Julesben

Try and follow along. :rolleyes:

 

OP said Harmony next year was higher than Anthem this year.

 

Three people replied saying prices are higher on new ships.

 

Guess what, Anthem is new this year.

 

That was my thought process

 

YMMV

Spot on, they're just cheerleaders.

If there were a 3 night cruise within driving distance for $100 a person per night, sure.

 

For an absurdly overpriced inside cabin (ick :eek:) for three nights and flights that cost almost as much as the cruise, you would be out of your mind to do it unless you were just dying to go on the cruise itself.

 

There is such little difference between Diamond and Diamond Plus, there is absolutely no reason to do it.

Pretty much my thoughts, very little difference, however cruise if you fancy the break.

Hello everyone... cruising soon on the Allure and my girlfriend and I looking to go to this beach... I heard is fun to watch airplane landing and taking off. I searched on RCCL website and there is no shore-ex to this place. How far from the cruise port is this beach? how safe is to go by our own? Worth the trip to go there? :confused:

 

Thanks

We've been before, it's about 20 minutes from the downtown shopping area. A must see experience and you can get the t shirt from the beach bar. This bar also shows the arrivals for the day.

Enjoy.

Hi everyone. Im going to be in Adventure of the Seas in the next few months, and I'm considering proposing to my girlfriend of over three years during the vacation. No guarantees I decide to on the ship, but I'm looking for ideas and places of where I could do it. I'm not big on a bunch of attention because we are both fairly quiet and reserved. We're making stops in St Thomas, St Kitts, Aruba and curacao. We've both been on many cruises before, including adventure of the Seas. One other thing I'm curious as to how it would work is how to get the ring down there with me via the flights without her knowing. I don't usually have a carry on bag, and I wouldn't feel comfortable putting it in the checked luggage incase the luggage gets lost by the airline.

 

I know there's idea threads out there, but I'm looking for more specific to my situation and ship and itinerary. :)

We got married on Adventure 3 years ago, unforgettable time on the ship.

With reference to your engagement ring you could purchase it in St Thomas and hide it in your carry on luggage that day.

We have no vested interest in RCCL, nor do we work in the cruise industry.

My wife and I took the 2-night sampler cruise on Quatum on November 21 and loved every minute of it.

 

I was opposed to Dynamic Dining before, but, the restaurants we dined at, the Grande and Wonderland were superb.

 

The ship is spectacular and captures your imagination with a vast array of whimsical art and modern, sleek and elegant public spaces.

 

My sign and sail card had to be re-programed and the reservations person at the Grande was a tad surly when I asked a question. These however, are insignificant nothings in what was otherwise a wonderful cruise.

 

The crew was very friendly, the entertaiment was Wow particularly Starwater at 270. We also loved the Music Hall.

 

We can't wait for a full week aboard this awesome ship in 38 days.

 

Jonathan

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Forums mobile app

It will be interesting to know your views after 7 nights onboard.

I am not sure what ship has the MDR you describe, I have never been on it, having cruised Disney, Carnival, Princess, and a river cruise in Europe.

 

Then again, if it is a choice between what you describe and the disaster that Dynamic Dining is in its current state, I will take the boring table mate. At least I can eat while they bore me, rather than stand in line.

 

 

 

Dear customer,

 

But some guy on Cruise Critic said everyone hated the MDR. Something about penguins and "could care less" when I think he meant "couldn't care less".

 

We are convening a focus group to see what he really meant. Please have patience.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line

Can't stop laughing here :cool:

Why do you seem so sure of this? I doubt it.

I doubt it too.

We just sailed on the Quantum of the Seas Dec 1st 11 night voyage. Dynamic Dining is NOT for us, we hated it as did everyone we spoke to on the ship. We did not find one single person who liked it. We hope they decide to postpone it indefinitely on all ships. Whoever did the market survey to design this nonsense should be fired.

 

Dynamic Dining is now a deal breaker for us and we will NOT cruise on any ship that has it. We have cruised 9 other times on RCL ships and enjoyed all our Main Dining experiences. Dynamic Dining is like going on a scavenger hunt each evening trying to find where you can eat as most of the restaurants book out many months before the cruise even sails. So if you don’t get your reservations early you will be eating in the Windjammer the whole cruise.

 

The only decision we want to make on a cruise is whether we want early or late dining in the main dining room. Spending hours of our precious vacation time trying to wrangle reservations is most definitely a deal breaker for us.

Spellcheck for me "occurencies", predictive text is about as clever as DD.

We just sailed on the Quantum of the Seas Dec 1st 11 night voyage. Dynamic Dining is NOT for us, we hated it as did everyone we spoke to on the ship. We did not find one single person who liked it. We hope they decide to postpone it indefinitely on all ships. Whoever did the market survey to design this nonsense should be fired.

 

Dynamic Dining is now a deal breaker for us and we will NOT cruise on any ship that has it. We have cruised 9 other times on RCL ships and enjoyed all our Main Dining experiences. Dynamic Dining is like going on a scavenger hunt each evening trying to find where you can eat as most of the restaurants book out many months before the cruise even sails. So if you don’t get your reservations early you will be eating in the Windjammer the whole cruise.

 

The only decision we want to make on a cruise is whether we want early or late dining in the main dining room. Spending hours of our precious vacation time trying to wrangle reservations is most definitely a deal breaker for us.

Our thoughts exactly after our 1st December quantum sailing.

Non stop issues with the dining experience.

When we managed to get into complimentary dining the food was either cold, didn't turn up at all or we waited excessively too long and got past the point of eating.

We did manage to get in the Grande which was like the MDR experience with its menu.

American icon grill was dire for us, the three scenarios mentioned above were regular occupancies in this restaurant.

We think DD is going to struggle to work, not enough seats for every passenger in complimentary dining.

The choice of where you eat should be yours (the customer) and not rccl's.

The new concept is designed to get more people in speciality restaurants, every night there will be an amount of people with no other choice, you will read about these people on CC.

Just for off the Quantum… they are having so many issues with Dynamic Dining. Its probably the smartest thing they have done to post-pone it for now. It is horrible for probably most of the cruisers. Reservation times meant pretty much nothing. It was squeaky wheel first, as they were so far behind. They were totally incapable of handling this type of system.

 

Food comes out cold, pretty much every night. You wait on line to be seated and then wait a long time for food to arrive.

 

Menus are boring and do not change. That is a little frustrating.

 

Best they not ruin two other ships with a concept with so many problems. Straighten it out first, then roll it out.

We had the same issues on a daily basis on our 1st December sailing on Quantum.

We have no interest in putting ourselves through this experience again.

I was reading the recent reviews for QOS and was surprised by the number of negative reviews. I do notice this for many lines and ships too and always take each one with a grain of salt.

 

Most of the bad reviews were based on customers feeling the ship and staff wasn't ready for the debut and that kinks were still being worked out. My question is simple - shouldn't customers get a discount during this time period? Why do we, as customers, find it acceptable to put our hard earned money down for a trip and then give a company a pass because they are "working the kinks out?"

 

I supposed if you experienced this you could reduce or eliminate your gratuities, but I personally don't feel it's the fault of the staff.

 

Just curious and Happy Holiday's to all!

I'm curious as to why you take the time to read people's reviews and then take them with "a grain of salt".

Have you experienced Quantum?, we have and it was bloody hard work when trying to organise / book dining room tables. Food cold, food not turning up at all, 1hr for breakfast to arrive from order. We were forced into speciality dining due to no availability in complimentary.

Put it this way we will not go through it again, too much trouble and stress.

The staff aren't to blame for the current situation onboard, that's down to RCCL and their decisions.

The main reason we are seeing DD introduced is for Rccl to make more $$$$.

Even the cheerleaders blinded by a weird form of loyalty might find it hard to defend this if it doesn't work out for them, if they sample DD.

ROTFLMA, good one:D:D and so true:eek:

Well said.

 

I understand there are many who like the old, classical, way of dining on a cruise ship. Royal has determined that there are far more that want something different. Royal is trying to attract new cruisers who do not find the idea of traditional dining, even MTD, attractive. Attracting these new cruisers requires replacing the classical dining experience, not just changing the menus.

 

Maintaining some dining space for Traditional Dining and MTD would only mean less space for DD. There is a certain minimum space required otherwise DD falls apart.

 

You raise some good points about how the menus in dynamic dining are less than successful. That maybe why Royal has postponed the implementation of dynamic dining. It maybe something as simple as changing the menus to reflect the feedback they received to date. It could be the IT issues others have mentioned. Or a combination of both.

 

That said, don't believe for a second that Royal has dropped the idea of dynamic dining. It will be extended to as many ships as possible and as soon as possible.

 

Royal has determined it wants more $$$$.

 

Nothing to do with what the customer wants, or the majority of them.

One would hope the smart ship wouldn't have double bookings :rolleyes:

 

 

There was one night where we had a second reservation in a different restaurant when we checked the schedule on the TV. But when we checked the computer, we only had the single reservation that we had made. I have no idea where that came from or how the TV was pulling up a different schedule than what was in the computer (it matched other than that one additional reservation on the TV).

 

I didn't want to risk trying to correct it. I hope I didn't contribute to a no-show.

 

 

Oh. In the earlier post, I meant Dec 12th cruise which was 8 nights.

The Concierge accidentally booked us into two restaurants, this shows that you can have more than one reservation per customer on the same night. (System Failure).

We noticed this and cancelled one of them immediately.

All Royal has done is convert three complimentary dining venues into three complimentary dining menus. Same number of seats before and same number of seats after the conversion. They've even added complimentary seats for suite guests which means less pressure on the non-suite venues.

 

There has never been enough complimentary seating to accommodate each and every diner at one single seating on any cruise ship. Why do you think they had early and late seating? The only reason you're seeing a difference is in the past those in traditional dining were forced to show up at a specific time which regulated the flow into the complimentary venues. Dynamic dining allows passengers to show up when they like. There will be queues at times.

We were on the December 8th Quantum cruise and had no problems either. Everything was booked far in advance. Two shows changed times, but that didn't interfere with dinner reservations.

 

But there were a lot of problems. Halfway through the cruise, we stopped to taking to other passengers about dinner because so many people were disappointed and/or upset.

When we tried booking complimentary restaurants it proved challenging to say the least.

We don't go on vacation to stand in lines trying to book for the evening meals.

We heard from others guests that some crew member had told them to book more complimentary restaurants and decide on the night which one they wanted to use, meaning tables were left emptied by no shows!

Out of 32 RCI cruises this is one to forget.

All Royal has done is convert three complimentary dining venues into three complimentary dining menus. Same number of seats before and same number of seats after the conversion. They've even added complimentary seats for suite guests which means less pressure on the non-suite venues.

 

There has never been enough complimentary seating to accommodate each and every diner at one single seating on any cruise ship. Why do you think they had early and late seating? The only reason you're seeing a difference is in the past those in traditional dining were forced to show up at a specific time which regulated the flow into the complimentary venues. Dynamic dining allows passengers to show up when they like. There will be queues at times.

Who said there was enough complimentary seating to accommodate each and every diner at one single seating?

Who said there was only a single seating in MDR?

As a D+ cruiser I'm aware there are two seatings in MDR.

I'm also aware every person embarking a RCI TD ship does so with a dining table assigned to them. This gives them gauranteed complimentary dining.

RCI cannot guarantee every passenger complimentary dining with DD, that is for a reason!

Sorry but I must disagree. Each DD venue seats around 430 people - x 4 venues is around 1700 people seated at a time. Given that they turn the tables at least 2-3 times a night then there is more then enough capacity for everyone.

Then you add the Coastal Kitchen for the suite guests (128 per seating) and the speciality restaurants which adds further capacity of around 700 per seating in total. Then there is with Windjammer which takes 850+ at a time.

Add these all together ...

Who is talking about anything other than complimentary dining.

Add up your complimentary seats then tell us if there's enough seats for everyone.

In MDR there's enough for every single passenger to eat complimentary.

If you're like us and like to go speciality 5/6 nights out of 14 then that is your choice and not forced upon.

When cruising Quantum 1st December cruisers were being forced into paid for restaurants, including us.

Really?:rolleyes:

 

Now who can remember the hysterical outcry when RCI announced they were introducing My Time Dining a few years ago.....it was as if they had announced the End Of The World......so many people then swore that they were never going to cruise RCI again......and guess what happened.....MTD is now very popular indeed.

 

RCI are trying something different with DD. Yes, I tried it, yes, I liked it, I liked the flexibility. As others have said once people get over the feeling that they have to prebook every night, and just relax - then you will get the concept.

The problem is hugely created by the lack of supply, not enough seats for every customer on the ship.

Unfortunately there is a reason for that!

Just looking for some opinions… We've always stayed in a balcony stateroom, but may be considering a suite for our next cruise.

 

Is a Grand Suite worth almost $2000 more than a balcony on Freedom? Is a GS worth almost $3000 more than an ocean balcony on Oasis?

 

We were also looking at Crown Loft suites on Oasis… those are about $1200 more than the Grand Suites. For those of you who have stayed in the loft suites, did you think they were actually worth the extra $$$? We want this cruise to be special.

 

Besides the new suite restaurant/lounge on Oasis, what other perks do the suites get on either Oasis or Freedom?

In my opinion no, not the amount asked.

You eat the same food as everyone else.

It's not about the 'loyal Royals'. It's about attracting a new and younger cruising demographic who are turned off by the classic cruise dining experience. Dynamic Dining is the future.

Agree to an extent, but who wants forcing into speciality dining every time they cruise?

I think you are rushing your predictions. We will see how many loyal Royals will stop sailing on any ship with DD.

Agree.

The 2 weeks following Thanksgiving are the slowest and least booked times of the year. That's why RCI was advertising interior rooms of $179 for the Dec 6 Caribbean 7 day cruise of the Serenade out of NOLA....

I've misled you a bit here, the point I'm trying to make is the ship wasn't full but we had lots of queuing every evening along with problems of booking restaurants too.

It would be interesting to hear how things are going on this weeks sailing.

I was on the 12 December cruise...we had around 4,260 passenger's, and did not experience any difficulty, although we did dine very early (5:30 PM)...

 

One more thing...even with the Dynamic Dining, we had a virtual "traditional" dining experience....we sat at table number 135 at the Grande all eight nights of our cruise and were treated very nicely by our regular waitress.:)

We're very happy it worked out for you Bob, not everyone can say the same on here though.

You make martinis with Jack Daniels?

 

BTW, read of a blind taste test of 21 vodkas conducted by the New York Times in 2005 (you can google it). The winner was, "hands down", Smirnoff. Grey Goose did not make the top 10. So, if you're concerned about saving money on a cruise and like vodka, go cheap.

Agree.