bobroo

The menus, the procedures, the formula, these recipes, the choice of ingredients-- all come from Miami. The reality is there is very, very little a F & B manager, head chef, or a hotel director can do. Essentially this discussion about the MDR is not an onboard issue. Adding to what @WAAAYTOOO so correctly stated above; being angry, raising your voice, showing frustration, throwing a temper tantrum-- will get you absolutely nowhere with Royal Caribbean. This includes the MDR, Guest Services, shore excursions, security, the casino, or even your stateroom attendant. I'll go so far as to say being demanding and frustrated will put you in a WORSE position with them.

It pains my heart that Royal Caribbean has decided to consciously make every MDR a Costco of the Seas.

Thanks for sharing @smokeybandit

If I am going to Chefs Table I am absolutely going to wear a jacket. If I am going to go on a trip and try to blend in with how European I can travel afterwards....I am leaving a bunch of clothes behind on the cruise ship. Jackets, bathing suits, formalwear, shoes, and likely a large piece of luggage. Disposable to me, but the ship will take them and perhaps hand them out to folks whose luggage did not arrive in time on some future sailing. As courteous as it is to others to dress appropriately for Chefs Table, it's equally courteous to tell the stateroom attendant of the intentionally left behind items.

@CPCruiser4Life BFH-- tradesman code speak meaning Big F***'ing Hammer. Often the code said in front of unassuming customers when you don't want to disclose that instead of using tactile expertise you are just going to maul something using a hammer. Back to your connecting room issue. As I recommended in another recent thread, the interior door of connecting rooms are not as functional as they may seem. I absolutely recommend getting two adjoining balconies that have a removable partition instead. There is no uncharge for this common balcony stateroom feature. You'll just need to do the legwork of finding two available balconies on your sailing and then YouTube, crusiedeckplans.com, or other internet search the specific rooms to hopefully find that the balcony portion between them is in fact removable. Royal does not disclose this information on deck plans and I truly don't believe if you were to call them that their customer service reps have a resource that would definitively tell them. You should be YouTubing your future staterooms regardless, you never know what informative details you might come across.

Is the code for these cabins BFH? <snort>

I really dislike that I chose MTD and after a night or two they try real hard to corral you into a reservation.

To expand a little bit. These types of excursions typically have their arrival time at LAX made up when all the participants are seated on the bus. The person with the earliest flight time will determine what time the bus gets to LAX. And sometimes….even though the excursion states “for flights after 4pm only”…. sometimes people on the bus have flights earlier than what they were supposed to; kinda like a chair hog or a person who feels they can board the ship at 10am no matter when their appointment is, or a person who brings a corded electrical device aboard and despite knowing full well why those items are not permitted, because it got through security; they use it in their stateroom anyway. But let’s say the bus drops off at 4pm; you will not be able to check into your flight, drop off luggage, or go through TSA security usually till 3 hours before the flight departure. That leaves about 4 hours to kill, not in the good part of the airport where there are many bars, restaurants, or terminals to get 10,000 steps in. It’s 4 hours at baggage claim or the check in desks. I’ll tell you right now, LAX is a very, very undersized airport for the amount of traffic it receives on a daily basis. It’s bursting at the seams. Once permitted to the real part of the airport, yes there is bars, restaurants, and furniture to sit on— but those kiosks, vendors, restaurants, and bars close. I don’t know what time, but 11 o’clock sounds really late. I would recommend buying a daily United Club pass for $60 and getting stinkyfaced drunk at their bar. Finally, if this flight leaves at 11pm; after time in the air, the hour it takes to use the bathroom and collect your luggage, the time it takes to get from the destination airport to your home, AND the time change as you travel east—- what time does somebody actually open their front door??? A person can say I’ll take a nap or I’ll sleep on the plane. We are all adults here and we all know it is one thing to fall asleep on a couch, it is a complete other to go to bed on one. Los Angeles is a wonderful city, embrace it. Treat it like it is one of your port stops. Make it a part of your vacation, it has so much to offer. Don’t dismiss it like it’s Port Canaveral.

I think you need a much earlier flight or a hotel room and a flight the next day. It's a vacation, not the army.

I may be mistaken but I'm certain the Freestyle Machines have a special place here on the Blog. I believe the news of them coming onboard was the first exclusive the Blog received from Royal and marked a dramatic change from being a random internet fanzine to having important inside connections. Another soda/ mixer oddity about Royal: If I go to any random bar on any random ship, what are the odds the mixer for my drink comes out of a gun or is poured from a container I could have purchased from a local grocery store (professionally called pre-mix containers)? 50-50? Likely less? Why is this? Is it for easier inventory audits? I think we all know Royal it is against Royal's $$$ interest to have fast bar service. And, all that trash; even though it is recyclable, stands in the way of the Save The Waves initiative, no? But man o' man it's a lot of effort and man hours for something that you already have the infrastructure for (professionally called a post mix system). Incidentally. those boxes each hold 5 gallons of syrup but yield 30 gallons of product. A box of syrup costs about $60. The equivalent 30 gallons of Coke is 13 1/3 cases of 24 cans. 13 cases of Coke purchased from my local grocery store costs $166.

Your vacation does not start when your first foot hits deck 5, your vacation actually starts long before that. Chill.

Reminder: there is always a step up to enter the bathroom of your cabin.

When you chose a GTY cabin, just be humble that you are on the boat. It will be impossible to be disappointed.

Couple things about connecting rooms, Don't assume that the door to your secret passageway will be a standard width. Many times they can be very narrow. And, with cruise lines preoccupation that ANY open area in a stateroom floor plan means that they are going fill it with a piece of cumbersome furniture, don't think for a second that your connecting room door is just going to open and close. They don't, there is always something in the way. As the OP mentioned, balcony rooms with the divider open are the way to go. It is well worth your time to research if the balcony divider can be opened between two proposed cabins. You will appreciate the open balcony so much you'll be wanting to do it on future sailings with neighbors you know but are less intimate with.

An 11pm flight is "Waaaytooo" late for a flight home! It's a vacation, not the army.

A person can only be listed on the ships manifest once. As the sailing date gets closer and the manifest becomes really important, trust me; even though Royal's IT Dept leaves a lot to be desired there are many checks and balances that will discover that one person is listed more than once. A big one would be when the manifest is submitted to the State Department. The best way to take advantage lower cost rooms as a solo traveler is to book earlier; as in, when new sailings are first released. Finally, a bit of advice; chase experiences, don't chase points.

I am not enthusiastic at all from what I have heard so far about the format of the Royal Beach Club, it's just not my kinda jam. Mr. Bayley sounds sympathetic to the woes and shortcomings of Nassau but I don't think he is sincere. The crappier Nassau remains, the more appetizing the Royal Beach Club will sound to 2,750 passengers on a daily basis. There is a lot the head of Royal Caribbean International could suggest and organize (without spending any of Royal's $$$) to make Nassau a much better place, but I'm certain we will not see anything like that out of him. Making Nassau a desirable cruising destination is a very simple problem to solve. There are many, many municipal examples to take guidance from. Instead of a CEO, I'm sure a passenger in a inside cabin on deck 2 knows the formula if the Bahamian government were at all interested.

The goal is to hook up for lunch, right? To prevent a lot of confusion between the 3 cruise terminals, arrival times, last minute changes by the harbor master, and passengers reluctance to really dig into their cruise documents or use Google Maps; I would avoid all that and suggest you pick a unique, family run restaurant downtown. A Casa Mission, La Choza, Pancho’s Backyard, or a La Mission kinda place. The food will be better and the plan will be a whole lot easier to execute.

I am 100% certain the upper levels of Miami review what is posted here daily, and from every division of the company. There is a certain calm, subtlety that is part of the culture of the upper echelons of the company. They notice and take notes of many, many things but they seldom acknowledge that they have done so in any way. It is entirely possible they are the authors of random or dumb questions that pop up here from time to time.

Pretty much complete neglect. Think of it as Royal Caribbean’s’ forgotten ugly cousin, Super 8 of the Seas. Enchantment has none of the bells and whistles Royal touts in its marketing, it’s Wow! was exhausted long before Royal even started its Wow! campaign. It is very much a 1995 time warp. Port intensive Mediterranean sailings are the best place for EoS. On those types of itineraries the ship and it’s amenities are not the focus and have little importance vacation wise. If Royal wants to keep her in the fleet, I think it would be best if it were in the Med 12 months out of the year. And if that is not sustainable or achieving the margins Miami wants, then full steam into a beachhead in Turkey it goes.

I think the Blog needs to dispatch a roving reporter to Galveston. Not so much to report on the new cruise terminal or Allure or whatever... but more so for a report on the gas stations. Could going to the gas station before a cruise really be all that it's hyped up to be? And, I also mentioned another gas station, Rudy's. Is it possible the 'Q from a place that sells gasoline and quarts of 10w30 really be a worthy destination for a meal? How is it possible that a couple certain gas stations be so highly recommended for everyone who cruises out of Galveston?

Awe man! Any points I was making by the Republic of Texas thing have immediately been taken away! I am such an idiot!!!!

Couple other quick things. What I wrote above works for ANY port, just change the name to where it is you are going. I know it is not always possible but I encourage everyone to make the most of the pre cruise day. Arrive early! Explore that city and treat it as though it a port stop on your cruise. It is indeed your first day of vacation. When selecting a hotel, location is the big determining factor. Being a part of your favorite hotel chain that you accrue points so that at some point you get a free night is also big. Price? Price is about the 3rd or 4th thing I look at. I want to determine the VALUE of staying at a particular place. Yes, cost is an important factor; but only in relation to its' value. If you don't look at your pre cruise this way, then you are going to know every Super 8 by every airport really well and know nothing about the people and culture of your pre cruise cities. Finally, all this research is a part of your cruise. It is a part of the fun. It makes you a better traveler and a better person.

I'm sure you are going to get a long list of responses from El Cheapo by the airport to an extravagant Victorian BnB on the coast. Certainly many will chime in with RCB links to All Things Galveston. My answer to your question is that your are asking the wrong question. You should be asking "I've never been to Texas, what things are there between Houston and Galveston that are uniquely Texas? What things should a visitor not miss? How do I enhance my vacation by taking a travel day and injecting a brief taste of the Republic of Texas into it?" Now you are getting somewhere! Time to open your internet browser to Google Maps and start researching and plotting every Johnson Space Center, Schlitterbahn, Whataburger, Rudy's BBQ, the boardwalk in Kemah, Buckee's, the Houston Astros home schedule, and Moody Gardens you can find. Truth is Houston/ Galveston is a goldmine of enriching pre cruise things to do and see. Which of those things fit into your schedule? Which are most appealing to you and your family? Which ones do you not necessarily need to make the biggest commitment to? Meaning: things seldom run like a train schedule; what if we are too tired, it's raining, or it's just too damn hot? 'Cause tickets to the opera that sounded like a great idea might turn out to be just too much. Where your pre cruise hotel should be is close to the Plan A's you've selected with a bunch of ulterior Plan B's close by. Personally, the lousy $100 Royal charges for some time at the Johnson Space Center and drop off at IAH post cruise is well worth whatever you have to do to make your return flight at 5:00pm or later. I've found it best to rent a pick up truck at the airport and drop it off the next day in Galveston. Even though it's an airport rental and you get whacked again by are not dropping it off at the same location; it's the path of least resistance and makes a lot of sense. Speaking of pick up trucks, a fun game I like to play is counting the pick up trucks on a stretch of road or say, over the next ten minutes of driving. Brush up on exponential notation before you leave home, you'll need it.

I can't speak for everyone but I am self centered and greedy when it comes to purple or yellow Royal Caribbean chips, no matter what ship I am on. Royal Caribbean plaques???? Don't even go there.