DAVE(Darkcabbie)

I'm so jealous we never get those deals in the UK  :P .

To say i'm happy is an understatement  :D  :D  :D  :D as soon as you can book we will be on the phone for a late 2015 cruise.

 

The only down side is that as she arrives the Independence will leave which is a shame as i really hoped that RC would expand the amount of ships based at Southampton  :( so our 2014 cruise may be the last time we sail on the Independence or the first time we cruise on Adventure.

If you leave a cash deposit for your on board account as we do then make sure you close it before bed on your last night. It stops you standing in long lines on the morning you leave the boat to get your unused cash back.

 

That is of course if you have any left :) :) :) .

It may have been our first RC Cruise but we love the Freedom Class.

I agree Don airfares are off the scale these days and air travel is not as chilled as cruising. So here's hoping that RC base more ships at Southampton and include a good Med cruise which includes Venice before time runs out.

It's on our bucket list also. We enjoy the smaller ships, if 96000 tons is small, so hopefully we'll get there before further bans.

We are planning a Mediterranean Cruise for next year but we can only find RC Cuises that have an itinerary that includes sailing into Venice if we fly to Barcelona which means luggage restrictions and airports.

 

After such a relaxing experience by going from Southampton we are hoping to avoid this so hopefully by next season there might be a change to some of the itineraries to include Venice from Southampton.

That would be a great idea Tyler as P&O do that in their restaurants with 3 celeb chefs.

 

You are so right when you said --(For the most part, dining onboard a Royal Caribbean ship is an upscale inviting experience with quality ingredients and attention to detail.)-- so RC should ensure that this level is kept up in any restaurants they have on onboard as food is a BIG reason why we all Cruise.

OR, is "don't fail to dine at Chops the #ONE useful thing to know"?

 

Good point Don I think that should be a useful thing to know.

Now if only for breakfast! Steak & eggs anyone?!

Now there's a great start to your day Shawn , a great steak with some eggs :) .

In a previous post i suggested that RC should maybe have there own version on their ships maybe called RCs Burger Shack or similar and having now tried Johnny Rockets and read your comments i really think this would be cool.

 

RC could still charge the $5.00 or even more and produce a venue with the same old style theme but with high quality handmade steak burgers, hand cut fries and very high quality sundaes and shakes etc and if on top of that they gave you the same service and dinning experience as the other specialty restaurants it would be a sure winner  :) .

Not sure if anyone has seen this article http://blog.cruisecritic.co.uk/index.php/2013/11/08/cruise-critic-readers-respond-venice-bans-cruise-ships/blog

 

The days of huge cruise ships sailing up the central Giudecca Canal into St. Mark’s Basin in Venice are numbered. From January 2014 the number of vessels weighing more than 40,000 tons authorised to cross the Giudecca canal — in front of St Mark’s Square, in the heart of the city – will be cut by up to 20% from 2012 levels. And in November 2014, ships weighing over 96,000 tons will be banned from the route completely. More info in the link above.

 

This is one of the things on my bucket list so i better move quickly as it may not stop at the ships weighing the above and could possibly see them stopping all Cruise ships sailing up the Giudecca Canal in the next few years.

 

I understand why they are doing this but it will be a shame to loose such a magnificent sail in view  :( .

 

Has anyone sailed into Venice and what are your thoughts on the possibility of this happening.

On some ships you can eat in Chops or Portofino on the first day lunch if the Windjammer gets too busy

 

Now that is handy to know.

 

Chops Grill as soon as you get on board mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  :D 

 

Although i would miss the Honey Stung Chicken but luckily room service has it on their menu.

 

So if any of the RC ships we go on has Chops available on the first day this will definatley become our 1st RC tradition  :)

LISBON Portugal  :D what a great city.

The Independence was our first experience of Johnny Rockets and it was good fun but the food was a little disappointing mainly because you could tell that they were using cheaper ingredients especialy in the Sundaes it really was a very low quality ice cream. the burgers were good but not out of this world and i had to send mine back as it was not cooked.

 

We did go back once more and it was slightly better. 

 

Would we go again ?? yes we would as it's fun but COME ON JOHNNY ROCKETS SPEND A LITTLE MORE ON GREAT INGREDIENTS 

As i mentioned in a previous post i am hoping that both will stay and that one of them will do a regular Transatlantic crossing to rival QM2.

 

It would be a clever move by RC if they did this as it is a very popular route and Cunard have dominated it to long. 

I'm so excited  :D  :lol:  :D and can't wait.

 

We will book asap if it happens but saddly does this mean the Independence will go to another port  :( .

We are not sure yet but it will be either the Independence or the Adventure as we want to go to the Mediterranean and we won't book till maybe January or February as that's when we seem to get the best book ahead deals.

 

Did I read in one of your posts that you love the Adventure of the Seas and if so what is she like compared to the Indy. Does she have a Chops Grill :) .

 

We are also wondering if RC are about to announce another ship for Southampton as they are holding a invitation only event with a big announcement 21st November this month in London. Have you or Matt heard anything about this.

One thing that is useful to know is that if you leave a credit card for charges and go to the Casino they charge you 5% each time you get cash to use in the Casino which I think is a liberty considering you going to give it back to them.

 

That's one reason why we always leave a cash deposit at guest services once we get on board as they don't charge if your account is cash funded.

Thought this would be a good place to tell us about all the need to knows while on board

Hey Tyler how you doin.

 

I love magic shows :) , unfortunately we missed the one on the independence.

 

We are hoping that the ship we sail on next year has a Broadway show like Saturday Night Fever or The Bodyguard as the Independence only had a ships production which was ok but not as good as watching something from the big stage.

We have been on a 3 night cruise and would probably consider it again but in the UK we are a bit limited as the cruise lines only do them at the end of the year and only go to France & Belgium for the Christmas Market.

 

RC normally do it as their final trip before heading across the Atlantic to the Caribbean for your Summer Season.

 

99% of the time though we would not go under 7 nights however if we had more short cruises available we would probably do 1 or 2 as well as our main cruise.

You are gonna have so much fun, which ship are you sailing on ?.

 

Shawn is right about going to the maitre d they always have spots available but you must do it as soon as you get on board :) .

 

I'm with Don about Chops Grill we spent both our formal nights there and it was fantastic, probably the best Steaks you will ever have.

Hahaha!

 

I played in the casino quite a bit on Jewel.  Did anyone play the Key Monster game in the casino?  If you don't remember the name maybe this will jog your memory

 

 

 

I pumped way too much money into this in a failed effort to win.  Fun but soooo frustrating

Yep I played it on the independence Matt it's fun but difficult. You have to be so accurate as there is probably a paper width top & bottom. I surrendered after $10.00 :) .

Key West is always high on our list. Peppers of Key West has best sauces in the South.

We love Key West , part of our honeymoon was spent at the Ocean Key Resort at the bottom of Duval Street :) .

Hey everyone. First time on the message boards and I was wondering if anyone here has taken a cruise to Italy around late August to early September. We booked a cruise for August 31st 2014 and I am trying to see if anyone has been there at this time to see how the weather is.  We would like to still be able to lay out and enjoy the sun as well as swim in the ships pools and maybe spend a little time on one of Italy's beaches while we are there. Want to make sure that the water will be warm enough to swim in. I heard there weather is similar to ours as in Hot in the Summer and cool in the fall.  

Any help would be appreciated..

 

Hi Chadnipp,

 

We just came back from the Canaries and our Cruise was from the 14th October till 26th October and the weather was superb. The Canaries was in the high 80s and you will be going further into the Mediterranean so you will have no problem with the water being warm and the sun being hot we were swimming in the pool most days at around 17:00 and it was fine.

 

Just make sure you take plenty of sun cream you will need it as i think it will be close to 90s  :)