EmersonNZ

On 11/14/2017 at 11:51 PM, MandM said:

Hi Bazza,

Can you tell me where you found it in the Royal Caribbean site to book them we have looked everywhere!

i booked shore Excursions tonight but I couldn’t find where the North Star or Rip Cord bookings are?Thanks for heads up 

2

Keep looking even if you don't see it now. From memory, I think it was less than a month out when the bookings opened up.

For our cruise in late December the Waverider lessons still haven't opened up for booking. You can see them but you are unable to complete the "#guest+date+time" selections.... hopefully it'll open up soon. 

Hi,

We travelled on Ovation last year and I would highly recommend booking the North Star. At the beginning of the cruise the lines were pretty long and they were only taking walk up if guests who had booked didn't turn up. Towards the end of the cruise there did seem to be shorter lines but they were never "short". If you can book... do book.

Royal seems to have the Coke range which means no Pepsi products such as Gatorade.

6 hours ago, Matt said:

Sure, that sounds logical to me.

..... and that's where the plan fell down.... 

So if it not possible to remove the gratuity is not jsut the cost of the drink? If that's the case then why have the illusion of a gratuity which is normally a choice to reward good service.

17 hours ago, RestingBirds said:

lol, I wish I was a coder so I could join this "RC website redevelopment team".

 

We are always looking for people to join our team of dedicated testers.  . It won't be easy, hour upon hour of field work toughing it out in the sun as you order drink after drink at the bar.... I'm not sure everyone has what it takes 

That is a really good deal! I certainly haven't seen that on the Australia/New Zealand site yet 

On 10/19/2017 at 10:32 AM, jce2 said:

  Maybe when i retire (in 10 years) , RC can hire me to rewrite their software......from the deck of Liberty of course.....while tossing back margaritas....

 

2

As an IT professional the only responsible thing is to thoroughly test your code in a real-world environment. I admire your sacrifice in being willing to do your own user acceptance testing..... 

mmmmm RCL still playing hide and seek with the internet packages.... Honestly RCL.... you don't want to see me without internet.... it's not pretty I tell you.

On 10/19/2017 at 7:54 AM, Mcohen1993 said:

Hey at least yours shows the photo package. Mine doesn’t show them yet. What’s the prices for each photo package so I know what to expect.

NZD$ 20 Prints = $268 (US$192), 20 Print Digital $268 (US$192), Phot Package (all photos on USB) $335 (US$240)

I was just looking through the Cruise Planner (For about the 5th time today) for my Jan 30 trip on Voyager out of Sydney and I noticed all the internet packages have disappeared. All the usual packages were available yesterday but suddenly they have all disappeared. The drink package + internet packages are still available and the front banner still calls it 'Internet and more', the only problem is there is still 'more;' and but no internet....

15 minutes ago, Lazza7 said:

Thank you we are cruising out of Australia into New Zealand. Sorry what do you mean by the casino is a bit bigger then normal?

Ovation was designed for the Asian market and the Asian market really like their casinos hence they upsized it on OVation.

Hope you enjoy your New Zealand cruise (my home). If you are stopping in Dunedin (Port Charmers) remember to wave (If you want any shore excursion tips let me know). 

Certainly looks like Dynamic Dining. Fingers crossed for you.

Happy 5,000 day to Matt and all the Royal Caribbean Blog team and members! 

5 hours ago, Lazza7 said:

Thank you for that information. You didn’t also happen to see what the limits were like for Texas hold ‘em?

No Sorry, I wasn't really payi9ng attention. One thing I should note is if you are going out of Ovation out of China then the chances are the casino will be VERY busy and limits may be a little higher (Or a lot). If it out of Australia or New Zeland then it'll be back to normal (Though the casino is still a little bigger than normal).

That seems a little strange. Ovation which is also stationed in China during our winter before heading to NZ/Aust for the summer, was traditional & MyTime dining when we were on her in January. I guess they may have changed for the Aust/NZ market but it does seem strange to have the outlier in the fleet. (Then again Asia is a little different as far as cruising goes..... hence no johnny rockets and the big casino on Ovation). 

1 hour ago, Lazza7 said:

Thank you for your reply. So 3 cardpoker and blackjack and most of the others were $5 a majority of the time? 

I certainly saw them at $5. Not sure it was the majority of the time but certainly $5 limits on all of them.

Table limits seemed to go $5 and up depending on the number of people playing and time of day etc. As for games expect a splattering of your usual casino games with Baccarat being very common due to its popularity in Asia.

Wow... she's looking good in her new dress. 

I had the dry aged steak on OVation in Jan... I must admit I wouldn't pay for it again. It was 'ok' but I'm not sure I prefer it over a nice non dry aged steak. 

Last year when we were on OVation North Star booking opened up very very late (I think about 2 months out). We have the same issue with Wave Rider lessons at the moment. We want to rent it out for the hour but whenever you go to book it no times come up. We are about 90 days out and I've been checking daily at least) since about 120 days out.

My name is Emerson, and I'm a Cruise Pplannerolic.

I've just realised I have a problem. I find myself checking the cruise planner 2 to 3 times a day pretty much from the time I book my cruise. The symptoms seem to get a lot worse 6 months out and come 3 months out... well, someone please take my keyboard from me.

Am I alone? Do others suffer from this crippling condition? Is there any cure or should I just embrace my disease? 

If Royal Carribean comes out with an app that allows me to check cruise planner I may need to check myself into a treatment centre!

I don't post for a couple of days and you all have so much fun without me.....

I'm really sorry OPs cruise experience isn't what they hoped for, however, I'm probably more sorry for the people of the Carribean who I am sure are not having the experience they hoped for and are unlikely to for some time yet. I understand they OP must be truly frustrated, it sucks... but let's look at some context here. I'm certainly not a RCL fanboy (Don't get me started on how they favour people who drink alcohol v those of us that don't... whoops started...) but I M a fan of humanity and if RL want to put their resources into those who have lost everything including their very way of life while I sleep in my warm house with all the amenities at my disposal... I'll live with that,

"The needs of the many clearly outweigh the needs of the few" - Spock

It is this line that seems to be interesting

Quote

 

• Does Not Consume Alcohol Due to Personal Preference

 

I don't normally drink alcohol and would actually prefer a coke or a mocktail to a beer and cocktail most days. If this is the case does this mean I do not have to purchase the Delux package and can get the Replenisher package instead? Surely if this is true then the whole policy is almost a farce?

I think it is fair to say that cruising in NZ/Aust is still an 'untapped market'. Up until very recently, most New Zealanders would believe cruising was for 'old people' or something that happened on 'The Love Boat'. ost of my friends would never consider a cruise holiday and there is very very little advertising around talking about cruises. Due to this I think they are still having to drive demand by having regular sales. 

IN NZ the market is certainly growing and growing rapidly. In Dunedin where I live the number of cruise ship visits (and the number of passengers due to the likes of Ovation) has tripled in the last 4 years and this season is apparently going to smash last years record.