cookingyo

Sovereign of the Seas was my first. I would sail on her just for old times sake. Of course she would need a head to toe rerurb.

The Freedom New Years GC is going to be EPIC. A lot of our cruising friends are booked. I think half of the aft is RCBlog folks already. It should be one hell of a party on an awesome ship with a great itinerary. As others have said you can do as much or as little official group activities as you want. You will find out a lot of unofficial events pop up, and some times we even close down a bar... or three. For example, pub crawling is fun with your friends... Pub crawling with 60 friends can be down right silly. I have done Onboard Broadway shows, cabin tours, game shows, pod cast, slot pulls, sail away parties, private events in some really awesome cabins, photography talks, cake and beverages, private lunches, welcome events, good bye events and much more all while group cruising. The best part is you will see some people on group cruise after group cruise and friendships blossom. You will soon see that on non group cruises that a lot of time people you sailed with are on different cruises and sailing the same time as you. It's always nice having someone on a ship you know. Trust me, there will be tons of ship talk. Give it a try. Come hang out with the cool kids!

We did SO64 the Akrotiri ruins and Oia Village. It was a 4 1/2 hour excursion but you only got an hour in Oia. The ruins were an interesting site but no where near Pompeii. When I go back, I am heading right to Oia. You want to go to Oia! It is the village were all the famous pictures you see on Santorini are taken. Fira is where you want to be at the end of the day to take the tram down and get the tender back to the ship.

That was Wonderland

I'm hoping Matt and his MEI partners are patiently waiting for RCCL to release the Europe 2020. My gut tells me they have a few itineraries on a dream sheet and a decision will happen very quickly due to limited inventory and wanting to get the best price to bring a larger volume of cruising friends. Interest is high and Europe gets real pricey if you wait too long. I know my family is 100% ready to put a deposit down as soon as they are released and join a 2020 RCBlog European Group Cruise.

I checked in to my cruise that is in 90 days. It says check in completed, except I can't the print SetSail passes. I received an error 500. I tried multiple browsers, and finally called RCCL for the heck of it. The agent confirmed it was an issue on the back end and put me on hold. She then came back an said she spoke to IT and said to try again in 24-48 hours. So....just in case any one else was in the same boat. It is a known issue and they are working on it. Hopefully they get it resolve by the time we set sail. ??

Empress had the drink card for $59 during the day 4 of a 5 day cruise. Jewel had the drink card for $79 on day 4 of a 7 day cruise this past June. Empress Drink Card poster

We did Giovanni’s Table on night 1 and CHOPS on night 2 with the BOGO deal on Jewel. Saved some $$ and had a couple of really good meals when we sailed on her this summer through the Greek Islands. I have some pictures of the ship HERE. The only thing negative is VOOM is not so great on the ship. Otherwise we would sail her again in a heartbeat.

On a side note, the Spa Jr Suites are great cabins.

I went in May with my family. Also Billy from CruiseHabit.com went on the same trip with his lovely bride. Read his live blogs at http://www.cruisehabit.com/cruising-cuba and https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/empress-of-the-seas-live-blog I also took some pictures and blogged a little at http://www.cookingyo.com/cuba/

Nope, nothing on the calendar for dining. Do I need to contact MEI or something?

Matt, I'm trying to decide which specialty dining package to get. I know the group is planning on doing a Hibachi night. Do we know which night that would be on yet?

This information was found under countdown to cruise on the Booking Dashboard.

I'm assuming you have something like this? This trip is fuly paid including airfare, excursions, dining, and drinks. Everything was booked on this trip through RCCL.com As long as RCCL isn't asking me for money then I am fine.

RCCL is far from perfect but if you know how the system works there is value and savings to be had. Booking early, cruise fare promotions, kid sale free, price reductions etc. Then there are drink and dining package specials i.e. Sip and stream, or BOGO specialty dinning and excursion sales, etc. A vacation can be tailored to each family's budget and needs. You can pay up front or you can pay as you go but no matter which cruise line you choose, you will pay. Each class of ship in the RCCL fleet is different, some have better technology than the others or more amenities. Proper due dilligence would alleviate any misconceptions or inadaquancies in one class compared to another. No one should have to regret a vacation, but then again one should be informed and do their homework before booking and shelling out their hard eaned money. I wish you luck with Disney.

My 10 y.o at the time enjoyed himself last August. He did say it was mostly younger kids. Shockingly he said as an 11 y/o he would still do it again. Little does he know he will be on Empress next week going to Cuba so I can tell you if he was fibbing or not after that.

Mei is holding Aft corner balcony 6688 for the Alaska GC for us. We also booked deck 10 aft JS and decided to keep that so we will be releasing 6688 today. IDK if that had a 3 people minimum but thought I'd give you the heads up. Stephanie H is handling our reservation so if the TAs wanted to coordinate not loosing this to the general population.

Ditto - The deposit was pulled 10 seconds after I told the last digit because I got a notification from my bank. Still haven't received a confirmation nor has it shown up in my upcoming cruises. Update, 12 hours later I did get a survey about the customer service I received via the telephone. :-) Update 2: I called RCL and went through the already have a reservation section. The automated part let me request a travel confirmation. and it delivered immediately.

Minimum of 8 hours. it takes 3 hours to get to and 3 hours back from. The tour is about 90 minutes with a guide and about 30-45 minutes of free time. The ferry was waiting for our bus to get us back to the ship. The ship promptly left a few minutes after the group boarded. It is a long day!

We are going in June so I'll let you know. We are leaving from Civitavecchia though.

I am not a phone person and use the internet for most things. I've noticed lately Chrome bombs out at RCCL.com even after clearing all the history cache cookies etc. Firefox works just fine as an alternative. This has to be the weakest link in the whole organization. I am savy enough to work around these issues but I could see someone less techie saying the heck with this and going somewhere else. Just my opinion.

OASIS IV - TA of course.

The Nov 17th sailing on Empress was full, with a surprising amount of kids. So it may not be all doom and gloom. Now I do know some Casino Club members were given comped cruise fare for some sailings for awhile and there has been the 3rd & 4th passenger free deal. Still the booze was flowing always and the casino was busy a lot of times. I've sailed Empress twice this year. It's a fun old school ship, with good food and excellent staff. I think Empress is here for awhile.

I normally handle ALL my travel plans, but for 1 cruise I am trying the process through a travel agent. I am an e-mail guy and not really a phone person with the exception of relaying payment information. I normally respond to text and e-mails withing minutes. So when I request a quote via e-mail on an item, like flights, what is a reasonable expectation for a return e-mail, or at least an acknowledgement? Minutes, Hours, Days? I basically told the TA the airline and the flights I wanted. I could of just booked the flights and saved $116. Now the last of the cheaper seats were sold while waiting for this agent to get back to me. Heck I could of booked flights through RCL Air 2 Sea and still saved some $$. I am trying to let go and let someone else handle everything for this one particular trip. So far I am not enjoying the TA process. I know IF there was a problem during the trip, this is the person I am trusting to make things right. I'm just not getting a good vibe with this Travel Agent. Normally what is the process of getting a new agent within the same agency? Any help would be appreciated. I guess I am looking for a for a bull dog who will check for price changes at least once during sales and who is tech friendly and will get back to me the same day via e-mail. Some one who understands if I call via phone that I am either giving them money or there is a problem that I need to be resolved ASAP.

The Voom Surf & Stream for my summer Jewel cruise from Rome is 50% off but comes up as $10.97 a day..... Wonder why a different price for Europe sailing?