Petroplex

Do I like the full bar options once we hit international waters better? Of course I do. However, there have always been plenty of good choices for me on embarkation day in Galveston. This should work out fine.

 

We used Rony's Tours in Roatan and loved it. We were able to customize a day to our liking, and he was able to handle adjustments during the day. I highly recommend them.

I sailed on the Norwegian Sky in July 2018, and I have received a couple of offers from NCL for a free casino cruise. I wrote on my blog about the details of the free offer but, yes, you can upgrade to a balcony. I wasn't able to take the offer, because I did not gamble enough to receive much flexibility with dates. I also had problems waiting on hold for an extremely long time. However, the deals seemed pretty good and they were delighted to have me pay extra for a balcony if I wanted.

I took videos of the Liberty deck by deck. The video at the top is of the Royal Promenade, which is the main indoor space on Deck 5. I generally found things to be open and spacious, and I like the entertainment options for my kids. The problem, for me, is that on sea says (of which you pretty much always have three out of Galveston) the pool can get insanely crowded. Same thing with the Royal Promenade on Deck 5 when they had a tshirt sale. Apparently, Royal Caribbean invented the very concept of the shirt, and if folks don't get there immediately there will be no more tshirts ever, ever, ever. That leads to some crowding. On balance, though, I like this ship very much and have another trip booked this year.

There was no Let it Ride in the Liberty of the Seas casino, which is the same class of ship. I actually don't know that I have ever seen it on a cruise ship. That is a shame, since it is one of my favorite games to play in Vegas.

So to me, yes, the Royal Caribbean suite perks are worth it. We have sailed on the Liberty and the Navigator in a grand suite (the smallest in the class of full suites), and each was a very similar experience. There were two principal advantages: Very few lines and some better dining options. OK, a third- I loved having the quiet indoor and outdoor space of the suite lounge on the Liberty. That did not apply on the Navigator, and that was 2015 and it was a concierge lounge in a crowded indoor space.

 

As for lines, check in lines were short. We had to wait to board the ship, but that is because when I wake up on cruise morning it is usually obscenely early because I am excited. I have nothing else to do, so we get to the pier far too early. On board the concierge handles any questions we have so we never stand in a customer service line, we simply show up to the shows we want, etc. I completely respect other choices. I simply elect to not stand in line, and I pay for a suite to help make that happen.

 

The second benefit is food. On these classes of ships there is no Coastal Kitchen. However, there is a lovely continental breakfast in the suite/concierge lounge. One of the specialty restaurants is always open at breakfast and lunch so I have a quiet place to bring my buffet food. There is also a waiter right there for drinks and such, and they have a limited menu from which I can order directly. There were other perks, but those two-- combined with the fact that I want enough space for the four of us-- did it for me. I have booked the Villa Suite (with another family) on the Liberty this Summer.

 

On Liberty, the suite lounge is also an excellent indoor and outdoor space when you want a quiet place to be. I valued that. The link there will take you to a personal blog post which has a link to a Youtube video if you care to see it.

 

I sailed on the Norwegian Sky in an oceanview stateroom this Summer. There were no suite perks attached. Obviously, it is a different line where different rules applied. I was travelling by myself, and I found the experience to be fine. I missed having a suite lounge to go to, but when I was travelling by myself didn't find it hard to find a quiet place to be. It was also less of a hassle to stand in line and wait for stuff.

 

We had a couple which went with us on the Liberty last time in a balcony stateroom, and they are making the same choice this time. They have the disposable funds to pay for a suite, and they elected not to. Their line of reasoning is that there are only two of them, they can find a bar which will pour them drinks, and they want to spend the extra money on something else. I personally really enjoy the suite perks on Royal Caribbean, particularly if I am travelling with them. I will always want them, but for me and my travelling buddies they are less important if you are travelling in a smaller group.

42 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 

One  other point.  Name changes can be done up to 24 hours in advance.  If the other guests don’t cancel then it gives you time to try to find someone to take their place 

How sure are you that we could simply change names 24 hours in advance? That might provide a rather elegant way out of this mess, as I trust there is some other family with children who would enjoy a cruise with a balcony so big that it has a dining table, hot tub, and bar.

16 minutes ago, BSocial said:

 

Good point. If your suite companions choose to cancel, Insurance company will pay based on the the cruise confirmation breakdown by passenger.  Are you saying you and wife (passengers 1 and 2) actually paid the higher fares?  Or is that on paper only, and the other family actually paid an equitable amount (split total cost by person, not by fare breakdown).   

 

If the latter, they won’t be reimbursed by Insurance for more than the amount of the cruise confirmation price per guest if they file a claim.   Something for them to think about if they wait until after final payment date. 

On paper, my wife and I paid a few thousand and they paid a few hundred. Internally, we settled the bill so that each party paid the same. However, that would be exceedingly difficult to prove to the satisfaction of the insurer. 

As for adding the other parties to the stateroom, we have children. They do not. They have also already paid for other cabins. It is, all told, not an amazing option. Ugh. I wish I could trust that simply calling Royal would get me an accurate answer without screwing up my existing reservation.

Howdy, folks. I am trying to crowdsource an answer. I acknowledge that the correct procedure is to call customer service, but my experience with Royal Caribbean's shore-side customer service has been uninspiring. Since I cannot count on a phone agent to give me the right answer, and since their website is perhaps not the best, I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. I sail Royal because I enjoy the onboard experience very much, but I have learned not to rely on anything on land.

 

We are sailing in a few months on the Liberty of the Seas in the 4 bedroom Villa Suite. The "we" in this case is 4 families with a total of 10 people. We have three separate reservations since that is the max that can fit on a single reservation, but all 10 of us are in one cabin. There are also 4 additional people in 2 other cabins in this cruise with whom we shall eat and drink, but they aren't actually part of our travelling party. We have fully paid for the reservation, although final payment is not due for a couple of months yet.

 

So, one of the other adults in our cabin has an issue at work which may mean his vacation gets cancelled. Happily, this isn't a financial problem- we have cruise insurance through a third party, and it would cover this particular circumstance. If he doesn't go, it is highly unlikely his family goes. That means that instead of 10 people in the cabin, we would have 4.

 

Here is the problem: I would still like to go. The cabin requires a minimum of 8 people to book (with a max of 14), and we would be below that. The first two listed passengers in the cabin are my wife and I, and the fares we paid are disproportionately higher than the fares the other 8 people paid. It is entirely conceivable my buddy is able to cruise. It is possible he cancels before final payment date, and it is possible he cancels after that. I still want to sail-- there are 4 other people to think about, and that is when I have vacation. Having paid this much, it would be profoundly unfortunate for Royal to decide to downgrade me to a smaller cabin. So what happens to the remaining four people in the cabin if 6 of them wind up cancelling? I appreciate your insights.

18 hours ago, lovescats5 said:

We will be in that suite on Liberty in March 2020.  Will be interested to hear everyone's thoughts and experiences.  Especially what the concierge will do for you.

My favorite thing to use the concierge for is routine customer service inquiries such as, "What is this thing on my bill?" I do whatever I can to avoid standing in line on vacation, and the concierge is so much more efficient than waiting at customer service. They are also excellent for things like making sure a group is seated together in the MDR.

5 minutes ago, dmccadden said:

Thank you for the feedback we don’t go till Jan 2021 but it is the same price as four balcony cabin seemed like a no brained to me

Oh, yeah. For that deal, then *of course* you take it.

2 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

 

I agree, I love the CC and they are almost always packed after dinner & onward.  They're replacing them with a non-revenue space, makes no sense to me.

 

Huh. The revenue space I actually liked is being replaced by a non-revenue space which I would normally prefer but in this case don't want. The only thing for it is to go have another cocktail at a different onboard bar until this all makes sense.

We enjoyed the suite perks on Liberty, which is a sister ship. We were only booked in a Grand Suite, although almost all of the perks were the same as what you would enjoy in the 4 bedroom villa. Speaking of, my cruise in the 4 bedroom villa leaves in 185 days, 2 hours, and 54 minutes... and that makes it a little hard to focus here in the office.

I had no idea they were taking away the cigar bars. That is one of the extra cost features which I actually really like, and I used it quite a bit on the Navigator in 2015 and the Liberty in 2017. I am hoping it is still on the Liberty in July.

I haven't actually sailed out of Galveston since 2017, although we have another trip scheduled next year. I keep a personal blog where I wrote an entry about our process of getting on the ship. It is located here if that is helpful to you. Generally speaking, though, I am a big fan of getting to the ship early and found the process quite efficient.

OK I will attempt to do a mostly semi-live review from our upcoming Liberty cruise in #6414. We board next Sunday! We are Diamond Plus members but this is only our second suite ever. We are new to the suite life, but I think we are hooked!

 

We booked this suite while on Liberty back in Sept. 2017 with 2 couples. There was a mistake made by the agent, which I won't deliberate on, that got us the suite for a very low price and it just happened to be available (its nearly always booked) We had reduced deposits and a year to find 2 more couples for this cruise. We all decided that it would be fairer to just split the total 4 ways and that is how we arrived at the price per couple of $2262. That's right, the total was $9144 for 8 people! RCCL's pricing was so convoluted! 3rd and 4th passengers reductions etc...so confusing. Needless to say, at a price very nearly the normal rate we pay for a D1or2, we were thrilled. The deal included $200 OBC and when I transferred to our normal online travel agent, we received another $475 OBC. We all voted to apply all of it to our tip fund. We'll owe very little after that. So don't be shy about inquiring about these larger suites, you just may get lucky.

 

This suite used to be called the Presidential Family Suite. Here is the floor plan...4 bedrooms/4 baths and will accommodate 10 to 12.

 

 

I will be posting from wifi at each port so it may take some time, I am pretty brainless when it comes to posting live from ship.

I will be using my YouTube channel for vids/pics but may be able to post some here.

 

We usually cruise out of Galveston and drive in the day of departure or spend the night on the mainland (one night stay) and pay around $150 for Holiday Inn Express in Dickinson...you are within 20 minutes of the port the next morning;p We like to be checked in by 10:30 or so. We usually use Park & Cruise right across the street from the terminal. Todd drops me off to check the bags and he parks and walks across. Usually takes less than 15 minutes total. With the new terminal, we are usually onboard ship by 11:00 or so.

 

I was excited to learn that the concierge, in this case MJ would be coming down to collect us and escort us to our cabin, can't wait to experience that! And that we can order our meals in to be served on the large table for 10 on our balcony. That includes lunch and dinner. This will truly be high cotton for us.

 

We have 4 days to go and I will be posting....see ya....

 

Any tips on how to go about this live thing will be appreciated. I watch folks periscope but don't know how to do my own broadcast with it...???

 

I am so excited to follow this thread. We are booked in this room on this ship next year. Happy sailing!

I was impressed with Chops when we ate there on the Liberty of the Seas last year. Here's the thing: We ate there for lunch. I am not particularly impressed with the lunch options onboard, and I do very much like the MDR at dinner. Chops is also considerably cheaper at lunch. That's actually my plan for my next cruise- to eat there again at lunch one day.

I love the notion of any new ship coming out of Galveston. Cool. I worry about what that will do to the Del Monte processor or the BMW processor or whoever would be displaced, but I trust those are obstacles which could be overcome. Here is my larger question: Where are you going to put 6200 additional passengers on embarkation and debarkation? It almost seems like you would have to pick a Friday or Monday or some other day of the week for at least one ship to depart to have enough hotels, roads, restaurants, etc. The logistics are considerably more complex than simply building the new terminal... and I hope it happens anyway.

Hi all!

 

Hubby and I are looking at a cruise on the Liberty out of Galveston in January 2019. We would like to arrive a couple of days before.

 

Would you suggest pre-cruise in Houston or Galveston? What is the best way to get from Houston to Galveston? What hotels would you recommend? What would you recommend we do in Galveston and Houston? Would you recommend ship transfer to Houston?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Cheers, Betty

 

Welcome to Texas, Betty! I have reviewed some of the attractions in Galveston, and I also have a deck by deck video walk through of the ship. To answer your question directly, though, you need to answer a different question first.

 

I believe I read in one of the other posts that you will be flying in from Canada. In deciding what to do, the first question is this: Will you be renting a car? If the answer is no, there are two good options. One is to get a hotel in downtown Houston. They have some lovely parks and museums and a zoo, and I will hazard a wager that the temperature there will be more pleasant in January than it will be back home. You can then arrange for a private car service to take you to the pier on Sunday morning. Option 2 would be getting a car directly to Galveston from the airport. The Tremont and the Harbor House are both walking distance from the pier. If the prices are similar, I would go for the Tremont every time. Either of those hotels lets you walk to dinner at Fisherman's Wharf or Olympia Grill (the Pier 21 location), and you can have a lovely sweet snack at La King's.

 

If you have a car, however, your options expand considerably. First, if you have a car figure out where you will park it during the cruise. We are regular customers of Galveston Park n Cruise, and I just booked them again yesterday for the cruise I will be taking next year. We have stayed at the Hampton Inn the last couple of trips because I was able to get a fairly large room with my Hilton points. However, I would probably go with one of the recommendations the other folks have made. In particular, I am a fan of the Galvez. Best wishes for safe travel, and I hope you will enjoy your visit to a brilliant city.

Dark Rum; Coffee & Creme de Cacao Liqueurs, Cream of Coconut and Milk

 

Oh yeah, the could definitely make that on the package. There were lots and lots of rum options. It might be a little easier if you found one of the quieter bars, but you could certainly get that.

Do you know if Bushwhackers are available free? Thanks

 

Sadly, I do not. Can you tell me what is in it? I have a picture from the poo bar where they say low and mid-shelf alcohols were free and I had to pay extra for top shelf stuff. I will try to get that uploaded to my blog since I can't figure out how to do it here, but for now if you can tell me what is involved I will figure it out. I paid out of pocket a few times so I could have a nice bourbon on the rocks, but I mostly drank what they had ready, available, and free.

Morning, folks. I took the Norwegian Sky 4 day cruise to Cuba earlier this month. It came with the all-inclusive drinks package. I have slowly been posting photos to my personal travel blog, and I have included a few links there in the event it will be helpful. I also have video which I have organized deck by deck to help you find any particular thing you are looking for. However, here I want to provide a regular text-based review that loads easily into whatever device you are reading it from. I would be delighted to answer any questions as well as I can. I will talk about 6 things here: The Upgrade Advantage bid process, embarkation in Miami, the size and general layout of the ship, the unlimited drinks package, the dining options, and the shore excursion options in Cuba and Great Stirrup Cay.

 

Let's start with the upgrade bid process. I booked the cruise less than two months before departure, and I have never sailed with NCL before. Roughly three days after booking, I received an email offering me the chance to upgrade. I was booked in a very cheap oceanview cabin, so the possibility of having a balcony sounded great. I later wondered about the wisdom of my upgrade bid, because the actual price of the cruise kept dropping. By the end, however, all of the cabins sold and there was nothing to upgrade me to. I would obviously have loved a discount balcony, but I understood the process. No complaints there.

 

Embarkation in Miami was really, really easy. I was surprised, because I did not know the port, was not in a cabin with perks, and had no status with NCL. However, arriving at the port early meant there were no lines to stand in. I got there a few minutes after ten. General boarding opened at 11:30, and I am sure I was on the ship by 11:45. Huzzah! Off to lunch and to set up appointments at the spa and such.

 

This ship was less than half the size of the last Royal Caribbean ship I was on. Still, there seemed to be plenty of nice spots to sit with a cocktail and my book. That was what I was going for on this trip. On our one sea day, the pool deck did seem incredibly crowded. The ship was not laid out particularly well, sometimes requiring me to change floors to get from one spot to another on the same deck. There were also oddities like having to go to Deck 6 to get to Le Bistro on Deck 5. Once I figured out the layout of the ship, however, the size was lovely. I was also a big fan of the open deck space on Deck 6 that let me take a long walk around the ship.

 

My favorite spots on the ship were bars, which raises the question of the drinks package. The good news is that it didn't seem like too much of a booze cruise. People were certainly having a good time, but nobody was losing control. Drink service tended to be fast with a fairly wide selection. The only problem I had was that many of the popular drinks were pre-mixed and too sweet. Rather than a mojito mix, I would love to have the bar tended make me a cocktail fresh. Still, the drinks were good enough.

 

The food, however, was disappointing. I had breakfast and lunch in the MDR. Both were fine, but the choices did not change from day to day. The service was solid, but the choices fairly bland and unchanging. The dinner choices did change from night to night, but they also did not catch my eye. I wound up eating in Le Bistro, Cagney's, and Il Adagio. Those places were nice meals, but not all that much better than some MDR meals I have had on other lines. The

was laid out poorly, although the outdoor section of it was better. The food was fine on this ship, but not a particular reason to book the cruise.

 

Shore excursions on this ship, however, were excellent. I went on the Rum, Cigars, and Art tour I booked through the ship. It was a great tour, and I will post pictures of it eventually. I would, however, wait and buy cigars later at the pier or from a shop in town. The prices are the same, and the lines are much shorter than on the organized excursion. The

were even interesting. I wound up eating dinner that night on my own in Havana. I found the city easy to navigate, and I always felt safe. It helps, of course, that I speak Spanish. Still, there were enough people who spoke enough English that you could make your way around regardless. I even ran into a .

 

I also enjoyed

. The island itself was gorgeous, and the organized Waverunner tour was well worth it. We hit 50 MPH several times. The only drawback was the rain which struck later, and the tendering process was not particularly well-organized when that hit. The buffet, however, was nice, and I enjoyed the drinks. The drinks were still included with the unlimited drinks package from the ship, although it may have helped that we were the only ship there that day. I would love to go back to the island.

 

So, on balance, would I go again? Yes. The itinerary was perfect for a quick getaway, I got to see Cuba, I enjoyed the ship, and the price was incredibly low. I would like to see better free dining options, and I would like the bartenders to make drinks as I come. However, overall I enjoyed it very much.

Hey there! My husband and I are sailing with Royal Caribbean for the first time for our 10 year wedding anniversary in a Grand Suite. I have been looking for a list of suite perks included on this ship, as the perks vary from ship to ship, and haven't had any luck finding anything current or complete. I saw mentioned you are sent a letter from the concierge service with the perks included. If anyone has one of those from a previous/future cruise I would love to see it! If not, any advice from previous cruisers is welcome. We want to make sure we know what perks are included so we are able to fully enjoy a suite and our wedding anniversary. This is also my first post to cruise critic, so hello all! :D

 

I have a copy of the letter here, with some other potentially helpful links at the bottom. It was from the Liberty in a Grand Suite. Have a fun cruise!

Hey, folks. The links below are to my personal travel blog in case you want more information. However, here I want to specifically answer the question in this thread. I sailed on the Norwegian Sky earlier this month. I booked the cruise less than 2 months before sailing, and I received an offer to bid on an upgrade a few days after booking. This was my first cruise on NCL, so I do not enjoy any status with them. I was booked in an oceanview cabin, and the email said the minimum bid was $50 for a balcony, $400 for a penthouse suite, and $750 for an owner's suite. I bid $115 for the balcony, and I also placed near-minimum bids for the other two categories. I was initially hopeful that I would get the upgrade, because prices dropped sharply after I booked. I took that as a sign that there were a lot of empty cabins. However, on Saturday before I sailed on Monday I received another email (4 of them, actually) saying that each of my bids was declined. The oceanview cabin was fine, however. I would obviously have enjoyed scoring the cheap upgrade, but I can't complain about not getting something I didn't pay for.

Our family will be arriving to Galveston late at night the day before departure. We are driving,, so we need hotel and parking. This is our first cruise, so we would like as little complication as possible. Does anyone have a suggestion for hotel and parking that is easy to navigate and close to the Carnival Cruise port?

 

 

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We love cruising out of Galveston. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and had a great experience. It is right across the street from the Walmart, which is great when you get to Galveston and figured out what you forgot. They no longer offer a shuttle to the pier, but that isn't a problem since you are planning to drive. We parked at Galveston Park n' Cruise, which was as easy as parking can possibly be. Just be sure to bring a printed copy of your parking confirmation with you just in case. One time they wanted to see our, and once they did not. Happy travels!