keychee

Also, be forewarned that the RCI Baltimore boat maybe a stark difference from Celebrity and what you’re used too. Ive had relatives who have only cruised carnival take that cruise as their first RCI and never want to cruise with RCI again.

Am I missing something here?

Possibly. Breakfast and service in the Atlantic dining room was always absent, slow and not personable. Their are two dining rooms. From what I understand Atlantic only serves breakfast and a separate dining room Pacific serves dinner. One of the two may serve lunch/brunch but we didn't eat there so I am not sure how true that may be.

Additionally, the only areas of service that were good and worth mentioning was our daily cabin service via the cabin steward and the dining staff only on the last night of the cruise in Pacific.

Any additional clarification needed?

So from 1 - 10 how did you rate this?

I'd easily give it a 6 (10 being the highest).

I figured i'd come back and answer any questions/requests anyone may have. I left a pretty hefty review on the main page but here's a synopsis:

- Embarkation from the Port of Miami was okay. They never showed us where our luggage was supposed to go to be checked so we unfortunately had to carry our bags on board.

- The ship in my opinion does not show its age. It could use better/updated signage on the 3rd floor where guest services is because the lighted signs are hard to read.

- I did not like having to use the 6th floor or walk through the casino to get to the comedy area, karaoke, alchemy bar or Atlantic dining room. The casino needs better ventilation as the cigarette smell radiated up to the 6th floor.

- The food was not very good in my opinion as a foodie. My husband was served raw eggs in this Breakfast bowl and the staff was always absent, slow and not personable.

- Entertainment was okay and centered around rock n roll and older style selections - which was not our style.

- Service was more of a miss than a hit. Our cabin steward was the best and our dinner staff on the last night was the best service we received the entire cruise.

- The ports were okay. I wish we could have stayed in Key West a bit longer but we made the most of it while there. During our Cozumel port the gangway was damaged due to a very bad storm so many people were stuck outside the boat for at least 4-6 hours while the gangway was repaired.

- Disembarkation was a mess and very disorganized. We carried our luggage off the boat and they called too many floors at once.

Let me know if there are any additional questions/requests. While we would never cruise this boat again, we would cruise with Carnival again.

Thank you for responding. I wasnt sure if I did the right thing. You have made me very happy. Do you remember which night of the cruise it was?

If you do a four night cruise, its the last night of the cruise (so night four). We chose not to do it as we did not particularly enjoy the food served in the dining room throughout our cruise.

1 day! Super excited!

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Thank you both for this!

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Thanks everyone!

Hubby and I are foodies and since it’s our first time in KW we just want to see a bit of everything and enjoy some of the must haves, key lime pie, conch, etc. It’s a surprise for him so he doesn’t know anything about it. We aren’t history buffs but just want to get a good feel for KW for the limited time we are there.

How ever you disembark you can pick up Whitehead Street and walk up it to see a few things - the Audubon House, the Green Parrot bar, the Mile 0 Marker, the Hemingway house, the lighthouse, and onwards to the southernmost point. It's just over a mile. From there you can walk one block over on South street to pick up Duval and come back, check, for example, the Butterfly Conservatory.

 

If you need a stop on the way up Whitehead, make a left onto Eaton for a coffee and donuts here ---> . http://www.glazeddonuts.com/

 

I wouldn't bother or wait for the trolley on such a short visit unless you feel you cannot walk, with stops two miles.

 

Pjk

I just want to make sure I understand you correctly. Your basically saying Key West is essentially two miles long so we should skip the trolley tour all together, right?

Since you docked early in Key West what do you think first timers should do until the on and off trolley starts at 9am?

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Thanks everyone! I was planning on using our laser printer with clear packaging tape as lamination and using zip ties to secure to our luggage! I’m super excited with a few days left before sailing!

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Does it matter if our luggage tag is printed in color to correspond with our floor/room assignment or will black and white suffice? I don't own a color printer but want to make sure I won't self sabotage our luggage arrive due to it not being printed in color.

TIA!

I was wondering if its worth purchasing Hop on/Hop off trolley tickets if our boat docks at 7:30 am but the trolley is not in operation until 9am? The victory is only there until 1pm, so we want to make the most out of our time there as its our first time and a highly anticipated stop :-)

TIA!

Does the Chef's Table price ever increase after you board the ship, or is the price the same rather you book pre-cruise or during cruise?

TIA :-)

Thanks everyone. I don’t know that the bottles will fit in the fridge so we may use the ice bucket to keep them chilled if we find that we prefer it that way.

Thanks everyone for your very informative responses. Unfortunately, we are going to wait until our kids are 3+ as it would be very costly to send them to the Nursery on top of paying more for a larger room. Hopefully Royal Caribbean will adopt a program similar to Carnival's to help families that would love to vacation with little's but not have to pay extra for "daycare services" in exchange of having some child free time.

Typically my husband and I will get interior rooms but this Sept we are considering accompanying family members on a cruise with our two little's who will be 2 and 1 at that time. We are concerned about space- more specifically how to accommodate them and us comfortably in a room. We cruise for vacation so we are not in the room outside of sleeping and prepping for the day, and plan to send the kiddos to day programs on the boat. We know that our vacation normalcy will shift a bit with them in tow, but I just want to make sure we are knowledgeable for what could potentially be our reality if we cruise with them.

They share a room so they are used to sleeping through the night with a white noise machine and in a room separate from us. We've only sailed with Carnival and NCL, so this would be our first Royal experience. Are interiors to small? Should we look into a balcony? Please help!!!

We were on a 4 day Bahamas, I THINK it was the last night, but I can't remember for sure...

Thanks! I meant 4 day so thanks for the correction. I'll ask in the main forums.

Thanks everyone! I think I'll order water to be delivered to our room prior to booking. Since this is our 2nd Carnival cruise we will get the 1 Liter as a courtesy, but Hubby drinks 20 oz upon waking just to start his day, lolz

Would you advise purchasing water prior to boarding or once on the boat/stateroom delivery? Is it necessary or is there a way to get water at anytime on the boat for free? It’s been a few years since my last cruise and I’m drawing a blank. I’ll be sailing the Victory in May 2018 if it matters [emoji6]

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We had a completely different menu on Victory in December - but the Chef made it sound like it was the same menu fleetwide! I believe we only paid $75, but I'm not certain

Was this the five day Western Carribean Victory sailing? If so what day is was the Chef’s Table? I’m wondering if it’s a set day during certain cruises or not.

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Is their a such thing? I’m planning to surprise hubby but I don’t want to add his number to the reservation in case he receives a notification. Can I wait until we board to add his number or will this need to be done prior to boarding?

He will think we are vacationing in Florida until he finds out we are going to the Port of Miami which is when I will “surprise” him - unless I have to tell him earlier due to his VIFP being added to the reservation.

Thanks Everyone :-)

So I'm trying to book a cruise for May 2018 and I selected our standard interior room and the option to choose my room. After selecting that option, it confirms the price and takes me directly to the page to pay for the itinerary. Is it possible that I would be given a room if another type (OV, Balcony or Suite)? To be clear, if I select other options, I am able to select a room on a deck of my choosing. I just want to know what I am getting myself into before actually booking the cruise.