Choosing a Cruise Line

[Jana60]

OK folks, This is My review on the last cruise line I have sailed on (NOTE THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION, NOT FACT, PLEASE DON'T GET YOURSELVES IN A TIZZY IF YOU DISAGREE) but feel free to tell me YOUR opinion about the different cruise lines including whether you liked the food or the staff when even if I did not. Just PLEASE don't tell me how WRONG you think I am to express MY opinion. This is my humble opinion/review of the last of the 4 Cruise lines:

 

Royal Caribbean Cruise line:

 

Rooms/amenities: Smaller rooms than other cruise lines with a snug 110sq foot inner room. Very few extras in the room. When I sailed on the Monarch this month there was bar soap, shampoo, and toilet paper. Thats it!! When I asked for a Kleenex, they told me they were out. When I asked for ice, 3 times over an 8 hour time period, I finally got some 9 hours after my initial request. No Robes, No refrigerator, TVs are old style box shaped and not interactive so you can't schedule tours or check your on board account on them. (this is not true of all of the RCCL ships however.) The newer ships to have interactive TVs.

Staff: Room was kept clean but that was about it. There were No little towel animals and no chocolates on the pillows. The staff did not give directions when asked. The answer to every question I asked was "you can ask them at the information desk". If I had done this I would have done nothing the entire cruise except stand in the very long information desk line. I needed to book transfer to the airport because I got notice that my post cruise tour (that I had purchased from RCCL) had been canceled. The tour desk was not scheduled to be open at any time until evening during dinner and shows so I stood in the long line and asked at the info desk. Their response? "you have to ask at the tour desk". So evidently, you have to give up the evenings entertainment if you wish to schedule transfer. I pointed this out to them and expressed my displeasure as I HAD already booked a tour with transfer that through no fault of my own had been canceled and magically they were able to book the transfer for me.

Dining: I made a reservation for 5:45 for my time dinning the first night but because the folks I wanted to dine with did not we had to wait for almost hour before being seated for dinner in the MDR. Sort of defeats the Purpose of my time Dining if you have to make a reservation in order to eat. Once seated the service was excellent as was the food. No Lobster night but the food they did have was VERY good. They have 24 hour room service but there is a small fee required if you use this service in the middle of the night. Pizza was pretty good. Free Ice cream was very uncreamy. Guess they want to sell more of their ice cream shops ice cream.

Entertainment:

Advantages: (in my humble opinion) They have good production shows. Dancers were of good quality. Not the best I've seen but good. No separate comedy shows but the comedians in the main show lounge were good. They offered only 1 showing of their shows on some nights, and only had less than 1 hour of Karaoke on only 2 nights. So since these are the two entertainments most important to me, it was a disappointing cruise for me. The larger ships have the ice shows which were great and provide more variety to entertainment. As I reported in a previous post RCCL for all intents and purposes did not have Karaoke. Also, usually folks sing along with and make song requests in piano bars. (you know the kind with chairs attached to the piano all around it?) Yet on RCCL when I asked the Piano bar pianist if it was OK if I sang along with him (since the ship didn't really have much Karaoke), he said NO, its against the rules! I wasn't asking for his microphone, only whether it was ok to hum along and he acted like I had said a bad word. As it happens I've had professional training and can definitely carry a tune but even if I couldn't, It was 12:30 at night and there were only a few people left in the piano bar...He didn't need to be that mean. They also have the usual Trivia, Bingo, Casino, etc.

Drinks/Booze: There was the usual opportunity's to drink. They usually offer free cocktails at the Captains reception for all and then offer free cocktails at the Past Passenger party on another night. There is also free champagne at the art auctions. I don’t know if you can bring a bottle of wine on board like you can on Carnival as I have always flown into port of departure for RCCL cruises and didn’t try.

Value for the Money: Value depends on how good of price deal you get. The one advantage to RCCL is that they charge lower single supplements but as the cruise most of the time cost more, it is not that much of a savings.

Overall Rank (how much did I enjoy the Vacation when all is done): I have sailed 3 times with RCCL. The first time I could have stayed in a closet the entire trip (it was a romantic trip with my sweetie) and I would not have noticed. The second trip was a wonderful trip to Ephesus, Crete, Sicily, and Athens. Definitely all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! This latest trip was the first one I’ve taken with RCCL in which I really wanted to participate in the entertainment options of the ship and it was a disappointment. Possibly it was only the Monarch of the Seas for which this experience would be true but I’m a little gun shy about sailing RCCL unless it’s a great location cruise in future. For me RCCL ties for 2nd place with Princess overall but is definitely #4 for my most recent trip. PLEASE NOTE: I have enjoyed EVERY cruise I’ve ever taken, even if there were negatives. That’s why I keep Cruisin!!!. Overall there is no better vacation value than a Cruise. If I could afford it I’d never get off the ship!!!

[Warm Breezes]

Thanks for giving your reviews. My objection is not at your reviews but more to this statement in your Original Post.

 

" I'm going compare them below as I think some folks judge the cruises lines from rumors or cruise experience 15 years ago and never got updated info."

 

To me this statement, along with the heading of your thread "Choosing a Cruise Line" implies that people should use the reviews you are giving as a means of "choosing a cruise". This is what I disagree with. Most of what you are reviewing is based on subjective things based on your experience and your likes and dislikes. Many people will feel differently than you based on their experiences and their likes and dislikes. I know I do.

 

My point is that people should not use subjective reviews in choosing their cruise (IMHO that's similar to listening to a rumor you were concerned about in your OP) and they should definately not chose a cruise based on a cruiseline but on the ship itself. They should look at what the ship has to offer that is in line what they want they want out of their vacation based on what they like to do.

 

I have given reviews too. Like you I state that the subjective stuff is based on my opinion. But I won't tell people to use my reviews to choose a cruiseline. I'd prefer that they look at the facts and make a decision based on a ship that meets their needs, not mine.

 

I don't take into account the subjective stuff when choosing a ship....IMHO it's not a good way to choose, especially if the review is by a stranger to you who may have very different prefences than you have. I don't even listen to my best friends opinion. In their opinion, Carnival is the worst cruiseline out there. But I know they look for different things out of a vacation than we do. If I'd have listened to their opinion vs looking for what we wanted out of a vacation, we would have missed out on some wonderful cruises that we have thoroughly enjoyed.

[EGG]

I don't have time to do a full reply, but the comparison seems very subjective and in a few cases inaccurate. For example on all of the 3 different Royal Caribean ships I've been on (3 different class ships) my inside cabin was 160 square feet. Very adequate in size with a couch. (Actually bigger than the inside we had on the Queen Victoria). We've always had excellent sercvice. We always tell our room steward we want ice on the first day, no matter what cruise line, and they fill it when they do their ice rounds.

 

I've cruised on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, HAL and Cunard. We cruise for the itinerary and what fits into our schedule and we also keep an eye on the price. While some cruises have had a snag here and there we've enjoyed them all.

 

I suggest you write reviews of your individual cruises. Many of us read these to get more information on individual experiences. Thank you for the time you took to post this thread.

[BlueRiband]

...This is my humble opinion/review of these 4 Cruise lines...

 

Hello Jana60, would your consider writing member reviews of your experiences? That way they won't "age" and roll to the back pages like they will here. Your comparisons might be helpful to those trying to choose one from another.

[Jana60]

I don't have time to do a full reply, but the comparison seems very subjective and in a few cases inaccurate. For example on all of the 3 different Royal Caribean ships I've been on (3 different class ships) my inside cabin was 160 square feet. Very adequate in size with a couch. (Actually bigger than the inside we had on the Queen Victoria). We've always had excellent sercvice. We always tell our room steward we want ice on the first day, no matter what cruise line, and they fill it when they do their ice rounds.

 

As I said at the beginning, my reviews represented only my opinion, so by definition an opinion IS very subjective. Never at any time did I tell anyone they should choose a cruise line based on the same criteria as ME. I only said I was describing the cruise lines from MY perspective which effects MY choice of cruise line. and for your info. I went to the RCCL site and checked and they have VERY few ships with standard inner rooms that are 160sq feet or more. I copied a few of their cabin descriptions to demonstrate that there is evidently much variability in "inner" cabin size.

 

Stateroom Details on the Brilliance Of The Seas

Two twin beds (can convert into queen-size), sitting area , vanity area, and a private bathroom. (165.8 sq. ft.)

 

Stateroom Details on the Enchantment Of The Seas

Two twin beds (can convert into queen-size), vanity area, and a private bathroom. (136.7 sq. ft.)

 

Stateroom Details on the Majesty Of The Seas

Two twin beds (can convert into queen-size), vanity area, and a private bathroom. (114.1 sq. ft.)

 

Stateroom Details on the Monarch Of The Seas

Two twin beds (can convert into queen-size), vanity area, and a private bathroom. (114.1 sq. ft.)

 

Stateroom Details on the Navigator Of The Seas

Two twin beds (can convert into queen-size), sitting area , vanity area, and a private bathroom. (150.7 sq. ft.)

[Jana60]

Hello Jana60, would your consider writing member reviews of your experiences? That way they won't "age" and roll to the back pages like they will here. Your comparisons might be helpful to those trying to choose one from another.

 

Thanks for the positive comment. Since my reviews in some cases are quite dated (based on cruises with those cruise lines many years ago) I didn't want to post in a place where you put reviews of recent cruises. My most recent cruise was the RCCL Monarch of the Seas to Nassau earlier this month on Feb 6th. Oddly enough, some folks thought my review of that cruise was very subjective but I really don't know how anyone could give a review without being subjective. Even "the cruise critic" professional reviews seem pretty subjective to me. I guess saying that a shower stall on the Monarch was small is subjective... Would it be considered less subjective if I instead informed everyone that rather than using a washcloth, I was able to just soap up the walls and shower curtain and just spin around to get clean??? :D Kidding of course! But not much of an exaggeration!! :eek: