monctonguy

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.

I did this once as it worked out in my favor as I booked in CAD, but got a OBC in USD...so I "made" money. I still haven't actually taken the cruise I booked and have moved it around a few times now. But no harm in taking advantage of it when its a really good deal or offer. I will prob look into seeing what they are offering during my next cruise again

well at $12 a drink(which is what most of my drinks are) it adds up quickly...throw in some bottled water and some wine with supper yeah. Now that being said, I have only done 4 and 5 day cruises....not the 7 nights which would be a little different I am sure. And I don't drink much at all off the ship either, I save it all for on board.

33 drinks goes quick....at least on my cruises it does... I always get the drink package....and usually break even for the cruise on the first day.....everything else after that is "free".....haha

haha...it does seem like a hassle to have to go back to the room and put on socks and long pants....prob why I didn't do it the first cruise.....we'll see what happens this time. But the ice shows are pretty good. I thought they would be cheesy...but they were all pretty good skaters and put on a good show...and u don't need to wear long pants or socks to watch that so...lol

Interesting that NCL will offer overnight...that would make it a lot more tempting.... And to have the drinks included, even more so..... And I bet the price will still be cheaper than RCI..... Would be nice to see RCI turn one of their smaller ships into an all inclusive option for sure no matter where it would go.