CrimsonCruiser

10 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

I tried that and it said “you cannot use a previous password. Go figure. 

same to me. I just capitalized a letter so I didn't have to try to remember something new  lol

Hitting the pool as your first stop when boarding is actually a tip @Matt recommends almost all of the time.

I've never done it - something about being wet while waiting for my room to open just doesn't sit right with my brain - but it is a great time to hit the pools because most people either don't pack a swimsuit or think like me and don't want to dive in right away.

I love watching these in time lapse with funny carnival music

Also...wonder what happened on that MSC?NCL? that started to leave then went back before Oasis left.

I  had the same issue and just changed my password. Now I'm in and all is well. Hope they fix whatever it is that's not recognizing perfectly valid users though....

14 hours ago, Tyffni said:

Hello.  We’re about to take our first cruise where we have to fly to it, so laundry is a thought (luggage weight and minimizing packing).  The problem is that I’m picky about my clothes.

1. I did see one picture from someone where their clothes were destroyed.  Has that happened to many?

2. Do you have any control? For example, I would prefer they hang dry my jeans, is that an option?

Thanks!

I can't comment too much on the laundry as we've not yet had any issues but we don't really send anything too fragile out either.

BUT I can comment on being picky about clothes, flying, and having to pack wisely. Being from Chicago where the weather can 100% give me all 4 seasons in a single day AND hating to be cold I always like to have options with whatever I wear, so I generally try to pack light layers and dresses over things that require multiple components to make an outfit. That said, I do still pack some separates as well and try to have a bottom that can go with at least 2 of the tops I'm packing. And second is packing cubes. While they don't magically make things weigh less, they do help a lot in getting the best use of space in your luggage. I've attached a photo of one of my last piles in their packing cubes. Rolled and tightly nestled and for a 7-nighter lol

Theron, I hope it helps to realize that what's more likely is that the stateroom attendant cleaned the safe (as is their job) after you left the room and the officers weren't able to locate them at the time when they were searching. Turnaround day is hectic, fast and very very busy and the stateroom attendants are in and out of rooms and staff areas like crazy getting rooms stripped and re-set for the next passengers.

Please don't think the worst of the attendant just because the safe was empty and instead file a lost and found asap. The cash may be gone (it is after all hard to keep tabs on whose cash is whose even in the best of circumstances) but I'm sure the documents and wallet and other non-loose items will be returned to you.

On 4/8/2024 at 8:28 AM, Fairwoods said:

Help!!!! I left my engagement ring on the odyssey of the seas yesterday!!!! I left it on a table in two70 lounge and disembarked yesterday. My wedding is soon and that was my ring for it! How can I get help or answers? I already filled out the lost and found info but I’m so stressed about it 

Filling out the lost and found with as much detailed information as possible as soon after debarkation is your best bet. BUT, it is important to note, that even if it's located quickly, it can take some time (up to a month I think is what I've heard) for the company that handles Lost and Found items to actually drop it in the mail. So, depending on how soon is "soon" regarding your wedding, you may want to prepare yourself that it won't come in time.

For the sailing this Aug 25

2 hours ago, Curt From Canada said:

My soulmate and I were on the Antarctic leg of this cruise in January. It was definitely a Royal Caribbean style cruise, but with quite a few differences that made for an even better experience. First your questions:

1). Laundry:  Only World Cruisers have access and it was a special (very small) area that was created just for them. It did not cause any confrontations , but the scheduling of time in there was an ongoing “process” each week. I do not know the details, but the World Cruisers (and Royal Caribbean) needed to be totally organized to make the scheduling work. 
2). Crew Contracts: They seemed to be just like regular cruises. Crew rotates in and out on normal schedules. Our favourite bartender was going to rotate out and then get back on to Serenade for the last few legs of the World Cruise.  One of the senior Food & Beverage Mgrs rotated out just after our leg and should be back on the ship soon. Staggered rotations for everyone (as usual). 
3). Provisioning & Port Issues: This is a great question. I did not sense any issues at all, but I did sense a big advantage … variety. The food varied noticeably as we moved from one region to the next.  I had the best Filet Mignon at sea while docked (for two days) in Buenos Aires AND I was in the MDR.  The entertainment was much more varied and plentiful.  More variety of enrichment lecturers and topics.  More variety of climates (93+ deg down to 30ish)

We seriously looked at another leg, but could not make the timing work. We could never be away for the entire cruise, but would look at other interesting legs if they ever do again. 

Curt from Canada

1 - There was scheduling?! I guess that makes sense considering how many people would be trying to use it at any given time but wow that seems like a bit of a hassle....

3 - so glad to hear the food was changed up and delicious. I definitely did think they would have to switch up the menus (one can only have so much "royal night" lol) and it sounds like they planned ahead based on the stops.

2 hours ago, KJones said:

My guesses:

There are multiple laundry areas used by the hotel services, I would say maybe on every deck that is primarily staterooms (if not two small ones each deck - one aft / forward). It would be pretty easy to convert one of these into the guest laundry room, without impacting the crew members' own laundry facilities in the crew area. I can't imagine them having crew bring their personal laundry up to the stateroom decks, or sending guests down to the crew decks.

I think I recall reading something about switching out crew as normal. They might just arrive/depart from more varied ports.

The ship likely has laid out of a schedule of how frequently they need food / water / gas etc and have coordinated with local vendors along the itinerary to have the ship restocked while its docked in the various ports.

It never dawned on me that there would be laundry facilities on more than the lower decks. I know I've seen the rooms filled with towels and sheets up on deck 10, but I just assumed they were staging areas to fill the carts....now I wonder if they machines in there....

Good to know about the contracts. It would have been a more interesting social experiment to see how the crew got on if they were stuck with the same people for 9 straight months!

So now that the rabid interest in the world cruise has calmed down, I'm curious about some things and wonder if anyone knows or can guess on them:

Passenger laundry facilities: it came to my attention that Serenade offers coin laundry facilities for passengers on the world cruise (not sure if for all passengers or just people doing the whole length) and I wonder how this came about. Obviously, we all know that the only non-industrial laundry on board is in the crew area for the crew. If passengers are using this does this mean crew have to compete with passengers for limited space? Did Royal build a second laundry area for passengers? did the crew one become a passenger one and the crew was given free pick-up drop off laundry?

Crew contracts: 9-months is a pretty typical crew contract so I'm curious if Royal brought on new contracts specifically for this sailing or if they are still switching people in and out like normal.

Food, water and gas: on a standard week long cruise, the ship is stocked on turn around day. but even the segments are in 3 month periods...so when and where are they stocking up on food, water and gas, and where are they dumping the black and brown water that can't be flushed back into the ocean?

These questions have been bopping around in my head since day one and I was hoping the algorithm on TikTok would have brought me to a crew member who could answer...but it hasn't so now you guys get to deal with it lol.

Bonus question: I have family on an Oceania world cruise right now, and she mentioned that, as the ship diverts to avoid war areas and piracy, they have a couple days where the passengers are asked to conserve water and some foodstuffs until the ship can restock (limiting showers, not as robust menus). Now obviously Serenade is bigger than any Oceania ship but, also curious if anyone has heard of Serenade doing the same?

I think you should feel lucky that they found the items. If you search lost and found on even this forum, you'll see that more often than not, the items aren't ever found, since turnaround is so fast and hectic. They were found, you have proof of that in email and now they need to get to you. be patient, I'm sure they're coming.

I don't do the seminar ones, but I do like to go to the stores in port. So far, I've never been pressured to look at anything. I go up to a person and say "I'm here for the charm" and they dig one out of a box and hand it to me without any pressure or upsell. Even if I linger and admire the other shinies, they tend not to bother me.

But it is just a charm with a loop to go on a bracelet you should already have. I have so many at this point that this year, Im planning to take them on board and see if I can find a "gold cut by inch" to make into a bracelet for them

It's not a cabana but we did the Beach Beds at Breezy Bay last year. I thought I'd hate them but they were quite comfortable and nice to chill on. Plus you still get two chairs under an umbrella, two floating mats and a cooler of water. The curtains close if you want some semi-privacy. We enjoyed them well enough, and it was very nice that the bed we had was right in front of a snack shack. and the cost, at the time at least, was bout $150 or $200

On 3/18/2024 at 10:22 AM, AshleyDillo said:

The beds do split in the Crown Loft suites, but there is no privacy at all for the sofa bed downstairs.

good to know! When I do the virtual tour online it just says "king bed" instead of "royal king" and even in the room details it doesn't say "a royal king bed that converts to two twins" like most listings....feels like they're hiding it lol

Fingers crossed it is truly sorted out for you @zibnark! you deserve a great vacation after that

The rooming situation on the suites is actually a real bummer if you're not a couple of family with non-adult children. My mom and I kinda ran into this as we consider bringing one of my adult friends along (her spouse is very adamantly not leaving land ). Because she is family in spirit but not blood, and a fully grown adult worthy of her own semi-privacy, I wanted to get a suite that would give her her own real bed in an area that was either closed off OR, a suite with a pull out sofa that is not at risk of being disturbed if one walks by. I looked at the crown loft suites thinking they'd be good only to see that for all that space, there's only 1 traditional king bed (doesn't look like it splits) and that the sofa bed doesn't have any way of being curtained off. It almost seems like we'd have to get a 2 bedroom suite or force one of us to pay a solo subsidy T_T

Can confirm the hand soap is still the bar soap. We travel with a dollar tree softsoap pump because of how awful the bar is.

We used Royal's shuttle bus on the cruise before last and booked it onboard. In fact, it was regularly an option in the cruise planner starting about midway through the cruise. It told people to go to guest services to book. For Ft. Lauderdale it was $20 per person. They use shuttle buses. And they assign you a departure time based on your flight (before noon or after).

We didn't use it on our last cruise because the option through our pre-cruise hotel was $5 cheaper per person and could book it in advance so we didn't have to worry about anything being filled up.

13 hours ago, Fastfaller said:

My cruise is 8 day with 3 stops... Aruba, Curacao, Labadee.  If they just cancel Labadee and don't add something in it's place that will be very disappointing... That would be a lot of sea days.

11 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

I'm on Symphony in a week and a half - also the 8 day with Labadee, Aruba & Curacao.  Totally agree with this:

I haven't gotten anything official from Royal yet (except Jet Ski cancellation). We board on 3/23 and were supposed to be at Labadee on 3/25. I'm hoping they are trying to replace it with another island and that is why I haven't gotten an email.

When our 2021 8-night eastern with this itinerary cancelled Labadee they replaced it with Nassau. So that may be in the cards for you two as well.

No, nor do I think you, an over 21 adult, could use his card to get adult beverages because his card will always register as under 21. It's probably best for the friends sailing along to take advantage of the wine/champagne and soda they can bring on board and then buy their drinks a la carte. If it's as you say, that they don't drink enough to justify the package, I'm sure a couple drinks a day won't be too hard on their wallet.

On 3/5/2024 at 11:22 AM, DunkelBierJay said:

A visit to Labadee is perfectly fine. To get a picture of the travel from Port au Prince to the north, a Youtuber, Indigo Traveller attempted to make the trip to Cape Hatien with a guide and was unsuccessful because of the quality of the road and demonstrations along the way.

Cape Hatien, is close to Labadee on the north coast and is known to be much much safer than Port au Prince which is currently in a state of virtual anarchy.

Since 2015, I can only recall one instance that Royal suspended stops there, and I believe some striking workers were demonstrating outside the gate to the peninsula.

 

Curious what the video title is for Indigo Traveller? I pulled up his Haiti series but it wasn't clear in which video he tries to get to Cape Hatien.

On 3/5/2024 at 1:21 PM, Geezer Of The Seas said:

A quick read of the Internet & Wikipedia last night revealed that political situation in Haiti has indeed disrupted port calls to Labadee. 20004 due to a coup and Freedom of the Seas called off a visit in 2016 when boats occupied by citizens blockaded the the entrance to the harbor.

I also want to add port stops were cancelled in 2021 when the President was assassinated. We were on Odyssey that year and sure enough, a week before our trip Labadee was changed to Nassau due to the situation in Haiti. I had somewhat expected it and had been keeping an eye on things after seeing the news while in the gym. I imagine there are multiple factors that play into a cancellation, not just the physical safety at Labadee, but also the safety of the local staff, the safety of the ship on arrival and departure, the increased chances of stowaways, the ability of staff to get to work...heck the security monitoring Labadee may also have been pulled to deal with local unrest too.

On 2/19/2024 at 7:47 AM, Ampurp85 said:

Born and raised in Chicago its a disgusting staple. All beef hot dog on a poppyseed bun with sport peppers, onion, relish and a pickle.......no ketchup ever and mustard.

 

@Ampurp85 No! My colorful hair sister in christ "Disgusting"?! i don't know who hurt you....was it weiner circle...did they give you a milkshake?!

3 minutes ago, twangster said:

As a business traveler the concept of hidden cameras has been something on my mind for decades.  

Erin Andrews from ESPN had to deal with it from a 2008 incident in a hotel room in Tennessee.  I think that individual brought the idea to the mainstream.  Since then advancements with technology has made it easier for those that followed his lead, unfortunately.  

I unfortunately agree. I've seen and heard more and more stories of hidden cameras in lamps, false mirrors, alarm clocks etc. Not to mention the horror stories for single women travelers who have to barricade their hotel room doors against break ins.....

Like the others, I plan to be back aboard about an hour before all aboard time (to avoid any delays and any super long lines). If I want to play in the port area, I aim to be back around there 2 hours before.

Once, in Curacao, I only gave myself 1 hour to play at the port area and I guess I misjudged how long I'd be there because i ended up stepping foot on board exactly at the all aboard time. My mom, who had gotten back before me, was joking that I was gonna be a pier runner but luckily our room faced the dock so she'd just toss my stuff down to me It was only funny because I made it on time but the hustle to get back was very nerve wracking

On 3/6/2024 at 7:34 AM, jeffmw said:

This whole thing is insane. Sickening, obviously, but as someone (like all of you) who has taken a number of cruises I'm trying to imagine how and where you'd even hide a camera in those tiny staterooms that would go unnoticed but also have an angle that would capture anything this guy wants to see. It seems like even if it worked once or twice, pretty quickly someone would find it. There's just not that many areas within a stateroom that go unseen for very long.

I have two fairly conspicuous black blink cameras in my home to keep myself safe and to be aware of what may or may not happen while I am not there or asleep. At one point, one of these 3 inch by 3 inch pure black cameras was mounted against an all white wall in the open in my kitchen while I watched my landlord and her hirees do work in my kitchen. My landlord NEVER noticed it. I told her, "just so you're not freaked out, I do have a camera in there" and she's like "where?" and I told her exactly where to look and she couldn't see it. I had to literally stand under it and point it out for her to see it.

So I can see how smaller cameras placed in areas people wouldn't generally look can be hidden but still recording.