mandersen12345

Two sailings here on Royal since COVID (with about 20 on Royal or Celebrity prior to COVID), on Allure and Radiance. Noticed lower cost/quality ingredients (more chicken, pork, and pasta, less beef and seafood). I blame Miami for it. We used to love the unusual dishes that we got to try on cruises that we don't eat at home. That seems to be largely gone. We much preferred the old, longer MDR experience. Multi courses lasting 2 hours is what we want. A gastronomic experience, Royal seems to want to cater more to folks who expect to be in and out faster with just starter, main, dessert. Fine. We prefer bread service, soup, starter, palate cleanser, main, dessert/cheese, coffee. Each served separately. That's just us, however. If I want to eat like Applebees I can go to Applebees. We have a cruise on Wonder coming up in a few months in a Star class suite. Will eat speciality only or CK. Three upcoming on NCL, all in Haven suites. We have found recently that the Haven experience is worlds above Royal with the Star class genie being less magical than before COVID but the NCL butler very much still killing it. When the kids are grown and out we will skip the mass market lines altogether and go where we know there is still an exceptional experience on other, premium lines. What has surprised me about Royal is we are big spenders and I would think they'd want more like us. I've sent numerous feedback in but never get anything other than a canned reply, and things do not improve.

Just off Radiance this morning. Sailed in a 2br Owners Suite. Felt like a lot of the suite needed to be changed: A/C didn't pump out cold air, drapes were worn and had visible stains, mattress toppers were about as thin as a few pieces of paper, carpets were a bit worn, "cold" water faucets dished out warm water, and so on. Outside of our cabin I saw a ship that the crew was constantly cleaning and trying to maintain but obviously was not brand new. We decided to sail again on RCL thanks to a casino offer, but only if on a fairly new and big ship. The cruise we had on Radiance was fine and out of Tampa was easy and convenient, but it wasn't a wow experience by any means. Plus the food was meh overall.

Thanks. It appears that the Royal cruise is a little longer but with sea days not extra port days.

Hello. For background, my family of 2 adults and 3 kids have sailed a lot on Royal, always in 2br suites, and are well into Diamond Plus. We are looking at a Canada/NE cruise out of NYC-area roundtrip and NCL 2 br in the Haven is pricing out at basically half of Royal 2br. We did our first/sole NCL cruise last month in the Haven and found it to be really nice. So I'm curious as we contemplate Royal or NCL what would justify the hefty premium to sail Royal? If it matters we'd be leading a group of about 40 cabins. Appreciate your thoughts.

I did convert points to free play. Is the amount of free play the points are worth more or less equal to what they will take off the bill if you don't turn the points into free play?

Gaming is for fun. You should go into it, if you choose, with an up limit, down limit, and a time limit. I assume that in exchange for the fun I will spend some money. But I think that way about going to Disney World, Paris, or just the local movies. Sometimes, though, you can get lucky. Back in October I sailed on Allure, which was my first cruise in 4 years. I lost about $2000 but received back $1600 in comps against my bill, a free cruise which I used as a $3000 credit towards a suite, and $2000 in freeplay for that next cruise. So in my mind I had a lot of fun those 5 days on the ship, hit over 40 hand pays (which is unusual, but it did happen), and feel that I came out ahead. Now on NCL last month I lost about $8000, only had 9 hand pays, and got just $2000 off the next cruise. This was a losing scenario, and the machines were so tight I did not really enjoy myself much. But I stayed within my loss limit, which I established before I boarded the ship. So while I did lose money, the amount lost was acceptable to me (And of course that amount is subjective and could be acceptable or unacceptable to others).

is it necessary to go to the host to get charges wiped off? meaning they don't just do it automatically?

Hello. I am looking for experienced advice and guidance on how to maximize casino benefits on NCL. My family and I took our first NCL cruise last month. 5 nights in a Haven suite. I played in the casino and accumulated 20,072 points. Other than free well drinks while playing, I received no on-board benefits from the casino. (And who in their right mind over the age of 25 wants to drink well liquors?!??). I was expecting to be sent comped speciality dining, my kids arcade charges to be cleared, spa treatments....got nothing. Not even a bottle of wine sent to the room. Anyway, fast forward to today where I used the cruise certificate I was given to get basically $2000 off a Haven suite for a future cruise. No OBC. No freeplay. Just the discount (which feels stingy). The CAS rep who helped me said I would have to proactively reach out to an onboard host about any kind of benefits such as those. All in all kind of disappointing compared to Royal and land-based casinos but it was my first time on NCL and 20k points isn't a lot I suppose. So for those of you who are much more experienced with NCL and their casino program, how can I on an upcoming NCL cruise (I have 2 booked) get more/better benefits from the casino? Do I really have to seek out a host and plead my case as the rep on the phone suggested today? Thanks for the advice.

Does anyone know when the sailings for Canada and New England cruises for 2025 will be released? Do we know which ship(s) will sail those itineraries?

Hello. Has anyone who has been on Radiance very recently able to confirm if these slots are in the casino: DragonLink Top Dollar Pinball Buffalo ascension Cleo 2 Diamond Queen Huff and Puff And those that are can you select denom or are they otherwise not penny machines?

unfortunately with 3 kids that's not an option yet. Hence sailing in the Haven to try to get that exceptional dining experience while traveling with children.

food is definitely subjective. being our first on NCL I was disappointed. Expected more. So if I can't get that in the MDR then are the speciality restaurants the way to go with NCL? Next NCL isn't until November, also in 3br Garden Villa. Exceptional food is important to us on a cruise so am trying to learn how to make that happen on NCL.

Cheap ingredients like chicken, pasta, and nasty fishes like Tilapia. Where is the good beef? The lamb? The best fishes? It all felt very low budget to us and not at all commensurate with what we paid for the suite or spent onboard.

Just off this same cruise as a family of 5 in the 3br garden villa suite. Our first time on NCL. The suite was amazing! The butler was fantastic! We ordered most meals to the suite from the MDR and were really disappointed at the quality of the food. Had much higher expectations. Is the way to get good food on NCL to eat in speciality restaurants only? Played a lot in the casino. Very tight slots. Slap in the face casino perks. In spite, accumulated almost 20,000 points and the perks for doing so were insulting. Disembarkation was easy. We live 45 minutes away from Tampa.

Hello. I am looking for information and hope someone here can help. On July 5 my family of 5 is sailing on Symphony out of Cape Liberty. We return on July 12. How do-able is an 11:25 AM flight out of LGA? I am not familiar with NYC area traffic. If it matters we are in Star class and would be using a sedan/SUV service. I know EWR is closer to the port but the options to get from there to SRQ are not as good as the nonstop on Delta out of LGA that I found. Thank you.

It's a cruise my company is doing. The company is based in Maryland. I happen to live in Florida.

I booked the nonstop to Newark that gets in at 9:44 day of cruise. It's the first flight of the day out of Sarasota on that aircraft so hoping no issues. IF there are issues and we miss the boat, can we contact Royal and get ourselves to the first port (Port Canaveral) and board there?

thanks but does not matter. Would arrange sedan/SUV service. I have never been to either EWR or LGA. I assume EWR is closer to the port. Is LGA going to pose a traffic risk? I mean realistically given the arrival time and ship departure.

Hello. Soliciting opinions here for an upcoming cruise out of Cape Liberty. Live in Sarasota, FL. On the day of the cruise United has a nonstop to Newark (7:00 AM to 9:44 AM) and Delta has one to La Guardia (7:00 AM to 9:54 AM). Negligible difference in arrival times. Each flight is the first of the day out of Sarasota. We are a family of 5. Which flight would you take? Or would you absolutely go the day before? The price of a hotel for a night is irrelevant. However, finding a place to stay for 5 (two of whom are teenagers) where we are not on top of each other could be another story.... Ship departs at 4:00 PM. Thanks for your thoughts.

Hello. Would any one here be able to recommend based on personal experience companies for transportation to Port Canaveral? Party of 7 coming from Sarasota.

Hello. My family has booked our first cruise since 2019. We're sailing on Allure in October. I've read how the MDR has been cut back in a variety of ways and so I am wondering where onboard you can still find something resembling what the MDR used to be (and arguably should be). We are a party of 5 and therefore have always booked suites. We are in the 2br Aquatheatre and I know about the Star class benefits. Coastal Kitchen on ALL of our previous cruises on ships with one (1x Quantum, 1x Anthem, 5x Allure) has been a let down across the board. We are not fans of the menu there but the service has been inconsistent has as the food quality and temperature. Why Royal doesn't make CK a gastronomic experience that people lust after I can't figure out....you'd think they'd want their highest-paying customers to have something to dream about coming back to, but whatever. So now that we're cruising again I'd like to know from folks who've been to sea lately where you can get the best dining experience on board. By best I mean highest quality food, consistently served at the right temperature, with the most attentive service. Thank you.

Hello. My family is taking its first cruise since the summer of 2019 in a few months. Thanks to previous casino play I get offers for free cruises from Royal all of the time. However, these are pretty much worthless to me because we have 3 kids and always are very selective about which very large cabins/suites work for us. What I do want, however, is free play in the casino. Other than reaching out to Club Royale (which I just did by email) is there any other effective way to convert or otherwise use the tons of offers I have for freeplay? On a related topic, I recall several years ago that for something like $2,000 you could buy $2,500 (or something like that) in a voucher. Is that or something similar still going on? We're excited to be taking our first cruise again. Hopefully things do not get weird again. Thanks for your collective thoughts and responses.