monctonguy

This is probably the one part of cruising that annoys me the most. I hate how our society expects us to tip for everything and nothing. If they want to charge us, just include in the cost of the cruise. Don't make it seem like its an option, when it's 100% expected and you have no choice or say in the amount. Bad service, slow service, great service, no service....and we all get charged the same. My general rule of thumb...is as soon as someone tries to "force" me to pay a tip for something, I usually decline. I have paid every time my full grats on any cruise....but if they want to try and nickel and dime us, raise prices, cut back on service...then I think I may play their game as well and pay more attention to bad and slow service and adjust my grats accordingly. I think the cruise industry takes it for granted as just another "fee" or "tax" and that is not what or how a tip should be. So to answer the OP's question...I will let you know in about 3 weeks...as I plan on not being as lazy and nonchalant about my grats on my upcoming cruise!

I have been there twice and going back a 3rd time to Cozumel. I have never done an excursion yet. There is so much to do and see and enjoy, I don't feel the need to try and find something to do to kill the day. And doing my own exploring and eating/drinking is usually cheaper than an excursion as well, plus I can get back on the ship whenever I want this way.

If that's the case, they need to up the cost of the drink package. Or they need to bring back 2 different levels of drink packages..... Seems ass backwards for RCI to get rid of 3 different levels of drinks packages all into one, but then charge more for some drinks on top of the package.....

While I haven't done Oasis, I have done a few cruises and never spent the $ for a specialty restaurant yet. I have splurged for Johnny Rockets, but that's it!...lol There is lots of food, lots of choices and lots of good options included in your fare. I have never gone hungry or been disappointed...if anything I have to hold myself back from overdoing it on the food.......as for the booze, I don't hold myself back on that on the cruise..ha

One thing I will add which you may or may not have read is the double points for travelling solo or extra points when booking a suite. Just a cpl quicker ways to work your way up. If you ever do a solo cruise though, make sure you don't take a "solo" room as they don't give you the double points on those rooms and often they are not cheaper than a normal cabin which would give you double points. Just something I found out the hard way on a previous cruise!

One of my fav cruises so far.....lots to do and see. Never felt crowded. The must do's for me would be the cosmopolitan club in the evenings...great entertainment and drinks there......also the nightclub is pretty cool with 2 levels and the glass stairs in there. There is also a deck on the front of the ship...St.Tropez or something that is a great place to lie out, much quieter and easier to find a lounger in that area as well. I am not a show person at all, but defn check out the ice show. Was a cool experience for being at sea in the Caribbean and watching. Cigar lounge on board is nice if your into that.

Especially when many other cruise lines are also adding mega ships.....just this year I think there are about 8 new BIG ships being added among the cruise lines. Eventually, supply is going to outweigh demand for one of these cruise lines. And wth RCI's higher than average prices and no perks included, I think they could be the first to suffer when that happens. BUT, I would be ok with that if it meant some lower pricing or price wars between the cruise lines!

it is becoming the norm.....or at least to have to pay for everything besides the bare basics...... royal seems to be going the way of the cheap airlines where you have to pay for everything extra besides your seat and seatbelt on the plane.....lol While a lot of the other cruise lines and ships seem to be going the way of including more or letting you choose some extra add-ons for free, Royal seems to want to make you pay extra and more for everything. I wouldn't be surprised to start to see fee's and charges for things like the Flo-rider, premium seating at their shows and musicals, room service, maybe even for preferred seating times in the MDR as well in the near future. Sounds crazy you say? I bet 5 years ago a lot of the things we pay extra for now would have sounded crazy. Such is life in the travel/tourism industry.

Well I guess it depends on your interests but for me, the first day is get on board as early as possible. Get my first drink and then tour the ship and get some great photo's while its still empty and get a feel for the ship and a little familiarized with it. Then find a nice spot on the pool deck near a bar and drink! Enjoy some ppl watching, enjoy the sail away party on the pool deck. My first day is all about relaxing and enjoying the sail away experience......

I have no idea really.......but here are some thoughts and wishes. I think the smoking issue will bring some changes. I am not sure what yet. I think that a very simple solution would be to introduce a smoking bar/casino and that would resolve a lot of issues and complaints. But who knows. I think RCI needs to start offering some "free" perks with their cruise fare. Seeing as Celebrity and NCL almost always offer 1 of 4 perks type thing to choose, RCI needs to offer something along with their high prices. I am surprised to hear they are only building mega ships. I would like to see some new mid-size announced. I think that they are going to overbuild and will have more than demand requires. But not so far I guess. A ship based out of the Northeast (Boston)would be nice.....at least for a good portion of the year...say April to Dec or something....driving distance would be nice for us here for sure and I think the demand would be there?!

Seeing as Celebrity and NCL quite often include the drink packages in their price, I am surprised that RCL continues to raise their pricing higher! On some cruises, the drink package can almost double the price of a cruise. Is the demand really there, or are people just not aware of other options....or are people willing to pay this premium price for this cruise line for some reason?

I would much prefer to take more frequent cheaper cruises than less more expensive ones. I hardly spend anytime in my room, so a bigger room besides the wow factor wouldn't be that big a deal to me. Sure if I was rich or perhaps lived within driving distance I could splurge more on the rooms, but that's not the case when I had to add in flights and terrible exchange rates. As for the "status", I enjoy it for the perks and deals I get at the different levels, has nothing to do with what color my card is or what color other levels are for me.

From what I can remember, its about 9:30 am that the last "group" is scheduled to leave the ship.....so it defn wouldn't be later than 10am...and really its a madhouse that last morning trying to do anything or go anywhere on the ship. If you have a rental car waiting, I would get off the ship when its convenient for you and then take 3 or 4 hours to enjoy some sightseeing or an excursion to kill the time till you need to show up to the airport.

I cant wait to plan something like that...B2B, but 2 different ships/itineraries for sure....all I would need would be a good laundry service that first day on my 2nd cruise!

yeah, that could be an option I guess...as long as the timing worked out as I am only there for one night...usually I stay 2-3 nights before a cruise but not this time. Something to think about...thanks!

Those were the long skinny tags I had..but they didn't have the metal rings....I think I am going to have to order those before my next cruise! I don't worry about tags on the debarkation as I do the self check out...lol Of course...I just checked...they don't ship to Canada. We can only order the crappy ones and they are about 3x the price..........grrrrrr

I thought it was only the quantum class ships that did the a la carte pricing for JR's????

I ordered tags as well from Amazon, but they were the long skinny plastic ones especially for RCI luggage tags, not the ones in the above link. I had a hard time keeping those tags on.....stapling the paper tags seemed to work better for me than those plastic tags I ordered from Amazon... There was no way to tie them tight it seemed...so they slipped off really easily in my experiences with them. Even though they do look much nicer.

Interesting..I have not heard of any of the ships in the fleet doing JR's a la carte pricing. Wonder if this is something new they are trying....or if this was just so they can cut back on the food they offer around the pool(no more or very few pool bbq's now or sail away buffets or midnight buffets or) While I think being able to buy 1 item or 2 for less than the $6.95 cover charge, overall I think I would rather just be charged the flat rate and not have to worry about how much each item is or how much I have eaten!..ha

Was announced this weekend it was going to be in the US, just didn't say what port, although most think Miami?!

That's tough...as I have loved every ship I have been on so far. That being said, Independence was probably my favorite ship so far in that there is so much to do and see. I am looking forward to my cruise on Navigator as it wont be quite as big as Indy but most of the same things offered. Enchantment will always kinda feel like home for me as it was the 2nd ship I cruised and have been on her 4times....I really enjoyed having Marc Walker as the CD everytime on her, so it maybe a little different the next time I get back on her.

yeah....don't they sometimes have promo's on where the deposit is reduced or larger OBC so you could actually come out ahead on the initial cruise? For example when they have the 50% reduced deposit promo's going on, but you would still get the $100 OBC?

I never thought about it that way "I'll probably spend as much on board as the OBC I'll get anyway" So rather than spend $500 of my own money on my seapass card...why not get $500 in OBC credit from them to spend...and you walk off the ship not having spent any more money that way and now you have cruises booked and deposits made! I like that way of thinking!!

Funny how some small things like that can be so noticeable when they change or go away. I too really enjoy those hash browns and while its not something I would normally talk about or tell someone about when sharing my cruise experiences, its defn something I look for each breakfast I am there and would be disappointed if I could not find them. Hoping it was just a supply issue for that particular cruise and nothing more.

I wont disclose my total drink tally for the first day on a cruise but lets just say they go down quickly, especially those first few hours when the sun is out, sitting out on the pool deck...and I am usually on around 11am and crash out about 2am...so in 15 hours, you can enjoy a lot of drinks!...lol But the 10 drink card would come in handy for buying drinks for friends and family at a slightly discounted rate I guess.