golfer1966

I also read someplace the chickens eat allot of the bugs, so thats why they dont really do anything about them

Had a discussion with the National Park Service ticket concession company after trying to purchase tickets on-line for the Memorial. Seems like the geniuses at NPS changed how far in advance you can purchase tickets...it's now 24 hours. I have written my Congressman about this...if you are as "disappointed" as me about this change, please write yours.

We went there in December..... walked in, got tix for about an hour later... no problem. Maybe it was an off day, but had no issues as walk ons per se

I also had tears in my eyes at the end of the movie too. When we took the tour of the Missouri, it was easy to see how so many never made it out alive from the Arizona. With no power or lights and all those narrow hallways and misc turns and rooms all over...they didnt have a chance. Its very somber.

I went to Germany a few years ago and took a tour of Dachau Concentration Camp and it was the same there.... very quiet, somber and sad people everywhere. Its good to see these things first hand to ensure things like Pearl Harbour and the Holocaust never happen again.

Walk around the Waikiki area....

You can't go wrong with either ship. I'd choose Freedom because I like Coco Cay. I'd choose Oasis for the ship.

I totally agree with this statement !!

I've been Loyal to CCL but, I've been considering trying RCCL. After researching Oasis of the Seas pricing I have a questions for Seasoned Cruisers.

 

1. Does RCCL honor price drops and reward OBC? (example: If my reserved category drops in price will it be honored with OBC or upgrades?)

 

2. Where would I find the list of surcharges for specialty dining ( ice cream, deserts, burgers, or etc)?

Once you try the Oasis....you will be hooked on it....trust me.

Has anyone done the combined Dolphin Encounter & Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman Excursion offered by RC?

We will be in Grand Cayman on my daughter's 13th bday and thought this would be a wonderful surprise for her.

Thanks in advance for your reviews.

To beat the crowded boat, you may want to consider using Captain Marvin. We used them twice and loved them. Smaller quaint boats that arent over flowing with people.

We were on Maui in December and I saw plenty of spouts and a few jumps from my Hotel balcony on Kaanapali Beach. The locals told us Dec thru March was great whale watching there, but the best was Jan and Feb. We did a trip to Molokini and we could see whales breaching along the way there. It was amazing to see them.... I am sooo looking forward to going back.

I too vote for land based vacation. DW and I love cruising, however we also do land based vaca's and we just did one in Hawaii in Dec. It was amazing. We did three islands ( oahu, big island and maui ) we use hawaiian air for inter island travel. We are planning our next trip back. I highly recommend a land vacation there. Plus you know how you feel when your on a cruise and at an island and having a great time and you look at your watch and say.... darn, its 4;30...gotta head back to the ship... you dont have to do that here when your doing something you really love.

SAILAWAY – TRADITION....Tradition...dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah....TRADITION

 

Immediately after Muster Drill I am reminded (not that I needed it) that my one and only constant carp about RCI has always been the elevators. Whoever designs these for Royal should be hunted down and beaten with long sticks. Fortunately, at this point we never got close enough to even see them passing us by so there was zero frustration. Yet another PSA to newbies (I’m in a rare helpful mood today). We always book a cabin on either 8 deck or 9 deck hard by the aft elevators. This means that all the important stuff : the MDR, casino, pool deck, casino, pool bar, Solarium Bar and my “at sea office” the Schooner Bar (Oh yeah, did I mention the Casino for my wife?) are all within a three deck walk, or at least a short stagger depending on my at sea office time. Besides, walking up and down the ladders (or stairs for those who insist) is a decent fractionated (medicalese for “do it many times”) cardio workout and one of the few things left aboard that Royal doesn’t charge extra for.

 

Back to the cabin and meet our cabin steward, Henry, a genuinely nice man but one who is clearly rushed. Wifey and I are relatively simple cruise clients. Clean sheets, a bucket of ice and the occasional towel animal are plenty for us. On this trip we got the towel animals. The ice bucket I requested either was unavailable or one of the magicians had turned them all invisible cause I never did see one. We did get very nice robes to use but I found them really not all that useful for mixing in my drinks. All in all I would have preferred the ice.

 

With everyone safely ensconced in quarters, we all headed up to my favorite (read as “least crowded) sailaway spot, the Viking Crown Lounge. I love that place at all times and, to me, the spaceship replica is one thing that truly separates Royal from the other lines I’ve sailed. I always find myself hoping that the bug from Men in Black doesn’t see it and decide to go home. Anyway, my entire party (except my granddaughter) enjoyed our traditional drinks of many colors and the new crew members went out to the sports deck to see if we actually did clear the Verrazano Bridge. WHEW, we made it again.

 

Smooth sailing out of the Harbor and, once again, I marvel at the skill of the bridge officers and crew at maneuvering 100,000 tons or so of metal with no brakes through the sea going version of the Cross Bronx Expressway. Really well done guys and I’m almost glad that you missed that moron in the 25' powerboat who likes to play chicken in a game he cannot win. Someday he’ll undoubtedly change the name of his boat to “Smudge”.

 

THE GULF STREAM STRIKES

 

If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know I get motion sick on a merry go round yet I still insist on cruising to Bermuda. There is a psychiatric term for this in the DSM IV -- STUPID.

 

Anyway, this guarantees that we will spend the first sea day crossing the Gulf Stream, which, in turn, insures a beam sea which, in turn, insures that I will be mixing my proprietary drug cocktail (worthy of Hunter Thompson) of meclizine, scopolamine and, most importantly, Jack Daniels, prn.

 

In this case we had three of us dealing with this mal of de Mer (son and DiL were kind enough to join me) and, since they don’t like Jack Daniels, they were missing THE key ingredient of my cure. On the bright side, ashore they are both way smarter than I am, so it was kind of nice to have a surprise waiting for them. Hehehe. I also got to instruct them on the nautical terms Leeward (the side to throw up on), and Windward (the side not to).

 

Despite the occasional greater or lesser bouts of the technicolor spit, nobody missed a dinner. Since everyone is always so concerned about food, let me get it all out of the way at once. REQUIRED DISCLAIMER - Food is subjective and the opinions expressed herein do not represent those of management (in this case - my wife).

 

MDR – Food in the MDR was as expected, somewhat hit and miss and usually of banquet quality. Feeding 10,000 or so meals a day will do that and we do not expect a 5 star dining experi-ahhhnce on a cruise ship. All in all we could always find something we liked (in many cases several things to the detriment of my waistline) and there really is no reason to complain. In addition, our wait staff was really pleasant but seemed much more rushed than on other cruises. Minor things like soft drink refills and second bread requests were slower than we were used to but this was clearly due to staffing levels NOT staffing effort.

 

In addition, my granddaughter was the star of the MDR among the wait staff. By day three, if we got there first, we were invariable asked “Where’s the baby”. The staff was so solicitous of her that it got embarrasing at times and when she started blowing goodbye kisses to them every night, the charm assault was complete. Honestly, I think that these people are away from home for such a long time that anytime they see a child who isn’t screaming and who actually says a somewhat garbled “dank U” to them, they just melt. One waiter from three stations over visited us every night. He has a 16 month old at home who he won’t see until November so I think the granddaughter may have briefly eased that for him (or made it worse). I hope it was the former.

 

Back to food, the Windjammer was what it always is. Decent selection, mostly warm to almost hot food and repetitious as a political speech. On a 5 - 7 day cruise this is not a real problem but anything longer would start to approximate a prison food riot.

 

For breakfast, my wife and I always use room service and enjoy the time on our baclony. This trip the food was always delivered toward the end of our chosen time (ie: 9:00 to 9:30 meant 9:29 & 30 seconds) and this, in turn, guaranteed we’d never worry about burning our mouths on anything. Again, looking at the delivery cart, it appears that staff cuts mean a serious lot of deliveries by one employee at one time and my guess is we were on the far end of the line. Reason to mutiny - no but an annoying mosquito bite nonetheless.

 

Midrats were the sandwiches and pizza on 5 deck. I love the little finger things and the pizza has risen from the normal cardboard to somewhat tasty cardboard. This is the one place where NCL just blows RCI away. Still, Promenade Café is more than adequate and by keeping midrats small there is that much less for the really serious boozers to hurl.

 

The Real Model and Star of the MDR staff (Fortunately she got her looks from mom -see the lady on the left in pic # 1):

Ahhh here she is....she is a cutie.

If they are just starting now, it cant be "all that" of a terminal as November is only 5 months away. You'd think that they would need more time for a 55 million dollar expansion. Then again, maybe 25 million of that is for OT for the workers.... :rolleyes:

We went to a local bar.... had a decent meal, had a few cocktails.... slept like a baby on the flight.. ;)

I want to do a Hawaii trip. Although we usually sail Celebrity they do not do a 15 day to Hawaii. Have any past Celebrity cruisers, gone on another lines Hawaii cruise with the 10 or so sea days? Any tips would be great. Thanks

Id recommend going there are staying if you can. Its so amazing. We did a three island vacation. yes, its a bit more money cuz of the inter island flights, but it was sooo worth it

We went to the old lahaina luau on Maui...AMAZING !!

Have done Hilo and Kauai hands down Kauai you will see scenery that you have and never will see plus waterfalls.

Hilo unless lava is flowing all you see is hard black boring lava.

Hilo is also a lot of ups and down and fast turns, both of us felt queeszy from it.

The waterfalls and the valleys section of the Big Island is amazing too....

Every time we sailed on Explorer, we have one of these balconies. People complain about the walk to the Aft or about the structure out the back. We dont think its that big of deal...

Is there a weight limit? and why? I read 240 pounds and was just wondering.

 

Has anybody tried the snorkeling on like a Segway? Is there any of that in the Caribbean? Is this power snorkeling?

DW and I tried SNUBA in St Thomas. There wasnt really a weight limit per se, but the weight they put on you to keep you down is kind heavy when walking from the beach to the water. I was 300 lbs and had no problem. My biggest fear was that the the regulator would malfunction and I would not get any air, so I kept close to the surface at first. Once I got over that fear, I was fine and enjoyed it very much. We were in like 15 - 20 ft of water. The place we did it there want much to see, so I want to try it again at another place. I dont remember where in St Thomas we went, but I know it was a beach..... they should have taken us to where there was a reef and more fish. If you like snorkeling, you will like Snuba I think.

Agree with the Maui recommendation ... either Old Lahaina Luau or Feast at Lele ... they are the best!

AND IT WAS AWESOME !!!!!!:p

My husband and I are starting to plan a cruise either to Hawaii or fly there and do a couple of the islands for our 40th anniversary next year. We would appreciate any comments to help us choose which is best and best time of year to go to Hawaii. Having done several cruises we know we love to cruise but just not sure if we would get bored for that many days at sea on the cruise over and back. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks! EECO500

My wife and I love cruising !!! However, we flew there in Dec and did a three island stint over 12 days !!! OMG.... I didnt want to come home, and that is why we decided to go and stay vs cruise it. We knew we would want to stay longer than the ship allowed. Yes its more money... but SOOOO worth it. We did the Big Island and did a helicopter tour and then Oahu and did all the tourist stops there too and then off to Maui. All I can say is WOW... we are already planning a trip back, but still have a few cruises in before that, but I highly recommend going and staying !! AWESOME

Standing here waiting for muster on Indy. 15 minutes past assigned time and we can't start the drill due to people missing. Holding up whole ship!!!

 

 

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They were busy putting their towels on their chairs at the pool... ;)

All kidding aside, that makes me mad too

If you like all the bells and whistles and the promenade area....etc then your better of on the Adventurer, but if you like a smaller ship with more brass and glass shall we say ( but still awesome ship ) then do the Jewel or Serenade...whichever ship is there.

We did a tour around the whole island and we used Sunset Watersports. Prices were good, the machines were good too.

Planning another cruise and strongly considering either the Oasis or Allure. However, since both ships have broken records for passenger capacity, is it chaotic?? Is it difficult to walk around freely without bumping someones arm or shoulder?? Are there any specific places that are crowded??

I too felt that the ship was going to be very chaotic with so many people. A friend of mine went and talk about it and how awesome it was so we booked. I AM SOOO GLAD WE DID. The only time I felt over crowded was after the Muster Drill. There are so many other things to do on the ship that the people are so spread out that we really didnt feel crowded at all. I think you will be pleasantly surprised to be honest.

Back and forth and into the specialty restaurants. If its raining as you go to one of the restaurants, including the Park Cafe is my memory is correct is a box so you don't have to carry the umbrella into the restaurants.

Yuppers...:D

They had a few to go back and forth in Central Park area...