DocLC

There is an enclosed pool area; however, the majority of the top decks are open and I'd suspect it will be cold the first day out and the last day back. It's very easy to stay in on these days if you desire and all of the venues besides the pool deck (e.g., pools with the exception of the solarium pool, mini golf, rock climbing wall) are indoors. There's also a lot of glass, so it's easy to find a spot onboard to watch the sea from indoors if it's cold.

It's amazing how many times I see Seaview Cafe mentioned across the internet. The one thing that most cruise lines lack is a good late night dining venue. Once I started traveling with my son, a late night venue was need as he was always hungry after getting picked up from the clubs and room service jus took too long. The 24 cafe on NCL is great and I wish the other lines offered something similar across their fleets.

I agree with Matt. I've received similar emails from other cruise lines suggesting that there'd be a delay and there wasn't one. RCI is just trying to cover their bases in case there is an actual, although unlikely, delay.

Great question and great answers. Love the pictures.

I've had some memorable wait staff in the past, but it never occurred to me to get a picture with them in our 20 cruises.

I forgot to address the second part of your post. I typically use a TA and book about 9 months out. The exception was with the Liberty of the Seas for January 2016 typically, you get a better price for booking early. Plus, if the price drops before finally payment you can get an adjustment. For our July 2015 cruise, the price for the cabin has increased $3200 since booking about two months ago largely because it's an unusual itinerary which I think is increasing demand. We tried to book a similar cruise in Japan almost a year out, but were put on a wait list and cancelled when the only available cabin was a suite at twice the price we were willing to pay.

 

While you do lose some control with a TA booking, you don't pay any more for the cruise and it's nice to have an advocate should something go wrong.

It sounds like a reasonable price for four to me.

 

For what it's worth, I still find cruise vacations to be an extremely good value. We've done a number of land-based vacations and they always come to be more expensive than our cruises. For example, we just budgeted for a multi-state trip and when all expenses were calculated, the 10 day trip would have cost us over $5000 without food. That's the same price as a 12 night Norwegian Fjords cruise on RCI. Of course, there's the added airfare costs to consider, but for the base price the cruise was the better value and option for us.

 

We often book Disneyworld and cruise combinations as well and the shorter Disney trip at the value resorts always costs more than our longer cruises. And again, the food is included on the cruise.

 

I know it's a bit apples to oranges, but I'm convinced that cruising is the best value for my family.

Great review and pictures.

It's doable. We went from Cape Canaveral to Miami the night before our cruise. It took us about 3.5 hours or so on a Friday evening. I'd strongly recommend paying for the toll pass with your rental company so that you can get through the toll booths faster and make sure to pick a company that is located on site at the airport.

I actually like Royal's straight percentage off as I have more freedom to choose the restaraunts I want to dine in each night.

 

NCL offers a great product, especially for suites, although I felt that their main dining lagged behind the other lines in terms of quality and selection. Having a 24 hour cafe, though, was great.

I agree with both WhiteSoxFan and Michelle.

 

For several years, we stopped using TAs because of some less than stellar recommendations and poor service. However, when you find a good one, they're invaluable especially as they come to know your likes, dislikes, etc. For example, we were interested in a European land/bus tour. After doing it herself, our TA recommended against it knowing that it would not provide the experience we were looking for.

 

Am I sometimes frustrated having to hand control over to someone else? Of course, but in the end the time savings are worth it.

It seems that the argument regarding using a TA or not largely depends on the experience one has had with their TA. While I receive little value in terms of perks or price, I like the fact that my TA will go to bat for me, saving me time since I don't have to do it myself. And when RCI had to rebook my cruise to provide me with a lower rate, my TA offered to rebook our excursions on her time so that I wouldn't have to do it.

 

Of course, when things go wrong, a TA can be invaluable. I once booked a family vacation over a weekend that I was suppose to be speaking at a conference. When I went to rebook, the TA was able to make the changes to our reservations and minimized any fees and penalties. We were even able to get the airfare change without a fee and ended up saving almost $800 in the end.

 

There are times when I don't use a TA as I do like having direct control; however, I'm finding that having one is invaluable as my life continues to get busier and busier.

I wouldn't be too concerned. I'm sure the ship was thoroughly disinfected prior to boarding as it's in RCI's interest to do so.

 

I go onto every cruise with the assumption that there is a norovirus risk. As such, practice regular, thorough hand washing. Limit exposure to shared surfaces (e.g., stair rails and elevator buttons) and wash your hands both before and after serving yourself at the buffet just in case the serving utensils have been contaminated by another passenger. I even as one fellow passenger using food handler's gloves when using the utensils at the buffet, presumably to be extra cautious.

 

In 20 cruises and my son's (7) 11 cruises, we've never had a problem.

Makes sense to me. Keep in mind that it was reported that the nurse contacted the CDC regarding her fever and that she was not discouraged from boarding her flight. Hopefully, those issues have been resolved.

I wasn't suggesting that they were equivalent nor did I suggest anything of the sort. I was simply stating my experience during another international health crisis. Obviously, if you're this concerned, I'd recommend calling the cruise line directly, sending a letter to the president of RCI, and not cruising until you get a satisfactory answer.

 

For what it's worth, I heard that a hospital worker in Texas that may have been exposed to Ebola did board a Carnival ship. When it was discovered, he was quarantined to his room. I also heard today that passengers will be denied boarding if from regions where there is an outbreak if it's been lest than 21 days since their departure.

When I was on an Alaska cruise during the SARS epidemic, the cruise lines changed the health screening forms and had ship's doctors standing by to give medical screenings if necessary. They were also offering no penalty refunds to encourage compliance.

 

At this point, I think it is way too early to be worrying about this and I believe most of what will be going on will be behind the scenes.

There's no direct way to enforce it, but they do scan your card every time you get a drink even with the package. Therefore, they would know if you received a drink at one bar and then went to another. The bigger concern would be that "sharing" could drive up the price for others and/or result in a change in policy back to the original where all adults in the cabin had to buy the package.

I can't provide a personal recommendation (yet!), but we are booked at the Cambria Suites next month:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g34168-d1583915-Reviews-Cambria_Suites_Ft_Lauderdale_Airport_South_Cruise_Port-Dania_Beach_Florida.html

They got 4 1/2 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor, give free shuttle transfers to/from the airport and $5/pp transfers to the port. Breakfast doesn't appear to be included (not a deal breaker for our group). Good luck and enjoy Oasis!

I've had good experience at Cambria Suites in both Miami and DC. They're a newer chain with new hotels and are fully suites or mini suites depending on the room booked. The only downside is that their laundry room is a single washer and dryer. I also don't know if the FLL location offers any type of shuttle service.

This is great news.

We did something similar to the Royal Replenish package on Celebrity. While we thought we'd only break even and did it out of convenience, we really found the value in it even on a port intensive cruise (no sea days). The early morning specialty coffees and teas helped extend the value as did the fresh squeezed juice. Thus, I could the benefit of the alcohol package if I drank more alcohol.

Thanks, Matt. Just learned last night that a coworker will be onboard the Quantum during the group cruise. I pointed her to the site.

When you rebook you can lose any discounts or sales you previously booked into but losing your excursions and drink packages seems excessive (or a fault in the booking system logic).

 

It seems to be the fault of the booking system since it had to be redone as a new reservation. It seems to me that it would have made more sense just to override the price. The price reduction, though, was worth the hassle. Unfortunately, my TA had to work extra hard for it and spent a lot of time on the phone with Royal to get it done.

I'm Kris and talked with Matt on Episode 53 of the podcast about my expectations regarding my families upcoming Jewel cruise.  This will be our first time on Royal since our Legend cruise on 12/31/2005 and the cruise that bumps us from Platinum to Emerald.  This will also be my son's first time on Royal, although he's been on 11 other cruises previously.

 

It seems that we're "all in" with Royal as we've also booked the Brilliance for July 2015 out of England for the Norwegian Fjords/Iceland route and the Liberty out of Texas in January 2016.

 

I'm a huge fan of cruising, as is my son.  My wife is less of a fan, but appreciates the convenience of cruising and has "come around" with better itineraries.  She and our son also missed the kids clubs on our last land vacation, which is another plus of cruising. :)  In addition, the overall value can't be beat when comparing land and/or Disney vacations with cruise vacations.  I just wish we had more options out of California.

Yep cruise critic groups are great and dining with others all great trips and read the Navigator

they have singles meet ups a lot in there as well.  Have a blast

Great advice, Michelle.  I forgot that the cruise lines have gatherings for singles.  My brother takes advantage of these when he cruises with us.  I guess being with a 40-something family with a 7 year old doesn't provide much of a singles scene for him. :)

Hmm this seems odd to me - sometimes I guess I can see why they have to do this though

if the NEW promotion you have requires you to book within a certain booking window

and you booked outside that window.  but they should warn you it will cancel all of

your pre-booked tours etc.      But most of the time, an agent or supervisor should be

able to re-price what you have - you can ask them to go to Resolutions and ask for

help if needed.

My TA did warn me about the cancellation and the consequences; sorry if I implied otherwise.  She did go to bat to simply adjust the rate.  However, it was some type of weekend or residential rate that put the balconies below the price of the oceanviews and interiors.  It was worth the hassle given the $300+ that we saved, but just annoying in the end.  Fortunately, we were able to get back into the same cabin, although there was a slight risk of losing that as well.  It would have just been more convenient had the rate been changed as I wouldn't have to repurchase everything and reenter all of our information.

 

Royal lost in the end as I reconsidered a couple of excursions in the process and opted not to rebook those with Royal and instead doing something independently.