davy jones

It would be nice for smokers and nonsmokers alike if cruise lines standarized this.

53 minutes ago, love2cruise23 said:

We were on the 8 day Halloween sailing that included Miami at the end. I can confirm that it was a disaster and this change is a huge improvement. There are always going to be selfish cruisers that think the rules don’t apply to them and that translated to people being stuck in the arrival hall for 4+ hours without food, water etc. Consider yourself lucky that they made this change because I know I would never intentionally book this itinerary again.

I was also on the cruise and could not agree more.  Wise move by Royal.

Thanksgiving sailings are usually packed.  That could be the cause of your observation.

Quantum class ships are built for year round sailing.  Hence the focus is for more indoor activity areas.   The lack of a water park may contribute to the crowded feeling on a holiday cruise.

1 hour ago, exm said:

Hi,

 

I'm going in January out of Bayonne on a RC cruise. My car with the roof box attached will be around 90" and it looks like the garage has a 88" restriction: "The height restriction of the garage is 7’ 4”. There is an open lot adjacent to the parking garage to accommodate vehicles with height restrictions."

 

Has anyone have any experience with this "open lot"?

Two experiences.  One good, one not so good.  As long as there are no hurricanes you should be fine.

Prior to the construction of the current terminal and parking deck, everyone parked in the open lot.  During the cruise, storm surge from Hurricane Sandy flooded the parking and a lot of cars were impacted, including ours.  

On the bright side, Mrs. Jones did (and still does) enjoy her new ride.  Also, we always park on level 2 or higher in the parking deck.

15 hours ago, mackfam said:

I knew it was the Brooklyn terminal. Is that a bad thing?

As a embark/ debark point, probably not.  It may even be a good thing.  You will need to adjust your travel plans though.

One caveat, you don't get the Manhattan and Statue of Liberty views afforded by a Manhattan sail away.

This is the first cruise ship beer menu that I have seen that includes Yuengling lager, aka Nectar of the Gods (OK, a bit over the top), my go to brew at home.  I am a little happier.

I will likely use the package to try other beers anyway.  On ships without Yuengling, I sometimes have a beer of the day for each day.

sorry wrong thread

Just now, UnregisteredUser said:

It was the same for us. There was a planned launch on the day we left Canaveral and there were lots of people gathered at the deck well in time and then they cancelled it 10 min before launch due to bad weather 😞

Sorry to hear that.  At least we had good weather.

25 minutes ago, UnregisteredUser said:

Was the boat big? 😉

 

Just kidding, what time did you arrive in Port Canaveral? I did an Oasis sailing out of New Jersey in Sept and we arrived about 12, couldn't leave the ship for our Space Center tour until 1pm so we only had like two hours there before we had to return. 

We were schedule to arrive at noon, but got in around 11:30.  The captain said that he had to arrive a little early because of port restrictions for a launch at the space center.  The launch did not happen.  Apparently, it was moved to the next day.  Very disappointing for us because our balcony was directly facing the space center and launch pad.

13 hours ago, Basketball wife said:

Does Solarium Bistro take orders and serve main course as on Oasis or are main courses under the lights as part of the buffet as on Odyssey??

They take orders for the main course and apps and dessert are buffet style.

We are experienced North American cruisers who are considering trying a MSC Caribbean cruise.

We have sailed on all of the mainstream US lines in standard cabins.  How does MSC compare to them in terms of onboard atmosphere, dining, and entertainment?  We prefer my time dining vs. fixed seating. 

There is a small MDR breakfast buffet on Anthem.   If made to order eggs are not important to you, it is a very relaxing alternative for a quick breafast.

14 hours ago, jessed said:

Food and service in main dining room was the worst in my 15 cruises with RCI. After three nights we went to the buffet which was surprisingly pretty good. 

We stayed on the ship at PC, time frame doesn't give you much time to do anything.

 

Agree on the MDR service.  It has really gone down.  At least getting your soup, salad, and appy served at the same time at dinner speeds up the meal.  MDR service at breakfast and lunch was horrendous.

I thought that the MDR food had improved over our most recent Royal cruise.  WJ is always hit and miss, but there is always something good.

PC from noon to 8 is pretty much a waste of a port stop, particularly if not docked at terminal 1.

On 11/12/2022 at 2:27 PM, teddie said:

Thanks for the offer for answers.  We will be on this same itinerary out of Bayonne on 2/2/23.  We haven't cruised for quite some time, and I'm back here for updates.  Please advise which were the designated formal nights, and what was your take on the formal nights?

 

Also, where is Silk located?

 

Thanks, Teddie

Formal night has gone the way of the VCR and dial phone.  A few will dress up formally (suits), but it is mostly shirts and slacks.  There are as many baseball shirts and caps in the MDR as there are suits and ties.

Silk is one of the MDRs on deck 4 aft.  It is across from American Icon.  

FYI - our card was credited this morning, so the refund was quite efficient.

We never received the emailed final statement, but the refund amount was the same as shown on the stateroom TV prior to departure.

On 4/21/2022 at 2:10 PM, Another_Critic said:

I liked the different venues with different menus.  What I didn't like was the garage, bug-ridden reservation system while trying to coordinate dinner with shows (also required reservations).  Of course, that may have improved after the first sailing (Quantum TA Nov 2-10, 2014).

 

On my next sailing (Anthem TA Oct 27 to Nov 4, 2015), I chose Dynamic Dining Classic (fixed time, same table, same waitstaff but rotated through each venue).  I really liked that.

 

I think part of the issue was that The Grande was always formal (men had to wear a jacket), so reservations probably didn't balance out too well across the four venues.

I also liked the DD idea.  I do believe that the failure of DD was a combination of the vocal minority and a poorly executed reservation system.

I was on Anthem last week.  We had made reservations for the same time each night prior to sailing.  We did cancel 3 evenings onboard for specialty dining.  Three nights we had the same table in American Icon.  One night, we were given a table in Chic, and the other night we were seated in Grande.  Go figure.

1 hour ago, Cyndi874 said:

I was on this cruise and have been waiting to post since the event was ongoing, but was unable to log into Cruise Critic until right now.

 

For a bit of closure as for what happened to the final group of four passengers that were hiding on their balcony- (and this was after the other 29 passengers had finally been found and left the ship)

 

According to a couple of employees in the Miami immigration terminal (NOT Royal Caribbean employees but Immigration terminal employees) 

 

The four passengers that were hiding are being charged by Immigration for obstruction of the Immigration process. 

 

I don't really know the specifics of what that means, I would imagine at the very least, it would be a hefty fine for all four of them. (Assuming none are minors- I don't know that detail. I would not be surprised if they were detained and removed from the ship and immigration terminal for at least a few hours. 

 

I would be extremely surprised if they were allowed back onboard the ship. After all, they were in violation of the cruise contract and cost RCCL thousands of dollars and created a literal nightmare situation for not only 5000 passengers- but also every single crew member all the way from every cabin steward who had to hear 5000 people complaining to them over the next several hours, to the Guest Services employees who had to deal with a line of furious people trying to get refunds for missed excursions, spa bookings, Northstar reservations, or just to angrily vent, the Windjammer and other food venue employees who had to deal with thousands of hot and HANGRY passengers, to the Captain who had to publicly apologize over the ship announcement system more than once (I heard two announcements after I was onboard) and write/send out an apology letter to every stateroom.

 

I cannot imagine a reality in which those four passengers would be allowed to sail with Royal Carribean again anytime soon.

I certainly hope that that is the case.  There were many people who had pretty bad experiences.

The intent of the times is to limit the number of people in the terminal to reduce the risk of spreading COVID, flu, or the common cold.  At Cape Liberty, it appeared that if there was no line and the numbers inside the terminal were acceptable, you could get in to keep a steady flow of passengers.  I imagine that a check in line would cause enforcement of the boarding time.

We were on the cruise. It was a very pleasant cruise.

 While there were many of very bad experiences that day, our experience was not nearly as bad as many.  However, what I did see made me believe that the really bad reports did happen.  The short version is that we went on a shore excursion, arrived back at the ship at 1:30 to a line of several thousand irate passengers and did not get back onboard until 2:30.  I observed a lot of non chaotic anger and dissatisfaction.  The semi order was likely due to the presence of the Miami police.   I'd consider our experience more as an inexcusable inconvenience caused by a combination of poor passenger behavior and incompetence by the US immigration, Royal Caribbean, and Miami port operations.  

I will not discuss the rude passengers who are the root cause of the problem other than to say that their cruise should have ended in Miami.  The others should be holding thorough reviews to identify the issues that caused the fiasco and how to avoid them in the future.  I will only comment on Royal because this is a Royal forum and discussion of the other agencies is not appropriate here.

From my own experiences in this matter.  The onboard communication from Royal was inconsistent and contradictory.  The day prior to the Miami stop, I went to the shorex desk and specifically asked for guidance on what to do.  We were told to go meet the group at the assigned time (9:15 AM) in the theater and everything would be taken care of.  Later the same day, documents were delivered to our cabin saying that we were assigned to a mandatory immigration time of 8:15 AM on the pier and would not be able to return to the ship until it was completely cleared.  We went back to the shorex desk that evening to clarify this and were told to disembark at 8:15 AM and wait outside to until 9:15 and meet the tour outside the terminal.  

Based on the final information, we got up an hour early to prepare for the 8:15 departure.  The 8:15 announcement began and we left the cabin.  At the end of the announcement, it was announced that all shore excursions should follow the meeting time and place on the shore ex ticket (9:15 in the theater).  Fortunately, we heard this before disembarking and returned to the cabin to wait.

The same announcement said that those not planning to go ashore could wait until the end to disembark.  While this makes sense, the wording likely encouraged longer than anticipated stays onboard.  

Based on our experience, my "advice" to Royal would be to provide consistent, clear communication between internal departments and clear message to the passengers.  They certainly have other things to cover and improve during the inquiry.

In my mind it is over, but Royal would be wise to take steps to prevent and/or mitigate future events like this.

Thanks for the info.  We disembarked yesterday so casino is not an option.  We still have not received the emailed final statement.  We have a paper preliminary statement, but there were a couple of charges the last night that we verified on the TV.  

It should not be a big deal to issue a credit on the cruise credit card.

18 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Quantum class ships will likely feel familiar and could be a good choice. 

Agreed.  Anthem has a more "adult" feel than Oasis class.  I think it is because of the lack of a water park or ice rink and the fact that the SeaPlex is indoors and has more varied activities. 

15 hours ago, Ret MP said:

We did this place on October 31st prior to getting on the Independence of the Seas.  Had breakfast and a few starter drinks (Bloody Mary and Screw Driver).  I had the Biscuits and Gravy with 2 over medium on top and my wife had hashbrowns.  To be honest, the Gravy was the best Gravy I've had in a long time.  The biscuits where just Okay.  My wife liked the hashbrowns.  Nice place.  Super friendly wait staff.  

 

BTW:  The restaurant is right next to the Terminal, easy walk.  

 

 

Your cruise was the ship docked at terminal 1 that I referenced in my previous post.  We were on the Anthem.  It appeared to be a long walk on busy looking roads without sidewalks.  Most people stayed onboard.

How does Royal handle this?  Do they send you a check, or credit it to your credit card?

10 hours ago, RandomUser123 said:

I forget the dude's name who was playing piano at Schooner Bar but he was very good, I remember he was from Sheffield England. We checked him out a couple times. He basically played there almost every night. I want to say it was The Dukes who played at Music Hall but that may have been towards the end.

In addition to the Dukes, there were a couple of appearances by a Bon Jovi tribute band, but I do not recall the name of that band.

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Are they serving traditional breakfast and lunch in MDR or did they do a brunch that was being done on some ships this summer?

Traditional breakfast and lunch in American Icon.  I found the service at these meals to be slow.  There is also mini buffet breakfast in Silk.  We found it to be more relaxing than either WJ or traditional sit down in American Icon.