rccl--first and definately last time.

[snownyet]

My parents are long time princess fans having sailed with them 15+ times and came back from their last one saying they're going elsewhere next time, funny how the world goes round..lol As far as drink prices go, some folks need to get out more, I think the prices are reasonable and in fact cheap compared to many places I've been. We were at a bar in Fort Lauderdale 2 years ago pre cruise with another couple, all four of us had 2 captain and cokes each, my buddy and I both had a $50 bill in our pockets and between us we couldnt cover the tab.

[Germancruiser]

I recently returned from exactly the same cruise on board Brilliance, so as there really is " blood in the water " in those threads were one complains about RCI, I usually act just like a lurker. LOL.

Plastic in the Windjammer, hatet that always- but the food was okay- so why bother! I love their Coffee/Teamaker in the stateroom, would love to see that on board my favorite X- ships, exept for the carton cups- China would be nicer.

When I first were on board a Radiance Class ship- I complained about the paper cups in that Latte Tudes- such a nice, tastefull lounge- and you get paper cups- well if you take your tea/coffee in that lounge now you get real nice china. So thats a step up. I mentioned it to the great waiter there- he just said- " they came to their senses" - well done RCI.

The towel situation - well that is something I really don´t like, too. Like a cheap all inclusive Hotel...!

So I highly recomend Celebrity for your next cruise OP- since they still have all the nice touches - like chocolates on the pillow, china everywhere you eat or drink, towels as much as one likes without bothering to show them your card. They don´t really make ones cruise- they are just nice touches- well as mentioned before the little things makes the difference.

Here is the link to my review from this cruise.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=80264.

Michael

[NordicPrince]

... I am assuming the food is going to be warm at best - something along the lines of a wedding - it may look good, but will be lesser cuts of meat, odd combo's and empty air filled sweets. Just like you get at home town buffet...

 

Service will not be top notch - I just hope its not bad.

 

T

 

Sorry that some posters have lowered your expected standards for your cruise.

 

Come on. Other posters have been using this "just like at home town buffet" line and it's ridiculous and just not true. Let's not dumb it all down.

 

And if you don't like something guess what? Just order something else and they will bring it to you. How many restaurants can you do that in? If it were me if I couldn't get a salad with no dressing like the OP claims I would just order something else instead of getting huffy. Let's get real.

 

If you go to the Windjammer you could bring in a bucket and have all the salad with no dressing that you can eat.

 

DW and I did a B2B in Jan 2010 on Serenade and had a wonderful experience. The food in the MDR was very good and the Windjammer was

great with an excellent assortment of choices. The MDR staff couldn't do enough for us. The Radiance class is the perfect size for us.

 

And as for listening to the complaints of a crew member, I would take it with a grain of salt. And very unprofessional by the staffer. Because if they don't like working for RCI, go work for somebody else. Staffers are supposed to work hard. My boss doesn't ask my opinion on my work load. That's just the way it is. If my boss heard that I was bad-mouthing the company I'd be taking a very long cruise - looking for a new job.

 

I guess that everyone will be happier when the new air pollution regulations go in effect in 2012 and the ships will have to burn more costly low-sulphur fuel when sailing within 200 miles of the U.S. coast. Just watch cruise fares rise then!

[deban42]

I see sooooo many complaints on here about drink prices being high. Can anyone from anywhere in the world please come on here and post a vacation destination, which is what the ship is, where drink prices match what you pay at home retail? I live in a ski town and the prices on the ships are actually lower than when I go out and drink here in town. Last time I was at Disney/Epcot the beers were quite pricey. Go to a football/baseball stadium and you'll be paying a ridiculous price for a beer. I don't understand why so many people lose their minds about drink prices onboard. There is a markup, sometimes more significant than others anytime you order a drink anywhere outside your home. Relax and if it bothers you don't drink till you get home. Ok, rant is over, I think I need a drink:D Take care all, Jim

 

 

 

 

Yes, but I can't think of too many destinations where I could not purchase a bottle to have in my room.

[Tucker in Texas]

I agree! I've seen La Terre (the house wine on RCI) at higher prices in restaurants at home

 

It is $4 a FULL glass at our yacht club. Rest of the wine, though, is about what you pay on the ships.

 

Tucker in Texas

[Older Party]

Hi Firefly----All the people I spoke with, and there were many and from many countries , were very dissapointed. For some people this was their very first cruise and they were well put off cruising.

 

I put my post on here to see the reaction because we were extremely shocked to endure the experience. It was not what we had expected. My question to the long serving employee of rccl was:

Is this typical of rccl standards, or is it the particular ship, or is it the itinary? His reply I have already stated.

 

We made the best of our holiday but I still have one concern.

Having started our cruise vacations with Princess have we been spoiled. I hope not because of course different routes do come into the eqation.

 

 

Sorry you had a bad experience and I hope your venting has made you feel better. Did you contact RCCL about it? Did you get a survey before you left? Hopefully your experience is an isolated one

Yes sure completed the survey. Also when settling my account I advised quest relations to send two of their staff on a Princess cruise as a learning experience.

When food was unavailable--yes--I asked for the chef in charge--asked why he did not order enough bananas--why did he not make more scones when stocks were getting low--really they did not seem concerned.

 

My two cruises with RCCL would co-oberate your 'food' experience, but I think food is subjective, just as entertainment is. I thought the food on Freedom and Oasis was marginal at best, yet most who post here love RCCL's food. Princess was a step up for sure, but my recent Silversea cruise really showed me what the food experience can be on a cruise vacation.

 

But good service can make up for a lack in any department. Unfortunately, I found the service on RCCL's ships to be hit or miss. When a crew person was good, they were outstanding, when a crew person was bad, they were horrible. No middle ground. But they have more than 20 ships floating around out there. With that many ships, it is impossible to have consistency throughout their fleet in all aspects of the cruise experience.

[Icruzthere4Iam]

Yes, but I can't think of too many destinations where I could not purchase a bottle to have in my room.

 

That is valid but here in Colorado at the lodge I used to run the bar in, you had to buy from our bar due to liquor license rules if you wanted to have alcohol on premise. We would sell a six pack of Fat Tire (a Colorado beer) for $20. We paid $7.50 for it. Our Sterling Merlot was $27 a bottle we paid like $9 for it. You can't take a bottle or a six pack to Disney, You can't carry a cooler into the football stadium. You have to buy their product and pay their marked up prices. The ships alcohol is marked up, absolutely, it's just not as bad as some people make it out to be and for a lot of people the prices onboard are actually less than they pay to drink at home when out on the town.

[Coralc]

yet most who post here love RCCL's food.

 

I don't think that is an accurate statement, at all. It is sustenance, that's about all for me. :)

 

I think the OP's criticism's are valid. When I read it this afternoon, I thought...that about sums it up. The Royal Caribbean experience has changed, but the cruise prices really haven't gone up.

 

Except for the drink prices, but I think they're reasonable. We don't really care, we're on vacation. What surprises me is that he found thhe experience on Princess to be so much better. I tend to question that perception a little bit.

[Merion_Mom]

I think that it should be mentioned that the Brilliance IS operated separately, and perhaps differently, from the rest of Royal Caribbean's fleet of cruise ships.

 

It is operated by RC UK. There ARE some differences, noted by many posters.

 

Lol1944, give RC another shot on a different ship.

 

:)

[koterry]

The cutbacks became very obvious on our last cruise which was last week. I began sailing RCCL in 1992. This time, the main dining room service was the worst I have experienced in almost 20 years of sailing RCCL mostly due to the fact the waiters are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. There were many other areas as well and I could go on and on. I too, after almost 20 years of cruising RCCL exclusively, have crossed them off the list. In my opinion, the company is heading in the wrong direction.

Exactly what "cutbacks" are you referring too??? And just did a B2B on the Allure and thought our MDR waitstaff was fabulous!:confused::confused: Yes Thats Fernando And Sadie they were wonderful:):)

[koterry]

Perhaps they're able to lower salaries (since the tips are higher), allowing them to hire more people? Just a thought.

If you knew what the waiters and room stewards were paid each month you would not have hit the send button on your post:)

[Germancruiser]

Well don´t flame the OP to harsh. You may be right- some are just not to satisfy. But facts are facts- and if one does not like platic crockery- paper cups, hit or miss service, the limited towel policy or that they never let you choose what dressing you like ( as they did when I last sailed RCI) therefore salad without dressing is just difficult, if not impossible to get, then one has to choose another cruise line. There so many out there!

I loved my Brilliance cruise but still facts are facts.! Love it or leave it!

Michael

[Wilda]

We found the whole experience sub standard. A few things to start:

 

Food quality very poor and very sparse menu choice in Minstrel---Four times to get a steak that was ordered well done and on first three attempts "bled"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unable to order a salad without dressing. Why?????????

Choice of meals is very poor. "no" is too often the answer.!!!!!!!!

 

Too few waiters in Minstrel--those present rushing around-yes-like headless chickens-- thereby reducing the service---wrongly ordered meal produced to wrong person---necesary cutlery not provided until requested!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Windjammer food very poor quality. Queues for egg station. Queues for chips.

Toast so thin is rock hard. Ran out of bananas one day. Ran out of scones one day. Plastic crockery. ridiculous milk cartons!!!!!!!!!!! Cleanliness of tables--ugghh!!!!!!!!!!! And it is not 24 hours.

 

Cardboard cartons as cups in rooms---I can get these at my local KFC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

No mats on sunbeds. Pool far too small. That stupid towel system!!!!!!!!!!!

Ice cream station located too far from pool and cannot be accessed from pool without covering up.

 

Drink prices excessive. two glasses of wine at dinner buys the bottle at home!!!!!!!!!!

 

no bedtime chocs.

I could go on but no point really. It was a very cheap nasty cruise. And there is no way I would sail with this lot again

 

Seriously? The ice cream station put me over the top;) Sounds like RCI is not the line for you- happy sailing!

[MAZANDSTEVE]

I agree with the OP on the food standard, it was way below and we ate in the speciality restaurants in the end. We also noticed how few staff there were in the MDR and also didnt get very good service. However, we thought the ship was beautiful and would sail on her again, but not eat in the MDR.

[The Martins]

I could tell you your dining experience on Brilliance does not sound typical of RCI, but I don't think it matters. Your first experience on a RCI ship was not to your standards so back to Princess you go. So be it. Stay with who you like. Nothing wrong with that. Hope you enjoy your future cruises. :)

,

 

The OP articulated what I have been thinking ever since I got off the Radiance in December. The MDR was not a pleasant experience and the Windjammer, frankly, sucked. The towel station is just stupid...treat me like a kid, why don't ya? I think a lot of people are blind to what is happening on this cruiseline and the industry in general.

 

My wife and I have taken our last cruise for a long while.

[Aquahound]

I think a lot of people are blind to what is happening on this cruiseline and the industry in general.

 

That's a very subjective statement. I say that because I disagree whole heartedly. RCI is not the only cruise line I sail, but if they were consistently as bad, in my experience, as the Op's cruise, or your Radiance cruise, I wouldn't sail them any more. I've been on a couple dozen RCI cruises and they have all been great. That's why I keep returning.

[Ocean Boy]

To the original poster...your comments are I'm sure are welcome by many on this site, however, what you described as being poor is just your opinion and should not be written like this is how it is all the time, if it's even that bad. Again, it is just your opinion.

 

What you dislike, or what you say is poor might be looked upon differently by someone else. You say that everything on Princess is pretty much perfect, but I could rant and say that the few times we cruised Princess we were not satisfied at all by their lousy food, and terrible service, however, we just said that in our OPINION, Princess isn't what we expected, BUT, others may find the experience more pleasant.

 

Except for threads that deal with simple cut and dry facts, aren't we all just stating our opinions most of the time on these boards?

[Tanderra]

I am just curious :confused:

Is Lol1944 from Southport, Lancashire I wonder?

[SpartyOn813]

I won't pretend to be the cruise experts that many of you are but based on the cruises that I have taken I think I have come up with somewhat of an theory on cruises and quality. My first ever cruise was on Holland America, Veendaam I think? Really can't remember. I liked it very much. My next cruise could have put me off cruising forever! It was a seriously run down, crappy, filthy (but cheap which is why I booked it) Carnival cruise - 3 night sail to the Bahamas. I was newly divorced and decided to take the kids. I thought it was a floating toilet. I hated it and couldn't wait to get off that ship! Food terrible, service terrible, dirty and gross. You definitely get what you pay for... I think they may have since retired that ship??? In any case it put me off Carnival for good but I have many friends who have sailed on the newer, larger Carnival ships and loved them. We saw the Disney ship docked next to our nasty Carnival ship and were seriously wishing we had been on that ship. So the next 3 cruises we took were Disney and we LOVED each and every one! Food, ship, pools, service you name it. During this time I met my fabulous husband and we got married and took a honeymoon Princess cruise out of San Juan. I thought it was nice but I didn't think the food or service really held a candle to Disney. All in all a nice experience but nothing that made us want to run out and book another.

 

Finally the kids got older and we were "Disney'd out" so we decided on RCI. I'll be honest, I had heard mixed reviews on RCI but I think the key here - and thus my very long winded point - is choose the right ship for the experience that you want! I did a bunch of research, checked the cruise critic reviews and decided on Liberty. All I can say is our expectations were exceeded! I was expecting the food to be average and I thought the food most nights in the MDR was very good. Windjammer was OK but I always found something I liked there. So what if there were queues for the egg station? You would expect that on a large ship and at a buffet. But the eggs I ordered were perfect every time. Honestly I had boarded this ship with a bit of a chip on my shoulder thinking it couldn't meet Disney standards, the boarding and "welcome" on the first day (or lack thereof) as opposed to Disney was really underwhelming. Windjammer's food on day 1 was not great. So I was thinking "uh oh...hope this isn't subpar the entire time". But I kept an open mind and really felt that the experience throughout the week was great.

 

In any case I think you can have vastly different experiences on different ships within the same cruise line. I am always amazed at how such huge ships with so many passengers are able to churn out great meals like they do. Having been to many a sales meeting with my company I can tell you we ALWAYS get a buffet (for about 3,000+ people) and the food is often subpar. And this is always at very nice hotels like The Venetian in Vegas, etc.

 

In any case I totally understand the OP disdain and lack of desire to sail RCI again as was my experience with Carnival. I'm sure there are some really great Carnival ships out there but you'll never get me on one of them. First impression is always the most lasting one...

[Lol 1944]

Hi to all,

I am sorry to have "put the cat among the pigeons" so to speak.

We can do no other than compare our single rcl experience with our previous two Princess experiences. The differences to us were a great surprise. Sorry if I upset those who are long standing patrons of rcl. I will answer some questions asked:

 

To Ryano---we had cardboard tall cups--no handle type-- as we in England get at fast food outlets such as KFC and Mc Donalds. Every night we took cups from the Windjammer station to our cabin for our bedtime tea drink. Every day our steward removed them.

 

To Foxesden 1--- Price to us in sterling was £444 per person cruise only.

Fly/ cruise price was £1044 each so I booked our flights at £337 each so preventing rcl ripping us off on the air fare to the tune of £263 each.

 

To Tanderra----yes sure Southport England. And do we love your Southport!! Three times we have visited your super country in last 10 years. Last time in 2008 we spent New Year in Port Douglas and then 6 weeks self drive down to Sydney slowly.

Incidentally several of Princess ships have or are heading your way.

[igeewhiz]

Heck...you seen the drink prices at a strip bar let alone the atm fees when you need money, all this info is second hand of course.

[griffy116]

Just one thought about the glassware v plastic. We were on a cruise a few years ago in gale force winds. We were in the WJ and trays and glass were flying and breaking everywhere. Passengers who were walking with their trays were suddenly standing in a pile of broken glass and waiters were scrambling to get to the glass to keep passengers from getting injured. Could that have something to do with the change? It occurred to us that the change might be connected to these incidents.

[SpartyOn813]

Hi to all,

I am sorry to have "put the cat among the pigeons" so to speak.

We can do no other than compare our single rcl experience with our previous two Princess experiences. The differences to us were a great surprise. Sorry if I upset those who are long standing patrons of rcl. I will answer some questions asked:

 

To Ryano---we had cardboard tall cups--no handle type-- as we in England get at fast food outlets such as KFC and Mc Donalds. Every night we took cups from the Windjammer station to our cabin for our bedtime tea drink. Every day our steward removed them.

 

I totally understand that you would compare as that is exactly what I do when going from one cruise line to the next. As for the cups, we had lovely ceramic mugs in our stateroom. Maybe it was because it was Liberty or maybe because we had a JS? Not sure. Could be the JS as I think my hubby went to our kids balcony cabin next door to brig my daughter shampoo as they didn't have any. We had bottles of lotion and shampoo in our cabin.

[time4u2go]

If you knew what the waiters and room stewards were paid each month you would not have hit the send button on your post:)

So how much are they paid?

[FLSteve11]

So how much are they paid?

 

I thought I read somewhere that it was about 50 cents an hour (US currency) They rely on gratuities for the vast majority of their pay