Roll Call- Gay NJ Cruisers

[Honeybflygirl]

Me and my partner just today booked a last minute cruise on NCL leaving April 1st. Her first cruise was with me on Carnival and she loved it.. I can NOT wait to take her on NCL! SO much better!! Btw we are from nj too :)

[WDBGUY]

My partner and I have just sailed on the Carnival Glory out of

NYC a few weeks ago and met a nice group of guys.

We just booked another cruise on the Carnival Miracle

out of NYC for 01/25/12 to Florida and the Bahamas.

The east coast rate was so cheap, could not resisit...

$329.00 per person for 8 nights.

[cruisinfool08]

Great to see this thread still going

[WDBGUY]

Actually Carnival just lowered their

fares on 8 night cruises out of NYC

to Florida, Nassau and Freeport...

East Coast Resident rates starts

out at $299 per person. January

and February 2013...cheap vacation.

[sully108]

My partner and I are sailing on the new Royal Princess in the Med. Staying in Rome 2 nights and Venice 1 night pre-cruise. We are sailing with a few family and friends. We have 10 of us booked so far.

 

Anyone sailing the Royal July 5, 2013 ?

[DrNev]

My CU partner and I live in North Jersey...we cruise at least twice per year, mostly on Royal but prefer Azamara. Leaving 12/13 out of Bayonne on EOS that will finally make us Diamond.

 

Kevin & Bill

[cruisinfool08]

hey everyone

[cruisinfool08]

My CU partner and I live in North Jersey...we cruise at least twice per year, mostly on Royal but prefer Azamara. Leaving 12/13 out of Bayonne on EOS that will finally make us Diamond.

 

Kevin & Bill

 

Hey Kevin and Bill, hope you guys have a great cruise, gotta let me know how it goes, will be sailing the EOS out of Bayonne next December

[johnnyswitzerland]

Anybody on Noordam out of FLL departing 12/27? Would love to meet you all!

 

John

[DrNev]

Hey Kevin and Bill, hope you guys have a great cruise, gotta let me know how it goes, will be sailing the EOS out of Bayonne next December

 

This was our third time on Explorer--the first time was shortly after its maiden voyage. The ship has aged and it feels due for an overhaul, which isn't scheduled until 2014.

 

We are disappointed with some recent RCI corporate decisions that seemed to cheapen the overall experience. When we tried to call Guest Relations, no one answered the phone. They make you keep your fork and knife between courses at lunch in the dining room. They "ran out" of lemons for iced tea (but had enough for bar service) and it was almost impossible to find Splenda on board. They stopped giving vouchers to put in tip envelops when you prepaid gratuities with your shipboard account. There was no Cruise Compass the final day to outline the departure process. They stopped daily towel animals in the rooms (we were in a Grand Suite). Etc.

 

We also were very disappointed with the food; the best item by far was the Tutti Salad in the dining room at lunch, although this has fewer selections than it did on prior cruises. Others really enjoyed the Mongolian BBQ in the Wind Jammer at dinner. With regard to food preparation, we had arugula salads that didn't have a single leaf of arugula in them. We had a corn chowder that had so much strong fresh onion chopped up in it that it became inedible. Creme brulee came twice with no carmelized sugar on top. And everything was so darn salty...

 

On the other hand, there are crew standouts that really made a difference. If you have have access to the Concierge and Denzil is on board, he is terrific and will help you out with almost anything. Rodrigo at the Guest Services desk did a phenomenal job following up on issues we had with assigning onboard credits. And our assistant waiter, Ben, was terrific.

 

We had a much better overall experience on IoS in February, although there were enough bright spots on this cruise that we haven't yet given up on RCI, especially because we are so close to double diamond we can almost touch it.

 

And, the people on board that we met were all wonderful. Lots of laughs and some great stories to tell.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise, and maybe by the time you get on board, RCI will have worked out some of these issues.

[cruisinfool08]

hey everyone, just checking in on this thread.

Thanks for your insights on EOS Kevin