DireMongoose

Put us down for one more family that did the 9 day ABC on Navigator about a month ago. Overall, the ship was really well maintained.

Disclaimer: we tried the all-specialty-dining package for the first time and didn't eat in the dining room at all. The food quality in Navigator's Sabor might be the best of all we've tried (for example, the chicken stuffed jalapenos are often really dry and here they were consistently moist and terrific) and Izumi's on Navigator might be the best run specialty restaurant we've tried on Royal period (great service, consistently high food quality, etc.)

OP, if you like the itinerary you can't go wrong with this.

Clarea thank you for the response! Wow, Izumi and the Mexican wouldn't do us any good, I don't really eat seafood and have to be gluten free, my father in law doesn't like Mexican, I made the right choice but thank you for explaining the rules to me.

Izumi's isn't just sushi, for what it's worth -- you can also get hibachi for example.

Also: Adventure Ocean on Oasis does a family scavenger hunt on the ship on one of the sea days. It only runs about an hour but you might enjoy doing that too.

Just completed back to back (1/29-2/12) on Freedom OTS and couldn't have been happier.

Would you be willing to say a little bit about how menus and shows repeated or didn't? We're doing B2B on Freedom (6 day and 8 day) in April.

If you're in good shape, the volcano hike excursion is a one of a kind experience. It was amazing but probably the physically hardest thing I've done in my life.

For what it's worth, we did Passion Island as an excursion probably 5-6 years ago and it was a great beach day. I don't remember there being a lot available in terms of water toys or whatever but the drinks and lunch buffet were very solid. If you like to go to the beach to relax you can't go wrong with it.

I'm taking a cruise which ports in Grand Cayman in April. When I was doing some preliminary port research a few months ago, I came across Cayman Food Tours -- it looked like something different and fun and got really good reviews on TripAdvisor. Their web site is dead now and I'm wondering if it's just the web site or if they're out of business. Does anyone know?

Alternately, can anyone recommend a similar tour in Grand Cayman? My family's not very interested in the usual aquatic adventures that seem the go-to tours for GC. Thanks!

So... not sure this is still something you need opinions on, but as it happens we sailed on Adventure when my daughter was 4. She loved the Adventure Ocean activities -- she wasn't sure about being dropped off there the first time, but then she didn't want to leave. We'd get through lunch or dinner and she'd ask to go back.

Can you give us the link where you saw the reviews on Yelp? I just searched and can't find reviews for them.

I got curious and went looking for them also... geez this is really bad:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/shore-excursioneer-m%C3%A9xico

That being said this is mostly people complaining about their tours in Belize or Mexico, so maybe the St. Martin ones aren't bad.

We hiked mt. Liamuiga and it was very enjoyable

I have to second that recommendation. We've been to St. Kitts a number of times and the volcano hike ranks as one of the most memorable excursions we've done in the Caribbean period.

It's a physical beating though if you're not in very good shape.

We sailed on Oasis recently and in my opinion the design of Oasis doesn't do as good a job of feeling uncrowded as some of RC's slightly smaller ships.

Probably 90% of the time it works great and doesn't feel especially crowded... but then you'll try to eat in the Windjammer, or attend a comedy show, or just happen to choose to do something at the time too many other people do and you'll really feel the weight of the numbers in the way you don't on other ships.

This was the first cruise when either I or one of my table mates, had to send back food that was inedible, and this happened several times. The Oceanview Cafe was better.

Was on the Eclipse last week and I really agree with this. I was expecting great things from the MDR food and in theory I liked the menu but the execution was just poor (for my taste, at least.) Every dish was seasoned for the palate of the kind of person who can't eat at Taco Bell because the food is too spicy for them.

But the Oceanview really exceeded all my expectations.

I'm strongly in the "don't care" camp.

My family will still be dressed up, especially for formal nights. We have fun with it.

But life is way too short to get upset by what anyone else is wearing.

After three weeks, the Manage My Cruise on the Celebrity website is working. When I logged in, it showed me as 100% complete, but my husband as only 90%. The only thing missing was to print the Express Pass. I am just glad I didn't get the dreaded "We are unable to process your request at this time, check back in 20 min." message.

You got me all excited and no, I'm still getting the "Your data could not be saved, please try again."

I have to think the web site was largely built about 10-15 years ago and either it was built by consultants, or the people who built it are long gone and weren't really replaced by anything but the bare minimum to keep it semi-functional.

It's too bad because a really well done modern website could do a lot to both improve customer experience and actually sell cruises and extras.

I've tried this a few times, been successful once, but it was not with the normal channels or my travel agent. I emailed a contact directly and he inquired and the upgrade was granted (current price was the same as we paid for the CS).

I'm curious about this because our next cruise sails in about a month, and at the moment there appear to be a ton of higher category cabins still available. The guarantee cabins for those classes are more than we paid, but not an enormous amount more, but if you want to pick specific cabins the price jumps by thousands of dollars per person.

We're two cabins that want to stay near each other, so guarantee isn't really an option but I have to think that someone empowered to make a deal could throw a price at us where we'd get two cabins near to each other and the cruise line would get more money for cabins that I have to think aren't likely to sell.

But our TA doesn't seem to have that kind of power to do anything but get prices very similar to the options the website offers.

I've gone without the humidifier and - for me - it hasn't been a big deal.

On the other hand if you haven't cruised with a CPAP before you might want to pack an extension cord. I rarely seem to have an outlet close enough.

Just wanted to say that I have always thought about doing this on a ship and I would love to read an update on how it went once you have.

It could be a lot worse, and in some ways it's pretty good but... I will admit as a (semi-former) web developer I occasionally get the urge to relocate and probably take a pay cut in order to work on Royal and/or Celebrity's web sites and make them better, because I love the cruises but I can't stand when these things aren't done right.

In some ways they're pretty good, in other ways they're about 10+ years out of date. That's a long time in technology.

I have had a family removed from the solarium area (and they were none too happy) and if you want to call me an obnoxious hard ass so be it -- because if you or your little darlings are in an adult only area - then yes - I'm not o.k. with that. :p

Actually I absolutely agree that the solarium is and should remain an adults-only area.

There's a difference between objecting to that and objecting to kids being in the MDR. (Or implying that if you dare bring your kids on Celebrity, all of the other passengers will be silently judging you for the trespass the entire time, as the person I was responding to was.)

It is definitely more of an adult cruise line.

 

Many adults, ourselves included, will be very vigilant that rules are obeyed both by Celebrity and parents that bring children on board. That can be stressful for parents making sure kids are on their best behavior at all times. Kids just want to be kids.

 

No running anywhere, no splashing in the pool. An attendant will be called immediately. In the MDR if children are noisy or crying, the Maitre'd will be called and the adults displeasure will be noted. Doesnt sound like it would be much fun for a child.

 

I have also been at guest relations when someone was showing pictures taken of kids on their own, running around, misbehaving and demanding that something be done about it. So parents that think they can just let their kids lose and enjoy themselves will be surprised when they are told that the hotel manager has been made aware of their lack of supervision.

 

If a baby is crying next door, many will/ and should demand a different cabin.

 

 

While there's such a thing as too much misbehavior, if I saw someone on a cruise being as obnoxiously hard-ass about these things with someone's kids as you portray yourself to be -- I would make a scene and publically shame you over it, not the kids.

Sorry, but no adult wants to deal with cranky old people on their cruise, and correcting that bad behavior is the best way to discourage it.

Does anyone have, or can anyone point me to main dining room dinner menus for a 14 day cruise? I've searched around but so far I've only come up with partial coverage.

I'm interested in doing a few specialty restaurant nights and would like to plan ahead and pick some nights that neither I or my wife are extremely excited about the MDR offerings for that night.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

We took a tour in Roatan with Victor Bodden a few years ago and I have nothing but good things to say about it, for what it's worth (although Keith is right that you will probably get more responses on the Roatan specific board.

Has anyone had kids (in my case 4-5 years old) in Adventure Ocean on multiple RC ships? I'm interested in information on how the programs compare.

I'm an experienced cruiser and have sailed on a range of RC ships (most of it pre-children), so I don't need information on how the amenities on different ships compare -- I'm wondering specifically how the kid's clubs facilities/staff/experience contrast from ship to ship. For example, is Adventure Ocean on Adventure or Oasis a lot better than on, say, Jewel or Vision?

1. Some excursions or limited-space activities do sell out, so if there's something you really have your heart set on doing, buy/book it early.

2. Pack a swimsuit and clothes for the first night's dinner in your carry on -- that way you can hit the pool right away if you want and don't have to worry about when your luggage arrives in your room.

3. You can order as much food as you want in the main dining room in whatever combination you want. If you want to order three appetizers and no main course, you can do that! Want an extra lobster tail, you can get it.

4. Check to see which other ships are starting/ending cruises in the same port the same day when figuring out if you're going to fly in early or out late -- for some ports this really doesn't matter, but I don't recommend anyone try to fly out of San Juan airport the same day another 10,000+ cruise passengers are debarking if you can help it.

5. You can find great ideas of things to do in each port by reading the port of call boards here, and booking your own tour or activity can offer some fun alternatives that the cruise line doesn't.