Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[Momof3gurlz]

I forgot the funniest part!  We were parked next to an Aida ship in Tortola if I remember correctly.  They had an interesting sun deck. (edited so I don’t play Monopoly)

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

I stayed at the Hyatt Place Tampa Downtown last June when the Rangers were playing the Tampa Bay Lightening in last years playoffs.   Nice place, clean, quiet, friendly staff, great free breakfast. Typical big city hotel prices. Only complaint is the roof top pool didn't have a bar but I guess that's because it's more of a business persons hotel, not a resort.  Don't confuse it with Hyatt House Tampa Downtown which is in the same building with the same lobby & amenities but the rooms are geared towards extended stays trips with more room amenities.   Not sure why they advertise it as two different hotels.  I would definitely stay there again.

 

The area is very walk-able with plenty of places to grab a bite to eat or drink. As you noted, the Riverwalk is nearby as is Sparkman Wharf - a collection of shops & bar/restaurants right next to the aquarium. All walkable from the hotel. If you want to get adventurous, take the free trolley to Ybor City. It reminded me of a mini New Orleasn Bourbon Street without the scariness or crime.

 

Below is a pic taken from my 12th floor window. It is zoomed in but I'm guessing Carnival & Royal terminals should be near each other??

 

 

A pool without a Bar!    Oh No.  🤣

I like the Hyatt but also like the Hilton as we are Gold members and get some extra perks such as their executive lounges for breakfast, daily snacks, usually have free specialty coffee machines and a happy hour.   Kinda like going to the DL in a ship.    

We have also enjoyed Embassy Suites at other locations but wasn't sure if this one was having any issues like the one in Ft Lauderdale was getting run down during Covid.   

[Momof3gurlz]

We were in Tortola from 6 am to 2 pm.  Our excursion to Jost Van Dyke departed at 7 am.  We were on the Rebel Yell catamaran and they are great.  The sail over to JVD is about 45 minutes.  I highly recommend getting a spot on the front of the boat.  We were told pickup time was 11 am so in total we had a little over 3 hours there.  Although the Soggy Dollar was open and serving drinks already, we opted for coffee and light breakfast first, right next door.  The weather was perfect, the water is gorgeous and the Painkillers were dee-licious!  

 

 

 

 

 

[SteelCityCruiser10]

8 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I forgot the funniest part!  We were parked next to an Aida ship in Tortola if I remember correctly.  They had an interesting sun deck. (edited so I don’t play Monopoly)

 

Oh my 🙄  haha

[DaniDanielle]

I rated our one Norwegian cruise as our worst.  We were on the Breakaway when it first sailed and it was such a letdown.  You are right about service, they are not the friendliest group!

[Momof3gurlz]

More JVD pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sea Dog]

4 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

the water is gorgeous

How was the water temperature? How many on your excursion on the Rebel Yell? I think the Royal excursion uses that same Cat. I think we will have the same times on the Royal excursion too when we go in October. I wish it wasn't early either but we are only there from 7am-3pm. I guess it's never too early to have a cocktail.

[Sea Dog]

That water look so amazing. I think that has been one of the things that has attracted me to JVD as well as the history of the Soggy Dollar.

[bobmacliberty]

5 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

More JVD pics.

 

 

 

 

IMG_7755.MOV 39.23 MB · 1 download  

 

 

 

The pics and video look great.  I can just imagine sitting in a lounge chair, looking at that view, with a Painkiller in my hand.  Paradise!

[Ocean Boy]

22 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I’ll try to wrap this up here.  As I’ve mentioned before, Andy doesn’t drink alcohol.  Our booking came with their Free At Sea promotion (free plus the gratuity on Free), so he ended up with a drink package anyway.  Now we knew going in that this didn’t include soda or water as it does on Royal.  So he could order a Diet Coke with rum on the side, leave the rum and just drink the soda.  After the 2nd day of doing this, he says he doesn’t feel right about it and visits Guest Services to ask if they will swap him to the soda package without any monetary adjustment. Of course the answer was “no”.  So (and I hope you’re paying attention here NCL) he continued to order his Diet Cokes with rum on side all week, probably 3 or 4 a day.  
We’ve had a couple of really nice cruises on NCL pre-Covid.  And not every cruise on Royal has been perfect but they seem to be a little bit smarter and a little more willing to put in the effort to make customers happy.  And THAT is service (to us anyway).  
So we will spend our cruising dollars on Royal going forward, although we would like to try Celebrity.  
It wasn’t all bad.  We were at sea, our friends enjoyed it, we escaped some horribly cold weather and I got to visit my favorite place, Jost Van Dyke.  Although I’m still feeling bad about missing @Sea Dog Greg’s surprise for me.  
How bad can it be when this is happening?

Geeze, I've seen a picture like that somewhere before. 🤔😊😊

[dani negreanu]

4 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Geeze, I've seen a picture like that somewhere before. 🤔😊😊

 

You mean, without the red nails? 😉

[Luckynana]

25 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

I rated our one Norwegian cruise as our worst.  We were on the Breakaway when it first sailed and it was such a letdown.  You are right about service, they are not the friendliest group!

We've been on a couple of NCL ships over the years, and I agree...Breakaway was not a favorite of ours, personnel not the best, food not so great, etc.  that was the last time we were on NCL, several years ago.

[Luckynana]

28 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

More JVD pics.

 

 

 

 

IMG_7755.MOV 39.23 MB · 3 downloads  

 

 

Great pictures, Deb!  Sorry for the way NCL let you guys down the way they did.  Certainly not the best of times!🤨

[Sunshine3601]

Sorry to hear NCL was a disappointment.    What a waste of Rum!!  Glad to hear that JVD and other excursions worked out for you and the other couple.   Weather sure does look perfect.😀

[Momof3gurlz]

40 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

How was the water temperature? How many on your excursion on the Rebel Yell? I think the Royal excursion uses that same Cat. I think we will have the same times on the Royal excursion too when we go in October. I wish it wasn't early either but we are only there from 7am-3pm. I guess it's never too early to have a cocktail.

It was very comfortable, even at the early hour.  I’m guesstimating but I’d say around 25-30 people.  They hand out bottled water on the trip over and serve rum punch on the return.  One of the deck hands gave us an entertaining explanation of the neighboring islands and the ones we passed along the way.  The Soggy Dollar also has a great gift shop with hats, t-shirts, mugs, magnets, etc.  

[Sunshine3601]

@Arzeena @Luckynana   Have either of you ever flown out of the Trenton-Mercer Airport?     

I was pricing up flights yesterday for our cruise out of Tampa in September and have heard from 2 people at work use this airport is nice and easy to get in and out of but looks like the only airline that flies to FL from this airport is Frontier.     @Ocean Boy  Have you flown Frontier?   

We usually fly American Airlines as I use points from my credit card but if we can fly out of a small airport that is 20 to 25 minutes away vs. PHL that is an hour away with a bad ride/traffic on I95 for morning flights we are okay with trying another airline.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Sunshine3601

[maggieq]

2 hours ago, Momof3gurlz said:

Okay, grocery shopping complete, suitcases emptied and two loads of laundry done.  I’m ready to summarize our cruise on the NCL Encore.  
The ship is beautiful.  Very sleek and modern looking.  For fun stuff they have two water slides,  a go-kart type track, a whole gaming/virtual realty area and laser tag.  

 

 

There’s also something called The Waterfront that consists of outdoor seating for some of the bars and restaurants.  We didn’t utilize this much but I like the concept.  

 

There are lots of options for pay as you go dining.  We had two free specialty meals and chose their Teppanyaki hibachi restaurant and their Italian restaurant called Onda.  Both were excellent. We also paid to eat in the Texas barbecue restaurant one night and it was pretty good.  Two dinners in the MDR’s and two in the buffet - these were “fine”, nothing great but nothing terrible.  Breakfast each morning in the buffet was good but the layout there is terrible. It’s just too narrow all the way around and we all know how crowded these places get.  

 

There’s an Atrium where they do a lot of the game shows and trivia contests.  Guest Services, Excursions, Starbucks and a bar are also in the Atrium so it’s convenient to all be in one spot but I much prefer a royal promenade or esplanade.  
We did make all our port stops which hasn’t been the case recently from what I’ve read on the NCL boards.  They were Great Stirrup Cay, St Thomas, Tortola and Puerto Plata, DR. 
That’s my report on the positive stuff 🙂.

 

 

Our one and only (so far) NCL cruise was the encore TA in November of 2019.   We had the best time and very much enjoyed the ship.  Understand you cruised at a different time and itinerary.   Looking forward to the rest of your feedback. 

[Ocean Boy]

52 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

You mean, without the red nails? 😉

Definitely no red nails. 😄

[Momof3gurlz]

It would be downright unhealthy for me to go cold turkey on cutting down the cocktails and eating healthy.  Therefore it’s baked potatoes, steaks on the grill tonight and a Dark n Stormy.  

[Ocean Boy]

17 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

@Arzeena @Luckynana   Have either of you ever flown out of the Trenton-Mercer Airport?     

I was pricing up flights yesterday for our cruise out of Tampa in September and have heard from 2 people at work use this airport is nice and easy to get in and out of but looks like the only airline that flies to FL from this airport is Frontier.     @Ocean Boy  Have you flown Frontier?   

We usually fly American Airlines as I use points from my credit card but if we can fly out of a small airport that is 20 to 25 minutes away vs. PHL that is an hour away with a bad ride/traffic on I95 for morning flights we are okay with trying another airline.

I have not ever used them nor do I have any opinions from friends that I could offer you. 

[Sunshine3601]

16 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I have not ever used them nor do I have any opinions from friends that I could offer you. 

Thank you for responding.   I recall someone on this thread discussing Frontier and I thought it may have been you.    Enjoy being home with Jade catching up on BD😀

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

A pool without a Bar!    Oh No.  🤣

I like the Hyatt but also like the Hilton as we are Gold members and get some extra perks such as their executive lounges for breakfast, daily snacks, usually have free specialty coffee machines and a happy hour.   Kinda like going to the DL in a ship.    

We have also enjoyed Embassy Suites at other locations but wasn't sure if this one was having any issues like the one in Ft Lauderdale was getting run down during Covid.   

We are booked at the Embassy Suites next to the convention center in Tampa in March, so I can let you know. $400 +/night! We've stayed there before. There is a Publix not too far away, and the Trolley to Ybor City has a stop right in front of the hotel. ☺️

[George C]

Not a fun day , have infection from dental surgery, I am on a new medicine that requires no drinking for the ten days I need to take it 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

I will have to make that up during next months cruise . 

[reallyitsmema]

@Momof3gurlzThanks for sharing your thoughts on NCL.  I have only done one NCL cruise and I hate that beverage package that is one of the "Free" choices.  They require all in the same cabin to get the same free options, so I had no choice but to get that beverage package and then pay the $200+ gratuity for the "free" choice.  It was a girls cruise for my Mom's 80th, so I had to go with what the group was doing.  I would have been fine with it if I could get bottled water or soda but those weren't included. 🙄

[Keksie]

8 hours ago, sgmn said:

Can I ask where you're staying?  We have a cruise out of Tampa in September and want somewhere with an easy taxi drive of the port 

I think we are going to stay at the Holiday Inn Express at the Fairgrounds.  It will take us a good day to drive there (Florida is a long state) so don't need to be at the beach.  It seemed like a reasonable price, I like Holiday Inn Express usually and it doesn't look like too far from the port.