LIVE! Dragon OfTheSeas and the Snowbird Migration from Quebec to FLL Oct 7-20, 2019

[YlangYlangF9PB3E]

Enjoy the sunshine and calm seas! Looks like a lovely sea day.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I will tell you a little about dining.  

 

The Windjammer [casual cafeteria style] is open for breakfast 7-11am, lunch 11:30-3pm, afternoon tea 3:15-4:15, dinner 6-9pm. I have never visited during tea so I can't tell you what they serve.

 

The main dining room is open 7:30-9am for breakfast, 11:30 to 1pm [on sea days] for lunch, 5:15-9pm for My Time Dining and the 2 traditional dinner seatings are 5:30 and 8pm

 

Café Promenade is open from 6am to 3am.  The offerings change with the time of day. 

 

DH and I go to the windjammer for breakfast most mornings.  Here are a few pictures. 

 

As you enter the Windjammer you pass the hand washing station.  You are highly encouraged to wash hands each time you enter.    I wish we had this on our last cruise.  DH and I both got the flu.  [We had taken the flu shot and it was on the second leg of a B2B so we did not have it before we boarded.] I wash my hands all the time, but not everyone else does. 

 

 

If you look at the nozzle you can see that the water comes out of the center and there is a Dyson [very powerful] blower on each side to dry the hands.  It is a very interesting design.  

 

The omelet station is very popular. I was lucky to catch this one empty.  You can also get fried eggs here. 

 

 

They have lots of yummy looking pasty/doughnuts.  I try to stay away from this area. 

 

 

This is the waffle station.  They make the waffles and you top them.  

 

There are eggs, bacon, sausage, etc self-serve in warming trays. 

[mcgore83]

Thank you for taking the time to share your vacation with us.  I am enjoying it very much!

[FionaMG]

Thanks for all the great info and pics Dragon.

 

Would you happen to know if there are time restrictions on the coffee machine in the Diamond Lounge? We don't drink alcohol but we do love our coffee, so this is the perk we are most looking forward to when we sail as brand new Diamonds in a few weeks' time.

[purduemom1]

3 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We were actually on a cruise the week before Hurricane Sandy.  We had taken a 7 day to Bermuda from Bayonne, NJ.  We drove to the port after a couple of nights stay in Atlantic City, NJ. 

 

The next cruise was during the hurricane.  Many of the cars parked at the pier had water damage . . . and some were totaled.  Was your car parked at the pier?

 

We felt we dodged the bullet and felt sorry for those that were on that cruise.  [I realize many suffered much more damage than a car--not slighting what they went through]

 

Fortunately no, we didn’t have a car but we had planned to rent a car and visit my BIL in CT. We had to cancel that because he had no power and we weren’t sure just what road conditions would be along there way. We were fortunate to find a hotel near EWR that was open and we spent one night there before flying out. We had good luck changing our flight plans although many flights had not yet resumed.

 

i remember well that point during the cruise when everyone realized that Sandy was going to change plans for most of us. There were those who were worried about their homes and cars parked at the port or at hotels. There were those who tried to get a flight out of Portland but couldn’t. A few who lived in Canada left the cruise in St John. For most of us it was a huge unknown. I loved that cruise in spite of the stress!

 

i was interested in your map of St John showing the free WiFi area. That didn’t exist when we were there. I walked to the library and used their WiFi to figure out flight possibilities. At that point the 3 airports were closed and no reopening time had been set. Back on the ship, the captain announced that the airports were now open and all flights back to normal! That shocked me because I knew it wasn’t true. I did share my info with an officer and soon the captain announced that his earlier announcement was a bit premature and that the airports were not yet open. At that point most  people had no idea what they were going to do. However, it was interesting to see how we all bonded and of course Sandy was the topic of most conversations! 

 

I will I’ll say that we never felt that we were in danger and really didn’t experience rough seas. The unplanned overnight in St John was why we avoided the rough seas. Sorry to miss Bar Harbor and while we did do some sightseeing in Portland, I also spent time in a Starbucks (WiFi)  looking for a hotel near EWR and then locating an ATM so we had extra cash in case we needed it in NJ. Yes, it was a very memorable cruise in more ways than one!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, purduemom1 said:

i was interested in your map of St John showing the free WiFi area. That didn’t exist when we were there. I walked to the library and used their WiFi to figure out flight possibilities. 

 

 Sorry to miss Bar Harbor and while we did do some sightseeing in Portland, I also spent time in a Starbucks (WiFi)  

 

That is some cruise.  You will always remember that one no matter how many you take.  

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find free wifi in each port at the terminal.  All but one of them had a section of chairs to make passengers [and crew] comfortable.  Sydney even had tables. 

 

My Verizon plan includes Canada without an additional charge.  However, I am much better off using a laptop for posting. 

 

We had been to St John before. This trip we found the tourist facilities to be much improved over last time.  [a new terminal. an enclosed pedestrian walkway, a city tour bus, and the wifi]  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

Thanks for all the great info and pics Dragon.

 

Would you happen to know if there are time restrictions on the coffee machine in the Diamond Lounge? We don't drink alcohol but we do love our coffee, so this is the perk we are most looking forward to when we sail as brand new Diamonds in a few weeks' time.

Yes, there are hours.  I will look for the closing time and let you know.  I know it is available from 6am.  I am an early riser.  I sure you can tell by my pictures.  

 

The first morning I woke up crazy early and went up there to post on this thread without waking DH.  There were 2 others in the Diamond lounge already.  A gentleman was calling to guest services to ask them to put the coffee grounds in it.  They informed him they fill it by 6am.  However, after that morning it was always working by the time I got there--even if it was before 6. 

 

I love that coffee machine, too.

 

We have lots of Diamond and above cruisers on this voyage.  Therefore, they added one coffee coupon for the Starbucks to the seapass card.  We can get it any time during the day.  That has been very popular.  

[FionaMG]

33 minutes ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

I will look for the closing time and let you know.

They added one coffee coupon for the Starbucks to the seapass card.  We can get it any time during the day.  That has been very popular.  

Thank you very much, that's very kind of you. 

The extra coffee coupon sounds like a great bonus.

[MandyMooToo]

Just curious, @DragonOfTheSeas someone on this cruise is stating on another page (which I will not/cannot mention) is stating that RCCL is not going to refund ports taxes/fees from Halifax even though the ship was unable to stop there due to the weather.  Is that correct?  I really thought they had to do that but obviously I could be wrong.  

 

Thanks for the review and pictures!

[ace1zoe2]

3 hours ago, purduemom1 said:

 

Fortunately no, we didn’t have a car but we had planned to rent a car and visit my BIL in CT. We had to cancel that because he had no power and we weren’t sure just what road conditions would be along there way. We were fortunate to find a hotel near EWR that was open and we spent one night there before flying out. We had good luck changing our flight plans although many flights had not yet resumed.

 

i remember well that point during the cruise when everyone realized that Sandy was going to change plans for most of us. There were those who were worried about their homes and cars parked at the port or at hotels. There were those who tried to get a flight out of Portland but couldn’t. A few who lived in Canada left the cruise in St John. For most of us it was a huge unknown. I loved that cruise in spite of the stress!

 

i was interested in your map of St John showing the free WiFi area. That didn’t exist when we were there. I walked to the library and used their WiFi to figure out flight possibilities. At that point the 3 airports were closed and no reopening time had been set. Back on the ship, the captain announced that the airports were now open and all flights back to normal! That shocked me because I knew it wasn’t true. I did share my info with an officer and soon the captain announced that his earlier announcement was a bit premature and that the airports were not yet open. At that point most  people had no idea what they were going to do. However, it was interesting to see how we all bonded and of course Sandy was the topic of most conversations! 

 

I will I’ll say that we never felt that we were in danger and really didn’t experience rough seas. The unplanned overnight in St John was why we avoided the rough seas. Sorry to miss Bar Harbor and while we did do some sightseeing in Portland, I also spent time in a Starbucks (WiFi)  looking for a hotel near EWR and then locating an ATM so we had extra cash in case we needed it in NJ. Yes, it was a very memorable cruise in more ways than one!

 

We were on this same cruise. Sad that we missed Bar Harbor. We are on Anthem next week and keeping our fingers crossed that we get there this time. The worst part for us was coming back in to Manhattan where our hotel was and trying to get around. All the electric was off, the subway was closed due to flooding, the buses were reserved to transport people back across the bridges. We did a lot of walking that weekend. Our flight home the following day had a total of 8 passengers and the airport was deserted.

Edited October 18, 2019 by ace1zoe2

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, MandyMooToo said:

Just curious, @DragonOfTheSeas someone on this cruise is stating on another page (which I will not/cannot mention) is stating that RCCL is not going to refund ports taxes/fees from Halifax even though the ship was unable to stop there due to the weather.  Is that correct?  I really thought they had to do that but obviously I could be wrong.  

 

Thanks for the review and pictures!

I have not heard that.  But, I will check for you.

 

I will say that on our TA last November from Rome we had 3 European ports of call on our itinerary and weather caused them the want to hurry out of the Med.  Our itinerary was changed to 2 Canary Islands and St Martin.  We did not get any taxes of fees back.  I know the European ports are bound to have had bigger port charges.  

[Another_Critic]

2 hours ago, MandyMooToo said:

Just curious, @DragonOfTheSeas someone on this cruise is stating on another page (which I will not/cannot mention) is stating that RCCL is not going to refund ports taxes/fees from Halifax even though the ship was unable to stop there due to the weather.  Is that correct?  I really thought they had to do that but obviously I could be wrong.  

 

Thanks for the review and pictures!

 

We missed Bar Harbor on the 9/6 northbound cruise.  We were refunded port taxes.

 

PAYMENTS/CREDITS
09/12 REFUNDABLE ONBOARD CREDIT - PORT/AIR TAX CREDIT 28.81

[bigeck]

3 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

I have not heard that.  But, I will check for you.

 

I will say that on our TA last November from Rome we had 3 European ports of call on our itinerary and weather caused them the want to hurry out of the Med.  Our itinerary was changed to 2 Canary Islands and St Martin.  We did not get any taxes of fees back.  I know the European ports are bound to have had bigger port charges.  

Strange the way they work things

I was on Navigator TA with similar changes and we got a FCC

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, bigeck said:

Strange the way they work things

I was on Navigator TA with similar changes and we got a FCC

 

I know.  That was a huge discussion on our ship.  Since it was weather related we did not expect a FCC.  However, giving Navigator guests FCC and not giving it to our ship with identical circumstances gave many heartburn. 

 

I asked at Guest services about the FCC when I heard.  The woman told me that we had 3 European stops that were cancelled and since we got 2 Canary island  stops and St Martin we still had 3 European stops. 😮 So there would not be any OBC or FCC. Also, we did not get any port fees back.  LOL  

 

We have not been lucky this last year.  We had a reservation on the Grandeur March of this year that was cancelled just 3 months before the cruise date when they sent her to dry dock.  

Edited October 19, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Today was such a busy day.  We saw an ice show, had happy hour, ate dinner, watched the "Can't Stop the Rock" show and went to the 70s disco party on the Promenade.  I have pictures. . . but, I am too tired to post tonight.  😂  See you tomorrow. 

[BananaMama66]

Regarding the non-refund of port fees for Halifax, the explanation that I was  given by Guest Services is as follows (and this is their explanation which I had to ask the rep to explain to me twice):  originally the itinerary was to be all Canadian ports (Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Saint John) followed by US ports. When the itinerary was changed and we were going to Saint John after visiting 2 US ports, apparently all of the port fees charged went up in price. 🤔. So the amounts that we all pre-paid for port fees were not adequate so RCCL made up the difference. When Halifax was cancelled and the port fees refunded, RCCL decided to keep the money to make up the shortfall that they had to pay to cover the increase in port fees. 
 

I am curious to hear if any other Cruise Critic members have ever heard of this or had this happen to them. 
 

And thanks Dragon for the excellent review!

 

BananaMama

[cruise wizard]

9 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

 We have not been lucky this last year.  We had a reservation on the Grandeur March of this year that was cancelled just 3 months before the cruise date when they sent her to dry dock.  

 

Just an FYI if you haven't heard - Grandeur is being transferred to Pullmantur and that Enchantment will be ported in Baltimore in the Spring of 2021. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

48 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Just an FYI if you haven't heard - Grandeur is being transferred to Pullmantur and that Enchantment will be ported in Baltimore in the Spring of 2021. 

Yes, I have heard that.  The Grandeur is an old friend and I will miss her.  The crew is what makes that older ship a great one to cruise.

 

We sailed the Enchantment a few times back in the day.  I like the pool deck and the flyover on the walking track.  IIRC there is a Boleros near the Main Dining Room.  We used to go down early and catch a couple of dances before dinner. 

 

I have read some reviews of the Enchantment lately that are only so so.  While that might have been ok before, the Baltimore cruising population will complain until they do something about it. They are loyal, veteran cruisers and not shy about making their feelings know. 

 

Most of the itineraries are longer than the typical week.  They will need those veteran cruisers to fill the ship. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, BananaMama66 said:

Regarding the non-refund of port fees for Halifax, the explanation that I was  given by Guest Services is as follows (and this is their explanation which I had to ask the rep to explain to me twice):  originally the itinerary was to be all Canadian ports (Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Saint John) followed by US ports. When the itinerary was changed and we were going to Saint John after visiting 2 US ports, apparently all of the port fees charged went up in price. 🤔. So the amounts that we all pre-paid for port fees were not adequate so RCCL made up the difference. When Halifax was cancelled and the port fees refunded, RCCL decided to keep the money to make up the shortfall that they had to pay to cover the increase in port fees. 
 

I am curious to hear if any other Cruise Critic members have ever heard of this or had this happen to them. 
 

And thanks Dragon for the excellent review!

 

BananaMama

Thanks for letting us know.  I have heard that if port charge rise they do not charge you extra. 

 

PS--I asked [earlier in the cruise] why the itinerary was changed.  I was told that Bar Harbor has a 5000 passenger limit for any one day.  We were scheduled originally to be in port on a day with another ship and the passenger load would have been too large.  So, we had to rearrange the whole middle of the itinerary to make it work.

[kernow]

11 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

 

I know.  That was a huge discussion on our ship.  Since it was weather related we did not expect a FCC.  However, giving Navigator guests FCC and not giving it to our ship with identical circumstances gave many heartburn. 

 

I asked at Guest services about the FCC when I heard.  The woman told me that we had 3 European stops that were cancelled and since we got 2 Canary island  stops and St Martin we still had 3 European stops. 😮 So there would not be any OBC or FCC. Also, we did not get any port fees back.  LOL  

 

We have not been lucky this last year.  We had a reservation on the Grandeur March of this year that was cancelled just 3 months before the cruise date when they sent her to dry dock.  

We were on the same Jewel cruise as you (just realised why your screen name was familiar) and were given the same story even by corporate after we came home!

 

I'm really enjoying the review, never been to any of the ports but would love to do this cruise one day.

[Motorman23]

16 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

I have not heard that.  But, I will check for you.

 

I will say that on our TA last November from Rome we had 3 European ports of call on our itinerary and weather caused them the want to hurry out of the Med.  Our itinerary was changed to 2 Canary Islands and St Martin.  We did not get any taxes of fees back.  I know the European ports are bound to have had bigger port charges.  

I was on that cruise also, we only booked it because we had never been to Portugal or the Azores but we still had nice times and decent weather but no refunds. I asked why and was basically told to read my contract, all they have to do is start in the posted port and end at the posted port. Oh, well still a good time.

 

Mike

Edited October 19, 2019 by Motorman23

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I wanted to discuss lunch options. 

 

The main dining room is only open for lunch on sea days.  Since this is a port heavy cruise that is only 3 days.  I went to the MDR on one of those days.  They have a very impressive salad bar they call a tutti salad everday. You point to the things you would like in the salad and the staff fill a large bowl.  You can add meat cheese, dressing, etc.  then they chop it with a sharp wheel. [looks like a pizza cutter]

 

On the day I was there they had a pasta station and a Mongolian stir fry station.  That was my choice.  It was excellent. There was an impressive dessert display in the center of the room.  You can also order off the menu.

 

The Park Café is open for lunch.  It has a pared down menu.  It is mostly small sandwiches, pizza, fruit, etc. The specialty restaurants are open on some days for lunch. 

 

The windjammer is our go to lunch option.  There are some things available everyday--pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, sandwiches, soup, and a taco bar. 

 

 

These bowls may look empty, but were refilled quickly. 

 

 

There are 3 serving lines this large spread around the windjammer.

 

 

As we entered the Windjammer we were greeted by this thank you cake.  Look at the hunks of cake they are serving. 😮

 

 

You can see some of the other desserts in the background and below.  The dessert chef on this cruise is awesome.  I usually skip dessert . . . but, not on this cruise. 

 

[LuCruise]

17 minutes ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

I wanted to discuss lunch options. 

 

The Park Café is open for lunch.  It has a pared down menu.  It is mostly small sandwiches, pizza, fruit, etc. The specialty restaurants are open on some days for lunch. 

 

 

You got me excited for a minute.  I assume you mean Cafe Promenade?  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

25 minutes ago, kernow said:

We were on the same Jewel cruise as you (just realised why your screen name was familiar) and were given the same story even by corporate after we came home!

 

I'm really enjoying the review, never been to any of the ports but would love to do this cruise one day.

 

21 minutes ago, Motorman23 said:

I was on that cruise also, we only booked it because we had never been to Portugal or the Azores but we still had nice times and decent weather but no refunds. I asked why and was basically told to read my contract, all they have to do is start in the posted port and end at the posted port. Oh, well still a good time.

 

Mike

 

We enjoyed our cruise, too.  I like sea days and any TA has lots of sea days.  

 

We were like Mike.  We booked that particular cruise to begin in Rome and for the stops in Lisbon and the Azores. . . . at least the answer they gave you was honest.  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

26 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

You got me excited for a minute.  I assume you mean Cafe Promenade?  

Yes--so sorry!  

 

It really depends on the ship whether the Park Café is better than the Café Promenade.  The Vision and Radiance class ships have Park Cafes in the Solarium. The Café Promenade on this ship is better than those.  On the Harmony the Park Café is a nice casual restaurant. 

Edited October 19, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas