trainer.stan

Hi all, I'm Donal from Ireland, first cruise was aboard Navigator in 2008, our fifth cruise will be this coming October on Liberty sailing out of Barcelona. I first heard Matt on the Cruize Cast podcast with Kayleigh and James, and when they mentioned he had his own, I've been listening since. Looking forward to contributing to the board and to the podcast as well. 

Welcome to the boards and thank you for listening to the podcast!  :D
 
In terms of finding out about last minute deals, there are a couple of ways I find out about them...
I follow @RoyalHotDeals on Twitter.  It's Royal Caribbean's account with deals I subscribe to weekly deal alerts from sites like TravelZoo.  They usually spread news about really good deals quickly I've told my travel agent I want to know about good deals on Royal Caribbean  :lol: You bring up a great point about finding out about these deals as a possible show topic or part of one.  
 
Since you live in Florida, you have the greatest access to last minute deals so take advantage of it!  In terms of deals for solo travelers, there aren't really deals just for people sailing solo but if cruise is cheap enough, even the single supplement isn't a bad deal.  I guess you need to find a friend to go with you!

Many thanks Stan, that is great information. Much appreciated.

Mike here from Lake Tahoe, will be taking 1st cruise apr 2014 on Oasis, looking forward to a wonderful time.

Hi Marsude,
 
These are the current RCI excursions for New Noumea and as Matt said port timings for a Sunday may have an impact not sure.   What we do is on day one read the Excursions Brochure that is in your stateroom make any bookings you want to do with RCI (on the TV in room) - done and dusted no problems. 
 
Noumea City Sights with Cheese & Wine Tasting
Discover Dumbea River by Kayak
Noumea City Sights & Aquarium
Discovery Tchou Tchou Train
Tjibaou Cultural Center
Forest Park & Bird Sanctuary
City Orientation Tour
Noumea Sights & Anse Vata Beach Stop
Zodiac Ride to Duck Island
Noumea City, Bays & Countryside
Noumea City Sights, Aquarium & Beach
Noumea Mangrove Discovery
Segway at Botanical Gardens
Stand Up Paddle Boarding
Sail the Bays of Noumea
Line Fishing in New Caledonia Lagoon
 
Hope this helps with your planning.. please note some of these excursions can be booked from the Noumea Passenger Terminal as well. 

It's official: http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/11/15/royal-caribbean-officially-launches-new-unlimited-alcohol-packages
 
I have to give kudos to Royal Caribbean for not only rolling out more packages but adding extra benefits to the old packages and keeping the price point.  Well done

Info on there seems similar to the news we saw a few weeks ago that indicated Anthem was coming to Southampton http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/09/02/more-proof-anthem-of-the-seas-sail-out-of-southampton

Just came across this site don't know how reliable it is.Here's the link.
 
http://www.shipcruise.org/rccl-anthem-of-the-seas-itinerary/

Hi Marsude,
 
These are the current RCI excursions for New Noumea and as Matt said port timings for a Sunday may have an impact not sure.   What we do is on day one read the Excursions Brochure that is in your stateroom make any bookings you want to do with RCI (on the TV in room) - done and dusted no problems. 
 
Noumea City Sights with Cheese & Wine Tasting
Discover Dumbea River by Kayak
Noumea City Sights & Aquarium
Discovery Tchou Tchou Train
Tjibaou Cultural Center
Forest Park & Bird Sanctuary
City Orientation Tour
Noumea Sights & Anse Vata Beach Stop
Zodiac Ride to Duck Island
Noumea City, Bays & Countryside
Noumea City Sights, Aquarium & Beach
Noumea Mangrove Discovery
Segway at Botanical Gardens
Stand Up Paddle Boarding
Sail the Bays of Noumea
Line Fishing in New Caledonia Lagoon
 
Hope this helps with your planning.. please note some of these excursions can be booked from the Noumea Passenger Terminal as well. 

Hi Lesley and Dennis here ... We are both 60 and Rhapsody Christmas Cruise will be our first cruise and we are very excited ... It will be a bit different to sailing ... Any tips?

Hi.Just joined tonight as I love Royal Caribbean.I'm 33 and live in the UK.Just done my second cruise last month on Liberty Of The Seas.Just booked for Independence Of The Seas next October 11 nights.

Hello All,
My name is Tate, and I reside in Philadelphia, PA. My fiancé is Latona, and this will be our second cruise together. My step son, Noah is accompanying us for the first time on this cruise.
We are all looking forward to this experience, an next year taking a summer cruise for Noah's graduation gift.

Hi everyone - David & Jan from Surrey, UK - first Royal Caribbean cruise, Serenade of the Seas from Barcelona 15 November. Been on Celebrity a few times, including back to backs in the Caribbean earlier this year.
Be very interested to see how RCL compares.
 
Absolutely love cruising now after coming to this type of holiday only three years ago and wouldn't do anything else.

Thanks for the updates.  Your trip had a very interesting itinerary.  I must live vicariously though wonderful blogs like yours for itineraries like this. I like to zoom in on Google Earth to the port stops and view pictures.  It’s like I was right there with you!  You also had some good insight to ship details.  Great job!

Friday 25th October
Well sadly it's here our final day of the cruise and we have had the most amazing time whilst on board. Every day has been a full day whether ashore or at sea and we have lots of fantastic memories and loads of pictures and video. Whilst on board we have made a lot of new friends and had some hilarious times and we hope to meet up on future cruises. The service and food has been phenomenal and although most of the staff may not read this we would like to say a massive THANK YOU for making us so welcome and giving us so many good times :) WE KNOW HOW HARD YOU WORK AND THE LONG HOURS YOU DO TO MAKE OUR VACATION AMAZING.

Today we are having a sleep in and then going for lunch in yep you guessed it the Windjammer again and then spend most of the day just walking around and enjoying our final hours on board. Later on we will choose our dinning venue for the evening and are then going to hit the casino one last time and finish our evening having drinks with friends in the Viking Crown lounge.

WE ARE REALLY GOING TO MISS THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS BUT WE WILL BE BACK.

THANKS FOR EVERTHING RC AND SEE YOU SOON :) :) :) :)

Thursday 24th October This morning we arrived in La Coruna at 10.00 am and it was raining but to be honest we weren't expecting much with the weather as we are close to the Bay of Biscay. After the usual good Windjammer breakfast we braved the rain and went ashore. If you like shopping it has some great shops and some nice cafes. There are also some nice places to visit and if you feel energetic you can walk to Hercules Tower but because of the weather we just bought a few more gifts and then had a coffee. The rain had eased off by then so we went back to the ship. La Coruna is actually quite a big place and if the weather is good you could have a really nice day here.

Once we were back on the fabulous Independence we mapped out the rest of our day which was to head to the gym and even though the weather was bad we still went for a swim at the solarium and then a jacuzzi which we were really pleased about as we thought that yesterday was going to be the last time. I have to say that RC has the best gym at sea and we love the way the Solarium makes you feel like your in a big spa that you would find ashore with big comfy chairs and hammocks. We then grabbed some food from the Windjammer and took it to our room as we decided to pack this afternoon so that we can enjoy tonight and our last day tomorrow without the usual hassle of thinking that at some point you have to stop having fun and pack. Tonight we are going down at 20:00 for the $1000.00 prize raffle and then we are going to the Viking Crown lounge for drinks and dinner in Johnny Rockets as it's free because we have some vouchers from accumulated slot points.

Tomorrow is our last day and is at sea with Southampton soon to be in sight.

Listen here: http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-12-royal-caribbean-ship-classes
 
On this week’s show, we’re explaining the different classes of ships in Royal Caribbean’s fleet. Royal Caribbean’s fleet is comprised of 21 ships and they’re not all the same. Let’s look at the different classes of Royal Caribbean cruise ships and explain the similarities and differences among them. We will talk about what’s unique about the ships, what sort of itineraries you typically see with each class.
 
Share with me your thoughts, questions and comments via...
Twitter: @therclblog Facebook: /royalcaribbeanblog Email: [email protected] Leave a voicemail: (408) 6ROYAL6

My selection would be Radiance class. 
 
Radiance class are approximately a 10,000 tonnage larger ship than Vision class with about the same amount of passengers.  So in my opinion you get more deck space per person.
 
110 days to go to cruise on Rhapsody of the Seas to prove my theory.

Wednesday 23 October
Today was another sea day and our second formal night so we decided to sleep in to try and recharge a little and knowing that we would miss breakfast we had decided to have lunch in Brasserie 30 in the MDR. The menu only had a small selection but had some nice things to choose from so we had salad to start which turned out to be huge as it was like an assembly line with loads of different items to choose from. The chefs then put each item you chose in a bowl and mixed it with the dressing of your cholce it was delicious but we couldn't eat it all. Next I had a really good burger and my wife had chicken sliders.

After lunch we hit the pool and jacuzzi and as I was wet anyway I had a go on the Flowrider which was brilliant, I had never done anything like it before but decided to try the surf boards and I managed to stand up 3 times out of 6 with one go lasting 20 seconds which anyone who has tried it knows is not bad but the other 3 times were hilarious total wipeouts. Next we headed for bingo and only just made the start so I didn't check the price and couldn't belive it when my wife said it was $64.00 for the two of us and to make it worse you only got 4 games (1 game per card) for your money, normally you get 3 games per card TOTAL RIP OFF..... Ok moan over.

Next we went back to the room to get ready for formal night and again our choice for dining was Chops Grill as it was so good last time, it didn't disappoint as again it was 5 star service and phenomenal steaks. For starters I had a goats cheese and basil souffle and my wife had the cheese and onion soup to follow we both opted for the fillet mignon and of course I had to go for the 10 ounce and on the side we had baked potatoes, stir fried broccoli, asparagus and onion rings and finally for dessert we both opted for the creme brule as it was so good last time and we love the fact it is bought to you with flames which caramelise the sugar in front of your eyes. Wow that place is goooooooood and we can't wait to go back on our next cruise :) . After dinner we had some photos taken and then It was cocktails and Casino Royale. Tomorrow we are in La Coruna Spain which is our last port off call.

Tuesday 22nd October This morning we arrived in Funchal Madeira which was one of the places we have really been looking forward to. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side as it was raining and windy but this was not going to stop us having a good day ashore. By the time the Indy had come to a halt at the berth the rain had eased up so we decided to skip breakfast and head straight off. What was very disappointing was that the ship had shortened our departure time by 2 hours and we had to be back on board by 14:30 for a 14:45 sail away so hence our haste. Our short time ashore was great and we made the most of every minute that we had and fortunately we had planned our day whilst back home. First we walked from the ship along the waterfront to the Cable Cars which takes approximately 30 mins and once there we got on our Gondola to take the 15 minute ride to the village of Monte at the top. The ride up was great with amazing views of the Independence and Funchal below us and at one point we disappeared into the clouds. As soon as we got to the top we set off to ride the traditional Toboggans down to Livramento. The ride takes about 10 mins and was awesome :) :) and is a must do for anyone visiting Madeira it was well worth the price of €30.00. There are a few options to get back down to Funchal and we decided on a cab which cost €10.00, oh and I nearly forgot to mention be warned the queue for the Toboggans is very long and it took us 40 minutes to get to the front. When we got back to Funchal we still had time to vist the markets and shops and then walked back to the ship.
 
The Independence was a welcome sight as we were both starving as we still had not eaten so once we got on board it was straight up to the Windjammer for lunch and hey Matt you was right again they only seem to serve the honey chicken on the first day although you can order it from room service and yes I did more than once. Throughout the this cruise so far our stateroom attendant Selvin and the room service has been excellent. While we were finishing lunch we started to leave our berth and as we had a good view from our table we got some nice photos. Straight after lunch we went down to the Ice Rink to see a show which was pretty good and I have to applaud the skaters for their superb skating while the boat was moving. When the show ended we decided to hit the gym and then a swim and jacuzzi. The swim tonight was extra fun as we had hit rough seas so it seemed like we had our own personal wave machine although we were worried that they may close the pool but luck was on our side and they left us alone.
 
Dinner was in the Windjammer and yes I know we go there a lot but the food is so good and tonight we had Teriyaki Steak. After dinner it was Cocktail and Casino time :) :).
 
We have been on board for long enough now to give a small review of our cruise experience on the Independence. The ship has been amazing and I think we will need a holiday when we get back because there has been so much to do and see on board it does kind of tire you out. Everywhere we have eaten the food and service has been 5 star except for Chops which we would give 7 stars. The staff have been friendly and attentive and have done everything possible to make sure that we are having a great time and the ship always looks clean and well maintained. Tomorrow is a day at sea.

Monday 21st October Arrived early this morning into Tenerife and opened the balcony doors to a sunny 88º. After breakfast we boarded the free RC shuttle bus to the port entrance and decided to use the hop on hop off bus for a tour of the town which had been good in some of the other ports we visited but oh boy was it a mistake here. It cost €16.00 each and was rubbish, we knew this wasn't going to be good as he went past the same place 3 times and circled a roundabout 3 times also. So basically it was a wast of money and my recommendation is if you come to Santa Cruz Tenerife do an RC tour or stay on board as there is not much to see or do. We decided to head straight back to the ship spend the rest of the day doing fun stuff up on the pool deck.
 
I have to say that my one and only real frustration with RC is getting back on board as there is always a long queue and the elevators are really slow and often get to level 3 and then go up again so this can be very annoying when you have been waiting for some time on level 1. Tonight we decided to have dinner on our balcony and drink the bottle of Champagne that my wife won on day 2 , this was an excellent choice as the food was great and it was a gorgeous evening. After our meal we went down to the promenade and had a coffee in Cafe Promenade while my wife waited for the raffle draw she had entered which was to guess the length of the necklace on display and we couldn't believe it when she won again and she had also recently come second in the slot tournament. The night was finished off in our usual way and then we headed off to bed. Tomorrow we are in Funchal Madeira

Sunday 20th October We awoke today looking forward to our one trip that we have booked with RC which was a Southwestern and Yellow Submarine tour which takes us to the far side of the island to Puerto De Mogan which is nicknamed Little Venice and a dive in a Submarine and the onto Maspalomas to see the Sand Dunes. After the usual great breakfast in the Windjammer we left the ship and boarded the coach to begin our day. The trip was fantastic and is a must do if anyone does this Cruise, Puerto De Mogan is amazing and is one of the most peaceful and scenic little fishing harbours we have seen. It was just a shame we only had 1hr free time there as we didn't want to leave and the dive in the Submarine was cool too, then it was off to the Sand Dunes for a photo stop and the back to the ship. We got back just in time for afternoon tea and my wife found some Scones with fresh cream and strawberry jam which were really good.
 
One thing that is really good to see is how much effort goes into keeping the ship virus free as we constantly see the crew cleaning every inch of the Independence and reminding people to use the gel dispensers but what is bad is the amount of people who don't wash their hands after using the toilet.
 
After tea we hit the gym, had a swim and hit the Jacuzzi in the solarium for sail away..... Man I love those Jacuzzis that hang over the edge. Dinner was nice and we spent the rest of the evening chatting with friends and having fun on the Promenade. Gran Canaria has been fantastic and we will definitely visit the Island again. We really really don't want to leave this ship as she is a real home from home and I have to say 12 nights is not enough time on board to do everything. If RC ever do a World Cruise the Independence would be perfect :) , still no need for me to get fed up yet we still have 5 more days to go. Tomorrow we are in Tenerife.

Saturday 19th October We awoke this morning to find ourselves already docked in Lanzarote but as we were doing our own thing today there was no rush. Once we were ready we went off to the Windjammer for breakfast and I had another great omelette and a pile of breakfast ham which I love plus some fruit and my wife had her favourite of pancakes with maple syrup and crispy bacon. Yet again the food and service was excellent :) . With breakfast finished we set off to explore Lanzarote and had purchased tickets for the shuttle bus provided by RC at a cost of $12.00 each as it was too far to walk into town in the 82º heat. Our overall impression was that Lanzarote needed a good clean as it was a little run down in parts and had a lot of graffiti. It had a good shopping area and a pleasant promenade to walk along but to be honest if we stop there again on a cruise we will stay on board as we didn't really like Lanzarote.
 
Our favourite part of this visit was seeing our floating palace come into view and it doesn't matter how much we keep seeing the Independence from shore we are still amazed how big she is and this really becomes apparent when you walk from the back of the ship where our room is to the gym. As we came back early we had a little siesta and then the usual gym & solarium. After freshening up we had dinner in the Windjammer for a change he he :) . There is nothing wrong with MDR we just like all the other options that are available more. Tonight after dinner we played mini golf by moonlight which was fun even though my wife beat me, the course may be small but its well laid out and I think its great that its open 24 hours and after that yep you guessed it , drinks, casino and bed. Without a doubt we are having the best time of our lives and are going to book a Mediterranean Cruise when we get back. Tomorrow is Gran Canaria.

Friday 18th October We slept in today as we had a late night and exploring Lisbon had tired us out but we did manage to get some breakfast from the Windjammer. I just love everything about the Windjammer, the food is always good and it's different every day which I find incredible considering the choice of food you have and the amount of people they feed and also the service from the staff is superb :) , nothing is too much trouble. After breakfast we hit the shops on the Promenade and I really think that RC have hit it spot on with their idea of basically a shopping mall on a ship because most of the time you forget you are at sea. Take Cafe Promenade for example , you actually feel like you are in a coffee shop in a city so I say WELL DONE RC WE LOVE IT :) :) . We then decided to hit the gym and then try out the solarium for a swim and a chill in the jacuzzi which hangs from the side of the ship. The pool was great and is big enough to swim some lengths and the jacuzzi was big , hot & bubbly with great views. Unfortunately it was then time to leave the solarium and get ready for dinner.
 
Our choice for tonight was Giovanni's and we couldn't wait to get there. As soon as we arrived we were shown to our table and had been seated next to the Captain and his Officers, WOW dinner with the Captain well close anyway he he. We were slightly disappointed to find that the menu was different from what we had read on RCs website as there was no Lasagne and no Cannelloni but there was some good things to choose from. The food was of a really high standard but was surprised to find that it was more fine dining than family especially as RC promote it as family dining experience. We both decided Chops was the better of the two but the desserts in Giovanni's were awsome with great Canolis and Tiramisu. Tomorrow we are in Lanzarote in the Canaries.

Thursday 17th October We got up by 06:00 this morning and had ordered breakfast to the room as we wanted to see the pilot board and enjoy the sail into Lisbon which takes about 40 minutes till you reach the berth. As we headed in it began to get light and we were able to enjoy the sights along the shore and then just before we docked we had to go under the 25th April Bridge which is a sister bridge to the Golden Gate in San Francisco and is the third longest suspension bridge in the world, and we only just got under. Again we opted to do our own tour which was massively cheaper than the ships tour. We paid €15.00 each and that allowed us to use the hop on hop off bus & tram tour and this also included entrance to some of the attractions, trust me this is a great way to see Lisbon as we covered most of the city and sights. After a long but great day we got back to the ship about an hour before sail off and went up to deck 12 for the sail away. The sun was still hot so we chilled on some loungers and listened to the reggae band and at around 18:00 we set sail.
 
Dinner tonight was in the Windjammer and as usual the food was great and then we went to see the Bohemians who are a Queen tribute band in the Alhambra Theatre and then onto the 70s dance party on the Promenade which was fantastic and then the usual, Casino and drinks. The entertainment on the ship is more than outstanding as there is so much to choose from. The only downside so far was that we purchased a soda package only to find that the new machines are not on the Independence so we asked for a refund and RC gladly credited our account. Tomorrow is another sea day and we have booked Giovanni's for dinner.