1/21 Sailing Of Sovereign Review - Long!!!

I'm going to post the same review I submitted to CC for the trip I just got back from. It's pretty long, so be patient as I post it in pieces for sanity! If anyone has any specific questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them:p Here we go - Part One

First, let me provide a bit of background. We were a group of four women, sisters ages 36 to 43. We have all cruised before, for me this is my 5th cruise (3rd on RCCL). We booked this trip at the end of September for a Girls Getaway. We booked two inside cabins on deck 4 (Category L). We handled our own air and pre-cruise accommodations.

DAY BEFORE CRUISE:

We flew out of BWI on Sunday, January 20th. We originally were scheduled to depart at 11am, but due to mechanical issues it was 3:15pm before we lifted off. We flew on Airtran, and for the most part they handled the delay well, but many of us felt that they should have moved our entire flight to the next direct flight (leaving @ 2pm) and delayed that flight, rather than making us wait until 3:15. From a customer centric viewpoint, that would have been the correct thing to do. It was very frustrating watching a flight that was 3 hours after ours leave one hour before ours L We finally landed at Orlando International at about 5:30pm. We were beat. After we collected our luggage, we went in search of the Enterprise shuttle to take us to pick up our vehicle. The shuttle area is under some sort of construction and we actually had to walk outside for a good distance to reach the pickup point. The driver was nice enough; however, he balked at taking us because he would have had to “lift all that luggage on top of the rack”. Duh, isn’t that what you get paid for? Can we say “your tip just dropped”?

We finally got on the shuttle and to Enterprise’s location (off terminal) and boy, the fun was just beginning. There was a long line and only two or three agents working it (one kept disappearing for 5 to 10 minutes @ a time). We got there at about 6:15 pm and it was after 7 when we finally got our vehicle and were on our way. Brownie points for Enterprise – they took one look at our group’s luggage and upgraded me from a full size sedan to a Toyota Highlander AT NO EXTRA CHARGE J That helped take the edge off. Well, we’re finally on our way to Cocoa Beach for the night.

HOTEL:

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard right on N. Atlantic Ave. (just beyond the Sheraton). It was an easy drive and the hotel was very nice and clean (gotta love using points and staying free!). No problems whatsoever during our stay. For dinner that night we asked about a local place where we could get some good sushi and the woman at the front desk recommended a place called “Thai Paradise” and gave us directions. The sushi was phenomenal and the Pho soup was just incredible!

The next morning we got up early and took a walk to the IHOP for breakfast. Service was normal and the food was good. After breakfast, we took a stroll along the beach road and tried in vain to see some ocean. Back to the hotel to get ready to go to the terminal!

EMBARKATION:

We found Port Canaveral and the signs made it very easy to navigate to the area to drop off luggage and then park our vehicle. The parking rate is currently $12/day. Once parked, we briskly (oh who am I kidding, we all but ran!) walked to the terminal to begin check-in. One odd note that I’ve never run into before is the medical form that you have to fill out for each cabin stating that no one in the cabin has had any gastrointestinal issues in the last 3 days. Made me wonder if there had been a recent Noro outbreak on the ship. The agent handling my cabin said nope, there hadn’t. Hmmmmmm. Oh well, no bother. We went through the balance of the process and were walking aboard the Sovereign by approximately 11:45 am – ready to find a drink guy and break in my seapass J We went to the Windjammer and got a bite to eat and began exploring until our cabins were ready at 1pm. We did the muster drill (in between drinks) and then went up to deck 12 for sail away. The weather was very chilly and windy and the seas were a bit rough. The captain informed us that we would be looking at 6 to 12 foot seas that would actually get a bit worse as we crossed the Gulf Stream. So about 9 or so that night, the blue motion sickness bag holders showed up on the stairwells. It didn’t bother me at all, but one of my sisters was really feeling it.

GENERAL TOPICS:

FOOD – In general the food was very good. As usual, I was not impressed by the food in the Windjammer. It was okay, typical buffet fare. The only real exception was the omelet station where you could get eggs cooked to order every morning (hint – walk to the front station, it’s usually not as busy). We ate in Brassiere 30 on our first full day on the ship. The food was acceptable, better than the Windjammer would have been.

The food in the dining room was very good. I had the filet of beef and they cooked it just the way I like it (still mooing). The salads and appetizers were always good. Desserts were kind of hit or miss. The Ivory Chocolate Fondue should have been called Fondant because of the texture, but the taste was excellent. The Gran Marnier Soufflé was outstanding. Most of the sugar-free choices weren’t worth the calories (according to one of my sisters).

THIS NEXT PART IS VERY IMPORTANT! If you have any food allergies, you need to read this section. In my group there were two who are deathly allergic to shellfish (we are talking anaphylactic shock here), one of these two was also allergic to strawberries and a third person is allergic to dairy. They had a lot of problems with their allergies. Now to be fair, they didn’t inform RCCL about their allergies, but that is no excuse for some of the things that happened. On the first morning, one of the women with the shellfish allergies was at the Jade station in the Windjammer and they had some really nice looking scrambled eggs with snow peas etc. As she was getting ready to scoop some onto her plate she saw a shrimp in the eggs. Not believing her eyes, she looked at the description of the dish……Nope, no mention of shrimp. She then spoke with the station attendant and explained the problem. His basic attitude was “well, you can see the shrimp, so don’t get it”. She tried to explain that what would have happened if she didn’t see the shrimp or if all the shrimp had been taken? The food would still be contaminated by the shrimp and could have caused serious problems for her. His solution was to remove the description of the dish and verbally tell everyone about the shrimp. This was not the way to handle the situation, so my sister spoke to the F&B manager on duty. Once he understood the situation, he had the dish removed from the line. It was back the next morning, BUT the sign had been redone to show the shrimp. We had a similar problem in the Brassiere 30 that same day. The sister with the milk allergy ordered the Chicken Nasi Goreng after the waiter described it as fried rice with veggies and chicken on a skewer. However, the waiter failed to mention (or didn’t know) that it was actually SHRIMP fried rice in the dish. My sister discovered this about a third of the way through the dish. If she had been the one with the shellfish allergy we would have been using an epee pen by this point. While I understand that vague descriptions allow them the flexibility of working with what is available, they need to disclose what they have put into the dish when asked – the waiter should know what he’s serving! And can we talk about strawberries? Can they possibly garnish with something else? I mean really, there were strawberries on everything. Desserts that my sister could have eaten showed up with strawberries as the garnish, ruining the dessert for her. After our waiter understood the issue, he started making recommendations to her based on what he’d seen in the back so that she didn’t have any real problems. The sister who was allergic to dairy had problems on a few nights because all of the dessert choices contained some sort of dairy, leaving her no real option for dessert.

ENTERTAINMENT - We only really got to see the midnight comedy show and he was so funny (sorry, can’t remember his name). We also participated in the Quest the last night – I’m not gonna give it away here, but if you get the chance on your next cruise to participate – DO IT!

The one thing we tried to do as often as it was available was Karaoke. The problem we had with this was trying to find out when it was each night. The start time changed every day and the length of time it was open varied every night as well. It would have been great if the offered a dedicated karaoke bar that was available all evening, every evening! I know there was demand for it; we only got to sing one or two songs each.

We didn’t take advantage of the C&A reception or the Captain’s Cocktail party or anything else. We didn’t do bingo or any of the other games that were being played on the ship. Shopping was average, but on a side note – the liquor was in short supply for purchase. Several items/brands (most notably Tanquery) were sold out the first night? What is that about? Nothing to get excited about in the other shops (can you tell I’m not a shopper?).

PORTS OF CALL – We missed Cococay on the first day due to the fact that the seas were too rough to tender, so we got our sea day up front. The captain did make arrangements for us to arrive in Nassau at 5pm that day instead of 7am the next morning, so we were able to get off the ship and poke around the shopping district in Nassau for a bit as a prelude to the next day’s walking tour.

NASSAU – I’ve been here four times now, so I took a very laid back approach to the whole thing. My only real plans were to do the walking tour and show my sisters the Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle etc. We also planned on a quick stop at Graycliff to purchase cigars for two of our husbands. We actually decided to take a cab from the cruise terminal and have them wait while we went in and got what we needed. For the three of us this round trip was $25 ($4pp ea way plus $1 for wait time), but it was much easier than hoofing it back to the ship (which I’ve done from there before).

COCOCAY – We finally made it to Cococay on what should have been our sea day. Again, having been here before, I really didn’t do much other than lay on a lounger, drink, nap and read a book for the whole day. The weather was stellar for this – low humidity and high near 80 with a gentle breeze.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS – The last day (Thursday) was one of my sister’s birthdays. We made arrangements for several things to occur….first we had yellow roses delivered to her at dinner that night, then we had a birthday cake (not worth eating!) delivered as well. We had also let our room attendant know about her birthday and he made her a special towel animal holding a birthday wish from him and his helper – it was so sweet of him to do that!

CABIN – The cabin was exactly what I expected, having been on MOS recently. The cabin was very small, but efficiently designed with plenty of storage for maybe two people. Not a lot of drawer space and no shelves in the closet. Also, there was no safe. I did run into the very friendly shower curtain for the first time ever on this trip – it was an experience! Our attendant kept the room nice and clean, always done in a very unobtrusive manner. Only glitch – we only received ice on two of the four nights, luckily we were able to live without it J

DISEMBARKATION:

This had to have been the smoothest disembarkation I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing! We were able to get the beige tags (reserved for C&A members who want to be first off the ship – you have to ask for them at the pursers’ desk). They actually had a different area of the ship designated for each color, for example we (beige) were to wait in the Schooner Bar on deck 5. Express Debark began at about 7am and beige was called by 7:10am. We were off the ship, through customs and in possession of our luggage heading for the garage by 7:30am – it was so smooth! We were scheduled on a 1:15 flight, but could have very easily made an 11am flight – we dropped the car off at Enterprise and were shuttled over to Orlando International by 8:45am.

OVERALL:

This was a great cruise! Yes, the ship is showing her age, but she is lovingly maintained and will be an asset when she goes over to Pulmanter. The staff was incredibly friendly (for the most part – the photo staff was rude) and went out of their way to help you with anything you might possibly need and/or want! My sisters and I enjoyed ourselves immensely and will be doing this again for our annual Girls Getaway as soon as we can! Sovereign is a true gem and will be sorely missed when she’s gone, but everyone who will get to sail on her will be blessed with a great trip!

Any questions, fire away:)

Nice review. You definitely talk about things I never have had to think of. I have sailed on her 3 times with the 4th coming in 2 months. The crew is great!

I can't believe that if your sisters are THAT allergic to certain foods, that they didn't alert RCCL from the beginning.:confused:

We disembarked as you were boarding on Monday morning!

I am also possibly deathly allergic to shellfish and have had reactions on shellfish night on Mariner. It is REALLY important to be extremely vigilant and advise all of the staff members of your allergies. I have learned that the scrambled eggs in Jade always have shrimp, so avoid those ... although I do agree that that they should have updated the signage. But shellfish seems to be such a big treat for so many people that you must talk to every server, the maitre d' and e-mail the allergies mail-box if you want to be at least partially secure. In spite of all that, I still carry Benadry and my Epi-Pen all of the time when we are onboard.

Loved your review! I will be sailing on her in May so any bit of information you can give me will be much appreciated. This will also be our first RCCL cruise.

I can't believe that if your sisters are THAT allergic to certain foods, that they didn't alert RCCL from the beginning.:confused:

I am also possibly deathly allergic to shellfish and have had reactions on shellfish night on Mariner. It is REALLY important to be extremely vigilant and advise all of the staff members of your allergies. I have learned that the scrambled eggs in Jade always have shrimp, so avoid those ... although I do agree that that they should have updated the signage. But shellfish seems to be such a big treat for so many people that you must talk to every server, the maitre d' and e-mail the allergies mail-box if you want to be at least partially secure. In spite of all that, I still carry Benadry and my Epi-Pen all of the time when we are onboard.

Being completely honest, I did point that out to my sisters. Both of them have become very adept at avoiding shellfish over the years, but the scariest thing is what you CAN'T see. You can't see how the food is handled behind the scenes - cross-contamination etc. Her point is that she can go to any restaurant/buffet and find out what is in the food and if she can eat it or not. If RCCL was that sloppy on the buffet, who knows what's going on in the back. BTW, my sisters will be informing the next cruise line we go on (whoever that may be) before we leave:)