Aron_Ross

Just wondering what Thrill Water Park is going for on this sailing.

Oh my! I see things have changed for this sailing. Hi all, I'm not on this cruise but I did this same one last year, May 11th to May 19th Vancouver to Seattle 8 night. It was such a life changing experience, that I just wanted to see what was happening this year. My girlfriend and I spent two days in Vancouver prior to the cruise, and that just added to how awesome the trip was. Sorry you all won't be visiting Sitka. Not sure if I saw a reason Royal is skipping it. To those who will be visiting Alaska for the first time I say to you...I'm very jealous! I have one word of advice about the worst part of the cruise, and that was embarkation day! Radiance of the Seas and a Seabourn ship were also heading out to Alaska that day. It was a complete unorganized mess!! Cananda place just couldn't handle it. My advice, know where you are going, especially if you are checking in a bag, check in online and show up promptly or even a little earlier for your designated boarding time. Unfortunately, we did all of that and it was still a disaster. Hopefully this year it will be better, and you guys experience the amazing weather we had!

My wife and I loved 270 for the views and a nice quiet place to enjoy our morning coffee. As for the food we didn't like it at all. Breakfast was just ok and so limited. In the afternoon I tried the roast beef sandwich, and it was terrible! I'm talkin hard bread with a super low quality chewy slice of beef. The staff in there seemed like they were very uninterested in what they were doing, and the girl slicing the beef looked like she just learned how to do it. This was Ovation of the Seas inaugural sailing to Alaska from Vancouver May 11th to May 19th 2023. I will say, the cruise and the Alaska experience was sooo amazing that I would daydream about it 3 weeks later while at work. Really liked Brian Leavitt the cruise director!

My wife and I cook a lot, we are not chefs or experts, but we do tend analyze what we eat whether on land or at sea. I find that on the three cruise lines we've been on (Princess, Royal, Carnival), they all have food quality issues. Some are better at the buffet food/complimentary eats, and others are better at the Main Dining Room. Ten cruises total and the BEST buffet was a cruise we took on Royal Princess in 2019. It was so good we regrettably never got to try their Italian/pizza restaurant, which most people raved about. Of course food is subjective, which is something to take into consideration. We sailed on four different ships with Royal from 2022 to 2023 and we thought the MDR food was better than the buffet for dinner. It was usually hot and fresh. We experienced both the old menu and the new. Sure there were some items that we didn't care for, but honestly we experienced more of the bad in the Windjammer, which by the way was best at lunch. Some of the complimentary food around those ships were surprisingly pretty bad too. Our favorite of the specialty dining was Giovanni's Italian Kitchen, which I believe is on Wonder. I've heard people love Mason Jar and some who grew up on southern cooking, said it was not authentic and Cracker Barrel quality. I wouldn't know, I've never been to either one. Sailing with picky eaters can be tricky. Would love to know how it all works out. Keep us posted...

Just curious which ship you took for that 8 day Aruba cruise? My 8 day to Aruba was Harmony in mid Nov 2022, and the worst food on that cruise was in The Windjammer for dinner. The food was cold and tasteless! The MDR was definitely a step up for dinner. Mini Bites was SOOO bad, Chops was just ok, 150 Central Park good but not sure I would spend the money on it again. I just wasn't blown away by 150 and expected it to be much better. Not a fan of Jaime's Italian, which I tried on Harmony and Navigator. Giovanni's on Freedom was way better and might be my favorite out of the specialty dining I've tried. We tried all the different dogs at the Boardwalk Dog House and only the chicken apple one was good. The rest were not good at all. If you have a hot dog on your menu that is labeled as Sicilian, where's the flavor? It had none whatsoever. My wife and I sailed on four different Royal ships between 2022/2023 and found the food quality to have more misses than hits. We don't expect 5-star restaurant food, but we don't appreciate stale hamburger buns, cold buffet food, hard as a rock cheese biscuits, black beans that are undercooked and food items that either had no taste, or so much salt that it burned our mouths. I just expected better from Royal, especially when prices keep going up. Like you, dining is an important part for us and some of those issues I mentioned are such easy fixes. I'm not the biggest Sorrento's fan, but when it was hot and fresh on Ovation it was actually good, probably the best Sorrento's experience. We like Royal and has its pro and cons just like other lines we've sailed, such as Carnival and Princess, we just wish they would be more consistent with the food. We will be trying Celebrity and Virgin Voyages this year. Looking forward to both!

I guess since I live in Los Angeles I am spoiled with great Mexican food, but each time I've had El Loco Fresh I thought it was bad. Had the Kummelweck on Harmony in Nov 2022. I was very excited to try it, especially since people in our Facebook group raved about it while they were on the sailing right before ours. Everything about that sandwich was awful! The bread was stale, the meat was tough and very low quality. Those people claimed to know their Beef on Weck sandwiches too, so that was a major disappointment!

I've wondered that myself.

Yes I agree with you on that. I'm ok with a fee, but $90 is just excessive. When I see pricing like this, it just makes me shake my head and become turned off by Royal. I have done four sailings with them in the past year and decided to continue to try other lines. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't return to Royal, but for me they have pros and cons just like the rest of them. For example, sailed on Navigator of the Seas out of LA for the 3 day, and did the same a few weeks ago on Carnival Radiance. I actually liked the food better on Carnival (I'm no stranger to Carnival btw), but Navigator as far as a ship goes, blows Carnival Radiance away!

When I found out what they are charging for this, my mouth literally hung open. Will this price fluctuate depending on the sailing? The cheapest ICON sailing I'm seeing is for $1651.00 Now assuming that's for an interior and one STILL has to pay that price for Crown's Edge, that is just INSANE!!

Hello all, Taking my first Celebrity cruise on the Reflection the week of July 4th 2024. This will be for my sister's 50th birthday celebration. I have sailed on 4 different Royal ships between May 2022 and May 2023, and I'm excited to experience the Celebrity difference. Does anyone know if I can purchase Wi-Fi at any time during the cruise, or does it have to be purchased for the entire sailing? It will be a 4-day cruise.

Interesting! We paid $74.00 for a Freedom sailing early May 2022. I guess those days are gone. And we thought $74 was a lot back then!

I was just wondering what Thrill Water Park admission is going for these days?

Just an update We disembarked from our Ovation to Alaska on May 19th and overall the cruise was FANTASTIC!! We had such great weather from our 2 days prior in Vancouver and 1 day post cruise in Seattle. The only time we saw a little rain was in Sitka. We were so lucky to have that kind of weather. As for the WJ and MDR food..well I would say WJ was about a 6.5, some foods were quite good and some were really bad. Our first day for lunch was not good at all with cold burgers, soupy mac and cheese, and stale hard hamburger buns. A few other items for lunch were bad too. The rest of the cruise was hit or miss for the WJ. We liked the Mediterranean food in the Solarium Bistro. Went to the MDR 3 times and really enjoyed our meals. They were definitely more fresh, tasty and hot compared to WJ. And since we are on the Ben and David topic who are one of our favorite YouTubers...the day before the cruise my girlfriend and I were at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in Vancouver. We almost didn't make it there out of debating if it would be worth it. As I was looking out into the wonder of nature I hear her say, "oh my god we love you guys!" And there they were, Ben and David. I just couldn't believe my eyes! We might cruise at the most twice a year and never thought we would run into them. They had just gotten off with Stef from their 16 day NCL Spirit from Hawaii. We had such a great conversation and must have chatted with them for about a half an hour. I brought up the Symphony MDR experience and asked if Royal had contacted them. You all guessed it, the answer was NO. Anyhow, I wish we had taken a picture with them but didn't want to be a bother. Meeting them was one of the many highlights of this trip, and next to our first time sailing to the Caribbean out of New Orleans in 2017, it's probably the best out of 9 cruises we've taken, and our best vacation so far!

Thank you all for responding. Just completed my fourth sailing in a row with Royal starting in May 2022...Freedom, Harmony, Navigator and most recently Ovation to Alaska, which was one of the best cruises I've ever taken so far. Alaska was absolutely amazing!! Anyhow, the only ship out of the four that has Giovanni's Kitchen is Freedom. I think it may be my favorite ship so far.

I know this is an old post, but I couldn't find any answers. What is the difference between Giovanni's Table and Kitchen? I had Giovanni's on Freedom and really enjoyed it! Didn't care for Jamie's.