jticarruthers

Honestly I don't think Royal is too worried about their customer base, seems they have hung their hat on high gloss, high energy "Wow" to attract new cruisers like crazy and fill the boats.
 
Its been observed many times that seasoned cruisers don't spend as much onboard and it appears to me Royal has recognized and that and is not too worried about keeping customers as long as they have a pipeline of new customers that they can milk instead.

Disconnecting from the "real" world ... no phone, no email, no texts, no newspapers and since there is crap on TV no TV so no news there either.
 
Pretty tough to get that disconnected any other way .. think about how many TV's you see with crawl bars running, how many conversations you "overhear" about the latest bad thing in the world, etc.
 
Personally I would be happy to pay to have them NOT upgrade the internet connections aboard ship to keep people from trying to give me updates from the real world.

Disconnecting from the "real" world ... no phone, no email, no texts, no newspapers and since there is crap on TV no TV so no news there either.
 
Pretty tough to get that disconnected any other way .. think about how many TV's you see with crawl bars running, how many conversations you "overhear" about the latest bad thing in the world, etc.
 
Personally I would be happy to pay to have them NOT upgrade the internet connections aboard ship to keep people from trying to give me updates from the real world.

I think you will find they are more alike than they are different.
 
Have not experienced the Quantum class (Ovation) but have sailed both Disney and Royal.
 
For me Disney does better on service and food but neither one is bad by any means, Disney's pricing is too much for the difference though so Royal is our default except for a couple of splurges here and there.
 
Staterooms are very hard to compare directly since it depends on the class of room, etc. but I would say like to like are similar in size. Ovation being brand new is probably a little nicer and it sounds like you are considering a suite vs a regular room on Disney in which case you will definitely notice the increase in size/amenities and the additional service from being suite class should easily offset any difference (as perceived by me) in service level between the lines.
 
Personally if cost was not an issue we would always choose DCL over RCL, however, in the real world for comparable costs you are likely doing a suite on a new ship with RCL vs. a regular room on an older ship with DCL, which tips the scales to RCL for me.

Disconnecting from the "real" world ... no phone, no email, no texts, no newspapers and since there is crap on TV no TV so no news there either.
 
Pretty tough to get that disconnected any other way .. think about how many TV's you see with crawl bars running, how many conversations you "overhear" about the latest bad thing in the world, etc.
 
Personally I would be happy to pay to have them NOT upgrade the internet connections aboard ship to keep people from trying to give me updates from the real world.

Caveat the drink of the day is included but if it is served in a funky/souvenir glass of some kind the glass is NOT. So you have to make sure and ask for it in a regular cup. Sometimes this is an issue, sometimes not, depends on where you are buying it.
 
Typically if you order it at a bar, not a problem. But if you are ordering from a wandering waiter with a tray of them premade, problem.

Looking at Thanksgiving options for this year:
 
Brilliance, Navigator and Indy all seem to be doing the 4 night Cozumel run, with Brilliance and Indy leaving on Thanksgiving day and Navigator leaving on the day before ?
 
Alternatively, Brilliance and Indy are doing the 5 nt Cozumel run leaving the Saturday before Thanksgiving and getting back on Thanksgiving day, while Navigator is doing ??, Edit  - thought so Navigator is coming back from the UK which is why the four night cruise is a weird Wednesday departure, trying to rotate her onto a schedule.
 
Not sure whether you were hoping to be "on the boat" for Thanksgiving or just using that week of time to take a cruise. Based on itinerary above though I would recommend Navigator so that you are "on the boat" for Thanksgiving day and able to relax and enjoy it rather than spending the day dealing with boarding, etc.
 
Unfortunately Navigator is out of Miami though so you get to deal with a slightly longer drive but not the end of the world.
 
A glance at pricing says the three cruises listed are pretty close starting at just over $400 per person but it could vary significantly once you get into higher cabin categories, etc.
 
If you can swing the extra time/money though I would highly recommend the Freedom of the Seas sailing on 11/20 instead. You bump up to a 6 night, pick up Grand Cayman and Costa Maya to go with Cozumel and get to be on a ship that has the slightly larger size of Indy along with the upgrades of Navigator (I don't think Navi has anything Freedom didn't get too?). I believe you would end up with Thanksgiving day in Cozumel. Also sailing out of Ft Lauderdale so not as convenient as Canaveral or Tampa but not as far as Miami.
 
Prices start in the $600 range so not insignificantly more expensive but for my money worth the extra.

Looking at Thanksgiving options for this year:
 
Brilliance, Navigator and Indy all seem to be doing the 4 night Cozumel run, with Brilliance and Indy leaving on Thanksgiving day and Navigator leaving on the day before ?
 
Alternatively, Brilliance and Indy are doing the 5 nt Cozumel run leaving the Saturday before Thanksgiving and getting back on Thanksgiving day, while Navigator is doing ??, Edit  - thought so Navigator is coming back from the UK which is why the four night cruise is a weird Wednesday departure, trying to rotate her onto a schedule.
 
Not sure whether you were hoping to be "on the boat" for Thanksgiving or just using that week of time to take a cruise. Based on itinerary above though I would recommend Navigator so that you are "on the boat" for Thanksgiving day and able to relax and enjoy it rather than spending the day dealing with boarding, etc.
 
Unfortunately Navigator is out of Miami though so you get to deal with a slightly longer drive but not the end of the world.
 
A glance at pricing says the three cruises listed are pretty close starting at just over $400 per person but it could vary significantly once you get into higher cabin categories, etc.
 
If you can swing the extra time/money though I would highly recommend the Freedom of the Seas sailing on 11/20 instead. You bump up to a 6 night, pick up Grand Cayman and Costa Maya to go with Cozumel and get to be on a ship that has the slightly larger size of Indy along with the upgrades of Navigator (I don't think Navi has anything Freedom didn't get too?). I believe you would end up with Thanksgiving day in Cozumel. Also sailing out of Ft Lauderdale so not as convenient as Canaveral or Tampa but not as far as Miami.
 
Prices start in the $600 range so not insignificantly more expensive but for my money worth the extra.

Officially - no absolutely not.
 
Unofficially - if you are on a ship with freestyle machines the machine only knows if the cup is valid, not who is holding it so anyone can walk up to the machine with your cup and get a soda, if you are on a ship without freestyle machines you have to ask a bartender to put soda in the cup and the bartender is more likely to wonder if the person holding the cup is allowed to put free soda in the cup ;)

They seem to believe in no contact or overwhelming contact, not much in between.
 
As noted though if you just show up when you want you will get through the process at your pace.

Generally fairly strict but if you ask politely (and not in the middle of the scrum when trying to get every kid registered) you have a decent shot at getting an exception made.

They pushed back the schedule a week so the next Caribbean rollout is now schedule for next "week" .... ridiculous but so it goes :)

They pushed back the schedule a week so the next Caribbean rollout is now schedule for next "week" .... ridiculous but so it goes :)

Matt back away from the ledge, life would still be worth living for Sabor if you did lose Izumi ;)

Matt back away from the ledge, life would still be worth living for Sabor if you did lose Izumi ;)

Personal peeve: Royal Caribbean should call it a "daily service charge" because that's more akin to what it actually is. To increase the "gratuities" makes me think that we've seen an incremental improvement in service worthy of an increase in the "gratuities", which is rather silly to have done prior to going on the cruise.

Our go to for Cozumel the last couple of times has been just to stroll the main drag ... as long as you can stand being asked to step into every store you can buy beers and margaritas for about $1 a pop and window shop to your hearts content. We usually give our son a few dollars and between that and the "free charms" that almost every store offers he ends up with a bunch of cheap gifts for his friends who may or may not be girls but are definitely not girlfriends (ah 12 its a fun age) and we get to have several drinks a piece.
 
Total cost including cab fare to/from downtown is usually about $20-$30 dollars ... just remember to be very clear in saying no .... I slipped up on this rule last year when my son proudly announced to the Diamonds International staff that it was our 15 year anniversary. This resulted in me being invited to enjoy the "complimentary" bar upstairs while he and my wife took an extensive tour of the store. I had actually planned on getting her a piece of jewelry at some point but that decision was made for me several drinks later.

Meh, wouldn't mind stopping in Cuba, not going to break the bank picking out a cruise that does. Hopefully it adds competition and drives down costs for the consumer but somehow I suspect the opposite, it will be used as a reason to charge more to "see cuba before it changes".

We celebrated birthdays and anniversaries on our Thanksgiving cruise ... My wife and I share a date with my parents for an anniversary and three of us are November babies.
 
They did not do anything automatically but we informed the wait staff and on the last formal night they brought out 2 "anniversary" deserts and 3 "birthday" deserts .... not huge cakes or anything might have actually been the standard desert of the night but they had each one with a little frosted message and a candle.

Our go to for Cozumel the last couple of times has been just to stroll the main drag ... as long as you can stand being asked to step into every store you can buy beers and margaritas for about $1 a pop and window shop to your hearts content. We usually give our son a few dollars and between that and the "free charms" that almost every store offers he ends up with a bunch of cheap gifts for his friends who may or may not be girls but are definitely not girlfriends (ah 12 its a fun age) and we get to have several drinks a piece.
 
Total cost including cab fare to/from downtown is usually about $20-$30 dollars ... just remember to be very clear in saying no .... I slipped up on this rule last year when my son proudly announced to the Diamonds International staff that it was our 15 year anniversary. This resulted in me being invited to enjoy the "complimentary" bar upstairs while he and my wife took an extensive tour of the store. I had actually planned on getting her a piece of jewelry at some point but that decision was made for me several drinks later.

This is our plan, though I wouldn't live on an RCCL ship.  Nothing against Royal at all, but I'd want to be on a ship doing constantly changing itineraries to a wider variety of places.  This becomes somewhat limiting to smaller luxury lines (Crystal, Silversea, Regent, Oceania, etc) but it's hard for me to imagine the constant turnaround days, deck parties, etc, while spending time running the same handful of itineraries. 

Its something I have considered, don't think I could ever afford it though and my wife probably wouldn't go for it .... so maybe that's worth considering strongly ;)

You can do it, it is a sore subject because it is felt that many people who remove the automatic tips are doing so for the purpose of not tipping at all rather than tipping in cash and controlling the tipping directly.
 
It is allowed though (at least as of last time i heard someone trying it)

I don't expect them to drop either but RCL seems to be intent on moving upwards ... I think the gap is more likely to close from that direction ;)

I love/hate this time of year ... driving myself crazy trying to get the schedule information ahead of time so I am ready to book on day one (might be some obsessive disorder issues to address in my next cruise therapy session ... 17 days and counting).
 
Looks like Allure is doing the Western Caribbean Thanksgiving week which should mean Harmony is on the Eastern Run ... leaving Saturday 11/18 out of Ft Lauderdale with a sea day for Thanksgiving day which works out well.
 
So .... just need to see some pricing and I can start rounding up my crew to make reservations :) ... and then wait another year for the next schedule roll forward :(