Rocknie

If you are booked in a suite make sure you have breakfast in Sabatini... we believe it's the best perk you receive as a suite guest!

Also... they will go out of their way to fix anything you request. 

 

P.S.  The fresh orange juice is the actual reason we book suites!  

First time, DW and I are using EZAir for just that reason... you can change without paying hundreds to do so!  Got tired of purchasing through a major airline to only find a much lower price closer to sailaway.  We have already changed twice through EZAir for a trip in June and we will continue to check prices!  Wishing all blue skies and calm seas!

On 4/11/2018 at 9:53 AM, runchadrun said:

We are planning a cruise on the Regal Princess out of Copenhagen for summer 2019. This will be our first time in that part of the world and first time on Princess. (We typically sail on Royal Caribbean but this itinerary looked better to us.) We have it narrowed down to three different dates: late June, mid July, and early August. Are there any suggestions as to the best month to go?

Our last big trip took us on a cruise in and out of Venice, with a week on land in Rome and Venice beforehand. We started planning that 15 months in advance and took advantage of that time to do everything possible to accumulate enough frequent flyer miles for roundtrip business class flights.

My wife and have booked a July 2019 cruise aboard the Regal Princess.  We had a friend who spent two years in St. Petersburg working for a construction company.  His advice was just book a cruise... June, July, and August are all about the same in terms of climate.  He told us those three months are the peak tourist season so all of the venues are open.  Just pick the dates, which work best for your schedule.  Hope you have a great cruise.

DW and I are also visiting St. Petersburg in July.  We just finished booking a custom two-day tour through Tour-with-Locals.  Booking early we were able to arrange tours to all of the places we wanted to see.  We booked this tour as soon as we received our booking confirmation.   

Thank you for having the courage to share your experience! I want you to know I sent a copy of this to a cruising friend that goes overboard on occasion. I have tried to explain the cruise line as the right to have you removed from the ship... he just shrugs it off saying they won't do anything! I hope your story will have an impact on him. Thank you again for sharing!

Thank you for having the courage to share your experience! I want you to know I sent a copy of this to a cruising friend that goes overboard on occasion. I have tried to explain the cruise line has the right to have you removed from the ship... he just shrugs it off saying they won't do anything! I hope your story will have an impact on him. Thank you again for sharing!

When you can get into your cruise planner!:mad:

We are also first-time cruisers on RCCL. The best advice we received was to check our cruise planner each day. It really helped me in that I had to book reservations for three other couples. To my surprise, the reservations opened much, much sooner then the advertized ninety days out!

I have only been questioned once concerning the prescriptions I take aboard in a packed pill case. All I did was show a printed copy of my meds along with the prescription numbers of each medication to the security officer. After looking at my list... the security officer said thank you and I was on my way. This was the only time in about twenty cruises that this has ever happened. The vast majority of time the pill dispenser with its contents are not even questioned.

My wife and I are coming from a different side of the equation. We are elite passengers on Princess; however, we will be taking our first RCCL cruise in December. We are traveling with my brother and his wife, who are diamond + passengers on RCCL. They didn't want to sail on anything but an RCCL cruise... so we agreed to change our loyalties and book the RCCL cruise my brother wanted to take.

 

I have to say from our viewpoint Princess is far, far better in the organizational and pre-cruise set-up materials. I will my comments on the cruise itself… until we have completed the cruise.

 

I guess my frustration comes from trying to work with the RCCL webpage. It is just ridiculous! I find it hard to believe it can be that bad and while I’ve read many negative comments from loyal RCCL passengers on CC… nothing gets done to improve the page! It seems to be a standing joke among the RCCL Cruise Critic community. The website constantly kicks you off with “reservation number not found” or just drops you with a “bad input error”. Once you do get logged in (and that usually takes five or six tries) you must completely re-enter ALL of your cruise information before your cruise planner will load. (Why do you have to constantly input information already easily available to RCCL??)! Between the “cruise being modified” or “cruise cannot be found” it is difficult to remain positive and/ or patient!

We are going to give the cruise an honest chance… my wife and I are expecting to have a great time; however, as I have told my brother our onboard experiences had better be a damn sight better than their website! If it is not… it will be a very, long cruise for my wife and I and my brother!

My DW is celebrating her 65th birthday on December 31st. We always have a special party at a special location. This year we are celebrating her birthday onboard the Harmony of the Sea. With this being a milestone birthday... I want everything to be perfect... including the cake! Having read too many stories similar to OP's post... I decided I was not going to take a chance with the cake being less than perfect. I researched many bakeries in Ft. Lauderdale and find one which, surpassed all of my expectations!

The bakeries pictures of their cakes were beautiful plus they have received many excellent comments from past customers. The bakery surpassed my expectations in two ways: 1) They package the cake for travel. Using a special container (including a small piece of dry ice) to protect and keep the cake frozen until it's opened. 2)The final caveat I discovered the bakery will deliver the cake to the hotel we are staying at the night before our cruise!

Once I found all the information... I called RCCL guest services to check if I would be allowed to take the cake onboard our ship. I was told there would be no problem!

One big item √'d off the birthday party list!!!

Thanks, Bob!

I searched the past threads to find out if you can bring your own birthday cake on board. The thread was dated 2002. I was hoping someone could give me a more recent opinion. Thanks!

This is our first cruise on an RCCL ship. We have done around twenty-five cruises so I feel we know a little about how things work. That was until I tried working with the RCCL online website. It has got to be the worse online sight in the cruise industry. I have repeatedly tried to log on only to be given one of their excuses... loading error... reservation being edited... or my favorite... just being dumped into a bad request limbo! My stress level goes off the charts when trying to work online with RCCL. My only hope is the cruise is a damn sight better than their web services or this will be the worse cruise we have ever been on! Thanks for letting me vent! :mad::mad::mad:

:DWe use it everytime we cruise... it is a great service. Our home airport is also a small regional airport and we have never had a problem. One thing you must do is complete the form and return it to guest services by a specific date. The form usually comes with the daily event material on the third or fourth day. If you don't get it turned in by then... they will not take your luggage. We are now in the habit of making a stop at guest services and filling out the form on the second or third day. Remember there are some restrictions, i.e, your airline must participate in the program and you have to pay any fees associated your airline baggage policy in addition to the service fee.

:mad:I have experienced the same problem (plus several others... my favorite is bad request!!) The thermal suite appears on my cruise planner but when I go to purchase... it tells me I can't purchase now... I'll have to do it onboard. Which I find ridiculous because we don't sail until December 2018. If it's too early to book take the @$#& thing off the planner. This is my first cruise with RCCL and if the cruise is anything like there webpage it will be my last.

I noticed when looking at the deck plans for Harmony of the Sea it asks if you are sailing May 5, 2018, through April 28, 2019. Or are you sailing May 6, 2019, through April 25, 2020?

 

Anyone know the reason for the lag from April 29, 2019, to May 5, 2019?

If there is a medical reason, call RCCL and explain the situation. I take three medications which state "do not consume alcohol when taking this medication" I explained this to a representative and they allowed me to purchase all-inclusive drink package for my wife, while I purchased the soda package.

 

Sailing HOTS December 30

We'll be taking my mother in law on a cruise in July on AOS. She uses a walker now and isn't too steady on her feet. I'm concerned that it will be difficult to get her off the ship onto a tender when we go to Coco Cay. I've seen a few youtube videos and the walkway/ramp from the ship to the tender seems a bit wobbly. Any insight or advice?

 

I have used a walker for several years and on several cruises. Never had a problem boarding a tender. At the boarding area of the tender... have significant other (or crew member) move the walker into the tender then the crew will steady you into the boat. Going from tender to cruise ship is just as easy... have someone place walker outside tender... have a crew member(s) steady you out of the tender... grab your walker and off you go! Relax and enjoy the excursion!

I am taking my son and his best friend on a cruise next week visIon of the seas ! We typed a letter stating I was taking him and I had medical permission and all that stuff we all 3 signed it and the notary put a seal on it ! My question is if the mother last name and child’s last name aren’t the same as I gonna have issues ! Bio father is incarcerated and mom has full

Custody of him and has remarried ?

Lcruz89 we have also taken out grandchildren a several cruises and out of country travels. Never had a problem with cruise documentation; however, have had to produce birth certificates and a notarized letter from their parents. I made a large mistake several years ao and put the wrong birthdate into the travel pieces of information... needless to say we spent several hours sorting this out at our arrival back into the states. Now we always have their birth certificates and notorized perantal forms when we take them on travel out of the USA.

I am taking my son and his best friend on a cruise next week visIon of the seas ! We typed a letter stating I was taking him and I had medical permission and all that stuff we all 3 signed it and the notary put a seal on it ! My question is if the mother last name and child’s last name aren’t the same as I gonna have issues ! Bio father is incarcerated and mom has full

Custody of him and has remarried ?

Lcruz89 we have also taken our grandchildren a several cruises and out of country travels. Never had a problem with cruise documentation; however, have had to produce birth certificates and a notarized letter from their parents. I made a large mistake several years ago and put the wrong birthdate into the travel document information... needless to say, we spent several hours sorting this out at our arrival back into the states. Now we always have their birth certificates and notorized perantal forms when we take them on travel out of the USA... cruise or resort.

i have been suffering with Sleep Apnea 15 years .Using a CPAP machine did not help me and I got rid of it 4 years ago.However ,I never had a problem with distilled water or outlets on cruises.

Lenquixote I have had sleep apnea for more than twenty years. About two years ago I wasn't getting any sleep and the effects of the apnea returned. I was ready to quit also then in one last hope scheduled another sleep study. The results of the study indicated I need a BiPAP rather than a CPAP. Once I made the switch my sleep patterns improved and have remained steady. Just want to pass on my experience. Happy Sailing!

.

i have been suffering with Sleep Apnea 15 years .Using a CPAP machine did not help me and I got rid of it 4 years ago.However ,I never had a problem with distilled water or outlets on cruises.

Lenquixote66 I have had sleep apnea for more than twenty years. About two years ago I wasn't getting any sleep and the effects of the apnea returned. I was ready to quit also, in one last hope my wife convinced me to scheduled another sleep study. The results of the study indicated I need a BiPAP rather than a CPAP. Once I made the switch my sleep patterns improved and have remained steady. Just want to pass on my experience. Happy Sailing!

.

KCMSPATSY - you would be surprised at how many passengers bring their CPAP or BiPAP on board. This December will be our fifteen cruise in which I have brought my BiPAP. All of the cruises (and cruise lines) will provide you with both the distilled water and the extension cord. They will be in your cabin when you arrive. Tell your husband to relax and enjoy the cruise. He will have no problem using is CPAP onboard.

My wife and I, brother and his wife are taking our first cruise together. Our cruise is several months away so we have been leisurely looking at possible royal gifts to place in our room or purchase as presents. On all of our previous cruises (15+), I have always purchased flowers to be in our stateroom before embarkation. Just seems to brighten up that first introduction to our cabin. The "new" flower listing no longer shows the very nice lily... it only shows all of the cut flowers that need to tossed after a couple of days. During this cruise, we are also celebrating a 65th birthday. I had planned on purchasing the dining room birthday "party" but it is no longer available on the RC gift page as well. Also missing are several wines from the wine cellar and a worst of all... they now only offer one birthday cake... it's the ugly vanilla one for which I have read lots of negative comments. Does anyone know if this is now the norm or is RC just working on their horrible webpage? Thanks in advance.