Ampurp85

I have never been on vision class......ooh the materials are fancy. Old as hell but fancy. Grandeur is a beautiful, well maintained ship. But it's that old type of classy. Like frank Sinatra and Elliot Ness. The staterooms have phones on the wall.....with a stretchy cord and volume button!!! I'm amazed at how clean the carpet is. I have already walked most of the ship, eaten my Chops lunch and made some friends in the DL and it's not even 3pm. The WJ has deck seating. I guess since the ship is so old, some rooms don't have coolers. Last cruise I didn't get my C&A gift, this time I have my sodas but no place to keep them cold/cool. I'm slightly obsessed with the Palladium theater. Red is not my jam but the beauty of the place has me wanting to come to all the shows. I'm currently attending one of those port shopping seminars until sailaway and the casino opens. I have seen and counted about twenty children. But a ton of teenagers. I was talking to another guest and they said this sailing was so cheap a bunch of families booked it not realizing how old and small the ship was. My Chops lunch was very good. I got the burger, some fries and mac and cheese. The mac and cheese from this Chops was the best I ever had on any cruise ship. It tasted like when I make it. It was hardly anyone in there at noon. If they had the burger for dinner I would be more inclined to dine there more. They are trying hard to sell dining packages. The UDP is $43/day and that's not a good deal considering they only have 3 specialy restaurants. The drink package is $89/day. They have the older larger freestyle cups. This is the first week of the new MDR menus. I have MTD and have booked all my diners. I originally had Giovanni's and Izumi booked but I canceled Giovanni's because their food is nasty. I have Izumi night two because French night is my least favorite of the new menu. There is tons of solo cruisers and a nice amount of B2Bs. I already did a walk through the casino and the machines are dated but I see a couple I can work with.

Yes you could order two separate "large" plate rolls but it will only be 4 rolls each, effectively making it one roll.

I'm on Grandeur. I'm am using the wifi to call and check on my fur baby. Maybe because we are still in port the internet is okay, not great but enough to do what I need to do. I am in an interior aft deck 8. I'm more upset there is no cooler.

I believe I got it to work. The new update turns wifi calling off when you connect so I needed to reset it multiple times.

I did that on the terminal while waiting to board and it worked on terminal wifi. But as soon as I tried on Grandeur, it no longer does.

Prior to using Starlink I was able to make wifi calls and receive text on my Samsung galaxy s21 with no issues. I was just on Oasis and no text or wifi calling. It keeps saying remove airplane mode. Now I'm Grandeur and it's the same thing. I was able to get my text on Odyssey and Harmony in Nov. Anyone know what the problem is?

Yes Oasis and quantum class.

Disembarkment/embarkation day.. Good morning, it is 75 degrees in Miami. My brother's phone has been blowing up with work calls. So we had a very early morning but a later start than we anticipated. We made it out of the room at 6min after 8. We wanted to be out on time. Nonetheless our room steward thank us as less than half the rooms in his section had been vacated. We made our way to the DL and at that point it was only half full. Around 9am it was completely full, mostly of people doing B2B. I had a bagel, some fruit and orange juice. The spread was nice. We will hang out here until our number is called. I am glad I got a 10:30 check in time for Grandeur as I received the email saying not to arrive outside your check-in time because the terminal cannot accommodate a lot of people. I am more excited for my Grandeur sailing than I was for this one. I haven't sailed that class before and with Oasis it's really about discovering the little difference. I waited over an hour to get my Lyft and Grandeur was already boarding the 11am people. This was the easiest boarding ever. Two minutes in total from door to inside terminal. I only see about 4 children so already this looks better than Oasis. Surprisingly enough there are a lot of teens/younger folks. I assumed it would be a more vintage crowd. Even with an eleven boarding time I have yet to walk straight on a ship. We are waiting for the ship to open up to board. Good thing there isn't any reservations to be made.

Its no longer a lot of food, in my brother's opinion. With the $28.99 you can do a la carte or prefix. The current prefix will get you an app, a roll and dessert. It will only be a lot of food if you order the bowls or udon. They cut the sushi in half now so effectively you get a roll of 8 pieces that count as your 2 large selections.

Cats was.......yeah it was pretty much as garbage as people say. First of all, several people either fell asleep or got up way before the show was half done. Even before that lots of people trying to sit in star class seats even though you can clearly see the reserve signs. Also, lots of people decided to forego the night showing and wait in line for the 3:30 matinee. This meant a lot of people trying to find seats as the lights and curtain went down, using their bright as hell flashlights to look for seats. If you have not seen this garbage, the cats start in the aisle, and it throws you off because it's just weird. They do this throughout the performance and at one point this cat knocked my cups away to climb on the railing and behave like my sweet fur baby does at home. I laughed because he was just like a real cat, but it was still annoying. I did rest my eyes for a bit and then awoke to "Memories." But the show wasn't over, and some other stuff happened and a lot of minutes later it was the end. I liked the uniformity of it all and one of them cats was giving RuPaul drag race realness. It ran a little long and so we had 15min to get to our escape room. I had so much fun, but we ran out of time. It was eleven of us: my brother and I, this family of four and another family of five. It was four teenagers in the group. Two weren't taking it seriously at all and they cost us the mission. Not a brag but I solved 4 puzzles on my own. I got us started, I got the keys, I did the countdown, my brother got two puzzles and another girl got the rest. We were down to a minute and one of the boys refused to communicate. We would have won. I think we were the only group who didn't complete the mission. I can confirm that dining reservations need to be cancelled at least 24hrs in advance. So, if you try to do the hack where you book specialty dinning to secure slots, don't do it for the first night. We decided no on the hibachi as the food fatigue sat in. We did take out from JR and Playmakers. I can also confirm that the new freestyle cup only holds 12-14oz of liquid, less with ice. I got a couple of can sodas because none of the freestyles have been refilled. The cup held one can with a little ice. We have seen tons of the performers out and about. Many have been dining in the specialty restaurants or hanging along the track on deck 5. I met the piano player from Schooners and chatted a bit about my purple hair. My brother had an hour conversation with the ice performer who played Hans Christian Anderson. They have all been very friendly, most of the staff have been top notch. But I can tell they are tired, the bartender who was my buddy in the casino was there every time I went. Today I saw the dead look in his eyes as he made this screaming lady an espresso martini. I gave him my last tips and wish him good luck. I have a little packing to do and then I will be starting a hopefully less-full-of-children adventure.

I did a six night in Nov; there was the book, a variety show and the Effectors. There was no comedian on my sailing but ymmv.

On Oasis I have seen people try with almost no success.

Vitality Spa for fruit smoothies and MDR for fresh squeezed juices.

So even when you pay the specialty dining price some restaurants only allow for one entree. Chops is one of them, everything else as many as you want but one entree. 150CP may have a one entree as well depending on the ship.

No I stand by what I said. Your example doesn't apply. There is no way a restaurant would offer something off a dessert if your meal was inedible. You need to compare apples to apples, not apples to a kumquat. They weren't rude, they just didn't give you want you wanted. I personally thinking 30% was fair. You weren't injured, you weren't sick, it was an issue of comfort. You feel entitled to four days compensation and they said 30 percent was enough. You implied they were the worst.

We had lunch and it was a mess. The line was long and several people didn't wash their hands but proceeded to touch stuff without the serving utensils. Also every time we ate anything on deck 15 there was flying balls. Ping pong, golf, etc. None of the parents were saying anything but these balls found their way in Portside, El Loco Fresh, etc. I then went to the casino and played the points I had earn on all the money I lost. So many people earned certificates on this cruise. My machine buddy hit 6500. That earned her balcony and JS with at least $750 in free play if she booked with NextCruise. I got a free oceanview but all the sailing are between now and April. I have Vegas and other land based vacations booked until May. I am currently waiting for Cats to start. For a show most people hate, it is packed.

I think OP didn't get what they wanted, therefore they felt that way.

Day 7...Sea Day. No breakfast again. We also are having UDP fatigue, so we are on the fence about cancelling hibachi. We have the matinee for Cats today......say a little prayer for us. Then the escape room and originally hibachi at 9ish. I think we will hit El Loco Fresh for a light lunch of tacos and then do JR for dinner. Since it is a sea day, I expect things to be much more congested and possibly really trifling. I am really looking forward to my Grandeur sailing, it should be relaxing.

What @AshleyDillo said is why I don't understand wanting to go past Prime status on a cruise ship. Its only one annual room and then the offers are hit or miss. My sometimes travel companion is not prime, she has free offers for interior, balconies, and JS. I do rank and I get only $... off offers. I have MGM/local casino status and when I gamble other places the comps are amazing.

My last booking at Next Cruise was much cheaper than website prices. The rep said they were still booking based on the previous sale. So far, the price I paid is the cheapest I have seen in months. The OBC is great, but the reduced deposit is why I try to book cruises when I cruise.

I have to say I have had issues and my biggest takeaway is to try to get anything squared away onboard. Even with documentation it is harder to get anything resolved when you come back. So yes, you should have made a bigger stink at guest services. I know the experience has left a bad taste in your mouth, but I have found in the realm of cruise lines Royal will at least try to make it better.

Welcome to the boards! Having no Playmakers is the worst, but OceanAria is the best. But considering you are new to RC, the best and worst from seasoned cruisers won't really matter as you should go into the experience with the most open mind. Something that is the best/worst for someone else might be the opposite for you. I would suggest looking at Matt's blog and post about the Allure.

It is free and everyone needs the app to communicate amongst each other. If you log on to everyone's devices, it will just be you.

Not yet. I think people have lumped CCL announcement with RCG. Grain of salt and all that. My Steward said they will be gradually easing down to more limited service. So, it is possible they my start out the same way Celebrity did by offering an incentive to reduce the service.

Day 6 Costa Maya continued.... This has been a trifling voyage. This guy met a woman at the casino and got her into the DL. She was vaping and being rude to the servers while talking loudly on her phone. He won big at the casino and was able to get a comped Jr suite. She was now going and all she had to do was put her mouth on him. Everyone could hear her and we all were disgusted. We talked to a very nice couple who are now going to be B2B as the next sailing is no where near as full as this one. I went to the casino and people watched. I talked to a nice dad who was in the casino trying to get Prime, he was as 2200 points and I cheered him on. He said he hasn't hit big here but last month on NCL he won $11k. Another lady came and I watched her do casino voodoo.....you know the tapping and tingling across the screen before each spin. Then it was time for dinner. Izumi was super packed, its formal night. Lots of the crew were doing dinners and hibachi. Our server kept placing all the food in front of me as if I was the only one eating. It made me look greedy. After dinner we got drinks at Trellis bar and then went back to the room. While at the bar this girl, clearly drunk, asked if we were a couple and did we want to hang. I declined and she went over to the next person. He was quite vintage buy he said sure and they left. Stray observations. Izumi prefix is less food. If you order the rolls it will be 4 pieces. The apps are also smaller portions. So instead of two large plates when it comes to sushi it will just be one. There is a popcorn machine in front of Blaze and they charge you. They seem to park it there when there are theater shows. There is tons of port construction so they are offering free shuttles to the parking garage on disembarkment day. @AshleyDillo I just looked at the app for my Grandeur sailing and Michelle Murlin is the headliner, you remember her and her jazz hands?