mil76

We only did Silver dining once, and the MDR the other 4 nights. There was very little on the menu that appealed to the picky eaters in my party. Are they allowing anything below pinnacle in the Golden Room? We are D+ and they told us we could only use the Silver Lounge.

Don't waste your time, there isn't. The area outside Silver dining is the Crown lounge equivalent.

Drone shows are only for special occasions, although they do have a light show every night. We watched the regular light show from our balcony at the Fullerton hotel. I read some of the articles on the CNY drone shows and it sounds like the crowds were huge and everyone stampeded inside the MBS when the rain started. Singapore crowds can get huge. We did Gardens by the Bay Christmas Eve and it was packed. I'm so glad it didn't start raining. We liked Grab because it had both taxis and private cars (Uber/Lyft equivalent). Booking taxis through the app was cheaper than just hailing one and paying the metered rate.

I can't believe they still haven't put Freestyle machines on Liberty. I cruised Liberty out of Galveston pre-Covid and thought they were way behind the times back then! They always gave the excuse that they couldn't get the Freestyle flavor cartridges in Texas. I remember they did have old school coke machines like most fast food restaurants have, but that won't help if you want anything non-carbonated.

Can't wait to see your impressions of Spectrum. We sailed her in December, and after previous sailings on Anthem and Ovation, this ship is very different. CNY trumps everything there. We were there on Christmas and everything was open.

The announcement volume control knobs in the rooms on older ships are a relic piece of obsolete technology from a bygone era. I tried using it on Navigator this week and it does nothing. We were waiting in the room yesterday for tender number announcements and you had to go out on the balcony and you could still hardly hear it. But day one when they were doing the muster station straggler announcements it blasted in the stateroom.

Ensenada is pretty bad. There are some good places to get Mexican food and that is about it. Plus Nassau will have warmer weather in the winter so you can still go to the beach. It checks the box for foreign port to keep the cruise legal and that is about it.

We drove a couple times when we were in Tucson. Now that we've moved it's still the most convenient port for us in Denver if we fly into Long Beach. We still do Galveston just for the bigger ships, but at this point the ports don't really matter between the two. Florida is still king for port-of-call variety though.

Lots of casino comps on the 3 day.

It would only be once a week. On 3/4 day weeks they hit Ensenada (dock) twice and Catalina (tender) once. On 7 day weeks they tender in Cabo and Mazatlan and PV are docked.

I think Navigator in LA is doing better for Royal than it was in the past, but this applies to just about every ship they have right now. It looks sold out for our cruise next week, and this isn't exactly peak cruising time unless you are going on Icon. In the past I could count on getting a Royal Up for minimum bid, and this time I put higher than minimum bids on multiple categories and got crickets. You rarely see it on Going, Going, Gone like some of the comparable ships doing 3 and 4 day itineraries out of Florida with listings for just about every week If the market is growing, maybe they will give a Quantum class a shot. I guess we will find out in a few weeks.

They need to be able to plug into this while in port instead of running the engines for power.

Flip phones rule! Mine works great on cruises. 😜

It's not just signing waivers anymore either. You have to watch one video for boogie board, then do another if you want to do stand-up. Takes forever if there is a queue.

Going back on Friday. Haven't been on her since last Spring, so I'm glad to see all is not lost after the negative reviews. We sail Navigator a couple times a year since 3&4 day itineraries regularly pop up on the casino list, and this time we managed to snag the 7 day itinerary. It's the easiest port for us to get to since we can fly nonstop from Denver to Long Beach and bypass LAX. Haven't done the 7 day since the NYE cruise after restart where they wouldn't let anyone off the ship in Puerto Vallarta due to COVID paranoia. We did our honeymoon in PV many years ago and haven't been back since, so hopefully this time it works out. We like the specialty restaurant selection so always do UDP, and Playmakers really makes it worth it for us. Hooked is great, but the DW doesn't like seafood so I usually only get one visit for the cruise. UDP hasn't gone up too much compared to some of the other ships, and it is usually our only onboard spending (besides my wife in the casino). I prefer the winter cruises since the chilly weather keeps the crowd down on the Flowrider. Wetsuit is packed and ready to go!

Went on Ovation the past 2 years, Once in August and once in September. Didn't make it to Dawes either time. Once for ice and once for a medical emergency. If you want to increase your odds, make sure I am not on the cruise!

I think we paid $35 for UberX to LGB during the peak disembarking period. Like I said in the previous post, we did have to wait 30 minutes and I think the driver changed 3 times while we were waiting.

The illegal taxi thing is a big hustle in San Pedro. They know there won't be enough Ubers/Taxis so they go there and try to get rides off the books (which is illegal) with a huge upcharge. The San Pedro port is out of the way, so there are not many Uber drivers in the vicinity in the first place. And because the Nav docks on Mondays and Fridays you are competing with normal workday demand rather than usual Saturday/Sunday mornings. Since it is usually bedlam outside they just wait for someone to look confused/frustrated and they pounce. We once had to wait 30 minutes for a legit Uber, so I got to see the whole thing in action. Even talked with one of the drivers and he explained it to me. He had a Suburban so he was waiting for the right whale to walk off the ship looking for something big who didn't want to wait. He said he could make as much for that one ride as he could make doing multiple hours of Uber runs. I didn't like the idea of jumping into a stranger's car in LA with no record of me doing so, but plenty of people didn't have an issue. But then again I can't count the number of times I have done this in a port in foreign countries during cruises.

Try going on a single Flowrider ship on a holiday/peak kids week. The scenario you describe would be when I wouldn't expect them to charge, but those Day 7 sea day afternoons where there are 40 people in line would be a time they could charge a fee to do that session, and limit it to a certain number of people. You get a specific colored wristband to show you paid for that session, and off you go. I have bought the Key a few times when it was reasonable just for the exclusive hours on the Flowrider, and I know of others who have done it as well, so this isn't a new concept. The way I see it, stand-up Flowrider on RCCL is an endangered species anyway. The only reason it is still around is because there is a segment of loyal to Royal customers where stand-up Flowriding is a major part of their cruising decision making. I for one have been "No Flow - No Go" for years. You have lawyers who have whole practices dedicated to suing cruise lines, and Stand-Up Flowrider is a cash cow for them. Due to the lawsuits, Royal has put more and more rules in place, to the point where they have made it harder for noobs to even try stand-up, so the overall pool of people who care to do stand-up is already shrinking. I love an empty Flowrider queue as much as the next person, but don't think the higher-ups in Miami didn't notice all those hours of 6 people sitting on the bench at the 2nd Flowrider waiting their turn to use something that takes up prime deck space, costs a million dollars to install, thousands of dollars to run/maintain and millions of dollars in litigation didn't play into their decision to install only one of them going forward on the biggest cruise ships in the world. They still put one on since it is a differentiator with their competition, but all those young families going cruising on RCCL for the first time aren't going to care if they can only boogie board. I saw the future when I cruised on Spectrum out of Singapore a few weeks ago, and they had three one-hour stand-up sessions the whole cruise, and boogie boarding was mobbed with that all important young families with children demographic the rest of the time. When I asked about it they said "Welcome to cruising in Asia". Basically they don't have that segment of the market who cruise for stand-up Flowriding there, so they have all but phased out stand-up on those cruises. In this new reality, unless RCCL finds a way to squeeze incremental revenue out of stand-up Flowriding, expect it to become more and more rare in the future.

I'd probably be OK with this if they used a demand-based model similar to what they have done on North Star. During off-peak times it's free (day one after boarding, port days, etc.), but a charge during peak times like sea days to limit the crowd. I usually plan my Flowriding based on when I think it won't be crowded, but I would probably shell out a few bucks here and there on a sea day if it meant I could get more than one run in an hour. In reality Royal would probably find a way to screw it up and make it boogie board or mixed wave for a fee at all times as a way to kill off stand-up once and for all.

Hopefully this helps for a 5 year old. I had my kids with me as well, but they are 21 and 25!

We did the same cruise as the OP the week before Christmas, and then spent a week in Singapore. For a 5 year old you will find more for her to do in Singapore. We did Go City passes, and went to just about everything. Singapore Singapore Zoo - They have 4 different zoos - Singapore Zoo, Bird Paradise, River Wonders, and Night Safari. Took us a day and a half to see the 3 daytime zoos and another evening for Night Safari. If I had to pick one, it would be River Wonders since they have the pandas. Gardens by the Bay ArtScience Museum - this is the Lotus Flower looking building next to Marina Bay Sands. great interactive exhibits Merlion Sentosa Island - lots of kid-friendly things there, along with a Universal Studios. Penang Didn't see many kid-friendly things. We hired a taxi driver for the day to take us around to all the temples. Some of the Temples had lots of steps, so not kid-friendly. The walk up to Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Hindu Temple was about 500 steps! Kek Lok Si Temple was the highlight for us. The main Buddhist Temples were much easier to reach since they were in the flat part of town and right across the street from each other. Phuket Patong (where the boat tenders) was more of an adult playground, but you won't be able to beat the elephants for a 5 year old. We did the elephant trek where you ride them. Initially we were not going to do it, but our son talked us into it. We bought lots of bananas to help ease our guilt. We also visited the Big Buddha Can't beat the view from here @EllaDuChien, sorry if I hijacked your thread. I was planning on doing a llve report on my cruise, but between getting to Singapore, the jet-lag, and the mad dash at every port, I didn't get around to it.

This. I stayed at the Ritz last time I was in Singapore in 2005, and that breakfast buffet is still one of the things I remember from that trip. They had EVERYTHING western and Asian. Glad to hear it's still great. Leaving next week and staying at the Fullerton for the night before our cruise and the Conrad for a week post cruise. We did the 6 day GoCity pass, so we hope to do just about everything. So much is new in Singapore since we were last there. This thread has been great!

We're going to be in Singapore from December 24-30 after cruising on Spectrum OTS. I used to manage a team in Singapore so I visited every few months and knew my way around at the time, but my last visit was during the mid-2000's. During my last visit the Marina Sands was under construction, and the other newer attractions in that area didn't exist, so I have plenty to catch up on. This trip is my youngest son's graduation present, since he was very young when he first visited, and he wanted to visit again so he could really enjoy all there is to offer. Originally we were booked for his high school graduation four years ago, but Covid had other plans for that vacation. Now he is graduating college, and he still wants to get back to Singapore. I have two questions. First, does anyone have any experience with Fraser Place Robertson Walk and/or the Robertson Quay area? Since my company's office was in Suntec City, I have stayed in just about every hotel in that area (Ritz-Carlton, Conrad, Mandarin, Pan Pac, Swissotel, Fairmount, etc.), but Fraser Place has 2 bedroom apartments which should be better for 4 adults (my oldest son is joining us) for 6 days rather than 2 hotel rooms. I have spent time in Boat Quay and Clark Quay, but Robertson Quay will be new to us. Second, if any of the Singapore locals (or anyone who has spent Christmas in Singapore) have any advice/recommendations for Christmas Eve and Christmas, I'd appreciate it. Sounds like Orchard Road is a must-see, but I'm not sure what will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Best bet may be to just leave them to work in the stateroom. That would be more secure, and when in port, the crew will probably be doing drills and making announcements over the PA, which will be heard in the library, but not in the stateroom. I have worked in both the library and the conference center on port days, and the crew drill announcements are very annoying when you are trying to concentrate.