Trying RCI

[Itsbeentoolong]

Hi guys,

 

I will probably be pestering the Royal Caribbean boards enough soon so can I ask if any P&O fans have tried Royal Caribbean, more specifically Navigator of the Seas and could compare it to P&O's Azura/Ventura. I loved P&O so much I worry RCI won't compare. I picked RCI as its a gift and affordable.

 

They don't have laundry rooms, how do you iron your shirts?? Do they use the buzzer system for their 'Anytime Dining'? Can I put all 3 people on my credit card?

 

Thanks

 

Dean

[Manilow fan]

Hi Dean

 

We were with you on Azura at Christmas/New Year. We did RCI last year on Serenade of the Seas and we were comparing RCI and P & O.

P & O have tea and coffee facilities in staterooms - RCI dont have these.

The food is better on P & O.

The staff are much, much more helpful and cheerful on RCI.

On our P & O cruise virtually everyone was British - RCI cater for passengers from a multitude of countries.

P & O let you take as much drink on board as you like - RCI only let you have 2 bottles of wine on embarkment day.

 

I'm not sure which one I'd now choose - think it would come down to destinations and prices!

 

This is just what I think though - other people may have other views!

 

Sue

[tartanexile81]

I haven't been on NOTS but I was on IOTS. The main problem we had with it was the concentration of entertaiment venues around the Royal Promenade and therefore our inability to find a quiet corner to relax, chat and have a drink. It's hard to put into words but it had an American, in-your-face feel about it than the more friendly and sociable atmosphere we personally associate with P&O. We actually enjoyed the food, really liked the layout of the cabins and loved the ice-show. Areas of the ship however are much more geared towards children than on P&O where the Kids Clubs so such a great job. This is my opinion and there's probably lots and lots of people who'd disagree

[groovechick]

Having originally done 2 cruises with P&O, our return to cruising after a 15 year gap was with RCI on Voyager of the Seas, which I think is a sister ship to Navigator. Since then we have done 3 cruises with P&O, on Aurora, Azura and Britannia.

The differences we have found (and I stress this is just our personal experiences and perceptions):

RCI embarkation/disembarkation was much more disorganised than P&O. Ours was a fly-cruise out of Venice and the organisation was pretty poor. We could have been unlucky.

Much more hard sell on RCI of photos, drinks packages, etc. Extortionate drinks prices - $14 for a glass of Merlot (the standard you'd pay about £6-7/bottle for in a UK supermarket).

We thought the food on RCI was very good, certainly on a par with P&O if not slightly better, especially the buffet. They certainly handled the children's allergy much better than P&O did the first time we sailed with them. Free lemonade and ice cream is a nice extra touch which makes quite a difference. We generally found the waiting staff to be much friendlier and to have a more customer-centric attitude than P&O.

The pool was much more heavily policed on RCI than on P&O, to the extent that the children could hardly play at all (and I'm talking just splashing about, not bombing or anything like that!) BUT more fun activities and events (ice carving, organised games and competitions. RCI kids club not a patch on P&O though.

Entertainment/shows more geared to a US market, feature shows such as the ice show were excellent but ticketing/seating very poorly organised. On our cruise the Ents Director was conspicuous by her absence. Whether you like or loathe Neil Oliver on Azura/Britannia, he works damn hard and makes sure his team does too - he's always dropping by and checking up on them.

On our cruise the formal nights were very poorly adhered to - on the first night wearing a maxi dress with just a few sparkles I felt really overdressed, as did my husband in his DJ - there was just a handful of us who had dressed up. Much more international clientele on RCI - we met Canadians, Germans, Dutch, Italians, French.... .

I'd happily cruise with RCI again for the right price and itinerary.

[besberry]

RCI is my favourite cruise line. There are of course plusses and minuses to all cruiselines.

 

Drinks: Way cheaper on P&O and they don't add 18% tip (even for the robot bar tender).

 

Food: My vote would go to RCI, but only just.

 

Ambience: P&O are definitely British and RCI are most certainly American! More nationalities in both crew and passengers on RCI.

 

Ships: To my mind RCI upkeep of the ships is better.

 

Entertainment: About the same. Cruising out of UK you seem to get the same 'guest entertainers' on both lines. On the other hand P&O don't have ice rinks or ice shows!

 

Cabins: Slight edge to RCI, but their toiletries are rubbish. You will get a kettle in the room if you cruise ex-UK.

 

Staff: RCI staff seem more professional, but I've rarely felt that P&O wasn't any good.

 

I have cruises booked on both in the future, so I'm certainly not 100% RCI!

[peteukmcr]

 

They don't have laundry rooms, how do you iron your shirts?? Do they use the buzzer system for their 'Anytime Dining'? Can I put all 3 people on my credit card?

 

Thanks

 

Dean

We don't iron shirts as there are no facilities for that. We either use a 'wrinkle releaser' or send them out for pressing to the laundry.

 

They don't use a pager for 'My Time Dining', you would normally only have to wait a couple of minutes for a table. You can call earlier in the day if you would like to book a specific time.

 

Yes, you can arrange for the on board accounts for several cabins/guests to be added to the 1 card.

[mandylennon]

We have been on Ventura and IOTS, we thoroughly enjoyed both.

Yes, you can put 3 people on one credit card.

Te and coffee is provided in rooms for cruises that sail out of the UK.

Plugs are american so adaptors needed.

Prices for drinks are much more expensive on RCI.

Different types of entertainment on board, we didn't like the in-house singers, but excellent band in the nightclub.

Smoking is still allowed in the casino on RCI, so we didn't go there.

We enjoyed the food on both with very similar menus in the restaurants.

We didn't get to know our cabin steward on IOTS, we only saw him once in the 2 weeks, whereas on P&O our cabin steward always seemed to be around.

 

We are booked to go on Ventura again as we felt it suited us better as a family of 5, but would be more than happy to go again with RCI.

[caroline135]

Hi everyone, just found this & reading with interest as I have same choice to make, it's between Ventura & IOTS for me.

Only ever done two cruises, oceana & azura, loved them both but treating daughters this year (19 & 23) all be it in our cabin as they are only £280 each!! I thought they might prefer the IOTS wow factor & maybe a bit more going on, shows & things to do maybe more to their taste for example.

RC have a great offer on so I'm really tempted. It's swings & roundabouts tho as what I seem to gain on RC I loose out in the select benefits, particularly no free coach from here in Yorkshire which we love! It's a long trip to s'ton & adds the possibility of overnighting the day before to avoid disaster, as well as all the petrol & hubby moaning! But the free RC drinks package for me & him will be nice to avoid big bar bills & I'd maybe buy them a drinks package. But will the little things add up, like 4x port transfers x2 at every stop?! It's harder to find the info than p&o I think.

I'm just not sure!!

 

 

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[GLYNAGP]

We have our first P and O cruise booked in August . We've Cruised RCI 10 plus times and always happy with them similarly with Celebrity We have chosen Ventura in August as the dates suit, we are taking our 8 Year old Grandson and it fits in with other family commitments. I will say of course at this point I can't really make any comparisons however we did find the cost of taking an 8 year old in our cabin really quite high on P & O, it was only around £100 or so less than our adult fare. Where as we've taken our elder grandson on RCI and NCL as an extra our cabin and it cost a fraction of the adult fare, can't remember the exact figure but both cases it was less than £300

[ascot2012]

We have done a couple of cruises with P&O (Ventura & Azura) and 1 with RCI (BOTS), as others have said the drinks are much cheaper on P&O (in line with UK pub prices) we found the balcony cabin slightly bigger on BOTS more in line with a Superior balcony on Azura, the staff are equally as good on both lines, the on ship entertainers we found better on P&O and on RCI they used the atrium a lot for entertainment but it could be difficult to get to see it.

As other have said there is a more international feel to RCI and most of the people we have met on both lines have been great (met some on both lines that you would cross the road to avoid)

We would go on both P&O & RCI again if the destinations was what we were looking for.

Just give it a go you may love it, if not don't do it again:)

[Pringles]

We have cruised once on Ventura with P & O and three times on RCI Adventure and Explorer. We liked both cruise lines. We found there was more choice of food on RCI but that the quality of food was better on P & O Ventura.

 

We liked the interconnecting cabins on RCI ships which Ventura lacked.

 

From what I have seen, P & O offers better value for money to me.

 

I would use both but have a bit of a preference at the moment to P & O .

[CRUISIN LINDA]

We liked Jewel of the Seas but didn't like IOTS.

 

The Ice show on IOTS was wonderful, but as for the other entertainment, we saw little of it as they had an odd system of putting the shows on before dinner! We like to have our dinner and then relax in the theatre. The consequence of this was that after 2nd sitting the ship was absolutely full and there was nowhere to sit in any of the bars. We actually saw people sitting on the floor to take part in quizzes. The weather was bad, so of course even more people were confined indoors. Despite the size of the ship, the cabins were not very big as a lot of the ship was taken up with the open area down the middle of the ship.

 

Jewel of the Seas, however was very nice, similar to P&O and Princess ships. The shows were on at a sensible time and food was very good.

 

Sorry, can't help with Navigator :(

[M&A]

We just came off of a 21 day cruise on the P&O Arcadia from Chile to Aus. It was our first cruise on P&O and definitely our last. The worst experience was the food, badly cooked plain, no imagination, tasteless for the most part. The selection in the buffett was the smallest and worst we have ever seen on any cruise ship.

Of course P&O is geared towards the British and the entertainment etc was very British and we expected that and enjoyed some of the entertainment etc

 

A poster above mentioned above that they thought that RCI was "in your face American" ??????

I don't know what that actually means but as someone that lives on the other side of the Atlantic I could say that P&O was "in your face British"..............:)

 

We have cruised Carnival, Princess, RCI, Celebrity, HAL, and the Arcadia experience was by far the worst experience.

We had sailed RCI on a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas and it was far superior. We had so much fun and the fellow passengers were definitely more relaxed on the other cruise lines. The ship too was very plain and basic with no "wow factor" just doesn't come close to the RCI ships.

 

I found the drinks prices similar, but of course with the ups and downs of the pound/dollar it depends when you compare. RCI has some cheaper beer deals like the "bucket of five 16 ounce beers" as for the tip/service charge it's there but P&O just hides it in the price.

 

I will probably get a lot of disagreement here but that's just my opinion.

Edited March 20, 2016 by M&A

[Presto2]

We just came off of a 21 day cruise on the P&O Arcadia from Chile to Aus. It was our first cruise on P&O and definitely our last. The worst experience was the food, badly cooked plain, no imagination, tasteless for the most part. The selection in the buffett was the smallest and worst we have ever seen on any cruise ship.

Of course P&O is geared towards the British and the entertainment etc was very British and we expected that and enjoyed some of the entertainment etc

 

A poster above mentioned above that they thought that RCI was "in your face American" ??????

I don't know what that actually means but as someone that lives on the other side of the Atlantic I could say that P&O was "in your face British"..............:)

 

We have cruised Carnival, Princess, RCI, Celebrity, HAL, and the Arcadia experience was by far the worst experience.

We had sailed RCI on a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas and it was far superior. We had so much fun and the fellow passengers were definitely more relaxed on the other cruise lines. The ship too was very plain and basic with no "wow factor" just doesn't come close to the RCI ships.

 

I found the drinks prices similar, but of course with the ups and downs of the pound/dollar it depends when you compare. RCI has some cheaper beer deals like the "bucket of five 16 ounce beers" as for the tip/service charge it's there but P&O just hides it in the price.

 

I will probably get a lot of disagreement here but that's just my opinion.

 

Hi, have done P&O, Celebrity and just a short cruise on the IOTS. Have to say we loved all of them - all very very different and we met some great people on all cruise lines. (We met some real pains on all as well, but that is another story!)

 

We found the IOTS great for our 4 day cruise in October and the Italian restaurant was the best experience ever. Having said that we really did not like all of the entertainment stuff on the decks and would avoid it like the plague in the school holidays ! Didn't like the main parade part but it was a good atmosphere when there was a big event on. When we went from Southampton it was very formal and everyone dressed up for the main events.

Strangely there was more formality in that the IOTS had a string quartet for the formal night in the dining room which surprised us !!

 

Love the food on P&O as the food on Celebrity was far too salty and HUGE portions. Have read many people saying that they disliked it for the same reasons. Drinks are FAR cheaper on P&O, with a bottle of wine about £16 rather than the cheapest on Celebrity / RCI being about $40 plus 15% service charge !

 

At the end of the day it is all 'horses for courses' (if they say that in the USA?)

 

You need to do your homework re every cruise line and see what it is all about. Then you can't moan or complain about what you get on board.

Why not give it a go and see what YOU think.... then come back and let us know how it went. :)

[daiB]

We just came off of a 21 day cruise on the P&O Arcadia from Chile to Aus. It was our first cruise on P&O and definitely our last. The worst experience was the food, badly cooked plain, no imagination, tasteless for the most part. The selection in the buffett was the smallest and worst we have ever seen on any cruise ship.

Of course P&O is geared towards the British and the entertainment etc was very British and we expected that and enjoyed some of the entertainment etc

 

A poster above mentioned above that they thought that RCI was "in your face American" ??????

I don't know what that actually means but as someone that lives on the other side of the Atlantic I could say that P&O was "in your face British"..............:)

 

We have cruised Carnival, Princess, RCI, Celebrity, HAL, and the Arcadia experience was by far the worst experience.

We had sailed RCI on a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas and it was far superior. We had so much fun and the fellow passengers were definitely more relaxed on the other cruise lines. The ship too was very plain and basic with no "wow factor" just doesn't come close to the RCI ships.

 

I found the drinks prices similar, but of course with the ups and downs of the pound/dollar it depends when you compare. RCI has some cheaper beer deals like the "bucket of five 16 ounce beers" as for the tip/service charge it's there but P&O just hides it in the price.

 

I will probably get a lot of disagreement here but that's just my opinion.

 

 

Can't disagree about the lack of Wow. If you are used to American lines then British ones will feel plain. Here it is called understated. We do not go in for the loud and brash. That's how UK lines are, in particular P&O. If you had asked before you sailed so one could have told you. As for the food. Cooking for the British is different to that for Americans and clearly you would find it different. Personally I like American food or rather the way it is cooked over there. Not sure I could have it for a long cruise like a world sector as you did , with your kind of cooking.

 

 

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[caroline135]

Enjoyed reading all these responses, thanks everyone.

I'm a terrible ( or maybe it's cautious ! ) decision maker but think we'll probably try IOTS & book eavesway & give it a go, just for the daughters sake really & the fact we love being out on deck & it looks like IOTS beats Ventura hands down for that. My only worry is if its sailing full but hopefully as its early October it might not be the case.

Thanks again & sorry OP for butting in! [emoji4]

 

 

 

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[Mysticalmother]

We just came off of a 21 day cruise on the P&O Arcadia from Chile to Aus. It was our first cruise on P&O and definitely our last. The worst experience was the food, badly cooked plain, no imagination, tasteless for the most part. The selection in the buffett was the smallest and worst we have ever seen on any cruise ship.

Of course P&O is geared towards the British and the entertainment etc was very British and we expected that and enjoyed some of the entertainment etc

 

A poster above mentioned above that they thought that RCI was "in your face American" ??????

I don't know what that actually means but as someone that lives on the other side of the Atlantic I could say that P&O was "in your face British"..............:)

 

We have cruised Carnival, Princess, RCI, Celebrity, HAL, and the Arcadia experience was by far the worst experience.

We had sailed RCI on a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas and it was far superior. We had so much fun and the fellow passengers were definitely more relaxed on the other cruise lines. The ship too was very plain and basic with no "wow factor" just doesn't come close to the RCI ships.

 

I found the drinks prices similar, but of course with the ups and downs of the pound/dollar it depends when you compare. RCI has some cheaper beer deals like the "bucket of five 16 ounce beers" as for the tip/service charge it's there but P&O just hides it in the price.

 

I will probably get a lot of disagreement here but that's just my opinion.[/quote ]

 

Genuinely sorry you didnt enjoy Arcadia...she is what I would call an "understated " ship. We love her. Comfortable, no glitz, quiet glamour . I love some of the artwork and sculptures dotted around. But I agree, no " wow" factor. Doesnt bother us, but i can understand it bothers others. You might find Azura ( or Britannia - havent been on her...) more to your liking if you dared to go on P & O again.

I probably wouldnt enjoy RCI or Carnival from what I have read. But thats me. Jury is out on Celebrity & Princess, Depends what you want out of a cruise. For me, its a means to go somewhere, the destinations and just being at sea. and the entertainment and activities are great if i like them - if i dont, then its not the be all and end all. I can enjoy watching the sea!

I Think this just highlights that with so many people cruising these days, you must do your homework and find the right ship and cruise line for your needs ....whatever they may be!

[Living on a prayer]

I agree with most of the posts on here. RCI ships do have more of a WOW factor. But I didn't like their casino. Too much like an amusement arcade. One thing RCI have that P&O will never have is Johnny Rockets. A great, fun type, US diner.

[caroline135]

Finally decided & booked - we're going to try Independence this year, we've loved our P&O cruises but just felt not getting as good value for money this time compared to our previous bookings. This years Ventura price was dearer despite being October compared to Aug/Sept last year, & for inside select it has no OBC this year, last year we had same grade cabin ...with £580 OBC!! They spoilt us last year, but it's backfired this year haha

 

I think the girls will have more to do & see on board RC. It might be the last time they both want to join us ( or the last time I want to pay for them more like[emoji38] ) & their vote went to IOTS.

Either way it's a cruise, that's the main thing & I'm just grateful to be going, my mum has cancer & is often on/off chemo, she can't get travel insurance at the moment so I'm just thankful for what I can do when others aren't so fortunate.

I'll be back to P&O as I do love it, that first cruise is always special, so hope you'll still allow me here [emoji6]

 

 

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