Review of IOS - Canaries 04.05.11

[Cherrytrees]

Hi Everyone

 

This just my Opinion - so please don't shout me down

 

I was a 1st time cruiser with RCCL - previously cruised with Cunard and P&O.

 

We had a lovely cruise and met some wonderful people, the food and service was superb, our room was a good size albeit a little tired looking, and our steward was great, not at all obtrusive, very polite and thorough. Worth noting for the ladies, my hairdryer that I took was very slow, only used it the once, the room's hairdryer was much more powerful.

 

There was enough sunbeds for everyone, but poolside beds went very quickly, and you don't stand a chance by the adults only pool, unless you camped out lol. Also be aware that to obtain a towel for poolside you have to use your seapass, which gets swiped, if you don't return your towel you will be charged $20 per towel. Plenty of seats in the Windjammer, we were a party of 2, and more often than not we had to share a table, which we didn't mind at all.

 

My tipple was Vodka & Diet Coke - priced at $6.25 - please note that the measure is more like a double, my husband bought the Soda package $69 for 10 days, definitely worth it as my husband doesn't drink any alcohol. If you want to try a nice cocktail go to Bolero's bar - Hassan mixes a wicked one which was Vodka based, with Melon liqueur & Pineapple juice I think he called it Melon Bol? Prices at $6.95 bargin! Also a pint of beer was $6.50.

 

Normally I would take a bottle of Vodka on board with me so I could have a drink whilst getting ready for the evening ahead, but RCCL have a very strict policy and no guest is allowed to bring any drinks on board at all, this is very disappointing as other Cruise Liners allow this, but we did adhered to their rules.

 

We did MDR - 2nd sitting 8:3 pm - we chose this time because we like to leave poolside about 6:30 pm, go back to the cabin, change, go for pre-dinner drinks before our meal, to meet up with people we have met during the day. Unfortuntely by doing this we did not get to see any evening shows in the Threatre. Show times were 7 pm or 9 pm, - 7 pm too early for us and the 9 pm showing we were still at dinner, so you can see from above it was impossible for us, we found this very disappointing, as other ships we've been on the shows times fitted much better with the dining times.

 

I personally found that people dressed far too casually for me, on formal nights people did make an effort and it was great to see, but on casual nights it was too casual and not a lot of effort made.

 

The Royal Promenade was popular with guests, but we didn't really spend a lot of time there day or evening, to be honest we prefer a different layout of shops, not a long line where it gets over populated. You have to fight your way through in the evening to get to the Pyramid Lounge to watch some entertainment - Pyramid Lounge is on Deck 5 same deck as our MDR - so the obvious walk was throught the Promenade.

 

Overall we enjoyed our cruise with RCCL, it not our favourite out of the 3 cruises we've done, it would come 3rd. One fellow cruiser said it felt like Butlins on sea, which I felt was a very harsh comment to make, as there were lots more positives then negatives on this cruise.

 

Would we go back on it again yes - if the price was right.

 

Px

[mgdsld]

Thanks for your review but have one question for you. Have they stopped the 10.30 or 11.00 show in the theatre as there used to be either a 7.00 or 9.00 show and then one later at about 11.00 for second sitting guests?

[Merion_Mom]

Thanks for your review but have one question for you. Have they stopped the 10.30 or 11.00 show in the theatre as there used to be either a 7.00 or 9.00 show and then one later at about 11.00 for second sitting guests?

 

When we were on the Independence in April, there were two shows each night, not three.