Tljcruiser

We'll be on the 7/2 sailing. Are shorts and t-shirts OK to wear on tours in Havana?

That is about all I saw on our tour as well. We were there in July also. It was too hot to wear anything besides shorts. :D

When we were on the Empress last summer to Cuba it was VERY casual. Shorts, capris causal sun dresses. I really didn't see anyone dressed the entire trip. Cotton dresses or maxi skirts for woman were about as dressy as it got. It was an easy trip to pack for!

Hi cruisers,

We are cruising on May31 for 10 days on Anthem. There were 3 shows I had to make reservations for (The Gift, Spectra & We Will Rock You). Are there any other evening shows that don't need reservations? If so what days/times are they? I am trying to make some My Time dinner reservations but don't want to conflict with any show times.

We are on the same cruise. Google Anthem of seas 9 night cruise compass and the first hit will be the compass from one of last summer's 9 night Bermuda/Caribbean sailings. It won't be exact of course but should give you a general idea of times. It is what I used to plan all our activities.

3 sailings on Brilliance...3 sailings with students. First time while holding a martini in the photo gallery. Second time minutes after boarding just after sitting down at the bar. This time on Duval Street with the big mug from Fat Tuesday's.

 

But I also ran into a student while biking around the top of the wall that circles Xi'an, China, so I'm predisposed.

Kids seem to get around these days! Nothing like wearing a swim suit, holding a drink and bumping into a student!

We are from East Tennessee and I can attest to the fact that the University of Tennessee was well represented also. Represented anyway maybe I should not say well. Loud, slurred renditions of Rocky top were heard more than once. It is always so awesome (NOT) to have students/former students sailing with you! We did a Disney cruise fall break and had 2 current students and 3 former sailing with us :eek:

No forms required in Tampa

Good cruise review. I think you dealt with cabin situation quite well. For me, an argumentative cabin steward is over the line. Her comment about booking a suite would have been too much for me and I would have been making a cabin steward gratuity reduction.

I seriously considered it but she did improve. We are probably too nice, and I really didn't want to stand in line at guest services AGAIN. I think the supervisor gave her an attitude adjustment. I hope she was just having a bad week, if that type of thing continues I don't think she will be working there much longer. I think at first we were just in shock I have seen many out of line passengers making demands and just being ugly to crew members but I have never seen a crew member being rude to guests! After the first day/night we did get ice left daily and 1 towel animal. I had told my daughter after that first night not to be expecting any towel friends this trip. :o

Thank you for your review! Very enjoyable. So sorry about your room attendant. No one should have to argue over wanting a clean room!!!

It was a first for us and hopefully the last!

I am going to attempt to do a review of our recent Brilliance cruise. Please keep in mind that this is my opinion only and others may have had different experiences on the same cruise!!

Traveling party consisted of me (single mom 40 something) my mom (Grammy) and my daughter (awesome 8 year old). We are all seasoned cruisers and to date have never been on a bad vacation!

We began on what we thought was a high note receiving an unexpected call from TA the Friday prior to our Monday departure offering a free upgrade from our family ocean view cabin to a balcony cabin. I declined the offer as we typically travelin balcony cabins but it is usually my parents in a cabin and my daughter and I in a cabin. My dad passed away last summer so this time the 3 of us were staying in the same cabin. With 3 people we wanted the extra space the family ocean view allowed. Apparently RCCL really needed the larger cabin (it sleeps 6) so they offered a sizable credit back on my card in addition to the “upgrade” of the balcony cabin. I should have known at that point that they had oversold and we were infor an interesting trip! This leads to the ugly……..

We were cruising with a LARGE number of college spring breakers. We have cruised over spring break for years and have never had this issue. Typically though we do 7 nights so maybe that is the difference. They were enjoying their trip which was no problem for us however the crowds were overwhelming and the language that you could not help but to hear was the ugly part of my review. We could get no where near the pool due to the crowds and the Windjammer was a mad house. I have read numerous times in reviews that people have had issues finding seating in the Windjammer but other than maybe having to wait in line afew minutes on Oasis or Allure we have never not been able to find a place to sit until this trip. It was difficult to say the least. Again this did not ruin our trip but was challenging. The constant use of f bombs and just loudness of the kids was more disturbing. I am a middle school counselor by profession and I felt like I was at school with 1200 7th graders only they were 21 and drunk. :o

The BAD: Our cabin“upgrade” was more of a downgrade than upgrade. While we did have the balcony which was nice, we had the worst cabin experience that we have had in the 30 years we have been cruising. When we arrived the toilet would not flush and the safe did not work. The toilet was fixed quickly, but we had the same issue multiple times throughout the trip, and no we were not flushing anything that we had not consumed downit! We had to have it worked on a few more times during the week. The safe took a little longer to get fixed and one of us had to remain in the cabin until they arrived as they will not work on the safe without someone being there even though we had nothing in it at this point. This wasn’t a huge deal but we had other things when we first arrived that we would rather being doing other than hanging out in the cabin waiting on repairs. Once it was fixed though it was fixed and we had no other issues with it. The main issue with the cabin was the cleanliness, or lack there of. We have never had a dirty cabin on any cruise on any line. They are typically well maintained and clean. We are not clean freaks and never ask for anything from our steward other than robes. We are pretty low maintenance. We did request that a child size life jacket be left in the cabin. Our attendant told us that the child vests were “much too small for your daughter the adult would be better” my mom informed her that my daughter weighed 53 pounds so she was concerned that the adult jacket would be too large but again she stated the only smaller jackets that were available were for very small children. This seems alarming to me as we later figured out that the adult jackets are for weights above 70 pounds. We never did receive the appropriate jacket for my child’s weight.

The state of our cabin was not in any way up to RCCL standards. I will not bore you with all the details but a few examples: trash on the balcony left by previous cruisers,balcony glass was almost opaque it was so dirty, full length mirror was spotted and dirty, fridge had what appeared to be coke spilt in it, the area around the balcony door smelled like urine, carpet in that same area was stained, both bedside tables had liquid spilled on them that had been left and dried. The phone was actually stuck to the table since the spill had not been cleaned up. There was a sea pass card and a receipt from Playa Mia from the previous occupant in the floor. I have no idea how they got off the ship without the card but it was still in our cabin. We had no C&A amenities nor tour tickets left in the cabin which was probably due to the last minute cabin reassignments o no big deal, but it was days and multiple inquires later before we ever received the waters and C&A letter detailing which coupons were on the cards. My daughter never did receive the youth letter and we never received the top tier event notification. Again these things are not a huge deal however the attitude received by our stateroom attendant was a big deal. We called and politely asked her to clean the room again and pointed out the issues. We did this directly with her so as not to get her in trouble At this point she stated there had been a lot of kids on the ship the week before and they made big messes and she cleaned the best she could. She never offered to re-clean the room. She continued to make excuses and state why she couldn’t clean and actually started getting argumentative and raised her voice. She also told me that I would need to go to guest services to get my tour tickets after having told me earlier in the afternoon that she would get them and leave them in our cabin. I reminded her that I had already been to guest services to ask about the tickets and was told by them and by her that she would get them. She stated that she would not be getting them. At one point during this exchange she stated “if you had wanted a better room you should have booked a suite” We at no time mentioned wanting a better room just a clean one! She also spoke negatively about RoyalCaribbean and mentioned several times that she was over worked and did not have time to do everything. Long story short I walked down to guest services and spoke with a rep at the desk. By the time I got back to the cabin a floor supervisor was there apologizing and inspecting the cabin. She told us she would supervise the cleaning the following day which she apparently did because the cabin was cleaned to our expectations by the time we returned from our Key West Shore excursion. The supervisor also brought my tour tickets to us within 10 minutes that evening. Enough with the bad and ugly on to the good!!

The GOOD: We received excellent service in the dining room from Leo and Olex. We had my time dining but booked the sametime same table for the entire week. We had a table close to the window and were able to see us going under the skyway bridge leaving Tampa.My daughter enjoyed that view!

Overall I thought the food was good. We had lunch the 1st day in the Windjammer. The welcome aboard sheet cake was excellent. I am usually not a sheet cake fan but it was very tasty and looked nice too. The first night dinner had a decent horseradish salmon, my mom had prime rib and said it was good. The chocolate hazelnut cake was good. I was not a fan of the new menus. I miss the cold soups, different salads and the dessert options seemed fewer.

Our second morning included breakfast in the packed Windjammer. They did have an abundant amount of smoked salmon and bagels on the buffet so I was happy about that, butthe bran muffins and chocolate muffins they used to serve were no longer there. We were disappointed with those omissions. We took the Key West Trolley Tour and went to the rum distillery, Hemingway house and lunch at the Kermit Key lime shop. The disembarkation took forever and was very unorganized. The last time we were there we were docked downtown and just walked off. This time we were at the navy yard and by the time we stood in line to get off, stood in line to get on a trolley to get tot own, and stood in a LONG line to get on the trolley to get back on the ship there was not a lot of time left for exploring Key West. It was okay for us as we have been there multiple times but if it had been a first visit I would have been disappointed with the amount of time actually spent in port. For dinner this evening I had French onion soup and lasagna which I enjoyed, but the seafood cake as an appetizer was not at all appetizing. I think they forgot to add the seafood to the cake! It was like eating a pile of fried corn meal kind of like a hush puppy only not as good. The crème brulee has seen better days as well. This evening we saw a juggler which my daughter enjoyed.

Third day started with light breakfast in the Windjammer, it was still a crowded madhouse. We had lunch in the dining room. The tutti salad bar was good, but I like to have fruit in my salad so it would be great if they would ad some fruit options. I also had a sundried tomato wrap which was very good. The peach crumble was terrible. My mom had carrot cake which she said was good. My daughter played some in the kid pool in the back and went down the water slide a gazillion times. Like I mentioned earlier we could not get anywhere near the main pool. The chairhogs were not present at the kid pool and we found no problem getting chairs close to the pool. For dinner I had escargot which was good, duck which was okay but a little greasy and the chocolate cake that is on the menu every night. If you want chocolate skip this and get the brownie from the kids menu. The cake had no taste. The Las Vegas tenors were the night’s performers, they were talented just not really our cup of tea. We finally received our C&A amenities tonight! Yay we have bottles of water.

The next day we were at Cozumel. Breakfast was less crowded and debarkation much better, probably because we were up and out earlier. We spent the day at Paradise Beach club, we have been there before and always enjoy it. The taxi dispatcher tried to talk us out of going there saying it would be the most crowded place. We held firm and enjoyed our day. It was not overly crowded at all. Dinner tonight included a delicious crab cake appetizer I wish I had just ordered a few and made that my dinner! I had the ahi tuna as an entrée which was okay. My mom had the pork and said it was fine. There was a magician for the night’s show Bill Cook. He was great and my daughter loved the show.He was very personable. The top tier event was held this evening. Typical event.

The last sea day included a family comedy show in the afternoon it was fine but we all liked the magician better. My daughter actually said she thought the magician was funnier than the comedian and he is only “half a comedian” The last dinner included a good coconut shrimp, a good tomato goat cheese tart and good turkey. The accompaniments served with the turkey were not at all good. I am not quite sure what they think sweet potatoes are but they are not what was served and referred to as sweet potatoes… at least not in the south! The apple stuffing was not edible. Mom had the lamb and said it was good. My daughter had spaghetti from the kids menu most nights and it was very good spaghetti! The last show was a combo musicians, dancers and singers from the ship. It was very good.

Debarkation was very smooth and we were off and through customs very quickly. Our only hiccup here was the lovely older gentleman who shoved in line in front of me separating me from both my child and the the porter with all our luggage. When I tapped his shoulder and stated “Excuse me I am with them” pointing to my kid and my bags he called me a fing idiot and told me go on. I am not sure if he is always such a peach or if he just had a really bad cruise J All in all was good trip, as I stated earlier have never really had a bad one. I was not at work and it was warm and pretty so what is there to complain about! :')

My guess would be not enough people signed up to make it profitable.

I had a similar experience recently. My walmart online account was hacked and the hacker got access to my saved credit card so I had to cancel that number and get a new one. I later received a refund from Royal. It was a charge that was made on the original card. It did not matter that I had a new card with new numbers the refund went to the account and on my new card. It was a credit card though not a debit card, so that may make a difference.

Yes! :(

I noticed the charge for both my upcoming cruises in May and October. Thankfully my daughter did not want to do it again!

I received a very unexpected call yesterday from my travel agent offering a free upgrade from a family ocean view cabin to a balcony cabin for the 3/12 sailing of Brilliance out of Tampa. I declined the offer just because we wanted the larger cabin as opposed to the balcony. We have had numerous balcony cabins but have never cruised in a family ocean view so we really wanted to try it out. Well evidently Royal really needed the cabin that slept 6 people because the next offer was a balcony cabin and a credit back equalling more than the original cruise fare!!!!!! We are paying less than $400 for our cruise. I assume that was either taxes or port fees possibly. I am super excited! Great surprise!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D

1) Southern

2) Eastern

3) Western

That being said never been on a bad cruise to any of the above places :D

In addition to all the mentioned activities my daughter loves to look at all the small wonders. They will print you a list of all locations at guest services. She also enjoys watching the epic fail and blooper videos that run occasionally on the big screens at the aqua theater....a little strange yes, but she loved sitting on the balcony in the morning while I was getting ready for the day and watching these videos!

Another "YES" vote! My daughter is 8 and has been on Oasis class ships 3 times beginning when she was 5. She does not utilize the kids club but she did enjoy all the other activities...kid centered and non-kid centered. She even liked Cats! That being said she is pretty easy to please and has "loved" every cruise she has been on and every land based trip. I wouldn't pay that much more if everything else were comparable having been on the class multiple times already but I would for the first time. It is an awesome ship. You will have a great time either way though.

I would love to hear the answer to this question as well. The last time we were on Oasis we had this "perk" but no one seemed to know much about it. The sports staff at the Rock wall just told us to look for times in the daily planner and other people we asked said to ask the sports staff. Never saw anything in the planner, I guess we could have missed it.

We just went during any open time but it would have been fun to have a session without waiting in line.

Character breakfast and dreamworks photo safari is still showing up in my cruise planner for Harmony October 2018 Eastern. I hope it is not removed, my daughter will be disappointed if the characters are not sailing with us :(

Take a compact one. If you decide you don't need it you can always stick it under the bed, but I think you will find it quite useful! Enjoy your trip.

Kids menu usually has fruit cup, chicken noodle soup, veggies with dip, as starters. Pizza-cheese or pepperoni, hambuger, chicken nuggets, spaghetti, mac n cheese. entrees are typically served with fries or mixed veggies. Kids can always order anything they want to try from the regular menu as well. Dessert is usually cookies, ice cream or they have a very good brownie sunday that I have seen several adults indulging in :) There are tons of kid friendly items on the buffet. Enjoy your trip!

Desitin or some other diaper rash cream. Even for kids not in diapers can come in handy for rash from sand in swimsuit in sensitive areas :)

Kid approved bug spray or wipes or bands or whatever you favor to prevent bug bites. Cheap blow up floats/beach ball from the dollar store take up very little room in luggage while in package and can always be left if you don't want to bring them home. Enjoy the trip!

You have been lucky! Definitely on the prohibited list and always lots waiting to be picked up at the end of the cruise.

I hope we stay lucky! My diva will be a wrinkled mess if they take it, I am not the best packer. I would have to resort to flat ironing clothes along with hair :o

Travel steamers are not allowed on RC. It will be confiscated and you will have to collect at the end of the cruise. Same thing for irons.

Our travel steamer must go icognito then :) have taken it on every cruise we have been on for the last 8 years. Only been to the naughty room when I messed up and accidently left my travel iron in my suitcase.

My 8 year old diva daughter always brings two ball gowns, the bigger the better! I am sure they are smaller than what you are dealing with but I always just pack them in one side of a large hard side suitcase with nothing else in there. I hang them up in the as soon as we get there and have never really had any problems with wrinkles. I usually take a travel steamer and steam a little if needed.

We typically have the compass in cabin just like the adult one. If the cabin steward doesn't leave it automatically just ask, ours have always been delivered the night before as an insert with the normal one. On the first compass that is handed out prior to boarding the adventure ocean open hours and registration times will be listed. Go anytime during open house and sign her up. She should be given an Adventure Ocean lanyard. My child usually hangs with us instead of AO but always likes to go get the lanyard and likes to participate in the family activities that AO offers. Hope she enjoys her first cruise, mine is now addicted!