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wadeham

By wadeham,
in Royal Caribbean International

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tcrowe

tcrowe

Posted
Posted
Hi I need you help! We are booked in 1720 for May 22nd and as we saw the first pictures we thought we might change into a smaller loft suite because of the balcony overlooking the mini golf course - so that everybody there can see you sitting on the balcony and you have no privacy at all. But now we see that there is the balcony around the corner with a separate door. Is that true? Can you come to the side balcony from inside the cabin? Please help me decide! Thanks and have all the fun you can have! Regards from Munich Germany

 

The balcony around the corner is for 1718. That is the divider and there is a door in it that can be opened if both suites wanted it open. 1718's balcony is about the same size as 1720 and totally faces the ocean.

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ahornb

ahornb

Posted
Posted
It's not clear the exact pricing for international text messages. I saw this page on the AT&T website (below) and read somewhere on these boards in a thread that it was 10cents per SMS to receive. Looks like you pay for outgoing international but incoming is included in your bucket if you're on an SMS plan. SMS is different from data. no wireless data available at sea anyway (the cellphone service on the ship doesn't support GSM data) but you can get data in most international countries on a roaming plan. That's very expensive! I shut off my data on my iphone (manual sync only) though that doesn't affect SMS send/receive. If your phone rings and you don't want to pay the ~$2.49per minute to talk, just don't answer it to avoid a charge.

 

We aren't eating Chef's table though concierge note in the suite just says to call/ask for a reservation.

 

Loft has a flatscreen as well as the lower level (bigger one with surround sound).

 

Happy to answer. Seems like interet working much better today!

 

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/messaging-internet/messaging/faq.jsp#pricing-text

 

Q. What is the pricing for international text messaging?

 

A. It's just $0.25 to send an international message. Sent messages are not pulled from your bucket of messages. International text messages received will either pull from your message bucket or be charged a normal per-message charge.

 

Q. What is the pricing for using text messaging while roaming?

 

A. There are no additional charges for sending and receiving text messaging while roaming in the United States. If roaming internationally (where available), text messages sent are $0.50 each and do not pull from message buckets. Text messages received while roaming internationally are billed at normal rate.

 

Thanks!!!:)

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ubiquitous

ubiquitous

Posted
Posted 

Thanks for the info, from all the pictures here I saw that. I now think we made a mistake. Should have booked the 1718!

 

How did you decide that a port side view (like all the crown lofts on that side) is better than an aft-plus-port side view on a clearly superior balcony? :)

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kaibutzi

kaibutzi

Posted
Posted 
Thanks for the info, from all the pictures here I saw that. I now think we made a mistake. Should have booked the 1718!

 

How did you decide that a port side view (like all the crown lofts on that side) is better than an aft-plus-port side view on a clearly superior balcony? :)

 

Well... the thing is, that we never had a balcony where other people could see us! And we feel a little bit strange about that. We are still thinking! Our son wants to stay in the cabin and the size of the balcony is also very nice. But if we would have known that the balcony of the 1718 is as big as 1720, we would have taken 1718. But the deck plan doesnt show that!

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zevrosenthal

zevrosenthal

Posted
Posted

1720 is a bit bigger than 1718 but both are very large. I really like the fact that 1720 has 2 open sides (rear and port facing) - you get an amazing expansive view of the water. I am someone who likes my privacy and didn't feel bothered by the balcony at all. It every deep from front to back so even if you have the drapes fully opened, it's hard for anybody to see into the suite (they'd have to stand pretty far back to do so and then wouldn't be able to see anything close up). Privacy is relative and I wasn't bothered at all, in fact, we really liked "people watching" from the balcony. You are far away from the flowriders and the only people nearby on the deck below are on the mini-golf course and not looking up but down on the course :). In the end, we really liked the combo of ocean and "action" view from 1720 v. just ocean view from 1718 but you can't go wrong either way.

 

BTW, a few nice amenities each eve on the cruise - some nice beach towels (very useful), a straw bag from Labadee (typical tourist item), and then a few small packages of Seattle's best coffee on the last night (tonight).

 

We never ate in the main dining room or Windjammer Cafe! Between all the other restaurant choices we never had time. Giovanni's and Chops were both really, really good - as good as any high-end restaurant you'd find on land. Surprisingly good in a very good way. The "spa food" (low fat, healthy) in the solarium bistro (fancy at night) was also very good; suprisingly so for food cooked a low fat way. We had really good, fresh ceviche and they had a "healthy" dessert buffet that was very tasty. The only disappointment (if you can call it that) was 150 Central Park. The whole meal (tasting menu so you have no choices) was all just a bit too fussy with some complex flavors that just didn't seem to work that well together. The small serving of "wagu beef" as part of the 150 Central Park meal wasn't nearly as tasty as the filet in Giovanni's or the NY strip at Chops - both meals which were as good as what you'd eat in a great New York steak house. If the extra charges don't scare you away, the smalller more intimate settings in the specialty restaurants is really nice (though the main dining room is beautiful).

 

Overall, I've been on several inagural/shake-down cruises and this one was just about flawless. Any A/C issues reported from the naming ceremony seemed fixed for this trip - no problem keeping the suite as cold as you wanted it. The downstairs TV in the loft stopped working but a call to maintenance and they "rebooted it" remotely and it was working quickly again. The Hairspray show had a technical glitch which caused them to stop the show in the middle for 5 minutes to fix but they picked right up again and it was great (funny being that I saw a show on Broadway just last month that had a technical glitch in the middle and they had to stop the show and "reset" the sets as well so this isn't an uncommon occurance). We had tix to see the aquatheatre show but never made it in time. The rehersals during the afternoon were fun to watch so even though we didn't see it in all it's splendor, it was fun.

 

Our 8 year old son LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the kids programs. It took some coaxing to get him there on the 2nd day after which he spent 10 hours in the program day 2, all evening day 3 and the entire "at sea" day on day 4. He could barely keep his head up and kept asking to "stay longer" each time we came to get him. The program on the ship is very, good and the facilities for kids is beyond impressive. Disney is going to have to work hard to catch up to this ship.

 

For all those who are going to cruise - you'll have a great time. Nothing is 100% perfect but this was as close to a perfect cruise experience as I've had so far (assuming the debarkation process is as easy as it was to board :).

 

Enjoy!

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ahornb

ahornb

Posted
Posted

Thanks so much zevrosenthal. So glad to hear you had a wonderful trip!

 

Please let us know about debarkation and your post-cruise experience. If you are flying home out of FLL, can you tell us about your ship to airport experience?

 

Also, do you think there is room for a rollaway bed in #1720? We are a Family of four and my 13 year old son and 10 year old daughter would kill each other if they had to share a bed for a week. We put our daughter on a cot and our son on the pull-out sofa in an Owners Suite on the Liberty OTS and it worked out great. I'm hoping it will be the same for this suite.

 

Once again many thanks!!! Have a safe trip home.

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zevrosenthal

zevrosenthal

Posted
Posted

The couch is big enough in the suite that we didn't have the attendant open it up each night. Rather, we asked him to remove the back pillows and then make the flat surface up as a single bed which worked perfectly. The seat cushions of the sofa are perfectly flat, nice and comfy and, with the back pillows removed, still at least 3 ft wide. If you do that, then there is ample room for a roll-away and you'll still have plenty of room to roam around the lower level. Even if you open the sleeper couch, there is still pleny of room for a rollaway There is also a nice spot under the steps near the door that connects 1720 to 1718 and under one of the paintings that would make a nice niche to slide the rollaway into and it would be out of the way of everything and not blocking any doors/pathways so that you could probably leave it open all the time.

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zevrosenthal

zevrosenthal

Posted
Posted

Getting off was as easy as getting on. They had many Customs counters open - we didn't have to wait in line; just walked off the ship, up to the customs counter and went from our room to outside the terminal in about 10 minutes (9 1/2 of which was walking or riding the elevator). Very orderly and well planned; easiest departure ever from a ship for us.

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ahornb

ahornb

Posted
Posted
The couch is big enough in the suite that we didn't have the attendant open it up each night. Rather, we asked him to remove the back pillows and then make the flat surface up as a single bed which worked perfectly. The seat cushions of the sofa are perfectly flat, nice and comfy and, with the back pillows removed, still at least 3 ft wide. If you do that, then there is ample room for a roll-away and you'll still have plenty of room to roam around the lower level. Even if you open the sleeper couch, there is still pleny of room for a rollaway There is also a nice spot under the steps near the door that connects 1720 to 1718 and under one of the paintings that would make a nice niche to slide the rollaway into and it would be out of the way of everything and not blocking any doors/pathways so that you could probably leave it open all the time.

 

Thanks so much!

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MRIGAL

MRIGAL

Posted
Posted

I'm interested to know how full the ship was for your cruise. That makes a big difference as far as the ease of embarkation and debarkation. Thanks. Appreciate all info so far, very informative:) Did they let you into the suite at 11:30 or just on the ship? Last time we weren't allowed in until 1:00.

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zevrosenthal

zevrosenthal

Posted
Posted

I was told just over 5,000 passengers so about 90% full. Because of the sheer size of the ship, it never felt very crowded except for a few minutes just after the evening shows ended but the crowd dispersed quickly. Boarding began at 11:30 and our room was ready by the time we got there (about 11:45)

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ahornb

ahornb

Posted
Posted
I was told just over 5,000 passengers so about 90% full. Because of the sheer size of the ship, it never felt very crowded except for a few minutes just after the evening shows ended but the crowd dispersed quickly. Boarding began at 11:30 and our room was ready by the time we got there (about 11:45)

 

I wonder if your suite was ready so early because you were the very first occupants. Not much preparation involved if no one had been in the stateroom on the previous shakedown cruises. What do you think? do you suppose it will be he norm for the suite to be ready that early?

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ahornb

ahornb

Posted
Posted

Hey Tcrowe, can you post these Sky Loft pictures for me? These shots are courtesy of Bobbye from another thread. Check out photos #176-188. Includes some cool new angles and even a look at #1718's balcony.

 

Bobbye

Cool Cruiser

 

Join Date: Jan 2003

Posts: 335

 

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/290...62385534FWdBjz

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4everafter

4everafter

Posted
Posted

Thank you for posting your information. We were in a RFS and I felt like most of the suite benefits for us weren't up and running yet . For the curiosity of all my children - did the door on the second floor lead to a private walkway and outside space for loft guests? My son was 11 year old Robert and he tried awful hard to get to it. The area is on the model in the CL . THANKS!

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