Bookster99

 

Testing to see if this works. Will add more if it does

 

 

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Looks delicious. What's the dish? yes, post more.

She can bring one for each adult occupant of the cabin. My wife and I bring two. It may be limited at two bottles. Not sure if you can do three if there are three adults in the cabin...

I am not a morning person ... and we only had breakfast in the main dining room on the last day of the cruise since room service was not available. Every other day we thoroughly enjoyed coffee and breakfast delivered to our room and enjoyed in privacy before venturing out. I especially enjoyed taking my coffee out on the balcony after eating. With that said, we did enjoyed our one breakfast in the MDR, and I can see that it could be a nice meal for those who really enjoy breakfast, but for us, room service was a better option.

 

These (MDR) issues are probably JUST because it was the last day of the cruise, but my dining partner was disappointed that Diet Coke was not available at breakfast, he does not drink tea or coffee. And the wait staff seemed a bit more abrupt and gruff than at any other time during the cruise. They weren't overtly rude, but almost so. I can just chalk it up to "it's the last day, get off the boat" but if that sort of thing bothers you ... the last day is probably not going to be the BEST in the MDR.

 

(this is a bit off topic ... but ... just in case it is of interest to anyone reading the thread)

 

Just on the off chance that you don't already know ... you can place your breakfast order via TV remote the night before and schedule for the next morning. All breakfast items are free of charge (with the possible exception of alcoholic beverages which we did not want.)

 

A couple of suggestion - place separate orders per person if you are concerned about your food possibly being plated together and/or to ensure that if you order two of something you actually do get two full orders. My bacon arrived on his plate each morning ... but we don't mind sharing and/or rearranging items.

 

I saved the extra coffee creamers and jelly packets when left over just in case we came up short on other mornings (which we did.)

 

We liked the cheese plate that is available either on the dessert or snack menu, but it is not on the breakfast menu ... however we placed a completely separate order for it one morning as an addition to our breakfast.

 

(ETA: this was on RC Brilliance of the Seas)

I am a big fan of the cheese plate. Never thought of having it with breakfast. Great idea!

I love breakfast in the main dining room. I do it every day, unless I need to get off the ship quickly for one of those pesky excursions. Shorts and a t-shirt is fine. I'd wear a bathrobe if I had one.

No wine package. But you can buy bottles of wine individually for them. That's available on the website.

On Navigator last year, they didn't have a Chef's table. Instead, they offered a California Wine pairing meal in Chops. Is the Chef's Table experience similar? Does the head de cuisine speak? Is there a galley tour?

 

(I suspect no galley tour, as that seems to be part of the champagne brunch on the last sea day. We are definitely doing that, too!)

Man, that menu looks delicious!

 

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On Navigator last year, they didn't have a Chef's table. Instead, they offered a California Wine pairing meal in Chops. Is the Chef's Table experience similar? Does the head de cuisine speak? Is there a galley tour?

(I suspect no galley tour, as that seems to be part of the champagne brunch on the last sea day. We are definitely doing that, too!)

We have our luggage tags all printed for our sailing next week. I had a bag go missing at debarcation last year because the tag was torn off. I am considering preventing that this year by reinforcing the tag with clear plastic tape. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

GASP!!!! You're KIDDING me????? A company is trying to MAKE MONEY??? I'm shocked I tell you!

 

Hello!!! Why NOT bump the price? Everything is set where the market will bear. Don't think it's worth it? Don't go! Why should cruise ships be any different than every land side restaurant worth it's salt? People want to celebrate, so they pretty up their offerings and charge a premium. God bless America. Have at it Royal!

No argument there: But if I don't see enough additional value, I won't buy. I just don't feel champagne and little cakes justifies a doubled price. I pay at least that for Chef's Table, but there's more to the experience. I would buy the culinary celebration, too, but if there's more to that experience, they sure don't describe it in much detail. If you decide to go, that's great. Maybe I'll find out later I missed out on something really cool. OK, I'll know for next time.

The normal price for Chops Grille is ~$35. per person During the Christmas cruise on Independence of the Seas, they are offering Chops Grille: A Culinary Celebration for $75 per person. The only difference that I can see between the two is a glass of champagne and Amuse Bouche, Petits - Fours. I'm trying to wrap my head around the huge price difference.

 

Here's the description of the Culinary Celebration.

 

Ring in the holiday at Chops Grille with a merry mouthwatering fine-dining experience. Toast friends and family with a glass of champagne and an amuse-bouche. Then enjoy one of our signature main courses from the full menu including the most delectable steaks or a special holiday lobster tail. The meal is complete with a selection of petits fours - making your holiday a Specialty one.

 

 

Is this really worth $75 per person? I'm sure there will be a special meal served on Christmas night.

We are facing the same question on Liberty, sailing 12/26/16. We asked a number of people, including RCCL staff, what the differences were. You may choose differently, but for us we will be celebrating that night in the MDR. We already have Chops booked, along with Chefs Table and other things. They will need to provide a lot more to justify the doubled price in our minds.

What ship are you on? I sail on Liberty in 9 days. They haven't asked us to upload anything, so I think it's only certain ships. Not sure that it would be that much longer in the boarding process. Especially if a lot of other cruisers upload pics!

Not as many, but I always wear a tux. Get some formal pics taken that we would never do otherwise.

Sorry about that. We are packing one that just plugs into the plug. Made by Stanley. No surge protector. Hope it gets through! But I hope this doesn't ruin your cruise for you in any way.

9 days. Liberty of the Seas. 12/26/16

I'm in the same boat and am on a little 5 day in Jan. This will be my first time on RCI and there is a pretty long and consistent pattern of negative reviews on Navigator.

 

But it will be warm. My wife and I love to chat, read, play pass the pigs, backgammon and cribbage, so if the entertainment sucks, we will just entertain ourselves.

 

We also bought the beverage package, and I expect that we will find at least one or two good bartenders that we can frequent and support and just stay buzzed for 5 days, if needed.

 

We also booked the 2 night dinner package for the first 2 nights dinners at a pretty good rate to let the dining room warm up before we visit and sriracha sauce on anything is pretty good in any condition by day 3.

 

Finally, I figure my wife and I can survive and thrive in almost anything, and I can't imagine the the Navigator is that bad that I'll have to ruin my liver with liquor and my stomach with hot sauce, but I will if I have to:).

Was on the Navigator last year, and it was marvelous.

I just boarded Liberty of the Seas and went to Cafe Promenade to check for our favorite cheesecake lollipops and was told they no longer make those! What??? 😡😡😡😡

That's it! No cheesecake lollipops? Gonna be a horrible cruise!

Thanks for the great details! I am looking forward to our trip coming up 12/26/16 -- I trust you didn't scuff the ship up to badly! Thank you for the details on your dining experiences -- That is always a high point of our trip.

Wow. What a horrible experience! I am so glad he is doing better.

We had smokers below us when we cruised on the Navigator. We did not suffer any serious effects, and didn't complain. We still used the balcony, and just put up with it when it happened. I imagine that happens a lot.

On an unrelated but related note, we avoid the casino because of the smoke. I wonder how much more gambling would take place on the ship if it were a smoke-free environment?

I believe the Vision will be in Galveston. Not sure my source. I am very eager for Galveston dates to be released for all of 2018.

Two words: Ziplock bags.

Was she holding a pepper grinder and a banana when she said it? How do you respond to something like that? "Thank you, ma'am. We'll discuss it with the sun."

It would be nice if Houston came back. Or maybe if Princess added a few cruises out of Galveston. Chances?

Awesome! What a great surprise!

Hello everyone!

 

I have returned home from Liberty's Nov 27th-Dec 4th sailing and wanted to share my thoughts and experiences. This is strictly from my perspective and YMMV even if you were on the same sailing. It's going to be very long. I realized while composing that I can't include emoticons wherever I feel like it because I'm limited to 8 pictures and the emoticons count. So in some places where I would normally use one, I may not to keep the picture count down.

 

It will be somewhat raw/stream-of-consciousness as I think of things to comment on, so it will be a bit unpolished and not entirely in chronological order. There will be some positive comments as well as some that may be perceived as negative, but my intention is to report on what happened (for better or worse) on my vacation.

 

Some background information -- DW and I are in our mid-30s and DD is 5 years old. We drove from Ontario splitting it over 2 days each way, arriving back home in the wee hours on Tuesday morning. I must have caught a cold prior to leaving because I had a sore throat during the first day of our drive, which worsened with a cough on day 2 of our drive south (we stopped in Memphis on the first night, Houston on the second night, and drove from Houston to Galveston on embarkation morning). However, I didn't have a fever nor any gastrointestinal symptoms. DW and DD caught the cold from me in the car since it was two days in an enclosed space. (Sorry if TMI, but it helps explain why we didn't do as much as we might otherwise have.)

 

I did not purchase VOOM service on board, particularly given the reports of how poor the Surf & Stream service is (i.e. streaming not really possible).

 

We booked an inside stateroom, #7453. It was fine for us. At first we were using a Regalo fold-up toddler bed that we brought on board (we used the same in January 2016 on Grandeur) but when DD seemed to prefer an actual bed this time, we had our steward make up one of the two Pullman beds for DW.

 

Here is a link to a ZIP file containing PDFs of the Cruise Compasses, Daily Offers, Kids Planners, and also the General Store's Alcohol Order Form/Price List:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6438175/LibertyNov27.zip

(approximately 173 MB, sorry for the size and some blurry text, I just wanted to keep this simple and post it quickly)

 

First for anyone who was on this sailing -- you may know me as "José"! (El Gaucho performed on Day 2 and I was the person selected from the audience during the 20:30 show! He set up my hair and twirled the balls at the end of strings so close to my head :eek:...does anyone remember what these props are called? I can assure you this was the real deal - there was no rehearsal and I was not a plant! For every remaining day of the cruise, I was recognized and greeted as José by at least 2-3 fellow cruisers.)

 

John and Katrina Blair were the Cruise Director and Activities Manager, respectively. I liked them well enough. I really liked John's perspective and how he shared that whenever he was asked or asked others how we were doing, the answer should always be "great" -- because relative to 99+% of the world, we were doing just fine with our wealth, health, freedoms, etc. (He read a shortened version of what the world would be like as a village of 100 people. We are truly the blessed "haves" of the world compared to the "have nots".)

 

Embarkation in Galveston Terminal 2 was smooth. The rooms were "open" at 13:00 as scheduled but my stateroom wasn't ready for about another 10 minutes while the steward continued puttering around. The previous guest in my stateroom used oxygen and I took the sign down and returned it to the steward as he had not collected it.

 

I have a CPAP machine and the extension cord was already waiting in my room (an orange cord, perhaps 15 ft in length). I had to request the distilled water and I was given a sealed 1 gallon jug (brand: Crystal Springs). I did not have a problem bringing my PowerCube Extended USB 4400/USEUPC onboard (no surge protection, only overcurrent protection with a resettable fuse). It went through the x-ray in my CPAP machine carry-on bag and I was never questioned on it.

 

My backpack carry-on contained two 750 mL bottles of wine and port security just asked me if it was wine after it went through the x-ray machine. They did not require a visual inspection of the bottles (whereas in January 2016 at Cruise Maryland, they did want to see the bottles -- obviously YMMV at any port with any officer).

 

Even though our luggage was all dropped off together at the same time, DW's bag was not delivered yet by 20:00 on Day 1. She went downstairs to get it herself, it was luckily on top of a pile of other bags yet to be delivered. They were happy to let her take it so they would have 1 bag fewer to deliver. It was not held due to any items being prohibited in the "naughty room".

 

We had very good weather in Roatan, Belize City, and Cozumel. I did not notice it raining at any point while I was outside. However, it was rainy in Galveston upon our return -- apparently there was flooding as well, over 9 inches of rain within a 24-hour (?) period. I saw sandbags placed around the entrances of some buildings.

 

In Roatan, my family had pre-booked Victor Bodden Tours for a "Best of Roatan" private tour. Tex was our driver/guide and he was excellent. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and I wouldn't hesitate to book with Bodden Tours (and Tex) again. We told him we wanted to buy locally-grown and roasted coffee. In the tourist area just off the ship, a shop was selling coffee for $12 US/pound or $20 for 2 lbs. That was clearly overpriced because Tex took us to Eldon's Supermarket and we bought 2 lbs for $11.

 

We also loved Monkey Business at Victor's house - DD had a great time feeding Pinky the capuchin monkey, feeding the deer, and seeing the parrots. Our guide Irwin was great.

 

On Day 5 in Belize, we decided to sleep in since we were still fighting the cold. We got up a bit later for breakfast and had tender ticket #21. (For tender ticket information, see page 1 of the Day 5 Cruise Compass.) Tendering went pretty quickly that morning as we were off the tender boat and at the tourism village by 11:00.

 

In Belize, don't bother looking for the Moho Chocolate Factory on the Fort St Tourism Village even though it's on the big street map sign. It has moved. We asked several vendors as well as the official Information desk and they all kept pointing us in different directions (other side of this building, at the back of the duty-free shop, etc.). Finally one vendor told us Moho moved out. I don't know why even the official information desk didn't know??

 

In Cozumel, we booked the Beach Break at Playa Mia with transfers through RCI since they had a sale through the Cruise Planner -- $99 US for the three of us. It would have cost $124 to book directly with Playa Mia for the exact same excursion (round-trip transportation and no food/drinks included). We had a great time there -- we will be returning to Cozumel on board Navigator next year and we will definitely book Playa Mia again. Much to my surprise (and probably everyone else)...I even won a free Playa Mia t-shirt and a Cuban cigar in an American football throwing challenge!

 

If you are looking for Wi-Fi in Cozumel, the Carl's Jr at the Royal International Village has free Wi-Fi for customers. The password is printed at the bottom of your receipt. I bought a vanilla ice cream for $2 US for a cool treat after a hot day at the beach and for a chance to sit down and look at some personal e-mails.

 

The MDR menu order was: Mojo, Saffron (formal), Basil, Pimiento, Jasmine (formal), Shiitake, Pomodoro. The switch-up of Pomodoro and Shiitake was unexpected to me based on previous reports of the menu order.

 

The DreamWorks Parade was (IMO) poorly scheduled. It was on Day 5 @ 17:01, which of course was the second formal night with professional photography beginning at 17:00. It was also right at the time when we were going to leave port, so the Captain made his announcements -- interrupting the parade, which had to be restarted after the Captain's remarks had concluded. I guess the Master of the vessel didn't know what was going on on his own ship :rolleyes: Captain MacDonald was fine except that it seemed as though he was never really sure of what to say during his announcements -- to me, he seemed to fumble around for words quite often and his remarks were peppered with ums and ahs.

 

I will revisit a source for some previous debate by commenting that freshly-ground pepper and/or Parmesan cheese was not offered in the MDR for soups, beef dishes, pasta dishes, etc. :D Similarly, Royal Shrimp Cocktail was not available every night (only on 2 nights) and could not be asked for if not listed in the menu.

 

Each time in the MDR main seating when they were about to start their presentation (wait staff song and parade number), there were 2 false starts with "Ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime!" being played. The third time was always when the show would actually begin. I'm not sure why they were consistent with that :rolleyes: I was also surprised that they did the song and parade thing so many times during the sailing -- I think it was 3 times in total -- Day 2, 5, and 7.

 

Saturday Night Fever was on Day 7 and it was amazing. I really liked the performance. However, the timing was not ideal: showtimes of 18:15 and 21:00 (82 min duration). Since I was in the MDR main seating, I saw the 21:00 show. Adventure Ocean's free program ends 22:00 so you had to pay for the Late Night Party Zone if you were going to see the performance. DW doesn't usually stay up late, and it was certainly going to be past DD's bed time, so DW opted not to go to see SNF.

 

It was annoying for the Cruise Compasses not to indicate which DreamWorks Character would be appearing. We ended up going to almost every single appearance to try and make sure we got pictures with all of the characters. Even still, the only ones available were Puss-N-Boots, Po the Panda, Gloria the Hippo, and King Julien the Lemur. Alex the Lion, Shrek, and Fiona were only in the Parade. I believe King Julien was only available for two of the photo ops while there were many appearances by the three others (4+ each).

 

The first DreamWorks Character Dining breakfast had Puss-N-Boots and Po. The second DW breakfast had King Julien and Gloria. No Penguins or any other characters.

 

Santa made two appearances on Day 7 for photos by the Christmas tree outside Sorrento's. At least for the first appearance, it was actually Nellie (sp?) from Malaysia who was the host of the DreamWorks Character breakfasts.

 

The all-inclusive digital photo package on board was $299.99, or $269.99 within the first 3 days. That made buying in advance through the My Cruise Photos web site at $149.99 a great deal. I found most of the professional photographers on board this sailing to be excellent -- a few in particular really took the time to help adjust your poses, clothing, etc. to make the pictures look great. It made the lines move a little slow at times, but it was worth it. The one annoyance about the photos is that a frame/overlay is automatically added to some photos and cannot be removed to leave the original photo unchanged. For example, photos with DreamWorks characters had a digital frame inserted that included the phrase, "Summer of Adventure". Well, this sometimes partially obscured DD in the photos, and this was also not a summer vacation. :rolleyes:

 

For disembarkation, we joined the self-departure line at 07:30 and it was already very long. We finally reached the non-U.S. residents customs line at 08:20 (lane 9, which was moving very slowly, and eventually we got moved to lane 10, and then got to a CBP officer quite quickly). I think we were in the customs line for about 30 minutes.

 

As far as TABC fees went, I did the law-abiding (or stupid, depending on your opinion) thing and declared my two 1 L bottles of whiskey, and paid my $7.50 tax. It appears to be based on the honour system as I think one could probably slip past the tables to the exit if you didn't own up to having any alcohol or cigarettes.

 

Since we all had a cold, we didn't pursue some of the activities we wanted to such as rock climbing, any of the water slides (I am sad about that), or the mini-golf. We also didn't manage to squeeze in Johnny Rocket's. But I did eat quite a bit in the MDR per usual with multiple appetizers and entrées!

 

DW and I both received a letter in our stateroom from the casino allowing $5 in "FreePlay", which we both promptly lost at the roulette table betting on the wrong colour both times.

 

The service onboard was acceptable/as expected, but we did not really get WOW'd as we have during previous cruises. There is usually at least one crew member we recognize with an extra gratuity, but not this time around. We simply went with the advance prepaid gratuities and left it at that.

 

We had $75 in non-refundable OBC and $15 in refundable OBC. We spent very little on board -- most of it was DreamWorks stuffies for DD and our two bottles of whiskey. I feel like it's pretty much always the same old stuff for sale. So we actually got a few dollars of the refundable OBC back onto our credit card at the end of the cruise. The refund was posted to our credit card very quickly, which I was surprised by.

 

We used EZ Cruise Parking, having booked online in advance. I used a discount code I found online. We opted to walk instead of using the shuttle service, which was fine. I also got a car cover, which I felt was worth the $10. I would use EZ Cruise again. The staff were polite and efficient in checking us in, directing us to a spot, and getting the car cover on.

 

Well, that is all I can think of at the moment...which is long enough already...I'll post again if I think of anything else. Which might be in a few minutes' time when I realize I forgot something! Haha!

Awesome review! Thank you! We will be on her 12/26/16. Thanks for keeping our seats warm!

Hi All,

 

Have an upcoming cruise on the Anthem and am very concerned by the ongoing cuts to entertainment. Given a longer, holiday sailing, I would've hoped for more entertainment than on a 7-night cruise, not less. Also, since we booked the cruise, there have been numerous, material changes to the cruising experience.

 

-First, we booked hoping for a dining and menu change and had been greatly looking forward to the rotating dining with varied menus with dynamic. Now we're back to traditional with the fleet-wide menus that can practically be recited after the 5+ year old food options. At least had hoped for menu changes even with the switch from dynamic to look forward to some enticing options from dynamic, but several have reported fleet-wide menus with little to no difference from other ships.

 

Aside from dining, we really were looking forward to the tribute bands at Music Hall. We know they were subtly eliminated. Now Music Hall with a house band is the same a Viking Lounge on every other ship, just a new venue. Also, it's disappointing to hear that most nights after 10pm is either Karaoke or a "silent disco". A silent disco is fun ONE night of a cruise, not multiple. Wasn't the whole point of this venue to have changing, ongoing LIVE music?

 

Finally, it's very disappointing to see the fly-on acts change and become depleted for our sailing to now:

 

Original Schedule:

AJ Jamal - Comedian

Finis Henderson - Impressionist

Ronn Lucas - Ventriloquist

Resurrection: A Journey Tribute - Tribute Act

Darrell Joyce - Comedian

Rick Novell - Juggler

 

Updated schedule:

Welcome, AJ Jamal, Comedian

Finis Henderson, Impressionist

Ronn Lucas, Ventriloquist

Stephani Parker, Female Vocalist

 

I get that "entertainment is subject to change" but I didn't think it would go from 6 acts to 4, maybe one would cancel and be substituted for another performer.

 

We've gone from 6 specialty acts to 4. We've gone from a live tribute band to a soloist. We've gone from 2 comedians to 1. I just don't get it, on every 7 night we've been on, there are at least 2 comedians. Now on a 10-night sailing we will have one comedian, fewer than planned and fewer than every other ship in the fleet?

 

What is going on? Very concerned and disappointed. Trying to keep an open mind, but when looking forward to a trip and paying holiday premiums, it's alarming to see such drastic cuts.

 

Thanks!

Apparently, with half the comedians, the cruise will be half as funny.