CruisinCons

Been to Nassau twice, heading back for the third soon.

First trip: ship excursion that traveled the island on a bus, stopped at a beach for some sun, a stop or two at a local place (long time ago, don't remember exactly where) then back to the boat. All good.

Second trip: had 2 young kids this time. No excursions excited us, so left them in kids club and decided to get off and walkabout a bit. Got thru shops with ease, then was bombarded every 5 steps by someone wanting to braid my long straight hair. It was crazy. Hubby got offered drugs twice. After 15 minutes of it, we turned around and headed back to the building with the shops & safety. Had a cup of local coffee in there, then back to the boat & collected the kids.

Third upcoming trip: Probably not even bothering to leave the boat. Excursions offered by ship are either Atlantis or 2 snorkeling. Not interested in either; so we will enjoy the NorthStar over & over, and hopefully a quiet pool for the day.

I read about a beach in walking distance; Junkanoo. Any opinions on that? I still have long straight hair - will be in braid already before I leave the ship, in hopes to deter the ladies this time. May be only reason we leave the boat.

Thanks so much for the review! It's nice to read positive stuff. I understand the negative nellies need their say too, but I firmly believe that your vacation is what YOU make it, not the other way around. If you go on expecting to be disappointed, looking for the bad, you'll never have a good time.

I can't wait!!

You can always get information for non ship excursions on trip advisor or

Bahamas CC board. So much great info.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58

 

I have found on ships past that they really push Atlantis. They must get a BIG kick back. I have also never heard someone talk about how great Atlantis was. I have heard lots and lots of complaints but we have never gone. Except to look at the boat show from the water one year on a charter.

 

 

 

Until I found Cable beach I was not a fan of Nassau at all now I am looking forward to it.

 

We are on the March 29th cruise how about you?

We are on same cruise Jenjer. Where is Cable beach? We still don't know what we are doing in Nassau. I think it will depend on what is open on the boat during port days. Our past cruises, pretty much everything shut down, to get you off the boat and into port. I've read here that, weather permitting of course, the NorthStar runs. But hope to get some time doing other things too.

So the section in the middle? The QOS seems to have a lot of in and outs, haha. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/ship/decks/deck/home.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=12f56c0e37aade95c04dd7165aab37e9&deckCode=11&shipCode=QN&shipProfile=1595&sailDate=1150313&hasNavigation=false

 

We are in 11306 & 11308. Wayyyyy in the back.

So I apparently have a D2/D6/BC room.

This is my checkin screen with the message and the button to print paper pags (assuming the attachment can be read).

 

[ATTACH]342385[/ATTACH]

 

Roy

YES! That's exactly what mine looks like. I don't know how to take those pictures on a laptop. I am very challenged, LOL. I also need to learn how to multi-quote in a reply.

Look on the deck plan for the area of the ship that is pushed out on the side. The staterooms in that area are the hump staterooms.

So the section in the middle? The QOS seems to have a lot of in and outs, haha. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/ship/decks/deck/home.do?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=12f56c0e37aade95c04dd7165aab37e9&deckCode=11&shipCode=QN&shipProfile=1595&sailDate=1150313&hasNavigation=false

We are in 11306 & 11308. Wayyyyy in the back.

I don't know how to take a picture of the screen; but on my Online Check-in page, where I print my Set Sail Passes, at the bottom is a spot for printing my luggage tags. You don't see this? It's in a light blue box, at the bottom.

"Luggage Tags

Royal Caribbean's ship luggage tag program provides you with personalized luggage tags before leaving home. Print Paper Luggage Tags"

If I click on the Print Paper Luggage Tags "button" a pdf file opens with my tags. I have no option to mail tags to my home either, and my sailing is farther out from yours.

I have no idea what a hump balcony is! How do you know which categories have them...I want to see if I do. We've only had a balcony room once before, on the Explorer, and I don't remember a hump. LOL

Will be sad to see her go; she was our first cruise in 1992. She was only three and a half months old and still holds near and dear in our hearts as one of the best cruises we have ever been on. Love her.

OP, you definitely have to try and decide for yourself. We've cruised RCCL 4 times, NCL 2 times, Carnival 2 times, and Disney once. I think. Lost count somewhere. We personally keep coming back to RCCL as it meets our needs the best. My now teen boys (15 & 17) have done Disney, RCCL 2 times, and Carnival 2 times. We've been cruising since 1992.

We cruised with my sister-in-law on our first Carnival cruise, choosing price and wanting to be with family over our preferred choice of RCCL then Disney. My in laws LOVE Carnival and don't want to cruise anything else. It was eh. But we were willing to try it again a few years later, and once again, for us, it was eh. Our experience with RCCL was always better. After our last Carnival cruise, we said we would go again, but only for a specific itinerary. For us we are willing to pay a bit more.

You have to try out different cruise lines and find the one that makes you happy. We all have such varying opinions, as we all have different things important to us. You'll find so many varying opinions on everything from the cleanliness of the ship to the food and service to the balcony doors. LOL

Give RCCL a shot, then decide! Good luck, and have fun with your family!

There has been quite a few conversations about this already; do a quick search and you'll find them. I'm going after you, so I can't say for sure yet, but I read you gotta get a mudslide cookie. :D

Scarlet - were there choices or did it just assign the time? I had choices, earliest being 11:15am.

I use Chrome. While the home page is different; when I click "log in" it brings me back to the same looking place it used to. My saved login information brought me in fine, screen looks exactly the same. Only difference I see is on the home page.

Most of the high schools in NJ are off the week before or after Easter, depending on when Passover falls. Those are the cruises to avoid if you don't want to be around a lot of kids. Especially the ones sailing out of Bayonne.

What package are frozen non alcoholic drinks covered in?

If you look at the chart above you will see it.

Thanks! We were looking at the Royal Replenishment package; we're not soda drinkers, we would have maybe one or two throughout the cruise; but are big coffee drinkers. Trying to decide if a package is worthwhile for us or not. That package says "premium coffees" but we were not sure exactly what that meant! :)

Thanks!! We are going back and forth as to which package to get, if any at all. When we look at what we drink at home, we wouldn't spend too much each day, but we do have an extra drink or two when on board. We don't drink soda, and have no issues with the ship water. But we love our coffee. Wonder if we can each drink $19 worth of coffee a day? Haha!!

Thanks for the review!! We head out in March. One question for you, the Starbucks drinks were included in the Royal Replenishment package?

Trying to choose our beverage package. Premium coffee is coffee from where? Does that just mean we can get a cappuccino after dinner, or can we go to Starbucks? Or are there coffee bars elsewhere? Thanks!

In the past when we've cruised we had to get paper wristbands for things like the Flowrider. Do they still do that on the Quantum? I'm thinking about how many my kids had on their wrists by the end of the trip on the Liberty; it would be nice if that was all saved in the new band.

I learned after that trip to bring a small pair of scissors with me (from sewing kit) to cut them off. Makes formal family pictures taken on board not so nice...LOL

I just went and did my online check in, and it let me choose a boarding time.

It makes sense to arrive as close to your assigned time as possible; there are so many people coming aboard - impossible to be prepared for the randomness of arrivals. I haven't done anything other than attempt to make dinner & entertainment reservations for my March cruise yet. Apparently I need to do more today, or we will be getting on last? LOL

From everything I've been reading here on these boards, many many times said by people who've cruised QOS already, you can pretty much show up before 6pm and get a table at any restaurant. We sail in March and don't have reservations every night; we plan on showing up. They apparently leave some tables unbooked for booking on the ship as well.

Making an assumption here; I assume everyone sees the same screen I do at my Gold level.

When I log in, I can click on something that shows me all the cruises I have been on and how many points I got for each cruise. If you look at that SJS, and add up that points, when do you get 76? Could there be a cruise missing from the list that you went on, and are counting the points for, that RCCL is not? That may be the source of the discrepancy. Especially if you are looking at cruises from the early 90s. We had a missing one that they had to search for, but eventually did find. Otherwise, maybe you misread the totals, as it's just basic addition. Not saying you don't know how to add, of course. Trying to be helpful - no sarcasm intended in any of my words.

We are one point away from leaving Gold; would love it if they gave us that upgrade during our cruise next month. May be worth asking...but the upgrade fairy paid us a visit for this cruise, so I guess I don't want to be too greedy. :)