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We have only just booked our RC cruise from HK to Japan in August. A reunion cruise for 3 couples. None of us have sailed RC before. We wish we had scanned the reviews before we did because we wouldnt have booked otherwise. Approx 80 to 85% of reviews are damning. Sub standard dining, price gouging, hidden unadvertised extra fees for this and that and a tired ship (Voyager of the Seas. The list goes on. The wife of one of the couples is a tea totaller but finds that RC insist on her purchasing a bev package because her husband wants one. Duh! Our cruise was not advertised as a "Culturally" driven one. BUT yesterday we were advised via email what the full ramifications were. I just pray that all we have heard is partially untrue. We always cruise on Celebrity ships and swear by them. Can anybody ease our concerns? I can understand the reasoning for a Cultural cruise but re branding food outlets is ludicrous to say the least.

Edited by John Ward
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We have only just booked our RC cruise from HK to Japan in August. A reunion cruise for 3 couples. None of us have sailed RC before. We wish we had scanned the reviews before we did because we wouldnt have booked otherwise. Approx 80 to 85% of reviews are damning. Sub standard dining, price gouging, hidden unadvertised extra fees for this and that and a tired ship (Voyager of the Seas. The list goes on. The wife of one of the couples is a tea totaller but finds that RC insist on her purchasing a bev package because her husband wants one. Duh! Our cruise was not advertised as a "Culturally" driven one. BUT yesterday we were advised via

 

 

Personally I ignore reviews. I’ve read reviews of cruises I was on and thought “?.?.?”

 

Not sure what you mean by a “Culturally” driven one.

 

Some report buying drinks package just one, once they board, but it was caused by all those who insist on sharing.

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I have read ssveral posts where the couple went to guest services to have the second drinks package removed as one was a non-drinker. The best option is not to prebook book and pay, but buy the package on board.

 

Good friends were on Voyager a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed themselves. They didn't mention anything negative. They're pretty laid back and fun loving, so any minor problems would just be ignored.

 

As for "unadvertised extra fees", don't buy any extras you don't want.

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We have only just booked our RC cruise from HK to Japan in August. A reunion cruise for 3 couples. None of us have sailed RC before. We wish we had scanned the reviews before we did because we wouldnt have booked otherwise. Approx 80 to 85% of reviews are damning. Sub standard dining, price gouging, hidden unadvertised extra fees for this and that and a tired ship (Voyager of the Seas. The list goes on. The wife of one of the couples is a tea totaller but finds that RC insist on her purchasing a bev package because her husband wants one. Duh! Our cruise was not advertised as a "Culturally" driven one. BUT yesterday we were advised via email what the full ramifications were. I just pray that all we have heard is partially untrue. We always cruise on Celebrity ships and swear by them. Can anybody ease our concerns? I can understand the reasoning for a Cultural cruise but re branding food outlets is ludicrous to say the least.

Hi we have said with Celebrity also and we love Voyager of the seas. To be fair the food is not quite as fine

as Celebrity but its good and so is the service.You may find cruising from HK to Japan the ship will be catering

to the Asian market as the main people on board will be Asian.You will be able get the booze package for one and finally there are no real hidden extra fees that I can remember .

PS we are sailing on Voyager Sydney to Singapore in 4 weeks and I can't wait . Happy Sailing

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Every cruise I have been on has had more negative reviews than good ones. If I had taken any notice of the reviews I doubt I would be so enthusiastic about cruising as I am now. Seriously, disregard the reviews and go with a positive I am going to enjoy myself attitude and you will be fine. On any cruise you will find things not to your taste but you must remember they are trying to please 3000 + passengers. Enjoy your cruise.

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Human nature is to complain rather than compliment - hence why every travel related industry has visible complaints online. Weigh it up - you see 3 people posting complaints about a specific cruise - what did the other 2500 people on board think ? You see 5 complaints about a car hire company - what did the tens of thousands of people who rented from the same company that year think ?

 

Cruise Critic and any other travel or cruise forum is a minuscule portion of the total people out there cruising who have never heard of travel forums and don't publicly post their opinions anywhere.

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I wouldn't worry too much about the reviews. As for the drinks package, there is a work around if you only want an alcoholic package, you can call royal and organise the alcohol package for you and the refreshment package for your wife, this has all sort of non alcoholic beverages included.

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The culturally driven thing isn't forced by RCL, but just a reality of the cruise. It will probably attract about 80% or so Asian cruisers, so as a result they need to cater for that. They're just letting you know that number of Asian speaking customers means they need to change things a bit to cater for them. The same as since they come to Australia and have so many Australian cruisers locally they also change the onboard provisioning to cater for Australian tastes when sailing here.

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If you go to the RCI website, somewhere in the fine print it will concede that the second passenger in a cabin does not necessarily have to buy a drinks package if the first passenger does. i.e. They allow for exemptions. They don't spell out the exemptions, but I think we can guess what they are. You might have given the pledge, be allergic to alcohol (some are) or be Mormon, or even Calathumpian.

 

If RCI insists that you buy a drinks package, just tell them you do not drink alcohol for personal reasons that are none of their business. They will not follow up and they certainly won't be checking on what you drink on board.

 

Also, ignore reviews. Most of them are nonsense and the ones that aren't are specific to the time and place and not representative of anything much. On any holiday some things will go wrong, most people can move past such little problems, but some people can't.

Edited by SinbadThePorter
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We are usually Celebrity cruisers but have also cruised on Voyager and Explorer of the Seas. Although the demographics are slightly different on RCI (many multigenerational families) we have always had a great time. Don't miss the Ice Skating show it is world class. We found both Voyager and Explorer to be just as good as Celebrity.

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