ddled

Fantastic review-we are on Liberty on Oct 23. I am really glad to see in the cruise compass that they are using their country band a lot for dancing. When we are on there they have Bubba Feathers, who we have seen before and is great!:)

I am elite also on X, not entirely happy with them either, but just to share a story. My son and his family tried NCL, lately, and part way through my 9 year old grandaughter said-no prompting-" I think we are a Royal Caribbean Family" They seem to have a lot of charges for a lot of things on board and in the dining rooms. Was really impressed with Princess in Jan., going to try them on a TA in April again. Celebrity is losing their focus, becoming just another Royal product for more money.

Being an old fossil, I taught 36 years in coat, tie and just considered it part of the job. Always enjoy dressing up when I want to because I wanted to on ship, and it is sort of like going back in time(taught history-can you tell) Will continue to do so, and look forward to watching the inspection at the door to the MDR to see if they are designer jeans or Wal Mart! Now that would be an interesting picture to post?:)

This policy was surely predictable, does not make it right. The reason for a trip is to do something different. If you want to do the same as you do at home, why travel? I am reminded of the complaints that cruise ships serve too much fancy food and should serve good american food-whatever that is in a nation of immigrants! For a long time

Royal left X alone, not anymore! Time to change lines.:(

We are diamond plus on Royal, but only one on Princess-although we booked a TA on Caribbean Princess over one on Celebrity coming up. Celebrity and Princess are mostly comparitive, but for us, Royal has gone down hill over the years. They now market to young families-water slides etc. and have taken away some of the space to make pay restaurants that could have and was public rooms- check out Radiance and the aft lounge. Caribbean Princess reminded us of how Royal used to be-3 dance lounges at night, lots of things to do. Food better on Princess, about same on Celebrity. We have Liberty in Oct. and it may be our last Royal ship. :(

I know it is a long way off, but I have some questions. First is how do I get a new roll call posted? Can a moderator see this and do it? :confused:

Anyone seen a drop in cruise prices after months of very low oil prices? As opposed to charging a surcharge when they went up a couple of years ago?:mad:

Galveston is easy to sail out of if you drive-lots of parking, fairly cheap, shuttle to ship is included. Barring fog, it is a short sail into open gulf and the town has several interesting historical areas-the Strand. It is a fair distance from an airport-fly into Hobby if you can. I think sometimes they do not fill the ships there without a sale sometimes. Just got off Princess which sailed from Houston and at one time it was really cheap. No Princess out of Houston after April. Maybe they will come back to the new terminal in Galveston.

Forgot about the stretching of ships in the 80s. Maybe they were height challenged? Wonder if they made a better basketball team after stretching? Any more the 80s seem like yesterday anyway-senior moment.

On Liberty in Oct. Have no confidence that adding more cabins will not result in longer lines at everywhere, and less space for public rooms. They can only carry so many workers, another restaurant has to be staffed and that cuts down on staff in other restaurants. Royal is doing this on a lot of their ships and on Celebrity, and they are losing a lot of us. I really think Oct is my last on the line-dance music, service, food and lots of other things have been steadily going downhill for a long time.(Diamond perks are nice though!) Having better luck so far on Celebrity, tried Princess for first time in Jan. and was really impressed there-(Caribbean Princess). I think Royal is moving away from older (65) guests.:(

We just got back from Carribbean Princess and had a great time, but I think the complaints about Island show a bad trend in cruising. Royal is doing the same thing-did it to Liberty. Somewhere there are bean counter advisors that are messing up the ships-packing too many people on the same platform. Our only recourse is to not sail these butchered ships and let the companies know why. doubt we can get enough word out, but it is something. Saw the same trend on Infinity-more cabins than the design calls for results in not enough to do and lines everywhere. I think they saw the airlines do smaller seats and more passengers and went there. :(

Just got off the Caribbean and danced a lot. Wheelhouse and Explorers and Fusion had music each night and all wood floors. Heaven! Music style was ballroom, country a little, old Rock, latin-a little of everything. Good bands, some times recorded. Sorry to hear but not surprised to hear that the newer ships have done away with most of it and sent dancers to the Piazza-not a dance venue but an atrium with that silly stone floor. Mirrors what Royal did and Celebrity is working on-try Caribbean soon before they haul her into some drydock someplace and add 100 new rooms, 6 new restaurants and destroy the dance floors!:(

Just finished our first Princess cruise on Caribbean out of Houston. Have cruised 20 times mostly on royal and Celebrity. Diamond and Elite levels. Generally Princess is very comparable to Celebrity and a huge step up from the current Royal product. In no particular order:

Food-good on both, more variety on Celebrity in buffet, Princess better than Royal, dining room about the same. Crown Grill on Princess a better value than anything on the other 2.

ENTERTAINMENT- Much better on Princess. We dance a lot, and there were 3 floors on Princess that we used a lot-very good music, wood floors. Theater was better too, although the theater on CB was too small, hard to get a seat.

SERVICE-great on both, on all aspects.

ROOM SERVICE-better food on Royal, with more choices

Other- we really enjoyed the Princess line. we had an anniversary and they did make it special-cake, balloons and signs. Had to pay for the cake in Royal, X messed it up once and lost it. There was less pushing drinks and other income streams on Princess. More peaceful. The MUTS screen was great-being copied by Royal and X. Better movies on Princess by far. Drinks were cheaper on Princess, may have been a little smaller, but not enough to matter, and may not even have been. Workers seemed happy on Princess, ship was clean, and well organized with more to do than you could. Bigger Cruise staff meant more activities. Princess reminded me of what Royal used to be like, before all the cuts and emphasis towards kids and young families. Celebrity and Princess very close. It was a kick to watch reruns of Love Boat in the cabin-I know-kind of corny! Fewer speciality restaurants in Princess meant more public space I think-it seemed that way-and I like that. The Princess Patter was sometimes wrong about times and needed a better editor. The dancers were the best we have seen in a long time. HOuston is a very nice port to sail out of-too bad they are leaving. Parking was right there-no need for a shuttle. I would sail Princess without any reservations-if the price was the same and they went where I want to go-would choose either X or Princess over the new Royal. Have one last cruise booked on Royal in Oct., with friends and that will be it. Hope to be on Princess again, have a Baltic booked on X.

PORTS Mahogany Bay- a Carnival island,was a very nice beach with a neat chairlift ride to get there. The shopping at the pier in Cozumel was about all most people will need-very nice. At Belize we went on an airboat ride and it was a lot of fun.

Even a bad cruise is better than no cruise-this one was very good and we enjoyed Princess a lot:)

Great advice-thanks. Hoping for good weather. We winter in Brownsville and lately there have been mornings I could not get my kayak out on the bay let alone a cruise ship! fact of life on Texas coast-cruise was a real bargain and since our son lives in Houston we are in good shape. :)

I need some help here. We are in HOuston the night before our 24th cruise, and are driving and parking at the port lot. Our embarkation time is 12:30. Is there any advantage in arriving at the parking early-say 11? What time would work out best? Have never driven to Bayport, and assuming normal operations that day, what is the line like to drop off luggage and go park? Already have a parking permit for the port.:confused:

in 2009 I think-we were on Voyager and just got into Galveston, but the ship stayed there for 2 days waiting to leave again. A Carnival ship did leave, but it got a window that Voyager did not get. At least once in the last couple of years the ship channel closed due to a barge accident for a couple of days. Interesting place to sail. We are on the 24th sailing, but our son lives there and we are driving, so if they can just get us on the ship...:)

Glad to hear these comments. We sail the 24th and have been reading a lot of these that were unsettling. By the way we live in Brownsville tx and there has been fog advisories the last 2 morning with one more tomorrow

Have this thought on the Carribbean Princess board also-would appreciate thoughts on my wondering. When Princess came into Bayport they got a multi-million dollar subsidy to do so that runs out this year. Weather and channel records being what they are I assume that they could predict about how many problems they would have with the port and channel. The thing missing now is the subsidy, and by the looks of the sales on CB the ship is not filling.. I imagine that economics drives the decison more than weather. Nothing wrong with that, except it leaves 2 fewer ships to use in Texas(NCL is also leaving) :confused:

Have been pondering this. Several years ago Princess(andNCL) got a subsidy from the port to come there. Now-no subsidy and they are pulling out. Weather records and the length/usage of the channel are not different-they knew going in that Houston fogs up. I wonder if the Port would have kicked in another multi million dollar subsidy if Princess would have stayed? Just thinking.:confused:

Just got off a trans canal on Infinity. Had a noro outbreak just like this one there. Same issues, treatment. On CB Jan 20. Stuff is everywhere this time of year.:mad:

We were on this INfinity cruise-none of us got sick. I just checked the CDC website-they have to report over 3%. It is not on there as of this morning. 3% would be about 60 people, so the number of reported cases must have been under that. Never saw or talked to any sick people. I think X was really scared-numbers must have been close to have them do what they did. My rule of thumb is to eat nothing on shore-except shore excursions sites, and then only after a close inspection. They told me that someone from the company inspects each shore excursion site, and then someone from the ship. For whatever that is worth. I never have starved on a cruise!

Just got back from Infinity 15 day from San Diego to Ft. Lauderdale. Some thoughts:

Embarkation: Awful!! San Diego is not a cruise port. The terminal is too small and it took 2 hours of standing in line to get to the desk to register. Needs more security.

Noro virus- we had an outbreak the time we were there. Ship did everything to fight it. They cleaned everything that did not move. Elevator buttons, walls,kiosks went out of lobby, tables were wet all the time-some complained about that-stupid complaint, paper cups in staterooms, ice bucket went, outhandrails cleaned all the time, buffet no more self serve, throw pillows out, the morning we disembarked the gym, spa,library, some restrooms were closed with signs on that said sanitized. Captain came on each day asking for cooperation. None of us got sick, did not see anyone, heard of one in his cabin for 4 days. CDC may have numbers about what went on.

Entertainment: was great-very good music to dance to, theater shows were good, Milos was the lecturer and will be until April. Had no complaints about entertainment. Sara was the CD, did a good job-very perky.

Food-the usual Celebrity standard, which is to say very good. Everything fresh, well cooked, lots of choices. We are Elite on X and have never had a problem with food.

Service-excellent all around. Whatever program X uses to train works well for about all the employees. Friendly, eager to help, fun to visit with.

Ports. The canal is awesome-even the 2nd time. How they did that then is amazing. Antigua is amazing-like going back 300 years and walking around. Costa Rica is great-visited the crocs on Tarcoles river-very good nature trip. Cartegena was very hot-took walking tour, cat ride around harbor, was good. Mexico-Cabo and Puerto Vallarta are typical Mexican ports-fun for a day.

Overall- a good cruise. Ship was clean, mostly new looking, and a good ride. Easy to get around in, we had plenty to do. Would not shy away from this ship for any cruises. If you have cruised some(we have only done 20) you get to an idea of what ships should be like-Infinity was above average with a great itinerary and a very good crew, even under the trying conditions of the Noro outbeak, which actually started on the cruise before ours. I have no major complaints except that it is over. Several in our party had cruised before and no complaints from anyone. Well done:)

I guess I am having that kind of day but it seems to me that if everyone on board pushes the system to the limit charging and extending all the power they can we may all end up getting to experience a real fire drill! I will trust the engineers that built the system when they say no to some of these things. :(

I agree that they would just like most of us to sit around and drink-especially at the prices! I like a drink too, not just as my sole reason for being there. I really think that if they would just use their space better. There are many hours when a little canned music in the Constellation lounge or R. square would be nice. I think we will have to vote with our feet, and be sure to let X know why we are leaving! Most CDs I have talked to have no clue what dance music is.:(

Have done 20 cruises mostly on Royal and X. Over the last 20 years dance music and chances to do it are less available by far. Some of the space has been devoted to more cabins or pay restaurants. Dance floors do not make money and are getting smaller and more used for karoke, contests and whatever they can dream up. The problem is that not many people dance. Floors for years have been empty, and the companies changed. I do not like it, as dance is one of the reasons we go. For a long time we could dance as much as we wanted, but not now. Have Infinity booked in Nov, and it looks like Rendevouz lounge and Constellation are the only options, and I can see them booked for other things. The only hope is to book a large ship that was designed to have space for dancing. Voyager class does all right, last Nov. out of Houston it had great music. I think this is something we all saw coming. I am currently looking at Princess or HAL just to find a dance floor. As Elite on X I am tired of not getting to do what I want at night. Most entertainment has always been good, in theater, But I am not that old(64) yet that I want to go to bed at 9:30! Celebrity listening?:mad: