Full review of our first RC Cruise (Sailed 7/31)

[Marinagirl1443]

Here is my review of our recent cruise. It took me a bit to get it together! I'll separate it into different posts so its not all in one long one. Free free to ask me questions.

 

We departed 7/31 from Galveston to what should have been the Western Caribbean. Our itinerary was changed due to the tropical storm that was forming and eventually became a hurricane.

 

Saturday night we stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott on the seawall, which is super expensive, but thanks to lots of points I converted into Marriot Gift cards we were able to do it….otherwise over $300 for one night (with taxes) probably not likely something we’d do otherwise. We enjoyed our day in Galveston--took the Ferry to Bolivar Peninsula and ate at Fisherman’s Wharf which is right next to where the ships dock. We saw some dolphins swimming the water.

 

I already wrote about our embarkation experience. You can read about that here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2388045 In general it was pretty smooth because we arrived early.

 

So after we got on board we had to wait until 1PM for our staterooms to be available. We headed up to the Windjammer Café for lunch.

 

Again, early and good timing because we got the table of our choice and were pretty much the first few to get food. We ate and then decided to wander a little bit. It was hot and we had our carry-on bags with us so we decided to find a place to sit. We found the Card Room (I think that’s what it was called—card games, checkers, etc). It was cool in there and only a floor away from our stateroom. We spent about 30 minutes in there before we headed to our floor and at 1PM they opened up the state rooms. We dropped off our stuff and headed to explore some more. We didn’t pack our swimsuits on our carry-ons and I wish we had. The pools were not super busy so it would have been a good time to jump in. We did play a round of miniature golf.

 

Staterooms: Loved them! We had 7394 & 7396 which are connecting rooms. We had our attendant open up the connecting door (it was locked) and the divider on our balconies—we had to wait until after the guest assembly drill. Even with pictures it’s hard to imagine the actual space size until you get there. The room was plenty big, I’ve stayed in rooms half the size in places like Japan so, this was spacious as far as I’m concerned. I was nervous about the bed being uncomfortable, but it was totally comfy. The couch was the perfect size and the bathroom was not so bad either. I like the rounded shower doors, I thought at first I would be a little claustrophobic, but the first time I got in and closed the doors it was better than I expected. The closet was a good size, plenty of hangers and shelves. The drawers in the desk/vanity are small but functional. I followed the advice of some reviews and we shoved one of our suitcases under the bed with the handle out and the top opened and folded back and used that for dirty laundry. All we had to do was pull the handle out and drop close in and push it back. Under the bed is a good place for storage. The balcony was really much bigger than I imagined, and with our two balconies with the divider open it was fantastic! I loved being able to just sit out there and chill.

[Marinagirl1443]

We had our dinner reservations for the week at 5:30PM in the Main Dining Room. We ate in the Michelangelo dining room.

 

The food was very good overall. We made our reservations to sit with other people and ended up with a family of four. The daughter was about our daughter’s age so they sat together most of the week and talked. It was an enjoyable experience all week. The only night’s menu that I thought was a little lackluster was our last night. I expected something more extravagant I guess being the last night. A few nights I ordered two starters…yum! And the rolls…so good. Our waiters were awesome. One of our tablemates had some very specific food requirements and I was super impressed with the amount of care they took to make sure she had what she needed and were prepared every night.

 

We did one specialty restaurant, Chops Grill. It was very good. I had the filet mignon and it was perfectly cooked. We had a few shareable sides. It was a nice change to be in the smaller restaurant. We had a bottle of champagne with our dinner. We didn’t do the others, but I had one couple that I took a picture for on one of the staircases tell me that Sabor we Excellente! They said it was wonderful and of course the service was as well. Next time we’ll try it. By the way, if you want a nice filet but don’t want to go to Chops, the main dining room has “Specialty options” that you can order, Filet, lobster and a few other choices, for an upcharge.

 

Breakfast was in the Windjammer every morning…if you can’t find something there than you have issues! I leaned towards the chilaquiles, they were my favorite with a fried egg.

 

Lunch varied from the Windjammer to whatever we had on our excursions and one day we went to Johnny Rockets.

 

We had late night pizza a few times, I thought it was really doughy the first time I ate it so the next time I asked them to make it crispy and they stuck it back in the oven and then it was crispy and so much better! Our dinner tablemate said they were really accommodating with making her a gluten free, sauce free, dairy free pizza…I’m not really sure what is left after that, but she enjoyed it.

 

Coffee Shop: If you want a small sweet, stop by for a cookie, biscotti or whatever else they they have (no upcharge).

 

Ben & Jerry’s. Of course there was some late night ice cream. It was an extra charge, but worth it.

 

Cupcakes: We signed up for a cupcake class but didn’t end up doing it because my daughter wanted to do something else. We never had one, but they smelled good!

[coloradogirl63]

Following along, great start!

[Marinagirl1443]

We saw the ice skating show, which was a review of different music. It was very entertaining. We didn’t get there early, it was just starting when we arrived so we ended up sitting in the very back on a bar-style seating area.

 

In the Air – a Circque style show, was one of my favorite shows. The acrobatics and staging and imagery were beautiful. Since we had early seating at dinner, we basically took our time walking from our dining room through the promenade to the Platinum Theater. We usually ended up sitting there for 30 to 45 minutes or so before the shows but we didn’t mind. We got our choice of seats. We saw plenty of people show up just before the show and couldn’t find seating together, we saw some people come in and save anywhere from 3 to 10 seats and when someone wanted some of those seats arguments ensued. I personally don’t think they should allow someone to hold that many seats maybe a couple is OK, but 10?. If they want to see the show they should be there to hold their own seat.

 

Comedian – I don’t remember his name, I’m sure it’s in the compass. He was funny. This was the one around the dinner seatings, not a late night one. My daughter was cracking up the whole time and even said her face hurt because she was laughing so much.

 

Magician/comedian – Again…I don’t remember his name. He was a British guy from Austin, TX. It was kinda funny, kinda corny. My least favorite performance.

 

Saturday Night Fever – LOVED IT! One night we ran into the cruise director on the top deck and he mentioned to us that they bring in four characters (the main characters) in just for that performance. It was outstanding. The dancing, the acting…lots of fun.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Marinagirl1443]

Our original ports were Roatan, Belize and Cozumel. With our course change we first went to Cozumel. We were told that our original excursions in Cozumel (booked through RC) would still be honored.

 

When we arrived in Cozumel, getting off the boat was simple. We only took our Sea Pass and a picture ID like our driver’s license. They encourage you to keep your passport in the safe in your room. That’s what we did. They warn you in Mexico to absolutely take no food or drink off the boat, not even an apple or small box of cereal. We showed our Sea Pass leaving the ship and they scanned it.

 

The RC sponsored excursions are all marked with signs along the pier. The person in charge is holding a sign and once everyone arrives at that location they walk you through a check point. At the checkpoint there are dogs, not drug or bomb sniffing dogs…food sniffing dogs. If you want some entertainment, watch this for a few minutes, all bags and backpacks, everything is sniffed by the dogs and they can spot everything. People thought they could innocently just bring a banana; the dogs would jump up and bite or paw at the bag.

 

Our excursion in Cozumel was the Atlantis Submarine. We really enjoyed that. A smaller boat/ferry took us to a location off shore where the submarine was already stationed. When we arrived, we entered the sub, you have to walk down a ladder of about 9 steps or so. It’s supposed to hold about 48 people but they only had 24 in our group so we were really able to spread out. When the sub gets sealed and you start to descend you couldn’t feel a thing. If you are into sea life, fish and that kind of thing it was amazing. We started out at about 60 feet down and then at one point we’re taken down to 115 ft. They took us past reefs and such and there was one person pointing out the various types of fish and they also took us past a shipwreck. It lasted about 45 minutes or so, but it was really worth it to us.

 

We were back on the pier before noon. We decided that since we were missing out on a stop that we would go to one of the beaches. On the pier (closer to the ship) there was a stand for Playa Mia. We paid for beach entry and lunch. We took a taxi to the beach. I asked the guy at the stand if it was safe, he said yes not to worry. We walked through the port stores and when you exit there is a line of taxis. We told him we were going to Playa Mia and he took us there in about 20 minutes or so. We picked up our wristbands and walked in. The lunch was pretty good. Some mac and cheese and chicken nuggets for my daughter. Rice, nachos, tacos, etc for us. It was a buffet style. They had flavored waters like cool aid. We bought four bottles of water. I think they were $3 or $4 a piece. We hit the beach, managed to get chairs closest to the water and just kept an eye on everything the whole time we were there. There were lockers, but to be honest they looked like it would take nothing to break them open and you couldn’t see them from the beach. Our original plan was to take some small locks and lock our stuff to the beach chairs. They are pretty heavy and sturdy so we figured if nothing else, we would lock our bag, lock it to the beach chair and anyone trying to take it would have a hard time. Well we forgot our locks…so, we just kept a close eye on our things.

 

We didn’t have a lot of time at the beach, but it was enough to let us enjoy the water. The waters were a little rough. We left around 3 so that we could check out a few of the port shops. We grabbed a taxi back to the port. We checked out the stores. If you like silver it’s a great location for that kind of thing. Please don’t ever pay the price they tell you, I speak Spanish so it’s easier for me to do it there, but a ring they advertise for $400, but tell you it’s half off is still way overpriced. I managed to talk them down to $40 dollars on silver ring that was originally priced $360.

When we were done, you walk through a check point, flash your Sea Pass and then continue to the ship. There you go through a metal detector and scan your Sea Pass.

 

The excursions we signed up for but didn’t get to go on were the BOSS Underwater Adventure in Roatan…basically an underwater scooter with a big helmet that lets you explore a reef with a big helmet. It looked so cool and that was our biggest disappointment. In Belize we were going to do the Starfish Island Beach Break.

 

Our second port stop was Nassau. We fell in love with Nassau. It was beautiful and the waters were calm and we had fish swimming all around our feet. We did an excursion to Balmoral Island. The beach was amazing, they had dolphin swim options but we didn’t do that. We just played in the water. We brought our goggles for snorkeling and that was fun. But the food was super expensive. They had a staff safety drill and dropped the lifeboats into the water which we saw on our way to the island.

[Marinagirl1443]

We never got our invitation for the meet & mingle. I assumed that it may have changed because of the change of course we made. I really wanted to go to it.

 

The Dreamworks Parade – was fun. All the major DW characters and dancing. We found this big wooden bench about 20 minutes before it started that was in the middle of the promenade and watched it from there as the parade went past us. I love that kind of stuff. I had more fun at it than my daughter I think.

 

70’s night in the promenade – we didn’t’ go to that, but I heard it was lots of fun.

 

Movies outside – We didn’t go to those either after we heard that with kids swimming around and being loud, you couldn’t hear anything.

 

Dancing under the Stars – Upper deck dancing by the pool. Didn’t stay the whole time for that, but it was nice.

 

Photos: Much to the dismay of my family, we took a lot of the professional photos. It was nice to have the backgrounds set up and take a nice family pic. Unfortunately I didn’t prepay this (it was $99) so I ended up paying $149 for the flash drive only. I didn’t get any prints because I can get cheap prints on Shutterfly (just Google for a coupon) or even Walmart.

 

Lastly, drink packages. We bought three of the basic soda packages and one of the Royal Replenish. The Royal Replenish was for sparkling water, coffee and juice, but we found that at breakfast, lunch and dinner coffee was included, apple and orange juice as well. And the basic soda package gets you the seltzer water from the soda machines. So we would have been Ok with just the four basic soda packages. I really don’t drink anything but water and club soda/sparkling water.

 

One investment that I’m glad we made was on the Evian bottled water package. (the smaller one). On the first day it was in our room and it was nice to have it there every time we came back to our room. We asked our attendant to remove the stuff inside the fridge so that we could use it for our water. It was a sucky fridge so once we realized that we never bothered putting water in there. But the first day we requested ice from our room attendant and he must have realized we were using it for our water so every day when we came back from an excursion or from a day on the ship, we found a bucket of ice in our room…it was so great to have!!

 

Towel animals: They only do them every other day...it was cute!

 

Elevators had the days on them on the floor and changed every day...a small thing but I thought it was cool.

 

Bingo: Fun but expensive.

 

I read it was a thing to decorate your door, so I bough some decals and magnetic letters.

 

We had such a great time on our first cruise that we signed up for our 2nd...we hope to make it a bigger event with additional family. I appreciated all the reviews and info that I found while I was preparing for our trip, so I hope this helps some other folks!

 

I have all my Compass papers so I'll scan them and post them in the next day or so.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Marinagirl1443
Forgot to add!

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Great review and pictures! Thanks for sharing! Glad you had a wonderful time!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[widallas]

Great review...glad you had a wonderful first cruise, and are already planning a second! :)

[Ladysilver]

Enjoyed reading your review! :D

[reallyhooked]

Great review. Planning is half the fun. G

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review

[Clarea]

Nice review and looking forward to the compasses.

[tonyweir]

We were on the ship with you!

It's great to hear you had as much fun as we did!

[preschool teacher]

Good review....the first cruise usually gets most people hooked...we just love cruising....enjoy your second!

[katjoeus]

Good review....the first cruise usually gets most people hooked...we just love cruising....enjoy your second!

 

So very true!!!!

[packercruising]

It is so great to hear such positive things from new cruisers!

[JTBCruiser]

Thank you for taking the time to post a comprehensive review. We are booked on her in Nov and the following Sep. Glad you had a good time. :D

[sadoan]

Where did you get those adorable decorations for your doors?

[Marinagirl1443]

Where did you get those adorable decorations for your doors?

 

Got them on Amazon and they were $16 I think. They were the decal type (not stickers) and were super easy to peel off our last night. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A6U0BJ4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The magnetic letters were from Target's cheap bin area when you first enter the store, right now they are cheap because of Back to School. My daughter used the remaining letters to see what she could spell on our ceiling. I hadn't thought of that but she had fun with it.