BixBebe

We’ve done both and Sandals is very high quality - Beautiful rooms, great restaurants and top notch service. I think the biggest difference you will find is the lack of activities and evening entertainment. It’s a quieter, relaxing vacation but if you like the daily and nightly live entertainment of a cruise ship, you will miss it.

We in our port city, Halifax, will miss seeing all the ships and passengers this summer. Definitely a hit to our waterfront vitality and economy. 

Disney does chocolates, plus a lot of other little unexpected treats that make the cruise extra special, but they are so much more expensive than Royal. 

I agree with all of the above and would add that Freedom class has aft facing cabins with spacious balconies that you can afford to book without having to be a multimillionaire. 😊

Just over a year ago with did 7 night return from Seattle on Explorer. We had an aft balcony. Every morning I sat on it with my coffee and marvelled at the unparalleled beauty. I had a light weight down travel blanket for the chilly mornings. We saw whales most mornings and the sunrises and sunsets on the mountains were spectacular. One thing I will never forget is the evening before our 20th anniversary, my husband and older son had been out exploring the ship and I had gone to bed early. They came flying into the cabin around midnight, whipped open the curtain and yelled ‘look at this!’....(see pics attached)

I’ve never been so happy to have a balcony. We stood wrapped up in my blanket for over an hour as the sky danced in shades of pink, red and green.

 For me, the balcony was one of the best parts of the cruise. If you’re generally out and about and don’t like to spend much time in your room it might not be so valuable, but if there are reports of northern lights expected, make sure you have a view of the night sky from somewhere on the ship. Many people that were ‘inside’ the ship, either their rooms or entertainment venues, missed the display. The next night was cloudy.

1 hour ago, Sunny AZ Girl said:

It looks wonderful! A big difference from photos just a few days ago.  I am sure you all still have a lot of clean up to do.  How are things overall?  Is there much damage to the waterfront buildings?

Not so much damage to the waterfront buildings. Some of the boardwalks needed repair and I’m not sure if they put the floating bridge back yet. A lot of tree damage within the city. We just got our power back yesterday and there’s still about 45k or 50k customers out. Lots of green leaves down and the trees are looking pretty bedraggled. Might not be as ‘showy’ later this fall unfortunately. They’re still trying to figure out how to safely remove the crane that collapsed. Everything else is pretty back to normal. 🙂

Adventure and Grandeur are in port in Halifax today. Nice to see things returning to normal on our waterfront. Makes me want to hop on board and sail away though! This time last year we were on Explorer in Alaska. I need to book another cruise I think!

16 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I am just to your south in Downeast Maine on the coast. We had our hurricane party last night with fresh steamed lobster and plenty of wine! 🍷 

Rain has been steady to heavy since 3 am, just now getting the gusts of wind.  It's coming to you...batten down and stay safe! 

Thanks! The wind is picking up and there are some power outages already. Still looking like a direct hit on Halifax this afternoon/evening. There are voluntary evacuations for coastal communities. Our hatches are battened and we’re hunkering today. Haligonians still have our sense of humour though! 

Dorian just roared back to a Cat 2 as it approaches Halifax. 😩 I might have to dip into my storm chips (and rum) early! I hear all cruise ships have diverted from planned stops here Saturday and Sunday. Probably very wise. This one just won’t quit. 

We’re preparing in NS now. Long lines for propane, liquor and most storm chips are sold out!

We did the Blue Lagoon excursion and swam with stingrays. It was inexpensive and very fun. I don’t think I’d do the stingrays again but it seemed cheaper than just the beach day excursion for some reason.

If you use the mobile app to check in, you can take a picture with your phone and use it. Just be careful and realize that this is the photo they will use as your ‘on board’ photo. I didn’t know this and thought they’d take a new one at the port. Nope. Every time they scanned my card, there was the picture of me in my pj’s, fuzzy robe and messy hair. 😂

We had a deck 7 corner aft on Explorer last fall for an Alaskan cruise. We loved it! Every morning we sat out there (under a down blanket) and watched the sun rise on the mountains and the whales wake up as we sailed though the inside passage. You sort of a get a view of where you’ve been, as opposed to where you’re going but I love it. One thing to note is that the corner afts have great views of the wake and one of the sides, but if the ‘main attraction’ is on the opposite side, you either have to wait for the ship to turn or you might not get a great view. When we sailed into the fjord to see the glacier, the ship did a  few 360 turns so we had excellent views. 

3 minutes ago, GimmeAdventure! said:

 

Interesting, I always have a mental picture of the beds facing toward the door.  Did you have balcony cabins?

Yes, we had two ocean facing balconies on deck 8.  My sister’s cabin had the sofa by the door and beds by the balcony. We had the balcony dividers opened as well, which gave us lots of space.

This photo might be too big to upload but we had connecting cabins on Symphony. The connecting door swung into our room. It was well in advance of the bed (we had our beds separated). It didn’t stay open all the time though. It would be in the way of the cabin exit door if you tried to prop it open I think. We really enjoyed our connecting rooms. Both rooms also had sizeable sofas. 

I have sailed both DCL and RC with a shellfish allergy. On DIsney, our server was great but I never felt she really knew what was safe and what wasn’t. She wouldn’t let me order something if it looked like it ‘might’ have shellfish (tuna tartare for instance). On Symphony in April, our waiter gave me the menu for the next night each evening and took my order in advance to make sure it was safe. They even made me a special salad one night, which I felt was ‘above and beyond’. Over 5000 guests on board and my meal came out safe and ‘special’ each night, it was a great experience. I have dined in the specialty dining in RC as well and they are careful about allergies there as well, as long as you alert them. I have a friend who has a child with severe allergies and she said sailing with RC was their best experience for food safety. Hope this helps!

11 hours ago, chillyw said:

That sounds amazing! Hoping they have a cracked Rossini on Symphony

I didn’t see them on Symphony in April but you could ask a bartender and they might be able to make it for you. As an alternative, they make an excellent ‘Margartini’ at Boleros (a cross between a margarita and a martini) that I quite enjoyed! 

On Freedom several years ago, we discovered the Cracked Rossini in the champagne bar. It was one ounce of Patron Anejo, maple syrup, a strawberry, cracked black pepper, topped up with sparkling wine. It’s one of my favourite cocktails ever (but it sneaks up on you!). We make them at home and remember that sailing fondly. Tequila can be more than shots and margaritas! 

This weekend we sipped Patron Anejo with a local made dark chocolate chilli truffle. It was a lovely way to end a meal. I have seen Patron on board and it is included in the drink package. It does not taste like lighter fluid! 🙂

This happened to my sister but not as severe. She said she felt her mat riding up the side of the slide and it felt like she was going to flip over. Her elbow rubbed the side as she was trying to right herself. Minor burn but still caused her discomfort. Long sleeves would be best as a caution.

We sailed Explorer for our Alaska cruise in September 2018. We thought she was lovely. No issues. We’ve also sailed Freedom, Oasis and Symphony (and Disney Dream). She doesn’t have water slides but our cabins (aft balcony and promenade view) were clean, serviceable and comfortable. Dining was great at MDR, Windjammer, Chops and Giovanni’s. The bars and theatre were comfortable. We enjoyed the pools and solarium. We had no complaints. If you get a price and itinerary that suits you, I’d say go for it!

We went in September of last year. The weather was beautiful and the northern lights were stunning!

Pizza in Symphony was excellent last week. I’m almost embarrassed at how much of it we ate! I found the vegetarian particularly good. It does tend to slide off the little plates though, so you have to be a bit careful when carrying it to a table.

I should also note that we are experienced cruisers. This was our fifth cruise (four with Royal, one with Disney). All have ups and downs but still better than a week at work!

I was on the same cruise and I think the issues with boarding causes a lot of frustration to be carried over into the cruise for a lot of people. While we had a fantastic time, the ship was pretty glitchy. With such high expectations and previous positive reviews, this was surprising and unexpected. 

We generally experience a ‘great, but....’ week.

We had no issues with our room attendant. We had adjoining cabins on deck 8 and the service was great but...we were supposed to get three coke cups in our room and only had two on arrival. When I tried to get the additional one, I had to go to numerous bars (didn’t know I was supposed to do it as soon as we boarded) and was eventually accused of losing it (evening of day 1) and was told I would have to pay! When I balked, she talked to her manager and ‘graciously’ gave me one, with an eye roll. 

We went to the windjammer often, enjoyed it very much, always got a table and good service, but.....if you weren’t there before 9 am there was a long line to enter and tables for bigger parties were scarce. We were often offered drinks and knew we had to pay (we had the drink package, so no biggy) but....I agree that if you were new to cruising, it was not clear that these were extra charge until you accepted one.

We ate evening meals only at the MDR and had a lovely table, great waiters and great service. We had early dining so I did find the evening snack options were limited. (We ate a lot of pizza, I mean A LOT!! It was very good) It would be awesome if El Loco Fresh re-opened later for snacks. The pool deck had nothing f&b related open in the evening but...that was the best time to go soak in a hot tub or for a quick dip. It would have been nice to have a little snack and have a bar open. 

The wifi worked well the beginning of the week, but...as the cruise went on, it became slow and I often had to renew my lease to reconnect. Social media and news sites wouldn’t load. The ship experienced a total network outage one afternoon and everything that relied on network shut down (which, on this ship, is most things). Point of sale, laser tag, robot bar, kids casino (aka arcade), photos, next cruise, guest services all were affected. The wifi seemed exceptionally slow for the rest of the week after that issue. The robot bar was a hoot, when it worked or there was an attendant there to have it open. Only one robot was in service and it was affected a lot by the flaky wifi, which caused the attendant to have to reboot the iPads often. (I loved it though!). 

On day 7 some decks truly were without water. It came back on quickly but....it happened as a show was letting out (massive rush to washrooms), we did not hear an announcement, we did not see staff outside warning anyone and there were no notices posted. It was an inconvenience and it upset my party as they were worried that we may have indeed ‘run out’ and would be without water for the rest of the cruise. I guess if you’ve experienced this before it’s not big deal, but I agree it was alarming for a short while, and was another glitch in glitchy week.

Most staff were wonderful but...a couple were downright nasty to me and my teens. I had to have it out with a cafe promenade guy one afternoon, and I am NOT that kind of person! It upset me a lot. The attitude of one of the rising tide bartenders was enough to make me avoid the thing.

As for ports, we loved every stop but....all affordable excursions seemed short activity wise but with ‘time in port area for shopping’. We’re not big shoppers, I’d rather spend my time doing the excursion. Also, when we booked we were supposed to have a long day in Nassau, which was rescheduled to a very short day. I know a lot of people have been to Nassau ‘so many times, they don’t even bother to get off, blah blah’, but...we wanted to get off and visit the Bahamas. We went to Blue Lagoon island, which was beautiful and fun, but....it felt like we just got there and had to turn around and leave. 

Like many other passengers, we booked this cruise almost two years ago based on the hype, had huge expectations and paid a lot of money (for us). It was disappointing to have so many small issues that seem to add up over the week. While I would say we had a better experience than OP, they have valid points and I appreciated hearing their perspective. Through the week we eventually adopted the mindset that we can’t expect perfection and just roll with it. 

We really had a great week and feel like we got our monies worth and would definitely go again. We’re already dreaming about Harmony or the mysterious ‘oasis ultra’ we heard about.  Just a good lesson to manage our expectations in the future!