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Cockmaster posted:I just noticed a 3-day cruise from NYC ending on Memorial Day (which would only consume two vacation days), but it's with Carnival (which charges solo travelers the full price of the person who isn't there). Crap. Royal Caribbean hosts a poker tournament on most of their cruises, with the prize being a free cruise. No idea if they have enough people play and no idea if they have poker regularly outside of that. Their casinos are pretty popular though, so I’d be surprised if they didn’t have at least some poker.
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Apr 6, 2019 15:07
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Dazerbeams posted:Well Disney isn't really our scene, and my husband nixed Carnival because all the horror stories he's heard about cruises involve them. So I guess that leaves Royal Caribbean and maybe Princess Cruises? There are a lot of different port stops. I'm leaning more towards Western Caribbean although I'm not sure why. I’ve done a few Royal Caribbean cruises, and have always loved them. At this point, as Brak pointed out, higher quality is on their larger, newer ships and even then, I think their overall quality has gone down a little since my first time. And the nickel and dime-ing has increased. Overall, I’d still highly recommend RC, especially over Carnival. My family is doing our first Disney Cruise in February, which we are super excited for, but it’s also much more expensive than any past cruise we’ve done. But quality is top and there’s less nickel and dime-ing.
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May 14, 2019 13:17
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My biggest complaint is that RC doesn’t label their hot water pitchers as either ‘coffee’ or ‘tea’ or ‘hot water’, so they end up all tasting like coffee due to not fully washing out the coffee flavor between uses...
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May 14, 2019 14:29
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Anyone know what time you can book Disney cruise activities on the day your booking window opens?
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Nov 11, 2019 15:10
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Just got off the inaugural NOLA cruise for DCL. They gave everyone a lithograph to commemorate the inaugural cruise. This was our first time cruising Disney and it was fantastic. I’ve loved cruising Royal but Disney blows it out of the water in almost every category. Definitely worth the price difference if you can afford.
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Feb 14, 2020 15:09
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bonus hole boy posted:Going on my first cruise in a couple months, went with Royal Caribbean and the Oasis of the Seas because it's the biggest boat with all the activities (I'm gonna do the surf simulator thing so much). We don't have our room yet, but we're going to be on an interior balcony, I'm hoping we get to be above the central park area. I was on Oasis last year. Gorgeous ship with a lot to do. I also spent a lot of time on the surf simulator cuz it’s amazing and fun. Definitely look into booking any shows to ensure you get a spot when you want. Don’t worry if you can’t book the diving shows. 1) Most of them got canceled on ours due to rocky seas and 2) you can just sit at the tables just behind the diving seating area without reservations. Just get there 45min early. If it’s a 7 night trip, I’d advise at least one night in the specialty restaurants or at least not the main dining room. In recent years, RC has gotten pretty repetitive each night with their menus in the main dining room. Also, keep in mind you can order as much food as you like on cruises. So feel free to order multiple appetizers, entrees and desserts if there’s a lot you want to try. If you like live music, the Central Park often has live violin and singers at night which is super relaxing under the stars.
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Feb 16, 2020 00:57
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slidebite posted:Without wanting to make you do any hard work - any photos/info of the pool deck - solarium on a sea day afternoon? That's the kind of place where we would probably spend a good chunk of our time if the weather is good For my cruise on the Oasis, the solarium definitely filled up quickly when the weather is nice. It didn’t always take THAT long to find a deck chair, but can be hard to find ones together if you’re in a group. There’s also some cushioned couches/chairs, but those were almost always taken, and often by people staying there all day. Really, the best is if you get lucky and the hot tubs aren’t too full because a couple of them hang over the edge of the ship like a bubble, and have amazing views and feel to them.
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Feb 27, 2020 18:53
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couldcareless posted:February Key West/Castaway Cay disney cruise from nola just got modified for us. Dropped both destinations, replaced with Cozumel and Costa Maya. If they too castaway cay from my cruise, I would 100% cancel.
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Oct 13, 2021 18:42
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A woman fell overboard a carnival cruise ship at 3:30am and coast guard is still searching for her. No idea if this is accurate or not, but supposedly she was drunkenly climbing between balconies when one broke and she fell into the ocean. https://abc7.com/woman-overboard-cruise-ship-search-coast-guard/11327340/
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Dec 12, 2021 07:51
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Annath posted:I'm sailing with Allure of the Seas/Royal Caribbean in Sept. We're going to the Western Caribbean mostly because I wanted a day trip to some ruins. For boarding, either show up as early as possible, or take your time (definitely recommend early as possible to allow delays, etc.). If you show up somewhere in the middle, you’re gonna wind up waiting in the longest boarding lines. Unless you drink a lot, don’t bother with the alcohol packages. They’re priced so that you need to basically be an alcoholic the whole trip to get your money’s worth. Royal Caribbean’s main dining room has decent food, but it definitely gets repetitive if you’re sailing 5+ nights. I’d recommend trying out other places for dinner a night or two, including the premium dinner places if you’re willing to splurge a little. But otherwise the main dining room is much better than, say, the windjammer (the buffet style place you’ll generally go to for breakfast and lunch many days) for dinner. Some of the stops on Caribbean cruises can be overly touristy, so I generally like to stay onboard for at least one stop, which allows you to do onboard activities that are normally longer waits or packed. If you want to see the diving show, try to see it early in the cruise. There’s a high chance it will get cancelled many nights due to wind and/or waves, so seeing it earlier ensures you won’t miss it from cancelled days.
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Mar 28, 2022 16:45
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Annath posted:Can you clarify something for me? Most food is included in the base price, including windjammer, the pizza place, and the main dining room. A lot of other food (specialty restaurant, bar food, any soda and alcohol) are at additional cost, but also completely optional. quote:Similarly, the drinks package was like $60/person, so if I plan on drinking more than like 4 drinks (est at $15/each) wouldn't the drinks package be worth it? Depending on your own drinking habits, this may be worth it for you. For a lot of people, drinking that much every day for 6 days, not including time off the ship, is difficult and yet you feel obligated to make it “worth it” after buying. You just gotta do the math compared to how much you personally drink. quote:In what scenarios will I be required to pay out of pocket on the boat, as opposed to it being included with the package/upgrades? Your room key is tied to your account, and can be paid off at the end of the cruise with a credit card. That’s the primary purchasing device on the cruise ship. Off the cruise ship, do some research on how safe it is to use credit vs. cash. I’ve never had issues with using a credit card in most of the Caribbean, but some people play it more safe and bring a lot more cash.
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Mar 28, 2022 20:51
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If I remember my last Royal Caribbean cruise (4 years ago), room service for basic morning breakfast is included, but all other room service incurs an additional charge. They used to include room service for free until like 2am, so it was disappointing when they added a fee.
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Mar 28, 2022 22:32
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birds posted:Anyone have opinions on MSC (specifically Seashore) and Royal Caribbean (Allure or Freedom)? Is there an obvious best option out of those three for a first cruise? All are similarly priced for a 4 night Bahamas or Caribbean cruise. I’ve done RC cruises a few times over the last 20 or years, with the most recent being 5 years ago. My experience is that less and less is included in the base price now compared to my first couple cruises, and overall quality has decreased in some regards. For instance, room service used to be free for a limited menu about 18 hours of the day. Now, only very basic breakfast room service is included, and anything outside of that window costs extra. Additionally, the dinner menu in the main dining room repeats itself a lot more than it used to (more of an issue on 7 day cruises than 4 day cruises). Unless you and anyone else in your room 21+ are heavy drinkers (at least 3-4 drinks per day of the cruise per person, since they force everyone in the same room to each buy the package if one of you does), don’t buy an alcohol package and instead just pay out of pocket for any drinks. Same goes for any of the non-alcoholic drink packages. Spa packages aren’t really worth it compared to what you can get on land somewhere, but up to you if you’re willing to pay for it separately. Food that’s included in the bar price usually includes the main dining room, the windjammer (buffet style cafeteria open for all meal times), a pizza-by-the-slice place, and maybe one or two others depending on which ship. There are also specialty dining restaurants that cost extra. Chops Grille, the steakhouse, is pretty good but pricy when considering the other dining options are included. Freedom of the Seas may have been one of the ships I’ve been on, but it’s been refurbished since then and has additional amenities so I can’t speak too much to that. Otherwise, any excursions cost extra but depending on the stop, some of the excursion options aren’t great anyways and you may just wanna hang out on a local beach or even stay on the ship. Most Caribbean stops are hit or miss in quality, and may require travel away from the port to find an area that isn’t super touristy and/or owned by the cruises/port. Be careful about booking anything outside of the official cruise excursions if it will take significant time or take you far from the ship, because the ship WILL leave you behind at the port of you don’t board in time. Seen it happen on every cruise. If you’re just adults traveling alone, there’s plenty to do all day and night on the ship to enjoy yourselves, particularly if you enjoy trivia, random games, comedy nights, etc. otherwise, they do have plenty of bars and other hangout areas, plus the pool areas, including an adults only pool area. If you’re with kids of any age, Royal Caribbean still has plenty for them to do and is great for families, while not coming at the cost of Disney. As a young teen, I loved the teen hangout area so I could escape my family sometimes and hangout with kids my age, and then leave the teen area with them to explore the ship. I have no idea how RC compares to MSC though, especially in nickel and diming. Try to work with a travel agent who specializes in cruises when booking, because they can often get you extra on-board credit while your cost to book stays the same as ordering the cruise online yourself. This helps mitigate some of the nickel and diming. Also, be prepared to be forced to pay mandatory gratuities that get added to your account, and there’s heavy encouragement to pay your housekeeper and dining staff additional tips beyond that (please do, they are overworked and underpaid and away from their families for months at a time. Yes, the cruises should pay them more but you just should budget extra knowing you’ll be giving them additional tips).
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May 26, 2023 04:21
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