PatrickCruises123

We'll see how the rest of it goes. We did this one for the ports but if the ship sucks then it wasn't worth it

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Day 1 was rocky. San Juan cruise terminal leaves a lot to be desired. The muster drill was so late and took so long, it's screwing up both seating times in the main dining room so we're gonna have to do windjammer. I miss Allure.....

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I would definitely suggest the board to the first timers, just give them the facts about the whiners ahead of time.

Rest assured, other than Quantum class & Oasis class ships...the rest of the RCI fleet is still catching up to upgrading to the much-faster broadband Internet service you've experienced previously. I can only speculate that the costs are high do do these upgrades, which is why they are being rolled out over time.

The costs probably relate to swapping out some equipment but they make money on the service. There's just no excuse for not upgrading it.

Our last two cruises were on the Allure and after that ship had been updated with the new satellite internet with the faster speeds. I have a feeling I'll be let down with the speeds on the Adventure of the Seas.

I know the ship went through dry dock in 2014 and one of the upgrades related to WiFi so I was wondering about the speeds since I'll be on there for a 7 night around Memorial day.

Thanks

I'll be on the AOS in May so keep those thoughts and impressions coming. I look forward to reading them.

thanks

I'm on AOS around Memorial Day 2016 and I have a feeling I'm not going to like the internet speeds, especially after having been on the Allure last year after they upgraded to the new high speed system. I'll guess we'll see.

Any updates on the ship itself? Damage, repairs??

I decided to go with the superior ocean view balcony. It was just too much money to justify the extra space when the balcony is what we're already used to on previous cruises and we won't be in the room that much anyway.

Thanks for the opinions. :)

Seems to be about $1,200 more for both of us for the 7 day cruise, if I were to book it now.

We've never done a suite before so I was thinking this might be our first one. The double c&a points is something I didn't know about.

The cost difference isn't too bad.

I was mostly interested in the perspective of the room from someone who's stayed in one so that was very helpful.

Thank you :)

Need some input.

My next cruise will be June 2016 on Adventure of the Seas and I'm trying to decide if the junior suite is worth the extra $$ over a standard superior ocean view balcony room.

Thanks

I think the other person was saying that you don't see these on an RCCL ship because they were all built correctly with enough generator capacity to run the whole ship.

I'm not sure about Carnival ships but on all RCCL ships (that I'm aware of), the main engines are all used exclusively for power generation and all of the propulsion systems are electric. It's quite cool. I've done the behind the scenes tour on a couple of different RCCL ships and these engines are each the size of a school bus. If you ever get a chance to do a behind the scenes tour, pay the money and do it.

On the main subject of Carnival vs RCCL, that's not really fair. The two companies are quite different all the way down the line. Consider such topics as how they operate their ships, the size/age of the ships, the desired price point for a lot of their cruises, their target market all around the world, etc.

My first cruise was on an older Carnival ship but the last 6 cruises since that one have been on RCCL. I prefer RCCL because of how they operate in all of the categories I mentioned above. For every one person that is loyal to RCCL, you'll find someone who's just as loyal to Carnival.

This will be very nice to have. My first cruise 10 years ago, the internet on the ship was dial up with an actual modem that you would rent for the duration of the cruise. Your laptop had to have the old RJ-11 modem port and everything.

Fast forward to the 21st century.

I'll gladly sign up for the Premium Plus. :) I have a 90meg x 10meg connection at home so I'm used to doing stuff at a certain speed and will gladly pay the $$ for a "normal" connection on the ship.

I'm probably in the minority on this but at least RCCL finally purchased a clue and upgraded to proper internet connectivity. :D

If you do the self assist, you can usually get off the ship around 7 or 7:30 in the morning. Assuming you're flying back out of Ft Lauderdale's airport, it's very close to the cruise terminal so you'd have plenty of time to make it over to the airport by way of shuttle or taxi.

The drink packages are priced on a daily rate, like $50 a day or similar. So unless you can drink that much per day, it probably isn't worth it.

I get the drink package each time and pay for it months ahead of time. Then when the cruise come, I don't have to worry about it or keep track of how many I have to drink to make the package worth it. I can just relax and get a drink if I want one.

He's right. Just think of airline travel in terms of the size of your carry on and you should be fine. It'll be similar security in terms of the screening device the carry on has to go through.

Also, the rooms are usually available around 1pmish except on the rare occasion where a Coast Guard inspection is going on while people are boarding. That happened to us last year on Allure and it delayed the process by an hour. It was a big headache since they just had to do the inspection at the worst possible time. I've been on 7 cruises and only had that happen once so we'll see what happens this Sunday when I'm back out on the Allure for another 7 night cruise.

RCCL's IT department is asleep at the switch. I work in that field doing .Net website and application development and their site sucks. It's the front door to their business so you'd think they'd hire people that know what they're doing.

When we went on the Allure in May 2013, we set our MDR time for 8:30 like we had on every other cruise on different ships. As it turned out, our "assigned" table wasn't really in the main dining room that's open and 3 stories tall like I'm used to. Instead, they had the 3 of us at this little 4 person table off on the side of the ship but on the same level as the dining room. It was very strange, almost like if you had stepped into a quaint little restaurant. I didn't like it. I was expecting the whole thing of sitting at a big table and meeting new tablemates and so on. I probably should have protested on the first night but decided against it. We're back on the Allure in Nov 2014 and I'll be checking into this before we go. I don't want some small table in a restaurant setting, I wanted the big MDR experience.

My first time on the Allure was May 2013 and it was pretty good considering we were on a ship and it was a satellite based connection.

I'm going back on the Allure in November of this year so I hope they have it on there by then. My wife thinks they'll go up on the price so that might be the only downside. If the speeds and bandwidth really are there, I'll have no problem paying more money for that unlimited internet for the entire cruise package.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/08/06/how-royal-caribbeans-massive-bandwidth-upgrade-cou.aspx

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Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE: RCL ) is enjoying smooth sailing this year, buoyed by a resurgence of leisure travel by Americans and by the company's fleet upgrades and amenity-laden new ships. One of the new features that has Royal Caribbean forecasting fair weather is the high-speed Internet service set to debut this summer on its Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.

The new service, run by U.K.-based satellite communications company O3b, delivers "bandwidth at unprecedented levels," said Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean chairman and CEO, in an interview with The Motley Fool. The expectation is that fast Internet will draw more young passengers, help retain employees, and streamline operations.

"O3b provides Internet access to harder-to-reach regions, and that describes us to a T as an industry," Fain said.

The company, whose name references the "other 3 billion" people on the planet without reliable or high-speed connectivity, has been launching medium-Earth orbit satellites and installing special antennas on the ships to deliver Internet access at speeds comparable to or faster than broadband on land.

The early response has been good, Fain said, especially from 18-to-35-year-old cruisers who are now the biggest-spending travel demographic -- and who are leading a sea change in what cruisers expect while they're hundreds or thousands of nautical miles from the nearest cell tower.

"Five or 10 years ago, you would have welcomed being away from your computer," Fain said. "Now you're suffering withdrawal symptoms, and we don't want that. We already have what we think is an industry standard for bandwidth, but that's not enough, especially for the Millennials, and furthermore, that demand is only going to grow." To meet it, the O3b service will be on a new order of magnitude. "One of those ships will have more bandwidth than the rest of the industry combined," Fain said.

The official rollout is still to come, but Fain said beta testers this summer have been happy to use the service and provide Royal Caribbean some social media exposure into the bargain.

"We've been giving it to the young people on board, and they have been real-time tweeting photographs, videos, etcetera," he said. "We think that from a marketing point of view, that's one thing that will move us to a different level."

Courting the Millennial market is key for the entire travel industry, because they take more trips and spend more money than older travelers, even the Baby Boomers. A majority of them also say they'd rather spend their money on experiences instead of stuff, making them an ideal market for premium amenities.

The bandwidth expansion has benefits for employees as well – Fain said he expects the upgrade to help with Royal Caribbean's goal of being the "employer of choice" in the cruise industry. Employees who can easily stay connected "will be happier and provide better service."

Real-time connectivity with ships at sea should also help management operate more efficiently, he added. The faster Internet service is slated for the new Quantum of the Seas ship as well when it launches in November.

While being better plugged in while on vacation may seem at odds with the notion of getting away from it all, it's a nod to the reality that younger travelers want to connect with their friends and show off their vacation photos on the go, rather than waiting for their ship to come in to port to upload their adventures. If the new service works as expected, it will give Royal Caribbean a major competitive advantage with the Millennial market.

I was on the Allure May 2013 and the port at Falmouth looks great now that it's finished.