peteukmcr

The trick to not becoming a mark is be aware of your surroundings. Don't look like a tourist. Watch how the locals carrry their purses and assume everyone (even well dress businessmen and ladies with babys) are pickpockets. Don't let anyone invade your space. We spend 3 days in Barcelona and 3 in Madrid and had NO trouble at all. But of course we were very careful about our belongings and paid Attention to our surroundings. From what I understand this is something that goes on just about everywhere in the world and most people from the US just aren't aware of their surroundings. As the ecomony tanks this kind of stuff increases. We were told in Hawaii not to even bother locking our car because theives would break the windows to get anything left in the car and then you would have to pay for the repair. Use common sense when traveling leave your fancy diamonds and watches at home. When you go out only take small amounts of money that you might need. Don't walk around with a map in your hands. If you need to look at a map take it out in a store and look at it.

I understand everything you say, I was just reporting why it is probably so prevalent due to the lack of deterrent.

We've travelled to Barcelona many times without incident, but it is by being vigilant as you describe.

I have been extra vigilant ever since having my backpack cut and ripped off my shoulders as I exited a taxi outside my hotel on arrival from Madrid airport many years ago.

My bank card was used within 20 minutes but not in an ATM, but in a store where the police suspect no goods were purchased, but cash given instead by the shopkeeper in league with the robbers.

I appreciate that it happens in many cities around the world, but the incidence is so high here that I would not want any unsuspecting visitors arriving to board one of the many cruise ships that dock in Bacelona to fall victim to this crime.

As the old proverb states, "Forewarned is forearmed"

We were watching a very informative TV program about the British Consulate services in Barcelona the other evening and found out an interesting fact about the penalties handed down to pick pockets and street thieves in Barcelona that may explain why street crime against tourists is so prevalent.

If they take goods from you worth less than €400 [£350, approx $550] and get caught, prosecuted and found guilty, then they only get a small fine – and then only if the victim turns up to give evidence, which is why they target tourists. Many tourists will not be able to turn up to court and give evidence. Many offenders don't even get caught.

The police don't have a database that enables them to tell if the thief has been arrested before.

In Barcelona you get fined more for double-parking or wandering around with your shirt off than for stealing three purses in one day.

About 150 bag-snatchers operate on Barcelona's metro, trains and buses, committing 90 robberies a day, according to police. The thieves form well-organised gangs that often co-ordinate the shifts they work.

The formal night shoes are fabulous!

 

Quick question: the quiet St. Tropez deck looked great- our family is kinda quiet and the kids love to read. I know kids aren't allowed in the solarium, are they allowed on the St. Tropez deck?

 

Also, is there music on the pool deck at all times?

 

Thanks again for this great ongoing review!

I can confirm that kids are allowed on the St Tropez deck, it's one of our favourite places too. Never remember hearing music up there unlike the main pool deck.

Loving your review and photos. Can't wait until we get back onboard Liberty for the 3rd time in 12 months!

Thanks for sharing

What are rum runners?

Sorry to as but I have never heard of them, I am from the UK.

Are they an American thing? say like a flask?:confused:

And for those who use them, please do not try and justify your actions on using them, it does not wash with me, the cost and convenience of getting a drink onboard a RCI ship is so easy, it's called room service, or heaven forbid, go to the nearest bar (which is never far away) and purchase an alcoholic beverage, and the value for money for the cost of a drink onboard against land based costs cannot be justified either. And don't use the excuse RCI don't sell my preferred beverage. You've cruised before to know how to use rum runners, so you also know that the cruise line don't sell your preferred beverage, so choose another vacation where they do sell it, don't stiff the cruise line.

Sorry, but this is a topic that annoys me so much because it means that staff are also missing out on their 15% gratuity that I happily pay, but to some because I am Brit, some people think I must object to because tipping is not in our culture. Not true.

So come on, flame away.

Think they put it on Oasis now too.... from the RCL page:

 

"Starbucks

Allure of the Seas® is home to the world's first Starbucks at sea, a Royal Caribbean exclusive. Whether it's a decadent Caramel Macchiato, a refreshing Frappuccino® Blended Beverage, or a tempting pastry, guests can enjoy all their favorite Starbucks treats right onboard. Also available on Oasis of the Seas®. A la carte pricing."

I doubt it, but thought I would check?

 

Maybe they can't check my balance, but can I get credit for my drinks?

 

And anyone knw if the prices are standard as per land based?

So with MTD you do not get the same waiters each night? I have always enjoyed how they get to know you during the week. Last cruise, the waiter would have strawberries waiting on my daughter. It was just all part of the dining experience that we enjoyed. I am trying to decide which way to go.

Did MTD once - never again.

 

Far too long to wait for a table - 30-40 minutes was normal.

 

Would not recommend it.

Charged/Pre Pay - you say tomato I say tomatoe.

It boils down to you cannot do MTD without RCCL imposing you to pre-pay your gratuities which is fine. My only question or concern is how much am I pre-paying? What will my account by charged when I look at my bill?

 

To clarify to someone not familiar with this. You are not "charged" to use MTD, Royal Caribbean just asks that you pre-pay gratuities which you pay upfront in advance.

If these amounts are paid on final payment, and before you sail, no further amounts will be added to your Seapass account whilst you are on your cruise.

During your cruise if you elect to prepay the gratuities, then these amounts will be added to your Seapass account.

Does that help?

I've been told this twice, now, so I must believe it is true... but I'm still just kind of incredulous about this policy.

 

As it has been explained to me, if you choose to do My time dining (for 2 kids to eat fast and leave early), your tips are prepaid... ($45 pp). But the charge applies to your entire dining party.

 

So, since we are going with my in-laws (3 of them), and we have 5 in our party (2 adults, one baby, and the 2 "my time" kids), ALL EIGHT of us would be paying $45 per person?? Can someone explain the rationale behind this? For a 4 night cruise, I understand that the recommended tipping for dining staff would be $3.75 pp for waiter, 2.25 for assistant, and .75 for head waiter. For a 4 night cruise that is about $30 pp. So, for 8 people, it is about $120 more to do "my time".

 

I could understand charging per kid. Or even for the 5 of us in my family. But really, for all 8 of us?

 

I must be missing something here. Can anyone set me straight?

Stateroom attendant / housekeeping $5 per day per guest

Dining Room waiter $3.75 per day per guest

Assistant waiter $2.15 per day per guest

Head waiter $0.75 per day per guest

So for accommodation in a cabin category of JS or less, this is $11.65 per guest per day. For a 4 day cruise this works out to $46.60 per guest.

If you are in a cabin category of GS or above, the guideline for stateroom attendant increases by $2.25 per guest per day making it $13.90.

Hope that helps clarify the charges being suggested.

Thanks - thought it was per person, or is it just halved for that?

On our invoice the balcony discount is shown per person so for the 2 of us in a balcony cabin it is half the stateroom total discount amounts in GBP kindly detailed by Host Elizanessie above (many thanks BTW)

Good morning, John & I had a wonderful time on this cruise and we really had some fun times. Peter, John & I remember that evening as we were walking up the Promenade and our ship listed a little, we hope you didn't think we were going to crash into you.:D

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone we truely hope to sail with all of you again and soon.

 

Gay

Once again, many thanks Gay for all your work for this cruise. Much appreciated.

Anyway, all updates on the photos have been done, and there's a new link in my signature to the slideshow, so I think it's the right time to sign off this thread as we now have future sailings to look foward to. I can hear the huge sigh of relief from you all of not having to put up with my ramblings anymore!:D

As mentioned many times, to whose of you we had the pleasure to meet, many thanks for your warm welcomes and the opportunity to chat during the 14 days on board.

To all those who organised events and kept the details up to date, thanks, so much appreciated.

Good Bye and Bon Voyage for your future cruises.

Peter you did a wonderful job with the pictures! i felt like I was back on vacation...

A shame we never did get the chance to meet you maybe next time:)

PeteR, great pictures. Thank you for sharing.

You are most welcome, hope they brought back some memories.

BARB anytime you are near us here in Phoenix let us know....

 

JOYCE you are so lucky to be near so many of our cruising friends.... I wish we were.....we really miss everyone. What a great cruise it was...we couldn't walk far without bumping into someone to chat with....and did enjoy our dinners with some of you.

 

PETER watched last weeks X FACTOR what a shocker about Frankie didn't like him anyway and Amelia is 10 times better. Just downloaded tonights one and we are getting confused with who is on which as we watch the American one too.....

 

I must be almost back to normal as I found time to go to Macy's today and did some more damage to my check book....don't you just love that store....:D

 

Hope everyone is not suffering too much from PCD... it helps to have something else booked which I am sure most of you do have....next up for us is back to Europe with my Son and his new wife....a belated honeymoon....we go on all our families honeymoons.... my daughters, my sister, my cousin from England. my niece and now my son....what a life LOL....

Got our hotel booked for our next Liberty sailing in May, so we're all set now that I got Lufthansa sorted after they made a mess of our scheduled flights.

We have been home a week now. Laundry is almost done. Have worked the entire week - yuk - and could already use another cruise. Have to wait until April - yuk too. It was very nice meeting all of you. Sherry & Ivor, could not believe how many times we ran into you on the ship. If we had planned to meet, it would have never happened.

 

Have not even looked at a picture we took. Maybe tomorrow. Just bought an Adobe Photo Shop program at Costco. First we have to download it and then we can load the pictures on to the computer.

 

Take care and look forward to seeing all of you sometime in the future.

 

Darlene

Peter great photos, enjoyed looking through them.

 

Gay

I've managed to get the photos down from around 600+ to 400. Enjoy, and click the 'slideshow' link for the best view.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4560602...7628019370073/

Hi everyone. Well trying to get back in the groove. will be heading to Tampa on Thursday to meet up with friends getting off the Jewel that we met cruising before.

 

Still coming down off the high from being on a cruise. Not a great feeling.

 

Therapy today went well. They were pleased to see I had great improvement with my arm. I told them it was because everyone asked how it was and I always moved it to show it was getting better and all that movement helped loosen it up. Thanks to everyone.

 

Joyce

Hi all, made it home late Saturday nite, agree the departure off the ship was the worst we have experienced. Oh well, a fly in the ointment compared to all of the great fun we had during this adventure and all of the great people we met - George, Peter and Patrick, Sherry and Ivor, Joyce and Jerry, Sandy and Ben, Gay and John, Mike and Bill, Matthew, Karen and David - sure I'm missing someone. Didn't get to chat extensively with some of you, but hopefully our cruising paths will cross once again in the not too distant future.

 

Lots of laundry and yardwork yesterday, back to the work grind today. Julie ended up with that nasty cold being shared so freely onboard. Wasn't bad on Saturday, worse yesterday, went to work today but went home at noon. Nasty cough is the worst part. Praying I avoid it. Hope all who got it are feeling better.

 

Will check back in if there are any future posts, but as this thread fades away, J and I would like to wish you all calm seas and fair winds in all of your future cruises and wherever else life leads you.

It was a pleasure meeting you too after all this time on the roll call. All the best for the future.

Well finally made it home after a late BA flight departure from Miami last night, bumpy crossing the Atlantic, holding over Heathrow so missed our conection to Manchester. Waited for 4 hours for the next flight and made it home by 2 pm UK time today.

Yesterday disembarkation was not too good as we were doing express departure and taking our own bags off. Was estimated at 7:45, finally got off at around 8:30. Jumped a cab to the car rental at FLL and off to Sawgrass where bargains were to be found and purchased!

I would like to say that it was a pleasure meeting so many of you on board and it really made the cruise IMHO. We have never had the opportunity to meet and chat with so many people during a sailing before.

Thanks for everything and we hope that we will bump into some of you again on future sailings.

I am awake early too. 6.20 am and once my brain thought 'This time tomorrow......' then I couldn't get back to sleep.

 

Hope all the travels go well and that there is not too much rain in Barca today for those sightseeing.

 

PACKING TODAY, at last!

Corinne

Have a good safe and pleasant journey tomorrow.

Bon voyage Peter. I'll keep the electricity bill down by turning out the lights. ;)

You can usually be onboard by about 11.30, assuming there were no delays to the previous cruise disembarkation. You won't though be allowed into your cabin till 1.00 pm, so will need to keep your hand baggage with you.

 

Corinne

Going to leave you to turn out the lights Corinne, although no doubt I'll be checking in tomorrow. Have a good journey over to Barca.

finally feel like we're on holliday.

 

At the airport hotel in edinburgh having dinner, the first of many, that we don't have to cook.

 

All going well, we should be in barca at lunchtime tomorrow.

 

Mhairi

Have a good flight

Well, early to bed, early to rise here (5:00 am) all packed. Barca here we come!

Mwah to all of you (that was a kiss).

 

Lights out here. Hope I can get wifi in airport. If not see you Saturday for tons of hugs.

 

Joyce