The Fun Researcher

15 minutes ago, bilyclub said:

 Nightclub didn’t open until 11pm or later each night.

 

Royal used to have the Dungeon, a two story dance club/disco on the Freedom and Voyager Class. They got rid of it, replacing it with a specialty restaurant and cabins. They now have moved the dancing into the Viking Crown Lounge and start it late at night.

Surprised there was no parties up by the pool or solarium.

 The dungeon is right. Never liked that Gothic scene. I love the Viking Crown so much better at night for the DJ, dancing, etc

 Better yet, I would have loved to see them turn that gothic two story area into a proper modern night club.  The venue was great. The theming was horrible

Dan

15 minutes ago, Glide_Path said:

There is going to be a JR express on the Explorer Of the Sea, but it doesn't look like it's going to be free either. 

Not a free venue.  However I did like the ala carte version on the Navigator way better than paying a fixed price.  I'm not a huge eater in general and loved that I could just buy the burger I was eyeing up instead of paying, IMO, a fixed price that is overpriced.

1 hour ago, vacationlover_mn said:

On Carnival, our first cruise, when we were young and dumb, we didn’t tip much.  I know, it’s bad, and we always tip well now. But back then we didn’t know any better and were broke and thrifty.  Anyways, our room steward actually put sand in our bed the last night, after getting his tip envelope!  Yes, this really did happen 😞. Where did he get the sand?  Well, I had filled a bottle with it to take home, and I assume he used that, since it was 1/4 empty that night.

This is incredibly wrong behavior, but something inside me thinks it's hilarious.  What a story to tell!

Dan

36 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Some ships have a couple more free food options, like Park Cafe, Sorrentos, El Loco Fresh.

Not arguing, but OP had Sorrentos on her ship and El Loco fresh is great but is on very limited ships right now (but expanding).   Park Care is needed on more ships.

It does appear that Royal is trying to address the issue to some extent of the complimentary food offering.  El Loco is one.  On the Navigator this past march I was SUPER happy to have a bar food menu to order off of late at night in Playmakers.   Wings, burgers, etc...  The wings were great.   Even though it was an upcharge it was SOOOOOOOOOO much better than relying on pizza or finger sandwiches.  Every.  Single.  Night.

Dan

1 hour ago, amandaepperson21 said:

Better: 

 

1. They didn’t care if we brought back on large quantities soda or juice from port - like two full size bottles of juice or a 2L of Pepsi. 

 

2. Actual lifeguards at all pools. I’ve never seen this on a ship before. 

 

3. Kids life vests available at the pools. Major plus!! We didn’t bring our kids this time, but we always have to bring their life vests. 

 

4. The layout of the ship is soooo awesome. Everything is together and easy to find. Plenty of elevators. It didn’t feel like a huge ship. 

 

5. VERY food allergy friendly!! I was not cross contaminated once! Someone at my table couldn’t have gluten. They presented her with the next days menu each night so that it could be cooked separately. They also gave her GF bread each night. And there’s a GF buffet section. Never seen this before. Excellent. I’m cross contaminated with my allergen almost every time I dine out, but was not on the ship. 

 

6. Embarkation with The Key was crazy fast. We brought our bags to lunch in the MDR and our room was ready when we were done. 

 

7. Self disembark was a snap. 

 

8. No mystery smells, even on deck 1. Almost every ship I’ve been on has an area with a weird smell lol. 

 

Not as good: 

 

1. The food. We ate in the dining room all but one night. The food was okay. Desserts were VERY meh. Completely agree with you on this one.  I was shocked at how bad they are on my first Royal cruise.   Creme brûlée top layer was liquid, not that normal hard shell. This is NOT normal.  I don't normally get dessert, but once in a while get the creme brulee and it's always been done right.  No soggy top.  I only took 1-2 bites of dessert every night because it was just meh. Sometimes even gross. Entrees were meh to okay. Escargot was fantastic though. Dining room breakfast was limited and meh.  Buffet has more options, but they were again meh. Only 2-3 foods on the whole cruise made me say, “Wow this is so good!” I ordered steak twice and it was over cooked both times. Not normal

 

2. Restaurant service was slow. We were often the last ones out of the place. Long waits for drink refills. Long waits between courses. Not normal.  We've never had unusually slow service, or even what I would consider slow service .  I would have asked for a new table assignment after a couple of occurrences..   During our Chops key lunch, the service was just plain ridiculous. We had our appetizer before the appropriate server even came by to take our drink order. On that note, our Chops meal was of quality I’d expect in the main dining room - just okay. I’m a steak connoisseur and was not impressed. It was also over-cooked.   

 

3. WiFi in our cabin was a joke. We own a business and check in daily. I’d much rather do this from my room than a public space. Unlimited WiFi was the biggest reason we purchased the key. 

 

3. Cabin steward bombed. Sand in our sheets most nights due to her not changing them. No offense, but why did you have sand in your sheets?  I don't believe it is common practice in the cruise industry to change sheets daily.  I kept stacking our dirty room glasses so they’d be swapped out - she just rinsed them in the sink and put them back. I know because they still had lipstick on them. Minimal tidying.   Not normal, but seriously unfortunate.  Having cruised enough now to know the level of service to expect, I would have either talked with her directly about it or gone to guest services after about day 2.

 

4. Cabin was not great. You could see the dips in the mattresses when the bed was made. Never had this.  I believe it though.  The ship is due for a major refurb in a few months so some things may be at their end of intended use.  It was so hard my hips and shoulders hurt in the morning (side sleeper). No bath robe. Refrigerator didn’t work. Shower head was possessed. The bath towels were good though. 

 

5. Towel exchange stinks. Agreed.  This is normal.  It's even worse when they throw a $25  (I believe) each towel charge to your account the morning of disembarkation.  This happened last cruise even though we KNEW we returned all of our towels.  Had to go to guest services that morning.   Cabin stewards swapped them out on every other cruise I’ve been on. Ours just folded the soggy things and stacked them in the floor. The towels themselves were pretty sad and desperately need to be replaced. All of them. 

 

6. Lots of nickel and diming.  This is unfortunately rather normal for RCCL.  Room service is usually free + tip on cruises, but not on this one.  The bar mixed drinks were expensive compared to other ships. $9-10 including gratuity for the daily drink special, which is usually cheaper. This is normal, and those prices actually look low.  I'm used to more like $10-12, which IMO is ludicrous.  However, Royal does let you bring two bottles of wine onboard per stateroon at the beginning of the cruise so that helps a little.  Also the daily drinks didn’t come in cute souvenir cups or anything. I don’t mind paying extra (hello I purchased The Key) but the extras on this ship were priced higher than most. 

 

7. Limited hours for ice skating and flow rider. Never experienced this.  There have always been many hours every day that the flow rider is open.  The ice skating rink is used more for the skating show than for open skate.  However we've never had a problem finding times to open skate.  Long lines when it was open. The Key only had one designated hour each for these on our one sea day. 

 

8. NO LAUNDRY. WHAAAAT!? Normal.  I would guess, but I could be wrong, that cruise lines offering self service laundry is in the minority.  This ship departs from San Juan PR, which means most people arrive the day before the cruise, aren’t hauling massive amounts of luggage (which I am guilty of when we drive to FL for cruises) and might be staying a day or more after the cruise. Lots of laundry. Why on God’s green earth are there not at least a few guest laundry facilities on the ship??? Oh but of course you can pay $$$ to have your laundry done lol. We did this trip with one carry on and one personal item because I had planned to do laundry on the ship. After numerous cruises, I’ve never been on a ship that doesn’t have a laundry facility for passengers. 

 

9. Limited food options without paying extra. COMPLETELY agree with this.  It's normal and one of my major beefs with Royal.  I'm sick of only having pizza and finger sandwiches for food once the buffet closes. IMO there’s no reason Johnny rockets shouldn’t be included in the cruise fare. I mean, burgers are on the buffet. Maybe charge for shakes. Other ships we’ve sailed offer more than MDR, pizza/cafe and buffet. That’s all that’s included on Freedom. Others have at least 1-2 options that were premium on this ship. MSC Divina has an American style sports bar with full menu and a burger/brat/dawg place beside the pool. At the Divina pizza place by the pool, they’d cook whatever pizza you wanted on the spot - you didn’t have to pick from whatever 3 were in the warmer. All these are included in cruise fare. 

 

There were a lot of other things where I’ve had better experiences elsewhere. Like medical, they didn’t call to check on me after my visit (unrelated to the ship) the way Princess did when my daughter broke her arm (and they called once or twice daily!). Slow drink service at the pools. We were booted from the pool for having a drink but two other people holding the exact same cup weren’t. Nightclub didn’t open until 11pm or later each night. Smoking section beside main pool (should be by adult pool at best). The ship is going to dry dock soon and it is definitely needed. No nightly chocolates on the pillows (smh even Carnival does this). Little touches. 

 

This post is not to dog RCI because we did very much enjoy our cruise!! I’m just wondering if this is the norm for this line. Thus far, MSC has been our favorite (and they are expanding their Caribbean itineraries). If our experience with RCI is par for the course, IMO it’s not worth the premium rate. 

I inserted my comments above.  What other lines  have you cruised on to compare ?  

Many of the things should have been no surprise is a little research had been done.  The dining room service and room steward have no excuse.  No excuse for that, and sad that's how it was for you.  It is not the norm.

Dan

13 hours ago, ckrobyn said:

Hopefully the refurb is on schedule......

We are on very fixed schedules during the school year.  In our case if they cancelled the cruise I would have a land based vacation booked as a backup... so no need to change flights.  For us, that would probably mean a land based resort somewhere in the Florida area with no cancellation fee (if cancelled within few days per se).  If the cruise is a go, cancel the resort.  If the cruise is cancelled, well we'd suck it up and make the most of touring/enjoying Florida.  No way I'm going to sit it out up in frozen Michigan when I could be someplace warm with my family enjoying the week.

Dan

3 minutes ago, msstatemom said:

Nado44, do you remember how much notice there was between getting the letter and the actual cruise?

11 Days

10 hours ago, ckrobyn said:

Hi Bob! Thanks for the info - I wasn't expecting cabins to be updated but was hoping for it 😊

Hopefully the refurb is on schedule......

I personally would be wary, and be prepared.   The Navigator had to cancel it's first (and maybe second?) cruise after it's AMPED drydock due to running over schedule.  I'm not sure how the other AMPED schedules have gone.

Dan

12 hours ago, micmacmissy said:

 

I think you and I have discussed this before...having lived in NYC, we pretty much avoid all cruise ship "entertainment".  😉  (We avoid the pizza, too!)

I completely understand the pizza comment.  It's the same reason I hardly ever order BBQ ribs anywhere.  They hardly ever live up to what I can do myself.  It's a passion of mine, and has been one of my favorite meals since childhood.

8 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

And don't forget Labadee  you avoid Labadee....  😉

 

 

We're booked on Adventure. 

 

We've been doing old a small ships lately after years of big ones.  My wife adores the small ships,  I like big.  We think Adventure is going to be the happy medium. 

Love, Love, Love the 8 and 9 night ABC itineraries, but I think skipping Labadee is a negative.  (Love chilling at Columbus Cove).  The ABC itineraries out of Florida are at the VERY TIPPY TOP of our desired cruises.  (Especially if they are on a Freedom or Voyager Class ship).  Our 9 night ABC cruise this past March on the newly AMPED Navigator will be hard to ever top.  It was just simply amazing.   I'm super bummer that our spring break schedule this upcoming March doesn't line up with a week that the Adventure is doing an 8 night ABC.  We're "stuck" doing the Liberty out of Galveston to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  Still a decent combo and we we really like the Liberty when we sailed her early 2018.

Dan

I think they call them a Kummelweck.  Yummy indeed.

Dan

My trip report details what we did in the ABC's.  We wanted to see the most of Bonaire and Curacao and I think we accomplished that.  There was a little beach time both days, but a LOT of other cool stuff that we did that was not beach related.  In Aruba we did Jolly Pirates snorkling with lunch included.  A fun time but not nearly as good of snorkeling as the other two islands.  We're dreaming of getting back to the ABC islands.

Dan

Great review, and sounds like you really made the most of your time.

You just sailed on what may be our favorite ship in the fleet.  (Royal, please give us an AMPED ship out of North America for longer itineraries!)  Love what Royal is doing to AMP their ships.

Dan

28 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

I have a basic question...  we’ve only started using the Solarium our past maybe 5 cruises...  do all RCI ships have one?  I never used to pay attention to if they had one or not...

Most, if not all do.  They vary a lot by ship though.  Freedom and Voyager class are in a forward portion of the main pool deck and are uncovered.  They have their own pool and hot tubs.  Other ships have glass covered solariums towards the very front of the ship for instance.

11 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

shows to be amp in 2020

 

http://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/content/uploads/2018-2019-Fleet_Guide.pdf

 

24 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Has the Freedom dry dock been scheduled?  If so, do you know the date?

January 13-March 7th is it's break in the schedule for the AMPED drydock.

Dan

17 hours ago, kcsavage said:

 We used Ricardo Riley with libertytoursjamaica.com and they were fantastic.   We went to the Blue Hole.   We had our parents and kids along too and everyone had a great time.  One of the best excursions we've ever been on.   Have fun!

Thanks again for the reply.  Can you describe this tour for me? (Blue Hole, specifically with Ricardo)  Did you do anything on the way to the Blue Hole, or after?  I think I read that there is a small hike through woods/jungle to get there?  I'm trying to understand what you all get to do on the Blue Hole tour.  I always love excursions that give us a good appreciation for the islands we visit.  We've done Dunn's River Fall's and Green grotto cave in previous visits so don't need to repeat those.

I'm trying to decide between the Blue Hole or rafting the Martha Brae.  I'm also open to doing both depending on timing and cost.

Thanks.

Dan

 It’s funny you mention this because I just sent a request in to them asking for prices and availability on our date.   I found their name on another thread but I do appreciate the additional  recommendation!  Thanks 

Dan

On 9/22/2019 at 9:57 AM, Host Clarea said:

 

Outside promenade deck with chairs to have a quiet place to enjoy being outside with a view of the water.

 

Viking Crown area open to all guests.

 

Windjammer that is less crowded.

 

Schooner Bar that is a central part of the ship, not a seeming afterthought.

 

Helicopter pad open to all guests.

 

Fitness Center with expansive views (for now).

On 9/22/2019 at 10:03 AM, Host Clarea said:

Forgot to add:

 

Solarium with a real pool.

 

Solarium that is not uncomfortably hot.

On 9/22/2019 at 9:51 AM, VaTech8912 said:

- Have more quiet public areas to  relax in chairs and view the ocean on various decks (promenade deck for example). 

- WJ seems to have better variety and quality of food  (maybe due to ability to server fewer people at once).  Seems less crowded and relaxing.

You both pretty much summed is all up right there.  It's great to see the love for the Freedom and virtually identical (IMO) Voyager class.  I bolded the things most important to us.  

As another poster mentioned, the expanded offering of ports on the Freedom and Voyager classes make a huge difference as well.  LOVED our ABC cruise this past March.

Dan

24 minutes ago, DivaMI said:

We just got off of the Navigator of the Seas in July and it was terribly crowded. There wee no pool chairs available. The line for El Loco Fresh was at least 25 people deep.. My time dining was ridiculous. The wait was at least 30 minutes. I Have been on the Allure also and it never felt crowded.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Funny how people can have such opposite experiences on the same ship.  We were on the Navigator for spring break this year on a 9 night cruise and the line for El Loco fresh was never more than a handful of people, and the vast majority of the time no line at all.  Just grab and go.  We never waited like that for my time dining either, other than maybe 4 groups ahead of us in line to get their table assignment.  Typical wait of about 2 minutes.  However, we had reservations each night.  We didn't just walk up.  The line for walk ups is long on every ship we've ever been on.

LOVE the amped Navigator.

Dan

19 hours ago, soremekun said:

Perhaps because I'm a novice, but I don't see the importance of needing to feel connected to the sea.  There are plenty of places to see the ocean on an Oasis class.  Pool deck, jogging track, your ocean view balcony, etc.  Then, at a port, there are beach options.

I can't disagree that you can see the ocean from those locations.  Some ships have more options that just make you have a better feel of sailing the ocean.   The experience of being out in the middle of the ocean is something that is so unique to cruising versus other vacation options, so we want to maximize that aspect.  Some value it more than others.  We're one of those that value that feeling highly, and love it when a ship has more ways to feel "connected".  I agree that the ship is the destination as well, but there are characteristics and venues that we look for in a cruise ship.  No right or wrong answer, just personal preferences.

Dan

15 minutes ago, Wanderista said:

 

The ocean is like its own destination. I tried explaining this to some friends who just aren't familiar with cruises and got told, "If you say so."

Yeah something you have to experience to understand. For us it’s the ship cutting through the seas while looking over the railing of deck 4 on freedom and voyager classes.  Plus the helipad, especially at night, looking  at the stars while a stiff (warm) Caribbean breeze blows in your face... your ears buffeting the wind.  ...or on the pool deck looking out the open sliding windows...

Dan

2 hours ago, Wanderista said:

I'd be interested in trying a bigger ship experience. My "cruising buddies" all prefer smaller ships. In my new experience, I like them because I like feeling "connected to the sea".

 I did not mention it earlier but the lack of sea views and the lack of feeling connected to the sea was the other significant difference from other ships we have sailed on. That, and the crowds and just the amount of walking to get from point A to point B on the ship.

 You can still have a great cruise on oasis class though.   It’s just not our “cup of tea“.     I’m actually considering a cruise on oasis class in early 2021  but only because we have one week open all of the other options stink.

Dan

19 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

The second pic was a bit of a joke. The first pic, however, is clearly just regular pool use.

 Looks like a typical sea day.

Dan

16 hours ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

Although, as the cruise went on, we did notice the Bristo was getting a tad bit more crowded by the day. 

We noticed this as well.  LOVED the Bistro and knew about it before the start of the cruise due to our researching the ship.  

Dan

3 hours ago, BNBR said:

 

I think this deserves context.  The only reason there is a line out the door is because they manage the crowd and queue people up nicely. 

 

I suspect that the Oasis class Windjammer was forced to do this because when they tried to let the crowds manage themselves (like with RCI's other classes of ships) it resulted in a mad house, or over capacity on Oasis class.  Other classes of ships aren't forced to do this, but there is no arguing that it can get very busy (and frustrating) looking for a table for a group of 5 to 7 that we typically have.

One thing I don't remember about the Oasis class Windjammer...  when you are finally let in, do they find you a table?  If not, how did they gauge when to let you (or others) in?  Is it a capacity issue?

Dan

1 hour ago, BNBR said:

 

You are right though, I have to admit, it's shockingly uncrowded on Freedom....

 

 

 

Play fair now. 🙂  ANY ship is packed around the pool during a belly flop contest, or any pool contest for that matter.  

Dan

 I had forgotten about the lines out the door of the Windjammer until the previous poster mentioned it. I also experienced that. The only time we’ve ever had lines out the door of the buffet On any ship was the oasis. 

 Having said that the oasis class is a beast unto itself. I would not let crowds keep you from trying it at least once. 

Dan