Neaxan

We've done two 14 nights (Canaries and Baltic Sea), one 7 nights (Med) and one 5 nights (Metal event cruise). We prefer the longer cruises, albeit usually with many port days. Up to this cruise we thought sea days were a necessary evil. Guess this view will change - this is the first time I had to make a spreadsheet for a cruise so we won't be bored. On another note, with cruise fever finally starting we decided to pack today. I can report we have been successfull - after a bit of reorganization (and sorting out an abundance of clothes) all lugagge is below or at the weight limit. All I can say is I have no idea how I managed 3 months in London with a limit of 88 pounds a few years back ?

After more than a year of lurking in the forum, vacation time has finally arrived! With all the help I got from this board and all the live blogs I read to live vicariously through, I decided to return the favor. This will not rival Twangster’s quality live blog, but we’ll try our best and offer a new-to-Royal perspective. I’ll do the typing and hubby will provide the pictures. If you’ve got any questions, I’ll do my best to find the answer. So without further ado... Who are we and why this cruise? Kerstin and Michael, in our mid-thirties, from Germany (Bavaria to be exact) and on our first TA, first Royal cruise – and first time out of Europe. We’ve cruised before – 3 times with TUI Cruises (German cruise line, joint venture with RCI), once with AIDA. We usually cruise for the itinerary, but made an exception for this cruise. After a brilliant video of Harmony from our favourite German Youtuber – the Schiffstester – we knew we wanted to try Oasis class – and that really experiencing it would take more than 7 days. We’d originally planned to book a Med B2B and not leave the ship, but the price on the TA was just too good – YOLO! I hate flying so to make it worthwhile, we added a 14 night Caribbean cruise on Caribbean Princess (RCI itineraries just weren’t to our liking). Cruise preview – Barcelona to Miami Ports of call: Malaga (Day 2) – not sure if we’ll get off the ship, maybe just for a stroll; Port Canaveral (Day 12) – Kennedy Space Center Guided Tour with Royal to avoid the long lines for immigration Food & Beverage: we both got the deluxe drinking package and 5 night dining package. Additionally reserved Izumi Hibachi and Jamie’s as we plan to check out all the options. Entertainment: all shows reserved, we’ll participate in a few CC events (Meet & Mingle, mini golf tournament, pub crawl, scavenger hunt). We’re also planning to book the all access tour. Cabin: 8411 - inside stateroom at the fore Pre-cruise & post-cruise We’ve already prepared everything we want to pack and will pack tomorrow. Friday morning, we’ll drop off the boys (our five coonies) at the cat hotel, rush home, throw the luggage in the car and drive to my parents. They’ll drop us off at the airport Duesseldorf for our evening check-in, we’ll stay at the airport hotel as our flight is at 6.45am on Saturday. We’ll stay at Hotel Catedral in Barcelona and have booked a walking tour of Barri Gótic for the afternoon. Post-cruise we’ll stay at Sense Beach House in South Beach until we board Caribbean Princess on 11th. It’s our first time in Miami, so we rented a car to get a good overview and do the essential shopping – I might pillage the Disney store as my sister is expecting her first child on November 23rd.

I knew you couldn't resist live blogging this cruise ?

We'll be going and we can't wait. It'll be our first cruise with Royal but thanks to this wonderful blog I think we're prepared. Drink package, 5 night dining package plus Hibachi reservation, shows and escape room are booked, setsail passes and luggage tags are printed. I'm only missing the all access tour but I guess it'll be available on the ship. No RCCL blog events that I'm aware of but we've signed up for a few on the roll call (Meet & Mingle, Pub Crawl, Mini Golf and Scavenger Hunt). Maybe see you on the ship!

I've already done a Baltic cruise in 2016 but will do Southern Caribbean in a month. Even before that I'd go with the Baltics as it was the best vacation we ever had. Just had a look at Brilliance's itinerary - I'd say go for it. Haven't been to Skagen but the other stops are amazing - and getting up early for Stockholm to see the sunrise in the archipelago should be on everybody's bucket list. For St. Petersburg I'd book with the cruise line so you don't have to bother with visa - and they may offer special tours like the Catherine Palace by night for small groups. If you want to visit the Amber Room, better book a special tour as the normal ones by day are so crowded you won't enjoy it much. If you've got any questions regarding what to do in the Baltic, feel free to ask.

But Symphony's arrival will get the biggest press for the new terminal. I guess that's why we're doing immigration in Port Canaveral - to avoid bad press.

In my booking confirmation Royal clearly stated that there would be no reminders for final payment so I planned accordingly - put my own reminders in the calendar and paid with a bit of error margin to account for possible transfer delays. I can't see any fault with Royal here, their terms and conditions clearly state they're allowed to keep the deposit if you "cancel" with x days left - not paying the final payment equals cancelling. Blaming Royal for your oversight seems a bit unwarranted. If you need help keeping up with your payments you can always use a TA.

Oh my, you do have a talent to part people with their money. First the dslr and corresponding photography courses and now I'll have to look into Alaska cruises rather sooner than later ? Pics and blog are brilliant as always! Btw is the accumulation of bear photos a nod to a naughty bear in a certain FB group?

Guess it depends on how you do it... I'll force hubby to do all photo related tasks and only do the writing ? Gotta give something back to the board that answered all my stupid newbie questions... and caused hubby to spend €€€€ on a camera, equipment and photo seminars for both of us to make good use of it... I'm looking at you Twangster ? Hope you get well soon! ? Maybe you can do Rome the 2nd time around? Would be a pity to miss it, but going there while sick doesn't sound enjoyable either, especially if the weather is anything like Germany.

I experienced two weeks of this after our last cruise (Mediterranean on AIDAperla). Haven't found a thing to help against, it just went away eventually. On the 3 other cruises we had before that I never had a problem, not on the ship and not on land - even though I got pretty ill on one of them (bronchitis that developed into pneumonia). I'm guessing it depends on the way the ship handles the waves, this one was rolling quite a bit as if they didn't use the stabilizers - even though the sea looked pretty calm.

Generally yes, tipping is common for waiters/bar tenders, taxi drivers, tour guides and roomservice. It's mostly a concept of bringing the amount up to a round figure. Anywhere between 5-10% is fine. And if you get bad service -> don't tip at all. Also, don't expect to get better service just because you tipped, this is not the US ? Of course, there's an exception to everything: if you ever find yourself in a beer tent on Munich's October fest - better tip generously and regularly order another round of drinks - or you'll be asked to leave because the waitress can get more money from a new customer ?

Actually, it's both. The French are very proud of their language, but they also avoid speaking English because most aren't very good at it. If I start out in French they'll usually switch to English (or German in Alsace) whenever the conversation reaches a dead end. Guess my French is pitiful nowadays ?

Coming from a German with an extensive history of travelling Europe - mostly by motorhome: Whatever destination you decide on - English will always get you through. Non-touristy regions of France or rural areas in Eastern Europe can be quite a different story - but you won't visit those on a cruise so language isn't really a factor for your choice. The ease of getting from airport to port also isn't much of a factor - apart from Rome (Civitavecchia) and to a lesser extent Southhampton, it's easy to do by public transportation. If you want more convenience, you can always pre-book a shuttle service online. Another thing you don't need to worry about: limiting your choice of cruises because of the cities you might want to visit pre or post cruise. If you're not picky avoid the traps when booking, flying is dead cheap in Europe and it doesn't take that much time. Depending on your port choice you won't have a direct flight anyway - you could do a stopover. Amsterdam or London are well worth it, Frankfurt is so-so. So what should be the deciding factor? Well, what kind of cruise do you want? If you plan to throw a few beach days in, the Mediterranean in the summer will be your best option. The Med cruises also offer much concerning culture, history and architecture. Western Med usually has the bigger and better-known cities, Eastern Med (Adriatic coast) also offers some nice scenery. Not sure about Royal, but with European cruise lines Western Med is usually the least expensive. Baltic cruises are also full of history, culture and architecture, but with more variety than the Med. Personally, I’d take a Baltic cruise over a Med cruise any day, but you might take your chances with the weather. On the other hand, if you’re lucky you could experience St. Petersburg’s white nights. If you’re more into nature and landscapes, a Norwegian Fjord cruise offers breathtaking views with a few lovely – albeit small – cities thrown in. This cruise is definetly on my bucket list, I’ve already toured Norway by motorhome and want to see the Fjords again but from a different perspecitve. Only downsides: coldest weather in Europe and these cruises are quite expensive. And now we move on to my least favourite options: UK/Ireland or Western Europe (Atlantic) cruises. Don’t get me wrong, there’s much to see in these regions and Ireland is my favourite destination – it’s just better suited for a land vacation. There isn’t much to do and see in many of these ports and the real destination is a long coach or railway trip away. Common examples: Southampton (London), Le Havre (Paris), Zeebrugge (Brussels), Cherbourg. I just realised that Royal also offers cruises to the Canaries. They usually offer good weather and beautiful landscapes, but not that much on the accounts of culture or architecture – they’re very much off the beaten track. While I thoroughly enjoyed our Canaries cruise, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first European cruise – you might want to keep it in mind when you reach the point of ‚been there done that‘ in Europe. If you’ve made it to the end of this plethora of text, feel free to ask if you’ve got any questions.

Why not - you can always cancel and rebook later if the price drops (better check if this is applicable in your home country). I've done it a few times already when the currency exchange rates were altered in our favor.

We're in a forward indoor cabin on deck 8 for that one, so we can also report how bad it really gets ?

Last time we were in that area was about 10 years ago - back then I didn't like Le Havre. I'd recommend Honfleur as a cute artsy town that isn't too far away (30 minutes). Rouen is also quite beautiful but already an hour away. Weather permitting you could just visit the "beach" La Plage du Havre. It's more pebbles than sand but has a few restaurants.

From what I've gathered, Royal usually uses Barcelona as the first port. so sail-away etc should be based on this. Currently Symphony is doing cruises from Barcelona with interporting in Rome - based on the comments in CC there aren't that many people who are boarding in Rome. If you do an excursion in Rome you won't see much difference to a non-interporting cruise.

When we booked (via the website) the documents explicitly stated that there will be no reminder for final payment - fine with me, I just planned accordingly. If this information was included in your documents, I don't see Royal at fault. But happy you got your problems solved anyway.

Apart from possibly a few grandchildren you'll likely be half of the normal river cruiser age ? At least on the Rhine, Moselle or Danube cruises - not sure about the French ones. Personally, I've never done a river cruise but we regularly stumble across them when we do short trips by motorhome in the summer.

On our AIDA cruise from Barcelona they didn't care for our extension cord (3 wire, European plug) or our 4 wire USB charger. I'll also try to bring adapters to also use the US sockets.

In the beginning, we were creatures of habit and cruised with TUI cruises three times. I like the laid back atmosphere and long port times. Regarding itineraries, we're the total opposite - repeating itineraries is our pet hate. Our usual vacation is by motorhome, so we've already seen quite a bit of Europe - no reason to cruise there. The only European cruise we're still planning is a Norwegian fjords cruise - we've already seen it by motorhome but would like to have the different perspective from the ship. This type of thinking is what led us to use cruises to try new ships - the TA for Symphony was chosen because we thought it was stupid to do a Mediterranean B2B to have enough time to fully experience the ship. Our post-TA-cruise in the Caribbean with Princess was chosen for the itinerary. If we like the Caribbean (and if I don't suffer a mental breakdown from the intercontinental flight home ?) we might be back for more Caribbean cruises - and possibly an Alaska cruise later. But I guess once we've seen what there is to see we have to think about different ways of cruising. Maybe get the motorhome to the Med, try out a new ship just for the ship experience and follow up with 2 weeks motorhome vacation to really experience the country.

They can always sell it to Pullmantur as they're the parent company. And I hear Thomson (Marella Cruises) is short a ship as TUI Cruises kept the old Mein Schiff 2...

They have. I don't mind - I wanted to buy non-alcholic anyways. After 12 nights with the ultimate drink package on the TA I don't think I'll need any more alcohol

Barcelona: Hop on hop off is a good way to get a thorough picture. If you want to visit Gaudi attractions (Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Casa Batllo) buy your tickets in advance, otherwise your whole trip will be queing in lines. Looks like the visitor limit in Parc Guell will be permanent. Another option: just walk down Las Ramblas and get lost in the maze that's Barri Gotic. Malaga: Alhambra obviously. Mallorca: hop on hop off is an option - or just take a shuttle to the city center and visit the Cathedral. The train ride to Soller is also lovely. Nice: Don't remember anything about the city but Monte Carlo or (in the other direction) Antibes or Cannes aren't that far away. Antibes is the typical French seaside resort, Monte Carlo is more posh. Haven't been to the other ports but I've worked in London for some time, so if you've questions about The City, I'd be happy to help.

Fingers crossed that it's only sea legs. After our AIDAprima cruise (7 nights) I was landsick for 2 weeks. Yeah, unfortunately landsickness is a thing. No matter what I did, the dizziness and nausea wouldn't stop - I thought I was going crazy. Did ruin our post-cruise stay in Barcelona ? On another topic: I really enjoyed your blog. Your photos could rival that Twangster bot