cymru cruiser

Thank you! Glad you liked it. It is a small world, isn't it?! And yes, the boys absolutely loved it! :)

The couple to the left of you at the wine tasting are cruise critic members, d&hsetsail. They were on our roll call, we met at the meet and mingle and chatted several times as mentioned earlier in my review. A lovely couple on honeymoon from Canada. They missed our cabin crawl the wine tasting was so good they said lol.

Cymru Cruiser, thank you for the in depth review and photos you've shared! We were on the exact same cruise! It's interesting to see all of the similar places we went at each port of call and even the same people we enjoyed meeting! I created a video of the same cruise, if you or anyone else is interested, you can find it in this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2247413.

You'll notice several of the same areas, for example, the floating play area in Mallorca. Aviv is also in the video! ;)

Wow what an amazing video. You are clearly very talented! Lovely to see Aviv. Mad to think that we where sat on Palma nova beach whilst you where on the inflatable.

Naughty videoing the ice show lol. You must have walked thru royal prom very late to see it that quiet.

Your boys look like they had a blast!!

These photos were posted as part of a review a few weeks ago,

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132382935@N04/albums

 

they include a full set of cruise compass's, hope this helps?

Thank you for helping.

Cymru Cruiser, thank you for the in depth review and photos you've shared! We were on the exact same cruise! It's interesting to see all of the similar places we went at each port of call and even the same people we enjoyed meeting! I created a video of the same cruise, if you or anyone else is interested, you can find it in this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2247413.

You'll notice several of the same areas, for example, the floating play area in Mallorca. Aviv is also in the video! ;)

Hiya isn't that kind of spooky, we could have walked right passed each other lol.

Someone posted a comment on my review last month they where on the same cruise and I knew exactly who she was by her description of her daughter, we'd sat next to them in one of the bars. Small world.

Thanks for the video I'll watch it now. Aviv was lush!

Hi Cymru Cruiser. Sorry to keep resurrecting your thread and sorry if this has already been asked but I was wondering if you had a copy of one of the sea day cruise compasses. We're just thinking about what to do on our "days off" so to speak! If you do have one could you either post it here or email it to me at mwickwar at btinternet dot com. Thanks!

W

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hiya sorry for the delay in replying I've not had time to get online the last few days. Glad someone else helped you out.

Please don't apologise for bringing my thread back, the more that reads it the better x

I had a Promenade room on the Freedom and found like most people, only when there were parties or parades did I hear anything. It was not every night and was not much past 11:00.

 

The comment about background noise during the night made me wonder, because I had a bad first night sleeping because of what I thought was background music in the Promenade. I found a knob to control what I was hearing on the desk under the mirror. It was in our room and not in the Promenade after all. Someone may have accidentally turned this knob and caused the music.

 

Or there could have actually been music in the Promenade that the OP heard. This was just a thought.

Hiya

I've interestingly just found this on another thread from a member called glum.

It backs up the issue we experienced. I never thought of complaining maybe we should have in hindsight, it may have been turned off.

My wife (chez2) and her sister (michchez12) are on the Explorer at the moment and they are saying the quality of service is a lot lower than in previous RCCL cruises.

For those booking cabins that face onto the promenade, be aware that the music piped into the promenade area can be heard in the cabins *all* the time according to my wife. They had to move cabins

Dock Gate 8 is the one you need, not ten as above.

 

kezz

Without being pedantic both dock gate 8 AND dock gate 10 serve the same berth and can both be used. 8 is easier. Diolch.

and now in English not iphone speak :)

 

My wife (chez2) and her sister (michchez12) are on the Explorer at the moment and they are saying the quality of service is a lot lower than in previous RCCL cruises.

 

For those booking cabins that face onto the promenade, be aware that the music piped into the promenade area can be heard in the cabins *all* the time according to my wife. They had to move cabins

Thank you for this comment. We had the same issue and I mentioned it on my review. Someone posted a question the other day asking if there was noise from the promenade in these cabins some said yes some said no. When I explained the music on explorer was NOT turned off at night. Several times i went to the loo in the night between 2-5am and the music was still on.

One poster on the thread suggested that I hadn't realised how to turn down the knob on the dressing table that controls the volume of the announcements!

I assured them that actually our knob did not work it just span round and the noise was from the speakers mounted on the walls of the promenade next to the cabin windows!

It didn't stop me getting to sleep it was just obviously there. We live very rural where the only thing we hear in the night is an owl so I thought I was being super sensitive to the noise and never reported it. So I find this really interesting thank you for posting.

Hi RCI always use city terminal gate 101 or they have the last six times we've been down, I don't think it's changed for Anthem. Enjoy your cruise ,we're going on Oct 11.

Not gate 101 it's berth 101 entrance through dock gate 10 off the round about next to the holiday inn on Herbert walker avenue and opposite the grand harbour hotel.

We did this last Summer. Got off Liberty and on to Epic. We left it to the last minute to get off Liberty which was around 9am. We sat in that terminal until they asked us to leave(!) at around 9:15. We slowly walked over to Epic and were able to give our cases to the porters immediately. Then security let us into the terminal, but were told to sit down and wait. We only waited about an hour before they checked us in, and they we had to wait for our number to be called to board. We had planned to go into the city but decided after a leisurely breakfast on Liberty that we didn't need the hassle. The staff at the Epic terminal were excellent and free drinks were available all that time. Very easy.

Brilliant thank you.

The quest is an interactive game show where teams have to grab items the quickest out of the audience. It can be hilarious and great fun. Quickest one back to the stage with false teeth, a bra, heeled shoes etc.

loro parque in tenerife is fab we went there on our first cruise.

Gran canaria not sure on a water park without googling it. But there is a stunning several mile long sandy beach in las palmas within ten minute walking distance of the ship. we used gran canaria as our beach day on our canaries cruise.

There are shops and cafés public toilets and showers on the beach front.

4 sunbeds and 2 parasols were only 27 euro in 2012.

Las palmas also has a massive shopping mall next to the port and plenty of places to buy duty free perfume.

Another point on dining. The age your kids are they will be offered the main menu. If you have fussy eaters ask for the kids menu. My 16 year old tends to mix and match the menus depending on whats on.

Hi

We have the same next year as we will be getting off Harmony and getting on Epic. Granted we only have a few hours in between. We intend to try for the very last minute to get off Harmony and then walk across to Epic's terminal and then just sit it out until we can board as soon as possible.

I've researched Barcelona port and found that there is Wifi and a cafe (somewhere).

We did consider using the time to go and explore Barcelona and leave our bags.

In doing so we did find a company at the port who will keep your baggage but they charge 10 euro per bag. The alternative is to get a taxi to Placa de Catalunya in the centre of the city where there are storage lockers and then go back and collect them later. locker barcelona dot com.

Also google hasta vueloThere are also storage lockers at Sants train station. Google baggage storage in Barcelona and you will find options.

Hi

Firstly try not to panic, it sounds like you have had a dreadful time and are well in need of a break!

Your kids are the ideal age for their first cruise - be prepared to only see them at dinner as they makes loads of friends and join in ample activities.

Even if they are wary or shy encourage them to go to the first meeting before deciding not to join in.

With rock climbing, adventure golf, ice skating, table tennis, shuffleboard, Wii tournaments, arcades, a full sports court and much much more they will have a ball.

My friend has just returned from Explorer on her first ever cruise. Her 11 year old son cried his eyes out saying goodbye to the waiters on the last night. Not good for his cred but he was overcome with emotion that the best holiday he had ever had was over.

You can always read negative reviews in all walks of life. Folk are much more inclined to complain when things go wrong than praise when things go right.

Here is a link to the review I wrote when I was on Explorer at the end of June. She was our third family cruise and we had a fabulous time. My review is 98% positive.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2235280

You've had some good advice already. The people on here are great so you've come to the right place for info. Have you been and joined in on your roll call? and signed up for your meet and mingle, which is a gathering put on by royal caribbean for you to meet and have fun with other cruise critic members the first sea day of your cruise.

In answer to one of your questions room service is $3.95 per order between midnight and 5am. It is to try and prevent sheer wastage of food when folk order a mid night snack and are then too tired to eat it.

Deck 8 is a good position a you have cabins above and below you, so no noise from the deck or bars/dining rooms. What type of cabin do you have?

The main dining room is open for breakfast daily and for lunch on sea days. Go and try it on a sea day, we did for the first time this year and were hooked on the Tutti salad bar.

The only food you pay extra for is in a specialty restaurant or room service in the early hours, everything else is included. There are some drinks available for free in the buffet restaurant windjammer and tea, coffee and hot chocolate can be found for free in Cafe promenade.

You'll pay extra for the specialty coffee's, bottled water and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. if you have a drinks package you don't have to worry about that.

The only down side to cruising is that you become hooked easily.

We cruised in October 2012 on Independence of the Seas. It was supposed to be a bucklist cruise and a one off, paid for with a huge redundancy pay out my husband got. He thought it would tick a box and stop me nagging. He was hugged within days and if you look at my signature below you'll see what we have done since and what we have coming up.

Ask as many questions as you can think of, we will all help you. But best of all just go with the flow and have an amazing time, it will be what you make it. x

Which gate did you dock at in palma? Rci use gate 1 and 4. We docked at 4 last month. There were no shops but there was Wifi the map is of palma bay not the port. I picked up a more detailed map showing the port inside the port building at the tourist info desk where the wifi was.

So you booked onboard in USD under US Ts&Cs ?

Booking with a US TA... no problem. Booking through RCI... I wasn't aware we could do that.

U.K t&c's but U.S promotion and very low deposit, it was a cracking deal.

We are trying epic next year just to get a taste of something not royal. Well that was the plan until harmony was announced. So now we are doing both lol.

Unfortunately how it's worked out we are on harmony first which means we'll be stepping down size wise on to epic. But we are going to try and go on unbiased and give epic our best attention. It's 14 months away and I'm already excited. However if I had to choose one over the other in advance having not sailed on either I wouldn't hesitate to choose harmony.

The largest cruise ship in the world with two very successful older sisters or the marmite ship which people either love or hate.

Let us know which you decide. Either way a cruise is a special way to honeymoon .

We've seen a cruise we'd like to book for next year but should we wait and book whikst on board so we get a better deal?

Other than what others have said, I guess it also depends on how far away your next cruise is for you to be able to book once on board and then how far away from that date the cruise you are interested in.

We sailed on Explorer at the end of June. During June we discussed booking Harmony for next year. A U.K based member posted a review a fortnight before we went saying that the U.S promotion of 30% off balcony cabins for the 30 days of June was running on board. Which got me very interested.

I checked the Harmony cruise we were interested in whilst in the hotel in Southampton an hour before we boarded. At 2pm we went and spoke to Jose in the next cruise section. He quoted the exact cruise, cabin grade etc and it was £900 cheaper under the U.S promotion than the U.K.

That to us made a difference of being able to afford it or not. £900 is a whacking difference. We also got $100 obc on our current cruise and $100 obc on our Harmony cruise.

We didn't get the free grats or drink package from the U.K promotion but we are still quids in as only one of us 4 drinks alchohol, its a port intensive itinerary so there won't be as much drinking on board as on other cruises we've been on but even if we have 2 replenish, 2 refreshment and our grats we are still over £500 better off.

All you can do is your research and go with whats best for you. In our experience booking on board has worked out best twice so far.

you can also get premium coffee from your package in the dining room. My daughter had a hazelnut latte after dinner on Explorer most nights.

Not yet thankfully, booked for next year on board so got another to begin countdown to.

 

You will be glad to know we successfully got train to Monaco, found our way to casino and up to palace and back to station, thank you for your tips. Next year's cruise we are at Villefranche again and plan to go to Nice by train.

 

Michelle x

Excellent

Lovely photos. We we were also on the 26th July cruise. Our favourite places were Malaga, Monaco Corsica and Cadiz. It was our first cruise and mostly we loved it, however we are used to quieter villa holidays so it was quite a shock to the system, seeing the amount of people.

Was the passenger on the tender from our boat....didn't hear about it on board

Hi Karen, glad you enjoyed I know you were slightly nervous with some of the negative reviews before you went. Will you cruise again?

All of the specialty coffees, teas, hot chocolate and frappuccinos are available from cafe promenade on explorer.

We've been on Indy twice and explorer once. We much prefer the freedom class for lots of reasons already mentioned. We also think that the difference between the glass balconys on Indy and the steel balconys on explorer make the freedom class nicer looking.

What's going on, on explorer? We where on board 29th June and the c.d was Rob McNally. We thought he was rubbish totally not visible. He was like a rabbit caught in headlights. Not funny and didn't come across as a good leader.

He was supposed to be on board from May to October. The latest list here shows Tim Connor from 29th July he was joffs activities manager on Indy last year, lovely guy. But someone has just posted a review of explorer, they got off today and the c.d is Gordon Travis.

So maybe the powers that be though Rob was rubbish too?

Wow you've been quick posting this. I can't wait to catch up properly with my friend tomorrow who was on the same cruise.

Interesting to see you had a different cruise director than we had last month. We had Rob McNally and he hadn't been on for long. We didn't rate him at all ....

Fernando was our stateroom attendant too we had 7587 and 7589 lovely guy.

Glad you had a great time. Did the waves the first day affect you?

We were on explorer 29th June. Our pool party was in Palma, Majorca and yes it was good fun. Great atmosphere!