Christmas Cruise - Never Again

[SRF]

On 1/3/2022 at 3:29 PM, homedepot124 said:

John and Katrina Blair do lots of things that other CD's and AD's don't do.  Such as the Neil Diamond show or simply interacting with the passengers.  Too bad RCCL can't have a John and Katrina on every ship. 

 

That would cause me to change lines.  Sorry, I was not impressed by them.

[SRF]

On 1/4/2022 at 12:58 PM, LEMJMcC said:

Well, I've been reading through the responses to my post.  As far as the ship, rust wasn't so much an issue, that's to be expected.  All observations were minor, but when you're paying what we're paying for these cruises, I do expect even minor details to be right.

• The balcony on our Junior Suite had absorbent pigs stacked on one side; I though this odd - never did determine the reason for them, but they were not changed out the whole time.
• The glass on the balcony was filthy, even on departure day.  I asked one crewmember who was cleaning windows elsewhere if we could ours cleaned, but he didn't follow through.  I wouldn't expect it to remain clean throughout the voyage due to the salt air, but on departure day I would have thought it had been cleaned.
• The tub would not drain, until I removed the drain stopper completely. (Granted I probably could have called Maintenance and had it fixed, but since I corrected it, I didn't bother them)
• Some curtains visible from outside the ship  (possible in the crew area?) were partially falling off their rods. 
• The volume of the cabin speaker could not be adjusted so we couldn't hear or understand the announcements that were made (Again, I probably could have reported this and had it fixed, but chose not to)
• The two freestyle machines ran out of certain drinks about midway through the cruise (such as ginger ale) and were not refilled.  This got worse on the day before returning to Port Canaveral when several drinks had run dry.  I found it odd that there were only two of these machines for the whole ship, unless I was just unaware of others??

I'm not opposed to secular content at Christmas, nor do I expect every song to have a faith-based reference.  I did, however, find it odd that not one single traditional Christmas carol was included in the mix.  As far as I could tell there was no caroling offered or advertised. 

 

The crew almost to a person wore some kind of Christmas-themed hat, and almost everyone did wish us a Merry Christmas as opposed to the generic happy holidays. 

 

Did not see a Menorah anywhere either, but Chanukah was well past by the time we boarded.

 

Catholic mass was offered but was not described as "non-denominational" and we did consider attending but elected not to.  No other service was offered.

 

I'm not trying to persuade others to avoid Christmas cruises, whatever floats your boat (or ship in this case).  I would have appreciated some candid reviews of Christmas cruises from a similar perspective before booking ours - it may or may not have changed our decision. 

 

We don't regret taking the cruise, we are very thankful and grateful for the privilege of being able to enjoy such an activity when most of the world cannot.  We've done it and found it lacking so we won't likely do it again.  I'm certain others have enjoyed this very same cruise immensely and I am very glad for them; I hope all who cruise enjoy themselves.

 

It was kind of perplexing to observe some rather odd, angry, and even rude behavior by some other guests at check-in and even walking around the ship.  One guy exploded on the porters at teh drop-off location screaming at them not to touch his luggage!  While most seemed overjoyed to be cruising and had the countenance to demonstrate it, some few others looked absolutely miserable, angry, and 

almost bitter to be out there...fascinating...unless they were seasick.

 

Anyway, we did enjoy ourselves and I didn't intend to come across as complaining or as a malcontent.  We thoroughly enjoyed the company we kept each night in the MDR, and the waiters, waitresses, and our cabin steward were exemplary.  We are truly and undeservedly blessed to able to enjoy such an experience.

 

God bless us all, every one.

 

 

Hmm, for all your gripes, other than the balcony glass, you did not say anything.  So it could not be fixed.  Probably the guest before you did the same thing, so it was not fixed for you.

 

BTW, did you say anything to the Cruise Director about the music?  

 

If they don't know, they can't fix it.

[CPT Trips]

21 hours ago, LEMJMcC said:

Fortunately for us, most places around here have not required or even requested masks since summer 2020.  We don't wear masks out and about during our normal day-to-day activities; the vast majority of folks in these parts do not.

 

As far as anticipating this, up to the Friday prior to our embarkation, vaccinated guests were not required to wear masks on the cruise.  So we were going into it with that in mind - thus the reason we were vaccinated, only to be out of masks on the cruise.  The panic over Omicron changed that 6 days before we set sail...by then we had too much invested in hotels on our way to/from the port to cancel our plans.

 

Let me be clear, we DID enjoy our cruise; just not to the level we thought we would.

Just curious, where are “these parts.”