Great 2 B at Sea

Thanks, Radio, for doing such a fantastic job of posting. We appreciate you taking all of your valuable time to keep us followers informed. We are sailing Quantum on Feb. 2nd......can't wait! Reading your thoughts and seeing all of your wonderful pictures is so exciting for us! Your updates won't come soon enough! ha ha We are all sailing right along with you! Have a fun, safe trip and we wish you calmer seas, my friend!

First, welcome to CC.

 

The last thing you should do is stress before you ever get to the ship. Step away from the computer for a few days, or at least from the RCI site. IT issues are common with RCI and stressing over them will not get them fixed any sooner. Even if you had the paperwork, you should not count on getting on the ship in 10 min - that's a marketing wish on RCI's part (but if you do, be pleasantly surprised).

 

Printing the missing paperwork at the pier will not add too much time to your boarding process.

 

As I said, step away for a few days and you might be pleasantly surprised that they fixed the issue when you return.:cool:

 

 

Boy, just reading your response even calmed me down......and I'm not the one who is having the trouble! I like how you think......great advice for all!

We've stayed at the Fairfield Inn on Griffin Road numerous times. It's a very nice, clean hotel with a good complimentary breakfast, parking and transport to pier.

 

 

Thanks, Janet524! I will check out this hotel, along with the one Bob mentioned. It's great to know what we are looking for does indeed exist! :)

You should also post in the Florida Departures forum:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=495

 

We've used the Springhill Suites in Dania Beach several times with good results.

 

 

Thanks, Bob, I will. Never knew this forum existed. :)

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I wasn't very successful in my research to get an answer. Most posts I found were 4-7 years old, and I'm sure things have changed. And I don't know if what I am looking for even exists! I was wondering if any of you have had experiences with hotels in Ft. Lauderdale that are nice, and also offer both free shuttles to the pier and free parking at their hotel while you are on your cruise? If you have, I would love to hear some feedback on ones you would definitely go back to again. Thanks!

Booking couldn't have been easier.

 

Mamma Mia:

day 1 6:00

day 2 4:30

day 3 8:00

 

Headliner 1:

day 8 10:30

day 9 7:00 9:00

 

Headliner 2:

day 6 8:30 10:30

day 7 10:30

 

Sonic Odyssey:

day 10 8:30 10:30

day 11 7:30

 

Starwater:

day 2 8:30

day 4 7:30 9:30

day 7 8:30

day 8 7:30

day 9 10:30

day 11 9:30

 

 

We have been waiting for booking to open up for our February sailing. Glad to hear it's available, but more importantly, glad to hear you had no problems with their website. Thanks for posting this!

The "stage" area where the music originates, and the speakers are, are NOT directly against the back of Deck 6, so Deck 7 aft JS cabins are "safer" than on some Vision class ships.

 

Glad to hear this, Merion_Mom. This is very good to know. Thanks for your response!

I have stayed in both of the corner aft JS on deck 7 of the Grandeur. Love these rooms. The corner aft rooms both have a huge walk in closet! And the balconies are bigger than the rooms in the middle aft.

 

If you are standing at the railing of your balcony you can be seen from deck 8 but only if you are at the railing. We have never found this to be a problem.

 

The corner aft that is not under the lounge will be quieter. But I have heard since they made the back of this lounge the Diamond Lounge it is not as noisy as it used to be.

 

 

Thanks dixieva, you input is very helpful! I appreciate your response!

We were looking into sailing on Grandeur of the Seas. We love the aft, and the aft JS cabins that are available are all on the 7th floor. We are checking out 7152; 7156; 7656; and 7652. Two concerns: Can the 8th floor balconies look down into the 7th floor JS balcony rooms.........and are these JS cabins noisy at night because the Diamond Club and South Pacific Lounge are directly below them on deck 6? If anyone has stayed in any of these rooms, I would appreciate any information you can offer to me. Thanks so much!

We were also on this same cruise, and I am really enjoying your review along with all the wonderful pictures. It was a great cruise and we love the Explorer! Had a fantastic time! Keep up the great work on your review!

Does anyone know if it's real ice or the synthetic plexiglas stuff?

 

 

I can tell you from my experience.........which included some falling.....it's plenty real! ha ha

I am glad to hear that some have heard no noise my wife and i have 1400 next year on the Freedom and i got it for the larger room and balcony i was nervous about the noise.

 

We had 1400 last year on the Liberty, and we heard absolutely no noise at all. It's a great room with a huge balcony. Have fun with the pole that's in there!! We sailed with our sons and their wives; they had the two rooms next to ours......the pole ended up being in quite a few conversations! ha ha Enjoy your aft.........and your pole..... next year! :)

We have 1700 booked for our upcoming Freedom cruise fall of 2015.

 

 

We have this same room for our February 2015 cruise. I'm very excited about it. We had the same room on the opposite side of the ship on the Liberty last year, cabin 1400, and it was fabulous! :)

I've had the same thing happen to me on various occasions. Then all of a sudden it starts to work. No need to worry, just try to be patient......which is extremely hard to do with their website these days.

Don't know if I can help you out or not, since we've only done Mr. Sanchos, but I can share our experience. We booked this ourselves about a month before we sailed. We did this three years ago. There were ten of us. We all took a taxi to the site, which wasn't very far at all, and then experienced a fantastic beach day! We got our own section of beach, and we had two waiters, assigned to our group, who gave us both a drink and a food menu. We ordered anything we wanted. The food was delicious and the drinks were magnificent! We started at the top of each menu and worked our way down with choices we knew we would like. I want to specify, we didn't waste anything....we never ordered anything we didn't eat or drink. I imagine, because there is a flat rate for the day, some might take advantage of this and waste some food or drinks. Our goal was not to do this, and we didn't. We had such a great time there, I would definitely recommend this excursion. Prior to arriving at Mr. Sanchos, our group agreed upon a designated set time to leave. We wanted to get back to the ship early enough so we weren't in jeopardy of missing it. Plus, part of the fun in getting back early enough is to watch all the people who are cutting it closely, run like heck to get back to the ship on time! Some did get quite hammered, and thankfully there were those of us who only had a few drinks, who took charge and got everyone back to the ship by the time we wanted to be there. I would do this excursion again and again. You get so much for your money, and the people who worked it were extremely accommodating!

 

Regarding the weather, when our ship arrived in port, it was raining. However, by the time we got to the beach, it had cleared up. Don't know if there is a bad weather refund or not, but I bet it would tell you on their website. Sorry I have no input on the Playa Mia, but if you plan everything correctly for Mr. Sanchos, there is no problem getting back to the ship on time. There are certain excursions I would only reserve through RCCL, though. They are the ones that involve a long ride to the location, and where you are at their mercy of the excursion ending on time. If that's the case with Playa Mia, I would definitely book that through RCCL. That way you know the ship will wait for you should the excursion get behind for whatever reason. With Mr. Sanchos, you are in complete control of your time, you are not depending upon someone else to make that decision. Happy sailing, and good luck! Whichever one choose, I'm sure it will be a wonderful experience! Hope this was a little helpful to you, even though I've only done the one excursion.

We've only had one instance where we were not happy with our table mates, and it wasn't even their fault. We are only English speaking people, and we were seated at a table with four women, all of whom spoke Spanish. One of the women spoke very, very little English, so that helped a tiny bit, however, it was still quite awkward. It was extremely frustrating for us trying to have a conversation with them. We couldn't understand what they were saying, nor could they understand us. We felt badly wanting to move, because we didn't want them to be offended, but we also wanted to enjoy or dining experience. We went to the Head Waiter and explained our dilemma, and he very cordially gave us another table number to go to for the rest of the cruise. We were rather apprehensive when we arrived for dinner the next night, wondering if the people would speak English or not. We were extremely pleased to be seated with four people who were all related and who did speak English. Imagine our surprise when we found out they lived only about an hour from us in Michigan! That gave us so much in common, and along with them being so nice and lots of fun, we had the best times at dinner with them! We were so happy we decided to change tables. I would encourage anyone out there who isn't happy with whom they area seated with, to take action and asked to be moved. I'm sure your results will be as fortunate as ours! BTW, we kept running into the women we sat with on the first night, and they always smiled and waved to us....this told me there were no hard feelings.

Congratulations to both Webtech and Marion_Mom for getting JS upgrades! Enjoy your cabin and the cruise! Hope to someday be as fortunate as both of you are.....and if I'm not.....I will still be happy for all of my fellow cruisers who do get the upgrades! :)

we will also be on the feb 2nd, 2015 sailing. we are 8 adults and 1 child. i saw that there would be much more time slots available as a party of 3 people. when booking for alle 9 of us, there were nearly no time slots available. is this your experience too?

 

I did a phantom booking for my husband and I for three of the restaurants, just to see how it would transpire. I then emptied my cart. When I went to actually reserve the restaurants for all four of us, I was surprised to see there were more slots available for a group of four, than there were for only two people. It took me by surprise, as I assumed no matter what the number of people in your party, they would all have the same time slots available. However, not so! I can see where you would have had a problem trying to book for 9 people! Someone else said they had trouble, too, with a group of ten. And RCCL made it very clear there would be tables available for groups of up to sixteen people. I'm sorry your time slots are limited......I hope you will figure something out so you can all be together! Good luck to you!

Same thing happened to me four days ago when I booked eleven dinners for four people on the February 2nd, 2015 sailing. My reservations only reflect that I have seven dinners. I, too, immediately called and spoke to a Rep. She was extremely cordial and gladly went through each night of my reservations in the system she was looking into, and everything was exactly how I reserved it. She also sent me an email listing all of them. She said as long as it was in their system, don't worry about it. Since she sent me the email listing the correct reservations, I completely trust her and am not going to worry about it. That being said, however, I did print out my email from her and it's going on the ship with me. Good luck to all my fellow cruisers with their reservations! Oh what a tangled web we weave! :)

Be careful, you may give RCCL a new revenue idea:

 

 

Announcing new dynamic chair selection!!!! For a small upcharge, reserve the pool chair you want for the day. Closest to the pool $30/day or a 7 day package for $180:eek:

 

 

I love this idea.......I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read this! RCCL can channel the "Dynamic Theme" into all different areas. I'm sure all the creative minds, like yourself, can come up with endless scenarios for them. Thanks for making my "Dynamic Day!" :)

Some of the free restaurants list "Premium Selections".

 

Is there an extra charge for these.

 

thanks

 

Interesting question. I called yesterday for this same reason yesterday and talked to a rep, who at first told me there would be a charge for these two Premium items. I told her on the list of restaurants RCCL put out last month, this particular restaurant doesn't have a dollar sign anywhere after it, and that it's on the " Complimentary list" of restaurants. She said she'd find out for me and put me on hold. When she came back, she said "I think there will be no charge for them....everything should be free." Take it for what it's worth. I don't think they have all the answers either. There have been lots of questions I've called about and nobody has a clue. I guess it's a learning experience for everyone. Only time will give us our answers. Can't wait to hear all the feedback we get from the passengers on the first few sailings. I guess we have to be patient......although it's not always easy.

Hmm - unless I misread I thought BOTH Quantum and Anthem were opening up.

 

I haven't had any luck either

 

 

 

Kind of takes the joy out of the entire thing doesn't it? Planning is supposed to be fun:eek:

 

It sure did take the fun out of planning for our Quantum cruise next February. Now that it's all done, though, I can put all that frustration behind me. I just feel very badly for all the others who haven't done it yet. I only hope RCCL gets the glitches out of their website. That would make it a lot easier for everyone. My husband is the one with the patience, but he's so upset about how we have to decide a year in advance where we want to eat, and not to be able to coordinate our dinner times with the entertainment, because they haven't come out with that schedule yet, he wanted no part of this! His thoughts.....we are doing all the work for the cruise line by reserving our own restaurants. Our son was a big help with me on the reservations. He and our daughter-in-law are sailing with us. He came up with a very nice spread sheet with the dates and the restaurants we wanted to eat at, so at least that part was a cinch, thanks to him! The rest of it sure was an experience, though! I read the following quote somewhere on cc and had to laugh out loud. Someone who was complaining how long it took to reserve his restaurants summed it up with: "I don't know what I'm having for dinner tonight, but on March 29th, 2015, I'm eating at Wonderland, baby!" That said it all! ha ha

It only took me a mere four hours to complete eleven nights of dining for four people. A meager two hours one night (couldn't take it anymore) and only two more hours the next morning, and ta-dah......I was done! Other than the website being extremely slow and taking forever to switch from screen to screen; not being able to book the same restaurant more than once in a single transaction; being booted out of the website every half hour or so; coupled along with severe stress and frustration....... it was an effortless, painless and elementary process! Don't understand why people are complaining? This was a breeze for me! OK, maybe I'm being a little sarcastic.....but under the circumstances......it's warranted!

 

Good luck to everyone else out there who still has to make their reservations! I hope you have a better experience than some of us had. :(

[quote name='Langley Cruisers']The "holding area"? LOL, boy, it seems your TA missed the boat on that one. Oh, haha! There is no way you would be allowed or required to take your luggage to a holding area - that's why it is put in the hall the night before and taken off ship that way, so people aren't tripping over luggage and such.

We have done a B2B on Serenade. You are going to LOVE it! It was fantastic. As Bob said, you pack up your clothes, toiletries, etc - everything that was not hanging in the closet, and you put them in your suitcases. Your items will be moved for you, and they have a special rolling carrier that they just move the hangers onto - neat and sweet. Everything will show up in your new cabin. :)

But yes, having said that, do not even worry about this. The procedure will be well laid out for you in the form of printed information left in your cabin, and in a meeting onboard for all the consecutive cruisers. Each ship may do things a little differently, so just wait for the info and then you can proceed accordingly.

Have fun! :)
.[/quote]


Thanks, Karen for all this information. Between you and Bob, I have no worries about the process. It seems they will take good care of us! My TA gave me this information this morning via email, so I have no idea where he got his information from. I also thought though, if there are others like us switching rooms, there would be lots of luggage involved in the process and that could be trouble.

I'm so very glad to hear your positive response about this ship! We made our first reservation two months ago, and when they came out with the BOGO, we added two more cruises to our agenda. One of them was another Serenade cruise. We've never done a B2B, so we thought we would try it. We were sad we couldn't get the same room, but quickly thought "Oh well, no big deal." We are definitely looking forward to being on this ship for twenty-one days! Boy, that sounds like a lifetime! I can only imagine the weight gain we will have! lol My only concern, and maybe you can calm me down, is the lack of a Promenade. I've always said I don't want to sail on any ship that doesn't have one, and now we are doing a B2B on one! My thoughts, being we have an aft balcony for both cruises, we hopefully won't miss the Promenade that much. I love to people watch, and the Promenade was always such a great place for that. Does this ship have the same cafe (don't remember the name) that's on the Promenade deck of other ships, where you can get free desserts, sandwiches, and Seattle's Best coffee? I hope it does, because we also love to sit outside of that cafe and relax. If you have time, please share you thoughts with me if you will.

Thanks, Karen, for all your comments. :)

[quote name='clarea']First, talk with both stateroom attendants and find out their procedure. Generally, you pack up everything that is not hanging. The attendants will move the bags and things on hangers.[/quote]

Thanks, Bob, I will definitely do that. :)