Engineroom Snipe

Thank you. I guess I did not miss anything but I was hoping for the best. 😞

Please read the third line to be: Your last words stated there was no reason NOT to cruise RCL in the future. I could not edit my original post. The OP correctly pointed out my confusing statement which did not read the way I intended. 😉😁

Yes, you are correct.

Thank you for your time to share you opinion with us. You were descriptive about your experiences. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Your last words were no reason to cruise RCL in the future.. Thank you for posting. This is really what Cruise Critic is really about,

I have been given an evaluation request the same day I left a cruise every cruise that I have taken. It was detailed. I do not question your statement. Maybe RCI has changed the way they are requesting feedback. Unusual.

Wow, you had Woolite?! All I had was a rock and a smooth stone with a facial hand-bar of soap which I crushed between the door and the jam to try and grind it into powder. I then pounded those dirty clothes into submission. They always felt "silky smooth" when I was done. Maybe it was the tenderizing of all of the fibers into a sheer fabric which the manufacturer never intended. 😁 I know the tricks of the trade and now I know you do too! Regards. ☺️

My wife and I are not big quantity eaters but we like to do what you do: order an appetizer each and maybe split one such as escargots or calamari. Not a deal breaker for us certainly but I think the "you cannot have more food until you finish your plate" is condescending. I could agree that one person saying, "I want one of everything" and not even touching some of the food served is unreasonable. Not allowing two adults to order three appetizers at once seems petty.

OMG! If I arrived in my birthday suite, the captain would have to immediately declare a medical emergency and go to the nearest city with a hospital that specialized in eye problems. They will not be able to handle the overload. 😮😬🥴

Ironically, you cannot "win" in this situation. If you do not complain or at least tell staff about a problem, they cannot fix it. If you do not tell staff about the problem but you are unhappy with the situation, people will ask you, "Why did you not complain (talk to staff about a resolution)?" You told staff about what you felt was not proper and asked for a reasonable solution. They failed to provide a reasonably prepared food dish. YOU were made to feel like you are the unreasonable party for saying ANYTHING about your concerns. No one should feel that they have to pay for a meal package just to enjoy a meal with their family. I feel for you. You are not alone. I, like yourself, will find a way to enjoy ANY cruise, but at the future price points, there are other options. I have sailed RCI almost exclusively since 1988. The past two cruises were subpar but worth the experience at the price-point I paid. I have two more this year and they will determine if I start experimenting with other lines more often. C&A perks mean nothing to my wife and I if the basic elements of a cruise vacation are not reasonably handled for the price-point requested. Regards.

Dress to impress night in MDR on Enchantment, April 20-28, 2023: A gentleman was in shorts, tank top, with a towel around his neck with his family next to us. I do not think you have to worry about anything short of nudity. They were a lovely family for we had some conversations with them (our tables were SOOOO close together). It did not bother me for I wanted to dress to impress my wife and could less about what anyone else was wearing. Enjoy your cruise. 😉

I am not aware of the policy updates because I have not booked any more cruises since November 2022. If RCI does enforce the new policies that you mentioned, it would be like someone who has shot their own foot, now bleeding so much from the self-inflected gun wound that they now need to use a tourniquet and possibly loose the limb. They failed to see the long term consequences because they are only concerned about immediate survival.

Food services: The staff services surrounding the food services have been very good. My problem has been all around "the edges." Charcuterie which I once adored on RCI, non-existent now. High quality fresh fruit cut and trimmed at all meals in the Windjammer, non-existent now. New York Strip Steaks served in the Windjammer for dinners, non-existent now. Sushi, prepared in the Windjammer (normally about 30 minutes before main service), non-existent now. Salad bars, containing spinach, lettuce, romaine, grape tomatoes, olives, hard-boiled eggs, minced ham, minced onions, carrot slices, cucumber slices, parmigiana cheese, Swiss cheese cubes, tuna, baby shrimp, seeds, nuts, and dried fruits, croutons, and so many dressings, non-existent now. I can go on, and on, and on. I am a foodie but I do not demand the Windjammer or MDR deliver an experience of a ten star restaurant. I DO remember what I have had on RCI before what they are serving me now.

Yes to all of the above. So many posters make fun of long-term repeat customers as if "they do not have a choice, where else can they get all of their perks and such a great time?" One choice is, "No where else." We will sit on the sidelines. I think next spring will be the turning point. While there are many booked rooms with deposits, if the economy goes south, how many of those deposits will request a full refund? How many new cruisers think their experience is worth repeating at the price points they were charged? Time will tell.

Yes, I always travel with insurance because of the fine print in the contracts. The problem is that right now, I am seeing more actions by travel providers in general that are using those fine print contract lines to avoid any type of accountability (or good customer relations) when there is even the slightest hiccup. I am starting to reduce my cruise travel because I do not want to have to fight a big corporation over small items which in total tend to take away from my vacation experience. I stop flying to ports because my airline can use almost any excuse to cancel my trip, overbook the plane, have a mechanical malfunction, inadequate crew, FAA computer problems, Airline computer problems, bad weather at my departure airport, bad weather at my landing airport, bad weather at an airport that my departure plan is coming from, oh, by the way, we do not know where your luggage is, if we cannot find it in two weeks, file a claim and maybe you can get $300 compensation. The cruise lines are doing the same thing. My choice, do I book another cruise? Reduce my room service to once a day. Give me a room that does not have a refridgerator or chiller, and then make me look for my cabin attendent who does not provide an icebucket for two days because they are handling more rooms with less resources. Reduce my food offerings in the Park Cafe, Windjammer, and MDR. Raise your price points so they "reflect the costs of other types of vacation experiences." Realistically, a cruise this September from Bayonne for seven days is about $2000 for an inside GTY including tax. Add parking and gratuities (no arguements please, save the discussion for another thread) which is $175 (before projected increases to $210 for parking) and $224. Comes to about $342 per day for two people for a hotel room and meals. The hotel room moves to the same places I have been before, nothing new so I stay in the hotel. The meals are quickly becoming the same food I can go to on land and get an "adequate" food, not great but not bad. Think Olive Garden, Golden Corral, and Cicis. You get the picture, decent food and adequate but not anything special. RCI states that 14% of their customers are from 60 years old to 70 years old. That percentage is about to go down next year if I keep seeing the prices go up and the quality of experience go down. I will do "other vacation experiences" at that price point. This post was triggered by valid postings from others that highlight the ability of travel providers in general to avoid any type of accountablity which is in their contracts but they insist thay you pay them regardless of your experience. I do not want to gamble my travel experience.

You have exactly described why I am going from three cruises this year to one next year. I have noticed all of your points this year. I am waiting for revenge travel to peak and then reconsider booking more than one cruise next year.

Just maybe a pinkie finger or two 😬

My wife and I would go to the Cafe for coffee at 6am and start to watch the sunrise. If you are in line at 7am at the Windjammer, you have a fantastic 270 degree view of the sunrise, just pick your side. We are early risers and really like the options of view for a great start to the day. There is so much warm wood on this ship which reminds us of earlier experiences. Enjoy!

When they are at that age, two or three hours in the sun and water really tuckers them out. There is so much to do that is free. Another option is South Beach where they can play in the shallow water and dig some sand!

I have seen many young children very happy to play in the shallow entrance of the large pool near the swim up bar. That is in addition to the splash park and pirate ship,

There was definitely a crosswind even though we were at dock at Nassau. That is what made it so noticeable. I was walking through a "hot wind tunnel." There was not anything blowing around that I could see except for drapes in the rooms as I went by.

Their version of Park Cafe was just aft of the Solarium itself but in the same general place. The Park Cafe was normally closed if the Windjammer was open with the exception being breakfast. Park Cafe was open at 6:30am and the Windjammer was open at 7am. In general, after that, if the Windjammer was open, the Cafe was closed. At almost all times after breakfast, custom salads where made by staff. I did not have one but I saw many passengers eating them. They had the special RCI roast beef sandwiches. I had one during the week. It was good but maybe not as good as some of the other ships. People were constantly confused about the hours of operation. I think most PAX expected it to be open almost twenty-four/seven like on other ships. For instance, the Windjammer would be open from 11:30am to 3pm for lunch. People from the main pool deck would come through looking for a quick pizza only to find it closed. I think they were trying to avoid going into the Windjammer in bathing suits. I found their pizza to be good (I like thin crust). They had mini-sandwiches one being a "three" cheese that I liked. More of a "snackeral" thing than eating something substantial. Enough to get by but not great on its own. More than once, I went to the Windjammer on the same deck forward, created a snakeral plate for my wife and I and returned to the Solarium. It is like a five minute walk. If you get the right price, I would absolutely recommend this ship for a "Solarium" experience. Even with a sold-out ship, I felt it had more usable room than a much larger "Oasis" class.

When I was on the Oasis last September, my wife and I tend to use the front ship elevators (faster). On our port day in Nassau (around 88 degrees F, very strong sun at 11am) we walked through one of the corridors which had ocean balconies on one side and interior balconies on the other. All of the cabin attendants in the areas had the doors to the balconies open and doors to the corridor open as they performed their duties. Needless to say, the corridor was hot and humid with hot breezes flowing from the outside ocean balconies to the interior room balconies. If this was done twice a day, those rooms were heated (and their furniture and contents) beyond what I think the AC was designed to handle. I overheard multiple patrons asking why they were leaving the doors open. The most common answer was they were "airing out" the rooms. I think it was to allow them to complete their services faster. It takes a while to remove the heat load after something like that.

My ship left out of Baltimore. I traveled from NJ to Baltimore. I looked at my post and it was not clear. Sorry. I have sailed out of NJ multiple times and I have never been "turned away" from parking like I was in Baltimore. I did not think much of it at the time. In Bayonne, there is covered parking but access to it sometimes is limited depending on how many ships are active in one week. In Bayonne, I paid AFTER the cruise. Sorry if I confused you with Baltimore Port instead of Bayonne. Yes, the (included free) food quality at Coco Cay blew away the Windjammer lunch offerings.

Yes, I forgot which night it was but they did have a traditional 70's party.

No insult intended. I was trying to lighten the mode. This is only a cruise blog. No one is that important, including myself. Remember that we do have cruising in common. Have a good night's sleep. 😁