Porky55

Unless you are a big drinker I can't see the benefit of drink packages. Very disappointed to see P&O offering these, as one of the things they did so much better than the other lines servicing Australia was personal service. Once you have paid for a drink package up front they really don't need or want to serve you. Do the sums 🤔We have been cruising since the first ship arrived here and love it, but don't do drink packages anymore!!

Have to agree with everyone else - near impossible to consume the volume required to validate the $55 or $65 a day. Has anyone else also noticed that the personal service from bar staff has dropped off, ie: in the theatre or sitting in the lounges since the advent of drink packages?

The wi-fi included on the river cruises is not a surprise and good to know😀 Kiwidebbie will however leave the cruise sometimes, so my original advice stands. Prepaid devices are so much easier to use than people think - cards and phones 😉

Hi, travel to Europe all the time!

First - get yourself a cheap mobile phone with a prepaid card. Telstra is fine (we use them never a problem) but don't see any drama with the others either. Make sure you turn on international roaming before you leave Australia - on either the prepaid card you buy ( or buy a cheap prepaid phone and leave your good phone at home!!!) turn off all your data roam options once you leave Australia, these are what chew the data. Try and Wait until you are somewhere like a McDonalds or a cafe with free wi-fi to use FB - use these as much as possible!! Not sure about River cruises - but onboard wi-fi usually costs? The thing about prepaid cards is you get notifications when they are low - you can reload them, and a prepaid phone won't break your heart if it's lost or stolen. Hope this helps.

Rose

Hi guys, none of these things you are talking about are the "power strips" or boards that are being confiscated. These are all just adaptors really - so about the boards? I mean who would need them anyway??? 😉

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On our very first cruise on Rhapsody seven years ago, RCI impressed us with their routines of hand washing, there were staff at the door of ALL restaurants with the instant wash for everyone at all mealtimes and you couldn't escape - they were good!! During the drill it may have been we were all told about the importance of washing hands after leaving restrooms, of using paper towels to open restroom doors AFTER using the restroom!! Of washing hands with soap for twenty (20) seconds people!! And even then RCI have cases of noro sometimes.

Last year we cruised on Voyager and they are nowhere near as pedantic now - but I continue with these same OTT practices because I know others don't - people cause the Norovirus - not the cruise lines!! But maybe the ships should return to the annoying handwash station attendants being everywhere that people eat??

We have booked a 36 day cruise in March 2015 on Orchestra and are in cabin 9128. Hubby is concerned as it is close to the elevators - is this cabin number noisy, can you hear the elevators? On the cruises we have been on, once we have been in our cabin most noise has been shut out so will it be the same with this cabin?

It would be the same on other decks - 10, 11, 7 etc. too.

Thanks for this,

I'm sorry if you misunderstood - as an ex smoker of now six years I can appreciate your feelings. On all three Royal Caribbean ships we have been on, Voyager being the most recent, smoking rules were the same as those on shore in Australia in any public place.

You can smoke on the port side of the pool deck - and there are "lots" of tables and chairs for every smoker - I never saw a problem there, or an unhappy smoker. On deck 5 which I think is the outside Promenade Deck - port side again there weren't any tables and chairs but there were banana lounges etc and again the smokers seemed very much at ease. Surely we are now used to having to go outside to smoke and cruise ships are after all just hotels - inside which no one smokes anymore anyway?

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Definitely no smoking inside the Voyager of the Seas this in the last two weeks

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IF you have been on an RCI cruise that embarked Jan 1 or after what did you actually observe?

please do not post what you wish, what it was, what you heard from a friend of a friend or what you read on CC.

Hi Sherlock43031 - we just got off Voyager on the 10th and the smoking policy is: you can smoke on the port side deck outside the Windjammer and on deck 5 outside (port side again) in a small area.( And upstairs in the Vault they tell me very late at night, if you are on Voyager )

That was it! No cabins, no restaurants, nowhere else - does this help?

Porky55

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undersail - I don't think it matters what cruise line really, we just returned from 16 days aboard HAL's Vaandam cruising from Sydney to Singapore and had 'Open Dining' too. We experienced exactly the things you mentioned and were extremely disappointed in the whole experience, so much that we spent much of the remainder of our voyage dining in the Lido. :( By the way, the option for open dining was made by our travel agent and we weren't made aware of it until we picked up our tickets. I tried to change to fixed dining with Holland America but was told I couldn't change this service.