Lengthy (unfinished) Sov. Review (4/2 - 4/6)

[Zandile]

Here is the start, it's taking me a while to write it, I'll continue tomorrow.:)

 

We recently returned from our first cruise (DH, myself and 5 year old son) on the 4 night Sovereign of the Seas out of Port Canaveral. Here is my review:

Embarkation:

We drove down on Friday and stayed at the Country Inn & Suites just a stones throw from the port. The hotel was great, we stayed in a “Kids Suite” which included a partially separate room with bunk beds and its own tv for our son, he thought that was amazing! He’ll never be satisfied with a normal hotel room again! We headed over to the port about 11:30 am on Monday after running some last minute errands. We were able to pull right up to the baggage drop off area. One of the guys collecting our bags suggested that my son and I go ahead and get in line to enter the terminal while my husband parked. We did that but it turned out to be pointless because there wasn’t really any line to enter the terminal, just people standing around waiting for car parkers. You couldn’t go in the doors without showing that you had all the people listed on your set sail pass so we couldn’t enter without him. As soon as he arrived we walked right in. Everything went smoothly through the terminal, my husband is a South African citizen and he had to relinquish his Alien Registration Card (but was able to keep his passport). We received a receipt to retrieve it on the last day of the cruise which went smoothly. All in all we were eating in the Windjammer by a few minutes after 12:00!

Stateroom:

We were in stateroom 2000, on the bottom deck of passenger cabins, at the very furthest point into the bow on the starboard side (we had a porthole). I expected the cabin to be small from everything I read but given my minimal expectations and the fact this was our first cruise we were surprised at how spacious it felt. We frequently camp in a pop up camper though so maybe we’re just used to operating in small spaces. We had the beds pushed together into a queen and our son slept on the fold down Pullman. The new bedding was in place and the beds were amazingly comfortable! All the pillows and the clean white and green bedding gave the whole stateroom a much more luxurious feel than we expected. I had heard that they frown on having kids younger than 6 sleep on the Pullmans but our cabin steward (Courtney) volunteered to bring us an extra bed rail which helped us all feel very secure with the arrangement. It wasn’t much to look at but it did the trick!

The bathroom did show some wear and tear (some rust spots around drains, stuff like that) but it was very clean and had a surprising amount of storage space. Also, the shower wasn’t much to look at (components had some rust and the shower head itself was yellowed and cracked plastic) but it operated amazingly well! It had better temp control and water pressure than our shower at home! Very comfortable. We did flood the bathroom every time we showered but, again, thanks to cruise critic I expected it and didn’t leave things on the floor so it wasn’t a problem. It drained pretty quickly and it never ran into the stateroom or anything because of the lip at the bottom of the door.

I had been concerned about sewage smells and plumbing problems. As far as smells go, I never smelled anything like a sewer, when the ship was stopped we did pick up a kind of sour sea water smell but it wasn’t bad. In fact, it was the same smell that we encountered much more strongly standing outside on the dock in Nassau so I think it’s just a port smell, not so much a sewage smell. When we were docked in Nassau our toilet stopped flushing, we noticed it right before we went ashore, mentioned it to Courtney, and it was fixed by the time we returned so it wasn’t a problem. In fact, I was really amazed at how well the toilets on the ship worked, when you consider that you’re on a ship, and there are thousands of toilets, and the ship is almost 20 years old…..I was pretty darn impressed with how well everything worked!

My ONLY criticism, and it’s minor because I can’t even imagine the work involved in turning the entire ship around twice a week in just a few hours, is that we had no child life jacket in our room when we boarded. My husband wasn’t feeling well (he was battling a cold the whole trip) so once we unpacked I took my son to the pool deck for a while before the muster drill. I told DH to get a child life jacket from Courtney but, as DH’s sometimes do, he forgot to ask even though he did get the extra bedrail. When it came time for the muster drill Courtney wasn’t in our area and we couldn’t get a child life jacket from ANYONE. Everyone I asked kept saying that I had to get it from my cabin steward. For whatever reason this was beyond devastating to our son. He was just really distraught that everyone else had a life jacket and he didn’t. Even up at the muster drill no one would give us one because they didn’t want to go through the trouble of opening the boxes they have up on deck. They just kept explaining that it wasn’t real, it was just a drill, but that wasn’t the issue. It was a 5 year old’s perception of being the only one left out that caused the upset. So I was frustrated that each cabin steward couldn’t just have a list of which of their cabins had kids and go ahead and stock the staterooms with the child jackets ahead of time instead of leaving it to the passengers to request them. But, having said that, I again recognize that I probably have no concept of how hard they already work so I don’t want to make too much of an issue of it. When we returned to the cabin afterwards Courtney had heard of our problem through the cabin steward grapevine and the lifejacket was in our room.

Dining Room:

LOVED the service we received. We had Jerry as our head waiter. He came to our table every night without fail, remembered our names, and chatted with us about the meal, the day, plans for the next day whatever. He was amazing. Jun, our waiter and Reynaldo, our head waiter were also amazing. I can’t say enough good things about all of them. We were at a table for six with another family traveling with their 12 year old son. They were delightful and we really enjoyed getting to know them. We were at table 137 in the Illusions Dining Room (Deck 3) for first seating and we were right by a window which was also great. Our son ate with us in the dining room the first night and the last night. The two middle nights he elected to have dinner with the Adventure Ocean staff in the Windjammer (you have to sign up for this each day before noon because they do it before the Windjammer opens and they bring food in for the kids separate from the normal buffet).

As for the food. It was fine. We had a few items that were excellent (mostly appetizers) and nothing was terrible but most of it was just ok to good. I never went away hungry and I wasn’t expecting 5 star cuisine so it was fine. I thought the selection was good, there was always more than one thing on the menu that appealed to me. My favorite entrée was a pasta dish with a salmon and vodka based sauce. They had a separate kids menu when our son was with us with items like mac & cheese, pizza and chicken fingers. The wait staff was great about engaging him in conversation and entertaining him throughout the meal.

Windjammer:

We ate in the Windjammer for breakfast every day and lunch the first and last days. Breakfast was consistently good, lots of selection and well prepared and presented. The orange juice machines were a bit watered down but it was drinkable. I just wish they offered 2% milk. I’ve noticed that in hotel breakfasts as well, its always just whole or skim, both are extremes in my book! Also I had hoped for flavored creamers but never saw any, next time I’ll bring my own.

There were LOTS of choices for lunch. Never saw sushi but the asian salads were amazing. Overall I was impressed with the choices and quality, it was a bit overwhelming trying to decide what to eat! Service at the tables was nice, they had folks going around with carts to replenish drinks and clear dishes and they’d always ask if they could get you anything else if you didn’t want to get up. I thought the buffet traffic flowed well and we never had trouble finding a place to sit (people did tend to overlook the front section which tended to be quieter).

Sorrento’s:

We got late night pizza a few times, it was definitely handy to have it available. I’m just not a picky eater I guess, I enjoyed the pizza. I could see that it was very cafeteria-like but it was fine for us!

Johnny Rockets:

We enjoyed watching the waiters dance when we were in Sorrento’s one night but just never felt like eating there, we have them at home so it wasn’t a special treat or anything.

We picked up free cookies at Lattetudes as an afternoon snack for our son a few times which worked out well.

Adventure Ocean:

FANTASTIC! I was so impressed with the staff and the program. Our son had a blast and they really engaged him. Every time we picked him up he was just bubbling over with descriptions of all the things he had done and made. They even got him to sing at the talent show the last day which totally surprised me and shows how talented they are in working with kids! The first night was Space Night and they were told a story about a friendly alien who comes around and leaves chocolates on your bed. Of course every night after that he was delighted that the “alien” had visited our room again! LOL! The day we were in CocoCay he spent some time in their fenced in beach area and had fun with water balloons and with burying one of the staff in the sand. (It was great having them there because DH and I got some uninterrupted laying on the beach time and got to do an awesome waverunner excursion). His time with them resulted in him having a variety of souvenirs of the trip that he made or decorated himself which he will enjoy for some time.

To be continued.....

[zwanzig]

Great review so far! I look forward to reading the rest. :)

[Merion_Mom]

I am enjoying reading your account. It sounds like you had a great time, and that's wonderful, after all of your planning!

 

Looking forward to your next installment...............

 

:)

[kruzerci]

Zandile! I think we are finally recovered from the cruise :D. We are trying to find something for the second week of April 2008 and it is between Voyager, Mariner, and Carnival Glory, so we may be joining you on another cruise if we decide on Mariner. The only reason I don't want to do Mariner is because we have done that itenerary twice before and I think we will be back on her July 2008. My problem for next April is that there is only one Royal Caribbean Eastern Caribbean cruise that week and it is on Freedom and the price just isn't reasonable at all! Oh well, I guess we'll figure something out!

 

I'm enjoying reading your review. I agree with most of it except the pizza ;) . I ate it at night a few times, but I really thought it was terrrible. Oh well, Johnny Rockets and the Windjammer were great :D .

[dagadget]

Great review so far! I look forward to reading the rest. :)

 

 

Nicely done. As we are going next year on SOS All information we glean is helpful especially for our son who's going on his first with us in a Jr Suite. :D

[scottsgal]

We're sailing for the 2nd time on the Sovereign in early May so I'm enjoying reading your review. Looking forward to the next part.

[limboman]

We're sailing on the Sovereign on April 30 w/ our 5 year old daughter; it will be our 8th cruise, but her first. We really enjoyed the review and are looking forward to the next installment!

[Zandile]

Entertainment:

We weren’t expecting much in this department and were VERY pleasantly surprised. The magician/comedian they had the first night was a lot of fun (even though he kept cracking HIMSELF it was ok cause that just made me laugh harder). We took our son to that first show because AO hadn’t opened yet and he REALLY enjoyed it even though he didn’t understand everything that was going on (and there were some VERY mild adult oriented jokes that went right over his head). This same magician did a family oriented show with a totally different routine during the afternoon of the sea day and our son enjoyed that one even more.

The headlining comedian was FANTASTIC, in fact that entire evening was great, we got ourselves great seats in the Follies theater, played bingo, watched the Love & Marriage game show (which was VERY adult oriented but they did warn and I only saw teens in the audience) and then the comedian while enjoying the drinks of the day and kicking back. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that much in one sitting. Shane, the cruise director was wonderful, he had an impeccable sense of comic timing and understated wit, he really knew how to make the most of the unscripted and often completely bizarre answers he got out of the contestants in the Love & Marriage show.

We watched one of the RCI Dancers & Singers shows (I think it was called Flashback) and it was entertaining and enjoyable although some of the vocals slipped a bit at times, but there were a couple that were top notch.

We also really enjoyed Quest on the last evening, may actually participate next time! And the dueling pianos were also a hoot.

CocoCay

Get on the island EARLY if you can! We didn’t and I wish we had. I was focused on getting discounts in the spa so I booked a 90 minute service first thing that morning and by the time I went to the cabin to collect the boys there were huge lines for the tenders. We hung out in our room for about 30 minutes and then we were able to walk right on, the lines did move quickly and it seemed like the crew was on top of it. However, all told we didn’t get there until 10:30 or so which meant our son missed some of the cool stuff that the AO group had been doing on the beach with the kids that morning.

We found ourselves a nice spot over near the waverunner hut and swam and made sandcastles with our son until lunchtime. Lunch was great, the food was plentiful and yummy and the Coco Locos were great. My ONLY complaint about the Coco Locos was that I wanted to refill my souvenir glass and would have purchased several more if the guys walking around selling them would have let me do that, (especially if I could have paid a little less). As it was I couldn’t justify paying for the souvenir cup more than once so I only had one. To be fair I was always too lazy to walk to a bar, I probably could have gotten a refill there! After lunch we checked our son into the AO area. We really wanted to explore a bit and check out the small straw market but once we laid down on our lounge chairs we just couldn’t get up. Seriously. We needed the rest but I do wish we had gotten to do more on the island.

We went on the waverunner excursion at 2. The tide had gone out so they couldn’t take us to the shallow areas that they had taken folks earlier in the day. Apparently the shallower areas yield more access to sealife like sting rays and star fish and is a more relaxed ride. For our tour he took us into the deep ocean which was much more of a no holds barred type of experience! We had a blast, but it is not for the faint of heart or for those with lots of aches and pains! Everyone in our group was capable of keeping up so we got to do some real hot dogging on the waves which we loved but there were several times that the ONLY thing connecting me to the wave runner was my grip on the handles on the sides of my husband’s life vest! The guide was fantastic and told us all sorts of interesting stories about the island at each stopping point. He took us out, all the way around the ship, and around to the other side of the island. We did get into some shallower areas at one point and saw lots of rays and bone fish. We even had a dolphin surface near our waverunner but never saw any others around! Because no one was in a hurry to get back and it was the last tour of the day the guides extended it a bit so it turned out to be a great deal!

It was past time to check our son out of AO by the time we got back though and he wanted to swim some more (the AO program doesn’t take them swimming for liability reasons) so we never did get to check out the straw market or explore, we got on one of the last tenders about 4:00 back to the ship.

Nassau

I had booked a private sailing/snorkeling excursion for Nassau which ended up falling through (and I did get a refund, but that is a long story that is on the Bahamas forum – look for barefoot sailing). It was frustrating that it didn’t work out because I had to rouse the boys early and rush them off the ship to meet our ride and when we realized we weren’t going we were stranded on the other side of the island and hadn’t had a proper breakfast or anything! Luckily the Bahamians we encountered were very friendly and we walked to a store where someone called us a taxi without incident. We returned to the ship (it is convenient to be docked but it is a long walk back and forth multiple times!) and changed into street clothes and got a proper breakfast so we could have a new start to our day in port! This time we took our son to the Pirate Museum. It wasn’t difficult to find but it was a slightly longer walk than I thought it would be (but still too short to really justify a taxi). The streets were VERY crowded though as there were three ships in port (the other two were a Celebrity and an NCL, not sure which ships). We had just missed one of the cruise ship pirate tours when we arrived at the museum which suited us fine. You do NOT need to take a tour to this museum, we really enjoyed going through it on our own and managed to do so without crowds (got lucky on our timing).

After the museum we decided that we wanted to walk around and shop and that our son would be happier on the ship so we headed back for the long dock walk again! We dropped him off with the AO staff having lunch with the kids in the Windjammer and headed BACK into Nassau. We wandered the streets until we found a great alleyway café not far from the straw market called Captain Vinney’s (I believe). There were no tourists eating there, only locals, so we decided it was probably authentic. For about $20 my husband had traditional chicken curry, peas and rice and a Kalik, a local beer and I had GRILLED conch (never had it that way) with peppers, peas and rice and another side that resembled and tasted like potato salad and another Kalik. The food was excellent and the ambience was authentic, we felt nicely removed from the cruise crowds even though we were less than a block off the main shopping street.

Then the shopping began! Loaded up with liquor, cigars, perfume, t-shirts, knock-off handbags (which have been the envy of my entire office since I returned) and rum cakes we returned to the ship a little after 4. We had discussed eating on board and then going back to check out Senor Frogs but that was the night of the headliner comedian and, as described above, we had a great time on board. We’ll catch Senor Frogs some other time.

Day at Sea

Our day at sea was great, the only hiccup we had was in the morning. I took our son to breakfast and then took him with me to my appointment with the Loyalty Ambassador (I told him we were “thinking” about another cruise, luckily he wasn’t paying enough attention to understand that I actually booked it because I haven’t told my husband yet!). My husband finally got to sleep in! The Loyalty Ambassador, Connie, was great, very helpful and informed. She was surprised that there was a corner aft cabin available on deck 8 of the Mariner for spring break next year and she got us some sort of promotional deal on it so we saved some money in addition to the OBC. I couldn’t believe how much of that sailing was already sold, there weren’t any hump balconies left! By the time I did that, dropped my son at AO, and had my second spa appointment (book with Kris if you’re going in the next 5 months or so, she was FANTASTIC!) a couple of hours had passed. I returned to the room and my husband was gone! We had no way to contact each other and although the Sovereign is a moderately sized ship I quickly realized that we could both be wandering for the entire day trying to find each other! I searched for him for a while and more fully explored the ship in the process. Luckily next time I checked in the cabin just before lunch he was there. Whew! Maybe those walkie talkies aren’t such a bad idea!

We took our son to the pool after lunch. Neither my husband and I are big “pool” people and it was VERY crowded up there. We found some spots sitting on the wooden decking a the pool that allowed kids (the crew did a great job of enforcing that rule, the adults only pool remained adults only). Of course having all the kids in one pool made it an EXTREMELY rowdy pool! And I saw two families who had their 2 year olds in the water with swim diapers despite the signage forbidding that. I was really grossed out by that but never got motivated enough to complain to anyone and they didn’t stay long. After about 30 minutes a couple of chairs vacated by the pool and we grabbed them for a little while before gathering our things and going to the family magic show in Follies. We did enjoy the people watching by the pool and saw the belly flop contest which was mildly entertaining, I just can’t see staying out there for hour after hour. After the show it was back to AO and then hubby and I relaxed and did a little onboard shopping before picking our son up for the AO talent show. The show was in the Centrum and was well attended as passersby on the upper levels got drawn in. Each child participating got a medal shaped like the Royal Caribbean anchor. At the end the kids got to pick, via applause, which staff member they wanted to see “slimed” ala nickelodeon style. The staff was awesome, very devoted which amazes me when they work 5-6 month contracts without a single day off! They get breaks during the day but they never get a full day to themselves in that whole time. YIKES!

Tips

A few things I will do differently next time. First, the soda card was a waste of money for a young child. He did get free sprites in the dining room the two nights he ate there with us but that was it. Otherwise he was satisfied with the passionfruit guava juice or the lemonade in the buffet line. It really only makes sense if your kids are old enough to be walking around the ship on their own and can go to the bars to order soft drinks themselves.

Second, I will keep up with our sea pass account! I understand on the Mariner that we can check it on the tv in our room but even if we couldn’t do that I’d highly recommend checking it with guest relations periodically. We FAR exceeded the budget I’d anticipated, luckily we didn’t blow our credit limit but YIKES! I assume that at least some of the names being called to guest relations the morning of disembarkation were folks who perhaps had blown their credit limits? We had our tips on our seapass card, we had the waverunner excursion, we had my two spa appointments, we had the late night zone charges ($5/hour when our son was at AO after 10 pm) and our onboard shopping. On top of all that we apparently drank hundreds of dollars worth of alcohol (including extra tips to the bartenders we liked) on a 4 night cruise! I was SHOCKED because neither of us were ever what I’d call drunk. I really thought we were being moderate, but I kept tipping extra and that really escalated things quickly I think! On the one hand, I was on vacation and didn’t want to worry about money. But on the other hand I think it would have been ok to have monitored it and then not dealt with the shock at the end. Oh well, lessons learned!

I’m sure I’ve left stuff out, feel free to ask questions!

[dagadget]

Nice finish to a very great review. We are looking forward to Sovereign next year (same time you are on Mariner)

[metsfan1968]

Zandile - Awesome review.

[Pommy]

Help! I can't find dining room dress code info for the SOS cruise. We sail next week!! I remember reading that there is one formal night. Are all the other nights casual or is there a semi-formal night thrown in the mix? Will my husband need a sportcoat as well as a suit? Can't wait to sail!!! Thanks, Zandile, for taking the time to write your great review. You made us think about which activities, shows, games, etc. that we don't want to miss!

[Zandile]

Pommy,

 

There is just one formal night, the rest are resort casual (my husband wore nice jeans with a collared shirt one night and slacks the other nights). The first night is the most casual because not everyone gets their luggage with much time to spare to change for dinner. I don't remember seeing anyone in shorts but I wasn't really looking either. I wore capri pants or skirts every evening. Have fun!!!!!

 

-Zandile

[piercetc4]

you have to go to guest relations to check on your seapass charges?

 

glad you enjoyed the sov.- great review - thanks for sharing- we can't wait to go on her in sept-

[Zandile]

Yes, they didn't have an option to check it on the tv like I've heard they do on some newer ships.

[rjnjr1019]

we took the 04/27/to the 04/30 long weekend trip to the bahamas. Sovereign is a nice ship and i think better then most people give her credit for. we got to the peir at about 11.15am and was thru the lines and onboard and eating in windjammers by 12.00 very smooth. didnt even check to see if our rooms where ready because i knew better. got done eating and went to the rooms about 100 and they where open. we had only got about 2 hours sleep the night b4 due to our traveing and all so took a short nap and woke when it was time for the munster drill. that went very smooth i would say the quickest id ever been too seemed like maybe 15 min at most. our room was on deck 8 and after all the noise on here about small rooms i thought it had plenty of room for all our stuff.

the rooms are older and did show its age in some areas but nothing that was so bad that you could not over look. the room did have two pullman beds in it and i would say if 4 people where to be in the room then i could see that as a problem but could work.

food on the ship was very good, though we did not eat in the dinning room we had late seating and we just didnt make it that late to eat we ate at the windjammers most meals which was very good. we ate at jonny rockets one night and the burgers where very good and the unlimited supply of french fries and onion rings was very good.it is 3.95 extra to eat there but we had a coupon in our c&a booklet so we used that and had a soda cards also so soda was free aswell.

our trip took us to nassau and cococay. we chose the sovereign because we wanted to be in nassau on sat , sunday most shops are closed. the island seemed to be a bit cleaner this trip around (been there 4 times )we went down to the end of the peir next to the straw maket and there is a hilton resort there thought we could sneak onto the beach for something to do. we walk into the back way and a guy came up to us and asked us what we where doing and we said we where just checking things out, he said follow me and took us over to a small beach hut and we where able to use the beach and the pool all day for 15.00 pp beach towel included, i thought for 30.00 that was a great deal till we walked up to the pool bar and ordered a beer and it was 6.00 for a 12oz can lol cheaper on the ship.

stayed there for most of the day but let me tell you use lots of sun screen i did and still got burned

went back to the ship changed and went back out to walk around a bit more, we dicided to take a cab over to atlantis, if you go after 6.00 everthiong is free to veiw. very nice place and i would like to go back just to stay there.

our next stop was cococay and we did make it there. the crew said it was only the third time they had made the stop this year so far. christmas and easter where the only other days besides ours, the island and lunch was wonderful as always, we rented a beach mat and floated around most of the day (sunscreen cant say it enough) overall the ship is great the stops are great and if your thinking of going on her just do it .

we arrived into port at 645 we had a 1100 am flight out of orlando we where off the ship and waiting for our driver on the peir by 730am i know they say not to take a flight befor noon but we did it and had no problem getting there we where at the airport bu 900 and had pleanty of time (i have to admit we did take a big chance doing this) but if you do this hire a driver to pick you up at the peir we used florida towncar service and had no problems thanks for reading this as its my first reveiw on here and i will be doing another after our nov cruise on a southern carribean rt on the serinade

[bigal3967]

Thanks so much for your review. It will be very helpful.

 

We will be cruisin on the Sov. July 9th with our 10 and 13 yr old. Was the main dance/vegas review kid friendly? I mean I understand there may be some skimpy dancers but overall was it safe to take a 10 and 13 yr old.

 

thanks

 

Al

[Pommy]

Thanks, Zandile! You have been a great help. We have been on cruises that required both formal and semi-formal dress with a casual night here and there. We were hoping that the SOS would make this cruise a relaxed and casual vacation and from what you wrote, that's true! I will enjoy one formal night and then go casual the rest of the cruise! I'm 58 and I will be cruising with my husband 62 and son 26. Hope to see you on board!

 

Pommy/ Carolyn

[veryhotred]

Thanks for the review...sail on her next week!! I have a 6 yr old and a 7 yr old that will hopefully enjoy AO too so hubby and I can get some alone time. It is always reassuring to hear that other parents put their kids in AO and they liked it!

[PH8]

our next stop was cococay and we did make it there. the crew said it was only the third time they had made the stop this year so far. christmas and easter where the only other days besides ours,

3 times?? I think there was either a language barrier or someone was pulling your leg..:)

[lin712]

Thanks for the great review. Will be taking my nephew July 23 for his high school graduation gift. You really answered a lot of questions. This will be our first cruise and we are really looking foward to it.