mac66

We did a Rock & Romance cruise on X a few years ago. Met a couple who had just got off the Rock Legends cruise. I think RL was 5 days, R&R was 7 days. 

Anyway...

Typically the bands start at noonish around the pool, then at various locations around the ship @ 2 ish, 4 ish, 5 ish, 6ish, those are usually the cover bands.   Usually the headliner bands play in the main theater at different times/days to give the different dinner times a chance to see the shows. There are usually shows later in the evening as well.  Of course different cruises have different itineraries so check the website.

Also be aware that on private charters your status level doesn't apply so if you're diamond or above you don't get drinks or other perks. 

Been on explorer 3 times. First was back in the day when is first came out with the kids then again about 5 years ago.  Last was last December on an 8 night ABC islands cruise. Great ship. It's mostly about the cruise itinerary anyway, not the ship.

47 years ago on our honeymoon cruise both my parents and travel agent sent bottles of champagne.

We were on cruise for my wife's birthday in Feb. They brought out a cake with candles on it and sang Happy Birthday. Tell you MDR waiters ahead of time and they might come up with a cake or something special.

my experience is that the booze on board is usually 1 liter bottles for the same or cheaper price than the same booze back home in the 750ml bottles.  Same with buying it in the ports...usually more for less. They usually have the usual bourbons and scotches. Sometimes port prices are cheaper, sometimes not. Other stuff, I don't know, I don't drink rum or vodka or other stuff.

Since covid the deals aren't as good as before but we bought 2 1 liter bottles of bourbon for  $50 or $59 for what we pay $39+tax for one 750ml bottle back home. On board and in the ports they don't charge tax.

RCL was up over $78 for a minute today. I sold at $77.36 so I made about $4400 today.  Rolled some of the profit over into buying Carnival and Norwegian stock. We'll see if they eventually make it up out of the basement.   Shouldn't take much to double my money on CCL stock. I originally bought at $7 and change. Bought another 100 shares today at $10 and change.

Closed at $75.61 on Friday. Didn't get around to selling but I'll be on the phone with my broker first thing Monday morning.

For what I paid for stock last August It would take me 42 7+ night cruises to recoup the difference. Not likely to ever sail that many times in the future particularly with the prices going up, up, up.

RCL stock was at $71.88 today. I think it's time to sell.

We've found it better to get on later. Just walk on, the food venues are less crowded and less waiting around for the ship to depart. Not big drinkers so drinking half the day before the ship leaves is not for us.  No problem getting up and off early for us.

22 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

The Monsters of Rock cruise is going on right now on Mariner of the Seas. I did it a few years ago and might do it again next year.

You're there for the bands. In fact, there's no point in wasting time in the main dining room for dinner. You'd miss too much, so everyone, or pretty much everyone, just did the buffet.

Well...not to disagree but......on our cruise the evening concerts were scheduled around the dinner times so we didn't really miss anything.

On our R&R cruise the first night we were seated at the back of the dining room looking out the aft windows. There was a small stage set up. After our orders were taken a 5 person acoustic group showed up and played Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young music, 5 feet in front of us. They were very good. Got to talk to them between songs, and sets. They played through the rest of dinner. That was pretty cool.

We also met a couple (The Legends of Rock couple) who we ended up hanging out with the rest of the cruise. Still talk to and email them.

Still a good time however you do it. We'll probably do it again someday.

Edited to add....just looked at the Monsters of Rock facebook page. Didn't recognize any of the groups or names of the artists.  Completely different generation.

On 4/29/2023 at 10:15 PM, WhoCruiser said:

For you, or for anyone else, who has done the Chachoben tour through Native Choice instead of through the ship's own tour office, exactly how far of a walk is it to get from the ship's pier to the public area where Native Choices kiosk is allowed to have us meet their buses? I'm seriously considering going through them, but I will most likely have a few people in my group who might have issues with a longer walk, and perhaps even a Mobility Scooter user or two, should I be concerned?

It used to be a good 6 or 7 block walk but my wife informs me that their pick up point is now just a block or so outside the port enclosure.  We/she, apparently saw them when we were there in Feb.  NC's pickup point should be on their website.

On 3/23/2023 at 1:03 PM, Pattycruise said:

We had inconsistent food at our table of 9, identical plates, one warm, 1 hot, 1 barely warm.  Identical dishes, one over salted-the next fine. The serving of 1 tablespoon of cole  slaw with the fish and chips (no malt vinegar) led to laughter amongst the table and they quickly brought out a second serving of 1 tablespoon to all.  Unfortunately the cold slaw was served warm…so it wasn’t good anyway.  
The head waiter brought the chef out to our table-talk about awkward!!   Our server had a breakdown due to having 5’s the week before and all the complaints this sailing (literally broke down crying).  He was absent with a “foot injury” the final 3 nights.  Our assistant waiter received remedial training near the end (I felt she was fine).  The music BLARING during the caribbean night and the second  formal night was ridiculous on Deck 3-speaker location-it was like sitting next to the speaker at a rock concert-we all had to cover our ears from the assault.    I went to windjammer after sending back gross chicken Marsala, over salted lobster and the music fiasco -I can’t stand LOUD-and the choices were not inspiring to me-burgers/dogs or Indian food.

 It was so bad in the dining room the head water was sending chocolate covered strawberries and chocolates to our cabins as well as pouring free champagne the last 3 nights. 

"Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the show?"

Just an FYI, if you can't get the ship excursion look at Native Choice tours. They do that same tour... Chacchoben & Lagoon excursion for half the price. I've done it twice with them over the years, very good tour.  NC regular Chacchoben tour is $40/person cheaper than the ships.

Just realized this is an old thread so never mind.

We did a  7 night '70s Rock and Romance Charter Cruise last year on Celebrity. We had originally booked it for 2020 and was postponed due to Covid.  One of the couples we ended up hanging out with had just gotten off a Legends of Rock cruise on RCL and right on the R&R cruise.  They said it was very fun and of course we had a blast on our cruise. 

Concerts morning, afternoon and evening. Meet and greets, talks, meet the acts/stars on deck, in the elevators, at the pool, while dining etc. We really missed the music when we went on other cruises later that year.

The bad thing is they don't recognize your status so no perks.  We did not have a drink package but several of the on going concerts included free drinks i.e rum punch.  They also allowed us to bring booze back on board at our port stops (St. Martaan, St Lucia or maybe St.Thomas, can't remember).  I don't know if it was because they were just recovering from the Covid shutdown (Feb 2022) or because the ship was full and they were understaffed but the food and service weren't very good. We did notice that on other X cruises last year as well.

As was stated it's not cheap but IMO worth what you pay for all the entertainment you get. Just understand that most of bands only have one or two (if any at all) original band members. A lot of the bands are tribute bands, though most of them are very good. 

Not something we would choose to do every year (like some people we met) but we will likely do it again in the future.

BTW, the Legends of Rock cruise is a different company than the 70's Rock & Romance cruise but the R&R guys (Star Vista) also do a "Flower Power" (mostly 60's music, but a lot of the same bands as the R&R cruise) and a 50's cruise and a Jazz cruise and a soul train/R&B cruise, so you can choose whatever floats your boat.

Edited to add....Looking at the 2024 R&R cruise I see prices are $2249/person for an inside not including port taxes.  That's what we paid last year carried over from 2020.  Balconies are over $3K/person. That's for a 7 night cruise.

Glad the OP had a great time.  I think people who cruise a lot get jaded and tend to nit pick. You see a lot of that on these forums. We've cruises a couple dozen times and although some cruise were better than other they were all good. Having said that...every cruise is different based on the ship, weather, itinerary, point of departure, crew, time of year etc, etc.

Trap shooting off the rear of the ship...oh wait, used to do that when we first started cruising in 1979. My wife won a bottle of champagne.

We did Mr. Sanchos in Feb. Three couples booked privately. It is not offered through the ship.  Plenty to eat and drink, the beach was okay. Didn't do any of the other stuff though a lot of people there did.

11 hours ago, Jack805 said:

Have seen nothing but great things about Woodwind, and definitely a plus that they're so close to the pier. Good to know about them dropping off closer if time necessitates it, though I'm not too worried on this trip as all of the port days are quite long. Just trying to figure out how I'm spending the day in Aruba and Curacao now.

Been to the ABCs a number of times.  We did an off road vehicle/jeep tour to the wild side of Aruba which was really fun. I dived the other times we were there. 

In Curacao we've only done snorkeling or scuba.

We are going back to the ABCs next Jan. I'm going to dive on either Aruba or Curacao but we are renting a golf cart and going beach hoping in Bonaire when we are there. Learned that from some cruise friends.  Did Woodwind three times. Time for something different.

We've done Woodwind 3 times. Always a good time. Highly recommended. Well within walking distance of the ship. And if time runs short they will drop you off closer to the pier.

We often take almonds, pork rinds (I eat keto) on board. Not necessarily in sealed packages. In the past we've taken Pringles, chips, beef jerky, crackers etc, etc.

I don't see how an electric bike would be different than an electric wheelchair or scooter at least in terms of battery safety.   Maybe try an electric 3 wheel bike.  But, the OP should probably try and call RCL and find out

I've been looking at cruises for this year and next.  It used to be that you could get a cheap cruise for around $100/night/2. That's an inside with taxes, gratuities etc for 2 people.

We did an 8 nighter in early December that after refundable OBC it came to $107/night.  Our recent  7 night cruise in early Feb was $123/night. 

Looking forward It's tough to find a cruise under $100/night per person  i.e, $200/night for the cheapest inside cabin.  As I said earlier, we're cheap skates when it comes to our two annual getaway cruises. We'll pay more for bucket list cruises.

I've edited this to make it more concise.  

Something to consider if you are a cruiser and want to learn to dive. Most dive shops divide the classes into two parts, the class/confined water dives and then the open water.  You don't have to do both parts with the same dive shop.

I looked very strongly at doing the onboard PADI certification. I ended up doing a class back home in a pool and my open water dives while on a cruise. Those are called referral dives and I don't know of a dive shop in the Caribbean who won't take referrals.

We've brought back as many as 8 bottles for friends and family.  You used to have to sign a declaration, not anymore.   Sometimes they ask, sometimes not. Sometimes you just do the facial recognition thing. If they ask we tell what we have and pay the duty if any but I can't remember the last time they asked.

10 hours ago, asquared17 said:

it’s like we are vacation twins!!

we noticed this also - 2024 february season is wiiiiiiiiild. the only way we could swing it is if we got a screaming deal but otherwise it’s just too much. things get better during the quiet two weeks in the beginning of december, but RIP our february blues. 

Well we just booked a bucket list cruise (11 night Panama Canal) the end of January '24 on the Celebrity Beyond. Way more than I'm used to spending but we got lots of perks and OBC to make it a bit more palatable. It may be the only cruise we do next year so there's that to consider.

Went to Alaska for three weeks a couple years ago...not on a cruise. We hiked, backpacked and fished. I had other means of protection including a loud personal alarm thingy that also had a bright strobe light to scare off the bears. We did see bears but not close enough to be a threat.

I would think that if you bought/brought Bear spray carrying it back on board the ship may be a problem. However, if its in your pack I would guess the xray machine would have a hard time telling what it it. Could be can of bug spray for all they know.  Before the "rules are rules" forum police step in, I'm not advocating breaking the rules, just saying what you could or could not do.