We love RCCL, but...

[The Big Booper]

The only cruise where we had the jumbotron was on the Disney Magic. You couldn't hear it in the adult pool section (thankfully).

 

We were walking on the jogging track one afternoon when we noticed they were playing "The Incredibles" on the screen. So we hustled down to our cabin, found our yet unworn matching red Incredibles tee shirts put them on and wandered around the pool area while the movie was playing. The kids pointed at us, giggled and yelled " Go Mr. I !

 

You have noticed my signature, we have 5 different Mr Incredible matching sets. My all time favorite cartoon movie and we see most full length cartoon movies

[tripster07]

Congrats to those of you who benefit from the loyalty program; however, I have never received anything from RCCL that would keep me coming back. The only reason I use them is for certain itiniaries. On the other hand, NCL have offered me upsells to suites and offered upgrades to many of our friends. Some of our friends with RCCL are diamond members and have never been offered anything. In fact, our last cruise with RCCL I checked to see if we were eligible for an upgrade our records showed we were not given credit for 2 past cruises. That made me feel real special...

[WinnieinWA]

NCL greets you with Champagne or orange juice. Most ships have irons to use free of charge but they don't have laundry washing rooms like Princess. I cruise all lines that I can afford but so far the main reasons that I did not like RCI are:

 

1. The food was truly awful compared to Carnival and NCL.

2. The singing waiters.... how utterly demeaning to them

and for me. :o

3. The crew were not near as friendly as Carnival or NCL.

4. The steward I had knew nothing about cleaning. My cabin was terribly dirty with makeup powder on the vanity when I checked in, dirty mirrors, hair all over the bathroom floor, shower had built up scum, hair on my bed linens. I did not enjoy sleeping in that cabin at all. Yes, I pointed all those things out to her but she seemingly didn't understand a word I said.

 

I'm glad there are enough cruise lines to make sure we all get what we want.

 

Happy cruising:)

[IM4LSU]

On HAL you can bring as much wine and champagne as you like on board. They charge a corkage fee in the main dinning room which I don't mind paying for a good bottle of wine. I like to have wine available to drink on my balcony in the evening. I have my martinis in one of the bars before dinner and of course a frozen drink or two around the pool during the day. So, HAL get's my money for bar drinks...I get my preference of wine at dinner and on my balcony...everyone is happy!

[The Big Booper]

 

..<<snip>>2. The singing waiters.... how utterly demeaning to them

and for me. :o..<<snip>>...

 

Happy cruising:)

 

Then on my three Carnival cruises I guess I must have imagined every night the ass't waiters jumping on the serving platforms and dancing and singing along with the scratchy music blaring over the loudspeakers :eek::mad::eek:

[ilionite65]

But apparantly the Carnival waitstaff don't feel demeaned while dancing on the serving tables!

[coordinator23]

After my Mariner cruise this winter, I will probably be looking at a Princess cruise. I may take one this fall, if I can fit it in. Why? I felt "special" on my Alaska cruise with Princess last summer (Alaska). At the captain's welcome party I had my first cosmo (I seldom drink). From what I understand, if I want the formerly "free" sparkling wine on my Mariner cruise, I will have to pay for it at the captain's party.

Not to beat a dead horse, they put chocolate on my pillow - and I believe they are still doing it. I liked the little packets of shampoo, conditioner and lotion. I "saved" some of them to use at home. I remembered the cruise everytime I used them. Our family used the "assigned" dining which we liked. I feel RCL is pushing people into My time dining or whatever they are calling it. (NCL freestyle was a nightmare for my extended family)

Even though I don't drink often, I feel people should be able to bring a bottle of wine onboard. RCL can't offer that big of a variety (I could be wrong here, as I am not a drinker) and I know people like certain brands, etc.

My origional plan was to take a "free" cruise this fall. I have the 50,000 visa points. (I put free in quotes, because I would have paid to upgrade to a balcony.) I will instead use the $500 credit option toward my winter cruise.

RCL want to make it a WOW experience again (?) - You know what to do. I had one cruise on NCL (it was bad - Pride of Aloha). I swore I would not go on another line again. Had to take Princess to Alaska because of scheduling conflicts - loved it. It felt like the old RCL experience. I've resigned myself to the fact that RCL now a cut below Princess, so I will switch my loyalty - slowly to other lines. Since I've been "promoting" RCL the last 10 years, friends and family will be surprised.

Funny thing, I'll make diamond on this next cruise (Mariner)- on my favorite ship. Sorry for the ramble, I'm tired and will be getting ready for bed soon:) PS - catch the irony, I was on the Diamond Princess last summer - I felt"diamond" on that cruise

[travelbug11]

Lower single supplement fares!!

[The Big Booper]

What keeps us from booking another Princess cruise is that, unless you book far in advance, you get shoved into anytime dining whether you want it or not, with a waitlist of 300-500 to get moved to traditional. RCI does not push anyone into MyTime unless they ask and even then the line limits the # of people in MT, the reverse of Princess.

[Texas Teen]

For Texans: A Royal Caribbean ship departing from Galveston year-round!

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Please, no!!!!!!!!!!!

Just off a Carnival with the screen and we had to listen to news all morning and other shows all day.It was not a very relaxing place to be.

 

I agree, I would not cruise with them if they had screens over the pool blaring out news, i dont watch it at home let alone on holiday. My idea of a nightmare!

[petesweet]

On board laundromats, like on Princess ships (among others).

 

Ohhh, I second that one. Forgot about that. We are taking longer and longer cruises, and that would be wonderful. NCL Jewel had that the last time we cruised her; however, she no longer has it either.

Kathy

[beachnative]

While on the Caribbean Princess we had the "Ultimate Balcony Dinner". If that were offered on RCCL we would be extremely happy. The food was prepared personally by the heads of each food department and was the best we've eaten on any cruise.

[petesweet]

OMG...no, please, no. The last thing I want to do is my laundry while I'm on a cruise ship. RCL please do not put laundromats in:eek:

 

But unlike the news screens at the pool, the laundromats would be something you could ignore if you did not want to use them but that others of us would appreciate.

[EBFURR]

But unlike the news screens at the pool, the laundromats would be something you could ignore if you did not want to use them but that others of us would appreciate.

 

Correct! We would probably not use the laundromats, but having them for those that would need them would not affect us one way or the other. Actually, it would be a revenue source for the cruise line, which would not be a bad thing since onboard revenue is such a big deal these days. Other things such as giant TV's, toddlers in the specialty dining (another thread), etc. are a different story.

[hollon]

I would like to see waterslides for the kids :)

[cruznjan]

Going back to giving you champagne upon boarding AND walking you to your room would be nice!

 

I'll drink to that! Seriously, Celebrity does it. Why doesn't RCCL?

[East Bay Skiers]

But unlike the news screens at the pool, the laundromats would be something you could ignore if you did not want to use them but that others of us would appreciate.

 

 

You voiced my thoghts perfectly. I probably would not use the washing machines (except on 12+ days cruises, maybe) but it certainly would be great to have an iron available for use "just in case"

[goouchjac]

I have only been on Royal Caribbean & Celebrity. I really liked the made-to-order pasta station on Celebrity, as I think that would be a nice addition to the Windjammer Cafe Area. Also liked the Champagne upon arrival.....classy.

 

So do we!!!!:D

[peteukmcr]

I really miss that option. I wish they would reintroduce it, even if the supplement was higher.

Where in the Great City of Manchester are you from? I lived in Blackley for over 30 years. Still follow Man U, get to see a lot of games on SkySports and Setanta.:)

 

Brought up in east manchester (Denton) and have moved around over the past 30 years (Didsbury, Warrington, Audenshaw, Bramhall, city centre) and now back near Reddish.

 

Do you still get Setanta, thought they'd gone under?

[jbond]

Do you still get Setanta, thought they'd gone under?

Sure hope not. Watched Setanta this morning, How the Premiership Was Won. Nothing but Man U victories.:D Familiar with Denton and Bramhall, worked at Woodford for several years.

[firedug]

please, please do something to stop the chair hogs

[MEGADAN]

Mix up the ports a little. There is a lot to see in this world, no reason to keep going back to the same ports year after year.

 

Yup, this one gets my vote! I can only do Western Caribbean so many times. Summer cruisers have no options.

[petesweet]

Correct! We would probably not use the laundromats, but having them for those that would need them would not affect us one way or the other. Actually, it would be a revenue source for the cruise line, which would not be a bad thing since onboard revenue is such a big deal these days. Other things such as giant TV's, toddlers in the specialty dining (another thread), etc. are a different story.

 

Actually, on NCL they were free (bring or buy soap), but I would settle for a coin-operated one. If a person is going to take a side trip before or after the cruise, it would be wonderful.

[Cindy]

Improve the quality of the food, particularly in the MDR. We just sailed the Paradise and, although overall we still prefer Monarch, the food just blew RCI away. It wasn't haute cuisine by any stretch, but it had flavor other than salt, the meat choices were decent cuts and (where applicable) the food was cooked as ordered by the diner. There is no reason that RCI can't at least match Carnival for food quality.

 

I'm amazed that RCI's new builds don't have laundromats (I can see where it would be a challenge to put ones onto existing ships). They cater to FAMILIES, for heaven's sake - who else will be doing 4 loads of laundry per cruise? I think the result is not that RCI's laundry revenues are higher but that people just pack more stuff to tide them over or wash out things in the sink.

 

I agree 100% with both of these points, especially the food. We were just blown away by the difference on our first Carnival cruise (Splendor, July 12th). Here's what I wrote in my review:

FOOD:

The food on this cruise was our biggest and most pleasant surprise. In our opinion everything having to do with food or food service was top notch on the Splendor. My husband and I kept looking at each other and shaking our heads in disbelief, because we honestly could not get over how much better the food was – in taste, variety, quality, and presentation than what we’ve had on our recent cruises. We thought it was very evident that the Splendor was using much higher quality meat and seafood than our recent experiences on Royal Caribbean. It’s a little harder to compare the food to Princess since it’s been over 2 years since we cruised with them, but the dining room food seemed more similar to Princess than Royal Caribbean.

I also thought the food on Splendor was clearly better than the other ships we’ve been on in the Lido. We’re really not buffet people, and usually spend most cruises trying to avoid eating there. We often struggle to find something to eat and end up filling our plates with junk we don’t really want. I was pleasantly overwhelmed by the variety in the Lido. The offerings were 2 different buffet lines with entrees, soups, salads, and a carving station, a huge dessert and fruit bar, a Deli where you could get custom made hot and cold sandwiches, an Asian stir-fry station, a Burrito station, a Tandoori station, and a Rotisserie which offered chicken, potatoes, corn, and a variety of salads. Try the tomatoes and mozzarella with pesto when you visit the Rotisserie…yummy! Outside by the main pool is the Pizzeria which offers a large selection of pizzas and will do custom orders as well as calzones, and grills where they prepare fresh hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and steak sandwiches.

The adults (and one teenager) ate at the Pinnacle on Tuesday night, and thought it was superb. The food was flavorful and plentiful, cooked perfectly, and presented beautifully. It was also a LOT of food! We conked out pretty early that night from over-eating!

What didn’t we like? This is hard, because we found most of the food to be very, very good with some things exceptional. I thought the bread selection was a bit lacking, and on the last night 2 people in our group had soups they didn’t care for. My mom had the lobster bisque and thought it had an odd taste, which is strange because she LOVED it at the Pinnacle – they must use a different recipe in the dining rooms. Jim tried the mango soup and also thought it was a bit odd. When you consider we had 11 people in our group eating/trying everything imaginable I think that’s pretty amazing. As much as I’ve enjoyed my cruises on the Voyager/Mariner/Explorer, the food on those ships doesn’t come close to what we had on the Splendor, and in some cases it was downright inedible.

 

I also really appreciated the laundromat, since we had been touring California for more than a week before our cruise. No, I don't want to spend the entire week washing clothes,:p but it was great to be able to do a quick load and have an iron available for touch-ups.

 

Then there's the wine issue. Without opening up a huge can of worms, we loved being able to take some nice bottles on-board with us. I appreciated the wine, and seemed to spend just as much money as I would have if we were on Royal Caribbean!:rolleyes: