Disappointing Experience on Wonder

[Thisguylikestocruise]

Do the 9+ night cruises filter out most of the kids? Haven’t done one yet, but I’m assuming anything over a week is mostly adults.

[zanydoc]

Thank you for your observations @allisonb22. I had no idea about the Jewish holiday at the end of January or the whole no Saturday/Saturday restrictions.. All of this information was very helpful and thanks to my fellow CCers for chiming in. Also, I too had some disappointments on my Wonder sailing last November, mainly related to the fact that there was no ranch dressing or coconut ranger cookies to be found in any venue until the last day of the cruise, Lol! Seriously though, I found the Wonder to be a beautiful ship, but in November there was a noticeable lack of staff for a ship that size which adversely affected dining and bartending service at all of the venues. My husband was disappointed in the Flowrider protocols on this ship as he is an avid stand up rider and they did not have times for advanced stand up flowriders only. He wished that they would have had different times allotted for the “newbies” to learn stand up vs. letting them learn during the advanced stand up. Anyway, I know this sounds silly to some, but they don’t have this issue on other ships with only one Flowrider. We still had a great time and my husband lived through it 😁, but I understand about having expectations based on your previous experiences with Royal and the disappointments that come when they are not met. Loyal to Royal, but have ventured out on NCL and Carnival this past year as well-still like Royal the best! 

[NightOne]

26 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Apparently there were multiple Yeshiva week cruises that week. We were on Wonder, and the package was available for purchase pre cruise in our cruise planner.

 

We were on the 1/15-1/22 cruise and had a friend who did that one and the 1/22-1/29 cruise after it and the Yeshiva week Solarium Bistro takeover was on both weeks. On the 2nd week they had a sign at Sorrento's guiding people to Kosher pizza. We did not see that the 1/15-1/22 week.

 

I was told there were around 1000 passengers under 12 years old on the sailing out of 6700 total.

 

I had an awesome time on the cruise and my only complaint was there were some serious chain smokers in the main casino making that place pretty unbearable a lot of the time. I've never had that issue in any other casino land or sea.

[Mum2Mercury]

28 minutes ago, orville99 said:

You can make arrangements for kosher meals through RCL’s special needs? Department pre cruise.

But doesn't a Kosher meal have to be prepared in a kitchen separate from ... I don't know what.  As I said upthread, I live in the South, not a place known for large number of Jews.  Anyway, how could they manage Kosher meals without having a separate kitchen?  Setting aside the Solarium Bistro makes sense, as it could be sanitized and made truly Kosher for the week.  

 

Now I'm becoming interested in this subject.  The few Jewish people I know here DO eat out ... but I'm quite sure a typical restaurant isn't Kosher.  I assume not all Jewish people "keep Kosher"?  I mean no disrespect to anyone's beliefs, but I just don't know these things. 

 

Or, as seems quite likely to me, is Royal Caribbean just saying they're serving Kosher meals?  

10 minutes ago, Thisguylikestocruise said:

Do the 9+ night cruises filter out most of the kids? Haven’t done one yet, but I’m assuming anything over a week is mostly adults.

I sailed an 8-day recently and saw few kids.  Of course, it was also September (we personally think fall is the best time to cruise) and not Labor Day.  That's early in the school year to pull your kids out. 

2 minutes ago, NightOne said:

On the 2nd week they had a sign at Sorrento's guiding people to Kosher pizza. 

Directing people to their needs makes sense, though I'm still wondering about that separate kitchen thing. 

[edrussell]

Thanks for this thread and the information in it that has come to light.  I had no idea a Yeshiva week was a thing at all.  Never heard of it.  Given that we are so new to the cruise world I try and soak up as much info as I can.  Your experience somewhat echoes one we had in Sept of last year on Oasis.  Over half of the cruise PAX were one particular nationality.  We had no advanced notice of this and we made friends with many avid cruisers and they also were surprised by it.  Most announcements were made in 2 languages (that was our first clue as it happened early in the cruise and we thought it was odd).  Within the first few hours we figured it out.

 

The entire cruise was jammed full of insanely rude and pushy people, there was more than one physical altercation etc.  Staff were treated horribly; you name it.  Truthfully if we had any way to have found out this cruise was going to be like this we would have moved to another sailing.  We tried as best we could to ignore it and enjoy the sailing and we did so, but it did put a bit of a damper on the cruise in general.

 

Now we know to do lots of searching around the interwebs looking for any mention of our sailing and in particular groups/charters.   We also ensure we join any roll calls wherever they are to gather as much information as possible.  Along with of course carefully choosing the time of year and port we sail out of.  I definitely learned something new on this thread and it is something we will watch out for.

 

[BecciBoo]

September is our go to month, no only for cheaper fares but weather is great and kids are back in school, and we've never noted any of these problems then.  We even had 2 Alaska cruises in September, both perfect.  We don't cruise in the summer, too high and lots of kids.  I have nothing against kids, I was one myself once, but they are less hectic.  The only thing we ever noticed was the Quinceanera thing being from Texas and that is usually at Spring Break or the summer.  But really, the lemonade is great anyway.

[orville99]

38 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

But doesn't a Kosher meal have to be prepared in a kitchen separate from ... I don't know what. 

They are prepared in a kosher kitchen shoreside, packaged, frozen, and delivered to the ship with all of the prepackaged disposable utensils, etc all sealed. (Picture a TV dinner). They are served to the passenger still sealed.

[orville99]

44 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Or, as seems quite likely to me, is Royal Caribbean just saying they're serving Kosher meals? 

52 minutes ago, NightOne said:

On the 2nd week they had a sign at Sorrento's guiding people to Kosher pizza. 

Directing people to their needs makes sense, though I'm still wondering about that separate kitchen thing. 

There was a Rabbi on the 1/7 Wonder cruise who was responsible for overseeing the conversion of the SB to a kosher venue for the following week’s cruise. He stayed on for the second week as well. We met him on turnaround day.

[WorkingForOBC]

 

29 minutes ago, orville99 said:

They are prepared in a kosher kitchen shoreside, packaged, frozen, and delivered to the ship with all of the prepackaged disposable utensils, etc all sealed. (Picture a TV dinner). They are served to the passenger still sealed.

Usually Kosher meals on cruise ships (and flights) are provided and pre-prepared in this manner.

However, for these special cruises, and the reason that the solarium bistro was totally shut down, is that they actually turned it into a Kosher kitchen, and had rabbinic supervision, in order to serve fresh Kosher meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During this time the Solarium Bistro would only have been serving Kosher meals, without the option for their normal offerings. It seems that anybody could have purchased the Kosher meal package from the cruise planner, but it probably sold out at some point.

Here's a flyer from last year (2022)

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Misc/Yeshiva_Week_2022_TradeFlyer.pdf
 

1 hour ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Now I'm becoming interested in this subject.  The few Jewish people I know here DO eat out ... but I'm quite sure a typical restaurant isn't Kosher.  I assume not all Jewish people "keep Kosher"?  I mean no disrespect to anyone's beliefs, but I just don't know these things.  

 

Within the US, I would say that a majority of Jewish people do not keep strictly Kosher. Some people don't follow the rules at all, while others will follow the rules to varying degrees. Some people choose to keep Kosher at home, while eating whatever they want outside of the home. Others try to maintain "kosher style" i.e. no pork, no shellfish, no mixing of dairy and meat. There are many other permutations of following the Kosher rules.

 

The Yeshiva are religious schools for Orthodox Jewish children (and young adults). "Yeshiva week" is a school holiday, when the schools are closed, but it doesn't actually correspond to a Jewish Holiday (akin to spring break).

 

I'm Jewish, not Orthodox, and I had no idea that this Yeshiva holiday period was something to look out for when booking travel. At the very least, I've learned something useful from this thread 🙂

Edited February 3, 2023 by WorkingForOBC

[Dickfey]

Just returned from the same problem on Oasis.  Rude, Rowdy, Disrespectful, and parents didn't seem to care or have any control.  Same group.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

4 hours ago, mandyleighflies said:

Might just start cruising Virgin for birthday cruises just to be safe, I do not like children (unruly, feral children,

judging by the videos of the Virgin cruises, they are full of feral and unruly adults... Just a fair warning. 

[Starry Eyes]

4 hours ago, DaniDanielle said:

Unfortunately with Kids Sail Free there aren’t many cruises without a ton of them.  Parents are willing to keep the children out of school nowadays!

And a substantial number of children are home schooled 

[DaniDanielle]

@edrussellWe must have been on the same cruise.  Oasis was my favorite until that cruise.  The announcements were the first warning and then the huge groups of rude, noisy people arrived.  Kids all over and not supervised.  Anything special that was offered was grabbed by those groups and there would be nothing left for others.  They traveled in packs and took up a lot of space!

[CruisingNole]

5 hours ago, mandyleighflies said:

This is all good information to know!! My birthday is in the beginning of February so we usually take a cruise around this time of year. Might just start cruising Virgin for birthday cruises just to be safe, I do not like children (unruly, feral children, not well behaved clearly parented children)  and their adult's only concept is fantastic. 

Royal’s recent absurd pricing has driven me to Virgin and Celebrity. I’ll know first-hand next month, but I suspect Royal did me a favor.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

My thoughts (why not)...

 

I also don't understand why you'd give up on Royal after a single bad cruise after multiple good cruises (you said you're close to diamond, right?)

 

I see the Royal failings as:

* Saying you could have a 12 top and then not allowing it.  

* Not keeping the bathrooms cleaned

 

EVERYTHING else, the things Royal COULD have done something about it (food quality, chair saving), you could also run into on other cruise lines.

 

The things Royal DIDN'T have control over (rude guests, lots of kids), they didn't have control over.  I know people say "they could tell us when they do a partial charter".  Well, when do you notify the other passengers?  When there's 30 members of the "charter"?  50?  100?  500?  

 

I remember DW and my first cruise (on Oasis).  While waiting to board, saw a LOT of families obviously there for quinceañera (ages and gowns galore).  I was worried about how they'd impact the cruise.  Never saw them again until we were walking off the ship.  

[NateUpNorth]

4 hours ago, DaniDanielle said:

Unfortunately with Kids Sail Free there aren’t many cruises without a ton of them.  Parents are willing to keep the children out of school nowadays!

School holiday cruises have lot of kids.
The Kids Sail Free "sales" are usually specifically applied to cruises OUTSIDE any traditional school holiday season.
It's absolutely intentional planning and a target market for RCL now. 
I feel like there are many that are unwilling to accept this fact.
About the only guaranteed "low kid count" sailings on RCL these days are transatlantic/re-positioning I would think.

[cruiselvr04]

Note to self to add that to the time not to cruise or start on Saturday in January.  I had no idea. Come to think of it, it’s the month we haven’t cruised in. 

 

Groups don’t usually bother us unless they are too big and shut down venues.  I kind of feel like I paid for the whole ship so might feel cheated if I couldn’t use the music hall or the SB the whole cruise.  If it’s just once or twice, no big deal.

 

Texas has strict truancy rules.  It may just go in the kids file but schools highly discourage skipping school for a week.  
 

[vacationlover_mn]

I have a friend who has been sailing royal for years, who was also on this sailing.  She said it was one of her worst cruising experiences. 😞

[Crazy planning mom]

I am sorry that you had a disappointing cruise.

It seems a shame to give up on Royal after so many previous positive experiences.  Perhaps, you should try a different ship not during a school holiday period including Yeshiva week.  You may also want to check out sister brand Celebrity.

[Thisguylikestocruise]

1 hour ago, DaniDanielle said:

@edrussellWe must have been on the same cruise.  Oasis was my favorite until that cruise.  The announcements were the first warning and then the huge groups of rude, noisy people arrived.  Kids all over and not supervised.  Anything special that was offered was grabbed by those groups and there would be nothing left for others.  They traveled in packs and took up a lot of space!

Sounds exactly like Disney yesterday. Massive groups of extremely rude, entitled, loud, people in packs. Cutting in lines, pushing past everyone in their way. Can’t imagine that experience on a ship for a week.😬

 

I have a 9 night Greek Isles cruise booked for late September next year, hoping it filters out a lot of this, and kids.

[sdrocks]

On 2/2/2023 at 3:24 PM, reallyitsmema said:

 

Yeshiva week cruise with venues closed for Kosher dining.

We were on the same cruise and agree this group was rude and obnoxious.  While they were in the music hall a lot there were still other shows in there.  This group let their kids run amuck and they were all loud and noisy.  At the aqua show they kept running up to where the divers were performing and messing around.  Their parents apparently don't know how to raise mannerly children.  They also took over Sorrento's and moved chairs and tables wherever they felt like even if it blocked other peoples views, like during the parade.  Very ill mannered people and it is not a good reflection on this group IMO.  Whenever we saw this group we went the other way as they were very unpleasant. Hope to never have to cruise with them again.

[Starry Eyes]

1 hour ago, cruiselvr04 said:

Note to self to add that to the time not to cruise or start on Saturday in January.  I had no idea. Come to think of it, it’s the month we haven’t cruised in. 

 

Groups don’t usually bother us unless they are too big and shut down venues.  I kind of feel like I paid for the whole ship so might feel cheated if I couldn’t use the music hall or the SB the whole cruise.  If it’s just once or twice, no big deal.

 

Texas has strict truancy rules.  It may just go in the kids file but schools highly discourage skipping school for a week.  
 

Speaking of Texas…I have not heard of Yeshiva week cruise issues on Texas sailings.  The reports I have seen have been from Florida and NY/NJ.  Do you folks think a Galveston sailing be a reasonable guess for someone wishing to sail Oasis class in Yeshiva break timeframe in future without these partial charter issues?

[NightOne]

1 minute ago, Starry Eyes said:

Speaking of Texas…I have not heard of Yeshiva week cruise issues on Texas sailings.  The reports I have seen have been from Florida and NY/NJ.  Do you folks think a Galveston sailing be a reasonable guess for someone wishing to sail Oasis class in Yeshiva break timeframe in future without these partial charter issues?

 

Be prepared for fog delays in January out of Galveston. 😉

 

I was on the 1/15 Yeshiva week cruise on Wonder of the Seas and had a fantastic time. I didn't have an issue with that group at all. I seen them all around the ship.

 

Everyone's experience can be different. 🙂

 

I wouldn't worry about it.

[Sunshine3601]

9 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

With our group of 16 I emailed 3 weeks before and they put us in the very back of Liberty's MDR right next to the windows and we had early seating....perfect!  All it takes is some conversation with the Dining people and asking for exactly what you want.  2 long tables of 8 and at one point our daughter invited 2 others she met to eat with us, they put them at the end of the tables.  No problem.

Exactly, email to the dining room people then confirm with the host as soon as you board the ship should do the trick!

[Mum2Mercury]

5 hours ago, orville99 said:

They are prepared in a kosher kitchen shoreside, packaged, frozen, and delivered to the ship with all of the prepackaged disposable utensils, etc all sealed. (Picture a TV dinner). They are served to the passenger still sealed.

Multiple thoughts -- and, again, I'm a Southerner and not at all well informed on this topic: 

- That's most interesting and efficient. 

- If the meals are prepared in advance and just re-warmed, why does it matter if the kitchen is Kosher? 

- People are paying a heft fee for frozen meals.   

5 hours ago, orville99 said:

There was a Rabbi on the 1/7 Wonder cruise who was responsible for overseeing the conversion of the SB to a kosher venue for the following week’s cruise. He stayed on for the second week as well. We met him on turnaround day.

That's well done and respectful to the Jewish religion.  

Also a cool job for the rabbi, as I assume he got a free cruise.  

5 hours ago, WorkingForOBC said:

... Within the US, I would say that a majority of Jewish people do not keep strictly Kosher. Some people don't follow the rules at all, while others will follow the rules to varying degrees. Some people choose to keep Kosher at home, while eating whatever they want outside of the home. Others try to maintain "kosher style" i.e. no pork, no shellfish, no mixing of dairy and meat. There are many other permutations of following the Kosher rules ...

So you could just hit the big stuff or could be very exacting about the details.  

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Exactly, email to the dining room people then confirm with the host as soon as you board the ship should do the trick!

On our last cruise we emailed ahead of time asking for something specific in the MDR, and we didn't get it.  So we went to the dining room's supervisor, explained what we needed it, and he changed our table -- the only "difficulty" was that we had our table number written on a piece of paper instead of printed on our ship ID card.