tonyfsu21

54 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Agree with this 100%.  The horrible Thanksgiving meal we had on FR or Nav (can’t remember but I think it was Nav) is the reason that we quit going to the MDR for years !

Haha! Pretty much same here. We only go to the MDR the week of Thanksgiving with my entire extended family because it’s entertaining. I don’t think I’ve ever once had a decent meal. There’s so much food across the board of a cruise ship that dinner is not a big deal. 

On 4/3/2024 at 8:14 PM, Bill D said:

Going on a cruise next month,which includes a stop at Labadee. They removed Labadee to due to the unrest in Haiti and replaced it wth Nassau. I cant believe thats the best RCCL can come up with. If im not mistaken,Nassau was removed on some itineraries due to its own problems??

??? Considering this is not exactly the same as parallel parking a car, I think the company pivoted to an available port. The logistics are planned many months if not years in advance. Nassau does not happen to be the only spot they changed itinerary’s to as we are headed to Turks and Caicos in place of Labadee. 

2 hours ago, PhantomWolf said:

First of all, I am overly (properly) excited to be sailing again after having to take last year off after a job change and move across the country!  Right now it is hard for me to picture a vacation that doesn't include a cruise.  I love having this space and Matt's channel to be able to have an outlet for this excitement, so thank you.   Have two sailings this year, one early summer and then a Thanksgiving sailing on Freedom this year. (taking mom on a trip as a thank you for being awesome my whole life)

I was curious if Royal does anything special on Thanksgiving for dining.  Can't wait to watch some of the football games at Playmakers and poolside if they show it there.

We have done Thanksgiving cruises the last 15ish years and I can tell you that it’s the best time to sail! The food for Thanksgiving is not great at all but the overall vacation experience makes up for it. Freedom is amazing and the Playmakers is going to be a great spot to catch some games. Enjoy 

9 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I agree NJ is very easy, the security line has been annoying lately but the rest is cake. 10 minutes. 

That’s good news. We are headed out of NJ in July and plan to be at the port early regardless. 

1 hour ago, Fastfaller said:

Mine is out of FLL, I think NJ starts the week after. We'll have to see what happens 

FLL is a similar experience to Port of Miami. You should be able to get onboard early with no issues. 

On 4/1/2024 at 3:10 PM, Fastfaller said:

I hope they are fluff because I got 1130 on. Symphony in 2 weeks, it was the earliest time. But my hotel checkout is 1000. So I will be in line at 1030.

This was Miami. From what I understand NJ is a hot mess. I wouldn’t bank on 10:30 am by any means outta that place.

3 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Not me, I get on as early as possible and I get off as early as possible. 

Same here. Vacation starts at 11am on boarding day and ends at 7:00am on debarkation day. We are usually in the car and well on our way home by 7:15am.  

On 4/1/2024 at 7:57 PM, mAdCapper said:

Ok, I've been through this in my head a lot and I thought I'd look to some veterans for their opinion.

 

I was on the March 9th sailing of Adventure of the Seas and let me start by saying overall I had a blast.  Amazing service staff, great ports.  Had a great cruise.  That said, it was nearly ruined by a single, though major problem.  Our bed was the WORST bed I have ever slept on.  In my 20s I went camping with a tent and a sleeping bag and that was more comfortable than this bed.  It was TORTURE.  Both my fiancée and I suffered nightly.  We brought this to our attendant's attention day 2 (the attendant was sub par as it was unfortunately but nothing worth talking about)and nothing happened.  I asked for a topper and got nothing.  On the 3rd dinner service, our first in the MDR we mentioned it to our server in passing conversation and low and behold things were taken into action.  He told his supervisor and suddenly a topper was found, though our attendant said there were none.  

 

Unfortunately it was a half inch used foam topper that did little to assist in the sleep.  The bed frame was a solid sheet of metal...it looked like leftover from the ceiling construction to be honest.  The mattress was too thin and obviously too worn.  This was, as i said the worst I've ever slept on.  This was so disheartening as we had so much fun on the cruise.  We were 11 in total and every day was a blast, except every morning we woke up over tired and restless in sleep.  It nearly ruined what was a great cruise.  

I also felt I didn't have a poor expectation.  We had a spacious balcony from a royal up (from standard balcony, probably not worth in retrospect) so I felt like I paid extra for a worse sleep.  I sailed on Navigator in December and though we had a promenade view, the bed was 100x better than this.  In fact as a result I have been suffering from back issues for the last few weeks post cruise.  I would have had a week sick save for a great company that let me take a home week for work.  

 

To get to the point of the post.  I voiced this concern to both my survey and to RC's email address for customer concerns. I felt like this level of poor experience deserved something as an apology.  Both my fiancée and I are now Prime in the casino so we'd absolutely planned on being on RC again and we have a goal of 2 cruises a year.  

 

The response from customer service was we are sorry and value your feedback.  Nothing else, nothing more.  This has slightly soured my experience with Royal Caribbean.  I've never gone to a head office of any company before so I really want to know am I expecting too much?  Having previously worked as a store manager in retail, I know I've done a LOT more to make it right.  We spent $2000 on the cruise, and thousands more between specialty, drinks, casino, etc.  As a manager i'd over easily given a gift card as an apology and to make it right. 

This is something in the company's control.  I mean a decent foam mattress costs $500 and lasts years.  This is how much it would have cost for the situation to have never happened.  It isn't a complaint on weather or clearly defined rules.  

Am I over expecting?  

Edit: a “decent foam mattress” cost $500 x 2000+ beds so it’s just not that simple (not to mention the logistics). 

I found Odyssey to be one of the better ships in the fleet! I guess opinions will always be across the board but it was a refreshing change from Oasis class. The sportsplex with Playmakers was a game changer and the music hall was best in the fleet (IMHO). We enjoyed the Southern Caribbean route on Odyssey and would do it again in a heartbeat. The 270 cafe was a great replacement for Park Cafe and the MDR was “decent”. 

5 minutes ago, Fastfaller said:

I hope they are fluff because I got 1130 on. Symphony in 2 weeks, it was the earliest time. But my hotel checkout is 1000. So I will be in line at 1030.

Fluff beyond belief. The company even amplifies the fluff with 11th hour emails warning you to adhere to designated boarding time. Endless fluff. 

1 hour ago, OCSC Mike said:

It varies by port. They still had 10:30 at PC for my Wonder cruise 2 weeks ago (and boarding seems to usually begin before 10:30 at PC).

Last week by 10:30 we had already toured Icon and had a sandwich in hand from the Pearl Cafe! I guess the FL ports just have the logistics under control. I can’t stress enough how boarding times are fluff. They don’t even bother putting the signs up any longer in Miami. 

13 hours ago, berkeleykel said:

This may be an idiosyncratic take, but we greatly preferred the layout of On Air on Symphony over Spotlight Karaoke on Wonder. As we ended up there most days for karaoke, trivia, game shows etc it made a big difference to our quality of life. That plus the better entrainment on Symphony and the fact we found Mason Jar to miss the mark on authentic Southern food, Symphony wins for us hands down. 

Yeah but it’s still a cruise ship and lacking authentic food across the board. I can’t think of a single venue that would check that box (maybe the Indian food???). The Mason jar has some really great food & drink and an excellent ambiance. 

1 hour ago, billdauterive said:

To take it a step further, if we use slots as an example of the type of play for both, Player A would be coining in almost $42k/day while Player B would be coining in $2500/day.  At an 80% average payback (simple example, no one knows exactly what the rate of the machines are), Royal would expect to make about $8400/day on average off of the play of Player A, while "only" $500/day on average off of the play of Player B.

Regardless, it’s important to note how profitable the casino and its devoted players contributions are to the companies bottom line. A bottle of Mondavi 2020 is an insult to players gambling 5 figures over the course of a seven day cruise. 

Wonder all the way based on Mason Jar alone! I’ve been in both 3x each and I would say Wonder is the better choice (but you can’t go wrong!!!). 

56 minutes ago, Freegirl said:

In January, we did a S2S with Liberty and Allure.

We walked off Liberty in Ft. Lauderdale about 6:40 am and drove to Port Canaveral. We were on Allure by 10:30 am. This was on a Monday.

Yes, Fort Lauderdale is a world away from Miami (traffic wise) during the week. The trek from South to North during rush hour is a much better scenario then starting from Miami. 

11 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

I've done Miami to PC before with a one-way car rental. I took my own luggage off first thing, got a Lyft to the car rental agency that's less than 10 mins from the port. I dropped the car off and got a Lyft to the port. I don't have the patience for shuttles but they were available to/from the car rental places and the ports. I used Avis. I was boarding in PC a little after 1pm.

Weekend? If not, you got lucky because I-95, 395 traffic on any given weekday is horrible until you get north of the Jupiter exit in WPB. I personally wouldn’t chance it after 47 years of this crap under my belt. 

Day 7 on Icon and it’s been a royale butt kicking from the casino. I did receive a bottle of Mondavi “vintage 2020” and a nice 9000 point certificate. The casino is very nice with plenty of space and machine/table variety. I return to Icon for Thanksgiving and hope to turn my luck around. Icon has been AWESOME outside the casino!!!!!

1 hour ago, barjpoe said:

Is only open for dinner? not for lunch?

I think it’s also open for lunch

On 3/23/2024 at 6:24 PM, jp928 said:

Hello. I have an upcoming Icon of the Seas cruise in Aug. Just wondering if any of you had any issues with making reservations for Pier 7 restaurant. I've been trying to make one online. It lets me choose the day and the time and the people, but when I try to add to cart it says "Adding to cart failed, so please try again." I've given it about 3 weeks thinking it may be an issue with the site but still same thing. I've tried calling, but at first they didn't even have Pier 7 on their systems, but later said that it is probably because the reservations are all booked. It's a little hard to believe that that is the problem since it doesn't say anything of that sort online and still shows many other days and times available. Thanks in advance.
 

Same thing happened to me. We realized it’s easy to walk in w/o reservations. I am currently on Icon and we have had dinner at Pier 7 twice with no reservations. Keep in mind this is a full to capacity cruise on spring break with tons of kids and there are no issues eating at Pier 7.

3 hours ago, Thumper44 said:

I would be doing a Thursday morning in mid-January.  I assume you anticipate traffic being especially bad mid-week?

Here’s the lowdown. 
1. Assumes you and whomever you travel with is able body.

2. No major customs issue hold up ship in PC from arrival.

3. Get off the ship WAAAAAAAYYYYY before 8:30am. More like grab the luggage and be downstairs on the departure deck ready to walk off the ship before 7am. 
 

4. A game plan is in place for a vehicle to get to by 8am and be headed West on the Beeline before 9am.

5. No major traffic accidents on I-95 (if so, transfer to Turnpike).

6. Arrive at Port of Miami between 12-1pm and board the ship.

The rush hour traffic will not impact you because it will end before you reach South Florida in the 10-11am timeframe.

**** Note: disregard everything I just said if you plan to flip the trip and go from Miami to PC on a Thursday in the AM because it most likely will cost you a cruise. 

2 hours ago, Thumper44 said:

I already know this is a bad idea, I've told other travelers not to risk it…

But has anybody in these forums actually transferred from Port Canaveral to Miami (or vice versa)?  With traffic it's easily a four hour trip, but my last few cruises I easily walked off the ship and out of the terminal before 8:30am, so this has me wondering if I could/should book an extra cruise that ends in PC the same day my Port of Miami cruise departs…

Has anybody actually done this transfer successfully in the last year or two?

This can very easily be done with minimal risk (especially on a weekend). 

9 minutes ago, TessFromFlorida said:

Matt posted a video a couple of months back in which he speaks to the ease of taking the new Brightline train from Orlando to South Florida (apx 3.5 min mark). It will be some time (years), but with a yet to be built station in Coco Beach, taking a B2B between Port Canaveral and Miami or Ft. Lauderdale seems almost palatable. 

This would be more of a hassle logistically than just driving IMHO. 

35 minutes ago, barjpoe said:

WOW, yeah that's too many around the table. 12 was ok the chef was able to serve everyone. He's got to be on his toes to make sure he gets everyone's order correct. I know that they have a piece of paper they work off , but still.

Yeah it was a stretch. Curious to hear what others say after trying hibachi on Icon. 

On 3/26/2024 at 4:14 PM, Srp431 said:

Any sandwiches without egg at the Pearl?

Yes:

26 minutes ago, chrismelissa said:

Embassy suites on 17th st great place to stay & close to the port

This would be ideal. The price might not be ideal though in April (especially early April).