sh2738

10 minutes ago, romesauce said:

Current vacation status: One full day on the ship is complete. There is so much to see and do on the ship that if you say you're bored, you're not doing it right. We had dinner at chops which was great. It was quite busy but service was still top notch. While the menu online didn't advertise it, they still have the red velvet cake for dessert! Of course this is what I got and it was delicious as always. Today UDP is Izumi for lunch and hooked for dinner. It's a seafood day for us today! 

Great to hear. If at Izumi you do the Habachi part could you please let me know what food you get included with the Habachi besides the entree? Trying to see if we could do it with a vegetarian. 

Thanks!

I saw this new activity thing in the cruise planner that I have never seen before. Looks interesting but only lists Chopps for the Embarkation Lunch. 

I am traveling with a vegetarian so obviously Chopps is not an option for us. Before I disregard this new thing completely, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with having this changed to another venue for people that can’t eat meat or seafood?

Thanks!

So is there not anyway to remove a single post to a specific thread? It just has to stay there? Thanks 

On 12/2/2018 at 10:07 PM, Peregrina651 said:

 

Keep in mind that having your account deactivated will not remove the posts you have already made.  If you opt to just stop posting, remember to delete all of your subscriptions to threads (https://boards.cruisecritic.com/followed/?type=forums_topic&page=1) so that you won't continue to get notifications from Cruise Critic.

How does one remove all of their postings then if they wish to clear their account out? Thanks for your help. 

13 minutes ago, mo&fran said:

I  read the original thread, and I think that you hit the nail on the head.  It would appear that Royal bears some responsibility  in this case. We have been assured by Royal that the vendors have been vetted when they sell these excursions.

Ah that is an excellent point there that I hadn't considered yet. Yes in that case I can see how Royal could have some responsibility especially if they didn't properly vet this company enough and could have prevented something like this from happening. 

16 minutes ago, KimPossible1 said:

Not everyone knows everything... and "not a lot of details" so why be so mean and add your "two cents"  Not very nice and not helpful.  I don't post often because of this kind of negativity.  It isn't our business to debate who was at fault or whether or not someone deserves money...a simple "oh that is an awful experience for someone" would suffice if you felt you needed to say something.  I hope everyone tries to be nicer to one another.

I am sorry that you feel that way, being negative and/or coming across as mean was not my intention at all as I have a zero tolerance for that kind of behavior and I wasn't aware that was how my posting could have been interpreted. So thank you for alerting me that my posting could be misinterpreted as something negative. I definitely could have worded it differently. I was just commenting on the lack of details on the specific website linked to, how if one would only read that one article one might jump to conclusions about the specifics about what happened and who would be at fault and thinking about whether RCL was the appropriate company to sue and sharing my own experience on the potential dangers of zip lining. I was also expressing sympathy for the grief that this family is experiencing. I don't believe that I specifically made any comments that could be misconstrued as negative as I didn't say anything negative about the loss or what the family is going through, but if that is what someone interpreted it as then I apologize as that wasn't my intention. 

I 100% agree with you and applaud you for pointing it out on the negativity on boards like this one, I have been seeing a lot more negative and insensitive remarks on various threads more recently than I recall seeing before several years ago when I was last cruising. Hopefully we can keep up the positivity especially with the holiday season approaching and all agree at a minimum of what a tragedy this is about what happened out of what should have been a wonderful vacation. 

Events like this always remind me to be particularly careful about excursions and about safety concerns and ensuring to do thorough research before partaking in such activities to fully prepare myself and my family for any potential danger that there might be. 

Peace and compassion to all fellow cruisers. 

Ridiculous. Very sad that someone died but that is absolutely not RCCLs fault. The person to sue is the tour company if they did something negligent. Unfortunately zip lining can be dangerous sometimes, especially if one isn’t aware or hasn’t done a lot of research on the company that operates it. 

Maybe its just me but I was under the impression that everyone knows that the cruise line doesn’t operate these excursions? Thought everyone knew that. Not a lot of details available to determine what actually happened on if it was an accident or if the company that did the tour did something negligent. No matter it isn’t RCCLs fault though. But sure her them go ahead and sure the bigger company 🤨

i dis zip lining once and won’t likely ever do it again. A little too out there for me and far too many accidents like this one.

Hopefully RCCL maintains their ground and doesn’t allow themselves to give out any money for this and now hopefully the family understands how cruises and excursions work. It’s still very sad though. 

You can download a pdf of shire excursions for the same cruise but at an earlier date. I’ve down that as mine is about 350 days away. Helps with planning and budgeting. 

31 minutes ago, F27TW said:

Pretty low class.   I wouldn't even expect this kind of not-funny trashy stuff on the old Carnival party barges.

 

 

 

Personally I don’t find it trashy at all. That’s taking it a bit too far. It is more geared towards younger people I think that would on the whole find it really funny as I do. Something unique and different. 

Hi all. I haven’t ever done a dining package but I am considering doing a 2 night one. However I am traveling with a vegetarian so specialty dining options are limited as RCL appears to not like to have options for vegetarians in their specialty restaurants. We will be doing Jaime’s for sure. The only other specialty dining onboard Symphony that appears to have vegetarian options is Izumi the Habachi part as one of their entrees for the Habachi experience is some noodles with tofu. 

So so here are my questions for the experienced cruisers especially with this ship or ship class. How does the Habachi work? I have been to one on land but they state what you will receive beyond the entree on the menu. However I can not locate a place that states what else you receive besides the entree. I am assuming that you receive something else since it’s like 40/person. Anyone have any experience that you could please pass down? Trying to see if there will be enough vegetarian food for her to justify paying for it. Jaimes has lots of options so no problem there but all other specialty restaurants seem to not want to have any real entrees for vegetarians which is a huge disappointment. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

And mid can you reserve these bookings in advance by calling them? I know with the package that you can’t book them online but wondering if I call if I could get it arranged. Don’t want to have to wait until I get onboard in case it gets all booked. 

Also so any places not included in the BOGO? 

Thanks!

14 minutes ago, cookie1355 said:

I'm doing symphony November 30, 2019, I know it's almost a year away.  Does anyone have the cruise compasses for that cruise that you could post. I'd like to know how to plan my dinners according to the other activities.

thanks in advance!! 

Mom doing the cruise the week before that one and it’s so far away. 

The best way is to download the Royal APP and you can select one of the current cruises and you can view menus, activities, etc. 

It does add entertainment just might be to your taste. Personally I find it funny and very different  from the typical decor. Caters to a younger crowd I think. 

126 per person per day? Or for both of you per day? That seems really high. But you would probably still be better off with the package if it’s 126 for both of you for each day. 

How does the Udon option work? I would like to try this place but I am traveling with a vegetarian that loves Asian food. And the udon option is the only one that has tofu, all the other options aren’t vegetarian friendly. 

Has anyone had the udon to say what you get exactly?

thanks. 

6 minutes ago, lvolicer said:

During our cruise, we had only one hour of daylight in Havana, although the ship sold us 5 hour scenic trip. Most of it was in dark. The one hour of daylight was wasted visiting a fort with long cigar and a sculpture of Jesus, which is supposedly the third biggest in the world. There was a very limited opportunity to shop and it was not possible to change Cuban peso back to the original currency. The whole cruise was mismanaged because there was no space for the ship in Havana and we were doing circles in the sea to arrive after the  space was available. We stopped in Key West and Bahamas, but almost everybody took the cruise to se Cuba. The ship reimbursed the cost of the shore trip, but not $75 that we spent on visas. Be very  careful about itinerary if you ever use Royal Caribbean, we certainly will not use again..

Not really sure how this is RCLs fault unless I am misreading your statement. RCL can’t control how much daylight you have on a certain day, it just depends on time of year, weather etc, not something that RCL has any control over. It’s always something that you have to consider as no one can guarantee how much sunlight or daylight there will be on any day. 

Next, excursions usually don’t have a lot of time to do your own shopping. You usually have to do your own shopping outside of the excursions. Have you done a cruise before or done excursions before? If not, then yes this might be a surprise but it should come with the understanding that nothing is guaranteed on excursions since they have set lengths of time. So I always am sure that I have enough time offshore to do shopping and I never include my time in the excursions for shopping as most likely there won’t be enough time. 

Of of course you can’t change the currency back to USD. I believe that the only way to do that would be at a currency exchange place and I’m not sure that you can do that at the port in Cuba as I’ve never been. 

Sometimes a lot of ships are going to port at the same time so having to wait to pull in ain’t out of the Normal. Once more, not RCLs fault. 

As far as the comedy about visa charge and people choosing this itenery to stop in Cuba, you did still go to Cuba right? It’s not that you didn’t get to go, unless I am kissing where that is stated. You just feel that your excursion wasn’t up to your standards. Also why would they refund your visa when you did go to Cuba, I’m not understanding that part. 

Agyer reading this this several times, I haven’t seen anything that is at the fault of RCL. Things happen that are outside of their control such as daylight, weather, having to wait a little to dock, etc. 

thw fact act that you felt that there wasn’t enough time to shop is a personal preference that you had, nothing that RCL is guaranteeing you. Also, if you decide to take out cash in the local currency, then you are responsible for using that cash or finding out your own way to convert these back. Once more, not something that is RCLs fault, in my opinion. If however something changed and you never got to go to Cuba, then I could begin to understand how RCL had control over that. 

But I don’t see anything in your statement that is anything that RCL has control over or that they should be responsible for. 

A tip. Thoroughly reading through everything on the specific excursions is key so you make sure that you know what to expect and to make sure that you are understanding what the excursions will have. And I would recommend doing more planking in the future so that you aren’t surprised by the above things as these aren’t RCLs fault, in my own personal opinion. 

Hopefully this has been a learning experience for you. RCL is great and doesn’t appear to me that they have done anything wrong based on your post. 

Thanks 

I’ve never found that the pizza was bad. Might depend on what you expect to get for free on a cruise but I’m not picky since it’s free and I thought it was fine. 

10 minutes ago, Katemusical said:

Hi.

I'm really confused. If my family picked My Time Dining for the Main Dining Room on our booking, why do I have to make reservations ahead of time. On NCL and Carnival, you just show up to your assigned dining room at the time you want. Sometimes you wait, sometimes not.

 

Didn't I pick the option to just go when we want? Please clarify for me.

 

Yes you can just show up but I personally wouldn’t recommend doing that as depending on what time you go and your party size, you might end up with a really long wait. There are two lines at the MDR, one for people with reservations and another for people without. I haven’t done the without line as I don’t personally do dining without making reservations, but I have noticed that the line for without reservations is always much longer especially during peak dining. So depends on if you are okay with waiting a while if dining from 5:30-8. 

Is there anything to be done in order to get the email? Or do you just have to hope that they will send you one? Thanks 

2 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

Judge much?  Sorry but every other cruise line that I've sailed on do not require both people in the room to purchase the drink package. Maybe you should be judging the dead beats who were sharing a package that probably pushed RC to enforce that policy. Now that I think about it, technically I do have medical reasons. Hypertension, elevated A1C. General heath issues that come with age. The Dr has never told me not to drink but that's probably because I only drink rarely on occasion but certainly not enough to to spend $50 a day.

Then don’t pay for the package. It’s not that complicated in my personal opinion but to each their own. If you don’t drink enough to make sense to pay for the package, but your spouse or other occupate does and they want the package, then simply get the refreshment package and buy alcoholic drinks a la carte. But trying to cheat the rules of the cruise line isn’t correct and hurts everyone that follows the rules and pays for it. If someone is going to advertise that the are going to violate the system and it’s rules, then others are perfectly suited to judge them for it, especially if they say so online. Personally I would never do anything like that because I follow rules and who knows that the line would do if they found out someone lied to get around the system. Not a cool move in my opinion but if that’s what they want to do then they will do it. 

4 minutes ago, gerif said:

If people are unhappy with the changes on this cruise, to blame it on the hard working crew members and withhold gratuities makes for a total *sshole IMO. They are simply being cheap. I’ve always felt that there’s a special place in hades for people like this. 

This! 100% agree with this statement. The crew does so much for so little it’s the very least that you can do to do your part and treat them fairly with a basic tip. Thanks 

3 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The cruise line does not publish MDR menus.  All you can do is look for a recent review where the poster has also included menu scans.

These menus are located in the Royal app if your ship is there, Serenade is. If your cruise is a little bit away, you can view menus from current cruises on the available ships. 

1 minute ago, DSimpson14 said:

Going on 11 night Southern Cruise Dec 10 On Serenade & wondering if there is someplace to find the menu in MDR.  Found some but they are several years old.  Thanks for any help

The best place to find menus, activities, etc is in the Royal App. You should be able to see the details for your cruise in there including menus 

Do these become available at a certain time on the cruise planner? I am looking into getting one of these for my cruise in late 2019 but it’s currently not listed in the cruise planner for it. Is this because it is so far out? I wouldn’t think that it would possibly be booked up by now. Thanks. 

Yea I agree with the above. If you don’t drink because of a medical condition or a personal preference and you don’t drink at all, you should be able to call and just get the refreshment package. Of course you are asking for an exception to the rules so you might have to call a couple of times to get someone that will do it but if is possible. If you do not drink at all due to a medical or personal preference or issue. Thanks. 

I have never done this before but I am looking at it now. I will be doing the Symphony. However, it looks like you have to wait until you are onboard the ship in order to make the reservations which seems really strange to me. Is this correct?

And how do you let them know which restaurants? Are you just forced to wait until you board and cross your fingers that there will be availability for the restaurant day and time that you want? Also, does this have to be for dinner, or could it be used to lunch or something?

Also, besides Jaime’s, are any of the other specialty restaurants vegetarian friendly? Traveling with a vegetarian so obviously need to know beforehand if there is even any other option for her besides Jaime’s. I did some looking on posted menus but it appears that Wonderland only has like 2 vegetarian options, not enough for the entire meal, and CP 150 charges its cover charge for there to only be some grilled vegetables or a piece of cauliflower for its entree which is obviously not worth the cover charge. 

So I am wondering if anyone has done this with vegetarians and know of any other specialty restaurants that are vegetarian friendly besides Jaimes where there is stuff not listed on the published menus?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.