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Coco Cay August 7th progress

Liberty would counter that for years cruising was not charging enough, that cruising was too affordable, that was was too much value in the cost of a cruise versus a land vacation. To that end, he doesn't want cruising to be budget friendly if the definition of budget friendly is cheap. Yet someone is buying cabins and suites on these ships. To these people these rates are within their budget. By that definition they are budget friendly for these people. It's always been a supply and demand market. There is a lot of demand right now and Royal is capitalizing on it. With strong demand rates are high but people are paying it, that is those that find it within their budget to do so. I feel your pain though and my cruising is down as a result. While it may be within my budget I don't find the value especially with all the cutbacks and now talk of charging for pizza. It's not about charging for pizza specifically, but more that they are looking to introduce charges for more and more and more while simultaneously increasing base fares more and more and more. For new guests who are just finding cruising this is normal to them because they don't know any better. For me the math of the value proposition has changed so I spend elsewhere.

I feel like the possibilities of charges for garbage services and offerings is the proverbial straw. You have a former CFO who is now the CEO being transparent with his money thoughts. He feels like the value of cruises aren't on par with land based vacations and it wasn't but now it's also not. You can now find wonderful land based vacations for less than a cruise. I am D+ but I have gone from having 5+ cruises a year booked to 2 because the value has decreased for me. I wasn't a MDR/WJ or Sorrento's pizza eater before all the changes. But with decrease value in the UDP and possible changes. I will have to rethink my booking habits. Also the newest ships aren't geared towards a single 40ish woman and the oldest ships are too old. I might transition to Celebrity, which is under Royals umbrella but a different beast.

Day 9: Our final full sea day Another fairly uneventful day, just the way we planned. I wish I had found it sooner but we grabbed a breakfast sandwich at the Park Cafe and oh my, it was so good. It was the asparagus, egg and cheese on brioche. I could have just eaten those all week and would have been happy. We got one more dip in the solarium pool in and a few more fancy drinks and coffee's. I am pretty sure we got our money's worth out of the refreshment package! We had another tasty lunch at WJ then went and chilled out on the balcony for a while. The artist fell asleep so I caught up on some email to try and head off the bombardment I am expecting at work come Monday. It was Giovanni's Table for dinner and I think we really did save the best for last. SO Delicious and excellent service too. For starters, the Calamari was perfect and the Minestrone was perfectly peppery. I had the seared filet with mashed potatoes and broccoli and the artist had the seafood linguine, both amazing. For dessert I had the Chocolate hazelnut cake and the artist had the chocolate gelato. We may never have to eat again! We were very ready to get home so we started to get packed up earlier in the morning and finished up after dinner. We opted for assisted departure since our bags were cumbersome and I bought so much stuff to bring home! I got a nice bottle of the Wild Turkey Longbranch for the husband and some Jameson's for me, some cigars for the Marine (my 26 yr old) and a bucket hat and T-shirt for Lefty (my 13 yr old), oh and some more t-shirts for Aunts and cousins. We bought trinkets in Bermuda for my mom and sisters along with the glasses from the Frog and Onion that we got to take home, plus some local art in Nassau. Our hands were full! We hit the hay really looking forward to seeing Dad and Lefty in the morning!

Almost. The ACTUAL trigger word is "vaccine".

I guess I'll just sit on my hands and wait for the change if it happens. In the end I guess it really doesn't matter because they will do what they want. Maybe they should just go all the way and charge for a second entree like MSC. The dinner roll is free but butter will cost ya. More revenue, woo hoo. Ketchup for you burger, that will cost ya. Listen I absolutely love Royal Caribbean but in my opinion charging for Sorentos would be wrong in every single way.

So wrong. Why wait for it to happen? Voicing an opion now makes more sense. Much better chance to stop it, then trying to reverse it down the road. Again, I would like to point out that Royal did not make the survey available to everyone. So some have to find other ways of adding their two cents. And nobody should ever be told to keep quiet about anything they feel is wrong.

People get minor viral illnesses on cruise ships. Always have, always will. There just never was a focus on it (other than noro) before covid.

Day 8: Sea Day We slept in! Well, for us anyway. We didn't get to the WJ until around 10 am. We had a great breakfast and headed to the pool deck to play some Yahtzee and UNO. Since this isn't a live blog, I will get the stats out of the way. I love Yahtzee but have crappy luck which is the main reason I don't gamble. We would be flat broke If I ever developed a gambling habit, for sure. Dice and I don't get along. Over all, the artist won all three Yahtzee games we played while onboard. However, I do have some skill and kicked the artists butt at UNO. I was up 5 to 2 by the end of the cruise and pretty proud of myself since the artist is known in our house as the resident UNO champ. It's amazing how much heat can take out of you. Not to mention the humidity. After Coco Cay, we didn't have a lot of energy and I am sure the carb filled breakfast didn't help! hahaha So we took it easy, we're on vacation after all. We had a snack at the Park Cafe and the artist took a dip in the Solarium pool then we went back to the room for a refreshing nap before dinner. We ate at the WJ again and again, it was yummy. It was the Karaoke superstars finals and I wanted to cheer on my high school buddy so we headed down to the Centrum to watch around 8 pm. There were 7 finalists and they were great. Even if they weren't it takes a lot of guts to get up there in front of all of those people and there were a LOT of people. The Centrum was packed full and it was so much fun. My buddy didn't win but he was actually really good. I had no idea he could sing! We called it a night after and watched a few episodes of our favorite tv show before falling asleep. This would be a good segeway to bring up the surf and stream service. We did one person with 2 devices. It was glitchy here and there but for the most part, we had no issues with the service at all. We're an iPhone family so it was super easy to stay in touch with everyone at home. We had started a "sweet 16 adventure" group text and were able to send everyone pictures as we went. Even FaceTime worked great. No pictures to share today.

I get what you’re saying. When you spend thousands on a vacation, expectations are high, and rightfully so. I have 4 cruises booked, and it’s frustrating that more changes are possibly coming, further reducing the value and experience. CEO Jason Liberty made it clear what his priorities are, and they’re just getting started with increasing profits. Great time for customers including myself to reevaluate future decisions in regards to booking cruises, and consider other options.

My apologies for the delay in getting in the last couple days! We were having such a good time. Where was I? Oh, yes, Day 7: Coco Cay day. We got up pretty early so we could head ashore to try and beat the worst of the heat and it worked out pretty well, sort of, lol. We had eventually caught up with Freedom at Coco Cay. Even with another ship in port it didn't seem too crowded, at least until we got to Oasis Lagoon but that was later. We hopped on the tram and did a circle around the island to get our bearings but chose to get off at Chill Island. We found a spot right at the water and planted ourselves. We ordered a fancy frozen drink to kick off the fun then The artist stripped so fast to get into the water I was quite impressed. The water was almost, but not quite, too warm. Basically it was perfect. We had our new snorkel masks to try out and they were great. Coordinating using the masks with our little floats to kick around was so much fun. We didn't see many fish but the ones we did see were really neat. One was a skinny transparent pike like fish and then there were slightly larger white ones. I didn't see any jellies until we were a little further out from shore but they were small and few in number. We had brought our Stream2sea sun and sting gel just in case but ended up not needing it. We stayed there for quite a while. I was able to get the artist out of the water before gills formed, so that was good. We started to get hungry so we headed over to the chill grill and it did not disappoint! I started with pulled pork tacos and then tried the potato salad and BBQ chicken. All of which were amazing. Of course the artist went straight for the cheeseburgers and fries, it was gone in a flash. We then walked toward Oasis Lagoon to check out the pool and that's when the sun decided to jack the heat up to a million. The pool area was so crowded that it took about 15 minutes to find an empty pair of chairs. 15 minutes in that kind of heat is an eternity and we both started to sour a bit. The full stomach, coupled with the heat, on top of how crowded and noisy it was really got the artists anxiety rocking so it was imperative that we tried to get out of there quickly. That turned out to be easier said than done. It may have been me being worried about my beet red (from heat not sun, we were triple coated with SPF 50) and close to tears kid but man, finding the tram station was hard to do. I was surprised at how unhelpful staff were with directions. I mean they were nice but no one went out of their way to help us until we got to one lady who really tried to flag down help. Then the tram driver, Tyrone, stopped to point us in the right direction letting us know that he would be right back around to get us. We found the tram station and he did exactly what he said. He made sure we got a seat and we were on our way back to the ship. Tyrone was awesome. By the time he dropped us off, the artist was smiling again so I was so relieved! I think he thought he was a NASCAR driver on a road course and I am pretty sure we won. It was the best tram ride ever! I should mention that the artist, at 16, is 6'1" and 300lbs and well, an artist. Not the most athletic kid, a book worm and math whiz. Shy and quiet but funny AF and not at all a risk taker. Super strong and flexible but not much of a mover. I have always been athletic, a runner and a swimmer but after I was laid off just as the pandemic hit and was at home job hunting, stressed out and diagnosed with ADHD, while trying to make life as normal for my kids as possible, all during the lock down, my physical and mental health took a good hit. Luckily I was only out of work for a year. I was fortunate to get the job I have worked for years to get, that got me through the rest of the pandemic and is still going strong, the only caveat is that its a desk intensive job and remote so I end up sitting way longer than I would if I worked in an office. For the last 8 months or so I have picked up the pace and started working on more self care and lost 15 of the 75 lbs I gained. My bones are used to carrying a strong 150 lbs at 5'6. My body is really mad at me! We have both decided that after this trip, we will buckle down and focus on beefing up our endurance. This trip was a wake up call to us both to get our butts moving again! But I digress...Once back on the ship, it took a while to cool down but once we did, we headed to the WJ for another great dinner. Maybe we just aren't the gourmet type or have lower standards than some, or maybe it's the ship you're on, but having read some of the complaints about food quality, I am not sure what they are talking about. lol Every bite we've had while on board so far has been delightful and I may be up to 85 lbs to lose by the time we get back home! Again, our steward, Dadi, left us a the cutest towel rat! I think he wins as our favorite. Needless to say, we crashed hard and fast on night 7. It really was a perfect day.

Offer to buy somebody with internet package a beer. Ask to borrow their phone while they drink it. This results in 8-15 minutes of internet for $7.99 plus 18% gratuity.

Again, please for the love of god read! This is to voice my displeasure BEFORE, maybe if enough people complain beside the 8 people that got this precious survey maybe it won't happen. Maybe, just maybe they will get the hint that this a nickel and dime too far. It's not about getting a slice of pizza free into my fat face, it's much, much more than that. To me this would be just too far.

Does anyone read? Anyone at all? What the hell did I actually say? I said I want to let them know my displeasure about this change before it happens. If they hear from enough of us maybe it won't happen. I'm not gonna yell at anyone.

It was a success! And I didn't even have to pay for it! I got weird looks for asking but they gave me the bread with a to go top and I took it down to the main dining room to enjoy on the last night

On a lighter note: Every night we sit down to watch TV with our dinner and my husband asks "What do you want to watch" and I reply "The dock getting smaller". Been using that same line for 32 years. LOL.

Debarkation day: I always get so nervous about how things will go when getting off the ship. I have never had a bad departure so I am not sure why. lol This one was remarkably easy! But it was also a little different since I had bought all of that alcohol. I had forgotten all about the customs part of things and had never had anything to potentially declare before. The paper they gave us said that I would need to declare any alcohol over 1 liter. I had 3.5 liters. Thankfully, I had gone to GS the night before and asked about it. Now this may only apply in Baltimore, YMMV, so be sure to ask if you aren't sure, but he asked if I packed the bottles in my suitcases and I said yes (I don't trust the cardboard boxes they give you), and he said there used to be a form but not any longer so if they ask, be honest but if they don't, keep walking. Back to the process, ...The app really helps by notifying you of the stages. We decided to save breakfast so we could stop on the way home with Dad and Lefty. We got the carryons together and left our cabin around 8am. We stopped to say good bye and thanks again to Dadi, our steward then headed to the pool deck to wait for our group to be called. We were supposed to go to the theater but I knew it would be hectic and didn't want to subject the artist to that on their last day. It worked out great! When our group was called at 8:15 am, we followed the helpful crew and were off and walking down down the gangway in no time at all. We got to the VERY large CPB Officer, he looked at our passports and waved us on. Tada! We found our bags and a port agent helped us flag down a porter, he loaded us up and had us out to the pick up area by 8:29am! (Yes, I timed it!) I didn't think it could possibly go that fast so I told my husband 9:30 am! Luckily he was a little early and got to us at 9am on the dot. First things first of course, hugs all around and then, we we were on our way home. Since our vacation wasn't over until we were on our door step, we stopped at IHOP In Frederick, Md. for our last vacation breakfast. So, in the spirit of continuity...:) Thanks to you all for following along. If you made it this far, I hope you had fun along with us! It was a very successful experience with my artist that we will both cherish and your birthday wishes were icing on the cake. Until we meet again on Wonder in October, safe travels my friends!

This sums up our feelings as well. When did Royal turn into Disney? -We are D+ -Since we are flying anyway, land based vacations offering better values now and in 2024-25 -4 cruises this year but only 2 planned for 2024, and 2 in 2025 (1 is a Celebrity cruise with wifi, drinks, tips included)

Hi @Nick560. Sounds like fun! Without the internet package you can still use the Royal Caribbean App and that will allow you to communicate on the ship. For dining if you call RC, they can link the reservations and then you will be placed at the same table(s) for dinner. If that somehow fails, you have the right idea and a visit to the dining room upon boarding should get it straightened out. Enjoy your cruise!

My wife and I do too. If you ask my wife what her favorite ship is, her answer will always be "Freedom". She's always trying to find a way to sail on her again.

This survey comes right from the playbooks! 1. They mention a record breaking quarter. 2. Discuss raising prices for Cruising because "People will pay!" 3. Discuss reducing the gap between land base vacations and a Cruise Vacation. 4. Hey, Look over there. They MAY start charging a few dollars for awful, mediocre pizza. By now people have forgotten the Actual raises that will most likely occur from CEO discussions just last month that could be in the Hundreds if not thousands. People tend to forget things quickly and move on to the next "Bad Thing." Sound familiar?

Well I am pissed as I did not even get a voice in this. My last 2 sailings and my next are in suites. I am a Diamond C&A member and I did not even get the survey, I just happen to hear about it. I was not even asked about it. So where is my voice?? What happens to those that do not follow this forum or youtube? None of them even get a say in the matter either.

While I'm not actively trying to make this reply a plug for the travel agency that sponsors this forum, I do know what happens if something goes wrong and we're represented by our MEI agent. The amazing service we received when the covid pandemic shut down happened was incredible. Despite the fact that our agent was dealing with many, many clients (a lot with more lucrative bookings), we always felt we were her #1 priority. A quick web search of "Cruises Only" shows me their title of "America's Largest Cruise Agency". I'm sure that's a good thing, but I'm skeptical of the one on one service we would receive. My wife and I have made the conscious decision to stay loyal to our agent who stood by us when all cruising came to a complete stop.

Executive Contacts Primary Contact Carlos Jimenez Sr. Manager, Guest Experience 1050 Caribbean Way Miami, FL 33132 [email protected] Secondary Contact Aurora Yera–Rodriguez AVP, Guest Experience 1050 Caribbean Way Miami, FL 33132 [email protected] Chief Executive Michael Bayley President and CEO 1050 Caribbean Way Miami, FL 33132 [email protected]

If they start charging for the pizza then there will be no end to the madness. What’s next? Windjammer becomes speciality dining? Towels at the pool? Drip coffee at cafe promenade? Shows? At some point the nickel and dime mentality will have a negative effect on the bottom line because many families count on the “complimentary” options and consider this value when cruising with the brand.

I thought this was funny, hope not to offend

Completely agree, voice up now. Its so much easier to stop a bad idea in its tracks than to reverse a bad decision thats then been made policy

I guess you are the only one on my side on this. The rest think we should just wait for to happen and then piss and moan. And then they will say, brat is complaining about 10 bucks for pizza when they just spent thousands on a vacation, they can afford it.

And yeah I'd like to email that little weasel of a CEO and tell him I hope you choke on the 5 bucks you charge for freaking pizza. Just something that really, really bothers me about this. I think of all the kids and families that now have to decide between have a mediocre pizza because some pencil neck CEO can get a bigger dividend. It truly pisses me off. The very fact it was in a survey, so it was discussed and now closer to reality really, really gets in my nerves.

In the end they are gonna do what they want and it's all about making more money but I see nothing wrong with being proactive.

I'm pissed every other minute of every other day. No biggie. Not voicing your opinions is the worst thing you can do. When you feel something is wrong you should stand and shout. I'm the first one to join a March. I'm a very be heard or forever go to the back of the bus person. How great of a cross section of survey opions can they really get when they pre selected who to send the survey too? If you don't join in the discussion, you can't really have any skin in the game. If they are "pissed", by all means say so. It's a big company, they can handle a negative email. No feelings will be hurt. And all sides will have been expressed. We are the two in danger. And understand it's passion for having a say, not anger. LOL.

Freedom is a great ship. The difference between ship classes (at least Voyager and above) is highly overrated.

Agreed. We are booking an all-inclusive ocean front suite at the Hyatt in Puerto Vallarta for less than an Ocean Balcony on Royal will cost at the same time. Can eat all the pizza, steak, hibachi, Italian, Mexican, and all the drinks we want 24/7. Cancun and D.R. have amazing deals that cost even less.

With all due respect, if our attempt to hold Royal Caribbean to a higher standard of customer service is somehow, in your eye, offensive to the suffering people of Maui, then I really don't know how to explain this to you. All I can say is, the natural disaster and resulting trauma experienced by the people of Maui should NOT absolve Royal Caribbean (a for profit corporation) of their responsibilities to their customers. I am sorry we seem insensitive to you, many of us have donated to Maui relief effort and will be still going to Hawaii to do what we can for the local Hawaiian economy in general. Just talking about greedy corporate practices does not mean we have no compassion.

@teddy feel the same way and can't wait until she's off the Nassau, Perfect day route and starts some longer routes again. Awesome, hidden gem of the fleet imo

I'll always disagree with that idea just on general principle. Short of winning the lottery, I will always be frugal and place a value on every dollar I spend even if I am comfortable enough to afford to spend more.

@RCIfan1912 and @CanHardlyWait Let me just say I was in no way trying to silence anyone or be a Royal apologist. I was simply saying to not take anything out on the employees for "possible" changes. I am all for standing up for right or wrong. I too agree it's a slippery slope, it's the main reason that I no longer book suites. Prices go up but value has gone way down. I feel like Royal will make changes and the only way for them to learn is from a monetary standpoint, which is convoluted, because newbies are skewing the results. I don't eat at Sorrento's because I am from Chicago where we have amazing pizza and that pizza is cardboard, so any changes won't affect me. I also don't agree with the idea you spent "thousands of dollars what's a few dollars more?" because people often save hard for vacations. I guess I just never thought a potential question on a survey would be so polarizing, given that it was pretty much a data mining one at that.

Raising holy hell certainly can't hurt. Look at the folks that had the repositioning cruise that was supposed to go to Hawaii accomplished; apparently got the executive suite's attention. Cancelation and refund offer that wasn't previously on the table when the itinerary change was announced. That's significant................and appropriate.

Really? Just mention the word “Covid” on this thread and it gets shut down.

I had the banana split and it was amazing, which sounds silly because it's just a banana and some ice cream, right? But the ice cream was excellent quality and the crispy caramelly stuff they put on top was the perfect finish.

This is the start of "Free Pizza Matter" movement. Go Go FPM !

My husband, my brother, my sister, and I were all on Ovation the end of June for Alaska. We all got COVID. Came home on Friday, felt ill Saturday morning, tested, and we all were positive. Come to read on other Facebook groups, that the sailing before ours, and the one before that as well had many people who also tested positive. Still glad we went and Alaska was amazing, but it did put a slight damper on our vacation. My brother had the worst of it. It was a little scary. That said, we've been on 7 cruises since December 2021, and this is the first time we caught anything. Still love cruising!

The post is about Icon. A suite for $15k pp is insane but even on older ships the suite prices are rough. I saw that it was $2600pp for a GS on mariner, that's not worth it. Royal has priced themselves out of being a budget friendly line. The problem is people are fine paying it. They couldn't charge $7k for an interior on Icon and $70k for suites unless someone is paying it. It's not rich people but the middle class splurging because of Yolo.

This. I remember when my never-gets-sick husband came home with pneumonia from an NCL cruise. That was in 2011. You board a ship with people from all over the world and spend time in close quarters with these people....illness happens! The times I've gotten Covid incidentally have been from work, not cruising

So we are clear, I/we absolutely love cruising and LOVE Royal Caribbean, we wouldn't have 3 booked at the same time if we didn't but a move like this would be incredibly disappointing and disheartening. It would truly leave a bad taste in your mouth worse than the pizza does.

On this we agree. I completed the survey, if you're going to reach out directly, you should do that. You've been around here and this thread long enough to know that we only pretty much know the normal contact routes. Call them, email their form, try their socials or shoot an email to the mbailey group.

Click "download the app" on the login page and you'll get 15 minutes for free.

Because there is nothing wrong with it. As a consumer and customer you have a voice and why shouldn't it be heard. Nothing more American.

Since it's just an idea, on a survey. I don't think you can contact anyone about a hypothetical idea.

If you enjoyed Liberty, you should like Freedom. If you're all about the production shows, you might consider just going to New York and hitting a real Broadway production.