WAAAYTOOO

4 hours ago, MadamG2U said:

Thank you so much!  I just reached out.  Can't wait to board her!

You are very welcome. I hope you hear something very soon.  Enjoy your cruise.

Disembarkation day was waaay more manic than I expected.  B’fast in CK was ungodly slow.
 

As a matter of fact, since I am on the topic of CK, I will take this opportunity to mention that my skepticism about the CK was reaffirmed on this cruise.  The menu is just not that interesting to me.  I repeatedly had trouble finding something that even sounded appealing (b’fast excluded here).  We ate dinner there 3 times (twice more than I had intended) b/c we kept getting bad intel on which night was lamb shank.  I am partially responsible here, as Joyce sent me the entire menu lineup well ahead of time and had I referred to it, I would have avoided these errors. So I am now firmly in Club #CKonlyonfiletnight.  Not only were the menus unappealing, but the service was truly slow every time. This morning was the final straw.  Yes, I realize that b’fast on turn-around day is manic by nature but there were just too few servers. It was as simple as that.

Back to disembarkation.  We got out of our suite right on time (0700) and went to the CK for b’fast (already discussed). Joyce met us on the Lounge side a bit after 8:00, as pre-arranged.  She escorted us, and another family, off together.  Her big blunder was to put us into an elevator that did not recognize her Genie badge (which provides exclusive access and will not stop on any other decks).  Apparently there is one elevator bank that is exempt from her badge, for use in case of emergency, and of course, she managed to put us on it.  So, consequently, the elevator proceeded to stop every freakin deck and fill up with non-SC riff raff (just kidding !).  Oh, the inhumanity ! . Then Joyce lead us all the way out and halfway down the gangway, where we said our goodbyes and she turned us over to a Terminal escort who’s job was to take us to get our luggage and then escort us all the way to the taxi line.  During this trek, we cut lines and bypassed the CBP lineup (which was much longer than I would have thought).  We went straight to the face recognition queue which is where my good luck ran out.  I guess I must have won the immigration lottery as I was chosen to go chat with a Customs Officer.  Oh, happy day !  Of course, our Terminal escort never even turned around. She just high-tailed it outta there and left my a** behind. Ok.  Now in a long line waiting for a CBP Officer to let me out, I suddenly realized that Dan had my passport.  The line agents had rushed Dan away, saying he would have to wait for me, outside.  Panic.  In the most unladylike-like and quasi-hysterical squawk I could muster, I SCREAMED for Dan to stop.  Somehow he heard me....as did everyone else in the Terminal...  He handed me my passport and after a fairly uncomfortable zig zag through the CBP line, I was finally hustled out of the line, free from retention.

We proceeded to where the taxi line was and realized it was LONG (Joyce has warned us it would be).  Happy Dan transformed into Resourceful Dan and hijacked a cab that had just pulled up in front of us and let out some lucky cruisers who were just arriving to go ON their cruise.  (Mother-scratchers were probably the villains taking our Suite !).  We never looked back. We just jumped in and told him to take us to MIA.  Yes, it was wrong. Too bad.

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

You are letting your bags go to the terminal without you... kidding, I’m sure it will be fine. Terminal A seems pretty efficient.

I know. I’m not real happy about it but I trust Joyce that they will be ok.  I’m keeping my carry-on with me, though. I have my valuables in that one and it doesn’t leave my sight.  Period. 

18 minutes ago, Fairlynew said:

I hope there is not a riot on the ship.  Didn't you say earlier that this sailing is full of casino aficionados?

I am glad that the person is able to get prompt medical attention.  Hopefully that knowledge will quell the rioters!

Yes, that is true. This sailing was FILLED with deviant gamblers ! Oh wait....I’m talking about myself !

Don't tell anyone, but I am secretly glad that the casino is closed. Now I can spend ONE quiet night outside of that loud, obnoxious smoke-filled den of iniquity.

6 minutes ago, Jaymac Radio said:

Welcome Back To Port Miami.

 

Thank you !

Disembarkation :

Booooooo.. Such an unpleasant topic but since I am unable to gamble in the casino, I will preview the disembarkation process of Star Class out of Miami.

First, the bad.  PoM still does not have Luggage Valet. That’s unfortunate. LV is such an awesome service. You give up your bags on the last night and don’t see them again until you deplane at your final destination.  All of this is complimentary for Suites.  However, with that bit of bad news out of the way, we can chat about the positives of SC disembarkation.  We will NOT put our bags out tonite. We must put them out tomorrow morning between 6:30-7:00 AM. They will be taken directly to a special SC holding area until we pick them up.  Those of you who have followed my travel blogs for a while are familiar with my somewhat newly-acquired aversion for giving up personal control of offboarding my luggage. This is due to an unfortunate incident last summer in Galveston where one piece of our luggage just disappeared, never to be seen again. But Joyce has given us her personal promise that our luggage will be safe.  I trust her.  Ok. It’ll be out there at 0630 tomorrow. 
 

We will then go out to the Coastal Kitchen for our farewell breakfast where Joyce will escort us off the ship at 8:00.

Our flight is at 12:07 out of MIA so we will have a bit of time to pass in the Admiral’s Club.  That’s fine. Their Clubs are nice at MIA.

We are alongside the pier.  We’re home ! (Almost).8:05 PM

Update :

Due to a medical emergency, the ship did double time getting back to Miami (24 knots !) so that the affected person could get prompt medical attention.  Therefore, it is 7:33 PM on Saturday night and we are already inside the port area (but not tied up quite yet).  The affected person will be able to disembark immediately (with their family, presumably) but the rest of us will be spending the night alongside the dock.  No one, except for patient, will be allowed to disembark. 
 

I don’t see how this will negatively impact anyone’s cruise with the exception of those of us who would otherwise be gambling. The casino closed at 6:45. I imagine that bumping we are feeling is caused by the casino staff doing their happy dance.  They are off for 24 hours !

In other interesting news, our Genie brought us a letter indicating that we would be receiving a 20% FCC based on the price of this cruise.  This is due to the “inconvenience” caused by our “noise” issue.  Obviously, we neither initiated nor expected any kind of compensation.  Good grief. It wasn’t like we stepped out of our shower into a pool of sewage (I’m looking at you, Twangster).  It was a very thoughtful but entirely unnecessary surprise.

So, here we are, pulling into port.  It will be interesting and very different to spend the night on the ship in the Port of Miami.

10 minutes ago, MadamG2U said:

We board the Oasis on the 15th.  I have not heard from the concierge or from our genie.  I'm just gonna roll with the punches 

You will, most likely, not hear from the Suites’ Concierge if you are in Star Class. That job is superseded by the Genie.  You absolutely should have heard from the Genie by now.  I recommend you reach out to them. 
 

Send an email to OA_GOTL03@rccl.com.   That is my Genie’s email address (Joyce).  While she will definitely NOT be your Genie (she leaving on vacation next week) she can get the comm started with whomever will be your Genie. You definitely need to have some pre-boarding comm. There are lots of things that need to be coordinated. 
 

Good luck. You will love Oasis. She is gorgeous 

11 hours ago, spiralqueen said:

When you say the primary contact, do you mean you were listed as Passenger #1 on the invoice and therefore it went to you?

Yes

11 hours ago, twangster said:

One thing I've noticed is that the announcements over the PA are gibberish in public areas.  They all seem like "ajshjags klqdjkhwedjk lkjkwehk lkwkjd" (echo, echo echo).

Either they are making all announcements in Norwegian or...  the Captain said the ship has been cleared by local authorities or... he said it might rain after people have their breakfast in China.

However music is booming.  They should really connect the PA system and the music speakers together.  

 

Lol.  Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing about the announcements. It’s especially bad in Central Park.  Those poor people must be deaf by now. It’s like an echo chamber on there

Update on the noise issue

When Joyce was at our suite this afternoon, she said that the Cruise Director has actually disconnected the offending speaker as opposed to just adjusting the output. Apparently there was no way to just adjust the output.  I hate to think that they spent big money on a new speaker system just to have it removed. Someone should have anticipated that the noise level was going to be excessive.  Maybe they did...maybe they didn’t. 

The name of the third comedian at last nights comedy show was Jim Colliton

Never thought of a Bloody Mary and Mimosa bar.  What a great idea !

We have never had any problem getting a Cabin Crawl organized through the Genie but it Is worth noting that I have read that some of the Genies are requiring that SC guests pay for this service now.  I haven’t tried to do a cabin crawl in a couple of years (it’s a lot of work as, I’m sure, Queenbeecruises can attest) but some have reported that their Genie has told them that there will be a per-person fee to organize and execute an event such as a Cabin Crawl.
 

My recommendation, for anyone hoping to host such an event, is to NOT mention “Cabin Crawl” at ALL, not mention it at all to the Genie pre-cruise, and simply tell the Genie a day or 2 prior that you need X,Y, Z delivered to the room on such-and-such date and time. I would think that a more spontaneous event, versus a long-planned event, would be less likely to attract the attention of the bean counters (who, I am sure, are responsible for this change, if there has been one).

Just now, Gwen C said:

Does the conceirge write emails to suite guests prior to the cruise?

It is SOP for the Suites Concierge to contact passengers in Grand Suites and above by email around 5 days prior to embarkation but sometimes they do not for one reason or another.  I have always been the  primary contact on every cruise that Dan and I have taken and have always been the person to whom the Concierge sent the “Welcome” email - until this past cruise on Brilliance.  For whatever reason (no idea why) Dan received the Concierge’s welcome email and, of course, didn't mention it to me.  Because I never received an email, I wrote to the Brilliance Concierge at which time she wrote back and told me that she HAD, indeed, reached out.  Oops....

So, if you are expecting a Suites Concierge email and haven’t received one yet, make sure  the email didn’t go to someone else. If you feel that you should have gotten an email and did not, you can reach out to them directly.

Mikael, your English is better than many Americans’. Excellent !

I am delighted that you will be on Oasis next week but reminding me that my cruise is nearly over is a major downer !  

I will be following. Thank you and welcome to the RCCLBlog.

I guess it’s worth mentioning that any deposit is non-refundable after the final payment date.  I’m sure you know this but I just wanted to mention it.

48 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

the one who had never cruised before.

That doesn’t surprise me at all !  So glad you were able to create a new addict !

3 hours ago, Dogmom said:

10 seats that had our suite number, on plain white paper, saying reserved.

This is very interesting. Joyce told us, for the Music Hall concert, she would place some folded white paper “reserved” sign on the chairs and that they would have our suite # on them.  I think this is their way of skirting “the rules”.  Now, as it turned out, we did get the normal red drapes on our chairs but I think that when they feel they are in “rules violation” territory, they turn to this kind of alternative options for reserving seats.  Let’s face it, sometimes they are caught between having to displease their clients or violate their SOP (she’s used that term SOP with me multiple times).  The last thing I want to do is put my Genie in an uncomfortable situation. Sometimes I don’t like the answers (no reserved seating at the Jazz Club) but the rules are the rules. I need to remember that.

That sounds like such fun !

So who was the first to ask, “When are we going to do this again ?” ?

Last night we went to see the adult comedy show.  Steve White and I cant remember the other guy’s name. Of course, there was Simeon...   I thought they were all 3 very funny and we had a great time.  Joyce reserved us seats but not in the front row (per our request).

This brings up an issue that we (who travel in SC from time-to-time) are often faced with.  If the Genie can reserve me a seat in the Comedy Club then why can’t she reserve me a seat in the Jazz Club ?  IMO they are identical venues....open seating with on-demand bar service.  I’m NOT questioning the Genie’s service.  Actually, exactly the opposite.  She told us that they are not allowed to reserve seats in “revenue” venues.  Ok. So why is the Jazz Club a “revenue” venue (which it certainly is NOT.  It is a complimentary venue) and the exact same venue-type, the Comedy Club, is not ?  I guess it’s just one of those annoying inconsistencies that a Royal is so famous for.

Back to the Jazz Club. We went to a concert on Wednesday night.  I saw, in the Cruise Compass, that it would be a “Earth, Wind and Fire, Tower of Power and Stevie Wonder” kind of event.  GREAT. Motown !  Perfect.  Neither Dan nor I are huge jazz fans but we could go for some Motown !  Clue: When you go to a Jazz Club, no matter what they SAY is going to be performed, it’s a Jazz Club. It’s going to be Jazz.  I think the performers (ship’s orchestra) are extremely talented and for what it was, they did an incredible job.  But Jazz is just my thing.  Had it not been extremely rude, I would have left after the first 30 seconds, but we sat through the entire first set.  Many did leave quickly.  Never again...  ...and just to tie this whole post together, the fact that we did not have reserved seats mattered -0- zip, zilch.  We had great seats arriving about 10 minutes prior to the show.

OBTW, Twangster stood us up.  Smart guy...

”Jazz is not dead.  It just smells bad”.

—Frank Zappa

Update on the noise issue.

The noise had become so obnoxious that I finally felt compelled to contact Joyce, our Genie, and complain.  It was non-stop all day, every day.  If it wasn’t the band, it was the DJ or some incessant babbling from a contest or whatever.  I asked that we be allowed to speak with the Hotel Director.
 

So now we have another example of how a Genie really can make things happen. Within minutes, Joyce was here and personally witnessed the unacceptable noise coming from the band and pool deck.  She had the Cruise Director on the phone and they both agreed that the noise level was unacceptable.  Since the Cruise Director (Bobby Brown, in this case) “owns” the entertainment venues, he was the one to affect the problem.  He walked all the way from the Flow Rider area up to the pool children’s splash zone area (while on the phone with Joyce)  to see if they could determine which speakers were the culprits. As we had suspected, it was the ones by the new Lime&Coconut bar.  He adjusted them somehow and BOOM - problem solved !
 

Joyce said that if the problem resumes, just let her know immediately.  We will drop the request to speak to the HD unless the problem resumes.

Yes, you can still faintly hear the music (most notably the bass), but this is a cruise ship !  There’s going to be music.  It’s no worse (now) than it is in the ATS.  I’m satisfied.  

20 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

 

I read in another post here that hotels around HOU are not in a "safe" area.  Any truth to that?

I have heard the same thing, Sabrina, but we have always stayed in Galveston, so I cannot validate it.

We are the same way. I don’t care for making small talk with strangers so we have always requested private tables.  It should not be a problem.  Just tell the host/maitre’d that you prefer a private table.  Also, some of 2-tops are place in rows where, even though they are only for 2, they are so close together that you might as well be sitting with others.  Ask them kindly for a PRIVATE 2-top.  If you are not happy with the table at which you are placed, ask them to please find another table. Don’t accept one that you aren’t happy with.  You may have to wait, but you will probably be happier with a table at which you are comfortable. 

We have friends that did this through a 3rd party and said that it was actually very strenuous. The wives in the group actually couldn’t keep up and opted to sit out part of the excursion. They did say it was beautiful.

56 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

I appear to be in the minority here, but I find the MDR "Farewell Performance" to be an annoyance rather than something to anticipate. It slows down the service at the end of the meal - on no other night do I have to wait to have a beverage glass refilled or for my dessert to be served. If it was entertaining, it might be a minor inconvenience. Since I find it to not be so, it is an unreasonable intrusion on my dining experience.

When we were still dining in the MDR I found this event to be disruptive too.  Never cared for it and don’t miss it now that we avoid the MDR.