Pratique

Call Air2Sea and see what they have to offer.

With a party of 5 and luggage you will need a van or shuttle bus to travel together. Even an Uber SUV will not be large enough. There are private companies such as Super Shuttle that have vans that can be booked.

Another cost-effective option is to book the transfer aboard the ship at Guest Services. Worst case you will have to hire two taxis.

25 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Shutting down a recreational water feature due to a fecal or vomit incident must be recorded by the ship's staff, and all remediation methods taken recorded.  If this record does not match with reports the CDC has received from the public, then there will be a violation noted.  And, if an inspector sees that the pools have been shut down for fecal/vomit incidents several days in a row, this will trigger them to ask about the policies regarding potty training, and whether they are being enforced.

 

The cruise lines rely on the ignorance of the cruising public.  In many cases, just mentioning that you know about the VSP, and what it covers, is enough to get shipboard staff to respond.

Good to know. From the accounts given it sounds like they are compliant but it keeps happening because of the parents letting the kids in the pool in the first place.

15 minutes ago, Nolefan95 said:

Then they shouldn't be cruising. Cruising is expensive these days on RCCL.

Margaritaville at sea!!!

Can I just say that I love the title of this thread.

I have spent some time thinking about an Icon class cruise and come to the conclusion that this Royal has crossed the line for me with this one.

They keep sending me marketing emails for Icon "starting at" over $1,800 (I assume for a broom closet) and I keep thinking to myself "they can keep it for someone else." 3X+ the price for a shiny new ship with closed pools. Yeah, no.

1 hour ago, robmtx said:

Was on Radiance in Nov. My Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 (11 in) fit in the safe as long as I slid it in at an angle. We have a locking suitcase so I put my laptop in there and lock it up for the week under the bed. No one is going to bother it, but I'd prefer no one deciding to be nosey 🙂

That's good to know. Did you have a case on the tablet, or was it just the tablet.

It seems in some closets the safe door cannot swing wide without hitting something, which somewhat limits the size of the opening to the safe, so that might also be a factor.

13 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

USPH is the US Public Health Service that administers the VSP (Vessel Sanitation Program) for the CDC.  All cruise ships that call at US ports are subject to health inspections by USPH every time they enter the US from a foreign port, and these inspections include health interviews with selected groups of passengers and crew, before allowing anyone to disembark the ship.  Imagine the chaos and delay if this were carried out on every cruise ship every week.  So, in order to bypass this, cruise lines and the CDC devised the VSP which is a comprehensive plan covering all aspects of public health on ships, from pools to food safety, to laundry, kid's centers, and lighting and ventilation, and not only covers the operation of the ships, but how they are built in the first place.  The VSP is the basis for those USPH inspections that you see on cruise ships (those guys and gals in khaki uniforms), and they try to inspect every cruise ship calling in the US twice a year, unannounced.  These inspections give the "grades" that one can look for on the CDC website, and a failing score (under 75 out of 100), can cost the ship its ability to embark passengers in the US.  So, involving the USPH/CDC is a big deal for the cruise lines.

Is there a self-reporting requirement by the cruise line? If they are shutting down the pools for sanitation. Versus a noro outbreak. Or are the guests filing VSP reports the only backstop in this situation? It never occurred to me that I could or should file such a report.

3 minutes ago, DennysDad said:

The lifeguards are ONLY "hyper focused" on looking for poop in the water. Every time I'm in a pool i spend it watching that a toddler in a life vest with no adult present doesn't get pushed under water. No kid is going down around me. Yes, it is 100% Not my job. But the parents of toddlers are no place to be found and lifeguards are clearly instructed to just look down for poop. I've seen it with my own eyes for days. Absolutely ridiculous. 

It is ridiculous. Lifeguards always on duty are a relatively new thing after a child drowned a few years ago on a RCCL ship. Their mission is to preserve life not to keep the pool clean.

1 hour ago, MandyMooToo said:

Adults acting like they have sense and going leaving the bodies of water to use the restroom, parents not placing their children in situations where they have "accidents" (because let's be honest, it is not the fault of the children), and the staff trying their best to stay on top of it all.  

 

This is not Icon specific behavior by any means.

You are spot on. A few years ago we lived in a condo and at one association meeting the board was telling a mother that she could not let her children play in the street unsupervised (or really, at all) because not only was it a safety issue but also a liability issue for the condo association. The mother responded by yelling at everyone in the room to essentially butt out of her parenting decisions.

Several times a year I go to watch the races at places like Saratoga and Del Mar and although I have no particular issue with children being there, wagering on horses is an adult activity. Yet parents let their kids run wild and bristle at any suggestion that they should reign in their children at the racetrack (it's not a playground, although many of them have designated play areas for children). So it seems like it is pretty much everywhere and often in places where it doesn't need to happen.

That being said we still encounter children and parents who are respectful and courteous so I won't paint everyone with a broad brush. Nevertheless, it feels to me like entitlement and disrespect for others has run rampant. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky but I was never allowed to misbehave in public as a child so that's my perspective.

1 hour ago, Bocker3 said:

Of course it should be the Lifeguard enforcing the rules!  They are the staff member who is present all the time.  What good is having an officer come by every so often to look - the damage would likely already be done.

1st line of defense:  The parent!  Who should know the rule and not break it.

2nd line of defense:  The Lifeguard (who IS a Staff Member with Authority)

The lifeguards should not be distracted by locating the parents who walk away and then talking to them. They also can't just blow their whistle at very young children and expect them to understand. The guards need to be hyper-focused on everyone in the water.

2 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

There shouldn’t be swim diapers, there are zero pools on any cruise ship designed for non potty trained kids, DCL and some RCCL ships have specially designed small splash pads for diapered-kids, that’s it. As a mom of 5, swim diapers contain no urine, and about 75% of poop.

I concur, although the urine issue is unfortunately not limited to children and will not close a pool down. RCCL allows swim diapers in the pools on Coco Cay. The rules need to be enforced and not by the lifeguards but instead by an officer or a crew member with authority. Otherwise this behavior will just continue.

Agreed it is bad parenting. The lifeguards are not baby monitors, they are responsible for everyone's safety.

I constantly see young children throwing fits, collapsing to the deck to get their parents' attention, and most of the parents ignore it so the behavior continues. In the bars, in the specialty restaurants, in the Promenade, pretty much everywhere on the ship.

Not using swim diapers is beyond unacceptable. Allowing the same child to do this two days in a row is concerning.

Celebrity has some too. Reflection is doing this route I believe through the summer and fall.

A 10-inch tablet will likely fit, but probably nothing larger.

56 minutes ago, chickychubs said:

I agree that the drop in ingredient quality is a significant factor. From my observation, the kummelweck used to be made with the ribeye cut which has now changed to cheap round cuts. The bread used to be more varied and high quality to now having the same dinner rolls with just different toppings sprinkled over. Desserts changing from using dark chocolate to cheap cocoa (if it is even cocoa) to something that tastes artificial. The escargot which now uses a blend of oil and butter instead of pure butter.

 

Some say that taste is subjective but that refers to flavour profiles of the food prepared not the cause of declining food quality caused by cheaper ingredients.

Although preferences are subjective, yes definitely there are also objective measures such as you mentioned with the ingredients.

I am going through a similar thing with Panera Bread since their menu overhaul in April as a cost-cutting measure to prepare the company for a public offering. Ingredients are now gone or changed and the bread is delivered to the stores frozen instead of being freshly baked. The difference to me, as I mentioned elsewhere, is that the cruise line is good at recalibrating our expectations while Panera has been clumsy with their changes (and I can easily avoid Panera).

Some people may still reach a tipping point where Royal is no longer of interest to them, but I reluctantly accept that as time passes we tend to lose the "nicer things" we previously enjoyed, and it is better to adapt than to scrounge around for other experiences that will inevitably be disappointing in some way or another. We still very much enjoy cruising and Royal's ships despite the disappointments with the food. For us, a cruise is still a better experience than a Hawaii vacation where the chair hogs by the pool are out before dawn, the restaurants are jammed and extremely expensive, and the traffic is horrific.

Royal president Jason Liberty was recently interviewed by CNBC and he made it clear that they want to eliminate the "discount" they have historically offered over land-based vacations. In other words, to bring prices on par. My takeaway from that comment is that Royal will continue to raise prices while also reducing costs as a way of closing that "discount" gap. And they will do it in a way that effectively sets new customer expectations so that we are at worst reduced to grumbling about so-called first-world problems. They will wow people with new the Icon class ships and make the food issues seem minor by comparison. I suppose, anyway.

One more observation from our Freedom cruise: these short cruises out of South Florida tend to attract families and large groups (wedding parties). The waitstaff bent over backwards to take care of me and my wife while the waiter was overloaded with large parties at other tables and even took pains to sit us away from some loud children in both Chops and Giovannis, profusely apologizing for things they have little to no control over. So I think the issue with the food (and it is an issue for us too) is primarily the decline in the quality of ingredients more so than preparation or service. But it may not be fair to generalize about it. Royal is definitely cutting corners though, in the restaurants and lounges and with the amenities too. It is not the same product that it used to be.

9 hours ago, mjldvlks said:

To be honest, that has not been my experience lately. Yes we’ve gotten the speech from the wait staff about the fear of losing their jobs if they get less than a 10 on any aspect of the meal, even things over which they have no control. But, if anything, I have seen diminished attentiveness and care. For example, a few years ago I was repeatedly asked by the waiter why I didn’t eat something and as we left I was literally chased down by the head waiter trying to get me to try something else. As I recall it had nothing to do with quality, it was because I was too full or some other innocuous reason. In contrast, the last cruise we were on (Anthem in January), my steak was so tough and gristly I couldn’t cut it with the provided steak knife so I didn’t eat any of it. Not one member of the staff so much as asked why or if I would like something different. Now I want to stress that overall I liked our wait staff very much — and the increase in the number of tables each waiter is serving makes it hard to spend much time with each guest, so I am not blaming the individual waiter or assistant waiter. But I have experienced a noticeable decline in overall attentiveness. Top to bottom, Royal is simply not offering the same product that hooked me on cruising about 20 years ago.

 

This might be ship-specific. I've been on sailings where it seemed like the overall mood of the staff was dour and inattentive. But we just got off of Freedom and the crew were fantastic. My wife doesn't always finish her dinner portions because she gets full (or wants to save room for desert) and the waitstaff were in a panic that something was wrong with the food, every time. We were apologizing to them about it. So my conclusion is that it might have something to do with shipboard morale. Just a guess though.

“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.”

― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

I always tell them to use the voucher or not use it. I discovered on CocoCay that although it is possible to use the vouchers there is paperwork involved and not all of the bartenders know how to do it so don't assume that they will use a voucher automatically.

The only thing we look at on the ship TV is the live map. Nothing else seems worthwhile to us.

I know Wi-Fi isn't an option for everyone but it works well for streaming.

Also, we download shows onto an iPad at home as a backup option both during the cruise and traveling to/from port.

The other night I slept under the stars on the balcony and it was the best TV show ever to fall asleep to. If I had that every night I would never need a TV. In fact, there are lots of creature comforts I enjoy at home that I don't miss at all while on a cruise, TV is the big one.

YMMV but in my experience the crew will bend over backward to accommodate us as best they can because they live in fear of any review that is not a perfect "10." The other day someone in the WJ made my wife a grilled cheese sandwich to order. It wasn't a great sandwich but they made the effort and I have to credit them for that, the crew get a 10 and the sandwich gets a 5 or 6. I just think they are hamstrung by the limitations of what they can offer and the offerings have declined over the years. What happened to the chocolate dipped strawberries? Anyone seen those lately? Such a simple thing they can do so it's absence is conspicuous.

One thing the cruise line is good at is forcing us to recalibrate our expectations.

2 hours ago, retired dude said:

according to the chef that i talked to on our most recent rccl cruise the grade of the strip steaks that they serve would be be select of even worse..He compared it to the cheap mexican beef that winn dixie now sells...the best chef in the world cannot make beef of that quality taste good....blame the food quality on the food and beverage managers at corp for buying sub-standard products for the ships...It is all about the mighty dollar.

The quality of the ingredients seems to be the problem, not the preparation. On Freedom now, food has been very good but not excellent about par for my experience. Chops strip was a bit fatty but the meal overall was enjoyable. WJ has been good too. We will be on Symphony later this month so we’ll get another data point soon.

Both Royal and Carnival are reporting very strong customer demand levels. Additionally, building out private destinations captures more spending. As long as this continues, they can increase profitability by cutting corners on complementary soft products such as food and housekeeping. IMHO the smaller cruise lines will need to compete on quality because it is very expensive for them to build new ships and private beaches.

Glad to hear you are good to go. They probably just called this guy in. 😄

Although the OP is more than 30 days out, I'll just note that if you book less than 30 days out it usually takes up to a day for the cruise documents/luggage tags to become available via email and the website.