jesron1269

8 minutes ago, yarramar said:

I can’t help with the difference in ships but I would definitely choose Celebrity on the ports visited. To me, that is why you cruise. 

Okay. Why is that if you don’t mind me asking. 

43 minutes ago, _tacocat_ said:

Gorgeous Suite is a Mega Rockstar, so you actually get drinks all around the ship (up to $25 per drink + 2 bottles of wine up to I think $90 per day) in addition to the in-room bar.  I've never been on Celebrity, so nothing to add there, just wanted to point out the drink thing 🙂

Thank you for the info. I have sailed more Norwegian and Disney. What other cruise lines have sailed? How does the customer service, food, entertainment and other amenities on Virgin compared to other cruise lines you have frequented?

I understand that Virgin is kids free. I read reviews about the cruiseline  and specifically this ship. I am just curious between the two (know that Celebrity Beyond is also a brand new ship) which have better service. Better food. Better entertainment. Better cabins. Better amenities in general.

If booked Virgin would be in the upgraded Gorgeous Suite so bottomless drinks in cabin. If booked Celebrity would be in the Retreat Sky Suite with premium drink package. Both have prepaid tips and exclusive restaurants and lounges to the suite status. So I am trying the best I can apples to apples.

Celebrity is a 9 night voyage while Virgin is a 7. Similar itinerary with both being a closed loop cruise out of Barcelona. But Virgin itinerary is: Barcelona - Marseille - Cannes - Olibia - Ibiza - 2 sea days (overnights in Olibia and Ibiza) - Barcelona. Celebrity itinerary is:  Barcelona - Marseille - Nice - Santa Margherita - Florence/Pisa - Ajaccio/Corsica - Rome - day at sea - Naples - Barcelona.

I am a very experienced cruiser but never cruised Virgin and only Celebrity twice. Never cruised Europe either. So any opinions on advice on trying to choose between the two is appreciated especially as it relates to my posted questions, opinions on the differences of cruise line and posted itineraries. 
 

Ohhhh and total costs is the cruise is about the same. Maybe a few hundred different. 
 

Can’t wait to hear from as many of you that is wiling to share. 

Going to be in Nassau for a port from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 2nd.  I called the Grand Hyatt and they said you can book a room and when you register just tell them it is "day room" and you will have access to the room and all amenities of the hotel from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. the day you reserved the room.  So that is what I did.  Cost around $200.00 but with all the extra fees (resort fees, taxes, etc) it was actually $300.00 or so.  I will report back how it was but looks like it could be a good day with full amenities by the pool and beach.  Plus it is NFL Sunday at the Sports Book so can bet on the morning games while checking scores by the beach.

Exercise 3-4 times a week, including strength training. Incorporate a healthy diet and require accountability, such as myfitnesspal.com. If you need extra help nutritional supplements such as Advocare has worked for me. The 24 day challenge incorporates a cleanse for 10 days with 14 days of good habit building. I wish you luck and yes it can be done.

I hope you enjoy reading the lengthy review! I noticed on your countdown graphics it said "Getaway" in May 2016--is that correct? We were on the Breakaway. I just didn't want you to be confused! Congratulations on your anniversary and I hope you have a GREAT time!

No it is the Breakaway. I must have gotten my countdown out without realizing the error. Awesome review. Loved it! It is my understanding that you can take the sea glass to a local jewelry and they will make a custom necklace or something with it. Did you do this with the sea glass you found? Next time you go back to Bermuda what is the one thing you absolutely will do again and the one thing you will avoid? Did you feel there was sufficient wine offerings at $11 per glass to pair with dinners?

Once again great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Hi,

 

Like many of you, I scoured Cruise Critic to find out as much as I could to help in planning our special trip. As a result, we had a fabulous vacation. I would like to give you all a detailed review of many aspects of our trip. I'm hoping some of my quirky details will help others in planning their perfect trip!

I will be doing the review in topical format. I can't remember which day we ate where and what we did. I have four kids (who didn't vacation with us), so please be patient while reading my review--it will take me several days to get through it all!

 

We are a late 30-something couple celebrating our 15 year anniversary this year and our first trip without kids since having all four. This was a huge trip for us--we don't usually spend this much on vacations except to Disney with the whole family (and let's be honest, that isn't much of a vacation with four kids....don't get me wrong--it's a fabulous time, but very little relaxing is done amongst the crowds, fast passes, reservations, etc....) We traveled with another couple, also without kids. This was our second cruise. The first one was a short Carnival cruise shortly after we were married. The other couple didn't have lots of cruising experience either--the wife had never been and the husband had been on a couple as a teen with his family.

 

I will get into more details later about our room, but we enjoyed an aft balcony on the 9th floor.

 

Everything in this review is just our opinion. If it is one thing we should learn from Cruise Critic, everyone has one...and it often differs!

 

Topics I will cover: (maybe not in this order...)

Getting there/the stay the night before in Secaucus, NJ

Traveling to Port/Embarkation

Room/Balcony

Food! Drinks!

Activities--Ropes Course, Pool

Shows--Donna Vivino, Burn the Floor, Rock of Ages, Q&A with officer, Running a floating hotel

Communication/iConcierge

Shopping on board

Kids Club (we stopped by to check it out even though we don't have kids)

Arriving in Bermuda

Bermuda---Beaches, Food, Shopping, Wed. Night Harbor Nights, Transportation, Snorkeling excursion--Restless Native

Spa

Service while onboard

 

All in all, we had a great trip. Lots of fun memories were made!! Stay tuned!

 

I will start with our stay in NJ the night before!

Wow JuniorTrooper... reading this first post made me comment before reading the remainder. I am greatly looking forward to this review as ironically enough my wife and I will be traveling for the same cruise on the same ship over Memorial Day weekend 2016. We also will be traveling with another couple. Said couple will be celebrating their 16th anniversary and we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary. Wife and I also have four kids who will not be coming and this will be the first major vacation without the kids since our honeymoon. We are really looking forward to it but in the meantime I am really looking forward to your review. Sorry but I just had to comment given all the similarities. I am certain I will have questions when I am done.

1) Unless there was a secret gym inside Haven I wasn't aware of, there's no gym in the Haven. Instead, you will have to use the gym on deck 15. To get to the gym, you simply go down the stairs to deck 15, go left and exit 2 door and VOILA, you are right outside the gym. The Haven on the Jewel-class ships has its own separate gym but it was really a treadmill and a cycling machine lol.

 

Besides sauna, they also have massaging available.

 

2) I don't remember a John Lennon tribute although the cruise staff did dedicate a trivia session to "Can you name this Beatles song?" and proceeded to play 20 Beatles songs.

Thanks for the answers! For the record I have no clue why there was a strange emotioncon face in my subject heading as I don't ever do that kind of stuff, but I must have hit it as opposed to the default of no icon. Looking forward to the remainder of your review.

Thanks jerson! I do not think there is a separate gym for the haven, and I think they have two spa treatment room in the haven courtyard. I just had the concierge book me a massage and it was in the main spa on deck 15. So i think the gym and spa is only 1 for the ship Madera Spa.

 

Here is a pic of the gym and spa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Great! Thank you! That answers a lot of questions I had. Cannot wait to keep reading. Keep up the good work!

Following along. Nice review. My wife and travel companions will be in a 2 bedroom haven villa next May over Memorial Day to Bermuda. I had just a couple questions: (1) Did you ever try the Haven gym? If so, how was it compared to the main gym? I noticed you said they had a sauna but any other spa-like features in the Haven? (2) I was reading that Bermuda has a John Lennon tribute one day each week. Did you attend this? If so, what is worth attending? Cannot wait to see how this concludes. Keep up the good work!

seadog67... love the live review. My wife and I will be celebrating our 15th anniversary over the Memorial Day sailing next year to Bermuda. We will be traveling with friends who will be celebrating their 16th anniversary over the same time period. We booked a Haven 2 Bedroom Villa. If you are in the area could you take a peak into the Haven gym/spa and advise what is in there, especially in comparison to the ship gym/spa area. Cannot wait to continue to read you live report!

Thanks for posting! Our family will be on the Oasis on the 13th doing the Eastern as well. I would love to ask a few questions:

(1) Do you by chance have the daily compass from your week? If so could you post them. I love looking at what other entertainment options there might during the week.

(2) Do you recall what movies were playing during your week on the big screen? If so, what do you recall were playing?

(3) Which was your favorite port? Why?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

We leave next Saturday. Anyone have Compasses from late May or the last couple weeks for the Eastern?

Thanks for the link. Any chance someone recently sailed the Oasis (say May 2015 after the dry dock) and have current Compasses? I know there could still be changes but I figure more likely to be the same on a May 2015 Eastern when we are sailing in June. Thanks in advance.

Absolutely WONDERFUL trip report! Thanks!

Nice trip review so far. Looking forward it read more of it.

Excellent review. How did your Niece like the ports of call? I have a 12 year old son who loves cruising as much as I. The excitement she showed in the photos really reminds me of my son.

Disney doesn't do dynamic dining. And I don't think they do a for-charge character breakfast (although I'm not sure on that one).

They don't. Everyone gets assigned a character breakfast in their dinning rotation. Disney also has what is called rotational dinning where you rotate among the various dinning rooms and your wait staff rotate with you. Meaning you will always have the same wait staff just in different dinning rooms.

What did you find out? How was it? Please let us know.

I thoroughly enjoyed your trip report! Our family of six (with a 18 month in tow) will be sailing her June 2015. We have sailed more with Disney but wanted to try something different. I have two pet peeves in life that absolutely drive me nuts. First and for most when people cut lines. I am not talking about legitimate reasons when people have handicaps and for their safety they need to but perfectly healthy people that seem to think their time is more valuable than yours. The second is when people save seats for more than five minutes after a show has started. After that you lost out on your opportunity to save that seat. You appeared to have unfortunately experienced the latter of the two in your recent trip. You dealt with it better than I would have. Knowing me I would have also made similar flippant comments because the whole time I was watching the show it would have annoyed me to no end. I was beyond annoyed just reading your comment about this that someone would have done that to you. I say bravo to you not allowing it to ruin your day and to be able to have fun with it. I would also like to add that your grandson is very lucky to have grandparents like you two. I was very close to my grandparents and miss them every day since their death a few years ago. He will remember these moments as I have with mine. I loved reading your descriptions regarding the meals as I always wondered if DCCL will live up to my Disney expectations. Carnival did not. Sounds like it will. Again thanks for your wonderful review and sorry for rattling on a little here I just really enjoyed it.

Love this TR! Cannot wait to see how your vacation ends. We travel on her June 13th with the Eastern Caribbean route. Thanks for everything!

This was a wonderful review. I sail on her this next June and after reading this review I am looking forward to it even more so.

I wrote to Royal Caribbean Customer Service Department and below is what I got in response:

"Hello Jesse,

I apologize but Royal Caribbean does not offer sports book gambling on

board any of our ships. We do have a wonderful casino program where you

can earn rebates and discounts on cruises. If you are interested, please

let us know your reservation information and we would be happy to let the

on board staff know that you are interested in joining as it is 'Play to

Qualify' only.

We look forward to having you on board soon!

Regards,

Carrie Breedlove

Club Royale, Casino Operations

Royal Caribbean International

Azamara Club Cruises

(P) 888.561.2234

(F) 305.358.9295"

That makes sense but looking at MegaCruisers recent trip report (on Oasis in Feb of 2014 I believe) you can clearly see a wall in the Casino that says Sports Book. Under that wall is an automated Blackjack game, which might mean that they removed it. But I am asking in case anyone has every been on the Oasis and can verify that there is one, there was one and in either case how the process worked.

From talking with a couple different people that went on the Allure it appears that the Sports Book is merely a ATM like machine in which you make your selection and it prints out ticket. I agree that a Sports Book would be pretty fun but over football weekends could you imagine the line right before kickoff with one dingleberry sitting there ho humming about his $5 parlay bet as you get froze out? Personally I would love to hear from someone who did use it on the Oasis and whether it is like the Allure. How long the lines were (if it was ever used). Also, do you us your sea pass and if you win does it credit against your sea pass?

From pictures I just saw I see there is a wall in the casino that says Sports Book but I cannot figure out how that is possible.