jillmom2

They are both close enough that I would let price rule the decision. However if you do end up flying in to Miami, unless you want to spend time in Miami or at South Beach, etc. I would get up to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the night before there. That way you can have a leisurley morning and a quick trip to the port and aren't trying to get out of Miami. Always less stress when it is the night before.

Hi All!

 

Our next cruise is in about 3 weeks on the Brilliance. We are traveling with our toddler (19 months old). We are thinking that we will skip the dining room for the entire trip and stick with the Windjammer. DS has already been on 3 cruises at his young age and quite frankly the dining room isn't the highlight of our trip when traveling with the little guy. It's a lot easier to skip the dining room these days. Plus we aren't in the mood to bring dress clothes on this trip.

 

In all of my 11 Royal Caribbean cruises I have never eaten dinner in the Windjammer. Do they serve the same thing every night or change it up? We tried the buffet on Carnival Breeze in July and it sucked. Lacked variety and same old stuff each night (for the most part). I am hoping on Royal there is a wide variety. I do remember going in there a few times to get soup or something to snack on while waiting for our dinner and they had some of the MDR items in Windjammer. Is this still the case?

 

PS: Before anyone jumps on us, we have MTD and have already paid our grats.

I don't think you will be very impressed..Although I have never sailed Royal Caribbean..I have tried the buffet for dinner once on each of my other cruises..Carnival, Princess, Disney.... It is mainly exactly what you want it for convenience of time and not dressing up...otherwise not much reason to go there ..I didn't find it much different than for lunches and I wasn't very impressed with those either. I totally agree with you about the Carnival Buffet...it sucked for dinner. You have to balance what you want (not dressing up and quick and easy with your toddler...its too bad you have to give up good food to do it) Either way...relax and enjoy your trip with your family

Can we please be clear what Royal require in The Grande please.

 

For men a jacket, shirt (with sleaves) and pants (no rips). So a tie is not required if you prefer not to wear one. This is from the dress code on Royals website.

 

Of course those who wish to wear Black Tie can do if they please.

 

Reasonable to me as it allows people to wear a range of styles that best suit their personal preference.

To me I would rather see someone in a dress shirt with a tie than a jacket/sports coat with a casual shirt under it.The shirt and tie look dressier( IMO) I think Royal should allow both..either have a shirt and tie on or if you have a casual shirt..then you need a jacket to dress it up a bit...

While my husband is fine either way, My teen boys would always choose the shirt and tie as it is how they would dress for a wedding or their high school homecoming dance etc. They rarely would do a full suit or sports coat. Always have done dressy pants with shirt and tie for formal nights before (and believe me they looked better than most)...do you think they would really have to have jackets for The Grande ?..if so it is probably out for us..even though we would all enjoy it...

This is very disappointing news. I am a picky eater, but my husband and son eat just about anything. I looked at all the menus and found very little I would eat. Even things that would normally appeal to me have sides or sauces I won't eat. Surely they will offer plain grilled chicken in most or all the dining rooms, but I didn't see it on their menus.

I have the same issue except I am the one who loves to try new foods and my sons like most things. My husband is the one who likes things plain...he likes a variety of things..steaks, seafood, pastas, chicken etc. but all plain and simple...even his sides...baked potato ..plain...green salad...just greens and lemon or a vinaigrette....the new menus are very limited and need desperately need always available choices.

It is easy for people who eat anything to say they look forward to new choices and theme restaurants..(French, Asian etc.)...so do I. But when you have a wide variety of tastes within the same family or dining party, unless you have a very wide menu of choices, someone will always be disappointed in their options.

I looked over all the new menus and they look decent, but I hope that is just a sampling of the choices and not the actual menu because it needs to be at least twice the size of what they are currently showing. At least the MDR had a lot of options to appeal to a broad range of people.

I think Dynamic Dining can work but Royal needs a lot more options. I have never been on a NCL cruise..But I am looking at the Getaway because I think their dining options make sense ( there are also a lot of them)..plus they still have MDR for those who like it and they have Ultimate Dining Plan...pay one price I believe it is 119.00 and all specialty dining is included.

There dress code is more relaxed, Khakis or dress pants and polos work everywhere..even at their Le Bistro French Restaurant...I hate the thought of packing dress clothes just to get in to one restaurant on one night..but if it is excluded then you have even less options.

I haven't made up my mind if I am canceling Oasis or not as we were all looking forward to going...but their version of Dynamic dining isn't impressing me so far.

You could try Holiday Inn Port of Miami. It has a great location across the street from Bayside Marketplace where there are a lot of choices for dinner. From a higher floor you can see the ship's in port. It is probably the closest hotel to the port...just have to go over the bridge. It is not a fancy hotel but fine for one night. Bayside is touristy but fun...live music every night. The marina is right there...can take a sightseeing boat out for a tour..great place to keep kids busy if you are traveling with children. A good variety of shops and stores to browse..There is a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant, a Chili's , a Hard Rock Cafe and several local places with good seafood. Another hotel a little farther down but still walkable to Bayside is the Intercontinental it is more upscale than the Holiday Inn. Either one is a good choice if you want to be close to the port. Easy to grab a cab to the port in the morning and will cost less than 10 dollars.

Considering an NCL cruise on the Getaway and have never experienced anything except traditional dining. My always starving teen boys want to know if you can dine in more than one restaurant in the same night. For example go early to something like teppanyaki and late to another specialty or traditional dining room instead of going to the buffet or other casual place. I suppose if you are paying to go to each one, they would not care...what if you are on ultimate dining plan? I am sure they really wont be able to do two dinners..lol!..but they still want to know if it is an option. Also are all the restaurant times like from 5-9pm or do any of them open earlier where you could do one for lunch and one for dinner? 1or 2 pm would be great then they could do dinner at 8pm or so?

Also I see there is an 10.00 upcharge for extra entrees but can you still order multiple appetizers or other menu items? While my boys and and I would love teppanyaki or Le Bistro..it would not be my husband's thing. Is there an alternate/always available menu like there is in traditional dining at most of the specialty places for those (picky people) who like basic food (like steak, chicken or seafood but plain, no sauces, spices, gravies..baked potato ..plain etc.) but would still like to dine with their family?

I know there is no formal night on NCL which my hubby and boys think is great..but is each restaurant always casual dress? For example Le Bistro do people dress up to go there or would khaki's and a polo be fine? What about dressy shorts for guys or women? How casual is casual? and is it fine no matter what restaurant you choose?

Sorry for so many questions but NCL was never on my radar before and now the ships look so interesting we want to try them..our next cruise right now is Oasis of the Seas and they will be switching to dynamic dining before we cruise...so it will prob. seem similar to Freestyle but they will have a dress code for some of their fancier restaurants. I don't want to have to pack formal wear just to try one restaurant...but I don't like not being able to choose that place because I dont want to dress up...NCL seems like the best of both worlds..

First off I have only experienced traditional dining and MTD on other ships Have not sailed with Royal before. I have not sailed on NCL because it just never appealed to me. My family has very different tastes so we always enjoyed the main dining room because everyone could always find something we liked whether our taste ran from fancy(me) to plain Jane (My Hubby) to.. maybe I will try escargot appetizer but still order a burger for dinner (my sons).

Now if I understand the dynamic dining correctly, it looks like if we have to choose among these restaurants that someone will always be disappointed with their dinner that evening. For example My husband is very pure in his tastes..he loves seafood, but plain...(any grilled fish, or shellfish (plain) plain baked potato and green salad) or a traditional pasta, or classic steak. I would love most things from The Grande, Silk or Chic and I would find the American Grill too much like an Applebees, or Ruby Tuesday...or similar boring restaurant that I could do at home...How is dynamic dining supposed to account for such wide range of tastes within the same group of diners?

I am fine with sitting in any of the restaurants if they want to break them down into more smaller, intimate settings...but I don't want my dinner selections to be so limited and it looks like they will be.( On Disney we rotated among smaller restaurants, but our waitstaff followed us and menus for formal night etc. were the same no matter which restaurant you ended up in)

I get that the main dining room menus should be refreshed/updated periodically but there are also things people look forward to and expect and dynamic dining seems to just wipe this out and really go off in a different direction

Hopefully the menus posted are just a sample of the choices available and not the complete menu for each place because I can tell by what is listed that I will be very disappointed with dynamic dining. I also don't want to have to pay extra just to get Italian or a good steak... and i don't want to be forced to go to the Windjammer to have a variety of choices...I don't see how people can think this is a good idea...am I missing something here?

If you are looking forward to dynamic dining, what is it that you find appealing? Convince me that I will like this and it will work for my family. Because if rumors hold true I will have dynamic dining for my son's senior trip in April on the Oasis and will have to plan for him and his friends and will have a group of 8-12 with us..maybe more by sailing time..

If you book airline flight through Royal Caribbean, can you fly in a day early or is it always same day as the cruise. Can you request it or is it not available at all as an option. Usually always book my own flights but rates are so high I thought I would compare with royal Caribbean rates. When I book we always fly in a day or two early.

We are cruising in April 2015. Our passports are valid until Sept.2015. I have seen posts about passports needing to be valid for six months beyond your trip. Do you think we need to renew these before our April trip or will we be fine. Hoping to get this trip in before we renew...but wanted to ask opinions first.

Thanks for any info.

I think the cruise reviews that I read before going on the Oasis here were amazing, and couldn't come close to doing one so detailed, but am happy to answer any questions, as you all helped me in the planning phase, as well as the "I can't wait for my cruise" phase. I had a great vacation (8th on Royal). I traveled with my husband, 19 year old son and his friend from college. We met some great people, ate way too much, drank even more, and relaxed for the past 7 days. I still can't find my stateroom attendant in my house, or my waiter or chef! I'd be happy to answer any questions, or share specific photos if you want. I did sneak into the owners suite, another suite ? grand? , and the loft balconies while we were waiting to depart. We stayed in a boardwalk balcony 11th floor - loved it.

We will be in Boardwalk Balconies on deck 9, my son and his friends will be in 9729...we also have 9721 and 9705... is it a really long walk to everywhere?...how convenient is this area to getting around the ship...would you choose it again or would you now look at other areas based on staying in those rooms....I am thinking in moving my 9721 room to an ocean balcony across the hall...or is a boardwalk balcony the best of both worlds?...thanks in advance for any feedback

First time on Royal Caribbean...I have read a lot about the bed by the balcony vs. the closet placement and that it is hard to access the closet if the bed is there etc....

my question is I will have three boys in one of those rooms and we will be actually using the sofa bed. So with that being said, is it a toss up because with the sofa being open it will be in the way as much as the bed would be anyway?

Not sure if this is correct but I have also read that in the triple rooms all the beds are by the closet anyhow, so maybe we don't have a choice...

(My husband said boys wont use the closet so who cares...lol)

Just got off the Breeze on Saturday, there was one in our mailbox. The kiosks are around also but I never got around to printing one out.

Your review is excellent!!...I am hoping you will get to the Breeze review before we leave on the 18th. We are sailing the Breeze on Oct. 20th. Last minute getaway. Were the inflatables included at Mr. Sanchos as part of what you paid?

Need help finding a Port Canaveral hotel with free shuttle from the Orlando airport. I have checked other boards but really haven't found much help. If anyone has some info it will be greatly appreciated.

it is a 45 minute drive to Port Canaveral from Orlando...I don't know of any hotels over there that run a free shuttle to/from MCO Orlando airport...can't be very cost effective for them....the only ones I know of that do that are usually only within a mile or so from the airport. We have rented a car in the past and drove ourselves when we were staying extra days or when we went directly to the ship we let the cruise line handle it...very convenient...when we rented the car ..we drove from Orlando, stayed at Radisson Resort at the Port and the car rental place was next door ..we returned the car in the morning and the rental place drove us to the port..for free...hotel also has a shuttle but you had to reserve it in advance and many people waiting on them ..not as convenient as car rental shuttle who was waiting for us when we dropped off the car..

The Intercontiental is the closest.quote]

 

 

Holiday Inn port of Miami is .8 miles and Intercontinental is 1.3 miles from the port of miami according to map quest

My first cruise was in Hawaii for Christmas/New Years 1989-1990 It was with American Hawaii Cruises on the SS Independence for a one week cruise. The sister ship was the SS Constitution. The same itinerary is now run with NCL I believe. Dont know what ever happened to either ship...they were already very old at the time I sailed then back then. We were celebrating my parents 25th anniversary and I was in college and my brother was a senior in high school

Thin? New York? That isn't pizza. Chicago Pan pizza, that's pizza!

I agree with you only whne I am in Chicago..lol....but since no one outside of a 10 mile radius of chicago can do a good deep dish..its safer with thin style...hard to mess up (but some still do)

definitely Princess....thin New York style pizza...then Disney and Carnival...