madiaka

7 minutes ago, SUgwoz said:

Thank you for confirming, this is what I see in the deck plan for Deck 10, but I didn't think it was accurate.

 

Oh. I see what you’re saying now. Maybe people complained and they changed it. When I booked it was Sea class. I was hoping it would get changed since they’re very similar to the ones on deck 11. I guess someone else can report back. Fingers crossed that it’s Sky class now. 

21 hours ago, SUgwoz said:

Has anyone stayed in a Sunset Junior suite, or have confirmation on the type suite class it is?

 

According to Deck Plans it shows as Sky Class.

The Sunset Junior suite that I have booked on deck 10 is listed as Sea Class. There are a few of the Sunset Suites that are Sky Class - decks 9 and 11, and the Sunset Corner Suites, which are Sky as well. The ones named Sunset Junior Suites on deck 10 are listed as Sea class on Royals website. 

We saw it last summer. It did have diving and performing on the high wire. Pretty good show. I’ve seen better, but still really enjoyed it. 

42 minutes ago, Lloyd555 said:

Wonder of the Seas & Icon of the Seas at CocoCay. 

📷 Mercury Chester Jorge Carson

Thanks for the comparison picture. I’m booked on Icon in one of the aft junior suites. I got it for a good price,  but in looking at the ship beside Wonder, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be as nice of an experience as being in an aft suite on Wonder. The Surfside neighborhood seems closed in compared to the Boardwalk. I can ignore the screaming kids. That doesn’t bother me, but I still don’t like the top-heavy look that Icon has in comparison. The fact that there is a pool above my suite is something that I hadn’t thought about either. We’ll see how the reviews are after the inaugural sailing. 

18 hours ago, codeyell0 said:

thank you. 
I think some people take offense when someone doesn't like something on their favorite ship.

 

I appreciate your observations. I have a preteen and was trying to determine if I really wanted to sail on Odyssey to the Southern Caribbean or wait for an Oasis class ship to go. I’ll wait. The things that you mentioned helped confirm that I made the right choice for my family. 

I would like to see the Windjammer open from maybe 10:30pm to 12:30am with a limited menu and limited stations open. People don’t come around 9pm because they already know that it’s closed. Royal doesn’t have to put a lot of food out, just put some and replenish it as needed. 
 

Cafe Promenade and Sorrento's Pizza aren’t really good options at times. We find that we are hungry at night on Royal a lot. We may grab something from the above spots, but aren’t really pleased that those are the only offerings open late. We just deal with it since we like cruising on Royal’s Oasis class ships.
 

We’re booked on Icon and I’m looking forward to seeing the new food offerings. But, if Icon doesn’t have decent late night options, I’ll be disappointed again. 

Dreamworks has been gone, but I think most Oasis class ships on cruises to the Caribbean have some type of carnival on the Boardwalk. They have face painting, games, etc. for young children at least once during the cruise. 
 

Some Oasis class ships also have a theater in Adventure Ocean where they have shows and movies. Sometimes the kids put on a show in that theater. 
 

The larger ships have Splashaway Bay as well. 

Dramamine Non - Drowsy Natural Ginger tablets work for me.  I take one per day when it's a sea day, or at night on port days.  I've also used Dramamine Less Drowsy.  I get a ginger ale at every dinner in the evenings -- using the soda package.  

11 hours ago, cruise_co said:

 

 

Now let me emphasize, I personally think he was BSing us. 

 

2) Right now Galveston cannot host an Icon class because Cozumel has said no to an Icon class. However, they are in talks.

 

That’s news.  We’re on Icon to the Western Caribbean in August 2024 and one of the ports is Cozumel.

4 minutes ago, Halfpound said:

We’ve never been to CocoCay. The 12 and 14 year olds are doing the Water Park and the Ziplining. Any suggestions of an area where the rest of the family (4 adults) should head to in relation to where they will be? Do you mind telling me approximately what you paid for that last minute cabana? The prices right now are crazy. Thanks so much

We didn’t go to the water park. We’ve never done it because I think he would get tired of waiting in line for the slides. I’m not sure where to hang out in relation to it.
 

We had a Chill Island cabana. It was $599 and included everything listed. I know plenty of people don’t feel the need, but I was comfortable with the price. In 2022, we were on Symphony and got an Oasis cabana for $399. I wouldn’t pay for those again. You can’t see anything in that location. 

We were on this ship and itinerary in August. It was me, my husband and son who is 12. 
 

Shows: Ice show and Aqua Theater were great. We attended another show in the main theater and I don’t remember it, so it must not have been that good. I made reservations in advance but ran late to the Ice show, but we still got good seats. I barely made it to the Aqua show in time - due to dinner running a little longer. But, we still had decent seats on the benches. Wonder doesn’t have chairs like Oasis, Symphony, Allure, etc. Not a fan. 
 

We had traditional dining at 8, but did have the 3 night package. You can make reservations before you board at a kiosk near the picture taking at embarkation — before the ramp to get on. We enjoyed 150 Central Park and Chops. Giovanni’s wasn’t that good this time. Had Mason Jar - purchased separately. It was horrible. I felt sorry for the servers who implied that people always complain about the food. Hooked Seafood was ok. Not a big deal. 
 

Excursions -

Cozumel - Paradise Beach - from their website — purchased on our own. They have inflatables that our son enjoyed and I didn’t feel like he was going to drown like I did at Playa Mia. Paradise Beaches’ inflatables are closer to shore. 

Roatan - Tabyana Beach Break - thru Royal. It’s on West Bay Beach ( I think). Beautiful water. Paid extra for snorkeling when we got there. Son had a ball. Said he saw so many types of fish and a sea turtle. This beach had the best/clearest water of all of the excursions for that cruise. 
 

Costa Maya - stayed on the ship. Time in port was too short and didn’t read anything impressive about that stop. 
 

Perfect Day Coco Cay - got a discounted Cabana at the last minute - about a month before the cruise. Enjoyed it. 
 

Arcade - be careful. Son spent $50 sharing his card with a new friend in less than 1 hour. So, of course, he was banned from using it after that. 

I haven’t been on Oasis, but I was on Wonder in August. Laser tag was offered at least twice. But, it didn’t appear until we boarded the ship, and I did look for it prior to that. I think it is under Activities or Entertainment. It is FREE and fills up quickly, so keep checking for it. We missed out because I didn’t notice it until late and all of the spots were taken. 

Thanks for the feedback.  I am thinking of canceling and booking my own excursions or not booking any.  I did see the post from the person that was contact traced on the excursion, so I wondered if Royal had a formal policy and how they handled it if 50-100 people are on the same excursion.

We are on Symphony of the Seas next month and I have a couple of excursions booked through Royal.  Does anyone know how a positive COVID case among the people on the excursion is handled?  Does everyone have to be tested and quarantined for a certain period of time?  I just wonder how this is handled, especially if there is more than one van/bus that transports people during the excursion.  

40 minutes ago, jerseygirl3 said:

I agree that Covid will be sticking around longer and perhaps forever and keep mutating.  But we can't compare the 1 million lives lost to Covid to Norovirus and Influenza.  Hopefully it will weaken over time and anti-virals will become more readily available.  

 

I'm glad you had a mild case of Covid and have recovered.   I lost my Mom to Covid before the vaccine was developed 😞

Sorry for the loss of your mom.  I lost my mom as well due to Covid.  I agree with your comments of how it can't be compared to Norovirus and Influenza, and that it is probably here to stay.  Hopefully, treatments will be more readily available to people in all countries.  Many people in the countries that we visit don't have access to the same medical care, vaccinations and medicines that we take for granted, so it is much more serious than a "cold or flu" to some.  

I am thankful to the OP for sharing the experience of testing positive on the ship.  To the OP: Get well soon, and I hope you don't have any lingering effects from Covid.

1 minute ago, J0Y0US said:

 

So we have a 3 and 4 year old. My question is when we were on Disney as an example the people running the kids club could text you through the app to inform you of anything. They also used to have wayphones which you took around the ship and they would call you.

 

Is there a way the kids club gets in contact with parents on Royal?

I thought you were referring to Disney.  We had that on Disney as well, when we cruised a few years ago.  But, I haven't seen anything like that on Royal.  We just checked in occasionally.  He never needed us or wanted to come out when we stopped by.  But, I have heard them page parents if there is a problem.

11 hours ago, Miche314 said:

 

Hey everyone! Update! After a lot of back and forth and speaking to a bunch of people. They gave me GTY Ocean View Balcony - for the price of GTY interior which I understand is huge!! Normally would not fuss about price but I was told 3 times I was booked in ocean view as I went through the process and it was recorded! So for me it was just a matter of principle….So happy I got it all sorted and excited to cruise for my anniversary! 

Congratulations.  I'm glad you were able to get it resolved in your favor.  I had wondered what happened.  

Since I had a similar experience in trusting the CSR over the phone, with no evidence on the printed invoice,  I was concerned that you wouldn't have a favorable outcome. My cruise isn't until July and it now shows Balcony GTY online, so I printed that and attached it to my invoice.

Enjoy your cruise.  Thanks for the update.

1 hour ago, Miche314 said:

 

I was confused by the GTY on my invoice and then Rccl said I was booked in an interior….which was not what the agent confirmed to be. 
 

I booked over the phone with Royal direct and they made this mistake…proof is in the recording of my call.

I totally understand.  I searched Cruise Critic and found a couple of other posters that had only GTY on their invoices.  But, they ended up with the correct cabin category.  The RCCL CSR insisted that this invoice showing only GTY was all that they could send, but I didn't have proof that they booked me in the correct category until a week later when "balcony GTY " showed up when I signed in to their website. (Still not OV Balcony GTY though.)

At the time I booked it, the price on the invoice was close to the price of an OV Balcony GTY when a mock booking was done, so I had to "trust" that the CSR booked it correctly.  But, since then the price for an OV Balcony GTY has doubled.  It sounds like RCCL is trying to get more money by asking you to pay the difference between the prior price and the current price for their mistake.  I hope you are able to fight it and get them to honor the original booking category and price. 

Maybe this was a booking for a Oceanview Balcony GTY cabin.  I changed my cabin on Symphony when they had a sale last week to an Oceanview Balcony GTY because it was $1200 total cheaper than a chosen Boardwalk balcony cabin.  I confirmed with the CSR multiple times that it was Oceanview Balcony GTY.  My invoice just showsGTY and nothing else.  I reviewed it while he was on the phone.  He insisted that it was an Oceanview Balcony GTY, and said it shows as XB category in his records -- even though it doesn't show that on my invoice.  When I looked online, I only saw GTY for awhile.  Now, it shows Balcony GTY, but still doesn't show Oceanview Balcony GTY.  (Note: I called twice and spoke to 2 different CSRs that said the same thing.)

I hope the OP is able to get them to honor the original request.  

Is there a way to get confirmation of an Oceanview Balcony GTY when it doesn't show on an invoice, and CSRs insist that they've sent you the appropriate invoice/paperwork?

No matter how regulations are changed and how many safety measures are put in place, you can’t protect people from themselves. People find a way to circumvent safety measures all of the time. You can’t fix carelessness or stupidity. Eventually, you’ll have windows on cruise ships with the slots that open to allow air inside (like some high rise buildings)  because people just can’t seem to stay onboard. Or maybe, they’ll have the large fences that point inward like highway overpasses now - that keep idiots from throwing rocks on cars passing underneath. Balconies will offer a view but will be enclosed and have sliding plexiglass that will only open 6 inches.  It never ends. 
 

In the past, people would take more responsibility for their own actions. People suffered tragedies and didn’t expect to get millions of dollars for their loss.  The piers of the islands that we visit don’t have railings to prevent you from falling over. But, many of the docks that non-employees visit around here do because they know that some idiot will fall in and sue because there  were no “safety measures” to prevent them. 
 

Things can probably be improved, but companies should not have to shoulder all of the cost and blame for someone else’s negligence. 

4 minutes ago, Brisbane41 said:

 

If the man is not a blood relative and stranger to the immediate family then one would assume they would treat him with some higher level of suspicion or blame than a direct relative whose blood and DNA is in the person. Both parents are supposedly in law enforcement. Even they should know from their work the first "suspect" is always the first person or immediate person in the vicinity. Instead they have blind faith in this man that he did no wrong, refuse to believe was negligent and despite video evidence that proves it they are sticking by him 100% and pushing through with a lawsuit.

 

It would have been far easier for them to lay blame entirely at this man and launch a lawsuit against him and maybe ask Royal Caribbean to help out with some sort of compassionate act of grace payment which they may have done out of generosity and from a PR perspective if they companies name had not been trashed.

 

The fact that they are sticking by him makes them look suspicious which is why people are asking questions.

Agree. I was just about to type something similar. The fact that the family doesn’t even want to see what happened - not to see the fall, but to see him hold her in the video or his actions before the fall —makes them look even worse. If he’s not a man that raised the father or the mother, then I really don’t see the purpose in trusting his word blindly. I’d even have to step away from my parent in this instance. I’d forgive eventually, but I wouldn’t be blaming anyone other than him. Since he is her moms husband, I especially don’t see the dad’s point in supporting him. I’m sure I’d be in divorce court before the verdict for or against Royal if I had that type of blind faith in a person - relative or not. 

2 minutes ago, flamingos said:

 

If you recall, they said that the  little girl used to go to brother's (?) hockey practice and bang on the glass.  That is what they originally speculated happened.  But I never saw the full video - it was almost a full minute that she was in that window.  How incredibly awful.

I don’t understand why the parents would continue if they even look at the video. Do they think it’s totally inaccurate or fraudulent?  Yes, more evidence could be introduced, but I don’t think that would matter to most parents. He held the child outside of the window. As a parent- if I was supporting him before the video, I would just walk out of whatever meeting we were having at the time - after seeing the video. I’m not sure when or if I would come back to talk anytime soon. 

2 minutes ago, hazence said:

I don’t know that this is about money.
 

I think this is about...family.

 

This family does not want to believe that this was the fault of the grandfather that they clearly love and respect. They also know that he loved this child just as they did....which makes it even harder to understand why he wasn’t more protective.  They can’t accept that he would be so careless with a child they adored and that they know HE adored as well. So, the fault MUST lie elsewhere.
 

If they blame him, then they essentially have lost TWO family members, because it would be tough to forgive him and reconcile that he was at fault for their pain and grief. At this point, that may be too much for them to reconcile. 
 

So blaming RCCL will do for now. 

Because of this, I can’t imagine that they still want to see all of the videos. The phrase - be careful what you ask for, you just might get it - comes to mind. 

I think people are quick to judge because the family put themselves out there by accusing the cruise line of being unsafe and not having enough safety precautions for their passengers. I’ve been on similar ships and have seen those windows.  I am very sorry for their loss. But, I am also irritated that they are not willing to accept their role in what happened. He did it. He dropped her. And, if he didn’t see that it was open, he should have looked more closely.  That is the bottom line. And if I was he daughter, I would expect for him to accept that. As others have said, if the nanny or babysitter had done the same thing, this would be a totally different conversation - especially with the daughter being a lawyer and the son-in-law an officer. 
 

On a side note, I have often looked at Oasis class and thought how nice and open it is from the pool decks. I’ve been on Allure, Harmony and Oasis. So, are we to have 6 foot plexiglass circling the Boardwalk and Central Park areas from those pool and sports decks because someone might lean over and hold their child for a better look. I think that is what Royal is up against if they settle this lawsuit. Where would it end?  It has to stop somewhere and when someone is clearly irresponsible, they (Royal) have to fight it to prevent changes that may be required in the future. 

The grandfather should definitely pay for his actions. I can’t imagine the family not wanting him to. He was totally negligent - accident or not. You don’t hold a child outside of a window. Even sitting them on the railing of that type of window is taking too much of a chance of something bad happening. 
 

If my father did something like that, I would expect him to accept full responsibility and give me and my immediate family time to process what happened and heal. But, I would not heal or deal with him in life in general if he did not accept the fact that he was guilty and totally wrong. I don’t care if people think Royal should have bars on the window. My baby didn’t fall until your dumb*** held her outside of or up to the window. And yes, that is how I would feel about my dad at the time. I would still love him but would need time away from him.   Some people play too much. You’ll hear some older relatives say “I did this with you and you weren’t  hurt” — ie not using seat belts and car seats, etc. But, when you’re caring for someone else’s child, you exercise extra care because they’re not yours. You make sure that they don’t come to any harm. And, if they do, you deal with the consequences and accept the blame. 
 

Praying for the family. But, the daughter and son in law need to stop blaming the cruise line for the tragedy, deal with their family issues and try to heal and move forward. Royal should not pay a dime, and grandfather should serve jail time and attend some type of classes to deal with whatever issues he has. 
 

And if that wasn’t my dad and just someone my mom married later in life - who didn’t raise me and I didn’t have a strong connection to -  not sure where I’d be. Just my thoughts. (Sedated I’m sure - until the thoughts of doing him harm left my mind.)