misterb25

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2020 at 1:37 PM, Womble99 said:

Simple answer is you don't wait. Princess have stated that their refund time would be up to 60 days, if it has past that then you ask for it to be escalated and continue to do so until it is resolved to your satisfaction.

Is it possible to ask your credit card provider for a chargeback against the TA ?

57 minutes ago, resordanis said:

I certainly agree Avalon007, we have made some great friends in the DL.
Unfortunately Royal are losing sight of the fact that we actually did pay to  obtain either D or D+ by being Loyal to Royal. Something they are not doing to us!

We will see how our upcoming Voyager cruise goes, but have to admit we might not be Loyal to Royal in the future.

 

We have a cruise booked on Voyager in January and February. She was our favourite ship, but not now. When we cruise with Royal again it will only be on Ovation and Radiance where they still have a Concierge Lounge.

4 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

We didn’t go last night as we have a suite and went to the suite lounge.it was only half full as there’s a lot of Chinese in suites,so they don’t drink.

 I don’t think I would go on this ship if I didn’t have a full suite.

 

Talking to a few people last night and it’s suggested carnival is better than Royal Caribbean now .

Windjammers is a nightmare and the food is very average.

 With the extra cabins the running track is only around to pool area.

 The ship has a faint odour of cigarette smoke,apparently in Asia a lot of the ship is smoking.

 

 

Yes, we were annoyed by the reduced walking track on Deck 12 as well. We ended up walking around Deck 4.

We also noted that the US$98 million dollar refurbishment was not enough as we observed a few areas where they were using electrical tape to hold things together and the lifts were making noises, skipping floors and 1 or 2 just not working.

3 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

On the voyager at the moment and the diamond lounge is small and dingy. People packed in like sardines. 
Royal Caribbean will be loosing customers if they don’t do something.

 

We came off Voyager yesterday and found the Diamond Lounge totally inadequate.

People were queuing for drinks inside the Lounge because there were not enough waiters servicing the overflow outside in the Star Lounge. Therefore the waiters inside the Lounge were unable to provide table service and the only way to get a drink was to also join the queue.

Also the narrow area to get access to the food was blocked by a drinks trolley and the waiters providing drinks to those on the queue.

My suggestion would be to have more waiters at the commencement of Happy Hour and instructions given to members that there is to be no queuing for drinks.

4 minutes ago, resordanis said:

Thanks for that information. I really didn’t remember any cabins on deck 11. Hope they are ok.

Are they using the other lounge as an overflow or is everyone just having to stand around waiting for drinks? Also can you still get coffee during the day?

 

The Star Lounge is being used as an overflow, but they can’t get table service either, and so join the queue, they did attempt to get their drinks from the bar in the Star Lounge but they wanted to take a drink of their 3 drink allocation.

 

21 minutes ago, resordanis said:

Thanks all for this information.

cme2c there is nothing wrong with Gold we were all there once and you also are entitled to your perks!

 I did think that the new DL would be totally inadequate and I think that is what Royal want. As someone who is about to become D+ I am not sure that there are any benefits to that level these days.

Starting to think that Princess look after me better being Elite! I think it is Casino money that they all want. 
I am interested in the location of the new cabins. We have just been allocated our cabin a JS forward on Deck 11. Is that where the new cabins are located?
Hope Voyager is not like Explorer as we didn’t like Explorer as much as we did the old Voyager. Time will tell I guess.

i agree with others too 5 drinks all day might be a better option!

The cabins on deck 11 are new cabins and there are 4 inside cabins where the Concierge club used to be. I believe the Suite lounge is very nice, I hope that they are being treated better than the loyal Diamonds & Diamond + members. There should be no queuing for drinks as this is stopping the waiters from coming around to the tables.

 

 

17 hours ago, resordanis said:

Just wondering whether anyone who has been on Voyager recently can update this thread?

I know where the Diamond Lounge is located and that it is very small, but do they still endeavour to serve drinks, snacks and coffees in the small space and is there an overflow lounge.?

Any information would be appreciated.

I am on Voyager at the moment and confirm that the new Diamond Lounge is small, overcrowded and for the past 2 nights queuing for a drink was required as there are not enough staff to handle the number of members. 
It is totally inadequate.

1 hour ago, Goldconnection said:

We are here for a total of 27 days. And you are totally (not probably) incorrect. Who said anything about a 3 day cruise. Never assume. Again so much for all the hype about customs in Sydney.

My apologies, you are correct, never assume. I did assume that you were on the 3 day cruise aboard Voyager of the Seas that departed last night. As that is a local cruise there would be little to no Customs involvement.

Enjoy your time in Australia.

That is probably because a 3 day cruise is considered a local cruise, you may have well caught a ferry to Manly.

2 hours ago, Goldconnection said:

We are here in Sydney. Arrived yesterday morning. Expected to spend some time getting through customs after reading all the post. Just the opposite. It took less than five minutes if that and that was because of the lines. No one even looked at the paperwork. They just took it and waved us through. No one asked about medication. No luggage was X-rayed. No dogs sniffing. So much for all the hype about customs in Australia. 

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

Welcome to Sydney 

It is very disappointing, we also used the DL on Deck 14 during the day for some peace and quiet to read and have a light lunch with a beautiful view of the ocean.

I guess those who may only ever cruise one time with Royal Caribbean are of more importance than those who continually cruise with them. I guess we can sit in the Viking Lounge in the future but it would have made more sense to move Izumi's and make that area available for the Suites.

Whenever I have passed by Izumi's it always only had a few tables occupied.

19 minutes ago, Trekker954 said:

No you must physically sail in order to get your points.

     I thought so, thank you for your reply.

My wife and I are due to cruise in a couple of days but have had a death in the family. We know if we cancel we will lose everything except the taxes and port fees. If we do a "no show" do we at least get our loyalty points for that cruise ?

We booked a deck 8 Promenade stateroom on Explorer and set our upgrade preference to: "will accept an upgrade but not to a deck lower than already booked".

12 hrs before we left Perth for Sydney we noticed we had been moved to an Oceanview on deck 2!!!. We had to wait until we boarded to sort it out. An email to RCI post cruise confirmed they concidered it an upgrade but admitted they didn't take notice of our preference. It is now set to NO upgrade.

We had exactly the same experience with RCCL, our preferences are the same as yours, and they also moved us from a PR room to OV on Deck 2. We screamed blue murder, we asked if we had to accept an upgrade and they replied no. We then demanded our original room back. They told us they had already allocated it to someone else. We were then put onto a supervisor who eventually rang us back and offered us a balcony cabin which we happily accepted.

Hi

Just got off radiance country music cruise and much impressed with the service and improved food good to have her back!

Did you need to fill out the green departure card prior to boarding ? They are supposed to be no longer required, but some Boards are saying that they are still required.

Good to hear that the food was good. We did participate in a survey a few months back regarding menus and food selections, I am hoping that they actually listened as the food in the past has been so boring and tasteless.

You will only need to show your passports when embarking. First at the RCCL check in desk and then as you go through immigration.

Well, I had to google that one.:o:D

bogan1

ˈbəʊɡ(ə)n/

nounAustralian/NZinformalderogatory

noun: bogan; plural noun: bogans

1. an uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status.
   "some bogans yelled at us from their cars"
    
    
    
    
    
   

Why in the hell would I ever pack a suit/long pants for a cruise to hot tropical destinations!?!? Never have never will.

 

If you've got a problem with khaki shorts and a decent shirt, then it's exactly that. Your problem.

 

I've always worn khaki shorts, to the MDR and even Chops and Giovanni's. No one has ever said a word

HELL, I thought all the bogans wearing shorts in the MDR was exclusive to Australian cruises. I guess not.

How was internet service aboard? Did you experience any outages while running between islands?

I only used it for a couple of days without any issues, it was ok for browsing and Facebook chats but I could not send or receive emails but I think that had more to do with my ISP. Not too sure as I am not technical enough with these things.

Hi guys, I too was on this cruise and I just had to jump online and say I was sorry to hear about your experiences with housekeeping, but that we got our knock on the door and calling-card that afternoon.

 

Hubby had had a shoulder reconstruction 6 weeks prior and still needed ice packs overnight, I had purchased a little screw-top 'baggy' and our ice was waiting for us of an evening ready to replenish the baggy.

 

Not sure what else might have been taking place to cause the appearance of cutbacks elsewhere but just wanted to pop my 2 cents in as a 'Loyal to Royal' :-)

 

Glad to hear you guys still enjoyed your cruise though and see you around online or on the high seas :-)

This was the first time I had come across this, as you I have previously always found the stewards so friendly and eager to please. I have always been loyal to Royal and love cruising with them, but this guy just took be aback with his attitude and demeanour. As stated earlier it was 3 days before I met him and that was in the corridor outside our cabin. The second last night there was the usual envelope for an extra tip and his card on the bed. Needless to say we did not bother putting anything extra in his envelope.

I noticed that this was the first time that sometimes within minutes of arriving in our room that we did not get the familiar knock on the door, an introduction and sometimes a card left for contact should we need anything.

But the bottle of bubbly left in our room with cookies was appreciated by all of us.

We had a lovely young lady cleaning our room but clearly had a lot of work to do. I think because we were at a very high capacity with a lot of families - extra beds and bunks to makeup, that housekeeping was stretched. Our room was very large with a lot of windows to clean, 1 1/2 bathrooms, king bed and bunk room. But it was always spotless.

We have had only a few grumpies over many cruises. No extra tip left for them!

Hi Megsie, Like you we had no complaints about the tidiness or cleanliness of the room, he always left it spotless. Maybe RCL have cut staff in housekeeping as well and they no longer have time for the introductions on arrival and offer to assist as you much as possible during the cruise.

Hi J Busworth, Thank you for a great review. I was also on this cruise with my young grandson and we both had a very enjoyable cruise as well. Although I did not think much of the food presentation or menu selection in the MDR. In my opinion it is no where near where it used to be. You are correct the wait staff in the MDR are excellent and Thomas our Head waiter did everything he could to make it an enjoyable experience for us.

Although after more than 10 cruises with RCL I had never come across a more miserable room attendant. It was about 3 days into the cruise before I even met him and I found him to be extremely grumpy, he obviously did not enjoy his job and showed it.

Thank you Undertone for a very helpful review. We will be on Ovation in a few weeks. The disappointment with food and the reduced menu choices seems to be a common theme with all RCCL ships at the moment.

And my $24 bottle of 12-count aspirin.

The stores probably have to mark their products up so high to cover the outrageous rent RCCL is probably charging them.

I agree. If people are willing to pay more for the specialty restaurants, it lessens their incentive to get the "included dining" back up to a better level.

 

I felt like the MDR used to be a pretty nice dining experience. If I compared the quality of steaks only- it used to be that the MDR would be like going to a Longhorn. Solid quality, but affordable run of the mill. Chops was like going to Ruth Chris. As people started shifting their focus to the specialty venues, the food folks made the MDR steaks like a Golden Corral steak and you paid the upcharge for a Longhorn steak. The waiters may dress like Ruth Chris, but the food is more Longhorn quality IMO. I don't care to spend extra money for what used to be the basic.

 

As long as people are willing to fork out the money for "specialty" the food in the MDR won't get any better.

I totally agree, I have only been cruising with Royal for 5 years, but in that time I have noticed a decline in the menu choices, appeal and taste of MDR meals. I recently cruised on Voyager and the meals in the MDR were so unappealing that if I was really hungry I would check out WJ, as least they had more choices. Although on several occasions we just decided to graze in the Diamond Lounge and gave the MDR and WJ a wide berth.

Last year my wife was so annoyed at the food quality she approached the food and beverage manager to lodge her displeasure, but the guy was just so obnoxious and disinterested we knew nothing would ever come off people complaining.