TinyPinkBug

We went to the Eagle Tribute band last night - wow!! Here is a video of their Hotel California

 

So I have a pet peeve about shows and some fellow patrons. For the most part, cruise shows are 45 minutes or so. If you do not have the patience to sit through it, then don't go. If you do go and think you might want to/ have to leave early, then for goodness sake, do not sit in the front or even in the orchestra at all! There is nothing more annoying to fellow guests or passengers then leaving early in clear view of the band and the entire theatre. These are small venues - the band plainly sees you and it is really is rude. These performers have spent decades perfecting their act, the least you can do is commit to 45 minutes!!

 

Rant over...

 

 

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Unless that guest required an unplanned trip to the rest room. We were on this same sailing and my daughter got hit with a stomach bug on the way back to the ship in Labadee. We overheard a lady talking on her balcony in a neighboring room that she too had been hit with severe intestinal distress around day 3. So it was definitely going around the ship.

I can't seem to get an answer to this. If we use Uber, will the driver make a stop along the way at a store? We are going from FLL to Port everglades and we just want to pick up some bottles of wine and water. And if they say no but have already pulled up, then what? Do we get a charge for cancelling the fare?

We don't have Uber locally.

did you have to type that out, or do you have it saved to cut and paste?

I typed it out. If it is a frequent response, I wouldn't know. I don't have unlimited amounts of time to spend on message boards reading and responding to posts. But thanks for asking.

They will keep raising the prices as long as there are passengers willing to pay it.

What about entertainment or live music on Princess--is there enough to do until about 11:30/midnight or so? And curious about demographics--interesting to hear about the kids clubs going in. We have teens--do people see a teen presence on the Caribbean sailings?

 

Thanks!

I am not sure about the live music.

But the kids clubs are new and still rolling out. I don't think there are any US sailings with the kids club upgrades yet.

http://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/kids-and-teens/

Oh, I forgot to add that the entertainment on Princess is not good. Same show tune snippets on all their ships, reminded me of a high school musical. And yes, the theaters on Princess are too small, but since the shows aren't worth seeing anyway....

We have sailed Princess before kids and my mother in law is an avid Princess cruiser, she is an Elite member. I agree the buffet and food are much better on Princess, and on Disney. In fact, my husband hates the buffet and quick serve food on RC. We haven't experienced aggressive up-selling on RC yet, but I am reading it has gotten worse in the past 6 months or so. We HATE being approached to buy stuff. If it is an issue on our cruise next week, it will certainly be our last RC cruise. Not that up-selling would be the reason, but it would be another drop in the bucket.

The main reason we sail RC over Princess for our family cruises is because of the kids clubs. But guess who is putting kids clubs on all their ships? PRINCESS! It looks like their clubs will be outdoor adventure club themed which is perfect for us. Maybe they will do more than just play Gaga Ball all hours and calling it various activities by throwing in a 5 minute craft every 2 hours like RC does. I am not impressed with RC kids clubs, but at least they exist.

No Boss Baby? I was thinking because it is a Dreamworks movie they would have it.

 

1) The cruise documents say to show up after 12pm, but I've seen on here that people show up often by 10am and are able to board. Is that frequent cruisers with special status, or will first-timers like us be able to board that early?

 

2) Our hotel (courtyard marriott) has a free cruise port shuttle. I've seen people say that the hotel shuttles should be avoided. Is that the case, and why? Is it because they are too slow or arrive to late?

 

3) I can't seem to find information on which nights are formal nights. Any ideas?

 

Thank you all!

I am also sailing on the Allure next week and the answers to your questions have unique answers for this particular sailing. On April 30, the Allure is scheduled to have an annual coast guard inspection so it will be boarding late. They sent out an email advising passengers that boarding will be delayed. As for the hotel shuttle, I am almost certain that the Allure is the ONLY ship in port that day! Not sure why, it seems rare for only one ship to sail out of Port Everglades on a Sunday but that is what I saw on a port schedule. So it shouldn't be an issue with the shuttles stopping at multiple ships. Not sure about formal nights, based on my past sailings with RC, there will be two optional formal nights.

Anyone know what movies are currently showing onboard? Thanks.

So after breakfast, we'd head to the Solarium to relax, read, nap, hot tub, dip in pool. And to get to the solarium, you walk past the pool decks where there are a lot of open chairs. There are also a lot of chair hogs, but there are still spots to sit down.

 

But in the solarium? That's a different story, guys. You walk in, and picture maybe 25 people in the whole place. But every chair has a towel on it. Some chairs have one flip flop. An old book. A stupid towel clip. Several clever folks took a towel, folded it lengthwise, and used it to knot two chairs together, saving TWO chairs with ONE towel! Now that is chair hog efficiency.

 

None of these "occupied" chairs have a wet butt print on them, or a tote bag that actually looks like someone is using it...signs that the chair is actually being used.

 

So let's try to do this right. I march over to the pool attendant. Tell him we'd like 2 chairs, and point out all the towel chairs. He says, "well, they're probably in the bathroom or getting food." SERIOUSLY. Sigh, okay.

 

At the risk of being flamed I'm gonna tell you guys how I handle this. I've been honest to this point, why stop now?!

 

THWART THE CHAIR HOGS USING THE MMM Method (Micmacmissy Method):

1. Find chairs that are obviously not really, truly occupied. I picked a set of two that had a towel on one, and a Pepsi tshirt so old and dirty it was clearly a rag, but still had a crease in it and didn't look like it had been worn.

2. Ask adjacent lounge chair occupants politely, "Have you seen someone actually sitting here?" If it's a real chair hog seat, they will say no, I promise you.

3. Plop yourself down and use the chair. I neatly folded the towel and placed it next to the chair, and just tossed the Pepsi tshirt next to the chair.

4. The end. The chances of someone actually coming along to confront you are slim to none, because I promise you, these people are gone for HOURS.

 

MMM Method Variation: Once you have been in that chair for at least 30 minutes, take the towel and Pepsi tshirt over to the pool attendant and say, "Someone left these behind. Do you have a lost and found?" And they will take them and put them wherever that stuff goes.

 

MMM Method Emergency Plan: You've followed the method and moved someone's stuff aside, and they come along within 1-29 minutes and say, "Hey! You took my chair!" You say to them, "My gosh, I am so sorry. I didn't think anyone was sitting here." And then you get up and move quickly. (I have NEVER had to do this.)

 

MMM Method Emergency Plan #2: Someone comes along within 30 minutes to six hours and says, "Hey! You took my chair!" You say to them, "This chair was vacant when I got here two hours ago." Then you pick up your book, start to read, and the conversation is over. Over, you got it?! Meaning if they continue to rant and rave you ignore them. You don't respond. You just keep sitting. Calmly. (I had to do this once, on Independence.)

 

Now, keep in mind that your comfort level with executing this plan may vary. I know lots of people (including the other 3 members of my family) who are appalled that I would touch anyone's towel or tshirt because it is not mine. And they won't do it. But they'll happily sit in the chair I clear for them. Guess what? Chair hogs are counting on you having that ridiculous fear...that's what keeps a front-row lounger available for them from 9:00am until they wander down at 1:30pm...or later!

 

I used the MMM Method on all three sea days...with no problems.

 

I wish folks would realize that if everybody only claimed a chair when they were actually using it, and then vacated, no one would have a problem finding a chair. But humans are humans and that probably won't happen, so instead, RCCL would police this a little better.

I hate the chair hogs, we go to the pools early to avoid crowds and frequently see people come drop a towel, leave and never come back. We actually had someone take our stuff off our chairs while we were in the pool on our last cruise. And not only did they put our stuff on the ground, but they took the actual chairs and moved them to the other end of the row leaving two open spots! This was on the Allure near the kids pool where they have a couple kid size lounge chairs, they took one regular size lounger and one kid size lounger and put them on the other side of the row down near the hot tub leaving one lone kid size lounger at the end of what was a single row of chairs. We had a bunch of stuff on those loungers too, between our two chairs we had 4 pairs of shoes, two cover-ups, a pair of sunglasses and a backpack filled with our belongings. It was early in the day (like 9am) with plenty of chairs (not loungers) open on the other side of the pool against the railing, they just really wanted those loungers I guess. My husband just picked our stuff off the ground and moved it to the chairs on the other side. We saw them, but didn't confront them.

Hi Showee. My son has autism and does not do well around lots of people, and in turn I am always looking to minimize our time in large groups of people to avoid problems. I was on the Allure last year and found it to be, overall, less crowded than my experiences on Disney ships. Of course, we also did things to avoid crowds, like not go to the pools at noon on a sea day. Walk through Central Park when going from one end of the ship to the other, I would go from our room on the 6 floor up two flights of stairs, walk across the park and then up the elevator to get to the other side. The boardwalk was a other space that rarely saw crowds. Muster was crowded, but that is going to be the case on any ship, even on a smaller ship like Enchantment. The nice thing about the Oasis class ship is that there are so many public spaces, it is easy to find at least one spot that is free of crowds at any given time.

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Has anyone seen the characters from Trolls onboard lately? Do you remember what times?

I have been thinking about booking the Labadee Dreamworks walking photo tour just for the dance party back on ship at the end because my daughter loves Trolls, but have read reviews that say the walking tour just an hour walk that visits a couple statues which sounds boring for my 7 and 9 year old while I would rather be claiming a good beach spot. Although it seems worth it for the inflatables at the end. Has anyone done the tour and share their thoughts?

I have googled it and can't find prices for these things either. I can find prices for park entry, dolphin encounter and packages for the Xtrem Adventure but no prices for things individually. We are doing the dolphin encounter through the cruise line which includes park admission. I wanted to know how much for just a game of laser tag.

My thought process, if you are eating at an eatery that is included in your cruise fair casual attire should be acceptable. If you are eating in an extra charge eatery, dress accordingly.

With the increasing cost of baggage with air travel, I think the cruise lines and passenger expectations need to adjusted to be more reasonable. Personally, I am not shelling out an extra $100 round trip to the airlines just so we can wear fancy shoes, dressed and suits to dinner every night. I usually wear a sun dress with a little jewelry and a shrug for dinner, my daughter wears a sun dress while my husband and son wear a collared shirt, my husband with slacks and my son usually with black dressier shorts. Also, if someone's bag doesn't make it to the ship because the airline flew it to the wrong destination, they shouldn't be blacklisted from the MDR because they don't have fancy clothes.

The argument that staff should equally be allowed to wear shorts is just ridiculous. Seriously, I worked at a restaurant in a beach resort town for years, we wore long dresses to match the old time theme. Customers rarely wore anything more than shorts and tank tops with flip flops, I would never have thought to suggest dressing like the customers.

Here is a link to the form to make requests.

https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/allaboutcruising/guestSpecialNeeds.do

You are being unfair for reserving a chair for hours and if you do I'm not surprised if the towel is moved.

 

43 cruises and counting.

Yes, thank you for assuming this was the purpose in my post. It wasn't.

I agree with you that it was a poor movie choice for an area that has a kids play area. They should really stick to G and PG movies, especially while the play area is open.

Reading some posts about people leaving towels on chairs. We have sailed RC before and know the towel on your sea pass drill. Do they really charge if they don't have equal numbers of towels in as out on the same room? I wouldn't want to leave a towel on a chair unattended for hours at risk of being charged for the towel should someone move it, or even take it and turn it in as their own because they misplaced theirs.

I just logged on and see that over the weekend our two room reservations got unlinked!!! They have been linked just fine since I booked, calling now as this could be a problem.

When did they switch brands? My MIL stresses about her coffee and has hated the coffee served on past RC cruises.

Some do magnets, not many. I like a few small magnets to help quickly identify my room in a long hall of doors. No FEs on Royal Caribbean. That is strictly a Disney thing.

I have random problems with both mock bookings and looking at things in "my cruises" for months. I was trying to do preboarding check in, and was getting blank screen with error messages. I have tried multiple browsers and there is just no consistency. I have called RCCI about it, after 25 minutes on hold was told that there have been no reported problems with the site and the agent told me it was strange that I was having issues. Funny that they act like they have never heard of website problems when there is a post almost EVERY SINGLE DAY from different people having the same problems. Must be policy to pretend like it isn't a wide spread problem.

In the 6 cruises we have taken, we have never done a cruise line excursion. We will be doing a dolphin encounter through the line on our upcoming cruise and it will be the first.

Honestly, we usually walk off the ship for an hour or so to go to the shops then go back on-board to enjoy the ship with less people. When we sailed Disney, it was really the best time to enjoy the ship because the public areas are so filled with kids on their ships.

We have sailed Disney, Royal Caribbean and Princess. The experience on DCL for the kids is worth every penny. But, your kids have to love characters to make it worth it. Comparing thing like the restaurants on DCL to other Cruise lines is apples to oranges since the MDRs on Disney are pretty much attractions. The rooms are larger and nicer on DCL than other lines, the split bathroom is a a great touch. And there is nothing not to love on Castaway Cay, there is a lot more value to Castaway Cay than to any other private island I have been to and I wouldn't consider a DCL itinerary without a Castaway Cay. And for the shows, well it is Disney!!!

All that said, once you have sailed DCL a few times and your kids are older, it just isn't worth the price. Other lines are offering more and more family friendly activities. Even Princess is rolling out a new camp themed kids club fleet wide ship by ship.

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