Al Miller

If the plan is to jack up prices and lower selection and quality for specialty dining to the point that I don't spend ANY money on it anymore, then mission accomplished. Bravo Food and Bev team!

On 3/22/2024 at 6:35 PM, Jamesszy94 said:

 PLUS DID I MENTION THEY HAVE FOUR ENTIRE STATIONS JUST FOR SALAD.

In 2022 there were four "Hot Food" Islands on Anthem for Dinner. The last several cruises its only two with very noticeable reduction in selection and quality. And they just spread the salad and bread/sandwich selections over a couple extra stations. I've never been a MDR fan so I'll defer to others if that's better or worse. I do know Jamie's Italian has had their menu revamped and IMO a noticeable drop in all around quality and selection. For our family it went from a must do to a never again. And like the MDR, Chops has never impressed me. I've had decent meals there but it just seems very uninspired anymore. Unless I catch some super duper sale price, I don't see me ever going back to Chops either. It saves me money in the short term I suppose but I do miss specialty dining. Maybe with Odyssey and Symphony coming to NJ, I'll give them a shot again in the future. But the way things have been trending in this regard, I have a feeling it wont be much different.

On 4/9/2024 at 11:22 AM, tjcruisers said:

I've had to get a safe unlocked twice, once my wife typed in our wrong code on locking it and forgot what she typed in, the second time previous passenger left it locked. In both cases it required an officer to come down and unlocked. In the case of the previous passenger leaving it locked, it was the housekeeper waiting at our room saying she's waiting for the officer to come and unlock the safe, both cases the housekeeper had no ability to do it

Yep. We had to do this once. The Previous people left the safe with the door open but the locking rods or whatever they are called in the locked position. Making the safe impossible to close and lock without knowing the code used. We had to wait an hour or so for the officer to come with the tool that unlocks it. He said he has to do a few nearly every embarkation day and a couple of times during the sailing.

The cabin stewards cant get in there unless it was left unlocked.

1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Both amazing and sad. Incredible they closed traffic that fast but sad they couldn't get the guys working on the bridge.  

When we watched the video on a big screen it looked like traffic stopped or no one was on the bridge other than the construction crew and I was like boy that's some luck there was no traffic at that time. But now we see they were able to close it off to traffic. 

Its crazy! looks like the last cars crossed like 30 seconds before the impact. Maybe 45 seconds.

1 hour ago, Jmccaffrey said:

	Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore) 185 feet (56 m)  and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is 186 feet

I'm from Maryland and before I got into Cruising I always assumed the Chesapeake Bay bridge was MUCH taller than the Key bridge. I guess because its a suspension bridge with the accompanying  huge spires it seems so much taller then the cantilever style of the Key Bridge. 

26 minutes ago, Jmccaffrey said:

While I do wonder what RC will do (odds they will move this ship to NYC), but right now I am praying to for everyone

Yeah, Norfolk or Bayonne would be my guess. And a whole bunch of charter busses.

It's a bit of a shame that in order to fully appreciate what cruising has become these days we have to spend so much time being an apologist for the things that have gotten worse of late. Not everyone cares about the same things. So it's all subjective. It's just frustrating when you know how it was not that long ago. But to be fair, many folks have always thought the food on Royal was terrible. Personally, I'm taking a break from cruising for a while. Maybe some separation will help me appreciate what we do still have.

16 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

A screen shot works? They accept that and scan that? Maybe dumb questions.

As far as they are concerned, it's just a bar code to scan. They do not care where they scan it from.

As a side note. If you know how to "clear storage" on the royal app periodically, it sometimes alleviates a lot of these problems. You'll have to re-input username/password, but it forces the app to refresh all its stale data.

18 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Ok, broke down and printed the set sail passes. In 2024 you should not have to but Royal Caribbean can't be trusted. 

Coulda, should, woulda... If your Wireless provider fails (Looking at you AT&T) you'll be very pleased with yourself for taking the time to print it out.

1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

The three big scoops of high quality ice cream that I remembered from Anthem were three small scoops of normal ice cream

Symbolically, this represents nearly all the changes of the past year IMO. Add "and it costs more than ever" and you have summed up this past year on Royal.

3 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

As always, food is subjective. Some of us enjoy the included dining options quite a bit. I'm one of them.

I used to be there with you. But they have beaten me down. Glad you still enjoy it.

Had lunch at Jamies last week for Embarkation day on Anthem. Yeah, it's the first outright bad meal I've had there. Everything was just a notch lower than it used to be. The "Squid" was rubbery and the oil it was cooked in was spent. So it tasted vaguely burnt and the coating just all fell off. Terrible. Meat plank was good. Hard to mess that up. Tagliatelle was one large gummy mass. Sauce was okay I guess, it was just hard to get past how bad the pasta was. The replacement for the JI burger is the Chicken "Burger." It tasted fine but was minuscule and mostly bun. But the sauce used was great and while appetizer sized, was the best thing I had. The formerly "Epic" brownie definitely lived down to its name change. Same brownie you get in the WJ. Two dots of Chocolate sauce and three bits of the caramel popcorn. the salted Caramel Ice cream was good.

It's just MDR/WJ food now served by a waiter. They might as well just bring on Giovanni's whatever.

The Dog house is underwhelming IMO. No chili or cheese is the biggest sin to me. It seems like an afterthought so they could add a checkbox for an additional complementary option. And that's about as far as it ever got. Really not much effort put into it. It closes too early and on quantum ships it is an out of the way location, easy to miss. Topping selection is pretty lacking.

Right after the restart they were doing on ship baked rolls at the dog house and they were better than the dogs to be honest. Not sure about now but would not be surprised if they are no longer baked on the ship.

But lets be honest, at this point no one should be coming to Royal expecting good complimentary dining options. They barely even put in the effort in their up-charge offerings. Unless you consider raising prices and cutting selection and quality "putting in effort." 

I like the look of the fountain from the promenade when it is in the fully up position.

Apparently if you want a pool without the "thump thump" rattling your brain you gotta stay on the ship.

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

By cover bands you mean bands dedicated to one artist/era?

Or the house band playing cover songs?

I guess I really meant Tribute Bands. Like AeroMyth or Slippery When Wet. Sorry.

Good to hear. Maybe after a few more "record setting" quarters we can at least get that back.

So are the cover bands on Quantum and Oasis ships officially a victim of the cutbacks? Haven't seen one on my last three Cruises on Anthem and Oasis. Anyone seen one in the last year or so?

I only brought it up because they are the same class Ship as Jubilee which you mentioned you might consider if it were closer to you. No big deal. The main thing keeping me off other lines right now is the hassle of the Manhattan Cruise terminal compared to Cape Liberty. But I may just have to get over that and book NCL.

On 2/2/2024 at 11:35 PM, Rackham said:

I'm wondering if Royal wouldn't try a promenade with enhanced sea views leading to a Two70 or AquaDome-ish (minus the water) style venue.

I like the idea of a scaled down 270 lounge on a ship that size. Like a Mini-Quantum class ship.

It's marked 30% off at 26.99 on Anthem next week. I don't want to go, but I hope it sells out so as to take some load off the rest of the island. If, after I board they have one of those fire sales for $20, I'd consider it just to see what it's all about for myself. The Beach Club is the one I wish I'd see come down. But that never seems to happen anymore.

14 minutes ago, Mrs. Thomas said:

If CCL's newest ship that is in Galveston was in FL then I would look at it harder,

Aren't Mardi Gras and Celebration home ported in FL? If they'd come to NYC I'd give them a shot for sure.

On 2/3/2024 at 10:03 AM, BMW Hoosier said:

So, what should they do? Underprice the market and piss people off because nothing is available? Or price at the current market prices, make new loyal customers while the other's age and ultimately die?

I am no business man. They should do what they want. It's working fine for them so for.  But when/if the market gets saturated and they NEED that loyal base that cruises several times a year to fill up their ever expanding inventory, they may have trouble getting them back. But it may never come to that. The supply of "once a year" families might very well be enough to sustain them. That's all. Like I said, their plan is working great so far profit-wise.

I agree. They are slowly alienating what once was considered their base. That base has a value that is difficult to quantify until you no longer have it. And they are going to have A LOT of new inventory to sell in the coming few years. I am curious to see how this goes.

4 minutes ago, Starrynight0154 said:

CEO Jason Liberty is predicting another stellar year for 2024 and company profits.

Woo Hoo!!! You know what that means!? Price increases across the board! Are you ready for the $150 per day Beverage package? $5 to look in the direction of the Pearl for more than 5 seconds? $100 for Chops? $25 General admission to Coco Cay? What a time to be alive!!!