mike

I assume denial of people traveling from affected regions refers to the African countries in the thick of it? Since we have only a few cases thus far over here, I presume we aren't considered an 'outbreak' yet.

Absolutely spot on , we love the Windjammer the choice is great and even the cooked to order Steaks are pretty dam good. Another nice touch is when they dim the lights for dinner it's quite romantic :) ,,, you don't get that in MDR.

Shoot, their grilled steaks mass produced for lunch were great I thought... better than most steak houses on land :D and that's not even counting Chops #beststeaksever . Seriously RCCL open up steakhouses landside, you put all the chain steakhouses to shame!

This is indeed great news! Hopefully it is indeed true. Perhaps they have recognized the service as (fee) rarely enforced and valued by guests leading to rolling it into already included services. One small but good way to further the brand and ultimately cost them little if anything in lost revenue.

Back onto the ship mate app.... I was just noticing that Navigator wasn't far from Galveston and it's Tuesday. With either itenerary the ship should be far away, more like by the Yucatan. Does anyone know if that apps map placement is accurate? I like to dream of where I would be right now if I were on her.

We were on Navigator August 31st and did MTD. We asked for a table for 2 each afternoon for that night and had no problems(Deck 5 entrance has the MTD reservation/check in kiosk). Every evening that we ate in the MDR we ended up having the same table which was great since it also meant the same servers.

Edited to mention that the longest we waited to be seated was one minute tops while the couple in front of us one night was escorted to their table.

Surprizingly we found Enchantment OTS excellent, best staff & crew in all Royal experience.

That was, I think, the very reason I became loyal to Royal right off the bat. The Enchantment crew is really a cut above even for Royal Caribbean.

 

As for personal preferences, I think I would still stick to voyager class or above at least until I can someday afford to go more than once every few years. Because of this the itenerary(and subsequent off ship costs) become a limiting factor versus an already paid for fun time on the ship. With that said, I miss you oh beautiful Grand Cayman :'( !

I personally like when they keep it the same time as the home port or 'ship' time. I would think it would help eliminate the accidental "oh noes I forgot to change my watch and now the ship left me" problem.

1. Chops

2. MDR

3. Windjammer

4. Cafe Promenade

 

The only other place we've ever eaten at was Sabor, but the lack of service that night unfortunately has to take it off the list for only a top 4 :(. Great food though.

I'm glad they're using RFID even with some of the issues I've heard Disney has had with it. I am hopeful that it's a resounding success so that it hopefully gets rolled out to the rest of the fleet in the very near future. The idea of possibly speeding up customs (Galveston I'm talking to YOU here!!!!) and making life a little easier onboard with one less thing to worry about in your pockets is a wonderful thing.

I noticed a lot of the replies state that you can board the ship as early as noon. Is this still true considering the 8:30 pm departure time on my sailing?

On the Navigator out of Galveston departure was at 4:30 iirc and even with an hour line to get to the RCCL portion of check in we were on by 11:15am. The ship was scheduled to arrive in port at 7am. I would use when your ship is scheduled to be back in port that morning as a guideline as it seems about 4 hours is a good turnaround time provided no misc. circumstances are in play. Both cruises I've been on have held pretty true to this.

I tend to agree on the value of the royal replenish package although I was pleasantly surprised by their flavored waters in the Windjammer. One thing worth noting also is their iced tea. I grew up loathing tea but in the last few years have started to find select places with iced tea so good I actually like it. Royal Caribbean turns out to be one such place!

We are back from the FANTASTIC!!! Navigator of the Seas and I would like to confirm that starbucks was indeed part of our royal replenish package. On another similar thread it was bounced back and forth yes and no. We got our moneys worth alright :D .

I believe I recall from Matt's navigator review that some bars but but not all could open while in port. Being from Texas, some bizarre antiquated liquor law wouldn't surprise me a bit. My home county just went wet within the last 3 years.

The rooms have mini fridges similar to hotels, perhaps a little smaller. You can also request they remove the stuff they have in there (take one you pay for it type of deal) leaving it empty for you to use.

Only 10 months? I booked the Freedom 22 months in advance :o .

You've got guts lol. 22 months would kill me!

Yeah. It seems they REALLY need to spend more on making the site work properly and the app as well. If you can afford to have multiple billion dollar ships under construction (yes I know they're paying for them over several years) then 10/20/ even 50 million on a WOW experience on their site seems a no brainer to me.

I've been watching any youtube videos I can5n find about our ship as well as browsing the cruisemate app.

It WOULD be nice to win the free cruise :D . That's probably the only way we'd get to go again until sometime in 2016.

Ok, thanks! Those prices are alot more reasonable than the 32 for 1 card I had read on a few posts elsewhere. As far as charges go I'm mainly concerned about any spending in the casino.

Thankfully our trip is only 2 weeks out now, however one piece of news caught my eye. That's right, bingo. If the price I saw is true its pretty high for the time entertained. Does anyone have or know of a good price breakdown? I have yet to find a good posting anywhere.

As a follow up, can all cards in the same room be frozen to prevent use at the casino or other uses for that matter?

During our 2009 trip on Enchantment our bill was indeed itemized and even showed what bar drinks were bought in. I pressume this should still hold true.

What am I missing here? Can anyone else comment on going to the beach at Grand Cayman (or any of the Caribbean ports)?

 

We head out on Navigator in 19 days with the itenerary that includes George Town. Given that's a tendered ride and our desire to not have to rush to beat the crowd, oh and the gorgeous pics of beaches :D , that's our guaranteed beach day. I'll try and post afterwards. I've narrowed it down to any of the 7 mile beach 'sections' for ease of access. Hopefully we find one that has food, drinks and beach umbrellas. Sorry I cant help yet, but hopefully I can give you a firsthand answer soon.

As far as phone calls go, has anyone used one of those $10 international calling cards they sell at grocery stores? I'm sure Cozumel would be no issue with Mexico being on just about every card I've ever seen for sure. How about George Town and Falmouth? I have never seen a calling card with those countries listed or any advice on ease of finding a phone there either.I know the calling card route would be the cheapest route than a cell or ship phone but am unsure on the specifics.

Here's another possibility. Of the ships that got different and/or less upgrades, what markets do they serve? Its possible there was less demand or different liabilities at play.

This makes me curious why Adventure got left out. Considering another Voyager '1.0' class ship got it, surely that would rule out structural issues. Like the tootsie roll pop the world may never know :o .