Goodtime Cruizin

Hardly YOUR list, this has appeared in many publications, for instance this one

 

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/of-the-most-ridiculous-but-real-travel-complaints-ever/story-e6frfqfr-1226739965154

I post in jest. Lighten up Frances. It's all in fun. And if I wish them to be 'mine', they can be. :p

You have them. I have them. We all have them. Here's a few of mine from a few Cruises.

1. "They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for me & made me feel guilty as I was with my wife. I just wanted to relax."

2. "On my excursion to Cozomel, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served Mexican food. I really was wanting a simple Hot Dog that day."

3. "When we went to Spain we had problems with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."

4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price."

5. "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room."

6. "Speaking of the sand, we found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. The brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow."

7. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."

8. "No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared."

9. "The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun."

10. "When we got off the ship, it took us three hours to fly home from Ft.Lauderdale to Dallas. The residents of Florida were already home. This seems unfair."

11. "Our friends described their D1 balcony cabin which I compared the size to our D1 balcony and ours was significantly smaller."

12. "When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners."

13. "We had to line up outside to catch the small boat to return to the ship and there was no air-conditioning."

14. "It should be the duty of a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."

15. "I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes."

16. "My wife and I specifically requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that she became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

With so many repeat cruisers on this thread I'm curious about your first cruise.

 

1. What do you remember most about your first cruise? What made it special?

 

2. What makes you keep cruising?

 

3 What is it about RCI that makes you return to their ships time and again?

Nice thread. Thank you posting.

What I remember about our first cruise was being able to do this with our adult kids. It was special because it was a 'first' cruise for all of us and we were able to share each other's company and make some wonderful memories as a family unit again as it was the first family vaction together in quite a few years.

What keeps me cruising is a difficult question but I think it would have to be the excitement of traveling at sea isitng exotic locations. I enjoy Royal because of the staff. I've never experienced a bad moment with any of the RCL staff or crew members. While some feel the prices have risen, I feel the price/value of a cruise vacation is still very solid. We have learned to navigate through the many cruises offered and enjoy finding a cruise that we can book many months in advance to save money and it's always a pleasure to snag a desried cabin location.

Anyone over 350 pounds.

Nice play.

Just to clarify, the Premium Package is $49 plus 18%, so it comes to $57.82 per day. This package includes alcohol and bottled water, but not the coffees and fresh OJ's.

 

It's the Ultimate Package that comes to $64.90 per day.

So... now we're back to $49/day. Which is 3 alcohol drinks, 2 waters, 2 & colas, or some sort of one another. So if someone thinks someone is a heavy drinker for enjoying 3 to 4 alcoholic beverages like on vacation on a Cruise Ship and having a designated Capt steering the ship... I really don't care. In fact, I don't even care what someone else drinks as I would be on vacation and one of the last things I would be concerned with, is what someone sitting somewhere is drinking unless it looks tasty & satisfying.

#lifestooshort #thatsmyopinion #itsfiveoclocksomewhere

I absolutely love this... worthy of a watch. https://youtu.be/WZAwDAdyvpU

I personally would have allowed them to pass us but in the process I would have questioned them in a nice socially accpetable way as to generate a conversation. Not overtly loud but loud enough for others to hear their responses.

"It's really nice that handicap passes are being issued! Is this new for RCL? Do you get these from guest services or did RCL send it to you via mail?

I then would have suggested that all those with canes and scooters be allowed to get on the ship "with them". "You don't mind do you?"

All the while being polite, socially acceptable, and helping others while doing so. But to just allow a blue handicap placard to pass w/o commentary and/or offer assistance would not go unnoticed or unsaid. But that's me.

If you are happy with your free drinks as Diamond, it would not pay even to share a package. Those packages are meant for heavy drinkers who drink various beverages all day long.

 

This is very debatable. I don't consider 3 to 4 drinks /day as a 'heavy drinker', at least while on vacation. With the price per drink these days, plus bottled water, etc, the premium beverage pkg is a pretty good tool these days and can work as an excellent way to hedge costs of a cruise.

Look, it's pretty simple. Yes, you 'could' do this, share your drink pkg. It's not the end of the world if you do. But for me personally, I choose not to. The feeling of guilt and/or that I'm doing something wrong is simply not worth it for us. Now having said this, if I choose to 'buy' someone a drink in a social setting, I'll do it w/ a no foul, no harm attitude. As I consider the premium pkg on my seapass an extension of my wallet. If my DW has left her sea pass (w/ premium pkg) in the room and she wants a drink, no problem either. I'll get her a drink. But to go into the entire cruise with the concept of all drinks consumed to be placed on one sea pass with the premium beverage package is not for me/us. In fact, we buy the pkg so we don't have to worry about the cost associated with partaking in adult beverages. 'Sharing' the pkg would then place the worry back into the whole process again as it would be doing something that is not supposed to be done. I don't want to have to be concerned if the bartender'or my waitstaff is watching me to see if I pass my drink to my DW etc. or vice versa.

Like you said, if you don't drink much, then you won't have that much to budget for anyway. Do the right thing.

If they keep it when they move to FLL I'll give it a try.

 

I didn't mind when we lost to him...he was something to watch.

He indeed was a special ballplayer/pitcher and he's been ranching for many many years. Here's a link to his all natural beef.... http://http://nolanryanbeef.com/#&panel1-2

Never heard of the Nolan Ryan steak, so maybe that is specific to Navigator.

Navigator sailing out of Galveston has everything to do with it. Nolan Ryan has developed quite the name in the world of beef in regards to Texas anyway. It's a choice cut beef and is sold at quite a few select restaurants/locations throughout Texas. Having said this, I'm not sure if the Nolan Ryan steak is RCL fleet wide. But I do hope the Liberty picks up the contract and continues with the Nolan Ryan steak choice.

Taking a solo Caribbean cruise soon on LOS and my 1st balcony. Thinking about ways to enjoy like: having my am coffee or if pool area too crowded, I will have private reading/relax location although I don't want to spend to much time alone.

 

How do you enjoy your balcony.......Also, do they have mini frig?

 

Thanks

We're coffee drinkers... so we have room service delver (2) pots of coffee (they're very small) each morning. Actually room service is our daily wake up call/alarm. We sit on the balcony and enjoy our coffee while reading the daily cruise compass to plan our day.

Enjoy your balcony, enjoy your cruise!

If you go to the page again you will see they are reporting it is freed and now at anchor until morning.

Ooops...looks like I was aground too.! :p

The Port Bermuda webcam FB page just reported that the Dawn ran aground just after leaving Bermuda.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/norwegian-dawn-cruise-ship-runs-aground-bermuda/story?id=31160571

I think your statement of increasing costs and decreasing services might be misplaced. Or at least IMO. The economy in the US is just now showing signs of reversal from the past 8 years. Having said this, I think as a whole, the cruise industry has held tight on the costs of sailing. Three years later, I'm still finding cruise fares of prices of 2012. Some are including the drink specials. Some are even lower. Yes, the newer ships are priced steep, but in the main, prices can be found that are very affordable.

The newer ships offer more today than a few years back. My point is, IMO, no, the industry is not pricing themselves out of biz. In fact, I think the industry is at an all time high right now. More passengers than ever are cruising.

15% to 18% gratuities? Phooey... I always tip 20% unless the service is bad. And to be honest, I've never recv'd such bad service on a cruise ship that I wished to withold anyones gratuities.

I'm one that also thinks that less tham 5 to 10% of all cruisers even visit this website. The masses are happy IMO.

We were late (five of us) on an RCI excursion. A rep in the Royal Blue uniform met us as the van dropped us off.

Her first question, "Are you the ______'s?"

I relied "Yes"

She then radio'd someone and told them. "They're here. I have them and we are headed to the ship."

She escorted us to the ship. Go stopping. Customs waved us all through. And then we walked the plank. It was strange as everyone thought it was our fault we were late. But it was the driver. We sat in the van for 30 mins before we left the resort.

Also, worthy of note, my daughter was staying solo in her cabin. As we boarded the ship, they paged her name to verify that she indeed was on the ship. We went with her to security, they just wanted to make sure she was who she said she was etc. and that she was on board. I found this to be a good thing.

Oh Boy oh boy oh boy! Camping on a ship! I've never done this. I'm bringing my pop up tent! I just love camping in the back yard. But on a ship!?! How exciting!

I purchased one of the romance packages 6 weeks ago and nothing has been charged to my card and nothing is showing on my online reservation. I did receive an email thanking me for my order but nothing else. Is this normal? I am hoping it will show up as requested and be charged to my seapass card??

 

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It most likely won't show up on your reservation and/or cc# so it won't be a buzz kill for your spouse!

So to save a few $$'s I need to pre-pay (full balance regardless of final payment date) my cruise's I have booked by June 1, 2015 ?

 

Correct.

 

Isn't this a bit of a short notice or did some of you know this already ? I've talked to the D+ desk several times in the last few weeks and no one mentioned this.

I was notified via my TA this morning and also received an email from RCL today.

Only the rules and your own conscience. I knew someone last year who had the package. He gave the soda cup to DS and bought virgins for DD while he and wife more or less shared the cocktails. Not quite ethical, IMHO. Discretion is important if you're going to do it though. I wouldn't hand my package drink to someone right there in front of the bartender. There is a time constraint too, something like 15 minutes between drinks.

To my knowledge, there is no 15 min time limit. Perhaps on the free style soda machines, not at the bars.

Well it would be very very easy to do. You nor I would not know any different either. I think it's very plausible that this occurs. Also, a critic can offer a favorable opinion as well. Unfortunately when this occurs, quite a few don't wish to hear it so they bang their drums even louder.

After reading all of these types of threads, I'm beginning to believe that Cruise Critic is being used as a tool and that there are several posters among the boards that are 'plants' from other cruise lines beating the war drums.

Nice, in the select package (beer and wine), is all beers included?

No Guiness either.

People report that if you bring two SeaPass cards to the bar, you can get two drinks.

This would be correct for us. By just naturally visiting w the bartenders and waitstaff, we would always make sure introduce ourselves the first visit at each bar we frequented. They then generally recognized us and there was never an issue going forward. :)

Are you cross examining her over a drink post :confused:

 

She got a dumb slurpee for $14 and she's annoyed. I'm sure she will adjust her behavior. If she comes back and said she did it 12 more times you can rake her over the coals. If you really want to.

Chill out a bit. You're not looking to good with this post.

Alure was Oasis,

An $800 drink pkg actually was for two drink pkgs,

6 " vs 6 oz. is a substantial difference. A 6" solo cup is a 20 oz cup, thus 14 more oz or 3+ times the amount stated.

Finally, if I decide to rake anyone over the coals, I don't need your permission. :rolleyes: