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ariesknowbest

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    Ashamed of Royal Carib….

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    On 11/22/2021 at 12:20 PM, Livetocruise0717 said:

    I am a Diamond plus loyal Royal cruiser,  never have I been so ashamed of how Royal is handling refunds.  I was advised 10/1 that my Harmony cruise 10/31    Was shortened and I would receive a refund of 167.00 within 30 days.  Today is day 52.  I have called 3 weeks in a row only to be told Accounting is behind and they cant give me an answer as to when I will see MY money.   U will not be booking any more cruises until Royal does what they promise with refunds. I have 3 existing cruises I will be cancelling before 12/30 unless I get My funds returned and receive a call back as I requested from a corporate executive .  Anyone else with these issues?

    RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS....................

    • Haha 3

    OMG!! WE GOT IT!!

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    5 hours ago, orville99 said:

    Just pointing out reality to a poster who believes in fantasy. The reality is that the additional perks you get on a Freedom class ship are nowhere economically comparable to the upgrade cost. Other than the additional room, you really don't get anything that equates to the upgrade cost.

    Jealousy is not very attractive. 

     

    • Like 3

    A day in Southhampton

    in British Isles/Western Europe

    Posted

    Wow...thank you so much! You are a wealth of information.  You have really helped me.  Have you ever cruised TA in October?  If so, are there any tips on what type of clothing I should bring with me?  Do you think I will need a winter coat?  

    Thank you so much for taking your time to help me.  I hope you and your family are healthy.

    Linda L. Alonzo, M.A.

    A day in Southhampton

    in British Isles/Western Europe

    Posted

    4 hours ago, John Bull said:

    Hi, 

     

    Note that Southampton doesn't have a double "hh" - a common mistake but one that can cause problems when looking up train timetables & such. It's Southampton 


    With a 5.00 pm sailing, back-on-board for a Southampton port-of-call is normally 4.30 pm. But since this is a back-to-back you need to check with Cunard  whether you have to re-register, repeat the safety drill, etc. If so, your back-on-board is more likely to be 3 pm or 3.30, which will make a big dent in your day. 

    So you may be limited to a lazy day in the city.

     

    Southampton is a working port city, not a tourist city.

    But it certainly does have enough to interest a visitor for a day.

     

    QM2 usually berths at QE11 Cruise Terminal, deep in the docks. That dock road is busy with truck traffic, pedestrians are only separated from the heavy truck traffic by a yellow line. So you're strongly advised to hail a cab for the short drive to the old walled part of the city, no more than £6.  She sometimes berths at Ocean Cruise Terminal, from there the old town is only a ten-minute walk.  

     

    Old town has the city walls & gates, historic buildings like Tudor Merchant's House (well worth an hour or more), Medieval Merchant's House (only open weekends), Westgate Hall, & Gods Tower (houses archaeological museum). At the northern end of the walled city is the Bargate, which was the old city's main entrance from the London road - the old town is known locally as "Below Bar".

    Good pubs to try for a drink or meal in old town include the Dancing Man pub & micro-brewery housed in the 13th century stone-built Wool House on Town Quay, or just around the corner in Bugle Street the attractive & historic Duke of Wellington pub, very popular with cruisers.

    But it's not like most folks' idea of a walled city - it was heavily bombed in the Blitz of 1940, and modern properties sit cheek-by-jowl with the historic ones.

     

    On the other side of the Bargate, outside the walled city, is Above Bar -  the post-war main shopping street and several malls, notably the large West Quay Mall.

     

    Elsewhere in the centre of Southampton are places like....

     

    "Solent Skies", a super little volunteer-run aviation museum. A short walk from Ocean Terminal, and well worth an hour. It focuses on aircraft built or operated from Southampton. Exhibits include a Spitfire (designed, developed and first built in Southampton before the factory was blitzed) and a Princess flying-boat that you can get into (Southampton was the UK's premier flying-boat centre during the short pre and post-war life before regular long-haul aircraft were developed).

     

    Sea City Museum, council-operated museum dedicated to Titanic. Relies heavily on dioramas and personal stories, comparatively few artefacts but very well-presented. It's at the northern end of the main shopping street, Above Bar, in the Civic Offices complex (identify the complex by its tall white clock-tower). Art museum in that complex too.

     

    More Southampton detail at http://www.discoversouthampton.co.uk/visit including guided or self-guided walks.

    So, enough for a lazy day in Southampton and all walkable (other than mebbe a short taxi hop from/to your ship).

     

    But if you want to travel out of the city ...............

     

    Salisbury & Stonehenge

    Cunard may offer this as a ship-sponsored tour.

    If you prefer to DIY, you need to plan to arrive at Stonehenge at opening time, and keep a constant watch on the time. There's a direct half-hourly train from Southampton central station (five minute taxi ride from your ship)) to Salisbury costs about £11 return-ticket, journey time about 40 minutes.

    Take the Stonehenge ho-ho bus from Salisbury train station. Bus ride takes about 30 minutes, expect to spend about 90 minutes at Stonehenge then ho-ho back to Salisbury to check out the magnificent Salisbury cathedral and historic city centre. Ho-ho (if conveniently timed) or walk or taxi or local bus to Salisbury station for the train back to Southampton.

    Post back if this is a sunday, there are a couple of complications.

    Buy your Stonehenge tickets as well as ho-ho tickets from the ho-ho driver (same price as at the gate). This avoids the need for pre-purchasing a timed ticket to Stonehenge, and avoids wasting advance payment if your plans change. If you take ship's tour, their entrance tickets are also any-time.

    Stonehenge is no fun in bad weather.

    Salisbury is an historic & laid-back cathedal city (tallest spire in the country, one of the four original copies of Magna Carta, etc). A day in Salisbury is well worthwhile, even if you skip Stonehenge.

    http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

    http://www.thestonehengetour.info

    https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/

     

    Winchester

    Cathedral city only 15 mins by frequent trains from Southampton.

    Older than Salisbury, it's the former capital of Wessex (King Alfred & all that). But narrow streets and rather more tourists make it feel more crowded, less laid-back.

    Centred on Winchester Cathedral. Huge. IMHO not as inspiring as Salisbury's but centuries older. Houses the grave of Jane Austen. Interesting history of subsidence, and a tribute in the cathedral to the brass-helmeted deep-sea diver who a century ago spent years strengthening the foundations. 

    https://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/

     

    The following places only if your back-on-board is 4.30 or later..........

     

    Queen Victoria's Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight.

    From Town Quay take Red Funnel's traditional car ferry to East Cowes , not the hi-speed ferry to (West) Cowes.

    Ferry ride about an hour.

    Then a short bus ride (any bus from East Cowes) and ask the driver to put you off at Osborne House - it's less than ten minutes on the bus. Check return bus & ferry times. I'm always wary of ferries on a port-of-call day, but the Red Funnel car ferry is super-reliable.

    https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/

    https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/en/isle-of-wight-ferry/

     

    Beaulieu

    Take the little Hythe ferry from Town Quay across Southampton Water to Hythe (very long pier, but a little historic train to take you from boat to shore), then a taxi from the rank for the 6 miles across a corner of the New Forest to Lord Montague's complex at Beaulieu. Arrange with the driver to return for you at a pre-determined time, there's no taxi rank at Beaulieu.

    (the local bus service is extremely infrequent, and ignore any references on the web to the "beach bus", it no longer operates)

    The Beaulieu complex majors on Britain's National Motor Museum, but for those in your party not interested in cars & trucks there's also the Bishop's Palace (home), the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey (sacked by Henry V11 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries), and various smaller attractions like the Secret Army - during WW2 it was a training school for spies.

    https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/

    http://hytheferry.co.uk/

     

    Portsmouth. 

    Home of the Royal Navy, the main attraction is the Historic Dockyard & Ships. And close by, the Spinnaker Tower (only bother to go up if visibility is good when you're there). Portsmouth has much more to offer like Old Portsmouth's harbourfront fortifications and harbour entrance. Its conjoined city of Southsea is a resort city. On its seafront are Southsea Castle and adjacent D-Day museum and views across the Solent to the Napoleonic Solent forts and the Isle of Wight and plenty more besides, and the ring of Napoleonic forts (google "Palmerston's Follies") which surround the city.

    But in all honesty you'll only have time for the dockyard & ships, so with your limited time it's only worthwhile for afficionados.

    From Southampton by train or bus is about an hour. By train your destination is Portsmouth Harbour station (it's at the end of the line, after the main city station), by bus it's The Hard / Travel Interchange. Three different names for the same place, and it's only a two-minute walk to the Historic Dockyard gate.

    https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/

    https://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/

     

    BTW, You can be off the ship along with those hauling their own luggage at about 7am, ahead of regular disembarkation which normally starts around 7.30. But bear in mind the opening times of where you want to visit - if you stay in the city it's pointless to disembark before about 9am.

    But first things first - check what time you have to be back at the ship !!

     

    Have fun choosing

     

    JB :classic_smile:

     

    Hey JB thank you so much for all of your helpful information.  I greatly appreciate it.  We are not on a b2b.  It is one 14 day cruise therefore I don't think we will have to be back on the ship at 3:30 pm.  

    One question, is a tour at Highclare Castle possible?  If so, do you think it is worth it for a Downton Abbey fan?

     

    Thanks again.  

    Linda

    A day in Southhampton

    in British Isles/Western Europe

    Posted

    Hello everyone...I hope you and your family are well.  Hubby and I are booked on the 14 day roundtrip from NYC on the QM 2 that spends the day in Southampton - 6:30 am to 5:00 pm.  What are your suggestions for what we should do?  We really have no idea....any suggestions would be helpful.  Thank you🤓

    QM2 Bookclub

    in Cunard Line

    Posted

    Has anyone participated in the bookclub offered on the QM2?  If so, how far in advance do you learn what the title of the book?  Do many people participate?  What are your thoughts about it?  

    RCCL Nassau Excursions

    in Bahamas

    Posted

    Hello.....  has anyone experienced the following excursions on Nassau?

     

    Rainbow Reef Snorkel

    Adventure Yacht Turtle and Reef Snorkel

    Seahorse Sailing and Snorkeling

     

    If so, please tell me about it.  Thank you.

    Flying in day of-Port Canaveral

    in Florida Departures

    Posted

    On 8/19/2019 at 2:36 PM, nickiefriend said:

    I am trying to convince myself that it will be ok to fly in the day of our cruise. SW gets us in (if on time) at 9:30. Collect baggage by 10, 1 hour uber to port Canaveral should be there by 11.  Has anyone ever done this or am I really stupid for considering this?

    The only thing I questions is finding an Uber that is willing to drive you for an hour.  

    Thoughts on amazing 13 night Ultimate Scandinavia / Russia on Serenade

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    19 hours ago, disneyfan1313 said:

    Last week we finished up an epic 13 night ultimate scandinavia - russia cruise on Serenade of the Seas and I thought I would put some of my thoughts down and answer any questions folks might have about the ship, traveling to Russia or anything on this itinerary.

     

    The Who:  My wife and I are in our early 40s, DINKs and love cruising and traveling in general.  We are pretty “loyal to Royal” and made Diamond after this cruise, but we have sailed on all the other major lines as well.  We traveled with our friends who are Diamond Plus who travel very extensively and they have a child in their group as well.  

     

    The Why:  We wanted a unique and different itinerary and we really wanted to visit Russia! 

     

    The Ship:  We have sailed on all classes of ships and we really love the Radiance class.  It seems like it is the perfect size for an itinerary like this. Serenade was in great condition with just the normal amount of wear and tear.   Rita’s Cantina is permanently been made into “just a bar”, so I feel like it could use one more specialty restaurant. Cabin does feel a bit old fashioned after just having done Ovation, but outside of plugs near the beds it really is just fine.  

     

    Service: We had just cruised on Ovation in Alaska about 6 weeks before and had *really* bad service throughout the entire ship (see my review here - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2671153-thoughts-on-ovation-in-alaska-531-67-cruise/ ) so we were a bit worried about the service levels on this ship.  We were pleasantly surprised on how great the service was! Almost every crew member we encountered in every department on every day was AWESOME and very focused on providing great service.  This ship is really doing something right in many categories and other ships in the RCCL fleet should take notice.

     

    Internet:  Once again we had just had *horrible* internet on Ovation, but this ship was fine.  It was average cruise ship internet speed which is fine for basic posting of photos, low res video, etc.  We did take advantage of AT&T international day pass service for $10 a day in each port to use our normal unlimited plan in each country.  This worked with no issues except in Russia where it isn’t valid. There our friends used a mifi portable device and we just used the frequent wifi that we found.  

     

    Food:  Main dining room food and service has gone down so drastically over the past few years that we decided on our Ovation cruise to just do the unlimited dining plan and just stick to specialty restaurants. For this cruise we did the 5 day plan knowing that we would be off the ship in ports some days for dinner and we would just do Windjammer the other days.  Windjammer has also been going down hill on our past few cruises so we didn’t have very high expectations.   

     

    HOLY COW.  Our low expectations of Windjammer were blown away.  The quality of the food in Windjammer on this ship was insane.  Interesting items every day that were cooked perfectly and were flavorful.  Deserts which were decent and flavorful, action stations (like a burrata bar!) that we have never seen before.  Theme nights which were well thought out and artfully presented. Just like service, whatever this ship is doing - others need to copy it.  

    We also did Chops and Giovanni’s twice and Izumi once and all were very good with good food and service.  

     

    The one negative with F&B was the main dining room.  We made the mistake of going there on the sea day for lunch.  Service was less attentive than the random bussers in Windjammer.  Salad and “buffet” were a disaster with no one controlling the lines, guests pushing, etc.  Food quality also wasn’t good - how was this the same team that did Windjammer and the Speciality restaurants.  It simply solidified our feeling that we would avoid the main dining room whenever possible when we cruise.

     

    Oh… one more thing… probably the creepiest thing that has ever happened to us on a cruise.   On the second to last night the head waiter for the main dining room section that we had been assigned to came to Chops to find us.  We thought originally that he was just making sure we were OK, etc. Nope - he was coming to tell us that we should give the main dining room staff all 10s, that even though we didn’t eat there we should rate the food as a 10, etc.   Then when we all must have given him odd looks he asked if we could send something to our stateroom to help out to ensure we rated him 10s… essentially trying to bribe us. It was a really ***** kinda moment. 

    Having a friend that works on one of RCCL's cruise ships, I can explain why they are asking for 10's.  Since the cruiselines started automatically charging tips ....the process that the tips are distributed rely heavily on how many high marks (10's) a employee gets.  The more high marks, the more tip money.  

     

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