RCVoyager

16 minutes ago, jce2 said:

Went and started our passport process yesterday.  It will be interesting to see if this works as the experience wasn't quite what I expected.  First, I filled out the forms on-line on the official web-site.  Many of the fields indicated they were optional such as the date and destinations of your trip, emergency contact info. etc.  Yet when we got to the post office she had us fill that stuff in.  Next,  despite the application clearly telling us we needed black-and-white photocopies of both our birth certificates and licenses, she made her own copies of the license and simply took the original birth certificates.  I didn't wantr to challenge her too much as she was quite friendly and also seemed confident on what she was doing.  One note:  Do NOT write checks ahead of time as you will be paying to separate entities.  I had to write a separate check to the "Department of State" for each passport ($30 each) and thenm write one single check for processing to the post office ($25 x number of passports).   Overall the process was quick and painless just not quite what I expected.  But if I get my passports all will be well.  She even gave me a number to call if I don't see them by early October!

I haven't updated my passport for a few years, but I recall it being closer to $100 than $30.  Are you military or senior?  Do certain groups get discounted passports?

12 minutes ago, rjac said:

DJ with recorded music on the Serenade this past March

Can anyone else share an experience on this subject?  It would surprise me if this became the norm.

59 minutes ago, rjac said:

I'd be happy with a live Caribbean band out by the pool. RC used to have that and it was great. What they have now, a DJ with recorded music, just doesn't do much for me. Got to have that live steel drum!

RCCL had a Reggae band on the Pool Deck last June on the Adventure of the Seas.  Has this changed? 

The best thing I've seen on a ship is my favorite band.  Great music on the High Seas.

5 hours ago, Stephanie said:

We sailed April 29th of this year.  Weather up north was beautiful and plenty of people were at the pool when we set sail.  Bermuda was beautiful, and the perfect time to go - warm, but not miserably hot.  The latter part of our cruise, as we sailed back north, the weather shifted (as it tends to do in the Spring), and it was too chilly to be out at the pool.  Keep in mind, Bermuda is pretty much due east of North Carolina, so while we think of Bermuda as a tropical island, it's really not.

Same latitude as Charleston.  It's warmer than Charleston in the Winter, but it's not as hot in the Summer on average.

50 minutes ago, princevaliantus said:

Actually, Bermuda is not a Caribbean island. It's an Atlantic-based island. Hence, the cooler weather from October thru May.

Not just Bermuda, but all of the Bahamas and Turks and Caisos islands are in the Atlantic.  It seems to be a common mistake that Geography nerds like me see all the time.

Interestingly enough, some web sites and maps site Barbados as being in the Caribbean and some show it in the Atlantic.  You'd think it would definately be in the Caribbean, but it sticks out to the east of the other islands.

8 hours ago, cabradl said:

Upon further review...

We (wife and I) didn't think enough about the points that the great folks here said...that RC is a lot cheaper than Disney...someone said that it's best to think of it as a la carte rather than the 'nickel and dimeing'.

It's better to only purchase what you need.

Great advice from all...and great reminders! We wanted something 'cheaper' than Disney and we got that...however, we lost track of the 'pay for only what you want' aspect.

Our main gripe with RC was not having a good way for family members to easily (and free) communicate with each other like it is on the Quantum class or Disney.

Again, great advice from all, and thanks for the re-adjustment to our thinking...we were miffed about the communication options and that resulted in some sweeping generalizations which were not expressed well.

 

 

 

I for one appreciate your review, and I bet many others here do too.

In a weird way, this board is not unlike a family with RCCL being the parents.  We have our squabbles.  We get mad at our parents.  But... when an outsider talks bad about one of us, we circle the wagons.

RCCL isn't perfect, but it does a lot of things very well.  I hope you enjoy your trip.

If the OP of this thread wanted to get the board veterans riled up, he/she did it.

It's funny, we all have "beefs" with RCCL, but when a Newbie comes on and trashes the cruise line without all the facts, we get defensive.

As it should be, I guess.

1 minute ago, JLMoran said:

One caveat about Adventure -- she'll be re-homing from San Juan to NJ spring / summer next year to do NE / Canada cruises and some other itineraries where Anthem can't go due to her size. In her place, Freedom will re-home to San Juan. So depending on your time frame, that could affect your decision.

I think I read that Adventure would return to the Florida / San Juan ports for the winter months and not just be in NJ for those seasonal cruises, so you may still be able to sail her if you have flexibility with your travel times.

The Adventure will be in Ft. Lauderdale in the fall of 2018.  I'm guessing it's not headed back to San Juan any time soon (as a home port).

46 minutes ago, DocLC said:

What's really needed is a cold weather ship like Anthem as it can get chili during the winter especially headed north. If they brought that ship here and did coastal cruising up to Victoria and back, if bet it would be popular. The problem is that they know they can make more money sailing from NJ, so that's not going to happen. 

@RCVoyager The coastal cruises would avoid this issue. However, regarding crime, I think it's more perception than reality. Have you seen the crime statistics for the Bahamas and Jamaica?  Those aren't safe places statistically speaking, but that hasn't stopped the cruise lines from sailing there. 

Hey Doc.  I don't disagree with you regarding crime, but perception is reality.  Many Americans see the drug cartels on Mexican Pacific Coast as a problem.  It doesn't detour anyone on the gulf side, but it does on the Pacific side.

The mainstream news chooses which stories to cover, and the cartel shootings in Western Mexico are the story of choice by the American Media.  I can site a million more examples, but I won't as it will turn political very quickly, and nobody wants that here.

My brother just did a Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Carnival Miracle.  Acapulco was replaced with a second day in Cabo due to crime.  Puerto Vallarta is getting bad too.  I'm surprised the lines are adding itineraries there.  

The ships mentioned in the article are no bigger than the Voyager class.  It would be difficult to move anything bigger into the Pacific, although the Voyager, Mariner, and Explorer are already there as well as the Radiance of the Seas. 

To us, the Voyager Class (Adventure) is the sweet spot of cruising.  Perfect size and layout of ship with lots to do.

13 hours ago, cabradl said:

We are headed out on our first cruise with Royal Caribbean and so far I am annoyed with the way they do business.  It's not enough to pay a premium for the cruise, RC also nickel and dimes you for everything.  You want cokes or sodas?  there's a package for that! $$$$ you want internet?  there's a package for that! $$$$  There are other packages as well but the ones I'm referring to in this post are for conveniences that are free of charge on other cruise lines such as Disney.  I am annoyed because in order to keep in contact with other family members on the cruise, there is not a way for us to communicate unless we buy a internet package.  We are traveling on the OASIS and bear in mind that this isn't cheap!  After researching today, we found out that the Quantum level ships offer texting via their phone app without any additional costs.  This service is not available for any of the other ship classes.  I think this is ridiculous and so classless of RC.  I called their 'customer service' line about and the person told me they had never had a complaint about this.  Really?  I don't believe it.    The only way we can communicate with each other (when we are not sitting by each other) is by buying another package for $350.   

This is our first cruise with RC and it will be our last.   I really wish we had gone with Disney again, but we thought we would try something new this time.   I regret that decision!~

Yes there are upgrade charges for the things you mentioned.  Still RCCL is cheaper than Disney.  There is no comparison between the ships or itineraries of the two cruise lines.  I know a lot of people really like all the Disney characters walking about.  It's a huge turn off for me.  For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone would want to vacation with 1000 or more of someone else's kids.  My own kids (19, 16, 10) would choose RCCL over Disney for these reasons, although I think my 10 year old would enjoy lobbing spitballs at Mickey and company.

It's not to say RCCL is perfect, because it is not.  But, they have great ships with amazing layouts, lots of choice in itinerary and ship style, really good menus in the MDR, and generally good service all over the ship.

Everyone has an opinion, and if you go back to Disney, it will mean more opportunity on RCCL for us.

One more thing regarding communicating with family.  There are less expensive ways to do it.  Through my carrier, texting is not expensive to or from the ship or ports.  Phone cards can be purchased in most ports (not expensive).  The price for the internet on board isn't cheap, but it's not a budget killer.  The problem is the quality of the service.

On 5/30/2017 at 11:51 AM, FManke said:

I think sometimes places rely on the fact that they are in a certain location and what they serve is good enough. I've never been to Sabor and I don't know this as a fact.

Meaning if somebody is looking for "Mexican" on a cruise and Sabor is the only place offering that, what are your choices? Or maybe some people are expecting too much? If you have a great local Mexican place, that you just love, I'm not so sure any place is going to live up to that. Some people just feel that everything taste better when your cruising, like triangle hash browns for instance.

The food should stand on it's own, regardless of where it is. I've had some of my best meals from food trucks and hole in the wall diners and been disappointed in meals where I've spent $100 plus a person. Maybe it was just my expectations? If your expecting ok and you get good, your excited, but if your expecting great and you get good, your disappointed.

My view is that the food in the MDR should be pretty good.  If you upgrade, and pay extra, it should be an excellent experience all the way around.  If I don't get that excellent experience, I would be disappointed.

I've been critical of Norwegian Cruise Line because they have taken advantage of the upcharge restaurants by cutting the quality of the food in the MDR.  The times I upgraded, I thought the food and service was really good.  RCCL to my view, has not cut the quality in the MDR.  I hope they don't.  That would cause me to reevaluate the high regard in which I view RCCL as I have with NCL.

On 4/20/2017 at 5:13 PM, Stephanie said:

I wish they would cruise RT from Honolulu.  I want to cruise Hawaii, but I don't want to be at sea for 4 days sailing out of Vancouver to get there!

We did this a few years ago (out of Ensenada, Mexico to Hawaii).  The sea days were great.

38 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Well, I don't have an ANSWER for you (this kind of thing (charters) just blows !) but just a little advice.

I have never had a cruise chartered out from under me but I was a 2-time victim of Empress gate and I can tell you that the combination of my tenacious travel agent (Michelle Cunningham from MEI) and Club Royale came up with a really excellent alternative for me.

I am stunned that someone can afford to charter a 6000 person cruise ship, too.  Who does that ??

For a little perspective, I had the opportunity to meet Andy of 6th Man about 10 years ago.  On a 2180 passenger Carnival Ship, in 2007, the price was $250,000 per day.  Don't know if that included staff and crew. 

In my opinion, the MDR menus on NCL are poor.  It's like they purposely cheapened the MDR offerings to force passengers into the upcharge restaurants.

I have only sailed NCL once.  Other family members have a few other times for various reasons, and they all share the same opinion.

1 hour ago, Atlantix2000 said:

Exactly, I think distance is biggest issue for Galveston.  To avoid the ports they currently visit from there would mean 3 sea days in each direction!

I've cruised from Galveston twice.  It is a decidedly different crowd than Florida, East Coast, or San Juan.  It appears to me that many of these passengers are truly getting the best bang for the buck.  I'm not saying this with any sort of agenda or overall lifestyle judgement.  I'm not sure a 10 day cruise would sell well there.

17 minutes ago, tiny260 said:

Matt, I agree, I can't even imagine what it's like for cruisers that take 3-4 cruises a year, my work and personal schedule allows 1 cruise a year, I was going to take 2 cruises this year, one was for me, one was with my kids and grand kids, for the kids we were taking the Harmony, more for the boat instead of the itinerary, but we had to cancel, new grand baby on the way and Mom and baby would not be able to travel.

The one I picked for me was out of Galveston, mainly because I could drive, knowing that I would be visiting the same ports again. I've been to Cozumel so many times now that I feel like I should buy a house. What I did try and do was go to places (excursions) I have never tried before, different beaches, different side of the island. Roatan should be fun, this will only be my second time visiting.

The point being, that I think we need to help ourselves, in 2016 I went to the Mediterranean, 2019 I'm doing the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, 2020 looking at South Pacific or another Mediterranean cruise.

I would love for RCCL to start cruising the Mexican Riviera, I have never cruised in the Pacific, only visited and stayed in Hawaii, that's a thought, maybe cruise Hawaii...

Given the current issues with crime and drug lords on the west coast of Mexico, I look for Riviera cruises to be more difficult to come by than they've been in the past.  My brother and his wife are on the Carnival Miracle now.  The Acapulco stop was cancelled months ago.  So they ended up with two days in Cabo.  Puerto Villarta is having crime trouble now too.  

It's probably a matter of time until the issues creep in to the gulf side as well.  

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Ditto for other ports as well.  The big ship itins are getting extremely repetitive.

We would love to do an Oasis Class ship, but as mentioned the itineraries aren't that exciting.  Being in the Midwest, we pretty much have to fly to a cruise.  If we're going to fly, we might as well head to San Juan.  We love Old San Juan and there is more variety of islands in the South.  We are looking at the Symphony in Europe next year.

Grand Cayman's very own Barefoot Man would also apply here.  He once said that he is the Jimmy Buffett of Cayman without the headaches or the money.

5 hours ago, PRC said:

Apparently there's issues all over the region.  

 

Auckland's pushing back:

 

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11848618

 

In some ways I get it when it comes to spending tax payer money to accommodate private interests.  Here in the US, professional sports franchises hold cities hostage exactly the same way all the time.  It's not pretty, but it's how business gets done.

I don't know if Auckland should build the facility the RCCL is requesting or not, but I get the feeling this particular writer has an agenda that is beyond a yes or no answer to the question.  When I see an article that is so one sided that contains rhetoric such as "Armstrong's pride and joy the Ovation of the Seas", I smell a rat.

Why was there no mention of the economic advantages such an investment would bring?  Why was there no mention of civic pride?  There was nothing about opportunities for Australians to travel around the world from Auckland.  There wasn't even really a complaint about how much it would cost.  It was a one-sided hit piece from beginning to end.

Again, I don't know if the local Government should build this thing or not, but reading an article like this, with its agenda, tells me it's a pretty good idea.

I shot the Sheriff.

I will help you bump this, because I'm interested too, and I have no idea.

1 hour ago, jticarruthers said:

Past May you are back into Hurricane season ;)

But in all honesty I agree, with as limited as the RCI schedule releases are compared to some other lines you would think they could work it in without impacting existing bookings. Possibly they are realizing that the ship really really needed the work done and decided to bite the bullet.

Thanks for your more detailed explanation.  It sheds new light on the situation.  And I agree RC should not have cancelled a month of cruises to finish the refurb when the ship is barely scheduled out for 18 months.  Poor planning there for sure.