1st Cruise, 1st Review, here goes........

[FMCowboy]

This was our first cruise, a 3 night to the Bahamas on the Sovereign of the Seas on 11/16-11/19. I was with my wife, 5yr old daughter, and my in-laws.

Day one

Headed from Tampa to Port Canaveral. A cold snap arrived last night, so it was in the 40’s when we set out for our tropical vacation. Once we got close, we say a road sign that said boarding was delayed until 2pm (we had planned to board around 11:30am thanks to the tips on the board.

Boarding-

Once we parked, we went to check in at the RCI desk. We were met by Delores who I will say right now was a BE-Aytch. She was around 60 yrs of age and rude, short, and had an attitude.) One of the issues was that I checked in online and setup onboard credit accounts for my in-laws and my family and had the setsail passes in hand to prove it where it mentions the onboard accounts, well Delores said it wasn’t set-up, but her attitude and smirks indicated she didn’t believe we had even checked in and did all this online, even though I handed her our signed Setsail passes. Since it was taking so long, a supervisor came over and she whispered to him which seemed to be that we were the problem due to not having our info set up. Anyway instead of making a stink, we got past Delores and tried to get in better spirits. Oh, I also forgot to say that as we pulled into the port, the check engine light on our car came on. It’s a 2005 and well taken care of, so we had to stress for a while as to what it could be and what it would cost and just our luck etc…Things started looking up as they announced we would be boarding around 12:30pm instead of 2pm. We got in our rooms around 1pm and headed to the Windjammer,

On the ship –

The Welcome buffet was decent for buffet food, but nothing great. After lunch we toured the ship a bit. Did our MUSTER in the chilly, shady, outside. We them headed up top the pool deck for the send-off. Again it was chilly, but RCI tried to make it fun with music and such. I took the advice of folks on the board and used Bonine & Ginger pills as I get seasick easily and motion sickness. I’ll say right now that I had NO ISSUES!! The whole trip so thank you. I didn’t even realize the ship started moving when it left port.

Adventure Ocean-

Our daughter spent large parts of each day in the kids program and I will recommend this program to any parents who are on the fence. Instead of just a daycare where you drop your kids off and they play by themselves, the counselors have planned activities and fun the whole day & night and even take the kids on field trips ( IE: go get ice cream, make an appearance in their dress up roles on the stage of the Theater shows (Grandma & Grandpa, saw our daughter on stage unexpectedly, so that was cool) My daughter loved Adventure Ocean. They even have it on CocoCay.

Dinner & afterwards

Dinner was good and the service was great. 3 of us had the grilled tiger shrimp. They are split and grilled with the shell on. While they tasted good, they were very messy and a lot of work to get the shell off. I was ok with it, but my Father in-law was frustrated,

My wife & I hit the casino the first night, and we had no issues getting on a machine, and even had a little play. The casino is small, but nice. We finished the night ordering room service and I was disappointed with the limited menu they have. What we did have was good. The bacon cheeseburger was delicious.

 

The Room (deck 2 , oceanview, near the front of the ship)

Since this is the smallest of the rooms and we are larger folks, we were a bit worried going in to the cruise, but we were pleasantly surprised that at no time did we feel cramped or stepping on each other. The bed was comfy and the bathroom was big enough to do your business, even for larger folks. So for anyone that was worried, don’t be,

Day 2 –Nassau

My wife & I had breakfast at the Windjammer. They have some bar stool seat that are right on the windows over looking the Ocean. We sat and ate breakfast watching Nassau start to come into view. I recommend these seats to anyone, they are awesome as opposed to the regular tables. After breakfast we went and watched the belly flop contest by the pool and had some drinks (that they keep pushing on you. That is where the ships make their money, the booze!!)

We went into Nassau after Windjammer lunch, bought some goodies at the Straw Market, then headed back to the ship to get ready for Formal Night Dinner. My wife, daughter & I fell asleep while "resting our eyes" and were awoken by the In-Laws seeing if we were ready. Needless to say we had to get it in gear while groggy. We told them we’d meet them at Dinner,

Formal Dinner, Day 2-

I had the roast duck, it was dry and bland, The other ordered the filet of beef, I will say that that was some of the best beef any of us had ever had. It was cooked to perfection at medium rear.

After dinner, my wife and I caught a cab over to the Atlantis and did some gambling at their casino and took a walk around the hotel which is beautiful. A good tip is that while drinks aren’t free while gaming on the ship, they are while at Atlantis, so we had some nice cocktails while playing nickels. When we got back to the ship, we played Bingo. It was fun, but at $30 for 2 cards and only 1 game that is played, seemed spendy and drawn out for 1 game. They still made it fun though.

 

Day 3- Cococay

Had breakfast in the dining room. Had eggs benedict and that was really yummy. Got to cococay around 10:15am. I took my daughter to the Adventure Water park. NOT WORTH the $15 each for 50 minutes, Just some inflatables, most to hard to get on for small kids or even some adults, Have to wear life vest as the water is around 20ft deep when you get out there. Crystal clear water though, look down and you’ll see lots of huge stingrays at the bottom in the sand which was awesome to see. Had lunch at the buffet on the island and that was really good, the ribs were AWESOME!! Falling off the bone and great flavor. ANYONE have recipe?

My father in-law and I went snorkeling and that was the highlight of my trip. It was so beautiful under there and at one of the buoys the life guard guy threw fish food on my back as I was snorkeling and the fish came all around me. I bought a disposable underwater camera and got some great shots. After some coco locos and some relaxing it was time to go. My only regret is that we didn’t come over to the island earlier, We didn’t get to see 90% of the island. I can’t wait until next time.

Back on ship around 3pm so my wife * mother inlaw can go to scrapbook class. My daughter and I hit the pool on the ship. I wish they were freshwater and heated, but they are salt water & non-heated. Either way it was still fun. She and I then got ice cream which you can dispense yourself.

Dinner was good again, then my wife and I hit the casino one last time, strolled the ship outside at night, was a beautiful starlit night, then hit Johnny rockets for a snack (which was good, shakes were small considering the per shake fee).

Day 4 – Going home

We had breakfast in the dining room, got called around 8am, at the end of breakfast to disembark, got off without to much fuss and we on our way home.

SUMMARY:

1) Food is pretty good and plenty of it

2) Drinks are good and plenty of them but at a large cost (which is how the ships make the bulk of their money) They also push them on you as well. I guess the drunker you are, the better the customer satisfaction surveys will be J

3) Even the smallest of rooms, we plenty comfortable for larger folks

4) Service was great all around, EXCEPT for check in at the port. Don’t get me started on Delores again J

5) CocoCay is great, just wish we had more time. Go snorkeling, it was amazing if you have never been

6) Try the ribs on CocoCay, you can’t go wrong

7) SO many of the photos the ship takes of you are tossed in the garbage. Why develop them and sell a smaller amount at a high dollar cost when they can lower the cost and sell more. Also they should offer a digital CD of all of your pictures for a lower cost than buying all of them printed out & developed.

8) Highly recommend Adventure Ocean for the kids. Great interactive care.

9) Recommend the Bonine & Ginger Root regimen for motion sickness. Didn’t make me drowsy, and I didn’t get sick or even feel the start of getting sick.

10) A 3 night cruise IS over before you know it. Still great though. We will definitely want to try a 7 day one though.

11) RELAX, we tried to pack in so much, we still didn’t see it all and were tired. Never did make it to any midnight buffets.

12) Drink the free drinks at Atlantis casino in Nassau

13) I bought the RCI cookbook, but was sticker shocked at the $28 cost. Better to get the recipes off the internet on a search engine.

14) Thank you to all on the board who answered my ignorant questions and gave great tips. This board rocks.

Ok, that’s all for now. I know, it a lot to read. I figured I would just let it flow. Thanks again!!

:D

FM

[DEBS@40]

Cheers for your review loved your comments

[petesweet]

Good review, FM.

 

Did you sign up for another cruise while on board? That's a good deal, because it gives you onboard credit for the next cruise.

 

Be sure to join the Crown & Anchor Society (free). If you didn't do so on board, just give RCL a call and handle it (or perhaps you can do it online).

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

[lin712]

Nice review FM. Glad you had a good time. The Soverign was our first cruise also, last July did the 4 nighter.

[scrapycruiser]

Great report ! We'll be on the Sov of Seas next July with 32 family members ! How much was the snorkling and did they give instructions to those new to it ? Was it difficult to find a good place on the beach ?

I'm going to look out for ole Delores !

[cravingacruz!!]

FM-

It sounds like your cruise was awesome! I find that the shorter cruises (3 nights) are great for 1st time cruisers and small children! I noticed on longer cruises- that by the end of the cruise i noticed the kids walking around the ship were a little tired and bored. (maybe they just had to much fun:D ) Anyway, it was good to hear your review and see that you had a good time! Happy cruising and thanksgiving to all!

[FMCowboy]

We had meant to stop by and inquire about teh next cruise and of course ran oit of time and forgot. We did however drop off our Crown & Anchor card so we can become members now.

 

Snorleling was $29 for all the equipment for all day long. If you bring your own mask, snorkel and fins, you can just rent the safety floatation vest for $6 (that is what I'll do next time). They give a quick generic demontration of how to put on the equipment and how to inflate and deflate the vest for diving, that is about it, but really all you need. I did wish they would have given some tips of how to properly use the fins IE: legs straight, bent etc, but they did not. I bought a single use underwater camera from them for $17.95, spendy, so maybe try and find a better deal before you leave home, but definity worth it as how often do you get to take pics like that? Just beautiful under the water. Have the life guard throw fish food on your back, it will be a thrill, they don't bite you and makes for an awesome experience. Even my 72 yr old Father in -law said it was the highlight of his trip as well.

 

As far as spots on the beach, we found plenty of space and as other said, the further away from the tender area, the more secluded it gets. I did not get a chance to go far away, but even the main areas had plenty of lounge chairs and shade, and in the water itself wasn't overly crowded.

 

The waters are soooo beautiful and clear. Just an amazing light blue color.

All in all, just a great time.

 

PS: The check engine light was still on when we drove back to Tampa. I think it was an O2 sensor as the car seemed fine. My wife gets behind teh wheel of her car (we drove hers) and magically, the light went away, so all is well with the world once again. We jsut shipped the in-laws off today, back to AZ, and we are off tomorrow morning for Disney for 3 days.

 

I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy Thanksgiving. I am off to look to see what is out there for a 5-7 day cruise around mid-June / late June 2008.

 

FM

[alexkrn46]

Thanks for the great review. One point, if you did not like you dinner get another entree that is ok on a cruise.

 

You will find a 5 or 7 day even better cruise. Now that you are C&A you will be invited back to the repeat cruisers event where there is free alcohol. PLus you get a small gift during the cruise.

[FMCowboy]

that's what I did with the duck, I had them bring me out the filet of beef, which was great.

 

thx

[Pumbaamd]

FM, so glad you a great 1st cruise. So, what are you booking next?

Rick

[crsrock]

FMCowboy: Did you go to any shows? Did you like the Cruise Director? I have sailed 4 times on Sovereign this fall, and I have some close pals still on board. Who was your waiter/assistant/cabin attendant? Glad you had a good time, and I appreciate your honest review. Cruise lines DO read these pages, if not in an indirect way. I know the Cruise Director reads them because he asks ME when someone writes something about HIM!

[FMCowboy]

We are panning for a 7 day cruise next Summer, June, July, or August. I'd like to sail out of Tampa and want to go to Belize. Everything I have seen on TV about Belize just looks so beautiful, is it?

 

My Wife and I didn't get a chance to hit any of the shows this time around, but my inlaws did, and they liked them all. I did see the Marriage game on re-run in our staeroom and that looked fun.

 

Our cruise director was, " The Chad". I saw him a couple of times and he seemed fun. I wanted to go to The Quest, but we were just pooped. This way we save something for next time I guess.

 

I did forget to mention that liek some have said there was a profound odor in the bathrooms in the cabins (like sewer gas), but we brought some scenty spray anyway and it really didn't bother us. We wee in 2504 & 2502 and 250 was being worked on all weekend by a team on engineers or something. They had the room gutted and had the industrial fans in there, must have been flooded.

 

The one thing I missed on the first night was the towel animals we had heard about. We did get them, but on the 2nd & 3rd night. Would be nice if it was all nights of the cruise.

 

We did have a great time and can't wait to go again. Maybe we can find another couple with a kid our daughters age to cruise with next time.

 

FM

[PhoenixCruiser]

FM, your review was great!!! Glad to hear you had a wonderful time are are planning your next cruise :D

 

###

[FMCowboy]

Please pardon my typos. My fingers have been getting dyslexic lately. I type with my index fingers so fats that I do not look at the keyboard really anymore, and my fingers ge a head of me. So pardon me.

 

As for our waiters: We had Edwin from India and Gregory, from Trinidad I think. Marlene was our stateroom attendent. I beleive she was spanish.

 

FM

[tomko2]

Terrific review!

I might get flamed for this :eek: but..... although Belize is beautiful in photos; the ships tender in the bay where the town is located and it is not overly pretty; there is a big fenced in compound around the pier area with security guards and guard dogs patrolling. I did get up the nerve to walk around the town but only after I hired one of the female cab drivers to walk with me. (My DH had gone on a horse-riding excursion).

 

Just thought I would put my 2cents forward because there are some many beautiful islands to visit...... St. Martin, Aruba, St. Thomas, etc.

 

Glad you and your family enjoyed your first cruise.

Kathy:)

[Thing2]

Great review...thanks for sharing. We will be going on her next year and can't wait!!!

[realtreebar]

we will be on the sovereign of the seas in january thanks for the reports! oh what ended up wrong with your car?

[crsrock]

FM: Edwin and Gregory are a good team. I don't know Marlene. Chad as Cruise Director? Tall, balding? He's usually the shopping coordinator. I thought that Chris Northey was Cruise Director. If you didn't go to the shows, maybe you didn't see him. I just got email from him last week. I hope he wasn't sick or something. Glad to hear you want to cruise again. I like Belize, but it is limited in the general walking-around-the-village stuff. Best to take some kind of excursion. Cruising out of Tampa is wonderful (I live 20 minutes from terminal). The Grandeur will be here in December for winter cruises. I hope you have a great time in Disney!!!

[sagiv666]

This was our first cruise, a 3 night to the Bahamas on the Sovereign of the Seas on 11/16-11/19. I was with my wife, 5yr old daughter, and my in-laws.

Day one

Headed from Tampa to Port Canaveral. A cold snap arrived last night, so it was in the 40’s when we set out for our tropical vacation. Once we got close, we say a road sign that said boarding was delayed until 2pm (we had planned to board around 11:30am thanks to the tips on the board.

Boarding-

Once we parked, we went to check in at the RCI desk. We were met by Delores who I will say right now was a BE-Aytch. She was around 60 yrs of age and rude, short, and had an attitude.) One of the issues was that I checked in online and setup onboard credit accounts for my in-laws and my family and had the setsail passes in hand to prove it where it mentions the onboard accounts, well Delores said it wasn’t set-up, but her attitude and smirks indicated she didn’t believe we had even checked in and did all this online, even though I handed her our signed Setsail passes. Since it was taking so long, a supervisor came over and she whispered to him which seemed to be that we were the problem due to not having our info set up. Anyway instead of making a stink, we got past Delores and tried to get in better spirits. Oh, I also forgot to say that as we pulled into the port, the check engine light on our car came on. It’s a 2005 and well taken care of, so we had to stress for a while as to what it could be and what it would cost and just our luck etc…Things started looking up as they announced we would be boarding around 12:30pm instead of 2pm. We got in our rooms around 1pm and headed to the Windjammer,

On the ship –

The Welcome buffet was decent for buffet food, but nothing great. After lunch we toured the ship a bit. Did our MUSTER in the chilly, shady, outside. We them headed up top the pool deck for the send-off. Again it was chilly, but RCI tried to make it fun with music and such. I took the advice of folks on the board and used Bonine & Ginger pills as I get seasick easily and motion sickness. I’ll say right now that I had NO ISSUES!! The whole trip so thank you. I didn’t even realize the ship started moving when it left port.

Adventure Ocean-

Our daughter spent large parts of each day in the kids program and I will recommend this program to any parents who are on the fence. Instead of just a daycare where you drop your kids off and they play by themselves, the counselors have planned activities and fun the whole day & night and even take the kids on field trips ( IE: go get ice cream, make an appearance in their dress up roles on the stage of the Theater shows (Grandma & Grandpa, saw our daughter on stage unexpectedly, so that was cool) My daughter loved Adventure Ocean. They even have it on CocoCay.

Dinner & afterwards

Dinner was good and the service was great. 3 of us had the grilled tiger shrimp. They are split and grilled with the shell on. While they tasted good, they were very messy and a lot of work to get the shell off. I was ok with it, but my Father in-law was frustrated,

My wife & I hit the casino the first night, and we had no issues getting on a machine, and even had a little play. The casino is small, but nice. We finished the night ordering room service and I was disappointed with the limited menu they have. What we did have was good. The bacon cheeseburger was delicious.

 

The Room (deck 2 , oceanview, near the front of the ship)

Since this is the smallest of the rooms and we are larger folks, we were a bit worried going in to the cruise, but we were pleasantly surprised that at no time did we feel cramped or stepping on each other. The bed was comfy and the bathroom was big enough to do your business, even for larger folks. So for anyone that was worried, don’t be,

Day 2 –Nassau

My wife & I had breakfast at the Windjammer. They have some bar stool seat that are right on the windows over looking the Ocean. We sat and ate breakfast watching Nassau start to come into view. I recommend these seats to anyone, they are awesome as opposed to the regular tables. After breakfast we went and watched the belly flop contest by the pool and had some drinks (that they keep pushing on you. That is where the ships make their money, the booze!!)

We went into Nassau after Windjammer lunch, bought some goodies at the Straw Market, then headed back to the ship to get ready for Formal Night Dinner. My wife, daughter & I fell asleep while "resting our eyes" and were awoken by the In-Laws seeing if we were ready. Needless to say we had to get it in gear while groggy. We told them we’d meet them at Dinner,

Formal Dinner, Day 2-

I had the roast duck, it was dry and bland, The other ordered the filet of beef, I will say that that was some of the best beef any of us had ever had. It was cooked to perfection at medium rear.

After dinner, my wife and I caught a cab over to the Atlantis and did some gambling at their casino and took a walk around the hotel which is beautiful. A good tip is that while drinks aren’t free while gaming on the ship, they are while at Atlantis, so we had some nice cocktails while playing nickels. When we got back to the ship, we played Bingo. It was fun, but at $30 for 2 cards and only 1 game that is played, seemed spendy and drawn out for 1 game. They still made it fun though.

 

Day 3- Cococay

Had breakfast in the dining room. Had eggs benedict and that was really yummy. Got to cococay around 10:15am. I took my daughter to the Adventure Water park. NOT WORTH the $15 each for 50 minutes, Just some inflatables, most to hard to get on for small kids or even some adults, Have to wear life vest as the water is around 20ft deep when you get out there. Crystal clear water though, look down and you’ll see lots of huge stingrays at the bottom in the sand which was awesome to see. Had lunch at the buffet on the island and that was really good, the ribs were AWESOME!! Falling off the bone and great flavor. ANYONE have recipe?

My father in-law and I went snorkeling and that was the highlight of my trip. It was so beautiful under there and at one of the buoys the life guard guy threw fish food on my back as I was snorkeling and the fish came all around me. I bought a disposable underwater camera and got some great shots. After some coco locos and some relaxing it was time to go. My only regret is that we didn’t come over to the island earlier, We didn’t get to see 90% of the island. I can’t wait until next time.

Back on ship around 3pm so my wife * mother inlaw can go to scrapbook class. My daughter and I hit the pool on the ship. I wish they were freshwater and heated, but they are salt water & non-heated. Either way it was still fun. She and I then got ice cream which you can dispense yourself.

Dinner was good again, then my wife and I hit the casino one last time, strolled the ship outside at night, was a beautiful starlit night, then hit Johnny rockets for a snack (which was good, shakes were small considering the per shake fee).

Day 4 – Going home

We had breakfast in the dining room, got called around 8am, at the end of breakfast to disembark, got off without to much fuss and we on our way home.

SUMMARY:

1) Food is pretty good and plenty of it

2) Drinks are good and plenty of them but at a large cost (which is how the ships make the bulk of their money) They also push them on you as well. I guess the drunker you are, the better the customer satisfaction surveys will be J

3) Even the smallest of rooms, we plenty comfortable for larger folks

4) Service was great all around, EXCEPT for check in at the port. Don’t get me started on Delores again J

5) CocoCay is great, just wish we had more time. Go snorkeling, it was amazing if you have never been

6) Try the ribs on CocoCay, you can’t go wrong

7) SO many of the photos the ship takes of you are tossed in the garbage. Why develop them and sell a smaller amount at a high dollar cost when they can lower the cost and sell more. Also they should offer a digital CD of all of your pictures for a lower cost than buying all of them printed out & developed.

8) Highly recommend Adventure Ocean for the kids. Great interactive care.

9) Recommend the Bonine & Ginger Root regimen for motion sickness. Didn’t make me drowsy, and I didn’t get sick or even feel the start of getting sick.

10) A 3 night cruise IS over before you know it. Still great though. We will definitely want to try a 7 day one though.

11) RELAX, we tried to pack in so much, we still didn’t see it all and were tired. Never did make it to any midnight buffets.

12) Drink the free drinks at Atlantis casino in Nassau

13) I bought the RCI cookbook, but was sticker shocked at the $28 cost. Better to get the recipes off the internet on a search engine.

14) Thank you to all on the board who answered my ignorant questions and gave great tips. This board rocks.

Ok, that’s all for now. I know, it a lot to read. I figured I would just let it flow. Thanks again!!

:D

FM

 

Glad you had a great time. By the way, although we register on line prior to the cruise as requested, and even after receiving your SetSail Pass, it's not a bad idea to call Customer Service and confirm you are properly registered. It's a good way to avoid any flack from personnel on the dock as you embark.

I had an interesting adventure on my most recent cruise last month. We had cruised on the Radiance inSeptember, and no sooner had we gotten home we booked a second cruise aboard the Norwegian Spirit of NCL. I received all the necessary papers both on line and by express mail, and I made sure that I registered and communicated with NCL to confirm this.

When we arrived on the dock, I showed proof my passport, and what I believed to be the ticket(s) for our cruise. When one of individual who checked our papers before we embarked suggested I didn'thave a ticket, I was directed to the desk they set up in the terminal. They foundournames and made out new tickets which we used -- only later did I see that among the paperwork I received at home and which I had taken along but not had shown were the tickets they had requested. I leaned to ask ahead of time what papers they ask for when you embark so that hopefully this won't happen again.:)

[JTJ]

If you like snorkeling or diving, always grab a couple of the small cereals from breakfast and take them with you. Open them under water and the fish with follow you around.

[Fury1995]

Thanks for taking time to write your review. I find first time cruiser reviews very enjoyable because the focus is just on the that experience. Some reviews often get too full of comparisons and and it's nice to read about that particular cruise. Reminds me of my first cruise. :) Are you thinking of the Grandeur next?

[FMCowboy]

Maybe I have The Chad confused with the Cruise Director. I thought they were the same person. The person I referred to must be the cruise director but not The Chad. He is young, balding, and curly blondish hair.

 

As mentioned earlier, once my Wife got behind the wheel of her own car, no more check engine light, so as for now, nothing wrong. :p

 

As far as thye next cruise and the ship, not sure yet. We will probably wait until close to cruise time next summer and buy a last minute deal to save some bucks or do you think I'll get a better deal ahead of time? I wantto go in teh summer when school is out since I have a 5yr old, but that is also when rates are the highest, so who knows. I figured when we got close to booking something, I would ask folks here their thoughts on the ship & itinerary.

 

FM

[emdia43]

This is off topic, but we just had the mystery engine light thing too- turns out the gas cap wasn't tightened properly which sends a faulty signal....:)

[Tanker4]

This is off topic, but we just had the mystery engine light thing too- turns out the gas cap wasn't tightened properly which sends a faulty signal....:)

Had the same thing happen on my motor home. Tightened down the gas cap and it never came on again.

 

Tanker 4

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Great review!

Sovereign was our first cruise also way back in '92.....I think Delores worked there then too, I remember a cranky lady at check in. :eek: :)

I couldn't agree more about how fast the cruise is over before you know it. Once you try the 7 day you will be hooked...and then the 10 day...and then the B2B....it will never end! :D :D

 

Enjoy planning your next cruise!!

 

***