lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #26 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Enjoying your review, and photo's. Thanks! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #27 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Yea we have pictures! So happy you had a good cruise and looking forward to hearing about the rest. Sent from my QMV7A using Forums mobile app Yay for photos!! Thanks :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #28 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Good Morning! I'm in the mood for some more photos, I'd assume everyone else is too? ;) HERE is where the proposal happened! And HERE is the celebratory champagne which I had brought along just because. Which I will take a moment to add, if you have the drink package I don't also recommend bringing the wine/champagne that you're allowed. We didn't really drink this. We were so over drinking by the time we'd get back to our room and we also usually had a glass of something with us! And since it's always nice to see WHO it is writing these.. here is me and my fiance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #29 Share Posted May 29, 2014 We chose My Time Dining and pre-paid gratuities. This worked out wonderfully. We have no issues w/ pre-paying gratuities and we tipped on top of those for excellent service to some of the bartenders, the starbucks barista and room attendant. We were sat in the same section each night and had the same waiter/server. The food was so delicious! I know I’ve read a lot of reviews about how bad the food has gotten. Well, I can’t comment on how it used to be, but we sure enjoyed it. I loved ordering different things and it was so nice to be able to order multiple appetizers. We ate dinner late every evening and never had a wait. Never had an issue being seated just the two of us and in the same section. We also wouldn't of minded being sat in a group of people though. The dining room itself was gorgeous. We were near the railing and so I had a nice view of the other levels. Our dining room was level 8. The Mozart I think. Don't hold me to that! After dinner we would generally go see a show. We watched a Glow Dance, a comedy skit (too short), the Quest Gameshow, & Love and Marriage. The ship is on the smaller side after being on it for a couple days. We do not have kids so cannot comment on the activity for the little ones. We wondered the top decks a lot and lounged. We also ended up in the Promenade more times than not just people watching. We tried not to eat too many unneccesary meals but it was difficult! We had a free dinner voucher to Chops but actually never used it. We looked at their menu but could not see anything that we preferred over the Main Dining Room food. Much to our surprise there was also lobster on the 4 night cruise! This and the escargot were highlights on the food. Our after dinner shots. I was disappointed that these were not offered. We had to specifically ask for them the night we wanted them. This actually reminds me that while the food service in the dining room was great, the drink service was not. I don't know if there was only 1 bartender serving the entire dining room, but it took 30 minutes for wine and beers. We learned our lesson quickly and stopped into the champagne/wine bar prior to dinner for our glasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiseapril Posted May 29, 2014 #30 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Fun review. Look forward to more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinydncer06 Posted May 29, 2014 #31 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Thanks so much for your thoughts on the drink package! They are very helpful. I had been debating on whether I should bring on my wine/champagne in addition to purchasing the package and thanks to you I know it's not worth it! One question: were the after dinner shots included in the package? Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maureencruiser Posted May 29, 2014 #32 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Welcome to my obsession! I am so glad to see you are already planning your next cruise. Congrats on the engagement, keep the review and the photos coming. You are correct about drinks in the dining room, you are much better off getting one on your way to the dining room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #33 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Thanks so much for your thoughts on the drink package! They are very helpful. I had been debating on whether I should bring on my wine/champagne in addition to purchasing the package and thanks to you I know it's not worth it! One question: were the after dinner shots included in the package? Hi tinydncer06 thanks for checking out my review! YES the after dinner shots and ALL shots for that matter were included. I did not have any problem with any of our alcoholic drinks being excluded. I kept in mind the $12 cocktail drink limit but that was not an issue. I saw someone order a more expensive glass of wine and she was simply charged the overage so they were good about that too. Yeah, I just wouldn't - it's so easy to bring drinks back to the room. I also at times had two drinks at once. (when I didn't like one and was looking for a place to put it down) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #34 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Welcome to my obsession! I am so glad to see you are already planning your next cruise. Congrats on the engagement, keep the review and the photos coming. You are correct about drinks in the dining room, you are much better off getting one on your way to the dining room. Thank you! It's my new obsession too :D I'll chat about Next Cruise here in a minute and let ya'll know which one we'll be on next. Yeah we quickly learned our lesson. That was a bit of a downside but really we only have one drink with our appetizer and drink water through-out the meal anyways so it wasn't life ending haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #35 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Forgot to add this photo to the previous post. They had THESE things at the Windjammer! I probably should have said this before for those who don't know, but this was our itinerary: Leave Miami Day at Sea CocoCay Nassau Arrive back 4 nights. Too short. We were really just getting comfortable when it was time to pack up and leave. So, the day at sea was probably our favorite day. CocoCay was our least favorite. We needed at ticket to tender, so I went down early 8 or 9AM and waited in line for a ticket. I get up there, and am told it's for tendering NOW. I have to come back and get a ticket if I want to tender later. :confused: We didn't want to go until around 11AM, so we had breakfast and I later went and grabbed another ticket. [For breakfast we wanted to eat in the dining room but could never get moving that early. We had room service deliver it 2 of the mornings and tried the buffet the others. I am an early riser and like to eat immediately so room service was nice but I also didn't mind getting up to go to the buffet alone. I did that the morning of departure. I thought it was a fair selection.] I wish that (the tendering process) was different or they could've announced it better. Tendering itself was not a big deal just a tad inconvenient. I felt the cruise line was efficient about getting everyone on/off the boat quickly. Now, I guess I'd just have to blame the weather for most of it but it was WINDY. And still early April, so I was too cold to swim. Laying out was a pain in the rear end because of the wind. And then, the only had SODA on the island to mix drinks with other than some disgusting fruit punch juice. This was probably my #1 complaint. I couldn't get over it. No lemonade. No tea. No juice. Just soda and alcohol and I think water. I brought my own bottled from the ship. I don't drink soda much so I was annoyed that I was paying so much money and couldn't even get a drink I liked. I settled for a white soda and gin I want to say, but the cups they were giving out were teensy tiny flimsy plastic things. And it was windy... so set it down and wham, there goes the cup. I get not using glass but c'mon! The water is also NOT deep unless you get way out or go where the people are snorkling. Then lunch on the island. Sorry I'm really NOT a Debbie Downer but me nor my fiance could eat the food. We were so disgusted. There were bugs everywhere, not enough tongs so people were picking up food with their fingers. The cheese was out in the sun not under anything cold... the list could go on. We stood in line and I even filled a plate but I had to toss it out. There was a child in line in front of me eating food directly from the buffet putting his fingers in his mouth then right back to the food. :confused: I made a comment that this shouldn't be allowed but his parent ignored me. :rolleyes: So. No food. No drinks. At least it was sunny and we were on a beach so we weren't too upset. I had read on here about the secret-private part of the island, so we wondered down quite aways and it was gorgeous but it was just too far from everything to stay down there for long. We lounged some more with our backs to the wind then go back on the ship to enjoy ourselves. I wish they would do some upgrades there because it's really a lovely island. That is my one big complaint about the trip. And much to everyone's surprise I'm sure, we actually preferred Nassau and didn't even mind it. :eek: Here is a view of the ship's pools while I try to find the photos taken at CocoCay. This photo was either taken in the morning or towards the evening judging by the emptiness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted May 29, 2014 Author #36 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Correction - level 5* for the dining room. Our ROOM was fl. 8 haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjrice1 Posted May 29, 2014 #37 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Good Morning! I'm in the mood for some more photos, I'd assume everyone else is too? ;) HERE is where the proposal happened! And HERE is the celebratory champagne which I had brought along just because. Which I will take a moment to add, if you have the drink package I don't also recommend bringing the wine/champagne that you're allowed. We didn't really drink this. We were so over drinking by the time we'd get back to our room and we also usually had a glass of something with us! And since it's always nice to see WHO it is writing these.. here is me and my fiance. What a beautiful couple...may you both be blessed with all the happiness . Too bad you missed Chops. Does it have an expiration date on it If not hopefully you can used it on a future cruise. Looking forward to sailing her in January. Haven't told the kiddies yet, they think we are just flying to San Juan, renting a condo for the week. Told them my best friend is giving us a VIP tour of this ship the day we sail..(day pass) Cathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted June 2, 2014 Author #38 Share Posted June 2, 2014 What a beautiful couple...may you both be blessed with all the happiness .Too bad you missed Chops. Does it have an expiration date on it If not hopefully you can used it on a future cruise. Looking forward to sailing her in January. Haven't told the kiddies yet, they think we are just flying to San Juan, renting a condo for the week. Told them my best friend is giving us a VIP tour of this ship the day we sail..(day pass) Cathy Thank you so much for your lovely words! :) Yes, it was through Travelocity (nightmarish company) so it was only good for that cruise. We will probably try the restaurant on our next cruise though to see that experience. Oh that sounds like the best surprise!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missus Makkem Posted June 2, 2014 #39 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Loving your review but just to say there is no Chops on AOS. They replaced Portofino with Giovannis table which we enjoyed very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted June 2, 2014 Author #40 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I'm sorry for the delay! The lake called this weekend, so I answered :rolleyes: I will be finishing this up today and posting random photos. Nassau: This is a stop I was nervous about from all the hype about how terrible it is. :eek: I understand what everyone’s saying but it’s not terrible. We had a great time here. We first got off the ship early morning, I think about 9:30AM and walked through downtown Nassau. We walked through the noisy terminal once getting past the other ships on the dock. Were hassled for taxis and just said no. I saw the hair braiders but my hair is so thick no one even approached me! :D Probably knew it'd take hours upon hours. But we just kept walking, browsed some shops. Avoided the market honestly because I don't for haggling. Walked all the way to Junkanoo Beach and the places were just getting opened. The beach itself was too rocky though so we headed back and got on the ship to come up with a plan. We'd thought we'd just do a Beach Day but clearly THAT beach wasn't going to work. After having some beers on board, yes it was early. We tipped extra. :cool: >> MORE ABOUT DRINKS: We wanted to get a little buzz going before going back off the ship and having to buy $10 drinks. This meant two shots and a beer. The bartender was not exactly thrilled with this. We were honest and told him we just wanted two shots each and that was it. He was making sort of a complain-y type face. So I have him a few dollars and he got over it. The reason he wasn't happy was because it showed him ringing up multiple drinks on our cards in a quick timeframe. This could be for liability purposes. All those people who cry that the bartenders gave them too much to drink, ya know. Maybe that's why RC has "trained" their bartenders to wait. << So, we loaded up a beach bag with RC towels, sunblock, and bottled water and got back off the ship. We just figured we'd wing it. Well there were many people asking if anyone wanted to take the ferry. We said yes and he led us and several others out of the terminal and with his hands high in the air, over to his ship. We waited about 15 minutes for it to load up and for like $4 each we took a ferry over to Paradise Island (not through the cruise company) and went to the public beach at Atlantis. They passed around a hat for extra tips which was fine. The crew was lively and funny. We got off at Paradise Island and walked through the lobby of the hotel and followed the signs towards the public beach. When we arrived, we purchased two lounge chairs ($20, probably could've haggled but that's just not us) and a refillable coconut. Not the best drinks (actually gross) but drinking from a coconut was fun. We enjoyed the ocean here and the beach. Crowded? Yes. Bothered by that? No. We took turns getting in the water because we were weary of leaving our bag unattended. However we saw people from our ship there and they left their bags unattended while they all got into the water so I'm guessing it wasn't a problem. There were a lot of people coming up to us asking if we wanted to buy various things; necklaces, sarongs, plastic turtles. I bought a $5 anklet from a woman and turned on my stomach and wasn't bothered again. We stayed here for about 2-3 hours and then boarded another ferry and got back on the ship. The line to get back on was pretty long but moved fairly quickly. After returning to our rooms, we showered and got ready for the evening like the previous nights. So, those were our two stops. We were both nervous boarding the ship but by this time we were ready for another one! SO with that - we headed to NEXT CRUISE where we met with a great gentlemen who was more than happy to click to screen after screen finding exactly what we wanted. We ended up booking our HONEYMOON CRUISE June 21 2015 from FLL to San Juan, St Kitts, and St Maarten! Three days at sea and three at ports. :D We had a reduced deposit of $100/pp and recvd $100 on board credit. I've since taken advantage of the BOGOHO sale and lowered our cruise price by $700 and got to keep our OBC :D Could it get any better.... well maybe if they lowered it again! On our next cruise we will explore more, try some excursions, and eat at specialty restaurants since we'll be splurging a little. If any one has any questions, please ask away. Thanks for reading! I'll post some more photos too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missbrightstar Posted June 2, 2014 #41 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Thanks for your review - we are doing our first Rci cruise on aos in august and have read some really mixed reviews about the state of ship and the food. Do you have any pics of the menus? Ty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted June 2, 2014 Author #42 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Thanks for your review - we are doing our first Rci cruise on aos in august and have read some really mixed reviews about the state of ship and the food. Do you have any pics of the menus? Ty Hi Missbrightstar. I apologize, I did not take any photos of the food menus. They had a huge variety in the dining room though each night I can tell you that. Chicken, steaks, seafood. I also read mixed reviews and that's one of the reasons we opted for such a short cruise (4 night) but it was too short. We loved every minute of it. The state of ship was fabulous in my opinions. It was clean, sparkling really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmpressofPurple Posted June 2, 2014 #43 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Thanks for sharing your impressions and experiences of your FIRST CRUISE!! How wonderful! And that you got engaged on this one, and booked your next one for your honeymoon -- AND got a bogoho reduction, that'll just about pay for your drink packages!! Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of cruising, so much fun to hear your perspective. Thanks again for taking the time to share your words and photos.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missbrightstar Posted June 2, 2014 #44 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Hi Missbrightstar. I apologize, I did not take any photos of the food menus. They had a huge variety in the dining room though each night I can tell you that. Chicken, steaks, seafood. I also read mixed reviews and that's one of the reasons we opted for such a short cruise (4 night) but it was too short. We loved every minute of it. The state of ship was fabulous in my opinions. It was clean, sparkling really. Thank you - I'm going with an open mind as we've only ever cruised with Thomson before :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted June 2, 2014 Author #45 Share Posted June 2, 2014 :o Thanks for sharing your impressions and experiences of your FIRST CRUISE!! How wonderful! And that you got engaged on this one, and booked your next one for your honeymoon -- AND got a bogoho reduction, that'll just about pay for your drink packages!! Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of cruising, so much fun to hear your perspective. Thanks again for taking the time to share your words and photos.:) Thank you! I know so many good things at once. The price reduction was a huge bonus and definitely helps pay for those drinks :) Thanks for reading the review, next time I'll do some more activities and therefore have MORE to review. This one was mainly about relaxing and getting our feet wet (:rolleyes:) in the cruising world! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted June 5, 2014 Author #46 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Towel Monkey! View of Miami Senor Frogs in Nassau Coconut Rum Drink on Paradise Island Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolayoga1111 Posted June 5, 2014 Author #47 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Towel Monkey! >>corection: View of Nassau Port<< Senor Frogs in Nassau Coconut Rum Drink on Paradise Island Corrected one of the photo descriptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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