Meggysmum

I have sailed with RC and Princess a total of 16 times and only ever had a couple of minor tweaks to itinerary ( a reduction if 1 hour in port). I am sailing for the first time with NCL in 2 weeks, I have lost count of the number of changes. We have lost 2 ports and significant time differences at others. This is in Asia where a lot of ports are tender and a long way from where we would like to visit. I am not even getting refunds on an 8.5hr excursion I booked which is now at a port where we are tendering and now only have 7 hours in total so obviously I will be missing quite a chunk of my excursion. They have also switched some ports to alternative days so we actually seem to be sailing further. The latest changes which are quite major affecting 4 of the stops were only communicated last night. My daughter booked a similar cruise ( several if the same ports) with Celebrity at the same time as we booked our NCL one ( over a year ago), she has just returned from her cruise which was exactly the same as she originally booked so I don’t understand why we are being to subjected to so many changes. It feels like Bait and switch as this cruise no longer resembles what we booked.

9 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

 

On my cruise last month on Sapphire Princess (Princess Cruises) we had a kettle and tea and coffee making facilities in our cabin. It was great to be able to make ourselves a cup of tea or coffee whenever we wanted. I think Princess only has kettles in cabins on cruises leaving out of Southampton.

 

 

 

We commented that this must just be from Southampton as we have never had kettles before on our Alaskan or Med cruises.  Maybe just aimed at us Brits who need our cuppa before we function!

Since RC have the worlds worst website that just goes in to error mode if you try to pre-book anything that requires two cabins to do anything together I do worry about their tech!

 

These advances are great if they work but I have my doubts!

I am a pretty avid reader of small print but I had obviously missed this. I am not likely to get pregnant again but when I was a little younger I knew that planes wanted letters of fitness to fly after a certain point and presumed cruise ships would be similar. At a few weeks pregnant many women don't know or don't imagine it would affect their holiday.

 

I was a ticking time bomb last week. I set out to board Brilliance, half way to the port I suffered a massive haemorrage inside my left eye with danger to the retina, I lost all vision and was rushed in to theatre with an eye specialist and I was being operated on as the ship left the UK. I am physically fit, 47, have no health conditions at all and no conditions that would have predicted this disaster. I was in immediate danger of loosing my sight and, if it had happened 24 hours later, I would have required removal from the ship. I never had any issues during my pregnancies though so would have been a safer passenger then!

I was trying to book for 3 cabins together. I permanently got error messages for 90 days out until sailing. No-one seemed to know why, tried customer service and facebook but no-one would ever bother getting back to me.

I will miss the Windjammer in the afternoons. If we have been off the ship on a long tour and have late dining we quite like something in the afternoon and my two teenage lads will be starving! I presume there is something on offer somewhere or they will start to look like ice-creams!

I would love to see what extra protection us UK residents get for our Cruises!

I am really starting to resent the way that our prices are high anyway compared to US for the same cruise and then they bring in price slashing which they know we can't take advantage of.

As a family who travel with children in a separate cabin we have to book early to endure that we can get cabins close enough together to pass RCIs rules. Last year we tried booking later and were turned down as they hadn't got cabins within 1 door of each other.

Thankyou very much!:)

If possible I would really appreciate the walking tour too. prawny2@live.co.uk

 

Thankyou.

I had this on RC.

 

We realised that my dad had left a new woollen jumper on the chair in his cabin. We were in the queue to be "pinged" off the ship. I mentioned it to a cruise member who said to e-mail lost property as soon as we got off as there were lots of people behind me and he said the room would have already been cleaned.

 

I e-mailed within an hour of getting home to receive a message saying that they never returned clothing due to Health and Safety.

 

I was really cross as I could have gone back (even if it was a bit awkward) as the jumper cost £90. I offered to pay postage as well.

I do not know if P & O or Fred Olsen have formal nights but they might be an option... sailing R/T from Southampton

 

Oceania has a R/T cruise to Spain/France no formal nights

 

Azamara is one way from Southampton so they would need to fly back to the UK

 

Other lines will have formal night but they could just go to the buffet on that night but may not have the other requirements

 

Thankyou. I will certainly look in to those.

Wanting art, classical music and lectures, but not wanting anything formal is a bit of a clash. Azamara maybe? They don't have any formal nights.

 

My first idea was Holland America. They do have formal nights, but of course, he does not have to dress up.

 

I thought that the lack of formal would affect the other interests catered for onboard so I am glad I was right. These aren't my parents, they are the parents of my best friend but because I cruise a lot they expect me to perform miracles!

Husband and wife, 80 and 82, never cruised before.

 

They love art, classical musical music and intellectual lectures etc. Hate things like quizzes and karaoke.

 

The husband refuses to wear anything formal.

 

They want to sail from Southampton to the Med.

 

They have posed me with the problem of finding them a suitable cruise. I cruise with my teenage children and use the large ships to make sure that they are entertained. I have absolutely no idea what cruise line or ships would suit them so any advice would be welcome!

Not true on Royal. Minors can be booked in their own stateroom, without an adjult, as long as the parents or guardians are in an adjacent stateroom, or across the hall.

 

This is definitely true as we have travelled several times with minors in a separate room. In fact we almost couldn't get one booking as we left it late and they were struggling to find two cabins close enough together to allow us to book. (our kids were 17 and 14 at the time).

 

As regards the wine. Since we sail from the UK the drinking age is 18. On our last sailing DD was 18 and sharing with her younger brother whilst my husband and I shared another room. She took on two bottles as did we. I presumed that you would have to have an "of age" person in each cabin before you could have the wine allocation for that cabin. On my next trip I have booked 3 cabins but I wouldn't automatically assume that gave me the right to carry on 6 bottles.

As someone else showed with the math it is only two weeks in a Suite every year.

 

I know the US tend to have a different vacation pattern to us Brits but we normally take two week vacations, especially if cruising as we can do a lot of the Med in that time. My kids have travelled in suites with us a lot (not now, at 16 and 18 they can share an inside!;)) as it was cheaper than getting two double cabins and then we had the suite perks as well.

 

On top of that we often manage to fit in another week or two elsewhere. If we had discovered cruising earlier then our kids would also be way up the ranking!

 

I think a 25 year old with that level of cruising has been very lucky and will probably have had some amazing experiences and I can't think what their vacation pattern has to do with their possible level of education:confused:

Do you mean this page..?

 

 

 

That's what I was looking for but the link for me only gives : http://bookings.royalcaribbean.co.uk/content/pdf/stateroom-decoration-photo-gallery.pdf

 

I wonder if it is something to do with the UK site? I think the ones shown in the picture are lovely and I know my parents would really like them. Now I am not sure what to do!

I have just had a look on the RCI site and they are still listing them as separate items but when I click on the photogallery button to have a look it tells me the page is no longer available.

In October I am taking my parents on an RCI cruise to celebrate their Golden Wedding. Unlike the birthday decorations for my children where I didn't feel I could justify the cost I was hoping to arrange something for them.

 

I know my mother would hate the "celebrate love" theme with red hearts. I just wondered if anyone knows if this is now definitely the only package available for anniversaries on all ships or is it being rolled out and I might stand a chance of getting the nice decorations shown in the photo on this thread.

I was quite shocked by how much RCI charge. I was going to do Happy Birthday ones for my daughter this trip having done them for free with another cruise line for my son last year. When I saw the price I decided against it!

 

I would have been very disappointed to have been misled on ordering Just Married decorations for someone and ending up with a very corny sounding "celebrate love" stuff instead. I am glad they refunded your money.

There is an adults only pool.

 

The main pool area is in the middle with 2 pools. I don't think the pools were heated, it was so hot when we were on AOS the other week that I liked them cold!

 

At the back of the ship there is a small kids pool area with a slide from the next deck up. This is behind Adventure Ocean and is very shady. It is only for children and their families.

Sewing kit! Forgot on my last trip and had to hold up my failing hem on my cocktail dress with band-aids! Worked surprisingly well but a stitch would have been better;)

Hi Robyn

I sail on the aos on august 17th from Southampton uk and was wondering if we can take any alcohol onboard with us also would anyone have any copies of the bar menus please

 

thanks in advance

goughsters

 

I'm not Robyn but hope I can help.

 

You can take 2 bottles of wine or champagne onboard per cabin. Worked well for us as our kids were in a separate cabin and since DD is 18 she could have 2 bottles too!

 

Sorry I don't have any bar menus as the wine was enough for us and otherwise we don't really drink.

 

We only disembarked this morning at Southampton so if there is anything else you want to know then ask away!

We sometimes have photos taken when we feel like it and have never had an issue with photographers. We sometimes buy one formal family pose as my mother loves having them.

 

However on the Royal a couple of weeks ago the photographer in the MDR was quite rude when I politely said no thankyou. I had to be very insistant to get her to move away from our table whilst she shouted at me about cruise traditions!:eek:

It's hard to compare since their largest ships are about the size of the Coral/Island. Younger people tend not to book smaller ships. In my experience, I'd say the average age is older but I've met and cruised with active people no matter what the age. I've seen a lot more elderly on the R/T Princess cruises out of LA.

 

FWIW, here is a photo of my deck 5 aft "Superior verandah" (not a suite) on both the Zuiderdam and the Oosterdam. We liked the cabin and balcony so much that we booked a partial Panama Canal cruise just for the cabin. It wasn't that expensive. I'd book it again in a heartbeat.

 

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That looks lovely. We relish the tranquillity of sitting on our balcony when we want a break from the busy life onboard and this looks like heaven!

We always book a balcony and put our teens in an inside opposite us.

 

I am claustrophobic and also suffer from SAD so love the openness of a balcony but I can certainly see the appeal of the interior cabins. They have never seemed much smaller than the standard balcony cabins and for the price they are an absolute bargain. TBH without the benefit of the reduced prices for inside cabins we wouldn't cruise often as we can't afford two balcony rooms each time and if I told me other half he had to spend two weeks sharing one room with his kids I think he would opt to stay at home!;)