3trinitythree

This is a no win situation for Royal.  The lawyer may have made what appears to be bizarre statements to those of us who know better, but in the court of public opinion,  most people have no idea that those windows are blatantly obvious when open and that it's not in a children's play area.  It's not going to look good if Royal fights this family and I believe the lawyer knows exactly what he's doing to extract the biggest payout.
I can't help but compare this incident to the family who lost their toddler son to an alligator attack at Disney's Grand Floridian and I have the upmost respect for them and how they handled it.  They did not immediately hire a publicity seeking lawyer threatening to sue and demanding answers from Disney through the media.  They quietly worked with Disney to reach a settlement and created a foundation to help children and honor their son's memory.  A stark difference with how this current tragedy is being handled so far, but we all deal with things differently.  

Got back yesterday off the Independence of the Seas, weather and ports were beautiful. Service onboard from some wasn’t. I think this cruise is the one that’s made my mind up to cruise with another company next year.  
Started off as soon as I stepped in my room, to be find an old sock underneath the chair, a plastic dog toy (don’t ask me why it’s onboard?!?), empty tissue box, and in the draws things ranging from hair clips, leaflets and bathroom side still had smears from what looked like toothpaste. (Photo included) On complaining we were told to leave the room so a thorough clean could take place. Finally rectified later that day, I then found underwear and leaflets from a cruise in March ‘19, stuck behind a drawer. No further problems thereafter though.
Dining room waiters are my main bugbear of the cruise, never have I had a head waiter insisting we return each night, after having a meal in Chops on night 2 we told him we had Izumi and another Chops meal arranged for later that cruise, told him which nights which he was ok with. What was strange was his attitude towards us on night 3, stating if we didn’t return we could lose our table, never heard of that before. The constant asking if everything was ok with our meal was also annoying, I understand they need to ask, but both waiters and head asking individually with each course to me is excessive. Even after saying so, it still persisted. The icing on the cake though was the final evening, with the head waiter phoning and asking if we were to dine that evening in the MDR. 
I also found the food on offer rather disappointing, very much the same being served time and time again. Izumi and Chops though were exceptionally good, excellent food and fantastic service. As were  Sorrento’s and the bar staff around the ship. 
Not personally doing any trips with Royal due to the scandalous prices they charge, I had no experience of the trips, chatting to several people onboard though they didn’t seem to be well received, hearing of coaches with no air-con, rude guides refusing elderly people two minutes to purchase a drink, and generally lack of time allowed at the location when they arrived, and even one bus taking off early. Spoke to a family on the train back from Rome who turned up at the coach drop on/off location to find it gone, so they had to make arrangements of their own to get back. 
Final moan was the cruise director and the entertainment, Joff has left to work with P&O and now its someone called Cuddy, and wow he’s awful. So, so loud and seems to try too hard to get laughs, felt very forced and unfunny. As for the entertainment the first week or so, some nights didn’t have a show at all, and when there was it was in general poor comedians. The royal dancers and singers in Grease and Once upon a Time were excellent, as were the ice dancers as always. 
I’ve exclusively cruised with Royal and I’ve seen the standards drop year on year, and I feel disappointed with this cruise. We are now looking at P&O for next year, perhaps a new company, ship and expectations is what we need to reignite our love for cruising. Guess only time will tell. 

Got back yesterday off the Independence of the Seas, weather and ports were beautiful. Service onboard from some wasn’t. I think this cruise is the one that’s made my mind up to cruise with another company next year.  
Started off as soon as I stepped in my room, to be find an old sock underneath the chair, a plastic dog toy (don’t ask me why it’s onboard?!?), empty tissue box, and in the draws things ranging from hair clips, leaflets and bathroom side still had smears from what looked like toothpaste. (Photo included) On complaining we were told to leave the room so a thorough clean could take place. Finally rectified later that day, I then found underwear and leaflets from a cruise in March ‘19, stuck behind a drawer. No further problems thereafter though.
Dining room waiters are my main bugbear of the cruise, never have I had a head waiter insisting we return each night, after having a meal in Chops on night 2 we told him we had Izumi and another Chops meal arranged for later that cruise, told him which nights which he was ok with. What was strange was his attitude towards us on night 3, stating if we didn’t return we could lose our table, never heard of that before. The constant asking if everything was ok with our meal was also annoying, I understand they need to ask, but both waiters and head asking individually with each course to me is excessive. Even after saying so, it still persisted. The icing on the cake though was the final evening, with the head waiter phoning and asking if we were to dine that evening in the MDR. 
I also found the food on offer rather disappointing, very much the same being served time and time again. Izumi and Chops though were exceptionally good, excellent food and fantastic service. As were  Sorrento’s and the bar staff around the ship. 
Not personally doing any trips with Royal due to the scandalous prices they charge, I had no experience of the trips, chatting to several people onboard though they didn’t seem to be well received, hearing of coaches with no air-con, rude guides refusing elderly people two minutes to purchase a drink, and generally lack of time allowed at the location when they arrived, and even one bus taking off early. Spoke to a family on the train back from Rome who turned up at the coach drop on/off location to find it gone, so they had to make arrangements of their own to get back. 
Final moan was the cruise director and the entertainment, Joff has left to work with P&O and now its someone called Cuddy, and wow he’s awful. So, so loud and seems to try too hard to get laughs, felt very forced and unfunny. As for the entertainment the first week or so, some nights didn’t have a show at all, and when there was it was in general poor comedians. The royal dancers and singers in Grease and Once upon a Time were excellent, as were the ice dancers as always. 
I’ve exclusively cruised with Royal and I’ve seen the standards drop year on year, and I feel disappointed with this cruise. We are now looking at P&O for next year, perhaps a new company, ship and expectations is what we need to reignite our love for cruising. Guess only time will tell. 

Joff Eaton who was for years on the Independence has left to work with P&O if what I was told from Guest Relations staff to be true, also heard from some the reasons why, but not sure whether to believe it. Regardless of the reasons, he’s left a very big hole behind that the new CD just can’t fill. 

DON'T pay for the thrill waterpark...it is way overbooked and overcrowded!  We arrived at 9 am, stood in line a half hour for a slide, then in line 2 hours for the tall red slide, went to lunch, stood in line for another slide and park was shut down for inclement weather. RC refunded 37%, but we ended up still paying $40 for each person (X 5 people = $200) to ride on 2 slides!!!!!! The remainder of island is beautiful...don't waste your money on the waterpark!

Yeah, I get that they are a business and that these short runs make money, but is it really what people want? I'm frustrated that all of the amped ships are going to itineraries that only Americans can sail.
As a non-American, it feels that my options are getting gradually more limited.

Doesn't just seem to be UK that the prices jumped either.
I've been keeping an eye on a 2020 sailing from Barcelona and this morning when I looked at it again the price jumped up higher than I had seen it before. At the start of the week it had dropped to, can only assume that the announcement to move Indy out of the UK in 2020 has prompted the price jump. Either that or its very very coincidental
The price for the sailings for Anthem for 2020 are just insane. I'd love to go back on but I just cant swing that amount. Big jump from when she was here last time

Good...glad to see this. This is the only way Royal or any company will ever listen to customers..by taking their money elsewhere.

Saw an influx of new members on a P&O FB group I'm in yesterday, all saying they're looking at P&O cruises to replace their cancelled Indy bookings. 

Yes - saw the CocoCay post. Did they not realise that that would infuriate people further? Not the best way to treat a loyal market, especially since many can't fly to the USA for a cruise to CocoCay for a variety of reasons. I love Royal, but I did lose some respect for them yesterday. It's bad to remove a ship, but the way that it was handled moved the situation from bad to atrocious.

Just noticed on Twitter that they’ve told those who had a cruise cancelled have been given a 25% cruise credit towards another cruise. However, people have said cruises for 2020 on the Anthem have increased up to £500 pp since the announcement of the Indy no longer coming here in 2020. Giving with one hand whilst taking it straight back with the other hand. Disgusting behaviour tbh

Just noticed on Twitter that they’ve told those who had a cruise cancelled have been given a 25% cruise credit towards another cruise. However, people have said cruises for 2020 on the Anthem have increased up to £500 pp since the announcement of the Indy no longer coming here in 2020. Giving with one hand whilst taking it straight back with the other hand. Disgusting behaviour tbh

They didn't reduce capacity in the UK during the recession 10 years ago, even though Indy was their flagship at the time that the recession began. Might be some food for thought.
And if Brexit was going to be as devastating as you predicted, why did RCI even consider having Indy back in 2020?

Sorry but that’s simply not true. I’m in the UK, I work for a large organisation and do not know anyone, including myself that has changed the way they book holidays (vacations) due to Brexit. 

I fail to see how Brexit is the reason Rccl is pulling Indy out of SH. I've been cruising since 2007 & have only cruised Rccl & Norwegian. Since 2014, I have noticed how not only has Royal prices been increasing fairly steady by no huge amount, imo; but, the cost of many of the onboarding prices as well as reductions in perks & the pushing of products & packaging.
Now I certainly contribute this to their Amp-Up investments. They have known long before 2018 of their Amping investments plans & have been pricing according in increments. That's the price of paying for Mega-ships, new & Amped private islands, amped ships live Mariner/Navigator and more to come, as well as the New Icon LNG technology, plus whatever bells & whistles that comes with all of that.
As far as Indy moving...it simple to me, given, Indy(a Freedom class ship) is a warm weather ship compared to Anthem which is built for either climate. Sales are truly down in the SH arena, because of the exorbitant prices, given credence that both ships currently in that market, at Rccl cost, is not feasible...so one ship had to be moved to booming region that hope to cash in on the new amp private island...like sales of some of the recent amped ship.
Rccl will continue this business model, because of the huge investments made on their overall Amped-Up Program...higher cost and nickle & diming is to be expected; and, as long as they continue to roll out the mega-ships(170,000+ ton), don't expect them to be customer friendly anytime soon. We all are paying for the latest & greatest and until Norwegian, Carnival, MSC, Virgin start rolling & increasing the competition for the latest & greatest, Rccl will continue cornering the market.

Completely agree that Brexit isn’t affecting bookings, more likely it’s  the price of the cruises that are being asked for RCI. 

Let’s hope I can avoid those triple calls. Seems like even though they think it can handle it, I’d bet it becomes a mess. 

Completely agree that Brexit isn’t affecting bookings, more likely it’s  the price of the cruises that are being asked for RCI. 

I'm not here to talk politics, but I can't really see how Brexit would affect ship bookings. 

At this rate, I would be better moving to the States! 

@twangster
It has nothing to do with Brexit. It was due to them having extremely high prices and not enough people booking. 

Really is a disgusting move to be honest. Seems this CocoCay is going to be rammed 

I've only booked  2 RC cruises but have gone with Guarantee rooms both times.  Last year it was an Ocean View Guarantee and when we were finally allocated a room we were initially disappointed to find it was on Deck 2.  However, I was actually really pleased with the room in the end.  The location was really quiet and there was nothing above us either.  We barely felt the ship move and I'd have no hesitation in having a room on deck 2 again.  This year we went to book and would have been happy taking the risk with another OV guarantee room but bizarrely, the balcony guarantee room was cheaper.  We were allocated our room a few weeks ago and we've got deck 9.  From the plans it doesn't look like it's in a bad location either but we'll see.
For me, it seems to have been worth the risk so far. 

Very, very bad idea.
Complete slap in the face to the UK market. And we get stuck with the cr*p Anthem instead. There go my plans to do a Scandinavia cruise on ID.
Which ship to sail now?

Very true. Can’t believe all the tiny little things, and bigger perks that have disappeared since I first cruised with RCCL 13 years ago. Trouble with me is although I’m tempted to try another liner I always end up booking with who I know.