beccaseraph7

 

How does she feel about kids? RC is very much a family cruise - would having lots of kids on board bother her, or would she enjoy watching them?

 

Sounds like you are trying hard - do what works for you and enjoy the cruise!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! As for kids I think she'd be ok with them, she seems to like kids (I don't have any of my own, but she's always bugging us to give her some grand kids), but I never actually had any experience with them "bugging her" so, I have no clue, lol, but knowing her she'd try to help them with whatever they needed if they asked than be annoyed. I did see her walk up to someone at walmart gushing about how cute their baby was - embarressing for me!

And I discounted Allure and Oasis for her (we actually going on it, me and my husband alone) due to the size of the boat, I'm not sure she would enjoy walking that much since she does have problems with her knees- not enough to not get around, but I don't want to cause her to much discomfort and I think it'd be best to introduce her to a smaller ship to begin with instead of going "all out"

(Just noticed I called it a boat again and not a ship :P sorry guys, not used to "sailing terms" :P)

I was wondering if you guys could help me decide which cruise would be best for my mother’s first cruise.

She will be 65/66 when we go (either 2015 or 2016) and this will be her first time on a boat.

She was extremely reluctant at first, so we were going to do a land vacation with her but she insisted on tagging alone and trying it. She did threaten to follow me everywhere though (hopefully she changes her mind while on board :P).

I will tell you some things about her and maybe you guys can help me decide.

1. The ports don’t matter, because she refuses to get off the boat out of the country anyways, (Only place she has been not in the USA is Canada and was freaking out the whole time, what if we can’t get back in the US? She watches to many lifetimes movies, lol, but I don’t want to stress her on vacation so I’m not going to push it) so unless it’s in the USA she’ll stay on the boat in ports.

2. The food doesn’t matter to much, she loves the Golden Corral and her idea of “fancy” is Applebee’s and the one time she tried Johnny Rockets off the boat she loved it, so I figure she will be happy with the buffet and Johnny Rockets.

3. She doesn’t drink or smoke and is pretty straight edged, so I doubt she will want to visit the bars.

4. She likes to talk and meet new people, but again I don’t think she’d like going to the bars, she usually avoids being near them if there is one in a place we are eating at home, so if there is a place she can chat up new people not in a bar she’d like that, but again I think she’d be more comfortable eating at the buffet, so meeting new people at dinner isn’t a great option.

5. She doesn’t like water that much (:O I know right?) so she probably won’t be swimming or using the hot tubs.

6. She really isn’t that into music, just doesn’t care.

7. She loves watching movies and shows, but she gets distracted easily (which I wouldn’t say to her face) but it would probably need to be simple.

8. She likes to window shop, she doesn’t buy a lot but she loves looking around.

9. She isn’t very active so ships with the flow rider, zipline, ect.. mean nothing to her.

10. She requested a room with a window, she refuses an interior without a window. I am not sure if getting her a balcony is a great idea, since I’m not sure how she would react but she doesn’t want to feel closed in and isn’t fond of small rooms, so we were considering getting 2 rooms connected.

11. The place we leave from doesn’t matter to much, but she doesn’t like flying, so any place within driving distance (up to like 16 hrs) of lower IN is preferable like Florida and preferably not NYC since she is scared to go there (she’s scared of a lot )

12. She showed interested in casino’s before, but has never actually went to one, not sure why.

13. She loves her pop, so going to get her that package but she doesn’t care about coffee so specialty coffee’s don’t matter.

14. She loves chocolate :)

So what ship do you guys suggest and what actives on said ship do you think she would enjoy? I want to make this trip enjoyable to her even though she is nervous about being on a boat… she gets nervous about to many things but I want to show her how enjoyable it can be!

My first thought was a Disney line, since she loves shows and Disney but 1. They cost WAY to much for us and 2. I am loyal to Royal and want to continue to work on my C & A points since we don’t get to go on many cruises each year.

As for how many days- doesn’t matter as long as it’s under 7 and a reasonable price for 3 people (me, her and my husband) in mid 2015-mid 2016.

So any suggestions? What ship and why?

Yep that's what mine says.

Just wondering if they did this before and the details since the website isn't working and if it's worth it in your guy's opinion?

No was a letter in the mailbox, not email.

It's from Royal directly, it has an extension on the website that is real, just says "open shortly" when I go to it.

I think it's actually from Crown and Anchor.

Did anyone else receive/ use this offer I just got in the mail today?

It says $100 off 7+ nights or 6 or less nights for your friend that you referred and a specialty restaurant for 2 for the person referring.

I am debating on using it or not. We were going to get my mom a room on the Indy cruise we are going on in Nov 2015 and it'd be her first cruise, but we were in a Promenade Room (Ben and Jerry's :D) and this says Ocean View or higher.

Promenade Rooms are a lower category than Ocean View's aren't they?

So if I did this deal I'd have to get her a Balcony room across the hall (she doesn't want to be to far from us) and I'm trying to figure out if this is a good deal or not.

Also how do you redeem it if you do decide? I tried to enter the code on website but it said invalid then I read the back and I'm assuming you got to book at full price then get the money off? (Which is weird I never did it that way before) The link it said to go to on the back just says "open shortly", so just wondering if anyone ever did this before... Thanks :)

I keep reading complaints about the BOGOHO sale, but I booked my first room in a few years when I noticed it was going on (not until a week after it started actually) and I got a balcony room on Allure for $2350 total (with tips and MTD) for 2 people... The date is however in April 2016. It was like $700 pp I think at the time. It has went up some since I have been watching it but only up a couple hundred... maybe the tip is to book way ahead of time?

Sorry but "The Boats" are what you get on if "The Ship" is sinking!:D

lol excuse my words, I am not good with "sailing" lingo :P.

Jewel has Sea View Cafe

 

Radiance class have outdoor seating at WJ

 

Radiance have Glass Elevators with Sea views

 

Freedom class have hot tubs (they hang out over sides of ship)

 

Allure and Oasis have secret Balconies

 

Jewel does not have a hot tub on the balcony in the RS

 

Just a few for you

Happy Days!

Thank you This is something I was looking for :)

I just wanted to know about small not commonly known things about each ship, I don't expect one person to know everything.

I know the Freedom's have the Ben and Jerry rooms.

Navigator has Sabor.

Enchantment as a Trampoline.

Allure and Oasis have a neat "hidden balcony"

Radiance (I think?) has the slides for kids (but we don't have kids so not interested in that).

I'm not looking for anything in particular just looking for a "unique" experience among all the boats.

I picked Indy for the Ben and Jerry room which I found "unique" and I picked Allure well because it's different than the other ships.

I was thinking of Navigator because it seems they like to "test" things out on it, which is intriguing, but I wanted to see what else was out there.. I JUST found out about the trampoline a few days ago and that made me realize I might have looked over other things some boats have uniquely and thought I'd ask.

everything you need to know about each ship can be found in the link below.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/home.do?cS=NAVBAR&pnav=1&snav=5

Yes I know about their website I have looked at all the ships individually but I wouldn't have known

1. about the Ben and Jerry Suite 2. Sabor being only on one ship and how much people like it 3. the "secret" balcony on Allure

So I am sure I am missing some "special" parts of boats not widely advertised. That's what I am hoping to find information about.

Thanks

Can anyone share a link to the difference of each class of boats and if any what sets certain boats off from others of it's class?

I heard for example the Navigator had Sabor which no other boat has and I think one boat had a trampoline that others in it's class and and one class had a slide for kids?

I am been doing my research and complying it in my head, but I was wondering if there was actually a list already made out there I could look at?

I have only been on the Voyager (2 years ago) and Majesty (about 4 years ago). I am going on Indy in 2015 (for the Ben and Jerry room I read about) and Allure in 2016, but we may be able to squeeze one more cruise in before Indy so I was trying to do research to see what other class I could try that was unique. (Besides Quantum and Anthem, they are out of our price range atm).

Anything you noticed or a list you know of would be appreciated, otherwise I will keep researching :).

Hoping someone can answer a question for me! I have an oceanview balcony on Allure booked for 2016, but then I got to talking to a friend that likes the "aft" corner boardwalk balconies and I was debating on changing but when I looked at the ones available the only one is 10329. I know there is a "secret" public balcony on deck 11, I was wondering are there any stairs going from 10 to 11 near the aft or would you have to go all the way to the elevators and then up to 11 and back down? I couldn't figure out my answer from anything I have seen or read so thought I would ask here... Thanks! :)

I booked 2 cruises during this deal and I had two questions.

The first is if we decide later on we can upgrade from our balcony to a suite will we still get the BOGOHO deal or are we locked completely in at what we already choose? Right now I don't think we can afford the upgrade, but if it goes down in the future or we get a raise or something (it is a year and a half away!) I wanted to know if it would be an option?

The second question for the other cruise we booked is my mother may be coming with us can we add a second room to the reservation without messing up the BOGOHO credit or should I make a new account for her and book it apart from ours? She is retired and doesn't have the deposit amount until after the BOGOHO sale ends so it's not an option to book it before to be safe.

Thanks :)

I just booked a room on the Allure and it did the same thing to me. I called and asked them and they said just ignore it that they don't update their website for just a few days of sales because it would cost them to much. They said it wouldn't cancel at that date.

The only problem is when you go to pay on it online you can't pay less than the $500 the first time. They told me to call them when/ if I wanted to pay less and they could take care of it.

I noticed our stateroom attendant was concerned with tidying when we left also. Especially since we had my time dining and we randomly would take an after breakfast nap, he was never sure when we would be gone! Since they clean twice a day, he would often chat and ask what our day plans were and things like that to get a good idea.

 

He was never awkward, but we are very social also so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it or not... But he would sometimes ask about the weather even, as sometimes he doesn't get to really be outside a lot because of working so much and for so long.

 

I wonder if the op 's first attendant was doing something similar, trying to get a feel for when he could go tidy up and things like that.

 

We learned about our attendants home country, work schedule, etc. And we ended up tipping extra because he did have to go out of his way to work around our schedule for when he cleaned. But you aren't obligated.

 

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Hey thanks for the reply. The thing was he would most likely be looking for us AFTER he cleaned the room, because he was do this then we'd go in our room and see it had been cleaned, but he would be lingering around afterwards like he was waiting on us to return.

I always made sure to be out of the room, out of his way at certain times each day so he knew when to come, but he seemed to predict when we would return, that is what made it seem so awkward in my opinion, not like he just ran into us but he was waiting for us.

Hi guys, I have been lurking the forums for awhile, but this is my first post. I have finally got my bookings reserved for my next cruise!

We have been on Royal Caribbean twice before on the Majesty of the Seas (normal room) and then Voyager of the Sea's (JR. Suite).

We decided to go in 2016 so we can save up for the Royal Suite on the Indy followed by just a normal balcony room on the Allure.

Last time we went on a cruise was Voyager with the Jr. Suite which is a pretty big step down from the Royal Suite.

Last time we were in the suite the attendant seemed to watch for us and go out of his way to run into us and ask us how we were doing. He was nice but it was kind of awkward at times, he just kind of lingered around not really talking just watching us walking to our room like he was waiting on something. The time before that we were in a regular room and never even see our attendant. We had already prepaid our tips for the end of the cruise, but he was just standing there like he was expecting something.

I don't want our next trip to be as awkward as that time was... are we supposed to tip daily in addition to the end of the trip? I tried looking this up online and I'm coming up empty handed. I had always thought the tips go at the end of the cruise but again this was real awkward for me and my husband and instead of coming off as a nice attendant trying to make everything easier it was kind of weird and we tried to avoid him, but he always seemed to track us down and he was bothering us more than helping us.

My husband suggested we just hand them a little in cash every time they try this, but I don't know if that's a solution or even something that should be done? Was this experience from before a fluke or am I missing something? I want to try to avoid these awkward situations next time around if possible so we can enjoy our time on the boat more than worried about running into someone...

So any help or suggestions would be helpful, thank you :)

This is my first post *hi guys*.

I haven't been able to cruise since 2012 and we finally got things together to go in 2016!

So as of today 596 days (forever!) until the Indy and 602 for the Allure (going b2b for the first time).

Forever away but I can't wait, so excited!! :)