Floski

I'm looking at my cruise planner for Mariner 5/26/23 and the Premier Pass is still there, and showing as reserved.

This feels very much like the $18/day DBP scenario, where everyone jumped on it, then a lot of people said it wasn't going to happen because Royal would lose too much $$.

I'm ready to just wait and see.   They realize that this could be huge in terms of customer satisfaction; they can come out smelling like roses, or be the south end of a north-bound mountain goat.

7 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

It was available for our 5-26 Mariner and 2 of 3 Indy sailings.  Bizarre that it is not available for the second half of our Indy B2B but is for the first. ‍‍‍. Oh well.  I booked it for every cruise where it was available.  I went ahead and booked both Dan and me for fear that they will disallow for just 1 of us.  As others have done, I am keeping all of the internet pkgs that I already purchased on sale.  If this BIP thing turns out to be legit I can cancel those later.  Truly, I only got these VIP pkgs for the internet.  The rest of the pkg is not of particular interest but a nice bonus, I guess.  I’m certain this is an error….it waaaytooo good of a deal as-is.  I guess we’ll see….

Heyyyyyy!!!

We're on the 5/26 Mariner sailing!!   I hope we get to meet y'all!

I always book a forward cabin.

The Solarium and other cool spots are there, and the elevators aren't nearly as crowded 

as they are at the aft due to the dining rooms and Windjammer being back there.

We never feel any crazy rocking like one might expect, especially on Oasis class.

On 1/26/2023 at 6:24 AM, twangster said:

Harmony was the first Oasis class with waterslides.  Waterslides represent a massive amount of weight installed high on a ship. 

Putting heavy things high up complicates the weight and balance of a ship.  They use lighter materials on higher decks.  More aluminum and less steel for example.  

The lack of a pool on Harmony in the solarium was thought to be a design trade-off allowing the extra weight on high decks for the water slides and a hot tub on the suite sun deck.  Oasis and Allure don't have a hot tub on the suite sun deck.  Since Harmony was the first in class with water slides and a suite sundeck hot tub they tried it but at the cost of a solarium "pool" as a trade off.  

The irony to me is that the solarium pools on Oasis and Allure are wading pools.  You can't swim freely in these pools, all you can do is sit in cold water.  I don't see the allure of sitting in water especially knowing it's full of people who have been sweating in the sun and hardly anyone uses those showers to rinse off before going in the pool.  They aren't large pools so basically human soup. 

I guess Royal miscalculated how much people love human soup.  They probably should have nixxed the hot tub on the suite sun deck and made some other weight trade off to retain a solarium pool.  

You should try some human stew one day.   Yummmmm

A little chunkier than your average soup.  And biscuits!

On 1/9/2023 at 7:33 AM, ChessE4 said:

I would like to see departures from Charleston so we don't need to drive to PC. Even Jacksonville would be good and I 2nd Norfolk.

Hmmmmm.....

So, instead of driving 6 hours (plus the one obligatory hour at Bucees for the wife) to Port Canaveral, I can drive downtown, park, and be walking inside in 15 minutes??  Okay, so Google maps says it will take me 16 minutes, but I know I can make it faster!

Where do I sign?

28 minutes ago, rjac said:

We were on the Odyssey for the first-time last year for a two-week B2B. Nice ship, but we felt way too many passengers especially for the pools and solarium. i would suspect that the freestyle machines could not handle the number of passengers, or the staff could not handle the replenishing of the machines. Perhaps, more freestyle machines would help. We don't use the freestyle machines and were disappointed in the selection of alcohol choices at many of the bars. I drink bourbon and there was no bourbon on board. Previous cruises there were selections of bourbon. All the Odyssey had to offer was Jack Daniels which is not a bourbon, it is a Tennessee Whiskey, check this link out:  Is Jack Daniels bourbon or whiskey - we have the answer for you (thewhiskycork.com). 

I've noticed a serious dearth of top (and medium, even) shelf liquors on our last 3 cruises (2 Harmony, 1 Wonder).

There used to be Trace, 4 Roses, and other good choices.

Blame the supply chain or whatever, but I think it's just another example of Royal going cheap.  I have become a 

cruise fanatic, but RC is not too far from losing me, at least for a couple of cruises.  

Get some danm bourbon!

Something is whack with mine, too.

After 7 whole cruises, mine should be showing Pinnacle.

Or is that Cinnacle?

On 11/30/2022 at 10:33 PM, RCLblue10 said:

so one vote for Bolero's (harmony) as best bar for strong drinks and fun.  I am going on Harmony in Jan.  any other bar/bartender comments to help me make a decision where to drink on Harmony?  I tend to spend most of my time in casino.  I wish it was a video poker bar.  thanks

There are two issues that kind of make bar recommendations tough - 

Crewmembers usually stay on for what, 6 months?  So there is a constant turnover of bartenders.

Relatedly - the bartenders only stay at one bar for two weeks and then move to another.

Today's Bolero's staff could be tomorrow's Wonderland guys/gals.

What I did on Harmony this spring was to find a convenient bar with a good vibe.  I ended up choosing

Bolero's.  Once I decided this was my bar, I gave them a $10 or $20 (hard to recollect!) and they took 

fabulous care of us throughout the cruise.  We had so much fun - I continually busted on them for the

lack of Zacapa (I know they have nothing to do with it, and I'm not holding out hope that there will be

any on Wonder in 3 weeks) and we all had a great time!  I'd tip 'em every night because they were just

awesome dudes and I was very happy there.

On 4/30/2022 at 1:40 PM, JC Pats said:

I would think so, at least I haven't had problems ordering a drink and a shot at the same time. 

Yeah, but your reputation precedes you!!!   

They know better!

How in the hell does this even happen in this day and age?

3 hours ago, Robert M said:

Today for us the only option is Voom and Surf assuming just Voom sold out?

I just saw that for our Wonder sailing next month......how can they sell out the Voom?   

It appears that no one told IT that there was going to be a huge amount of activity on their site.

On 11/7/2022 at 1:03 AM, wjackson2289 said:

Hey guys, little bit of a vent post.

I went on my first cruise last year from the 30th of december to the 8th on allure, and it was the best time of my life, it was also me and my wifes first vacation in 10 years.  it might sound strange but our first stop was coco cay and when i was floating around in the sea i literally felt stress leave my body, after an incredibly stressful year. 

Well we decided to spend our savings on a jumbo trip this november, for my wifes 50th birthday. We were leaving on the 6th of November and back to backing it with a second trip leaving from the 13th.  

Unfortunately, life decided to kick us in the teeth a bit, first i had a hospital trip in march for 5 days with norovirus and cdiff, then our dog had an emergency surgery, then our fridge died, then our dryer died, then in september i needed emergency shoulder surgery, resulting in me needing to recover for the next 6 months. 

We managed to get refunded with the NRD getting given back to us in cruise credit, but all our savings got eaten up by the non stop issues.

So here i am, feeling bad for the wife, obsessing about where our ship is in the ocean on https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9383936 feeling all kinds of guilty and down. 

Anyone have any suggestions on which cruise we should spend our 800 FCC on? Anyone experienced similar? We arent sure we are gonna be able to afford a cruise even with the cruise credit next year. Sorry for the depressing post  just figured this might be a good place to vent. 

dammit

Man, I'm so sorry for y'all.  That feeling you described when you literally felt the stress leave your body - my first cruise, too.  Not sure when it happened, either just hanging with friends on Orient Beach (not literally hanging; y'all get yer heads out of the gutter!) or as simple as the first time I literally saw the ocean and just how incredibly gorgeous and cobalt blue it was.   Miles above any vacation I've ever had.

So when you say you're going to miss this one, and all the crap that's happened to you this year, I feel your pain.  It would kill me.  As a late cruiser (53 for my first), I live for being on a RC sailing.  Only 6 so far, but hoping for more.  

Stay strong.  Book a replacement just as soon as you can.  Just like when Covid slapped us right in the mouth, you just have to put it out of your mind and stay patient.

I'd love to share one with ya on a future cruise!

OUR DBP!!!!!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. rjac!   

We have always done Bernard's on St. Maarten, but in the spring we opted to do our first RC Excursion - a driveabout and a super fun water tour of Simpson Bay.

Awesome, ellcee!!  Bravissimo!

So, forgive me if I'm obtuse, but I'm curious about wearing a mask being a sensitive topic.

When we sailed on Harmony this spring, I felt a little "off" (it was not covid!), so unfortunately

spent more time in our cabin, and when I did go anywhere onboard, I wore my mask.  I

don't recall feeling uncomfortable or feeling like people were staring at me.  

It sucked, and I wanted to go maskless, but I try to be a responsible person.  So, I applaud

you and A2 for doing the right thing!! 

Thanks again for the outstanding blog!

At those prices, they had better get some premium brands back onboard.

So happy you're sailing again!!

I'm interested in where you guys end up and the route(s) you sailed to get there, thanks to Ian.

Very sorry for you and your friend's losses.  

I guarantee he will be overwhelmed at first.

Let him just take it in for a while.  The beauty, the smell, the enormity.  

Dec will be my 7th and I still get goose bumps when I first board.

13 minutes ago, CanHardlyWait said:

Helpful. Something to think about. Is the one place really more party vibe then the other? Looking for calm and quiet. It's just Mr Sanchos had much better current reviews. Are there cabs waiting outside these places or does a call have to be made? Thanks.

Nachi is super cool.  NOT a party atmosphere like Sancho's.  Nice pool, restaurant, and loungers all over.  You are assigned a waiter upon arrival and he/she will take care of you the entire time (food, too).  I love it there.

How ironic.  

Joe, I've always enjoyed your posts (I thought it was like 25,000 before your first cruise!) and am very sorry about the crappy experience and, worse still, your poor cat.  

A little while ago, I was wondering where you had gone, so I actually did a search of your name and found this thread.  Talk about irony.

I agree with you about the blog family - it seems to have grown a lot, even since CV.  There was always the same folks contributing and replying, but I guess the virus caused a big pause for all of us.  I kind of miss having familiar names to converse with and seemingly get to know.

Anyway, it's good to see you're still around; I hope you post more.  

The Real Taxi Drivers of St. Thomas

When we went a coupla years ago, we saw how mean these dudes can be.  I think that would be a fabulous idea for a show.

St. Thomas is great, but it certainly isn't known as The Friendly Island like St. Maarten.

Enjoying your blog...

On 8/10/2022 at 8:33 PM, bonzo1975 said:

Guess I'll be drinking mostly mixed drinks lol