rrodriquez2

I was on the Majesty of the Seas in early February, very shortly after the drink packages were announced, and did not have your experience. Every drink I ordered (and those ordered by the other five people traveling with me) was included (maybe I am just a boring drinker :p ), the bartenders were extremely nice - especially after realizing I am a generous tipper on top of the included 15%, and we too did get receipts for every drink ordered.

 

As I recall, your last cruise was the Spring Break cruise that you weren't real pleased with. This might of had something to do with the confusion from the bar staff as they may have been overwhelmed with the college kids.

 

I do agree that nobody in my six person travel group drank enough to cover the cost of the package, but we would all buy it again. I liked having it prepaid, which meant not keeping track of a tab and/or having a big bill at the end of the cruise, I was able to order drinks that I might of normally not been willing to buy, and I didn't feel like I was wasting money if I didn't like it as I would just put it down and get another drink.

 

Bottled water, bottle/can soda, bottles of wine, and premium coffee are not included and that was pretty clear when I read up on the package. Neither my other half, or I, are wine or coffee drinkers, so that was irrelevant to us. Fountain soda from the bars and MDR are included.

 

I had also gotten the soda package with the Freestyle cups - which I would not do again as I just don't drink enough soda (although the Freestyle machines were fun to make crazy soda concoctions with :D and being able to fill the cup to take back to the room was nice too). I also had gotten a bottled water package that was delivered to my stateroom on the first day.

 

Having all of it prepaid was a huge bonus for us even if it ended up costing a little more than paying as we went.

 

Dan.

Dan I haven't been able to decide if it was untrained staff or the breakers. At the MDR there seemed to be no clue who was taking the drink orders and what was covered.

A suggestion to RCCL. How hard would it be to put an icon next to each drink on the various menus that indicates what package it is included in? That would remove all confusion on the pre-printed drinks for crew and passengers.

I can't say that crew knowledge of what is included in a package is the fault of spring breakers, that's bad training. I like the idea of the package but I don't think I'd buy it again.

I wouldn't buy the package if I had to do it over again.

#1 people are right. No matter how much you can drink $55 a day or $110 per couple is a LOT for 7 days.

#2 for us water was not included. We were told randomly all week some drinks weren't included yet others were drink CR Black and that was? Very odd. It seemed totally inconsistent and after finding 5 or so drinks I knew were included I never varied from those because I was tired of hearing a drink wasn't covered.

#3 at Labadee the people going around with the drinks won't serve you, you have to go to the bar where you get a dentist cup sized drink which melts in a flash. We tried buying the premium cups but they wouldn't sell them until the end of the day.

#4 It doesn't include the better coffees or soda from what we saw.

I wouldn't do it again. I'd rather spend $100 more and not feel like I was going before a jury every time I ordered a drink. They may work out the kinks it in but as a person that likes to toss them back I really saw no benefit in retrospect and too much confusion to make it something I'd do again.

The bartenders will let you take the cap with you on beers if you've gotten to know them. Generally I think they aren't supposed to do it.

The mixed frozen drinks are ice and premix as everyone else says. They're still pretty good.

It does include drinks at Labadee and the other destination they own.

It does not include the cups. You will have a hard time getting them to sell you the cups on a place like Labadee if you have the package for the difference.

You cannot tip extra with the package which I think is a negative.

They will let you use your SOs card or friends card to get a drink per card.

based on all the comments about wines being out across the various ships and our experience with higher end drinks being unavailable on the Indy I probably would not buy the package next time and would instead bring two very good bottles of wine on the ship and buy drinks day to day.

Assuming a wife and husband in a room for 7 days, $700 buys an awful lot of drinks. Probably more than most can drink I think.

Thanks for posting all of these!

This was done last December on Indy

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1758519

Ouch because it was awful. I know they're upgrading to a pervasive system like on the Oasis classes though. That's happening next month.

It was terrible whether you used their computers in the lounge or your own though so not sure if that will help the connection problem.

Also at least on the Indy there was no way to log off once you logged on with an iPhone. The screen disappears and disconnecting from the network by going into airplane mode did not stop the clock ticking. The only way to get it to stop was to log in with your computer otherwise your minutes would be gone. Unlike the PC simply disconnecting did not do the trick.

From the UK website today :

 

The Radiance, Splendour, Freedom, Liberty, Independence, Oasis and Allure of the Seas offer ship wide coverage, including staterooms.

 

Coverage on all other ships will be limited to designated "Hot Spots."

 

The cost for Wi-fi access through your own device is:

The basic rate is USD 0.65 per minute or choose from one of our pre-paid packages:

 

USD 35.00 for 60 minutes

USD 55.00 for 100 minutes

USD 75.00 for 150 minutes

USD 100.00 for 250 minutes

USD 150.00 for 500 minutes

Users should be aware on the Indy before drydrock shipwide is a misnomer. We were up on the top decks and it was erratic. It was so weak compared to the newer system on the Allure that in Jamaica in our room the only network we could attempt to connect to was the one on the Allure even though we were on the Indy!

The pre-dry dock indy was the worst of the ship Wifi's I've experienced. The Dream class and Oasis classes are much better. After the dry dock I think it'll be better on the Indy.

It would take at times 20-25 minutes to retrieve a dozen or so emails. It was that bad. They did issue credits without complaint and this is something that is supposed to be upgraded in a few weeks.

But please in the meantime if you absolutely rely on internet while at sea be prepared for long periods without a reliable connection on the Indy at least until dry dock and be prepared to pay through the nose when it does work it's so slow compared to the Oasis/Dream class.

Again I was told multiple times it's going to be upgraded in a few weeks.

Please report back on your experiences.

We found with the PI package we seemed to get begrudged treatment from the bartenders up until we tipped them out with cash on the 3rd day. I think it's a diminishing return thing with them, once you get over your $55 I believe they are making less and less on the tip percentage.

Not sure of that though.

We need a test case, one of you needs to drink like a fish and see if the service goes down as the daily tab goes up :rolleyes:

FlaPeach : I have the Vintages wine menu. It is too big for me to photo but I will happily scan and then post a link to view on my return. Drew has given me a brochure about the Art on Freedom. Again this is extensive and way too big a task to photo etc so again will scan on return.

 

I have run into the Norwegian family whose luggage went adrift. You remember them on Day 1. ALL their luggage went adrift. They are hopeful to receive it tomorrow in Jamaica as their daughter is getting married on Grand Cayman on Thursday….. she has her dress fortunately but the shoes etc are currently elsewhere.

 

The internet package I purchased initially is about to run out. Had I foreseen how slow it was going to be I would have purchased a larger package initially. There is no way to top it up. It has to expire first so I will have to log on for 3 minutes or so, log off so I don’t get charged .75c per minute then log back in and purchase a new package. How antiquated.

 

Want to give a big thumbs up to the Guest Services team. Each and every one of them has been polite and efficient. In fact every time I pass a crew member a greeting is offered by them regardless of their status. This makes one feel very much at ease and comfortable with ones surroundings. I will miss this very much. My next venture is a river cruise on the Rhone so my blogging will be on a different board …..

 

When I got back from Labadee I headed straight away to the pool and swam a few ‘lengths’. I had it all to myself. No problems finding a bed. Took pics of the empty children’s pools.

FWIW you can buy a $10 all day pass in Jamaica right at the little hut in the middle of the port when you get off. It'll give you a PIN number that you use to log in. very fast connection and worked on the ship too. Just be aware it seems to be tied to a single device. compared to the internet connection on the ship it was like 2013 vs 1990.

The $10 pass worked until we were about 200 yards from port steaming away, it has no time limit.

I was on IOS last week and my two Labadoozies (and my husband's two as well) looked just like the photo posted - those are the same cups they've been using for years - in fact, we have so many of them we didn't even bring them home this time.

At the bars you got a clear solo cup if you had the drink package. You could not buy from the servers or I should say they wouldn't give up the fancy cups they had for the incremental price of the cup $3.85 I think it was until the end of the day when they had to dump what was left (suspect they make better tips selling the full drink/cup). At the BARS (bar/buffet nearest the water park) and the bar behind the beach north of the water park they were also both often out of the drink itself. You don't get the cup unless you're willing to pay for it but for whatever reason people with the PI weren't allowed to buy either until the very end of the day when they were trying to get rid of the ones the servers were carrying around. Again hit of miss with the inclusive packages. The fancy coronas must never have made it onto the island that we saw. I suspect you didn't have the package.

I'd be curious to hear about how late the pools and bars stayed opened on FOS. We were just commenting on how the bar near the kids pool was closed no later than 6 all nights, and that the back bars were usually closed pretty early too along with the pools being roped off/tubs almost at the same time.

It's great to compare. I feel better knowing what's going on for this FOS is more in line with previous RCCL experiences. This looks IMO like a much different cruise.

Unfortunately, I had the same thought. I didn't get to sail IOS as planned this Feb, but after reading reviews of other ships, Indy doesn't seem to compare. Just going by reviews. Lots of little things that are missing on Indy, it seems. I think I will book Freedom for my next cruise!

We heard people talking about the special corona last time they were in Labadee. I had no idea what they were talking about/bummed over until these photos. Same with the Labadee cups. The buffet also looks much neater and more organized. It looks like a totally different cruise. It looks like what I thought I was getting on the RCCL cruise last week but didn't.

Lesson learned, ships in the same class can be vastly different.

Great photos, this is a real unique opportunity for most of us to see how it's handled just a week after I was in those same ports.

That's the way they've done Corona on Labadee for a few years. Our IOS cruise last week had glass instead of those bottles. We were told again...college kids drank the other ones.

Also, we didn't get the cool Labadee cups, just a clear plastic solo cup like you'd get at your dentists office but with the same giant straw. Overall the more I see other cruises the more I realize how much last weeks IOS was subpar compared to the normal RCCL stuff.

Great photos, the weather looks ideal on your Labadee day.