Hello from the Sovereign

[srq2003]

We are just back from dinner on night three of the current four night sailing, ship is BEAUTIFUL, crew is SUPURB, the only negative i have to say right now is we have to leave on friday! Will post more when I get back, but probally wont make it back to the internet before I leave! Too much fun going on! But I will have pics and more later! Royal Caribbean has done a fantastic job and you cannot tell the ship is 17 years old had has hosted almost two million passengers!

[junior8]

HI there, Glad to hear your having a great time! :D I cant wait until April 29th. That is when I go on her. Looking forward to reading your review.

[2bcrewzn]

Glad to hear your cruise is going well, I was wondering if you got to go to Cococay? Seems a lot of SOS cruises go to Bahamas instead. If you made it to Cococay how was it? Is it fixed up since Hurricanes hit?

[Mabers]

ditto....march 7th!

[sdouglas]

Hey Adam---

Can't wait to see the pics.

Happy New Year to you.

 

 

Stephen in Colorado

[checker78]

double...double...ditto

 

Chris and Mary

[srq2003]

so we made it home, didnt sleep much this week! we were the first cruise back to coco cay in 5 weeks, so everyine was excited! what a beautiful island!

 

Highlights: renovated rooms look great, very classy, (lots of wood, freshly polished brass and fuzzy velvet... like the red velvet in the follies lounge and the deep green on the high back booths in the dining rooms!) boleros is my favorite room on board and the dueling pianos if the most fantastic thing on the ship! went three nights and each was more entertaining then the last. overall the entertainment was great, from the shows to the comedians, to the bands, even the dancing in johnny rockets. renovated windjammer is nice, but it was warm most of the time (maybe ac was not working properly or there just isnt enough) sorrentos and johnny rockets are beautiful and the food there is fantastic. lower windjammer has great paninis and the standard windjammer stations. dining room service is outstanding at dinner, little slow at lunch, but food was great at both. favorite item was the escargot! BEST CREW ON THE SEA!!!! Ken Rush (cruise director) was on his last cruise before returning to the navigator, but his staff is great. Edwina (ACD) is one of the best I have ever met, every time you see her she puts a smile on your face! Andrea, Adrian, and Mike on cruise staff are great as well. The captain (dont remember his name right now) is very funny and always walking around the ship talking to eveyone. Most personable captain i have met to date. everone on board works well together and they are very close which makes the service shine.

[srq2003]

more to come later, need to drive home, but will continue with the highlights (and maybe the one or two low ones) when i get home! If anyone has questions feel free to ask!

[MomtoCCC]

Hi,

 

Do you have any idea how the kids/teen activities were? What did you do in Nassau?

 

Looking forward to hearing more!

[peteypie]

What time did you begin disembarking? I am wondering what time I should book our return flight out of Orlando. I would hate to have to sit around the airport all day -- but then again, I don't want the stress of having to sprint to the terminals either! Thanks for all the info. Glad to hear more positive reviews about this ship. We sail in June!!

[Cruisin1229]

Hey there awe are due to go on the Sovereign in 2 weeks it will be my birthday. We have a junior suite on deck 10 are all of the problems fixed? heard a/c wasn't working and plumbing wasn't up to par? was the windjammer the only warm place or are the cabins?My favorite cruise director is Ken have had him 5 times this is are 20th cruise and we love RCI always going to Alaska in August. hope to hear from you.

[srq2003]

hi again, the kids/tean activities are great, we never saw any kids on board and the last night Ken Rush commented on that and told us there were almost 400 on board (we never had any idea!) the new kids areas are very nice, the teen club has huge plasma tvs and a seperate dance floor and great dj/youth staff member named Alana. didnt do much in nassau since we had ben there before, so we slept in, took the water taxi to atlantis, and walked around the straw market. most of the day we spent on the ship/shipboard activities. sail away is very fun (we got to yell at the other ships in port as we sailed away!) Coco Cay is much more fun in my opinion and I would rather spend more thime there then in Nassau, alot of other passengers feel the same way.

 

debark went smoothly, we were off the ship by 10.30, but there was a long line behind us so im not sure when everyone was finally off...

 

we had no problems with ac or hot water in our cabin (deck 8) the places that had ac problems we experienced first hand were windjammer, viking crown, and a few of the elevators. didnt hear anyone complain while onboard, but that doenst mean they werent any, we just never heard anyone!

 

what wasnt the best- not the entire ship was renovated, so there are some areas where you can tell she is 17 years old (cabin bathrooms, handrails, rust in some places, nothing serious). there needs to be alot of cleaning done, most noticibly the windows were covered in grime and need to be washed (they were in the process of this during the cruise, but the worst were up in the viking crown where the best views are!) our trip had a large number of heavy drinkers/partiers who at times were very obnoxious and destroyed the very elegant atmosphere, but every other day of the trip most had drank themselves into comas so we didnt have to deal with them too much!

 

overall an excellent vacation and I am planning on going again this march! everyone should have a great time!

[2bcrewzn]

Were going 1/17 and have a jr suite, is there a separate check in line for JR. Suites? Did you get anything extra being in a suite?

[MomtoCCC]

Hi,

 

I submitted a post for this question before I read that you were on deck 8. What room were you in? What was the obstructed view?

 

We are looking at this short cruise primarily because of CocoCay - I know my boys will love it. I'm not that excited about Nassau but that is ok.

 

Thanks again,

[Mabers]

Hi,

 

I submitted a post for this question before I read that you were on deck 8. What room were you in? What was the obstructed view?

 

 

On the Sovereign it is life boats....apparently all views in outside rooms obstructed on deck 8. Haven't sailed yet, but that's what I was told when booking.

[Philly Steve]

I just love the "hunkered down" look of Sovereign and her sisters. She's the original mega-ship and I can't wait to sail her again. Thanks for the upbeat review!

[janets]

Glad to hear some good reviews after so much bad press. We were on SOS right before dry dock and had many problems because RCCL had already began the construction without notifying passengers. The noise and other inconveniences were horrible but RCCl did compensate us.

We are giving SOS one more try on 3/25 mainly to get one quick cruise in to get us Diamond status before our Alaska cruise this summer.

So Ken Rush is leaving? We did not have him on our cruise in November - had a real rookie as most of the staff was.

Disappointed to hear not much was done with the bathrooms in the rooms - they really need help - what about bedspreads? ours were badly stained in November.

Please give some more positive feedback so I can be assured I did make a good decision in giving SOS a try again.

[srq2003]

there was a seperate embarkation line for suie passengers as well as diamond and platnum c&a members, while we stood in the regular line were wishing to be in the shorter line! (one more before i am a diamond member!)

 

the bathrooms look better, they did some work to them, but not everything is new. the entire beds are new, matresses, sheets and bedspreads. (our bedspreads still had tags on them, guess someone forgot to remove them!)

 

i personally prefer the deck 8 cabins, they are cheaper then regular oceanview and in a better location (closer to the pool, windjammer, promenade, etc) and the view is not bad at all!. a word of caution... we were in 8088 (directly over boleros) when getting ready to go out for the night we could hear the music from below. we personally loved it because that was our cue that things had started and we needed to get down there! but i can see how some early sleepers would be annoyed because boleros gets LOUD! (if you like music, drinks, comedy and fun them you'll probally end up there also, but if you like to sleep early dont book a cabin right above!)

[bananarama]

janets... who was your cruise director in November????

 

srq2003 - Do you know who is replacing Ken Rush as cruise director?

[janets]

Cruise Director was Keith - don't remember his last name - didn't make much of an impression. Assist CD was Julie - really do not get to see much of them on a 3 day cruise with no sea days

I am surprised Ken Rush was on a three day, I had heard he was on the Jewel, he is pretty high up in Seniority

[*katie*]

I wonder if the ACD is the same Edwina who was ACD on the Empress last summer? She was riot, we loved her.

 

We sailed with friends who will be sailing on the Sovereign this summer--they'll be excited if she's there.

[srq2003]

YES!!!! same edwina as the empress, she even remembered me from that sailing a year ago, she is the best! some one named chris is the CD now, dont recall his last name....

[Cruisin1229]

Hey there fellow cruisers. I mentioned before we are due to go on SOS on the 21st. Any one know who is the Cruise Director now? We are so anxious to have a break and relax. We are diamond members and going with a couple that have never cruised before. Appreciate all the feedback from everyone and enjoy being able to find out things on here...Kathy

[LindaO]

Ken Rush came aboard the Sovereign to handle the re-launch since Keith Williams was on vacation.

 

Keith was delayed on his return so for the next 9 or 10 days there will be a new-bee on board as CD.. and then Keith returns. Ken couldn't delay his vacation any longer as he is due to be in a wedding!

 

The 1/3/05 cruise -- 4 night.... was great..... We had a wonderful time and it was great to meet so many nice people on board!

[Daydrmr]

I am thinking about booking the Sovereign for 2/4/05. Can anyone tell me if there would be a place to watch the Superbowl? Also, does the sovereign have the rock wall? I am interested in hearing anything you can tell me about the sovereign. We have only cruised 1 time and that was on the Navigator inagural cruise. It was AWESOME, how would the Soveriegn compare?