alevyinroc

3 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

No way to predict which way the ship will dock.

Yep. We've been to Nassau 3 times. The first 2, our cabin was on the port side and the ship docked such that we were facing the ocean. For our most recent cruise, we switched sides and had the same view as the previous visits.

15 hours ago, spookwife said:

as long as your fan is NOT plugged in( battery operated or USB powered) you can bring it on board.  

I watched someone carry on a 20" plug-in fan on Symphony.

12 hours ago, marcg125 said:

Based on that date your ship will be the only one at Coco Cay.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/coco-cay-port-392?tab=schedule&month=2019-08#schedule

Don't bet on it. Royal Caribbean changed multiple ships' itineraries for May 25/26 with less than two weeks notice to put two ships there on the 25th and put one there on the 26th that never had it on that sailing's itinerary.

It'll probably depend on the image. I didn't have a choice on this one, the final product has the border and "stamps"

I just downloaded our digital photo and it's 2400x3000 and 300 dpi.

However, that includes the border that was slapped on the photo (it was taken at Coco Cay) so the actual photo is considerably smaller. Cropping out the border brings it down to 1759x2343 (I did it really quickly) and part of the border overlaps the photo itself, which makes the cropping look weirder.

You won't get 12x16 out of it, sorry to say.

14 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Are there beaches without music?🤔

We prefer a quiet calm experience.....!👍

I thought it was pretty quiet on the South beach on Coco Cay. The further you get from the ship, I think the quieter it gets. You might encounter people who decide to bring their own music (bluetooth speakers connected to their phones), we heard that both on the island and the pool deck on board.

9 minutes ago, libertybelle41 said:

On Symphony a couple of weeks ago they said nothing about long sleeves.

Same last weekend.

They did make me remove my eyeglasses though.

On 5/30/2019 at 7:58 AM, Redsky5292 said:

 Western Caribbean cruise has been changed.  They dropped Cozumel and added Nassau and CocoCay

On what planet are Nassau & Coco Cay in the "western" Caribbean?

Edit: Guess I should have scrolled a bit

17 hours ago, voyager70 said:

RCCL doesn't control my mind.  I do.

Perfectly capable of making my own decisions.

There's a lot of psychology used in developing their marketing materials and promotions to entice you to purchase various packages and upgrades. They may not be "controlling" your mind but they're exerting _some_ influence over your decisions.

5 hours ago, kerryincork said:

What was the cost of the water park?

I think $80 per person for the sailing @iamchrisstone was on (as was I).

On 5/28/2019 at 9:41 AM, Sunkissed Mommy said:

I was dreading Perfect Day because I was really upset about them ruining the island with overdevelopment.  However we left loving it.

I too was lukewarm on Coco Cay, having been there last year while it was under construction and not finding a lot to do with our kids there. For just the two of us, it worked out well. We found a couple lounge chairs on the south beach and hung out there for a couple hours. Didn't get any food on the island, just a few drinks. We were back on the ship for lunch and stayed there.

I do feel that it's a bit overdeveloped, to the point of the whole thing feeling "manufactured" (if done well, it can be developed without _feeling_ like a manufactured, curated experience). It started right off the ship with the obviously-just-planted trees and the amusement park style signage/entrance. The south beach had much more of a "this is just a beach on an island" feel to it.

No one was checking Sea Passes when we boarded in Miami yesterday. Had early boarding with The Key but no one checked to verify that we had it when we walked through with the high-status cruisers who were called at the same time. 

Just now, lsfla said:

It seems Symphony passengers are the only ones benefitting here as you now get to go to Coco Cay when your original cruise had an itinerary with a day at sea.

TBH, I was looking forward to the day at sea. We visited Coco Cay last year and while I know it's had a lot of work completed since, there's just not much that interests us there for the prices they're charging. We'll probably hop off the ship, walk around for an hour or so, then head back.

1 hour ago, lsfla said:

What on earth was Royal Caribbean thinking?!?

Late last week, they added Coco Cay to the itinerary of the May 25th sailing of Symphony out of Miami (3 nights; we were supposed to be in Nassau on the 26th and at sea on the 27th, now it's Coco Cay on the 26th and Nassau on the 27th). They moved Mariner to the 25th so that they could get Symphony to the island on the 26th.

With the changes being so close to the sailings, I suspect it's an experiment in scheduling & pricing for the various amenities on the island.

7 hours ago, SAmome said:

The 3 night Symphony sailing was pretty expensive, rates increased relatively quickly toward what one might hope to spend on a 7 night.  They might want to see if the relative affluence of this particular sailing means they don't need to discount.

I wonder if some of this is due to the large group (over 1500 people last I heard) booked on this sailing. We booked in advance , aboard our last cruise (about 14 months before this one) and thought the price wasn't too bad.

On her last cruise, the MDR staff brought my daughter (8 years old) pasta w/ bolognese sauce from Jamie Oliver's every night for the second half of our cruise after we went to the specialty restaurant and she got hooked on it.

OTOH, the MDR's GF french toast the first morning was made with GF rye bread and...it just didn't cut it.

2 hours ago, Kritikhack said:

Also, they do have a Rowing machine (I think it is just one though). Someone was on it when I was working out this morning. 😀

Was it in decent condition? I was on Anthem last year and the machine was barely usable as it seemed to have taken a lot of abuse.

31 minutes ago, FLgal0214 said:

It takes less then a few minutes to get to your cabin

A) Sometimes you don't have much time. Or you don't know how much time you can spare.

B) Don't assume that just because you can move around the ship quickly everyone else can.

2 hours ago, jordanaire said:

I did speak to our cabin steward the first time that I saw him, which was on the morning of day #3

Your cabin steward should have introduced himself long before then. I think I've seen our cabin steward on embarkation day, usually before dinner, on every one of my cruises.

21 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

Can we talk about the lack of ability to hear announcements in the room?? Why-oh-why was there not a speaker that we could have option to turn on?

This (the lack of in-cabin speaker) has been the case on every Royal Caribbean ship I've been on, as I recall. it's very frustrating. By the time you realize there's an announcement and get the door open so you can hear it, you've missed half of it.

9 hours ago, laslomas said:

I find it difficult to understand the constant need for a 10 in everything someone does. And why someone would not be happy with a marking of 9.

It's likely that RCI is using Net Promoter Score so anything less than a 9 is neutral feedback at best.

14 hours ago, voyager70 said:

Being practically begged to give out 10's does.  What use is a survey when you're being told how to respond rather than giving your honest opinion.

This is how I feel as well. A number of years ago, I had a service writer at a car dealer tell me "you're going to get a survey, if you think you can't give me 5 stars on it, you let me know and we'll get you there."

Sorry, you already had your chance at a perfect score. If you think you have to do more only under threat of a less-than-perfect review, you've failed.

Directly from NCL's Prohibited Items List

Quote

The following items are prohibited on-board vessels. These items will be confiscated and not transported aboard

 

22. Any remotely controlled or autonomously flying devices, toys or drones

On 2/28/2019 at 12:41 PM, hallux said:

I was there with Royal Caribbean last year, during spring break for many Northeast municipal schools and on launch day for SpaceX.  The excursion was on a KSC bus, we spent 3 hours on the bus getting to KSC from port. 

I was on that excursion too! 3 hours on the bus was terrible but completely worth it to see a launch.

On 4/8/2019 at 7:56 PM, GUT2407 said:

If it’s all about budget, the 75-300. Preferably The IS version.

I borrowed a Canon 75-300 from a friend a number of years ago and was disappointed. Maybe newer iterations are better (I hope they are) but even by non-L standards, the image quality was lacking - and this was outdoors, in Florida sunlight.