BearsAhoy

6 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

This is a real review without angst or vitriol. I can imagine seeing everything you noted over multiple cruises in the last three years.

 

What opened my eyes was the excellent cruise I had last November on the Jewel of the Seas for nine days.

 

The cabin attendant was superb. Any request was instantly handled.

 

Our MDR experience was the best that I have had since 2008.

 

It reminded me of all of the cruises I did from 1988 to 2008.

 

I am now on hiatus (with my wonderful wife) from cruising in 2025 and trying some all inclusive resorts.

 

They could be far worse and I may have horror stories to tell or they might be our transition away from cruising being our main mode of vacations.

 

You are not alone in your observations.

Thank you. I try to be fair and balanced, though it would be easy to whine. I think in all cases, if we’d been on our first cruise, or even our first cruise with Royal, none of this would have stood out to me. It is only because we’ve been on a number of cruises now, and because we had the direct comparison with the other stateroom in our party, that the missing pieces were evident. That’s the thing about setting expectations, right? 

To tell the truth, I did wonder a few times during this cruise, “did we choose the right line?” It was the right cruiseline for us when we first started cruising. Most of our cruises have been intergenerational; our children were very young when we started, and they were happy. My parents were happy (and loved it so much that they made D+ very very quickly). And we were happy because everyone else was happy and we could get a little break from the busywork of parenting young children. My time dining worked well for us. Kids were happy in Adventure Ocean. The balance of formal to casual worked for all of us. The dining room staff made our children feel like they belonged. (One of my favourite photos from any cruise happened to be taken on Jewel: our waiters made binoculars with napkins, and my mom and I took those to get some silly, casual photos taken by a ship photographer.)

Our kids enjoyed the teen club on this cruise, and made friends. We adults got some down time. Courtesy of a fall in port, I made use of the excellent medical centre 🤦‍♀️ But it felt like we were no longer the target audience, or maybe we had outgrown the experience.

When we were planning our first family cruise, we considered all obvious lines: I’d have loved  to have done a transatlantic on Cunard, but it would have been too formal for us (at the time). Our kids aren’t really into Disney, so we ruled out that cruise line. Some of us are far too introverted for “the fun ship”; it just isn’t us. We were advised that HAL might not be the right choice with young kids. That kind of left Princess and Royal. Royal fit the bill then.
 

We all prefer the smaller ships (Radiance class for the win!), and none of us, even the teens, are interested in the Oasis/Quantum/Icon ships. We’ve really enjoyed X, and I can see that being a choice in the future, but it seems like RCCL is blurring the lines between the two brands. I’m not interested in Coco Cay; we all prefer sea days to port days anyway.

And being in Vancouver, unless we keep going to Alaska over and over, all cruises require a flight, which makes the trip that much more expensive and rules out short cruises. Flights to LA were relatively reasonable (cost and travel time), but we’ve done the Mexican riviera twice now, and there isn’t a lot of appetite to repeat that, especially if the service and food were disappointing on the only ship homeported there.

We are *thisclose* to D+. Oldest kid will be 18 soon, and I’d like to get D+ before then so they get the benefits. But after that, I’m not sure we’ll still be Royal Loyals. Once we are no longer limited by school schedules and approach retirement, we’ll have more flexibility both with vacation dates/lengths and what we can do with our holiday time. In port, we saw Regent Seven Seas Grandeur and Viking Mars, and they sure looked interesting. (And when we don’t have to pay for kids to travel with us, why not go more upscale?)

We understand full well that cruise lines are businesses, and as such will offer what their target market wants and is willing to pay for. But, it sure does seem that Royal’s target audience no longer includes us.

10 hours ago, nimbex1970 said:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the service on the rest of the ship which we found lacking as well.  It seems the amount of service staff has been cut as well.

I definitely noticed the change of service, particularly with respect to our stateroom.

Our party of 5 was in two junior suites, with different stateroom attendants. My mom’s experience was pretty much normal, other than not meeting her attendant until a couple of days into the cruise. Ours was not as we’ve come to expect:

- our stateroom attendant was hard to find during the cruise, and as he didn’t provide a card with his contact details, we couldn’t reach him.

- I’d arranged for distilled water and an extension cord before our cruise. We had to ask for it again upon boarding. Once provided, the extension cord was run across the room, unsecured. (On X last year, our attendant taped it to the floor so it wasn’t a trip hazard.) The first night, I placed a nightlight (battery-operated tealight) along the cord, so anyone needing to get up during the night would have some indication that it was there. Once we were able to talk to our attendant, he seemed surprised that this was a problem for us. After some thought, he solved it rather elegantly, by using magnetic hooks to run it along the cabin ceiling and walls. 
- we had to ask repeatedly for some things, like (C&A) bathrobes and laundry forms.

- we asked for wine glasses, which were only sometimes replaced after use. (Other used glasses/mugs were also left for a day or more.)

- our bathroom didn’t have a soap dish. I put our bar of soap on the box it came in, and on day 3 finally got to ask the attendant about it. He said he had no soap dishes, and suggested using a washcloth. (Maybe I’m expecting too much, but he couldn’t he have replaced the soggy cardboard box with a washcloth when he saw soapy mess?) My mom’s JS had a soap dish - and more toiletries, too.

- we couldn’t find tissues. When we asked the attendant, he said they no longer place them in the bathroom (or indeed the tissue holder in the loo). Instead, the box was tucked into a drawer in the dressing table/desk. (In my mom’s room, the tissue was indeed in the box holder in the bathroom.)

- our cruise had four time changes. Each time, we saw that other cabins had notification cards slipped into the seapass readers; we didn’t receive any. 

- we had to ask for the sofa bed to be made up for our son - and it was left open through the whole cruise. On port days, it was less of an annoyance, but we’d have really preferred it closed on sea days. (With the bed open, access to the balcony was impeded, and the very comfy armchair and ottoman had to be squished into a corner.) But, being that we never saw our attendant after day 3, we couldn’t ask him to close the bed.

I’m not sure which department was ultimately responsible, but we didn’t receive any of the Diamond treats, the “chef’s choice”. My mom received two (or three?) deliveries, and we received none. Even the “welcome waters” were fewer than we should have received. If we hadn’t received these on previous cruises - or had another stateroom in our party, with which we would compare - we wouldn’t have noticed. But, again, we’ve been doing this long enough to have expectations, and those weren’t met.

A cruise is a cruise, and I’m still grateful that we could do this trip. But, meh.

On 12/29/2023 at 4:52 PM, sanchoucsb said:

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum, but until I saw it for myself I wasn't prepared for the decline in quality of the food in the MDR since I last sailed on Navigator on only 18 months ago.

 

At least 50% of the dishes in the MDR are now barely edible impersonations of what you might get at a nice restaurant. Sure, you can order prime rib, but it's sliced as thin as deli meat. You can order pea risotto, but you are going to get soggy rice with some frozen peas thrown in. It goes on and on. My wife works at a large hospital and when I said to her, "It's like we are eating at your cafeteria," she said, "Oh, our food is much better than this."

 

A few of the dishes are decent, but they tend to be the more casual options - the fried chicken, the enchilada, and the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer were all something I would order again. Also, the Indian option was consistently good.

 

Overall, the entire concept is a failure now. There is still formal dining room ambience - massive chandelier, white linen table cloths, and the assistant waiter who comes to your table before dessert to wipe your crumbs away. But budget cuts have resulted in food that has no place in such an upscale setting. There is a reason that upscale casual restaurants on land don't try to offer risotto or escargot - it's impossible to provide at high quality at the price point they need to hit. Yet RC seems to insist on offering these options even though they are incredibly disappointing when they are placed in front of you. If RC is going to insist on this new, lower cost per meal, they would be better off abandoning any pretense of formal dining (perhaps except for formal nights) and converting the MDR to a nice, upscale casual restaurant. It would be unfortunate, but at least we could have consistently good food, even if we lose the formality of a three-course meal. It would also distinguish RC from other cruise lines and allow people to "vote with their pocketbook." If a formal dinner every night is important, people can choose Celebrity (which recently recommitted to the MDR and added certain dishes back). If people want a more casual experience while on vacation, they can choose RC. Because at the moment it's just smoke and mirrors - the illusion of fine dining.

 

We disembarked Navigator yesterday, and agree. We’ve been cruising with Royal since 2013, and I guess I’ve become one of “those people” who compares to the way things used to be. The smaller portion sizes are fine, but the reduced menu is disappointing. (I will forever miss those chilled fruit soups!) 

The food in the MDR wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great, and sometimes it wasn’t even good. It was bland. I’ve attached a photo of one meal, which I didn’t even finish: the fish was blah, and the rice was a compressed puck of mush (the rice grains were indistinct). Tiramisu was on the menu one evening - and served in a plastic dish.

We normally choose my time dining, but it didn’t begin until 6:45, which was too late for one in our party. We ended up with traditional dining, and a 5:15 reservation, which was too early for all of us. What’s worse is that we felt very rushed, as our table needed to be turned over for the start of MTD. Dishes were being removed while members of our party were still eating. A few times, when we were asked if we wanted more bread and said no, the baskets which still had bread were taken away. (We didn’t want more, but we did want what was still there!)

The staff seemed rushed and inattentive. The assistant waiter continually asked for our drink orders the moment we sat down; each time, we had to ask him for the wine list and time to consider it before ordering. The bar waiter would stand behind me and my husband and call out the names of the wine; we had no idea she was even talking to us, and couldn’t hear her clearly because of the background noise. One evening, I stood up from our table, turned to leave, and immediately tripped over a stand for an ice bucket. It had been placed right behind my chair. On subsequent nights, I had to ask that it be moved so I wouldn’t trip on it again.

On prior cruises, the dining room staff was eager to exceed expectations and help with any requests. Early in a lengthy B2B, our waiter quickly realised that one of our kids ordered fruit as a starter each evening; he thoughtfully brought a fruit plate each evening before we even ordered. That same kid asked about chicken noodle soup on our first night in the MDR, and the waiter just said no, without even checking if it could be available.

The Windjammer was disappointing too. The offerings seemed limited in comparison to previous cruises. On New Year’s Eve, due to the combination of that early dining time and a tender port, we are at the Windjammer. That’s when we discovered that the MDR entrees were no longer offered in the WJ.

We did enjoy meals in Chops and Jamie’s Italian. We were surprised, though, when the warm brownie desserts on offer at Jamie’s also appeared the next night on the MDR menu. (Kids had those in both places, and confirmed they were the same.)

To me, it seemed odd to have the same item in a specialty (paid) restaurant and the main (included) dining room.

If this had been our first cruise, our perception might have been different. But given all the meals we have previously enjoyed in the MDR (and maybe because our preceeding cruise was on X, and we ate almost all of our meals in Luminae, which was excellent), we expected better.

Route as per Marine Traffic. All the way back to the pier, and then out again.

I saw a tweet about Brilliance, and was checking here to see if there was more info. 

Same problem, came here to see if others were having it.

Thanks to those who explained how to fix it!

15 hours ago, tottenhamfc said:

If this continues I could see Canada going back to PCR. I to was on the same cruise and I would suggest that there is a very reckless element on board. The double vax is the main criteria and the antigen was the additional measure for CDC and Canadian authorities. We masked and we attempted to social distance as best we could. Most on board thought that they were protected because of the requirements laid out by the powers to be. There was no inconvenience attached to our own measures of protection. We did not get the virus on either the first or the back to back so we are either very lucky or the additional measures help.

We three masked in all public spaces, except when eating or drinking, and are now 3/3 positive.

3 hours ago, daisy-mae said:

I suppose it helps to be located in the same city as the port, with the option to quarantine at home, should the need arise.

 

Definitely. I was home and had a positive test before lunchtime. Fortunately, we have a guest suite in our basement so I’ve been able to completely keep apart from my husband and kids and cat while isolating and they’ve stayed healthy.

Thank you for sharing your story. Fellow Newfoundlander here, but I live in Vancouver. I boarded Radiance on April 29. I was travelling with my parents (I had my own cabin) and left my husband and kids at home. We have all been diligent about masking and following best practices, and even with kids in two different schools, we’ve dodged Covid for 2 years.

I felt fine until the day we returned to Vancouver. Friday morning, I woke up feeling wheezy and with a really croaky voice. My husband had a meeting and couldn’t wait to meet the ship so he parked our car at Canada Place so I could drive my parents home rather than put them in a taxi. After dropping them off, I came straight home. I had a positive rapid test before lunch time.

So after a week away from my family, I’ve been quarantined in our basement. If testing day is Day Zero, then today is Day Five and I’ll test this evening to see if I can surface.

Of our party of three, two of us have Covid, which we obviously picked up either on the ship or in port. We were stringent about best practices, but so few people were masked in crowded spaces. (While still well under capacity, our sailing had about 1600 passengers.)

This is not the souvenir any of us wanted, and I’m frustrated that, after keeping my family safe for two years, I brought this virus into my home.

10 minutes ago, knuyens said:

Who is Trace? Link please 

https://rapidtestandtrace.ca/product/observed-test-for-travel/

On 5/5/2022 at 9:15 PM, bctablet said:

Anyone successfully board a Royal Caribbean Alaska cruise in Vancouver with a proctor Covid test using one of those diy rapid antigen test kits provided for free by the BC government in Canada?  Those test kits provided for free are not FDA approved.

Yes. I used one of our free kits and was observed virtually by Rapid Test and Trace.

9 hours ago, sgmn said:

How long was your cruise ? Seems to me short, less than 7 days, cruises are the way to go. So many stories of people testing positive once home

7 days.

My husband and kids, who weren’t on the cruise, are fine. I’m quarantined in our basement.

(At least I’m still getting room service 😁)

Disembarked Radiance this morning. Obviously I had tested negative before the cruise, felt healthy through the cruise until thIs morning when my voice was really croaky and I had a bit of a cough. I tested as soon as I got home, and got a faint positive. Retested just now and it’s definitely positive.

I wore a KN95 in all public spaces except when I was actively eating or drinking. (And the one time I went in a hot tub, because a wet mask wouldn’t be any use anyway.)

On 9/27/2019 at 5:15 AM, SarniaLo said:

There are testimonies of passengers with cancelled trips on a social media Hutrigruten group I'm not sure I'm allowed to mention here.
But indeed on MarineTraffic the current position (as of 2019-09-27 12:11 (UTC)) is near Vancouver. This is really weird.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5842449/mmsi:257425000/vessel:ROALD AMUNDSEN

We live in Vancouver and had wanted to go see the ship when docked at Canada Place yesterday, but just couldn’t arrange it. However, was in the area today with one of my sons and checked Marine Traffic to see what ships would be in. We were surprised to see Amundsen in, since the port schedule showed that it was to depart at 20:00 yesterday. We decided we’d go to have a look after lunch, but as we came out of the restaurant, my son pointed out that it was pulling away from Canada Place. We watched as it headed towards the dockyards on the North Shore, rather than out of Port.

We were puzzled, but couldn’t find any information as to why it was still in port today and going to the dockyard, so of course I had to look on CC.

8 hours ago, dpostman said:

Well John... I was wrong and you were right.

 

My odds were apparently better than I had calculated.  This afternoon I had just finished putting the luggage tags that I had printed a few weeks ago into our plastic sleeves as we were packing for our 12 day Baltic cruise departing next Sunday (one week from now), but we are flying out to Amsterdam on Thursday.  I just happened to come downstairs to check my tablet for something and an RCI email had just come in announcing the good news.

 

We had succeed with our upgrade bid from a deck 8 interior room to a deck 7 balcony.

 

Here are the details for those interested.

Booked an interior room for a 12 night Baltic on Brilliance on first day itinerary was available (607 days out).  At the time, Basic Balcony rooms were just over $2000 CAD more than an interior.  This was our first time booking an interior but we wanted to get the most out of our cruise with excursions and all so we decided to try an interior.  I figured maybe I'll get lucky and be able to upgrade during a sale or something.  As time went by, I kept checking and prices kept creeping higher and higher.  About a year out, interior rooms were sold out and balconies were over $3000 CAD more so my hopes of a balcony were quashed.

 

85 days out, after final payment, I got the email with invite to Royal UP.  They offered me a chance to bit on 2 rooms.  An Ocean view,  Ocean View Balcony and Spacious Ocean View Balcony. I waited a few days and about 83 or 82 days out, I placed a bid only on Balcony and spacious Balcony.  I did not bid on Ocean view.

 

So we got a regular Balcony, close the hump at the aft end of Brilliance but a slightly obstructed view I suppose is better than a 100% obstructed of the room we had booked.

 

Both bids were just a few notches above the weakest bid.  Total cost for upgrade was $800 CAD (About $605 USD).

 

This cruise is for our 25th anniversary but we got the news today... the actual date of out anniversary.  Extra reason to celebrate 🥂 .

 

So John, if we get a chance to meet up one day, I owe you a drink.

Cheers

dp

Congratulations! That’s excellent news!

We haven’t heard anything about our bid (JS to GS). Although other categories have shown availability at times, the suites are stubbornly sold out. (We got the last available JS when we booked.) Not expecting success.

2 hours ago, Kate P.C said:

We used Anastasia Travel as well and was very smooth booking and visa procedures. The manager was fast responsive and they tailored our tour precisely as we wanted to. That was an amazing tour as well as the entire Baltic cruise!

I’m so glad to hear this! I contacted several companies, and the responses from Anastasia were always quick (even if it was just to acknowledge that my message had been received and they would reply shortly) and they were most responsive to our requests and interests. (A rep from another company effectively mocked me for asking for a booster seat for one of our children.) They gave me the best impression, *but* they aren’t one of the big companies and there aren’t as many reviews, so I was still a bit apprehensive. The custom itinerary they put together for us, as well as the willingness to answer all my questions, totally won me over.

We will be on the August 11 cruise, and have booked two days’ private tour with Anastasia travel. (They also took care of our ballet tickets, and visas.)

7 hours ago, Pratique said:

 

You can also call Royal in advance and ask for it, it will be in the stateroom when you board.

Thank you for this info! I’ll be having surgery in a few months, and my ENT wants me to diligent with the sinus rinses in preparation. I was wondering how I’d manage on the ship next month.

Just now, dpostman said:

 

Best of luck to you, but for the first time we booked an Interior so we need this upgrade to a balcony more than you 😉

 

Actually, we are fine either way as our last cruises, we spent so little time in our room that we figured we would put the difference on bev packages and excursions 🙂

 

dp

We need someone with a GS or OS to cancel, to start the dominoes! 

6 minutes ago, dpostman said:

 

Congrats.  I also cruise on 8/11 but 12 night Baltic... I am still waiting for a response 🤞

 

Sold Out cruise so I'm not holding my breath.

dp

We haven’t heard anything, either. Have a JS, bid for a GS, so not very likely I’m sure.

This happened to us last year, before our B2B on Voyager. They had done website shenanigans around the time we checked in online, and first my husband’s points disappeared completely. Once he got that fixed, we all got bumped into Diamond. (Following that B2B, we really are Diamond.)

We will be there next month on Brilliance, and have booked through a private company (Anastasia). They have arranged our visas.

6 minutes ago, dpostman said:

 

I did receive an email confirmation that they received the offer about 30 minutes after placing a bid.

Good luck on your bid.... sort of... 😉

I think if only one of us wins a bid, the winner should invite the other over for a beer 🙂

 

dp

 

So now I’m really puzzled that we didn’t get the confirmation message. 

Deal on the drink! 🤞

We decided on a whim to place a bid for our August cruise. Should we expect to receive a confirmation email?

7 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Per person age 18 and over.

Thanks for the confirmation, but harrumph at the kids (introduced by one CD as “future pinnacles”) not getting the perk!

6 hours ago, dpostman said:

Our Roll call for our August Baltic in 41 days only has 9 pages (about 225) posts.  Still no daily activity.  Last count I Seen for the MM is 37.  I'm glad we passed the 25 but 37 still seems low for a sold out ship.

 

Anyway, I'm sure we will still meet many great people on board, as the few that are participating in the roll call are a very nice bunch.

 

I attribute this low post count to the fact that I figure there are lots of European guests that might not participate in and English forum.

dp

I’ve been surprised by the sleepiness of that roll call. For our cruises out of Oz last year, the roll calls were quiet, but I discovered that there were FB groups that were very active. I haven’t found any alternate chats for our Baltic cruise, though.