IzzyB

On 11/14/2022 at 9:52 PM, Lugnut said:

I think RCCL is saying they're reducing the menu in order to speed up the MDR service. So in a way, they are saying it will "enhance your cruise experience". As for me, I have sometimes chosen from the 'classic' menu, particularly the French Onion Soup or the Caesar Salad. I just got off Grandeur a few days ago and I did select the Spaghetti Bolognese one night. I also frequently get Crème Brûlée for dessert. If the classic items indeed disappear I'll be disappointed. 

The classics are still there just not every night.  So like shrimp cocktail is now only 3 nights instead of all 7 for my cruise next week.  I am willing to give it a shot and see what happens.  Not that I have much choice since with my luck this started on the ship I am sailing.

22 hours ago, MaryCS62 said:

Looks like (without the symbols listed) that there are very few gluten free options, which is a big problem for my DD - choices were somewhat limited to begin with, and this just makes it worse

 

My understanding for GF you should tell them about this allergy and they have special stuff they can sub out.

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I think in my lifetime of cruising I got the daily classics once (NY Strip) and wasn't impressed. Flavor was good, but the texture was just odd.

 

That said, the classics, being rather basic and bland, were good for those with dietary restrictions in situations the other stuff couldn't be adapted too easily. I'm sure they've kept that in mind with the change.

I agree steak is the only thing I was looking at, however they did get rid of shrimp cocktail every night and that is going to disappoint my son.  He absolutely loves shrimp cocktail.  They do still have it 3 nights.  Also, Salmon was his backup when he didn't like other stuff, so he will just end up with something off the kids menu if he doesn't like the normal stuff.  They do have a variety of fish every night so he will like that.  Overall it isnt too bad, but people are complaining about the limit on tails, but honestly it is a better and larger tail you are now getting.  I wouldn't have gotten more than one anyways.   We will probably get one for the kids to share and eat what they don't eat.  I planned to pair it with steak anyways.

On 11/13/2022 at 2:53 PM, Dr. Facilier said:

We have just booked our first RC with Costco (all of our other cruises have been DCL, so we are feeling like fish out of water) - wondering if you know if we can book specialty restaurants ahead of time if they came as a perk of our Costco booking?  If not - do we have to wait until we get onboard?  Thanks so much!

Not sure we didn't get that perk, I am sure deals rotate around.  We did use our OB credit when booking activities.

Because we are going to Honduras testing is still required for non-vaccinated 12 and older.  I also received a similar e-mail, but it stated the below:

Pre-cruise
All unvaccinated guests ages 12 and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 3 days prior to sailing. Fully vaccinated guests and guests ages 11 and younger are exempt.
 

Which doesn't effect us since my son is the only one not vaccinated and he is 5.  So no testing required for us.

This post makes me very thankful that I don't drink a lot.  I may have 1 or 2 drinks the whole cruise.  That is why the drink package would never be worth it for me.  Even if money wasn't a factor 2 drinks max per day would be it for me.  I had unlimited free drinks so many times at this one work conference and I had a drink or 2 each day if that.  The first night it was one, the second it was 3 that I never finished any of them.  The third was 1.  Maybe it is because I have young kids, I just can't drink like I did in college.

On 10/29/2022 at 11:52 AM, TheMaxRebo said:

I used a travel agent but they did have to make basically two separate reservations that are linked - 4 people on one and 1 person on the other, but I see them connected on the trip planner 

 

I do hope if they are going to continue this trend of offering more rooms that fit more than 4 they make it easier to book a room with more than 4 people in it

Agreed, because Carnival and Disney both allow you to do more than 4 under one reservation online.

17 hours ago, TheMaxRebo said:

Booked a Infinite Family Balcony stateroom for Presidents Week in 2024, Western Caribbean ... was excited to see this type of cabin added as we are a family of 5

I was excited too, did you have to call to book it?  I noticed you couldn't do 5 people online.

On 10/20/2022 at 9:12 AM, Xaa said:

I think one of the strong aspects of what I'll call the "redesigned boardwalk" is that in addition to being a great place for families with young children to conveniently stay in one area, for the rest of us, families with smaller children will remain in one known area that can be avoided.

I agree with this.  Putting the kids clubs within that kids area will really separate out the ship making it so kid-free adults will be able to enjoy the ship too.

On 10/20/2022 at 11:58 AM, Templecruiser said:

I don’t get that they call these family oriented. All the suites except star class only hold 4 in a room. There are many 5 in a family. So where does that leave them? 

They do have the new family room that holds 6, but it is not suite class.  I feel they want no kids in the Suites.

On 10/20/2022 at 12:33 PM, mha1125 said:

I'm super excited about so many things about this ship - but I think they missed on what families that travel in suites/prefer sky class want! Only the surfside family suites have separate sleeping areas for kids and none of them are ocean view. Why would I pay suite prices and not even get an ocean view? Couldn't they at least make a few of the sky class suites connecting?? Frustrating that there are so few suite options for parents that don't want to sleep on top of their kids...

I was disappointed in the suite options as I always am with RC.  Putting them at 4 cuts out my family of 5.

6 hours ago, Susie said:

I mean if I want to book the family cabin that can sleep 5 people? Look like cannot book online correct? 

 

This is so annoying.  I was SUPER excited that they finally allowed me to put all 3 kids in my booking on the same room only to hit the page where it says call RC.  This is a huge miss by RC and I feel if they want to cater to families they need to make their website better and allow families of 5/6 be able to book on their website in the same room.

15 hours ago, Mike n Ky said:

Booking thru Next my September 2023 JS Allure cruise was $300 less than with Costco. My Next booking netted me 150 in onboard credit and a 200 down. Not sure what kind of gift card I would get from Costco had I booked with them. I do know my TA takes over the booking immediately after I completed it.

For me I am getting a large Gift Card, I get % back for having the higher costco membership, and I get a % back on my CC that is thru Costco.  I think I determined it was over $1000 I was saving booking thru Costco.  So while the cruise itself was the same price with just a little onboard credit, the GC and cash back was too good to pass up.  We are booking two cabins so RoyalUp was never something we could do anyways since we wouldn't guaranteed to be near each other if we did RoyalUp.  So the one negatives to Costco didn't matter to us.

4 hours ago, FloatyBoaty said:

The children's menu is right at the bottom of this sample menu:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/menus/chops-grille-menu-sample.pdf

Interesting.  The lunch menu on the website is smaller and doesn't include kids menu.  Does anyone know if Lunch and Dinner are the same?

13 hours ago, candmfox said:

I live directly across the river from the Artemis pad in Titusville. SteverK's description of his/her trips from the UCF campus to NASA usually only takes 45 minutes to an hour at worst. We travel to that area frequently for shopping and eating. An hour and forty-five minutes at 3am is absurd even if the roads were taken over by zombies. A two hour and thirty-minute drive back at 9am in what should have been "against" traffic (people living in Orlando and driving into work at NASA/etc.) would make most people here foam at the mouth. Plan accordingly - people will be packing the roads and viewing areas BEFORE the crack of dawn. Treat it like 495 around DC - you know it will be a disaster, give yourself plenty of time, and drive defensively.

If you are fortunate to have boarded your ship before the launch time, AND it actually launches, you'll have a tremendous seat at a historic event. It will shake your teeth. Supposed to be as loud as a jackhammer (depending on humidity, winds & rocket science gods). Enjoy.

Nice! You live in a prime location or viewing.  We are thinking of going to Shiloh's but it will depend on when we wake up and how bad 50 is.  Kids insist they can deal with traffic and waiting.  Parking is my main concern.

On 9/1/2022 at 5:49 PM, Ampurp85 said:

I believe there is a children's steak listed under the children menu.

I would want to see what kind.  Sometimes they do sirloin and then tend to overcook it making it so my kids are very meh about it.  They prefer nicer cuts and medium rare to rare which is hard to find with certain cuts at places.

Thanks everyone.  Without them listing the kids menu I don't want to even attempt that one.  So guess we will do no specialty this cruise.  I don't like how they don't list the children's menus online.

1 hour ago, Bowen said:

Yes I’m not doubting that people like to record things, I’m doubting that anyone recording is doing so while knowingly putting someone’s life at risk. 

I mean this post is literally started with a picture of fireman and clearly the person taking the picture was not where they should have been and looked to be very much in the way.

So it says when I go under lunch for Chops that kids must eat of the kids menu, but as adults we can have unlimited entrees, right?  So I could order extra for myself and give to my kids?  I wasn't going to do any specialty, but I could do lunch for around $60 for our family, but it won't be worth it if my kids can't get steak themselves.

I have done that route on launch days before and you need to give yourself some time.  We are planning to go to launch but plan to stay far away from beeline as that is a mess on launch days.

OK, so I had read from someone that it wouldn't be a big deal we have 5 since my son is only 5.  But then I read somewhere else that they are super strict and have bands and you can only get into the bed area with bands as there are attendants.  So which is it?  Is it super strict or if my 5 year old son is with us they won't blink an eye?  I mean we don't need two beds.  I understand capacity issues but my husband and I can clearly fit on the bed with our 5 year old and the two girls in the chairs.  So while 5 adults wouldn't work, with 2 adults and 3 kids it seems silly they would want us to book 2 beds.  It isn't like we are getting a free service per person or anything like specialty food or drinks.

It has been listed on my November cruise for months now, but at almost $200 pp we passed on that.  Not worth it.

15 minutes ago, karl_nj said:

I just send an email to my travel agent if i want to book a cruise.  She replies back with a price and a cabin number (or choice of cabins).  If everything looks good I just reply and she puts down a deposit on my card.  Works pretty well for me.

I guess I like to play around with options more.  See which decks have which cabins I may like and where they are on the boat and the different prices  Like how much extra is it to do a small upgrade or move locations.  Websites allow that without a lot of back and forth.

21 minutes ago, karl_nj said:

Another good reason to find a good travel agent!

Still have to talk to the travel agent lol

I am a techie so for me anything outside of being able to do it via a website is annoying to me.  Back and forth with a travel agent is annoying.  We just did two rooms this time as that looked to be the cheapest, but with Kids Sail Free I imagine one room would be the cheapest.  Would be nice to price compare cruises and rooms more easily on RC.  I used Costco this last time because I saved a TON of money. 

14 hours ago, AspiringCruisePlanner said:

Yup, and for RCCL the 5th person and up are assigned a different reservation number while being in the same room. This is likely why the reservations can't be made online for 5+. Super helpful.

Which again is a dumb thing about RC.  There are a lot of family of 5 out there and it would be nice if stuff could be done online.  I really don't like speaking with people over the phone lol

47 minutes ago, JohnK6404 said:

Hi @Love6grands!

My wife and I did the Blue Lagoon Island Dolphin Encounter last OCT (2021). They split us up into smaller groups (about 5-6 in each) so we could take turns entering the floating dock enclosure.

The couple in these screenshots (from the video of our group we purchased) had a small boy with them (probably 5 or so) and he had a good time. As IzzyB stated above, it will depend on the child. We climbed down the metal steps on the left into the enclosure (basically a covered floating pen) with a submerged grate/platform below us to stand on. The water was just shy of waist high for adults while standing on the platform in the water. You need to scoot really close to the edge of the platform so you can interact with the dolphin when he/she swims up to you. If your grandson is not comfortable in water, this could be a little scary since at times you feel very close to the edge of the platform. Maybe he can stand a couple of steps back and still reach the dolphin like the boy in these pics. I was a little nervous that I would slip on the platform into the deeper water at first, but that's just me!

Enjoy your cruise and your time with your grandson!

 

 

 

Did they require floats for the younger child?  If so that is also something to consider.  My son isn't a fan of life jackets (they ride up to his chin) and he is too big for puddle jumpers now.  So that would be good information for parents to know.  It is one thing on a boat not in water, but in water he is not a fan, luckily he is a very strong swimmer so he very rarely needs them in water.

How do unvaccinated have it easier?  They have always had to do more testing than vaccinated.

Also, why do you need to test again at port?  My understanding is only unvaccinated test at port to get on ship.

Supply and Demand.  If there happens to be a tour that is less popular that one excursion may go down, but the norm is prices go up as they get more booked.

Depends on the child.  My 4 year old did a Dolphin thing at Sea World.  I wouldn't hesitate to take him to a Dolphin encounter in the Bahamas if they allowed him.  Just check the age restrictions on the tour you are booking.  But some 5 year olds might be scared or no listen.  So I really think it depends on whether your grandson listens and follows rules.  My 4 year old has a cousin only 3 months younger and they are vastly different and there are things my son does that his cousin just is not capable of doing because he doesn't follow directions.  Like my son was able to forge a knife where his cousin played in the little kid area while all the other kids did knives.