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Will this Disney gay become a RCL company stan? [July 2022 | Adventure OTS from Cape Liberty, NJ | 5-Night Bermuda Cruise]


ClarkNotClock

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Hey y'all! I'm sailing on July 2nd from Cape Liberty for 5 nights to Bermuda on the Adventure of the Seas! I've been playing cruise director for my family and I already have a lot to say about the experience just doing the "boring" stuff after checking in. While I am excited for the voyage itself, I want to compare this experience to my other experiences as a Disney cruiser for most of my childhood (even if it was only like two cruises LMAO). I've had nothing but amazing experiences on there and I've essentially sold my soul to the Mouse because of DCL.

I'm willing to let that change though. Royal Caribbean has been a cruise line I've been wanting to sail with ever since the first Symphony of the Seas commercials hit airwaves on TV. It's a dream come true cruising on Royal this year, especially having gone 5+ years without international travel. I've done so much research on Royal Caribbean as a cruise line, Adventure of the Seas as a ship, and as mentioned earlier, have been playing cruise director for my family, researching ports and activities on the ships. 

For now, I already have some thoughts to share from booking and checking in.

  • We did not book through a travel agent (my family wanted to save as much money as possible easing back into international travel like this. At 17, what else can you do 🤷🏻‍♂️), so trying to get connecting inside cabins was a pain. Every time we found rooms next to each other, they weren't connecting. If we tried finding a new price, those rooms wouldn't be available unless we went back to the previous settings. This was low-key a dealbreaker because we preferred having that access to each other's rooms. We eventually gave up on the idea and settled on rooms adjacent to each other. 
  • Making reservations on the cruise planner website was ridiculously easy. On DCL, there was no way to plan your cruise as extensively and as easy as how Royal has it set up. We were able to reserve almost everything we wanted except for theater shows. I'm not too mad about it, but it was interesting. Maybe it could've been because we were too far out until the sailing.
  • Checking in... waiting had to have been the worst part. We booked around mid-April and just waiting got the gears going for me. I like to look cute on a vacation and have fun doing so and knowing where and when we were going might have almost cost me my Pinterest account here and there. ANYWAY, checking in had to have been the easiest thing ever.  I punched in everyone's data on my computer and we were basically set. The one concern I did have was the lack of resources available to us to make sure my mom (a Philippine citizen and American permanent resident) would be allowed to travel into Bermuda without a visa. Everyone thinks she's good, but we're on the lookout for an answer. (If anyone does have any answers, please check out this thread to help a concerned son out.)

I'm über-excited for this cruise, especially with how it's just right after summer break for me. Entering senior year with a bang we are!

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29 minutes ago, ClarkNotClock said:

We did not book through a travel agent (my family wanted to save as much money as possible easing back into international travel like this.

I hope your family realizes using a Travel Agent doesn't cost anything. They are paid by the cruise line and would have been super helpful in finding you the adjacent rooms you were looking for! If you didn't book through Royal Caribbean directly and used some third-party site to book, that third-party site is actually your TA.

30 minutes ago, ClarkNotClock said:

We were able to reserve almost everything we wanted except for theater shows

Adventure of the Seas never had it set up where you can make show reservations in advance. You will be able to reserve shows that require reservations using the app once you board the ship.  I'm not sure if Adventure even requires reservations for their shows, though!

 

32 minutes ago, ClarkNotClock said:

The one concern I did have was the lack of resources available to us to make sure my mom (a Philippine citizen and American permanent resident) would be allowed to travel into Bermuda without a visa. Everyone thinks she's good, but we're on the lookout for an answer.

All I see from https://www.gov.bm/bermuda-entry-visas is:

Quote

As of 1 March 2014, Bermuda entry visas and visa waivers will no longer be required for tourist and business visitors and work permit holders.

I interpret this to mean your mom will be ok, but hopefully others with actual experience will chime in on that post for you.

Excited to follow along your blog. Welcome to the message boards! 🙂

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1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

I hope your family realizes using a Travel Agent doesn't cost anything. They are paid by the cruise line and would have been super helpful in finding you the adjacent rooms you were looking for! If you didn't book through Royal Caribbean directly and used some third-party site to book, that third-party site is actually your TA.

Adventure of the Seas never had it set up where you can make show reservations in advance. You will be able to reserve shows that require reservations using the app once you board the ship.  I'm not sure if Adventure even requires reservations for their shows, though!

 

All I see from https://www.gov.bm/bermuda-entry-visas is:

I interpret this to mean your mom will be ok, but hopefully others with actual experience will chime in on that post for you.

Excited to follow along your blog. Welcome to the message boards! 🙂

Thank you for telling me about travel agents! I've tried telling my family that agents shouldn't cost extra but couldn't explain why. And I do think that I might not even need to reserve shows considering how small Adventure is tbh.

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I second the travel agent comment above.  While some agencies do charge fees for things like changes (like Costco Travel for example) a good TA does not. They will be able to see cabins that you cannot from the regular booking website, plus have access to other cabins that you can only reserve by calling Royal (which the TA will do).  They can also help with answering questions about entry visas and if they don't know will get the answer for you.  Some agencies will also price check your reservation and secure you lower prices (which in turn lowers their commission but they do it anyway) so you pay the lowest price.  If you book yourself, you have to do that check every single time on your own, and call Royal for a re-price yourself.  The good TA will sit on hold for you, once again for no charge.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’m a Disney Gay on Harmony of the Seas right now, prepare to be disappointed!!  I will never step foot on a Royal ship again. Meh to just plain bad food, apathetic to over worked and stressed crew, long lines, nickel and diming, adult only areas with clearly under age children in them, and the crew and officers won’t enforce the rules …. a completely different vibe.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We are platinum with Disney cruise,but needed a break with only four Disney ships. Not to mention daughter getting older so my family were sailing for me. I experienced tears if joy every time I laid eyes on a DCL ship.  It seems Royal is working overtime to try and takeover the DCL customer after the pause and while initially (before the pause) the sailings were on par with DCL in my opinion @RCLwhyis that they are trying to hard and falling way short.

While the food to me personally is hit or miss on each ship and so subjective, I agree I have experienced the shift you speak of.

They ramped capacity to quickly and the crew are suffering. They are beyond tired and wearing the masks breathing in hardly any fresh air all day must be taking a toll on them. The activities are suffering. The long lines are everywhere for everything.

Entertainment is truly lacking for sure. Less offerings and simply most just going through the motions. The limited showings of favorites and the non existent additional acts, painful. Felt like they placed this on the back burner. 

The nickel and diming has always been in place vs Disney but it's now quarters and 50 cent pieces. In March the Oasis ship model was 19.99 in June Mariners was 42.99 yikes. Just a price hike example.

The kids in adult spaces lately has been crazy. There is no true adult space; our last sailing they were everywhere including bars and lounges running around like it was a playground. This is clearly though squarely on parents who pay no mind to the rules for their "angels" Brings me back to the crew being exhausted, either they are told to look the other way or just don't want the hassle. 

Either way before the pause we really felt Royal had a better product in comparison, lately and sadly now not so much. After our August FCC sailing we are taking a break, even canceled our November sailing  and will be sailing the DCL Wish next most likely. 

I think Royal needs a minute to figure out and commit to the type of product they are offering at the price point they have settled on and then concentrate on truely getting back to their return to service. I'm sorry but I feel they are going through the motions minimally. 

We are adding more land vacations to the mix for now also, jumping through crazy hoops for a sailing I just shrug my shoulders at as meh impacts my joy. While I'm so sad you are having a meh sailing, I am sending positive thoughts your way hoping it gets better for you for sure.

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Looking forward to reading about your impressions of this ship, the ease of (or lack of) embarkation details, and everything else you plan to provide details about.
Looks like you are in for some pretty hot weather!  I know a few people also on today’s sailing.  As for me?  I am on same itinerary in mid August and looking forward to it now that I added one of my daughter’s to cruise with me.

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On 6/8/2022 at 1:13 PM, RCLwhy said:

I’m a Disney Gay on Harmony of the Seas right now, prepare to be disappointed!!  I will never step foot on a Royal ship again. Meh to just plain bad food, apathetic to over worked and stressed crew, long lines, nickel and diming, adult only areas with clearly under age children in them, and the crew and officers won’t enforce the rules …. a completely different vibe.

 

On 6/25/2022 at 8:07 AM, Neesa said:

We are platinum with Disney cruise,but needed a break with only four Disney ships. Not to mention daughter getting older so my family were sailing for me. I experienced tears if joy every time I laid eyes on a DCL ship.  It seems Royal is working overtime to try and takeover the DCL customer after the pause and while initially (before the pause) the sailings were on par with DCL in my opinion @RCLwhyis that they are trying to hard and falling way short.

While the food to me personally is hit or miss on each ship and so subjective, I agree I have experienced the shift you speak of.

They ramped capacity to quickly and the crew are suffering. They are beyond tired and wearing the masks breathing in hardly any fresh air all day must be taking a toll on them. The activities are suffering. The long lines are everywhere for everything.

Entertainment is truly lacking for sure. Less offerings and simply most just going through the motions. The limited showings of favorites and the non existent additional acts, painful. Felt like they placed this on the back burner. 

The nickel and diming has always been in place vs Disney but it's now quarters and 50 cent pieces. In March the Oasis ship model was 19.99 in June Mariners was 42.99 yikes. Just a price hike example.

The kids in adult spaces lately has been crazy. There is no true adult space; our last sailing they were everywhere including bars and lounges running around like it was a playground. This is clearly though squarely on parents who pay no mind to the rules for their "angels" Brings me back to the crew being exhausted, either they are told to look the other way or just don't want the hassle. 

Either way before the pause we really felt Royal had a better product in comparison, lately and sadly now not so much. After our August FCC sailing we are taking a break, even canceled our November sailing  and will be sailing the DCL Wish next most likely. 

I think Royal needs a minute to figure out and commit to the type of product they are offering at the price point they have settled on and then concentrate on truely getting back to their return to service. I'm sorry but I feel they are going through the motions minimally. 

We are adding more land vacations to the mix for now also, jumping through crazy hoops for a sailing I just shrug my shoulders at as meh impacts my joy. While I'm so sad you are having a meh sailing, I am sending positive thoughts your way hoping it gets better for you for sure.

We’re a family of 4 with 2 teenage boys.  We did 7 cruises with Disney prior to shutdown and 4 cruises with Royal (Oasis, Independence, Wonder, and Adventure) since restart.  I think the key to cruising with Royal is to recognize that you are paying a lot less and use the savings to add “perks”.  For example, we have booked suites (junior, grand, and aquatheater) with unlimited dining and still don’t even come close to what were spending on Disney.  And our experiences on Royal have been fantastic.  We are sailing on Disney Wish end of September (booked before we sailed Royal) and my kids are looking forward to our Allure sailing more.  

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27 minutes ago, Jkaczano said:

 

We’re a family of 4 with 2 teenage boys.  We did 7 cruises with Disney prior to shutdown and 4 cruises with Royal (Oasis, Independence, Wonder, and Adventure) since restart.  I think the key to cruising with Royal is to recognize that you are paying a lot less and use the savings to add “perks”.  For example, we have booked suites (junior, grand, and aquatheater) with unlimited dining and still don’t even come close to what were spending on Disney.  And our experiences on Royal have been fantastic.  We are sailing on Disney Wish end of September (booked before we sailed Royal) and my kids are looking forward to our Allure sailing more.  

as I'm typing this I'm realizing that I never mentioned anything live 💀

By about day 3, my entire party started to realize that the on-ship experience could have been better. I noticed that most things were because of staffing issues. (Anyone who was trying to get pizza at Café Promenade on day 4 knows what's up.) At best, service was attentive yet frazzled and at worst, clueless and frustrating. 

That's not to say everyone was bad. A perk of being Filipino as a passenger is that service is immediately better from a Filipino (or Southeast Asian if we expanded the scope) crew member than a non Pinoy/SEA crew member. Kapamilya and all that jazz if you will. From someone trying to upsell us Giovanni's as we waited for Café Promenade on the first day to us literally getting our waiter's WhatsApp number yesterday, I felt some resolution when we interacted with a Filipino crew member. Hearing the language from someone serving us made me feel at ease.

We also started comparing the service from previous cruises like Disney and Norwegian. It was a stark contrast, even knowing the conditions. If I wasn't cruising in the middle of a pandemic, I probably would've enjoyed RC more. I'll be open to try again in the future, but probably not now.

In terms of food, it was hit or miss unfortunately. I went on a whole rant about it on my own blog (soon to post), but my feelings can be summed up as: "why tf did i have to pay extra for better food when y'all are known for it?"

Entertainment-wise, ice team >>>>> stage team. I just came from "Can't Stop The Rock", but I was far more impressed by the ice team during "Cool Art, Hot Ice". (I didn't understand the theme for that one, stage team gets a point for understanding.) I've been performing on-stage, under the stage, and worked behind the scenes before for 6 years now. And the entertainment felt lackluster. I do understand if there were new performers, but there's not the spark that should get people going, even if it lit up people. For "Can't Stop The Rock" specifically, the only times people cheered were during the end of songs and when Rochelle was on stage 💀

Honestly, I still loved this cruise anyway. A lot of the negative experience was mostly because of management. I can see myself coming back on Royal Caribbean, but maybe once things settle down post-COVID. Things didn't feel right, but nothing felt wrong either. 

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12 hours ago, ClarkNotClock said:

By about day 3, my entire party started to realize that the on-ship experience could have been better. I noticed that most things were because of staffing issues. (Anyone who was trying to get pizza at Café Promenade on day 4 knows what's up.) At best, service was attentive yet frazzled and at worst, clueless and frustrating. 

Honestly, I still loved this cruise anyway. A lot of the negative experience was mostly because of management. I can see myself coming back on Royal Caribbean, but maybe once things settle down post-COVID. Things didn't feel right, but nothing felt wrong either. 

I think you are likely right about staffing issues and service post COIVD.  I've been on 3 cruises since the cruise restart.  The first one was on Celebrity Edge in Aug 2021; the service was great on that cruise, but I think that was more due to the fact that there were hardly any passengers onboard then it being on Celebrity vs Royal.  The second one was Oasis of the Seas October 2021, the service wasn't as great, because the passenger load was increasing.  My most recent cruise was Anthem of the Seas during Christmas Week—you could totally tell the staff was overwhelmed by the passenger volumes.

Like you, I still had fun on all three cruises, but I'm certainly going into my next cruise in August, on Wonder of the Seas, with lowered expectations due to the staffing difficulties everyone is having worldwide, in every industry.

As a "Fan of Royal Caribbean" I'm glad to see that you realize it's difficult to compare any cruise lines right now, to service received before the cruise lines had to shut down over COVID.  I'm also a big proponent of encouraging people to try multiple cruise lines.  But I would recommend giving RCL a try again in the future.  Maybe in a few years check out one of the Oasis class ships, as they are certainly different than any other cruise ships out there (thought I think MSC is trying to go in that direction with one of their new ship classes.)  Or maybe try a Quantum class ship, my favorite RCL ship class.  By the time you might be ready to try RCL again, the Icon class should also be sailing, we should find out more about those ships this fall.

Looking forward to reading your blog post about your experiences with food on the ship!

 

 

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