JenGang

I have had a T/A tell me that if I wanted to be part of the group booking( lower price and/or OBC) that we would have to pay a full deposit even tho we did a next cruise deposit of $100, the group rate was only minimally lower and the obc was the same so we opted to not be booked as part of the group. So who ever you are talking to is probably right.

 

The reason why your OBC probably goes down if you didn't fork over the money is you would come out of the group booking. Just the way things work I thnk

 

Again this is just my experience that happen to me.

 

P.S. I think I am using the same website you do to get many different quotes and offers from different T/A's and then I can compare. You do get lots of choices but you really need to know how each one works and all the different cancellation rules.

We are looking at doing a group booking for one of our upcoming cruises and out TA also told us that we would have to pay the full deposit to have it part of the group. We're holding out to see if we will have enough cabins to make it a group before we transfer the reservation to the group booking. I guess this must be their requirement for groups.

We have friends that always bring the CoffeeMate 2 Go with them. http://cm2go.coffee-mate.com/ I've bought it at Walmart just to try it but I know that our friends get theirs on Amazon.

I'm JoeRum's other half and I would agree. Didn't live Nachi. It wasn't terrible but it was boring and the drinks left me with heartburn. Bar Hop was awesome in August! So much fun and really cool to see the uninhabited side of the island. We're checking out Mr. Sancho's because we're looking at doing a vow renewal in 2018 and I've read good things about their weddings. Call it a research mission. :D

Someone posted this very recently. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2282982&highlight=navigator+cruise+compass

Except for the hot tubs...they are chlorinated. As far as the salt water pools, you can't tell unless you taste it...which is NOT recommended! It's filtered sea water, so there's no "stuff" floating around...it's clear and nice!

Well it's supposed to be filtered but in March, the Solarium pool apparently had jelly fish particles in the water that were stinging people. :eek: They drained the pool and cleaned it and it was fine the rest of out cruise. I'm very thankful we didn't use that pool that day!

Hi Mike! Can't wait to see the rest of your review.

In the dining room if one of you loves the menu and another hates it can you order grilled chicken or steak? It was that way 10 years ago (last time we cruised) on carnival Glory...just wondering as my DH is a bit (very) picky!

 

Thanks for the beer pic! He is thrilled at the selection!!

 

 

Jess

Jess, they will have options every night that your husband will enjoy. :) If you go on Royal Caribbean's website, you can view sample menus.

I would love to know if Andre is still a bartender at R Bar. We loved him when we were on Brilliance last year.

We were on the February 10th sailing of Brilliance and although we felt that the majority of the passengers on the ship were older than us, we still had a good time. I do think the entertainment staff on the ship isn't as good as I had hoped it would be and we felt that things could have been better organized. For example, the night that they had the 70's party. They start the party in the centurim at 10:30 and then say that it moves upstairs at 11pm. None of the entertainment staff helps move the party up there and as a result, almost nobody goes up there. Sail away party around the pool was really nothing where cruises in the past, entertainment staff were there getting people dancing and creating excitement.

Any vacation is what you make of it and instead of focusing on all the negatives, we would rather focus on the fact that we have the good fortune of being able to go on such a fantastic vacation and that we got to spend a wonderful 5 days in each others company. :) The way I look at it is that a bad day of vacation is way better than a good day at work! ;)

We were on Monarch last year not long before her retirement and the ship was still in beautiful condition. I have no concerns about being on the same Explorer sailing as you because they are constantly doing maintenance on the ships. I only wish the refurbish was happening before because I suspect they will add more specialty restaurants and we really enjoy those.

Jen, RC keeps postponing it. There is no accurate published date yet.

Well that stinks. We were hoping that it would be done before we sail in February only because we enjoy the specialty restaurants and it looks like more will be added in drydock. :(

When is the Explorer supposed to be refurbished? I've looked all over and saw some sites saying December and others say February. But I can't seem to see any gaps between sailings.

We were just on Brilliance and didn't have to sign at all.