edrussell

Have had our passports since we were very young, any international travel of any type, no matter even if it happened to not be required we travel with our passports. If you travel with any degree of frequency having a passport will avoid hassle.

Everyone has their own preference and that is one of the many great things about cruising is that this sort of vacation can accommodate just that. I'm not as much concerned with being 'first' or even one of the first onboard, but we try and squeeze as much vacation as we can into every sailing. The earlier we get onboard the earlier we can get a drink in our hand and find a spot to begin our vacation. Drawing a parallel as soon as rooms are announced as ready there seems to be a mad dash to the room. I completely understand that and in no way am I judging it, but usually when rooms are ready we are doing something, somewhere onboard and don't leave to go to our room usually for hours after they are ready.

So much misinformation and myth always comes up when anyone mentions how 'tight' the cruise ship casinos are. Specifically for slot/VP as has been correctly mentioned by @TxTeach79 and @jsglow they are tightly controlled and are nowhere near as 'tight' as people claim. You will fair no better, nor any worse than playing in a Nevada casino. Of course it is called GAMBLING for a reason. Your individual session will vary greatly. It is 100% absolutely correct to say that the selection of machines does definitely differ compared to land based casinos. Especially so given the limited floor space. Then again so many people don't actually understand the volatility of 1 machine versus another or the RTP of differing denominations and prefer to just spot myth and misinformation. I have extremely detailed records of our gambling on all of our cruises and all of our trips to Vegas (we visit Vegas twice per year and usually take 4 cruises per year) as I use an envelope system and both my wife and are disciplined in our sessions. Comparing the last 7 years our sessions on cruise ships only slightly are lower than land based casinos in Vegas. Our coin in is higher in Vegas though. With that said my own results are of course my own and compared to the percentage returns on machines that are set by millions of spins. Perception and the reality are vastly different and that is precisely what the casinos count on. On our one and only Carnival sailing on Venezia (we were previously RCCL only) I swear I must have had a horseshoe in my pocket though, we came out WAY ahead on our slot play. Running the numbers it was our second highest overall trip in terms of bankroll. My conclusion? We got lucky, period. Nothing else. Just pure random 'luck'.

Still though, it is not a full casino COMP. We would ONLY ever book a full comp of the base fare. We've never actually paid for a base fare on any cruise, nor do we plan on it. Our first cruise was via MyVegas and ever since then we've received full comp from RCCL on the base fare. We have used royal Up several times and have gotten balconies etc.

Definitely a new thing for this year and honestly a bloody insult. Yet another reason why we now have 6 Carnival cruises on the books and only 1 RCCL.

I wish I had some pictures for you of the food, but I don't take my phone with me often when eating in the MDR. We ate there every night for our cruise and enjoyed almost everything except for the fried chicken on the last night. I did have the shrimp cocktail each night and each night they were quite good. I had salmon one night and it was wonderful. My wife did the braised short ribs (at least I think that was what it was) and enjoyed it. The salmon cake was not good though.

Agree that the pizza was quite good. Better than we expected. Chinese food offered for sea days in the seafood place in the aft. Also we enjoyed our meals in the MDR all except for the fried chicken.

Totally agree with you, all things being equal we would prefer Royal, but the offers just don't justify it. As for the loyalty perks we don't much care about those at all, as we don't use them. We almost always buy the drink package anyway and I don't particularly need a robe. We've actually never paid base fare for any cruise we've ever taken and hope not to have to. With 3 Carnival and only 1 Royal on the books our choice is obvious. Have to admit not being able to go to Coco Cay or Labadee we will miss. We just LOVE those private destinations on Royal.

@Styrofoam02 your experience directly parallels ours. We actually booked a third sailing, a 12 night European cruise in early 2025. My wife receives so many offers she cannot keep up. Currently only 4 offers open from RCCL and none of them are particularly attractive. Further to that she has received more than one offer with just free base fare for 1 PAX! Ya right. Don't get me wrong we are looking forward to our Wonder OTS sailing in Feb of 2024, but that is the last one we have on the books. We will make prime on it and get one more annual certificate but I would think that will be our last.

Just shy of 4000 points.

We were VERY loyal to royal. VERY. Now we are new to cruising, having only taken our first cruise in Jan of 2022. 6 cruises later and we have only 1 more booked on RCCL and 3 booked on Carnival. Not all entirely due to the pricing, but that has crept in. I am not one of those that jump all over Royal at the smallest mistake but this sort of thing is precisely why at least for now I think they are losing the value proposition. If they delivered a top notch, luxury style experience then by all means charge for it. They don't. Period. Absolutely NOTHING at all wrong with their experience for us (that is our own personal opinion), but the scales have tipped and their costing is out of whack. Sure hope they recognize this before it continues. However with their occupancy rates sky high my guess is they won't since people appear to be continuing to pay.

No one REALLY knows for 100% certain that the DJ will be cranking out high volume music a-la Oasis Lagoon. All the press indicates a DJ for sure, but the vibe may end up a lot different. I sure as heck hope so anyway. Money ultimately talks so if they come out of the gate with a party atmosphere and it doesn't work then they will surely pivot.

We will continue to tip, cash in hand to those that go above and beyond. Tipping culture is such a polarizing subject as can be seen by this thread and almost any other tipping chat on CC. We've yet to hit our upper limit on the auto grats to stop us from tipping select crew members. It is 100% service dependent for us and we don't just tip because they are in the role. Not that we ask for the moon and stars, we don't.

Doesn't really matter to us. We only had a few sailings with twice per day (we are new to cruising) and I always thought it was strange and a few days into our first cruise I let our room attendant know not to bother to come back for the evening service. For us once a day in the morning is more than enough. Now spend almost no time in our room so maybe that is why. Heck in our 7 cruises we've never ever ordered room service. We must be oddballs.

Great discussion thus far, I also noticed the DJ being mentioned in the ads etc. The adults only aspect is really what would peek our interest though. However if that comes with a full volume DJ then it isn't worth it for us. I was surprised at the 'low' price. Wonder how quicky it will climb and if there is an upper limit to how many people RCCL will want to cram in there.

My wife and I were chatting about Hideaway beach last night (we are booked on Wonder going to Coco Cay in Feb 2024) and we checked via the cruise planner and the price was still quite low for the day. Now we are NOT excursion type people on Coco Cay. In all of our visits we've never spent a cent on anything there except for tips and have had a blast on every visit. We love it there. Was wondering what people thought the impact would be of Hideaway beach? On busy larger ship days I see it as a positive to spread the crowds out a little. We aren't likely to pay for access, but I am willing to bet many will.

Libraries, well ya (tongue in cheek of course), but I don't get the logic behind removing the casino bar. Sure they want you playing, I get that. However we like sitting at the casino bar on RCCL and we are more apt to actually stay in the casino and go back to our gamble because of that. If we are forced to leave the casino to find a bar we won't go back. Also I often find the casino bartenders are some of the nicest onboard. A bad trend if you ask me.

Far from an expert here, with only 1 Carnvial sailing under my belt, but we will continue to purchase Cheers even though we have DOU. We came over to Carnival from RCCL and was quite surprised (I did know this before we sailed) that on some ships there isn't even a bar in the casino and drinks had to be ordered from servers. We are VERY used to just walking up to the bar in the casino and partaking. On Venezia there was a distinct lack of servers and tipping big DID NOT help. Heck when I tipped one of them larger than normal he actually told me that he is so busy that he won't be back for a long while. Bottom line is for us DOU is of little appeal. Now we do like to drink when we gamble.

As we age our tastes and preferences change. From the food we eat, to entertainment, people we associated with etc. Stands to reason that our tastes in vacation will 100% change. HOL definitely has the well known reputation for catering to a particular demographic. Seems to me that you value in a cruise line has indeed changed and it is time to change lines. Most of your complaints appear on the surface to be slanted towards personal preferences (of course that can be said about most gripes) rather than deep seeded ship problems. My only question would be was it a surprise to you how regarding the ship layout? That information is readily available to anyone and with your status the way that most RCCL are laid out as well as their amenities surely was well known. All the best in whatever line you do decide to cruise on. You and your wife have certainly earned it!

Have sailed on 2 of the Vision class ships and Oasis class ships and while it seems to buck the trend my wife and I would take a Vision any day over an Oasis class. I know their days are ultimately numbered but there is just something about Lady G or Enchantment that fits our needs so well. They don't have all the bells and whistles by any stretch (nice pun) of the imagination but that is just fine by us. We are actually booked on Wonder in Feb of 2024 and my wife is excited about her, I am not.

Booked this sailing via a casino offer about a month ago. Our second sailing on Venezia. Still quite a ways off but never too early to start to daydream about having my toes in the sand and a drink in my hand.

Will be following along. Here's wishing you the best of luck in the casino!

Sailed her in early Sept after 6 cruises on RCCL. Easily comparable to any RCCL ship. My wife and I took hundreds of pictures of the ship, all over the place and did not see these stains everywhere. Then again you have no pictures to prove they exist and the ship is falling apart so there is that. There are many threads on CC showing lots of pictures, none of which show what you are claiming either. That said you obviously didn't care for it and that is entirely your right to say so. We are booked on her again and cannot wait to get back onboard. About my only complaint was staff weren't the most friendly. Then again our itinerary was altered and all 3 ports were missed and the previous 2 sailings had changes as well. I am sure staff took the brunt of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if we take only 1 more sailing with RCCL. We are booked on Wonder in Feb of 2024 and have about 600 points to get to prime which we will hit easily. That will get us one more annual prime certificate. Carnival is sending us a crazy amount of offers and we are actually just about to pull the trigger on a 14 day Europe sailing in June of 2025. 100 each deposit with 100 back in OBC, and of course pay taxes and port fees in an oceanview. Unsure how long the offers will continue with Carnival but it appears they want us more than RCCL at the moment.

"Mexican" night, which has about the strangest combo of "Mexican" dishes on it that I've ever seen.