Sea Squirrel

Hi Everyone. Pre-covid we always tried to bring something small from Texas to thank our awesome crew as a personal gesture beyond extra tipping. Since the restart, we know crew doesn’t always get to go ashore as much as before so we’d like to hear what the crew wants. Have any of you heard things the crew likes but can’t get? What types of things do you bring?

We usually stay at Lago Mar when we sail out of Ft. Lauderdale. It is a beach club so everything is “charge to the account”. I don’t believe they allow pay as you go service. The food is pretty good, the pool servers keep the drinks cold and they have quite a few activities. The rooms are a little dated but overall we have enjoyed all our stays there. It is 10 min to the port.

Our daughter was 14 the one time she tried the teen club. The sailing we were on, it was mostly siblings so she didn’t stay with it. She’s 16 now and still prefers to stay with us. I think it is really what your teen is comfortable with.

I know you Neesa, you are definitely in a suite. The concierge will make sure you get your table a week out. They say they can’t book before embarkation day but we all know better, lol.

It wasn’t too many years ago Allure turned the Solarium bar into a Cigar Bar at night. They had a wonderful selection and the loungers were great. I am not a big cigar smoker but it was a nice way to spend a night. I hated seeing “cigars under the stars” banished to the cigarette smoking area.

I think if it is optional, no problem. My family would sacrifice the extra points however. Our daughter always sleeps on the pull out and we definitely like that made up and retuned to a sofa during the day.

Just curious, what are you expecting from C&A? Sounds like a corporate Customer Service issue.

Sorry I went Karen. Please forgive me!

We saw $999 on our November Oasis cruise. We passed because the weather can always be a bit finnicky in the Bahamas that time of year. We ended up just booking the Beach Club and the waterpark and still had a wonderful time. We’ve always booked OTW cabanas at Labadee and love the idea of the upgraded ones at CoCo Cay but too rich for our family of three. Btw, haven’t seen the price that low since Nov 22.

Am I the only one that thinks it weird to post on reaching a new status level? It is a great milestone and I send a hearty congrats but it just seems a bit over the top imho.

I’m sorry you had such a difficult time on Ovation. We sail Ovation in August and have big hopes and positive vibes for our sailing. Just like the others, I agree the 20% was generous. To put it in perspective, we sailed Star Class in November. Our bags, which based on previous Star sailings, should always stay with us, they were lost…for 8 hrs. Turns out RC sends them to be sanitized now due to covid. Now we know. Then, our Star suite had brown /red spots everywhere in the bathroom. We asked the stateroom attendant and he said it was construction glue. It wiped with a wet tissue. We were on the next sailing after a “special” cruise and didnt want to take chances. Both our toilets also broke that day too. We voiced our concern. At our first port, the Housekeeping Manager, our attendant and another officer scrubbed the walls clean. We still asked to see the manager. He of course came and we let him have it. Not about our issues but that due to short staff, our poor attendant was left by himself trying to take care of these rooms by himself. SC usually has 2 attendants per room. My poor man had 6 rooms by himself. We assured the manager that our attendant was top notch, overworked and still did everything with a smile and a hello every time we saw him. Our concern was management wasn’t pitching in to help and that is why our stateroom wasn’t SC clean. We thanked the manager for his help cleaning the bathroom and left it at that. The Mgr saw to it we were given a voucher for 15% off the next cruise. Obviously we were disappointed in our Star Class experience but we didn’t use that voucher because nothing ruined our great vacation. All was handled without one word to the genie. We tipped our attendant more than the genie on that one. We haven’t stopped booking Star either. Royal, IMHO always tries to set things right and we always appreciate the gesture and which is why, even with our complaints, we don’t want to sample the grass someplace else. Loyal to Royal until too old. Then Celebrity, lol. BTW, we were married in Cozumel quite a few years ago on an Allure sailing. This dumb new husband left our marriage license on a pile of shirts in a shop at the port. Found out after we departed. I’ve only seen my wife truly angry once and this was that time. After giving me a joking hard time, Allure crew immediately contacted the shore crew. Our license was found and was waiting for us via Fedex when we got home. Wheew! You can’t put a price on that. We love Royal.

Upgrades can’t be cancelled when they have been processed as they are non-refundable unless you cancel your booking. In this case, you will be refunded the money from your RoyalUp upgrade. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-happens-with-my-royalup-upgrade-if-i-cancel-my-booking

You may be right, it could just be personal preference. Wheels and handles are what matter most to me. I’ve thrown a few wheels over the years, never a good time. Zipper quality is also something I look at. Never had my zipper bust and my unmentionables scattered to the wind on the ramp and I don’t want to start now, lol.

We use the heck out of the ship’s laundry. I saw someone post that when you do the math, ship laundry is cheaper than the extra bag charges. Just be careful if you go the laundry route. We’ve lost a few delicates. I believe they must boil the laundry, lol. But they will fold a pocket square if you have one and place it for you.

We switched to hard side a few years ago and have been happy. The material is still not as light as soft but that is the trade off I think. My wife has a set Tumi Tegra Lite 2 and she loves them. I have seen a few votes for Away but we chose Monos for me and my daughter. Away and Monos both give you a great “100 day trial period”. We put both to the test. We landed on Monos. We just liked the wheels and the handles better on the Monos. However, they were both great and I can say without a doubt, Away took the “tried” bags back no questions asked and the refund was quick and easy. Their customer service is amazing. We did keep one Away carry-on bag for my daughter for her local dance team travel. It was that great. I’d recommend giving them both a shot. Tumi is Tumi, extremely nice…with the price tag to go with the label, lol but both Away and Monos are worth the test drive.

We are on Ovation in August.

Hi All. Thanks so much for the responses. My wife reached out last night and she did receive a response from the Genie. Immediately. All our other SC sailings have been surprises so this planning part is new for my wife. I believe the Genie addressed her concerns and made her feel much more comfortable giving up that control, lol. Should be a great week on Ovation!

Thanks Moby. We usually get a response within a day. My how times have changed.

Just curious, is it anyone’s experience to wait days without a reply from your Genie after initial contact. It has been our experience that responses come almost immediately. For our upcoming sailing, it has been more than two days.

@Moby Dick i understand the comparison but Disney deals in volume and unless you pay extreme amounts of money (far beyond my reach) Disney is self-guided whereas RC markets Star as a personalized experience. Don’t get me wrong, we still love Royal, just saying they might want to put a little elbow grease on the star and make it shine again. If you are selling intangibles (ie an experience) and market it that way, a company should be prepared to deliver. They are selling that fab anniversary, that amazing 16th BD, that memorable family reunion. Seems to us that has been lost somewhere in the numbers. Star is not supposed to be nor should be routine.

@WAAAYTOOOI agree, it is sketchy. Pre-pandemic, Star porters always kept bags with us in site. Not the case now. We haven’t always sailed in Star and knew to keep some things with us when boarding when that is the case. However, with Star, you are led to believe different by the standard “company email”. Regardless of unions in ports, when I hand my bag to RC, it now belongs to RC and they are responsible and that is where blame lies. I do not blame subs for what a prime is responsible for.

It sounds like you had the same experience with the bags that we had. We received a last minute Royal Up and even checked our original room for our bags. Guess what? We had Sea Pass cards on that door too. We tried them and they worked…we had 2 cabins. Scary that cards linked to my credit card were left on the door of a cabin we’d never use. Our bags were not there and the welcome aboard spread was better in our original cabin, lol.

Lol, I hear you @Moby Dick . The transition to the civilian world is hard.

I’ve read wonderful things about Marla. We feel the same way about Smitha. She was no nonsense. “What? Coastal Kitchen said they can not deliver breakfast before 7? Not while I’m here, we’ll fix that”. We had CK buffet (not room service) every morning in our cabin after that. “The manager did what at Giovanni’s? not on my watch. He will find you and apologize”. He found us at Hibachi in Izumi that night to apologize. He even sent a bottle of wine. We felt like rock stars. She was amazing. “No” from other crew was not an option for Smitha. We asked to get off early in one port. Smitha took us to the door. We literally were able to stand in the open door while we approached the pier. She was amazing. Love love love Smitha!

@smokeybandit is correct. The difference for Star is the processing in the lounge. No lines, the Genie had folks come to us while we waited, asked if we needed snacks or drinks and we boarded as soon as we were cleared. Our Genie scanned us in right after folks with special needs. We may have been the 10th passengers on Oasis that day. In fact, we boarded so early, we had to wait for Ultimate Abyss to open, lol