but just because you order a wheel chair doesn't mean you get to cut in a waiting line of over 20 people.

Overall we enjoyed our cruise. But after 2 years of doing the Navigator out of Galveston with the ten of us for spring break (2014 and 2015) and then the Liberty in March 2016 we are planning something else for 2017.

Just for info, we are Diamond Plus, two of our kids are Diamond Plus and the rest of the kids and grandkids are Diamond. We have always been happy with Royal Caribbean but some things are slipping and that is just a fact. We get the Premium drink packages for the 7 adults and have been very happy with that.

Enjoy the Liberty out of Galveston, but take everything with a grain of salt and hopefully a Margarita from Sabor. Cheers!

It has been 6 months of waiting since my last legit day off.

 

Unfortunately I had to send my mom and son on our Oasis cruise that leaves tomorrow alone. Family comes first and my mom ended up in the hospital all alone.

 

Unfortunately I learned the hard way how important insurance is as not only did I lose my cruise fare but I lost my Southwest companion fare which cost me basically $1000 to still send my wife and son on the cruise despite everything already being paid in full, for all 3 of us well in advance.

 

Painful learning experience and now I know how important insurance is.

So sorry about your Mom, I hope she gets well soon. Also sorry you missed your cruise. We had to cancel a cruise last month as I was quite ill with bronchitis and had a fever. Thankfully we did have the insurance so all is good. After over 30 cruises (all with insurance) this was the first one we had to cancel. So I'm not sure how much we spent on unused insurance over the years but I was glad to have it this time. It is an individual decision. I just feel safer with the insurance if we ever needed evacuation or something.