CruisingWalter

Colors of the lighting can be changed to anything they want. On Scarlet night it's red in the hallway, on disembarkation day it's white. Just like the exterior lighting. It never changed from red on our first cruise in July 2022, but on our most recent cruise, it changed from red to white each evening.

Alaska is very much like a river cruise, but on a very large ship. Personally, we recommend smaller ships in Alaska because you spend so much time in port, you want to be able to easily exit and embark onto the ship. Smaller ships can also more easily navigate into and out of port in Alaska. Note that Quantum is skipping Skagway this year for reported 'pier damage' from the rockslides, That's one small part of it, but in reality, it's probably the logistical nightmare of trying to bus over 4000 from the rear berth to land that is the reason for the cancellations. Or using the water tenders from the forward berth if she can even tie up there. Meanwhile smaller ships have the option to tie up at the secondary pier in Skagway and they can sometimes call into piers that the larger ships can't. If I was choosing a Royal ship for Alaska I'd go with Radiance or Brilliance of the Seas. Alaska IS the star on those cruises and you are generally in port much longer on Alaska cruises. For me the big ships get in the way more than they help on that itinerary. If you are one of the very first cruises in the season be aware that not everything may be open yet. And at the very end of the season, the same, some tours and shops will have already shut down. April/May and end of August to October have fewer kids. If you go to Alaska after Aug. 21 you will be in "Aurora Season" (northern lights) with at least a chance to see them in the evening. Honestly Royal is not my first choice for Alaska, we did a Princess Cruise Tour for 14 days that is still the most incredible cruise we've taken. 7 days on land staying in Princess lodges in Fairbanks, Denali and Copper River, then the full 7 day cruise on the Sapphire Princess. That was about as large of a ship as I'd want in Alaska. But regardless, go to Alaska, you will have an amazing time!

Nope, as far as I know, Tampa is the only Florida port where you can reserve parking at the terminal itself. We have not had issues parking at Port Canaveral, Miami or Ft. Lauderdale so far since the restart of cruising.

Wonder of the Seas sea trials were August 2021. Inaugural sailing was March 2022. 7 months almost to the day. Sea Trials are held rather early in the finishing process and before much of the inside is completed. This is due to the vibration and noise checks throughout the ship before all the finishings are added. Captain Kate documented a lot of the noise and vibration testing during the sea trials of Celebrity Beyond and it's clear, the ship is still basically a skeleton inside during the trials. Sensors were placed on the raw steel to measure the vibration transfer and noise throughout the ship. That could only be done before the flooring and other finishing went in. 7 months from sea trials to finish seems about right for the first in a brand new class of ship. They will probably discover some unexpected issues when she gets out to sea for the first time.

Good TAs are worth their weight in gold for sure. We used the same TA for over 17 years. Good luck with the search! And as others have noted, paying online via RCCL's system is perfectly fine. If you're uncomfortable with that, just call it in. They're usually quite helpful on the phone.

3 Nights, 4 Days. You'll be charged departure day because your car is still in the lot on the day the ship returns. It's the same with all parking garages in Florida.

I'm not sure why anyone would advocate for taking money away from the room stewards who work incredibly long hours to keep our cabins clean. Switching from two to one cleanings per day doesn't detract from the amount of work these people do.

First off The Key is worth it if the price is close to what you would pay for WiFi for the week, that's our barometer on whether it's worth it to pay. We did it for our most recent Symphony of the Seas cruise. The Key Priority Embarkation is exactly that, at least in Miami. There is a separate line to enter and you can get there during the first embarkation time. You'll be taken up to the Suite lounge to wait to board the ship. For me that's the best part of the entire experience. Embarkation Lunch was not worth it. They claim it's a menu from Chops Grill but the quality is nowhere close to Chops Grill. At least it wasn't on our December Symphony of the Seas cruise. Next time we do The Key we'll skip lunch. The free FlowRider and Ice Skating times are cool, I missed the FlowRider but took advantage of the ice skating, definitely a quieter rink. But if the difference between The Key and weekly WiFi is a lot, it's up to you whether it's worth it. I think we got the value out of it for our December cruise.

Just go to the Dock on the very back of Deck 7. Start with the Tapas and a nice cocktail to get the cruise started. The Sun Club noted above may or may not be open when you board. We've had it open once and close the second time.

It's usually about one year out so when the 2023 season ends, we'll start to see some announcements. I will say if you can go to Alaska this year, pricing is much better in 2023 than 2024 in many cases.

It changes almost daily. Our rule of thumb is to compare it to the daily WiFi costs. If it's close to that price, we purchase it since the WiFi is included. I will say The Key embarkation lunch was very weak on our Symphony OTS cruise in December. We'll skip that part the next time we use The Key.

Cruise Timetables is usually a pretty accurate website for cruise ships in ports. Here's the specific page for Skagway, select the date you're supposed to be there to see if Quantum is listed. https://www.cruisetimetables.com/skagway-alaska-cruise-ship-schedule.html Quantum IS listed for May 9th so it's still listed as having calls there. The two other ships in port that day are relatively small so I would suspect the Brilliance OTS will be at the smaller dock and the Crown Princess would be at the forward end of the main pier with Quantum behind her. https://www.cruisetimetables.com/skagwayalaskaschedule-09may2024.html

We sailed Symphony back in December and while we really enjoyed our meals onboard, we found the MDR to be one of the weaker meals on the entire ship. We ate most of our meals at the various restaurants onboard. While the MDR wasn't bad, and you certainly won't go hungry in the MDR, it wasn't something worth writing home about either, both the food and the service. If you're interested, we posted a full video food review from that trip.

As others have noted the water will simply push you up to the top. Note that you will be signing a waiver before you can ride the Flowrider that basically says if you hurt yourself or die, RCCL is not responsible. No joke. They start you out on laying out on your stomach on the boogie board. If you do well with that, they'll allow you to get on your knees on the board. Then if you do well with that, you're finally allowed to stand up on the board. If you purchase The Key you will get some private time with a small group on the Flowrider (and ice rink) as part of the package.

Not sure it's worth paying a premium to be on the 'newest ship.' We sailed Symphony last December and found it to be lovely. Great shows, some really good food and overall a great vibe. (food review here) Wonder has the newest bells and whistles, but Symphony and the other Oasis class ships are pretty awesome in their own right and they don't have the premium price tag of Wonder. From those who have sailed many of the RCCL ships, Wonder is not their favorite. When it comes to Oasis Class, seems Symphony and Allure come up a lot and for the overall favorite ship, Odyssey comes up a lot. That's the next RCCL ship I'm planning to book.

Price drops are not happening very much at all of late. Ships are sailing 100%+ full so there is no need to drop pricing. Instead they're going the opposite way. I've seen 3 night cruises with Interiors going for $1900pp on ships like Mariner. Right cruise lines are rewarding people for booking far in advance and if you want to get on a ship last minute, you just might be paying 2 to 3x what everyone else on the ship paid.

Yep it's not 'real Korean BBQ' but the original concept of allowing everyone to cook themselves was dropped after the pandemic. You can still find original marketing images that clearly show the guests cooking for themselves. If you're looking for 'authentic anything' on a cruise ship, you'll most often be disappointed. I could go on for days about Extra Virgin 'issues' with me being of Italian Heritage, but I enjoy my meals there. It's not the best, but it's certainly not the worst, but put that place up against anywhere on Arthur Avenue and it's terrible. Considering we don't have to pay anything extra for Gunbae, I love it because it's one of the few places where you're actually seated with guests you may not know. For me it's more the social aspect of eating there than just the food. The food is good, the atmosphere is fun and if you don't take it seriously, it's a great evening out. If we didn't eat at Gunbae we would have never had a chance dinner encounter with the Diva a few weeks ago. Honestly while the food may not always be the best in Gunbae, we've had a great social experience each time, so we'll keep going back.

YAAAAAASSSSSSSSS!!!!!! That will be me again in November. 🙂

That's the nature of any food hall style eatery. They're not preparing food from a central kitchen. Each food station has its own set of orders so depending on where your order is in the stack, and how long your dish takes to prepare, that determines when your food will actually be delivered.

The examples you give are definitely people coming in with the wrong expectations. (Being upset because you didn't have access to all the areas of a ship.... 🤣) If every ship experience was exactly the same, that would be so boring, especially when it comes to food. The only negative reviews I pay attention to are those that discuss customer service. It's striking to me how many bad experiences guests have had with crew on MSC ships from stewards to senior management. I'm Italian by heritage so I know we can be abrasive at times and can sometimes tell you exactly how we feel. But when your entire product is based on excellent customer service to provide a welcoming vacation for your guests, there's no excuse to berate your passengers or provide bad customer service. Those are the reviews that have caught my attention and I'm very interested to see what the customer service is like and how they react to upset guests and negative situations. That is one area that should be just like the rest of the cruise lines if you want to have a product that thrives long term in the hospitality business. I'll give you a great example of what I consider excellent customer service that happened last month. On Sky Princess our dinner at Sabatini's took over 3 1/2 hours for no particular reason. The restaurant was not full, but it was taking up to 45 minutes between courses with no explanation from our server. Our food was 'dying' in the pass. What is usually my favorite meal on a Princess cruise was the worst. I let the manager know we were unhappy on the way out and left it at that. The next day the Dining Supervisor (or whatever his title is), found me on the ship to discuss the situation. He apologized and invited us to dine at Sabatini's again or Crown Grille on him. We chose Crown Grille. He came to our table at Crown Grille to check on our dinner, even brought the Executive Chef out to talk to us. He invited us to dine at Bistro Sur Le Mer the next evening, which we declined because we needed a break from all the big meals. The next day he found us in the buffet to chat and check in. That's way beyond what I would have expected, I would have been happy with the dinner being comped at Sabatini's. But the customer service after a negative experience is what is the deciding factor for me whether I will return to a product. As I've mentioned before we've sailed 8 different cruise lines so far and it's the customer service that keeps us coming back to cruising. We don't expect a perfect cruise, we know things will happen on pretty much every cruise. But how the customer service responds determines if we'll be back on that cruise line anytime in the near future.

No it has not changed, we've already been warned on that. I have to get two WiFi packages for my phone and computer. Horrible system, but it is what it is and I know about it going in.

Thanks so much for all the input!

Thanks so much for all the great advice!

Yep, just like Haven on NCL or Retreat on Celebrity. "You get what you pay for" on any ship. 🙂 Thanks for all the great input!

Hi all! We've been cruising nearly 20 years, have sailed on 8 different cruise lines because we love exploring new ships and new cruise lines. Very first MSC cruise will be May 28 on the Seaside from Port Canaveral. Please give me your top 3 things we should know before sailing on MSC and/or the ship. For reference, we are Bella Balcony guarantee on this sailing. Previous cruise lines are Virgin Voyages, Princess, Disney, Celebrity, Carnival, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, about 20 cruises in all so far. I'm a foodie and also love a good Old Fashioned cocktail. Thank you kindly for your input!