north29

Your blood pressure will be up if you do what you say. We ALWAYS stay at least one or two days before a cruise, if not more. South Hampton is a easy place to embark a ship from Hotels, assuming you are mobile you did not say and has a lot to see there as well. Place like the Titanic Bar where the cruisers and crew drank before the Titanic voyage, to a small chapel on a main street with referenced to"Crossing the Bar" 1889 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, trip to the isle Wight, get on a train and go to Brighton, Bath, I guess you get the idea.

PS we did the National express to SH and it was a PITA(the first time) to locate in the Airport and a LONG very busy highway ride to SH.

I could think or plan that far ahead.

What many are saying, WAIT until the last minute to cancel cruise, if there are no other options for warm weather vacations. That is a busy time of year for flights to warm weather and it will be toward the last of the HIGH season, having not looked at the calendar, Prices could radically change.

I see man post about ordering Luggage tags, and never get them>

I received my luggage tags in the Mail today, NEVEF ORDERED THEM.

Funny I just printed mine out and attached them to my luggage, LOL

Find the buffet and a quite corner, order wine and say THAT WAS EASY

It wasn't free. You paid for it.;)

Second that.

However RC does seem to be a little higher when buying a beverage package????

And for the most part disappointed in both food and service. However Quzine was our favorite fun speciality restaurant on any ship.

I have always though that some of the boutique lines would end up being less expensive than the Main stream lines like x. However, dress code is may not be for us. We never wear shorts, and always dress appropriately, and on trips in the Caribbean take a jacket and dress pants. On longer travel/sight seeing adventurous cruises NO Jacket or Dress clothes, but still look nice with, god forbid our modern ways, designer jeans for my wife, she also can be uses off the ship. Regents dress code(never looked it up) might keep us from trying it.

We enjoy both X and RC and D+ on RC. The service seems overall better than RC. The big difference is the physical activities, out side of the spa/work out room there are virtually NONE. One example is the sports court if in FRONT of the ship LOL, on sea days playing some Basket ball, you have to allow for 20-40 mile an hour wind.

I still prefer the Freedom class ships with the promenade and we do not care for the Oasis ships, well the entertainment is nice on them.

IF you do any of these cruises you will do MORE. There is just too many places to see and enjoy in the Med. If you can afford it or have the time I would do the 9 day cruise and fly into Venice and spend at least 3-4 days on the island. We we recently did a Greek and eastern med cruise from Venice, I think the last one that went to Turkey, and what every one has said the sail away and sail in from Venice is fantastic.

Athens is not my favorite but needs to be done, but please get a private tour of Athens, do not use the ships tours of 50 pax buses. Get some shopping time in the area around the Parthenon. I would say the same for Dubrovnik, it will be crowed and do not stand along the walls LOL you will understand my message if you look up.

PS you might find some tour operators/travel agencies that offer some pre and or post tours in areas of the Med at reasonable prices. In Venice, stay on the Island.

How good was the Internet service on the Constellation?

Derail

I have said this before TIPPING is out of control. The employees are just doing their job, if they do something special like clean up after you vomit all over the bath room, or something else special, or you just like them of what ever reason. You should tip more, but other than special things that PREPAID Gratuities is enough.

Driving

do not believe all you read about food. Someone mentioned about that the raw food is sourced from different providers in Europe which is true. last October we found the food basically the same but some things like Prime Rib was very different.

Try googling it? Maybe Canadian meds has a animal section.

As a long time RC cruiser, if I now have to worry about seeing shows, dining, maybe my Cruising days are coming to an end, at least with RC and BIG SHIPS. Maybe, It might be a good time for me to try some other cruise lines, many of them are offering the PPG's and drink package as perks.

Change their mind, but as we were told in September, no cruise or only a few were going to Kusadasi. We did a small private tour and that is the only way to see the FABULOUS ruins. Turkey is safer that most think, the Media plays much too big a role in shaping our minds.

Maybe their expectations were too high, sometimes age and newly acquired occupations from long hard work at their schools, makes young people, for lack of a better word think they are "entitled" to better service.

I have never seen "BAD" enough service on any RC ship, worth removing gratuities. Many replies, use the word stellar service, never have I received what I would call stellar service on ANY cruise ship. I should say I have seen great, good and Yes some what OFF target service in certain service areas of the ship.

I saw people saying that because of reviews, they were thinking about canceling a cruise???????? you have to be kidding.

I always though that auto gratuities were just a easy way to tip period.

I have always given a few extra bucks if they(all areas of the ship) did something for me ABOVE AND BEYOND. Giving cash makes some people feel GOOD, like the old days. Those who remove auto Gratuities SUCK, most will not tip even close to the daily requested amount. I bet these same people stiff the waitstaff at their local restaurants.

I said this some where before it is not our problem/business on how the Gratuities are paid out, and the employees are DOING THEIR JOB.

Being friendly to a crew member who may see you for a week and never see you again can tell you strange stories true or made up to make you feel sorry for them. Working on a cruise ship is a hard job but it must be better than what other jobs they can find.

NOTE,, many cruisers who live near a cruise port, and seem to live on a partially ship, and yes become known by first names by many crew member, maybe it is a good thing to tip above and beyond.

The only thing you will miss is the Promenade. The we have been on most of the Freedom and Mariner class ships and they are our favorites, but there is nothing wrong with the Equinox but it is different. Many inside venues are small, like the Movie theater, and some cruisers spend all day there it seems. If you are active and seek some real workout or sports, there is nothing outside of the workout room in the spa. Not even a place to play ping pong where cruisers cannot walk in front of the table just when you want to serve.

I still like the Equinox and I'm booked for the Xmas and NY cruises.

Just put in a request to X and I cannot think of a problem but one never knows

But why, both cities are great visits. As mentioned above, they are not far apart.

PS, if you can, stay in a areas near the gold markets in Dubai, enough said

and I hate the 5* spiel

There is no room to totally express your opinion it is either good or bad according, evidently to RC.

Service can vary for a variety of reasons from Rude and overly demanding cruisers to a Head waiter that knows ******* with a waiter who just cannot make it. I do agree they all seem to be over worked, well at times.

Food is not the servers fault whether it is good or BAD. Food can vary from quality of raw/frozen food supplies to new chefs, who may have come from Carnival or NCL LOL need a little humor.

Than expensive cruise ship tours notice I said PERU. We did all of Peru with a local Peruvian native now American citizen who runs 4 trips a year and a local Peruvian handcrafts shop. I think the cost was at that time $2500 PP plus air from Orlando and it was a all inclusive trip. He will only travel in Spring and Fall due to weather issues please note weather.

If you have the money heck do the cruise ship go for it but Peru is a great place to visit not just Machu Picchu.

Never seen a RCI ship is bad condition. Just like any boat in salt water and with lots of maintenance, they still will show a little some issues.

I have been trying to print my Xpass with Safari on my Mac. I tried at least four time and finally did a print screen which gave me the barcode but just the screen behind it.

I just tried it in Chrome and it worked like a Champ. I wonder if they know about it, lots of smart people uses Macs, LOL

I should say I never tried it from iPhone or iPad.