bogofman

Hello

 

We are sailing on the IOS in July this year and this is our first RCL cruise and I have never been so confused I have read good and bad reviews about this ship. We have cruised before and I have never seen so many mixed reviews about a ship.

 

I am going to try and have a good time I know its a family ship and that is great as we are taking our daughter with us, but I cant believe all the mixed reviews, yes I know you get moaners and have had our fair share of them but for a cruise liner this big I thought it would be all rave reviews.

 

From what I can put together the shows are old and dated and dont change very much, emberakation and disembation is a shambles, (maybe not done to the cruise liner) the food isnt that great, the service is a bit hit and miss. The kids club is great and that is what it is mainly about

 

I am listening to both sides of the story but to be honest for a first time on there it isnt great reviews I understand a lot of people love the ship but may be we have been spolit with the other cruise liners we have been on

 

any comments much appreciated

 

What you need to take into account is:

 

The ship has been in the Caribbean for the last two winters and the whole of last summer so most of the reviews you are reading relate to boarding and disembarking in US, not Southampton as your cruise will be.

 

We have embarked several times in Sothampton and its very straight forward, and if you are taking your car, teh car park is next to the ship.

 

last year we parked up , porters met us at the car and took the bags away ( no tip required here :) ) and walked across the road to checkin, on board Anthem of the seas within 15 minutes.

 

similar for exit, pick up bags in hall and walk over road to the car.

 

As Bob says, pity Rock the boat not on board :-(

We had two cruises on independence of the seas ( out of Southampton, UK) and there was no smoking in the casino, a year later ( 2014) did a similar cruise on Adventure and smoking was allowed in the casino, and this affected our enjoyment, as the smoke drifted out in to the schooner bar ( so could not visit there) and the spiral stair case acted as a chimney into the royal promenade.

 

I understand smoking was always allowed in the casino on royal, so it must have changed when the ships sailed out of the UK, but this was changed when the ban on balcony smoking came into affect.

 

The smoking policy on Celebrity is one of teh main reasons we like to sail with them.

Our next Royal Caribbean cruise will move us into the Diamond category in the crown and anchor.

 

 

We are currently Select in the Captains club, We originally linked our Royal club to celebrity when we joined the captains club.

 

Will we move up to the next level in Captains club automatically, or do we need to phone up, or even cancel our current membership and start again and convert our Royal Diamond over to new Captains club membership?

I've had a look at our Reflection cruise for August 29th ( included 2 stops in Turkey ) and there are too many cabins available to count).

 

 

A Constellation Cruise leaving on the 28th ( no stops in Turkey) is already almost fully booked.

 

What does that tell Celebrity about the thoughts of customers thinking of booking 2015 med cruises

Bombay Sapphire used to be on the Classic package ( 2014)

 

The included water tastes perfectly ok to me;)

I've been on equinox twice during Mediterranean cruises and never saw anyone eating in the gastrobar and not many drinking either

 

Maybe its different on Caribbean cruises, but in Europe they need to liven it up to get people in.

 

 

The English style pubs on the royal Caribbean ships certainly do a good trade ( in Europe)

It seem not found this on their Facebook page

 

 

Well hello everyone. Are you ready for an RTB update? Here's the news hot off the press:

We will re-join the Anthem Feb 6th as already stated - but only for a couple of months as in April we'll debark and fly over to Bremerhaven, Germany and join the brand new Ovation. As with the Anthem last year we'll bring her to Southampton for the innaugurals. Then after a few weeks around Northern Europe we take a repositioning trip through the Med, down the Suez Canal to Dubai and India ending in Singapore in June. Many great stops along the way, including the familiar, but also plenty of fab new sights for us. All in all a pretty great way to spend the first half of 2016. Quite the adventure !!

We hope to see some friendly faces along the way.

any news if Rock the boat will be on the 1st of May TA back to Southampton?

Not a thing. The OP's comment was of a comparative nature and with a little bit of humor.

 

The traffic is horrible in and around Miami. If you are booking a rental car, the left hand drive may be a little confusing for you Brits. A weekend drive is easy on the Freeway System but workdays can be a pain.

 

Make sure you have a good Navigator App on your smart phone. I like one called Waze. It's free. Or you can get a GPS Navigator from your rental agency for a fee.

 

Sleep in, take a late breakfast and head out on the streets after 10a and return after 7:30p. Weekday traffic is much better during those periods. Weekend traffic is usually fine.

 

 

Thanks for the advice,

 

we will arrive at the airport mid afternoon and head to the car rental, via the train link.

 

we intend to stay at an hotel fairly local for the first night ( as its near mid night for us)

 

and then head down to the keys, after 10am will not be a problem :)

 

coming back will leave the car as close to port Everglades as possible and take the rental companies shuttle to the ship ( probably be Avis.)

We are very much looking forward to finally visiting Istanbul for several days before our October Constellation cruise. I am more concerned about driving to the Miami airport than terrorism in Istanbul at this point. .

 

Whats wrong with driving to/from Miami airport?

 

We are arriving in Miami airport ( from UK) for the fist time soon and will hire a car and drive around fro a week before finishing up at port evaglades to pick up the ship.

 

What should we be worried about? if anything.

Do any UK cruises have experience of upgrading cabins to a cabin that is now equal or less than has already been paid, due to price drops?

 

do we lose the deposit or will they upgrade us? if i phone up

 

What about if an offer has changed, would we keep the offer and just upgrade the cabin category, or would we need to cancel and start again with the current offer 9 and lose deposit).

We have sailed on Equinox several times and also on Silhouette, have reflection booked for this August,

 

So far Equinox has been our favorite ( even though we had the NoroVirus on-board last year :mad:, We are not sure why, but the silhouette was our lease favorite celebrity ship.

 

I agree about the friendliness of the equinox staff, It was such a difference from the Anthem of the seas trip we were on a few months earlier.

Maybe Celebrity should follow Royal Caribbean and offer low deposits in the UK, I missed the £25pp , but got the current £50p

 

Pricing on Royal have been stable for a while , maybe will change when the current deals end on the 29th.

 

If the deal is better, I will cancel , lose tge 100 and book again

 

I think our up coming celebrity cruise will have many more price drops, as a lot more cabins have become available,

 

I'm assuming the low take up, is caused by the Turkey ports on the itinaries

 

I agree about the med itinaries needing more variety , 2017 looks very limited and the number of nights per cruise has dropped. It reminds me of the size of products in super markets all getting smaller to keep the price the same as customers ae used to paying.

We have a cruise booked for this August on Reflection, i'm watching weekly as prices are tumbling :eek:

 

Problem for us we booked in UK and cannot change booking without losing our deposit.

 

so it needs to drop below £300 before i am in profit.

 

Next time i will not be booking early and will wait .

 

Out of interest i looked for a similar cruise on reflection in August 2017 and the price is twice as much now without any offers ( drinks etc)

 

Why do they do this when i know it will be half that price this time next year.

I know prices will drop as they have for the last 3 years we have booked this time of year.

 

Only this time they seem to be knocking off £100 per week, from what looked like the low point ( when we booked)

 

I wish they would post the actual price they want us to pay and let us book as early or as late as we like.

 

OR

 

change the uk booking so we can change bookings without losing deposits, or make the deposit low enough to not bother about.

we are booked on the 11 night in August, and are looking forward to the over night in Athens as it gives us chance to do a tour to the Peloponnese, the first day and then wander around Athens on the second day, been to Athens many times but not had the chance to travel further as they were always day visits.

 

BTW, There is a bus stop opposite the ship that takes you into Athens ( if Reflection uses the same dock as equinox last year). The all day ticket only costs 4 euros and includes the Athens metro.

 

No need for expensive ships trips into Athens

We are porting in Manhatten.

 

Come chat with us on the roll call thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2210983

 

Ahhh,

 

Just realized what you meant after reading Bob's reply

 

'We are porting in Manhattan'

 

After i posted a similar question of the above forum:rolleyes:

 

That's great news.

how did you find out?, the NY port web site says to be confirmed.

We will be on the Navigator sailing November 2016 calling at New York for an over night stay.

 

Where will the ship be berthed? Manhattan or Cape liberty?

 

If its at Cape Liberty how can we get into Manhattan, and back again on the first day ( arrive 4pm)

 

and similar for a full day on the day after.

 

Is there public transport? that is easy/safe to get to Manhattan and back

 

Is there a metro? or train?

 

Or do Royal Caribbean put on shuttles for day trippers? as this is only a stop over not disembarkation, that will be in Miami

We will be on the Navigator sailing November 2016 calling at New York for an over night stay.

 

Where will the ship be berthed? Manhattan or Cape liberty?

 

If its at Cape Liberty how can we get into Manhattan, and back again on the first day ( arrive 4pm)

 

and similar for a full day on the day after.

 

Is there public transport? that is easy/safe to get to Manhattan and back

 

Is there a metro? or train?

 

Or do Royal Caribbean put on shuttles fro day trippers? as this is only a stop over not disembarkation, that will be in Miami

AS i thought :-(

To clarify, not the gratuity on drinks , but the $100 or so PP per week for pre paid gratuities

UK offer is now GO all IN and second passenger in cabin 1/2 price

It suggests that the IN , all inclusive, by getting a select drinks package

Can someone who has booked a cruise for 2016 ( from UK ) let me know if the offer includes gratuities or not

This has been the case in the past but the web site is a bit ambiguous,

Thanks

Does this mean that this new standard package is being offered under the drinks package offer (FREE) Instead of the classic package,

 

Currently uk bookings don't have tge option, but they usually come back in the new year, I don't think we will be tempted if the offer is only the standard package,

 

We spent a lot of time in cafe a bacio and it seems that is not included

The original itinaries are still on the UK Web site

As we already have wow bands, from our anthem cruise surely they can be re programmed when we go on our next cruise, that uses them.

 

I used mine all of the time and they worked 100% of the time.

 

We use near field sensors at work for security entry, so know how to use them

We have a cruise booked for next year a TA and need a one way flight,

 

Via the (Royal this tiem) UK site i get the new cloice air option ( air2..)

 

it will quote me flights but won't let me book as it comes up in US$ or CAN$

 

has anyone managed to do this? from teh UK

 

 

When i try to book it quotes me around $500 for a one way BA flight approx £300

 

when i phone RCL ( and i assume celebrity) UK line they quote me £650 for the same flight

 

or more than double

 

I'd never thought of trying the royal US site, as i assume UK customers would be blocked.

 

does anyone have the link to get it to work as it always defaults to the UK site for RCL and celebrity