What keeps you sailing with Royal?

[Justmekaren918]

What do you mean about the MDR entree in WJ? Do you mean for dinner? What were they serving? I know lunch is a bit lame.

On Brilliance and Vision I could find in the WJ at least 1 entrée from the MDR and usually 1 soup. Never found them on Liberty and the meat from the carving section was beyond horrible, beef was gray and green and pork not much better! Again it might of been the time, but I doubt it.

 

You better like Salmon or white fish cause that is all they served in mini bites. Always chicken thighs or legs; never saw those minute chicken which were decent on Vision. I saw days on end of mixed veg from my guess frozen bags! The didn't have that salt water canned taste. 3 different pastas and 2 sauces and if you were real good maybe meatballs. Then there for lunch and dinner hamburgs, hot dogs, turkey burgers and pizza! Which by the way was the same at Sorrento's[emoji10]! The food at Jade was the same. I must say I really enjoyed the separated fruit in the am! Usually got a nice big bowl[emoji41] . Why couldn't they do that for 1 more meal. You had to search for the good home fries not the tater tots.

[kruzerci]

I agree, and we are actively looking at other cruise lines now.

 

 

It's interesting to hear that. I think a lot of us who have been pretty steady Royal Caribbean cruisers for a number of years are on the same page. Unfortunately, the line is changing quickly.

 

As we have started looking at other options, the new wave of loyalists are scurrying in expecting less and willing to pay more.

 

I've said time and time again, I'd gladly pay a higher fare for a higher quality vacation, but it actually seems to be moving the opposite way, paying more for less... and somehow people are content with it.

 

To answer the OP's question, we have stayed with Royal Caribbean for well over a decade because of their unparalleled ships. I don't know that the ships justify our loyalty at this point. Like Clarea, we are looking at other lines and have been opting for some resort vacations that otherwise would have been cruise vacations. We've found with resorts that we pay a little more money than cruising but the quality and atmosphere is much more upscale. That being said, there's nothing quite like soaking up the sun on a day at sea in the Caribbean.

[DevonianCruiser]

Try having to book from the UK (on nearly all the lines), 9 times out of 10 we have to pay more on cruises :eek:. In fact we pay more on nearly everything :p

[alfaeric]

Here's one perspective- most of the complaints- from minor to major- don't apply to us.

 

The new drink thing- we barely drink, maybe buying a glass of wine or two for a 7 night cruise. No big deal.

 

The cost- outside of the huge discounts we got when the BOGOHO sale started, the prices we have are pretty close to what they have been. We don't vacation outside of a few times during the year, and the prices still don't seem bad to us. Heck our rate on an T-Giving Athem cruise is really good.

 

The service- I have never experienced the terrible service that people complain about. So hard to put any credence into those complaints.

 

The food- if I had a complaint- it's that they push too much of it. I've never once gone hungry on a cruise, and typicall gain weight.

 

The entertainment- I know it's not for everyone, but apparently it is for us.

 

So in summary- it still fits.

 

If people want to call me some kind of cheerleader or overly loyal or whatever- you know, that's not my problem. We are having fun, and I'm not here to make you happy.

[American Bear]

I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but when we look at some of the prices I don't know if I could pay some of the prices. Don't get me wrong my DW and I really want to sail Royal but some of the ships are just enormous. Why when I look at Royal and the prices, I think of Carnival. I know there not glamorous but what if that's all some people can afford, there MDR is excellent, Guys Burgers is addicting. Anybody else have thoughts on this? Don't get me wrong I have nothing against Royal or anyone who decides to cruise with them.

 

 

WE used to cruise RCL 4-6 times a year, now very rarely, and only because we get (OK) benefits as D+/casino club members.

 

We tried Carnival, (now Plat.) and think it is a very good product for the money with the 2.0 upgrades, not so good before 2.0 upgrades.

 

We tried NCL, (now Gold) and thought it was a good product, our fav. ships with NCL are Dawn, Getaway, Pearl.

 

We tried the MSC Divina last summer, a beautiful ship out of Miami, (great drink prices) great balcony prices, and we will definitely be long term cruisers on MSC. Got interesting loyalty club, after reaching 100 cruise pts., you get 20% off each future cruise price!:eek:

 

We've found loyalty isn't important to RCL anymore.

[BonnieSte]

Nothing anymore. I will be on the Adventure next week and again next April. Then that is it. The only reason I am not canceling next years (yet) is because we booked with friends and it is their first time so I don't want to disappoint them since we talked them into it. "hey you know that cruise we talked you guys into going on..." :eek: Oh well. It's back to Carnival and Princess for me. :D

[BonnieSte]

I just don't see paying Marriot pricing for a Super 8 Motel product. :o

[George C]

RCCL is our favorite line, last cruise and next 3 are on RCCL I think they have best ships and best entertainment. But sooner or later I will want to try something else, we cruise Hal, Celebrity, Princess, Costa and other lines also, there is only 1 line that I have sailed that I will not sail again.

[jndsilver31]

DW and I took our first cruise in Sept 2012 on the Freedom of the Seas. We pick RCI because we felt it would be closer to what we would like and we were correct.

 

We took another cruise in Oct 2013 on the FOS, again it was a great cruise for us.

 

In Sept 2014 we sailed on the Allure and WOW, that was the best yet.

 

As for prices, I don't know what they were like before 2012, but anytime I get a second one for half off I am going to take it. it is better then paying full price for it. Besides the prices of everything keeps rising.

[jticarruthers]

Tried Carnival, Disney and Royal in our first few cruises and decided Royal was the right mix for us of better service/product than Carnival but not at the super premium price level of Disney (Disney was better but not that much).

 

Have never had a bad cruise with Royal but the quality of the product has been sliding steadily over time.

 

Will definitely cruise Royal again for this Thanksgiving (large family group booked), after that I don't know. Definitely doing NCL instead of Royal for springbreak and then I have a placeholder on both RCI and NCL for next thanksgiving ... going to try NCL Escape at Springbreak and then cancel one or the other.

 

Find it hard to book RCI cruises at the moment, the prices don't match my "value" level anymore. Not sure if NCL will work better for me but we shall see.

 

Hitting Diamond this year and then struggling to find a cruise that I want to take, is ticking me off :)

[m*u*g*]

The name of course.

 

New ships.

 

Ports (Except Bayonne--come on guys)

 

Service/Staff

 

Junior Suites

 

Wanting to get away from work

Edited April 13, 2015 by m*u*g*

[bigque]

With me it's not a loyal to Royal thing or anything like that. We started with them and they just haven't done anything bad for us to switch to another line just yet! I will say that when I booked our upcoming cruise in October back in April 2014, when the sales were really legit we got a very good deal but the price now for our same category of cabin is just about double what I paid for it back then. At the price it is right now I probably would not have booked it. I would like to sail on Oasis or Allure if those prices ever come down for the cabins I like, but I have never cruised on those two ships because I refuse to pay those prices!

If the stars align up right (If Cruise & Airline prices are right) in 2017, I would like to do a Western Med cruise (Don't want to keep cruising the same islands forever) and it would definately be whomever has the best price for that cruise. For now, I'm satisfied with RCI! :cool:

[setsail]

Here's one perspective- most of the complaints- from minor to major- don't apply to us.

 

The new drink thing- we barely drink, maybe buying a glass of wine or two for a 7 night cruise. No big deal.

 

The cost- outside of the huge discounts we got when the BOGOHO sale started, the prices we have are pretty close to what they have been. We don't vacation outside of a few times during the year, and the prices still don't seem bad to us. Heck our rate on an T-Giving Athem cruise is really good.

 

The service- I have never experienced the terrible service that people complain about. So hard to put any credence into those complaints.

 

The food- if I had a complaint- it's that they push too much of it. I've never once gone hungry on a cruise, and typicall gain weight.

 

The entertainment- I know it's not for everyone, but apparently it is for us.

 

So in summary- it still fits.

 

If people want to call me some kind of cheerleader or overly loyal or whatever- you know, that's not my problem. We are having fun, and I'm not here to make you happy.

 

Pretty much you nailed it. RCI has been changing/evolving for over 40 years, thats one of the main things we like about them, great ships and crews. Pricing goes up and down, we just booked Harmony, a few hundred higher than normal, but we found some great pricing on Oasis after she comes to PC. Over the years it balances out for us.

[marci22]

On Brilliance and Vision I could find in the WJ at least 1 entrée from the MDR and usually 1 soup. Never found them on Liberty and the meat from the carving section was beyond horrible, beef was gray and green and pork not much better! Again it might of been the time, but I doubt it.

 

You better like Salmon or white fish cause that is all they served in mini bites. Always chicken thighs or legs; never saw those minute chicken which were decent on Vision. I saw days on end of mixed veg from my guess frozen bags! The didn't have that salt water canned taste. 3 different pastas and 2 sauces and if you were real good maybe meatballs. Then there for lunch and dinner hamburgs, hot dogs, turkey burgers and pizza! Which by the way was the same at Sorrento's[emoji10]! The food at Jade was the same. I must say I really enjoyed the separated fruit in the am! Usually got a nice big bowl[emoji41] . Why couldn't they do that for 1 more meal. You had to search for the good home fries not the tater tots.

 

Thanks for the explanation. We usually like the food and have been cruising on Royal since 2005 but I noticed the biggest decline on our cruise last summer. There were a couple of items that were actually inedible; something that I've never experienced before. Too bad.

[gingerpeaches]

We've only ever cruised Royal. I work in education so we are confined to school holidays for vacations, and we've come to accept that we have to pay more than someone who can go away in (for example) September. Cruising is not a cheap way to holiday, so we stick with what we know. We like the Royal product and have always enjoyed every cruise we've been on.

 

That said, the next school holidays are at the end of May, and my husband's work requires him to travel to Southeast Asia for a week. I thought it would be good to take our two children away on a short break. I simply cannot afford Royal. A 3 night cruise out of Southampton in an inside on the Explorer would cost us £1406, while a balcony on a 4 night cruise on the Ventura during the same week would cost us £958. The choice, for me, is obvious. I can't imagine that the Ventura will be vastly different to the Explorer. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it's a bigger ship. So we'll see. I'm sure I'll go back to Royal in the future should they make their pricing more reasonable, but for now, it's not an option.

[cot427]

I'll add my two cents here. I feel like I'm with the consensus. You'll see less and less people sailing exclusively with Royal. In the past, I've exclusively sailed Royal (with 3 Carnivals in the mix b/c of price.) After each Carnival cruise, I would say to myself, "I'm never sailing Carnival again." But I kept going back for price. After I got off those I would be eager to get on Royal Caribbean. But then the time came for my Royal cruise and it wasn't much better, based on what I've known Royal to be in the past.

 

A few months ago I tried a weekend cruise on NCL and loved it, so I booked a week-long trip. However I am reading about a lot of changes on their line due to a new CEO and higher prices. Still, with their promotion, I think the deals are better.

 

However, I've been looking at summer 2016 cruises and Carnival wins by a landslide with price and itinerary. And most of them are on ships that are new or have been through the Fun Ship 2.0 revitalization. So I'm seriously considering trying Carnival once again next year.

 

So long to my Loyal to Royal and RCI cheerleader days. I've even stopping bragging about it to friends and interested cruisers.

[Summerknight]

I think it's like a comfortable old pair of shoes that you should get rid of, but just can't get up the courage to do it. We did try Carnival a few years ago. I kept saying how bad can it be? Well, it was horrible....staff and food. now RCI staff seemed disgruntled this past winter. Our TA thinks we will not care for NCL. I feel we are stuck with Royal because of fear of the unknown. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best on our future trips.

[Moltar]

Like one poster said. They haven't done anything to ruin our experience to makes us want to try others. The C&A Membership. Another reason for me which may sound a little odd, I watch alot of specials on cruises, watch alot of video reviews and pictures. Other then X, most cruise lines pool decks look very closed in, tight and not very spacious. I always found the pool decks on Royal to be very open and airy, with plenty of room. They biggest downer to me who is a foodie is after 8-9pm your food choices become very limited on Royal. They should keep a portion of the WJ open all night.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Moltar

[njm5378]

Here's one perspective- most of the complaints- from minor to major- don't apply to us.

 

The new drink thing- we barely drink, maybe buying a glass of wine or two for a 7 night cruise. No big deal.

 

The cost- outside of the huge discounts we got when the BOGOHO sale started, the prices we have are pretty close to what they have been. We don't vacation outside of a few times during the year, and the prices still don't seem bad to us. Heck our rate on an T-Giving Athem cruise is really good.

 

The service- I have never experienced the terrible service that people complain about. So hard to put any credence into those complaints.

 

The food- if I had a complaint- it's that they push too much of it. I've never once gone hungry on a cruise, and typicall gain weight.

 

The entertainment- I know it's not for everyone, but apparently it is for us.

 

So in summary- it still fits.

 

If people want to call me some kind of cheerleader or overly loyal or whatever- you know, that's not my problem. We are having fun, and I'm not here to make you happy.

 

 

I agree fully, with a bit more liquor please:). Their product just fits us. The prices are comparable to land based vacations we have taken and we are yet to have a bad experience.

[Dinkachu]

We have sailed other cruise lines and always came back to RCI as they had lovely ships, great service, decent food and good shows. You paid a little more, but we always felt it was worth it. Their loyalty program used to be great, not so much anymore. If you don't get a full suite, you can no longer order a full room service meal. No more midnight buffets. Bingo is 30.00 a pop. Our last 2 cruises with RCI have had less than stellar food, unless we 'pay extra' for decent food in the specialty restaurants. We've seen a slip in service and attitude once the prepaid tips went into effect. We are booked on Allure in December, after dry dock and we have great hopes that it will be the cruise that keeps us with RCI. After that, we are thinking of exploring other lines. We will not go back to Carnival. Maybe Princess, back to Disney, Norwegian, Holland American, we are just not sure. But we are sure that we won't continue to pay the RCI prices if service continues to slip.

[Moltar]

Also, I consistently find great prices on Royal. I found a great 7 night I'm looking to book that only cost 2,100 for 3 in a D1 balcony room. The ports are great for someone who seems to have been to every darn island. This one is taking me to 2 new ones and 2 I haven't seen since 99. Hopefully will book in less then a month.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Moltar

[Sandy Sails]

We haven't booked a new cruise with Royal since the BOGO promotions started about a year ago. At current pricing, we don't have any plans to book either. Royal's higher cruise fares combined with their new higher drink and gratuity prices have us looking elsewhere. Not just at other cruise lines, but other vacations options too.

 

After our next cruise on Oasis we will be Diamond and we are looking at Celebrity Solstice class for a transatlantic next year where we will receive Elite benefits. Celebrity TA's are priced much lower than Royals and I've been wanting to check out the Solstice class ships for a while now.

 

Here's a non-cruising option you can check out: Stay for a week or so on St. Thomas or St. John, then you can take the ferries to the other islands during the days and spend as much time as you want on them. We're looking into doing that in 2016.

[Missus Makkem]

Another who has recently left RCI for other lines in the last 6 months have gone on Celeb and P and O enjoyed both of them.Very different to RCI

 

One of our reasons for leaving for us was the lack of new ports, same old same old.

We will return to RCI I am sure but still are happy to try others.

[04cruises]

We loved Explorer. No interest in Quantum. Liberty is coming to NJ but prices are beyond comprehension. You should look at NCL for a fresh perspective, or try X where your perks with RCI still get you something. I don't know what this new management team is thinking, it's like they want all the loyal to Royals to leave.

 

We just got off the Indy and we agree with you completely. We have one coming up on the Freedom and then we go shopping for a new cruise line. Sad, after the Freedom, we will only be 15 days short of Diamond +.

[rainey52]

If we didn't book our upcoming 2015 May Indy cruise last May with the great BOGO price, we would be looking at other options. We live in S. FL and can only sail in the summer so other than Carnival, RC was our only option. But with NCL sailing year round now, we have more options. We are D+ and while the balcony discount is a nice perk, its not going to keep us with RCI if there prices keep going up. All inclusive land vacations are starting to look better and better. But that said, we have never had a bad cruise with RCI, its just a matter of price.