tjcruisers

Most part I'm fine with most stuff.  If I were to pick I'd say the Royal Kemmelweck is a disappointment for me. I live across the river from Buffalo  and as @loki007 says nothing compares to those (I guess we're spoiled). I'll just hop over the peace bridge to gab a beef on weck and get some cheap gas to boot. By extension the chicken wings are also a disappointment (again for the same reason)

Don't think Royals cares is the old ships disappear, as some mentioned above Royal is thinking in berths. There was article I read back in 2021-2022 talking why Royal was going to recover far faster than Carnival, mostly had to do with the big ships. I don't remember the exact numbers but on the smaller ships they need about 85-90% just to break even, they don't make a profit until they get past that. On the Oasis (by extension Icon), once they hit around 42% capacity they hit break even point.  A couple new Icon class will more that make up for the lose of those other classes

With the blowback I'm seeing, I can see Carnival backing off. I can see merit to some of the stuff (all their priority perks might be a problem if there are too many people), but other parts no. Seems to be kind of trial balloon.

One thing is I wonder what of of kickback they're getting from the CC company. Seen a blogger video where the lady was asking customer service onboard about it. She brought up could somebody get the CC, use it a a lot but never cruise. She asked if they accumulate enough points they be diamond on their cruise and the response was yes. That seems kind of wrong.

My wife used to use them on cruises, then on one cruise she had reaction to them (nothing serious). They’ve discontinued the sale of them up here.  When she talked to the pharmacist I think he mentioned it was due to too many side effects 

Wow, never going to be sitting under there again. Beside the award Nitin should be getting raise and promotion 

Pretty much every time we'll get it for at least one of our party trying to check in

Actually kind of surprised there is missed port coverage in the policy at all, I guess for non refundable excursion, but just generally missing a port

Old menus I switch it up as there was always 3-4 things I found appetizing. New menu pretty much the same item every time. Certain nights I just skip altogether and do a specialty dining

2 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

That was gonna be my next question or really my observation. We were on Oasis a few years ago and gonna be back on her next May and the Windjammer was just impossible to deal with. It's undersized correct? After that they made the windjammer bigger on the other Oasis class ships? Am I getting that right? 

My understanding (thinking Matt might had done a video on it) Oasis through Symphony they intentionally had made the WJ smaller for the ship size as they wanted passengers to use the other dining venues as well. On Wonder they fixed their mistake and made it bigger (assuming the Utopia as well). Wonder wasn't too bad, I don't remember there ever being a line to get in, however it could be made a little bigger

Depends on the ship class. Oasis class never is a good time   On the flip side on the Radiance class I've never seen it busy. Others I don't remember

Royal seems to be having many issues with their website recently (seen the same thing with celebrity). Must have hired a bunch of elementary school students for their IT department

We had to change the name to another guest a few months ago. Our TA handled it. Some automatically transferred over, some she had to cancel and rebook (those had to do with the original had a C&A discount and the new person was first time on Royal)

Myself I've never really noticed anybody talking on the phone while cruising. Not sure if it's any different that having a conversation amoung table mates. As long as they're eating I don't have any issue. Now if they're talking for 30 minutes after they've eaten taking up a table during the morning and afternoon rush, then I'd be annoyed

Adult game show where they make it known that if your easily offended to leave before it starts. My son was a co captain (with a female his age as the other) on our last cruise. Did they try to embarrass the males, oh yes. Did he care? Well his team won and his co-captain and all her friends were showing him attention the rest of the cruise, no didn't care

Port Canaveral is nice to sail out of, not so nice to have as a port stop. We stopped there on our cruise last fall. Easily accessible port, but nothing really at the port outside of 4 or 5 restaurants. We came out of Bayonne and the frustrating part is the ship doesn't get in until noon or 1. Things that are close by like Kennedy space center closes at 5 ish, by the time you get off the ship and get there you only have a few hours. We ended up going to Fishlips which Sea Squirrel mentioned above. We did enjoy the food there, especially their nachos (they use a different type of chip)

9 hours ago, TC777777 said:

Thanks @tjcruisers, these details helps! If the back can be pulled, I think we'll co sider buy/bring inflatable bumper bars on the side for our toddler and placing some of the cushions nearby on the ground.

Would you be willing to share your room number you were on? I wanted to match it to ours and see if it might have the same setup.

Our room number was 10330

There were 3 of us in a 3 person room on the Symphony last fall and that's how it was setup. A bed and non pullout sofa. What I remember is it was a little bit wider/deeper than the normal sofa's. Room steward just made it up with sheets the first night.  I vague remember the back cushions coming off, I kind of remember them being put in the corner beside the balcony. 

Should also mention it was quite comfortable. My kid slept on it, but I laid on it a few times during the day and fit comfortable (I'm about 6 foot 4)

When I was in university I was was able to do the math to launch a spacecraft to Mars, using the earth and the moon as a slingshot and land it dime. When it comes to Royal math I just throw my hands up in the air and give up

Isn’t 18 the legal age to cruise on their own in Europe? I thought 21 is a US thing. 

16 hours ago, karl_nj said:

That's interesting that Royal is giving up on >7 night cruises out of Florida too. I was hoping to start doing some longer cruises, deeper into the Caribbean, in a few years when we are less beholden to the school schedule. Will be interesting to see what lines offer sailings like that in a few years, once I have that flexibility.

I know there are some lines, like Princess and Holland America, that liked to flip between a 7 night eastern and a 7 night western and would also let you book both together as a 14 night. But since they have to get back to the originating port, you can't go out as far with those.

We're starting to enter that phase as I'm entering"pre retirement". Been checking out MSC, Princess, NCL out of Florida. Seem some with pretty nice itineraries, one was a 20 night and did the whole Caribbean. In other thread a 3-4 night doesn't do anything for us (as we have to travel to get to the port), but we have thought about doing a bunch of 3/4 nights over a couple of weeks on different lines to get a sample to see if we like any (before  I commit to a 20 nighter).

We did enjoy our southern out of San Juan years ago on Jewel. Instead of Florida on Royal, we been looking at SJ and maybe doing some back to back and get a good mixture of ports

We like the Oasis, but are kind of tired of going to the same ports over and over. 3 or 4 night cruises don't do anything for us (seeing we have a good hike to get to the cruise ports). We have one more on an Oasis class next spring (southern Caribbean), after that we probably won't be doing another in the near future. If RCL's intent is to keep cruises out of Florida to 7 or less nights, will look at jumping to other cruise lines if we go out of Florida. 

Depending on the age of the kids I wouldn't be looking a room to hold 5 and 7.  As some have commented above, would be looking at connecting rooms as the best option

We bought it on our last cruise in mid march. It was $85 and the bartender threw in a few free drinks on top

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

So offering Genie services outside Star class and not even on a ship that has star class?

 

That description suggests the UDP and DBP are included.

Kind of reminds me of that one package RC newly offered a few years ago, only to later say "oops, we didn't mean for that to be available" and canceled it for everyone.

Seems like they might be trying to offer a "star class" on ships that don't have the concept. Wondering if they were targetting it to those in the royal suite or owners suite, but messed up and made it available ship wide by mistake

Wow, that one seems like a weird one. Not really sure if there will be any takers. Figure anybody who would be willing to fork over that much are already in a star suite.