lithlith

From what I've read, it sounds relatively easy to catch taxi just outside of the Puerto Vallarta port - is this correct? 

Is there a set taxi price per person or per car to take people to Malecon from the port or do we negotiate a price on the spot before we get in the taxi? What is a good estimate of what we should expect to pay to Malecon from the port?

How about coming back from Malecon to the port? - what is the best way to get a taxi? Is there a place to wait for taxis or do we just flag one down? What is a good estimate of what we should expect to pay from the Malecon back the port? Is there a set rate or do we negotiate a price?

3 hours ago, Porky55 said:

Still the same, just coffee in the atrium. No IC 

17 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Before Sail Away they did the Breaking of the Sake Barrel which those announcements were done with the two Cruise Directors first in English then the second in Japanese but that was the very last time we heard any announcements in Japanese the whole cruise the remaining announcements were totally in English.

They still have the Sake barrel breaking ceremony in the atrium before the ship sets sail. I think it was around 3pm, then muster drill around 4pm and set sail around 5pm.

5 hours ago, JWUC said:

I guess you didn't eat at Kai Sushi, Sabattini's, or Sterling Steakhouse?

 

Curious - did you have a meet and greet/mingle? If so, how many folks?

 

Thanks for the posting. I can deal with a 5:30 dinner. 5 is too early. I guess it is luck of the draw which dining room you are assigned to? From my recollection of the Sapphire Princess, the main dining room is aft and secondary dining room(s) are midship. 

We didn't eat at any of the specialty restaurants. But it would have been easy to get a reservation because they looked empty every time we walked by in the evening.

We didn't have a cruise critic meet and greet.

There is one dining room at the back of the ship on deck 6, which is the only dining room open for breakfast and lunch, and then it is open for those who are assigned to it for dinner as well.

There are 2 dining rooms mid-ship on 5 and another 2 dining rooms right above those on floor 6.

One of those four dining rooms is marked as Club Class.

3 hours ago, Porky55 said:

Still the same, just coffee in the atrium. No IC 

Yes, no International Cafe on the Diamond Princess. There is a bar where you can buy specialty coffees in the atrium area on deck 5. There is a large case of desserts just as you enter/exit the buffet. I'm not sure if that was their replacement of having an IC on this ship or just something extra to better manage the buffet crowds.

One more thing to add - on the Diamond Princess cruises around Japan there is NO anytime dining. It is early 5:30 or late 8:30 seating only.

1 hour ago, bemis12 said:

 

That's interesting.  How DID having so many newbies affect your cruise?

Our answer will probably sound a tad petty, but here are a few of our new cruiser pet peeves. But we all need to remember that each of us was once the newbie, so patience is needed 🙂

In general, we've found that things run just a little bit slower everywhere when there are a lot of newbies. 

It takes new people a while to figure out the ship layout and how to get from place to place. There seems to be more indecisiveness onboard. Sometimes new people get on the elevator and have no idea where they want to go, but know they need to be on the elevator to get there. It is quite comical. 

We've also found that many new cruisers want to experience it all, making shows, activities, and other venues crowded.

Sometimes new cruisers don't know basic cruise etiquette, like that they shouldn't be saving entire rows of seats for their families members who haven't yet made it to the theater.

But our number one pet peeve with new cruisers - they don't keep their cruise cards accessible upon exiting and entering the ship or they don't understand that they need to empty their pockets and put all of their bags through the xray machine when we get back onboard, all of which holds up the line.

And although we booked a 13 day cruise, it turned out to be sold as a 5 and 8 day cruise, so mid way through the cruise, you've got a whole set of new people joining which also adds to the newbie factor.

As for the additional comments about the lines or queues, I'm not sure what else to say.  I know what we experienced and that's all I can speak to.   Timing is everything. 

For example, if the dining room breakfast opened at 7am, we could arrive at 7:30am and walk right in, no line. If we arrived at 8am, the line was stretched through elevator lobby and then was winding up the stairwells. It was crazy. We had never seen anything like it! 

For lunch in the dining room, we found that if it opened at noon, we would try to arrive at 11:45 to be near the front of the line to get in and it was no problem, but had we arrived at exactly noon, again the line was stretched through elevator lobby and then was winding up the stairwells.  I think the type of passengers who were on the cruise with us really enjoyed eating in the dining room for every meal.

They offered the pub lunch once during our 13 days on board in a different dining room at lunch. We arrived 15 minutes early and the line was already stretched around the entire atrium! We got in the line and ended up being the last set of couples to get a table. As people finished their meals, more were let in, but pub lunch seemed to be way more popular than one might have expected it to be.

For the shows in the theater, they would clear the theater from one show and shut the doors before the second show. In the meantime though, people were lining up to get into the second show. All of the theater shows were packed!  For the Secret Silk show (which has a reputation on board as being the best show), we were in line 45 minutes before show time. Anyone who came 30 minute or less before show time likely didn't get a seat.

Also, we spent additional time in Japan pre and post cruise and found Japanese people lining up everywhere and it was highly efficient!  It was very different from how we do things in the USA, but it all worked so smoothly. There were lines for getting onto cars on the subway. There were lines within the crowded subway cars while you're riding, there were lines to go up and down escalators, there were lines to take certain photos (like at the Hachiko dog statue in Shibuya Crossing in Toyko). It was different for us, but it all seemed to work really well, so we really weren't too surprised on the ship.  But it is different than your typical Princess cruise elsewhere in the world.

The breakdown of passengers on our sailing was approximately: 300 English only speakers, 1800 Japanese only speakers, and 600 other languages and we were told this information through a conversation we had with the cruise director and also reconfirmed by one of our waiter. In taking a Princess cruise like this, you get to be surrounded by another culture all within the safety and security of a typical Princess cruise product.  We enjoyed it and just had to adapt in some instances.

4 hours ago, JWUC said:

Thank you for the post. Any comments about the food onboard?  

To us, it was the average Princess quality and type of food in the dining room and buffet.

Dinner in the dining room - There were a few options on the menu each night that had more of a Japanese flare to them and then also a few things that maybe had more of a Japanese sounding name to the dish, but looked identical to the food we had on the Crown Princess last summer in the Mediterranean.

If you eat breakfast in the dining room, there is a Japanese option of a breakfast that all comes plated on a large tray. We never ordered it, but that is what most of the guests were eating in the dining room at breakfast.

Lunches in the dining room seemed to be the normal Princess lunch menus.

At the buffet, there is a huge rice cooker that isn't normally there on your typical Princess cruise, so rice is always available every meal. The standard breakfast, lunch and dinner options are available - pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc., but also there are a few options like fish and a full salad bar out of breakfast.  The lunch and dinner buffets were mostly your normal Princess cruise buffet food options. For soups, miso soup is available all of the time.   Just outside of where you enter/exit the buffet, there is now an additional buffet type area with desserts at lunch and dinner and breads/pastries at breakfast. And this area also has some sort of noddle station where you can select different items to be put in with a bowl of noodles.

The pizzaria and grill stations were as they normally are on Princess, just with no line, we could always walk right up to get anything.

The ice cream place seemed to have a hard time keeping the ice cream hard enough in the machine to make ice cream cones. I'm not sure if it was the machines, the heat and humidity, or maybe we just caught them at the wrong time after adding the mix to the machines. They have small bowls for the ice cream when it is too soft for to put in the cones. They have the soft serve chocolate, vanilla, and swirl ice cream machine and they have a soft serve green tea, vanilla, and swirl ice cream machine. We gave the green tea ice cream a try, but it just wasn't for us. However, we saw many passengers walking around with it.

3 hours ago, sailco said:

Thanks for your very thoughtful comments. Do you know if the Diamond has overcome the issues with her air conditioning in the mid aft cabins?

Interesting that you bring this up, we had a balcony room toward the aft, but most often used the mid ship staircase and noticed that when going up the stairs, there is a noticeable humidity and heat change doing from about floor 10 on up in the staircase.  We assumed it was just the heat and humidity coming in from the top of the staircase once you reach the lido deck because there are large automatic doors that open up to lido. We have never experienced anything like it on other ships.

Our room was fine temperature-wise. We never had issues getting our room to cool down or heat up.

The other place that had air conditioning issues was unfortunately the gym! I only went our first sea day and then gave up after that because of the poor air conditioning.  We did walk by the gym area a few times later in our cruise and it seemed like the problem had been corrected, but it was probably in the mid to upper 70s in the gym when I worked out as well as very high humidity.

The heat and humidity in Japan is no joke, especially if you're sailing to some of the southern islands like Okinawa or Ishigaki. The only thing I can compare it to is Florida in the summer, but it was more extreme than that.

9 hours ago, Ombud said:

There wasn't an IC on the Diamond in October 2017 when I did the CIRCLE OF JAPAN cruise. Is it there now?

There is still no International Cafe onboard the Diamond Princess.

However, at the buffet area, they have added an extra section just out side of where you enter/exit the actual buffet that has a large case with desserts. In the morning it has croissants and other breakfast like pastries and then switches over more to cakes, pies, cookies, etc at lunch time.

We recently completed a 13 day itinerary on the Diamond Princess out of Japan. It was difficult for me to find the information that I was looking for about this ship and our trip in general before we left for the trip, so I thought others might benefit from our insights. The information below is intended to be an FYI to other westerners sailing on the Diamond Princess out of Japan.

(We booked it as a 13 day, but it was sold separately as a 5 day and 8 day cruise so it was a back to back cruise.)

Embarkation in Kobe – we took the subway to the port.  It was great!  Super easy and dropped us right off at the terminal building.

On board the Diamond Princess  -

Guests - I had read online going in to this cruise that there would be a lot of Japanese guests. I was even thinking it might be 50-50 on board, but it was more like 85-15 and by that I mean 85% Japanese passengers to 15% westerner passengers.  On the 5 day part of the cruise one of the staff told us that there were only 300 English only speaking guests on board.  This isn’t a bad thing, just something to be aware of ahead of time.

At the captains circle get together, they went through the numbers of how many of each status level they had on board and on both the 5 and 8 day cruises that we were on the number of first time cruisers was close to two-thirds of the ship!  Now for those of us who have cruised a lot, we know that this greatly changes how things operate on board with so many newbies finding their way around.

Language & Activities - There were two cruise directors – one for the Japanese and one for the English speakers. This was really unnecessary. The Japanese cruise director spoke English and Japanese so to have an additional cruise director who only spoke English and no Japanese seemed like a waste. All of the entertainment staff (those who help with the trivias and other activities on board all spoke English and Japanese).

All announcements were made in English and then Japanese.  Most of the games and activities were done in both English and Japanese (heads up – this does drag out a trivia game when the question is read in English and then in Japanese, sometimes a 20 question trivia game would last over an hour!)  On some days there were activities or trivias that would be listed as Japanese only or English only, which moved along much quicker.

When you see an activity or show advertised in the princess patter that you want to do, do it then! There were quite a few things that were only offered once during all of our 13 days. For example, a calligraphy lesson was only offered during our 5 day cruise as was getting dressed in a yukata. The Secret of Silk production show was only offered on the 8 day part of our cruise.  

Crew - I think that most all of the crew on board the diamond princess have had to learn Japanese to be able to assist guests at dinner, with the cabins, etc.  The crew seemed super happy to see us each day but not so much with the Japanese guests. I’m not sure if it was just us who they liked or were happy to have some English speakers, since for many of the crew English is their second language, and Japanese is now their third language.   I do not think that the Japanese guests treat the crew very well.  In fact we saw multiple instances throughout our 13 days, where we couldn’t understand what was being said in Japanese to the crew, but it was clear from the way the crew would then turn around and act or look that they had just been spoken down to.  There seems to be a hierarchy in the Asian races and culture where the Japanese think they are at the top and that those from the Philippines and Indonesia (where many of the crew are from) are very much below them.  We were quite disgusted with how the Japanese guests were treating the crew, so we stepped up our niceness  :-)

Food - Menus were in Japanese and English. Food items on the buffet was maybe one third Japanese type cuisine and two thirds American/Westerner food options. Same for the dinner menu in the dining room.

Lines – The Japanese love getting in line. Everyone is very orderly, which is great, but just know going into the cruise to expect lines around the ship – going into the theater, lining up for a sale in the atrium, lining up for the dining room, lining up for karaoke, etc.  And this isn’t just a simple short line…the line for the dining room at breakfast and lunch would sometimes wind up several flights of stairs! And the karaoke line was out the door! Know that the line will move, but if you want to go to a show or have breakfast in the dining room that your timing is everything – get there early and don’t be surprised if there is a significant line that has already formed 45 minutes early.

Place there were no line or crowds - We found that very few people were ever out on the Lido deck, most passengers stayed inside all of the time, which made everything feel a little more crowded inside.  The pools and hot tubs were pretty much empty.  If you’re looking to book a spa appointment, no problem, it seems like the Japanese passengers aren’t really into that, so they had tons of openings. If you’re looking for a drink, also no problem, the bar staff was always just standing around and was excited when we would order drinks. We rarely saw Japanese passengers drinking alcohol. We also never saw a line for pizza or at the grill for burgers in our 13 days on board. The casino staff is also just standing around most of the time. With the strict gambling regulations in Japan, the casino was rarely open and when it was open, few people were there.

Immigration –  Once the ship stops in another country, then everyone has to go through immigration next time the ship stopped at a Japanese port.  They come on board and have immigration in one of the lounges.  The line was long and immigration took a long time each time we had to do this on our cruise.  Even if you’re booked on an excursion, you might get to bypass some of the line, but for the most part plan on 30-60 minutes of standing in an immigration line.

Our ports -

Kobe – embarkation (we took a train from Oksaka airport to our hotel in Kobe)

Busan, South Korea – we took a princess excursion to a temple and then fish market, which was a good tour

Yokkaichi – we took a princess excursion to a ninja museum and castle, it was ok excursion, had I been a 10 year old boy, the ninja stuff might have been more exciting

Yokohama (for Tokyo) – our ship docked at Yokohama at the end of the first 5 days and then again at the end of the next 8 days. Luckily both times, the ship had just docked the previous day in a Japanese port, so we didn’t have to go through the full immigration procedures in Yokohama.  However, all of our documents ahead of time and onboard said that we’re docking at 6am, which was true…however the port workers and small immigration team that work in the building that you have to walk through to exit the ship don’t start work until 7am, so the earliest that anyone can get off the ship in Yokohama is about 7:15am. (This would have been great to know for us ahead of time because both times we docked in Yokohama we were going into Tokyo independently by subway and train and had our day planned out for sightseeing based on being able to leave the ship at 6:15am, which turns out is impossible to do.)  Once we got off the ship in Yokohama, We independently took the subway/train to Tokyo.  We wouldn’t recommend doing this on your own unless you have a cell phone with an unlimited data plan and you are very proficient using google maps, which we had and are good at. You will need to rely on their google maps to navigate the subway, trains, and walking to your sightseeing destinations to be efficient with your time there to see the most you can with your little time in port.

Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan – we took the all day princess excursion of Taipei – excellent tour! Our friends independently went into Taipei taking the train in Keelung and then rode the hop on hop off bus for the day.  We saw way more than our friends did and having a guide who  explained things was worth the price for us with the princess excursion.

Ishigaki – we took a princess excursion here. The glass bottom boat ride that was part of the tour was the best glass bottom boat ride that we’ve ever had anywhere in the world! Our friends booked an independent tour at this port, which turned out tricky to get to because the immigration on the ship was taking so long and then they needed to catch a bus into the city to be able to catch their excursion, which they did end up catching their tour however it was all in Japanese.  Sometimes it is worth paying a little more for a princess tour.

Okinawa – we took the princess battle of Okinawa excursions, which we enjoyed

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to help having just been on the Diamond Princess.

We are on back to back cruises on the Diamond Princess in July. Midway through the trip we stop in Yokohama (Tokyo) where some passengers will end their cruise, new passengers will join, and we will continue cruising.  The port time is listed as 6am to 5pm. Any idea once we are docked in Yokohama (Tokyo) how long before passengers can disembark? We want to start make our way to Tokyo city independently as soon as we can to sightsee and make the most of our day before returning to the ship later in the afternoon, but we also understand that passengers will also be completely disembarking.

What is the requirement for footwear on the Skyride? I'm assuming no flip flops, but would Keen sandals or Sperry shoes be ok?

How strict are the check in times at Miami?

I signed up for the earliest available option for the Carnival Horizon which was 12:30pm, but typically we arrive at the pier around 11am. Will we be stuck waiting outside or will they let us in early?

I cant decide between RC Best of Havana for 7 hours for $208 or the RC Bucket List Havana for 9 hours for $142. The descriptions on Royal's website are vague leave a lot to be desired. I would assume that the 9 hour bucket list tour sees more, but it is less expensive, so I'm confused.

I'm looking for advice from anyone who has been on either of these Royal Caribbean tours. Any feedback or do you have a detailed list of exactly what you visited/saw on either RC tour?

(I'm not interested in independent tours at the moment.)

How about boarding times in Barcelona? My Princess boarding pass says 1pm to 7:30pm. Any chance that we'll be able to get onboard before 1pm? I don't want to waste my time standing around the port if I can't board, but I will show up earlier if they'll let us on earlier like they do at the US ports.

Which cruise terminal letter does the Crown Princess typically sail out of in Barcelona? We see there there are several terminals, some that seem as though they might be in walking distance and others that are not.

If we take a taxi from our hotel to the port, will they drop us off at the port entrance or at our specific terminal for the Crown Princess?

We also need on a map that there are blue bus terminals, is that something we will need to get on to get to the ship?

Thanks!

I sure hope that they have fixed the problems on the Star Pride. We were just on the 03/31/18 to 04/07/18 Caribbean sailing where the the Star Pride lost power for hours on end over over and over again the course of several days and in turn lost air conditioning creating unbearable conditions inside the ship for guest and crew alike. I wish you all the best! There is no way I would have stayed on that ship for a trans-Atlantic voyage after what we went through last week!

How many formal nights can we expect on a 14 day Mediterranean cruise on the Crown Princess this summer?

The FAQ on the Princess website would suggest 3 for a 14 day sailing, but I also see on their website that the cruise we purchased as 14 days package (Barcelona to Athens) is also sold separately as two 7 day cruises (Barcelona to Rome and then Rome to Athens), so I'm wondering if there would be 2 formal nights in the first 7 days and then another 2 in the next 7 days? Also, if you have any insight as to when these formal nights might occur on this type of cruise that would also be appreciated. This will be helpful in planning when we want to book specialty restaurants.

Itinerary:

0 - Embark/Barcelona

1 - Sea Day

2 - Gibraltar

3 - Sea Day

4 - Marseille France

5 - Genoa Italy

6 - Florence Italy

7 - Rome Italy

8 - Salerno Italy

9 - Sea Day

10 - Montenegro

11 - Corfu Greece

12 - Crete Greece

13 - Mykonos Greece

14 - Disembark/Athens Greece

Just got back.

 

We left San Juan from Pier 4 (the Carnival terminal in Old San Juan).

 

EVERY port is a dry tender stop. You are transported ashore in what amounts to a 24 pax boat that travels from an aft 'dock' off Windstar's port side to an modest pier ashore. There are no wet landings. Piegon Island is essentially a beach party with all the necessary supplies brought ashore by the crew.

 

You can do an excursion anywhere you want.

 

You should be aware that Montserrat is very much 'hit or miss'. We were not able to anchor safely and moved on to St. Kitts. Word onboard what that they are successful less than 50% of the time at that port.

Thank you! This is super helpful!

We're sailing in the Star Pride in the Caribbean this spring and having never cruised with Windstar before I have questions about the ports - mainly where exactly does this ship dock or tender you to shore? Are we tendering in zodiacs or something more like a life boat? Are there any wet landings or are they all dry landings with docks? Does Windstar have a private beach or beach area at any of these ports? I'm trying to figure out where I need to purchase excursions and where I don't.

Leaving from San Juan - where exactly does this ship leave from in San Juan? (We sailed many years ago out of San Juan on a Carnival ship that docked within easy walking distance to the old town fort areas - is that the same port? I know there are several places in San Juan where the ships sail from.)

For Martinique it is listed as Anse Mitan - are we tendering/docking at a beach or city? What is within walking distance at this port? (When we've been to Martininque before we've docked downtown in Fort de France, but wasn't with Windstar and people have water taxi over to the beach at Anse Mitan.)

For St. Lucia it is listed as Piegon Island - are we tendering/docking at a beach or city? What is within walking distance from where we dock/tender? (I believe I read someone else's review that Windstar does a beach party/picnic here - is that true?)

For Guadeloupe it is listed as Les Saintes - are we tendering/docking at a beach or city? What is within walking distance from where we dock or tender?

For Montserrat it is listed as Little Bay - are we tendering/docking at a beach of city? What is within walking distance from where we dock/tender? Has anyone taken a third party tour with Sun Lea on this island?

For St. Barts it is listed as Gustavia, so are we docked or tendering right to the city? What is within walking distance from where we dock/tender? I'm debating between taking the 1 hour island tour or 3 hour snorkel excursion - any suggestions of what is best since the hurricane hit in the fall?

Do I need to book my excursions before I board or do they fill up super fast and nothing is left when I get on? It seems that the excursions are very limited through their website to book, does Windstar have more excursion offerings if I wait to book something when I get on board?

Any other tips or suggestions you have for a Windstar newbie would be greatly appreciated!

(We're well traveled in the Caribbean, but all on the big box ships (Carnival, Princess, Royal, etc.). We have also traveled on small ships (Paul Gauguin, Silversea), but not in the Caribbean .)

I realise you may not be able to answer this, but do you know if any of the balconies are obstructed? I'm looking at a balcony GTY.

For the balconies that are ocean views, but there are lifeboat obstructions on certain decks.

Also, if you're in a boardwalk balcony your view to the aqua theater area is definitely obstructed by the ultimate abyss slide.

Hello - Sailing Harmony 6/10 and we cannot wait! Were the MDR menus the traditional (Mojo, Saffron, etc.) menus, or were they the new Oasis menus?

I'm sorry, but I don't know the difference between the old and new menus in the MDR, so I can't answer your question.

Excellent review. Did you get bothered by RCI trying to sell you things on the promenade or at dinner? Specialty dining, spa etc... I have seen a few comments on "hard sell" issues.

I didn't notice hard sells for anything onboard the Harmony. A few times they were a little pushy handing out the raffle tickets to win a watch or other merchandise, but a simple "no thank you" ended that each time. Same goes for when the photographers came around at dinner, again a "no thank you" and they were on their way to the next table.

We didn't eat at any of the specialty dining restaurants nor did we use the spa, so I cannot answer about hard sells there.

Hello, was your cabin very cool during the night and what cabin where you in, thank you for the wonderful review!

The temperature control in our room worked well, so we could keep it as warm or as cool as we liked. We were always comfortable.

I would rather not say the exact room number, but we were on deck 10 near the front of the ship in an interior room with virtual balcony. If you look at a deck plan map there is a large block of room in the middle at the front of the ship with the rooms numbered 10404 to 10458 was the block of rooms we were in. Only a dozen of those rooms have the virtual balcony the rest are just regular interior rooms. I'm not sure if it was just this block of interior rooms that are not sound proofed well or if that is an issue for other rooms throughout this ship.

Employees – from the waiters to the zipline sports staff it seemed like we were constantly being asked how we like the ship and the staff, and how when we leave we should rate everything a 10/10 on our after cruise surveys. It was a little much and a little pushy. They seemed more concerned about what we might rate them later than how the actual event was going in the moment.

Debarkation - Self assist was from 6:30am to 8:30am. The first time anything was announced was around 7:30am and that was a last call for self assist and first call for zones 1-10. They really push the self assist option, which is probably helpful to their staff to have less luggage to move around if people are willing to do it themselves. They also really pushed downloading the mobile passport app and how that would be way faster than filling out the paper copy and getting in that line in the immigration/customs line at the port. We downloaded the app, but it would have been way faster if we had gone the old fashioned paper route. Once off the ship the signage was poor and the employees didn’t seem to know what line was what that they were putting people in. We happened to get in the right line for the mobile app but they only had two people working that and about 6-8 people working the paper lines, so it took just over 20 minutes from when we stepped off the ship to when we walked out of the port building. Our time would have been cut in half had we gone the paper route.

Entertainment

Shows 10/10! - The shows on the Harmony of the Seas were outstanding! (Musicals: Grease and Columbus the musical; Aqua shows: Fine Line and Hideaway Heist; Ice Skating: 1887 and iSkate) All are worth seeing! My favorite was Columbus the musical.

You can tell that Royal has invested a lot into the shows technology and interactive features around the ship. The technology on board the ship was really impressive!

Comedy - The lounge where they have the comedy is oddly shaped and doesn’t hold many people. They also had the same comedian on all week who only had one show’s worth of material. This was the first large ship we had been on with only one comedian with one show, it seemed weird that they didn’t switch things up throughout the week.

Casino – nicely hidden away, which is great if you don’t want to play or don’t like the smoke. If you’re gold or higher you get $5 worth of free play, so don’t forget to use that perk!

Lounge musicians – Bordellos was always lively with Latin music in the evening. There was a piano player in Schooners, a guy with a guitar in Central Park and a guitar guy in the Boot bar. They were all ok in our opinion, nothing that really stood out and some of the hours they were assigned to play were odd. (What Royal is really missing that other cruise lines have is a rockin piano bar, where people request songs and sing along.)

Dancing – limited. I mean, I guess you could dance where ever you want, but you’d likely be the only one. If you’re looking for club music booty shaking music was just not happening on Royal. Even a step away from that, the “sail away party” with dancing, was just a few people from the cruise staff and a couple of guests – lame. Same goes for the lame theme nights on the promenade that are supposedly dance parties, but it is pretty much just the staff dancing and not too many guests get involved. Also the venues where they hold the late night dancing change and are just weird spaces to dance in.

Activities – There seems to be a lot of things listed in the cruise compass for the Spa and Gym on different talks or product promos, a few trivias here and there, and a few character appearances, but really there isn’t much going on. This was my same complaint when we went on Royal a few years ago and I was hoping they have beefed up with schedule a bit, but to my disappointment they had not. Also, the staff running the trivia and other activities just don’t seem happy to be there and annoyed that they have to run an activity.

Parades – Maybe we’re just not into parades, but they just seem weird and out of place on a cruise ship. A parade that celebrates all of the holidays in a year? Just plain weird and not for us.

Character Greetings – Fun for kids and adults who are kids at heart, just watch the cruise compass for when and where they will appear because it usually only for 10-20 minutes.

Gym – This was by far the nicest gym at sea. It was lovely to walk through to see what it looked like, but I was on vacation, so there wasn’t a chance I was actually going to use it. The running track on deck 5 is also really nice and under used. (Note, there are some nice alcoves off the track with deck chairs if you’re looking for a quiet place away from people.)

Sports Court – There were always people playing basketball. The mini golf course was one of the better cruise ship mini golf courses that we’ve seen. The zip line was fun once, but short. The carousel is worth one go around, but unless you’re a little kid one time is plenty. The addition of two flow riders instead of just one like on the older ships was a good add for this class of ship. One flow rider was always boogie boarding and one was surfing. The best day for the flow rider was when we were in St. Maarten and we pretty much had both flow riders to ourselves and could go over and over again. (Note, we did end up with several bumps, bruise and scrapes from the flow riders, likely from our ungraceful dismounts). The Abyss slide was fun to go down once a day, but listen to the instructions because we saw some nasty slide burns from people who didn’t pay attention or were maybe just a little too wide to be on it. The rock wall always had a line and rarely were both walls open, usually just one at time and for short hours. The ice skate was only open for skating on two days and only for very limited hours, and with a maximum of 50 people skating per session…it was very crowded on the ice making it not fun to skate.

Each of the things listed above make it sound like there is a lot to do, but most of these things I think are what I would call “one and done.” Nothing that I really wanted to keep coming back to do over and over again. Very novelty and lack of substance.

Pools – There were several pool areas, which was a good ship design spreading people out. I never had a problem finding a deck chair in sun or shade on any of the days. The waterslides were a smart addition for Royal, but each of the slides had some rough seams that need to be filed down. I was scratched and cut on each of the slides on my way down.

The Solarium area was a nice thought on the ship, but with the partial glass ceiling, it was always super hot and humid in there with a lack of air flow.