sgmn

Our cruise on independence from Southampton in September is £41.80 a day for deluxe package but nothing extra added at check out so includes grautuities .

Im afraid I dont know about the drinks card, we had the package which I booked online and actually saved a bit. Most of the shows were excellent, two ice shows were great, Grease was brilliant too. The production shows were very good. We had a Queen tribute act called The Bohemians which was very loud but very good. Darren Day was OK took a bit of time to get going but funny in the end and he can sing im. The comedian Josh Daniels at the farewell show on our last night had us all crying he was really good. Not sure if you will get the same acts. We didnt go to the Love & Marriage show but saw it on the tv and it was very funny. The Hypnotist was good but im not a big fan of that. The two street parties on the Royal Promenade were good fun mainly down to the music and the efforts of the cruise director Joff Eaton. He also did a great job with The Quest. You have to go to that just to experience it - so funny.

Could have done with one less sea day but there was always plenty to do and the weather was excellent so just soaked up the sun mostly. We played Bingo on sea days but beware it is really expensive.

Have you been to any of the ports before? We did 3 organised trips and did our own thing on the others. Anything else I can answer happy to help. Enjoy

We've done Gib and Rome but the others are new to us. Will probably also do a mix of our own thing and a couple of ships tours/transfers . Not sure what to do in Toulon though. Your entertainment sounds fab, hope we get similar standard in September. Thanks for your help

Sue

Chops and Giovanni staff do not share in the auto grats. Officially, your payment us a service charge, just like room service.

 

BTW, what 20% are you referring to?

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

I always thought that the specialist restaurants price include gratuities - is this incorrect?

We have just done the 14 night Med cruise and had a fabulous time. I am planning to write a review very soon which may be of help. If there are any particular questions I will try and help.

Thanks Mrs roller - glad you had a good time. Do you remember if there was a drink card offered , if so at what point during the cruise and was the entertainment good. Also with five sea days was there enough to do ? A few firsts for us this time - first time ex UK, and the longest cruise so far. Thanks Sue

anyone done the 14 night med cruise this year yet and can post some info regarding shows, drink cards etc - booked for September so guess the guest shows acts would change but interested in any info - thanks Sue

Thanks for the review, we have just booked Independence for Autumn - first time starting a cruise in UK. Nice to hear some positives. We won't be getting the drink package, can you remember if the 10 drink card was sold for set price as has been on some RC cruises?

They offered it in Vision last month - believe you could stay on and use public facilities (not stateroom ) until just before final boarding. Great if you have a late flight. Wish it was offered in States when most transatlantic flights are departing late afternoon/evening

Our flight arrived around midnight/1am the day of sailing. We booked the Holiday Inn Express Dubai Airport which included free transport to the hotel and free hot breakfast. The hotel is only two star but it was modern and fine for a few hours sleep/shower and freshen up before going to the cruise terminal around 11am later that morning. The hotel was around £80. The only problem was I had booked a non smoking room but when shown into our room at 2 am in the morning it was definitely a smoking room !!. Too tried to complain - probably at that time it was all they had left. Mentioned it to the front desk on check out and they were very apologetic and provided us with a hotel car to take us to the port free of charge as an apology.

We also got our two bottles of wine at Heathrow duty free for around £8 a bottle. Also pre-booked two bottles of wine through the RC gift website - still expensive but cheaper than buying on board and nice to get it pre paid before the cruise. Only problem was on the front page of the first day cruise compass was a paragraph stating that there was a corkage charge for consuming outside staterooms. Because of this we didn't take into dinning room - not sure if this was a mistake as I always thought RC did not have corkage anymore?

Just come off vision and thought she was in fantastic shape - very clean and hardly any sign of wear and tear . Crew was fantastic , captain very visible (and great singer). Only slight criticism was difficult to get sun loungers because of chair hogs - wish there was some way for crew to monitor loungers that weren't being used. Also entertainment in theatre wasn't the best though the Motown singer was fab and Beatles tribute band also ok.

Think the guarentee rate (where they choose the room) is basic without drink package at least on the cruise I was looking at, they are considerable cheaper than all inclusive

Thanks for the review - not many from this part of the world. Interesting what you said about first time cruisers and lack of meet and mingle - don't think there is even a roll call started for our cruise on 27Feb !

Did you notice if there were any drink cards - couldn't see anything on the cruise compasses. If not think we will be going 'dry' - hurts too much to pay their prices for drinks :D

Was it easy to walk to places in Muscat - we have a dhow tour for the first day but planning on doing our own thing for the second day.

Thanks again - Sue

Are you on vision now - how is the old girl doing ?

Thanks Little Britain - that's what I was hoping for, just a short taxi ride from our hotel. Our docs aren't ready yet so can't check on my planner

Just wondered which Port they use - I thought it was Port Rashid which is fairly close to our hotel but looking on RC website under Middle East cruises it seems to imply that it is DP World Cruise Terminal which is waaaaay out

Just checked with the call centre and they are offering $100 for every £80 - so around 1.25 dollars to pound. Usually they offer a premium (maybe to encourage on board spending !) but this is the same you can get on line more or less, so..... disappointing. It was 1.40 last Summer and around 1.60 a couple of years ago. Great time for all our American friends to visit UK, not so good the other way round.

Anyone? I'd be interested too _ last time I purchase OBC was last summer. Think it was 1.40 to pound then .

Really interesting to hear about different ports. Looking forward to the rest of your review

NO more cruises for you, why are you posting on cruise critic period?....K.O. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

What does K.O. mean - I see it at the end of all your quotes - is it your initials?

Not sure if still there, but there was always a duty free shop selling alcohol in arrivals at Dubai airport. You cannot buy alcohol in the normal mall shops or supermarkets.

Hi - Premier Inn have a hotel near the airport - they are very reasonable and a good basic standard. Check out their website. For a little more luxury there is Le Meridien near the airport - great open air food options. Or get a hotel attached to the city centre mall - this is very close to the airport. So many choices

Does anyone know if these deals are available in the UK ? If so how do you sign up for the newsletter

... you would think common sense would kick in and there would be some flexiability as you are trying to go for a more expensive longer cruise. I would suggest if they are refusing to move on this point that you add on another cruise with another cruise line after your RC cruise, if there is a suitable one available - that way you won't lose your deposit.

Drink card was offered on day five (of nine) last week on Jewel - $80 (plus service charge) for ten drinks - so only worth it for more expensive glasses of wine or expensive cocktails.

Just FYI - they had different 'drink of the day' in each bar for $8.95 and because it was so port intensive I was glad I didn't purchase the drink package as only managed average of three drinks a day !

...according to some Celebrity guests who were in port of Santorini on same day as us (Jewel) last week. We got chatting to them in the next port (Naples). They said several passengers came running up to the dock just after the last tender had left. Again this tender was about half an hour after the latest on board time. Apparently the queue to come down in the cable car was two hours long - we decided to take the steps which as I am not very fit took around 40 minutes. This is why I always take our passports off ship with us!

They told me in Vintages it's supposed to be 5oz or around 150ml.

Ah thanks for the info - I often wondered. The standard pour for wine in UK is 175ml, with a large glass 250ml. Better for the waist line but makes a glass of wine seem even more expensive if just 150ml.