RevSmith

I love, love, love steamed veggies and wish there were more offered on cruises. Sometimes I feel like the vegetable is a second thought, when to me it is a high light. But I don't much care for most of the vegetarian dishes, just veggies with my entrée.

Oh wow!!! That pork was GREAT in Park Cafe. I got a pile of the last of one end on boarding day. I quickly got over my no roast beef sandwich disappointment. :)

 

Gina

Gina I always love your attitude.

and of course I will always love the Enchantment! So many memories.

Rev

I thought I would hate the Oasis and I loved it.

Please don't listen to all the negatives...those are simply personal experiences and many times there are extenuating circumstances involved.

You are celebrating a wonderful event, the fact that you and the one you love have been fortunate enough to be together for 30 years.

Treat yourself well, buy a restaurant package if they offer it, get a massage or two, have a breakfast or two in your room. Enjoy each other, and I guarantee the ship will be beautiful through your eyes.

My husband and I would always say as we traveled, no matter what the occasion, that we were making memories. Now that he has passed, I treasure those wonderful trips we took together, we always had a wonderful time. and we were so fortunate to have made so many memories together.

Happy sailing.

Rev

With all these knowledgeable experts chiming in I'm afraid I may not have anything to add.

However, if you want to know what Royal is doing, simply ask them. It's a simple as that. You will at least get information as good as what is in this thread.

Rev

budgeting, stewards have too many cabins

One of the safest places to be when there is a hurricane is on a ship, they can move out of the hurricane path.

The very first time I ever cruised on Royal. It was a 5 day cruise on the Sovereign of the Seas, out of Miami in 1996. I still to this day call it the cruise from hell. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong:

Cruise canceled by Royal by mistake, then assigned a different cabin far, far away from the elevators, with a husband who had trouble walking.

Constantly locked out of our cabin for almost two days.

Room never made up, no towels no nothing!

Lost luggage

Cabin next to anchor

Cabin right under constant jogging on promenade deck

Cruise itinerary completely changed

delayed getting on by almost three hours

Husband got food poising, just when toilets down for almost an entire day.

No table assignment in dinning room

wake up call every morning at 5:15AM and we never ordered a wake up call

Horrible food delivered only to me in main dinning room, it became a joke to all our table mates when we were finally assigned a table.

Hotel Manager told us that all these things can and do happen on a ship holding over two thousand passengers, however he had never heard of them all happening to the same two passengers. He gave us 75% off our next cruise.

We went home and booked the Royal Suite on the brand new Enchantment of the Seas and have been cruising on Royal Caribbean ever since.

The changes are scheduled to happen during the dry dock between 30-Sep and 14-Oct.

This stuff drives me nuts , I'll believe it when it happens. But it's interesting to think about.

Rev

I believe the OP wanted something that was mid priced. There is no way that the Embassy Suites or the Hyatt are mid priced, they would fall under expensive. Many people stay at the Comfort Inn, corner of Rt.1 and SE 17th St. It has a free breakfast and a free shuttle to the port.

The prices of Hotels fluctuate according to the time of the year. I like the advice that "clera" gave you regarding checking on price line or fact similar. The reason I say Comfort Inn is because it is in the hub of great restaurants, and a lot of other things to do.

Rev

Thanks! We have a GS booked on the Allure next November and I was trying to figure out how the sofa folded out.

the Grand suites on the Allure are a lot smaller than on the Navigator. I traveled with three people and found it very crowded. I was glad I had booked an owner's suite for the second half of our back to back.

As far as five in a GS on the Navigator, my only consideration would be the bathroom, that is going to take some careful planning and many rules.

Rev

Aussie, I love your sense of humor! You just brightened my day.

Rev

Here I am with our mutual friend. We had a great time and enjoyed our short 3 nights together. Rev is indeed a wonderful and spirited lady.

 

 

Wow, the quality of the tapatalk hosted pictures sure has gone down. This is as high resolution as it would allow and it is really grainy. :( And I paid for the photo hosting by tapatalk.

It's like Mutt and Jeff. Why am I so short:eek: Actually I love the picture because I remember what I was doing at the time.

Thanks for posting it Gina.

Rev

Rev, After about a 20 minute hold tonight (I had begun to think I'd been abandoned) they added on my balcony discount and apologized for causing the booking problem on board. They said they are contacting the LA and letting her know that the loyalty desk was wrong by refusing to apply my balcony discount.

 

It was an absolute pleasure to meet you on board. :)

 

Gina

Gina,

I'm so glad you came on, I'm so bad at explaining things and didn't want to involve you in this unless you wanted to say something. I was just trying to tell everyone what had happened.

We did have fun didn't we. I know I will see you again.

The pleasure was mine.

Rev

It just would be nice to see something in writing,so when we book solo cruises,we have proof!:p

This is kind of what I saw in writing. The single supplement can not be combined with the balcony discount, or any other discount including: senior, Florida, military, fireman, and I forget what else. This person also received a chart showing this new change and what can and can not be combined with it, but the chart that was printed out was a little small. This was all given to my friend on the Vision yesterday by the loyalty ambassador when this friend asked for a brake down of the cruise just booked. I also saw the brake down with the one and one half non commissionable costs added on. I could hardly believe my eyes.

Rev, tell your friend to go back and let her know "she can have her balcony discount!

I saw her booking with the memo, she booked on board, just yesterday. So what has changed since them. Celia, I am praying what you are saying is correct and not what I just saw.

Rev

The changed their bread, they used to have really nice tiny sour dough rolls, and some with onion, now I don't even know what you would call the bread, but it is not very good at all. I asked them to bring me some bread from Giovanni's and they were kind enough to do that. But it wasn't as good as the original little breads, just better than the bread they now have. They also changed the bread at the Captain's table to very boring rolls.

Well at least it helps me not eat bread with my meal, but does not add to the original enjoyment of the meal.

All this is very real. A friend on the Vision just made a booking using single sub and got the price brake down and the memo, regarding nothing can be combined with the single sub. So there you go.

So it's 1 and 1/2 times the undiscounted base fare plus one and one-half non commissionable fare = 1 extra cruise point for each day traveled.

Why doesn't Royal just put cruise points up for sale, they could really rake in the bucks!

Come to think of it that is exactly what they are doing!

Sign me very disappointed.

Rev

Sounds like a wonderful idea to reduce crowds, especially if you are cruising with friends who are not diamond members.

Wow Jane I should have started reading when you told us about this site, it took me a long, long time to read your fascinating and wonderful review. You are truly enjoying your retirement. Way to go.

By the by, both John and you look GREAT!

Rev

Why not just prepay on your credit card .

Now there is someone who is thinking.

Here you go. A picture....

Seriously, why pick on the kids for this? If you expect to use public pool facilities on a ship with several thousand people, and don't think somebody isn't taking a leak in the pool, I have a wonderful can't lose investment opportunity for you.

You are so right. I would never use a public pool, anywhere.

My friend once said, but they recycle the water and they chlorinate. Yes I reply, but your toilet water is recycled and chlorinated too, would you swim in it!

thank you very much for that information. Up until now I have been able to cash out my points, no matter the value for on board credit, now unless I spend 25,000 points I have to choose some specific item on RCI, most of which I either have or don't want. To some it's not a significant change, to me it is. I thank you again for making me aware of this.

Being unable to cruise newer ships with dedicated lounges I usually attend the cocktail hour for discounted drinks when possible. I've read here on the newer ships that some get upgraded snacks instead of the stale nut and raisins only that you must ask for on the ships I travel on. Am I wrong in the assumption that on newer ships you're treated a bit better.

You are treated well on all ships, hopefully. However the Diamond Party is not the same as the Diamond Lounge, that they have on many ships, but not all. Even some of the older ships are getting a diamond lounge. It's not the ship or the staff, it's what the ship has to offer. Some ships don't even have a Lounge for their loyal customers, so everyone gets the discounted drinks and the not so fabulous mixed nuts and fruit thing. But times they are a changing. Just keep cruising and when you get to the diamond plus stage, there may be a Concierge Lounge that you will be entitled to enter.

Rev

Yum! Thank you!

ditto