IoS Review by RCCL first-timer - Western mediterranean 1 Aug

[carhirer]

Aplogies for length. Happy to answer any questions

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Party of 4 adults + 4 teenagers cruising during the UK school holiday peak. I am not a natural cruiser and I had a year of Cruise-Critic to get really anxious about what lay in store. Only cruised once before – 14 years ago on P&O and our friends had cruised more recently on Cunard. RCCL is a very different product.

Despite all that, I had a good holiday (great in parts). The few negatives that follow are not really a criticism of RCCL. It is really aimed at first-time cruisers, or people who have enjoyed more traditional cruises. Read the brochure carefully and use your imagination. And then add crowds to the picture. Also, the cruise was 90% Brits. So it lacked the “abroad” factor. Travel off-peak if you can to avoid this.

EMBARKATION

Very smooth. Real luxury to drive 1.5 hrs to Southampton, give bags to porters at terminal, park the car and walk 10 mins to the ship. Whole process maybe took an hour. Arrived midday (instead of the 2pm boarding time quoted) and our cabins were ready. Went to Windjammer for lunch.

CABIN

Booked 4 inside cabins on deck 9. Very small as expected but very efficient. Cupboard space just about adequate for 2 reasonably sensible packers (well one reasonably sensible packer and his wife). Good sound insulation. Bathroom even more compact but worked fine. Great shower. Only soap and shampoo supplied.

Kettle/T bags/sugar/creamer supplied. No coffee. Get small carton of UHT milk from Windjammer and keep in fridge. Or simply fetch coffee or tea from café (free)

2 US style electric sockets (two flat pins) plus one Euro style (two round pins). Weak hair dryer. Nice size flat screen TV. Limited TV but OK. Pay movies outrageous $13 per film.

PUBLIC AREAS/PROMENADE

Reasonably elegantly designed, Modern - looked like a 4 star chain hotel. Glitzy.

Heart sank when I first saw the Promenade: a mini shopping mall with café, a few expensive shops, stalls selling utter crap (I wonder whether they put this on for “cheapskate” Brits or whether other cruises also feature this?), pizza eaterie, Ben n Jerry’s and pub. The image was one of Brits swigging lager, stuffing themselves with snacks between meals, prodding tacky watches, jewellery etc. Still, the advantage is that it keeps the hordes away from other parts of the ship (see also Pool Areas)

Duty free alcohol and perfume prices good. Gordons gin or Lambs navy rum - $11. Southern Comfort $22. Sambucca $20. Unfortunately can’t drink on board.

Plenty of photographers on formal nights to take photographs. Not bad photos. But $20 for an unframed 10x 8. Ouch!

Casino – very scary place. Usually empty on this cruise.

POOL AREAS

3 great looking pool areas – kids, families and adults only plus two Jacuzzis. But when you add 4000 passengers to this glam picture “Wow” then becomes “Vision of Hell”. Maybe 2,000 loungers covering every inch of decks 11 &12 – spaced 4 inches apart. Add to this scene pizza, spilled drinks/ice cream, squashed fries etc (full marks to RCCL – they cleaned things up quickly – these areas were pristine in the morning and evening). Could I get hold of an un-hogged lounger? I wouldn’t want to if I could! Again, the advantage is this deck attracted the hordes, leaving the other areas reasonably quiet and civilised. But if you are travelling with kids who need the pool, good luck to you! I suppose this would be exactly the same at a popular resort with a pool deck.

We spent our time on Deck 4, a wide, wraparound promenade deck with plenty of loungers and shuffleboard courts. Plenty of shade but obviously no sun when sun was directly overhead. Real bonus was access to the helipad at the front. It had a few benches where people sat quietly and read. Or looked out for dolphins. This is the one area which reminded us that we were on a ship.

SPORTS AREAS

Great. I was expecting the rock wall and flowrider to be token gestures but they were substantial facilities which offered a real challenge. Flowrider queues not too bad in the morning but could be 30 - 40 mins between rides in the afternoon. Even the mini golf was fun and never busy. Table tennis was always available but balls seemed to be in short supply.

Very nice jogging track on deck 12 used by walkers and joggers in the early morning (before loungers took over). For me the highlight of the cruise was getting up at sunrise and walking around deck 12 or deck 4. Need to be very early to see the ship pass through the Straits of Gibraltar, approaching the Cote d’Azur, parking sideways in one of the many ports etc. etc. Highly recommended.

BARS/DRINKS PRICES

A pint (20 Fl Oz) of draught beer (Heinekin) was $6.50. Bottled beers $5.50 - $7. Cocktails more expensive than I expected ($8 – $10) apart from the cocktail of the day which was cheaper. Drinks with a splash (gin n tonic, rum n coke, mojitos) were a very reasonable $6.25. Not totally convinced about the alcohol strength. I know that drinks prices have been reduced in response to complaints by UK cruisers and I have the slight suspicion that they have reduced the content. Maybe it was simply too much ice.

Wine packages have dropped in price. I was expecting $260 for a 10 bottle Gold and it was $226. For this you could choose bottles costing $22 - $28. So you save if you consistently choose the more expensive bottles. Warning – the more expensive packages include wines off the cheaper packages but prices are not shown so you need to know what you are choosing otherwise you will lose money.

The really naughty thing was the lack of clarity about the 15% service charge. I understand that RCCL included the 15% in these prices because Brits were complaining about the added 15% charge and about high prices generally. But the bar lists are simply silent about the charge. They present you with a bill inviting an “additional tip if you want to reward outstanding service”. No fuss made when we simply struck through the line but I expect others not familiar with Cruise Critic would have tipped.

Soda cards – bought these for the kids mainly for peace of mind. Includes Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite & Ginger ale. Kids price ($4.95 per day incl 15%) quite reasonable but soda was crap - full of ice so tasted like faintly flavoured ice water. To be fair this is the US custom so you need to constantly say “easy on the ice”. As Windjammers is on Deck 11 it was quite easy to fetch free lemonade or cherryade (non fizzy) or ice water to the pool deck.

RESTAURANTS

Amazed by the quality. Cannot believe the complaints or even mediocre reports of food quality. Either I am living on a different planet or we have a bunch of toddlers on this forum.

We breakfasted once in MDR but it was very busy and the food in Windjammer was much better. I would either eat at 8 am (absolute joy) or at 10 am when things were still very busy but we were always able to secure a window table for 4. You can also go into the Chops section. Huge variety of food, all freshly cooked. Egg station (fried eggs or omelettes) can get busy at peak. Excellent quality fruit and they have a great bakery producing different kinds of fresh rolls, muffins, English muffins, croissants, fruit bread, danishes, bagels etc etc, The toast station usually had a mini queue – but only because people were fussing over the unevenly browned toast (Jeez - I wished I had an AK47!).

Tried everything including Japanese Miso soup, fried rice and kedgeree.

Some of the stuff was over-salted.

Lunch – always in Windjammer but we arrived late – at 3pm to avoid the crowds – still busy. Huge variety of food served – salads, cold meats, burger, hot dogs, sandwiches, 2 or 3 types of stews or ragouts, fish, curries (very good), stir fries, ribs, roast carvery, various pasta dishes, tacos and lots more.

The food was reasonably hot – I cannot understand the complaints about luke warm food. Had the food warmers been more powerful the food would have been overcooked and dry. And there was obviously a fast turnover so it was always fresh.

Non-fizzy lemonade, cherryade and ice water supplied, plus tea and coffee. (no ice tea – possibly as this was ex UK)

At 330pm they reduced the lunch offering (but not completely) and brought out the cakes and scones/biscuits. Cakes were boring but the scones were fresh baked and lovely. Freshly baked cookies were very popular (chocolate fudge and English toffee were my favourites)

Dinner – always in MDR – late sitting. Once again, I simply do not recognise the restaurant from the criticisms. Excellent choices. I sometimes simply went with the Chef’s choice if I couldn’t choose. I would say it was very good. And if you make allowances for the fact that they had to provide meals for 1000 people, all at the same time, I would say “excellent”. It was miles better than the warmed-up food served in hotels at functions of 50 – 100 guests.

OK, the portions were somewhat small but after a large-ish breakfast and lunch I was glad of that. We are all healthy eaters and none of us complained about shortage of food. I shudder to think about the complaints about portion size or suggestions to order two entrees etc

Desserts were consistently disappointing. They looked good but tended to be low in flavour and tasted of sweetener. Still, we were far too full to bother.

Big problem was wine service. The white & blush wines were not chilled enough. They provided an ice bucket but then proceeded to fill large glasses so the wine never had a chance to get chilled. Not entirely sure whether they were simply pouring out “US sizes” or trying to empty the bottle fast!

Service in MDR was generally good. Asst waiter was friendly, efficient and helpful. The waiter was OTT: constantly asking us about our “dining room experience” or the “RCCL food service offering”. Corporate training material or massaging us for a tip? Even the Head waiter came around every so often to smarm over us. This was a real pain.

Even worse were the performances the waiters and chefs were put through. We had to applaud them while they did a conga or mimed to music. All designed to whip up applause. Some of them seemed to go with the flow but the majority seemed to hate it as much as we did. A Disney version of Nuremburg.

ENTERTAINMENT

Excellent! Cruise entertainment aimed at the middle of the road, middle aged market is not my style. But went to 2 shows, 2 ice skating shows, Elton John impersonator, Beatles tribute band, magician and hypnotist. Absolutely amazed by the high standard of the production, orchestration, singing, dancing and general talent. Huge theatre (1300 seats – with plenty of leg room so the waiters can serve you drinks during the performance!). Went to a behind-the-scenes-tour afterwards and was told that they repeat the shows for a few years because they invest so much money in them. Not good news for repeat cruisers but the money invested certainly shows.

In contrast, the “parades” and “parties” in the promenade were trashy and simply an attempt to generate a fake party atmosphere

Lots of very good live music in the bars.

PORTS

Didn’t try any excursions. Didn’t even look at the over-priced list.

Gibraltar – possibly the Most Boring Place on Earth? Good only for duty free shopping. Walked from ship to the foot of the cable car. Saw the queue and walked back. But the harbour itself was quite interesting and you can see dolphins.

Cannes – anchored in beautiful bay. Lots of super-yachts. Nice little boat ride (free) by tender into town. The town itself was not particularly interesting – mainly shops and a very crowded beach. Take the train to Nice if you have a chance.

Livorno - industrial port. Paid $9 return for shuttle bus to town. Too far to walk. Just about worth the effort. Nice market but get there before lunchtime. Walked around the canals.

Civitavecchia – industrial port. Stayed on board to enjoy the facilities. 7 other cruise ships in town so walked up and down the dock to compare notes. Killed an hour!

Cagliari – port provided free shuttle bus to town. Walk up to the Citadel. Quite interesting.

Cadiz - walked from the ship. Quite a pretty town.

Lisbon – Ship offers $11 (return) shuttle bus tickets into town and provided no other information. Hop on/Hop off buses stop a few yards away (Euros 15 ($21)). These are much better value and save a lot of walking. They go one way into town and then the opposite direction to see the monastery and monuments at Belem

Vigo – short walk into town. Very boring. Large shopping centre in port. The harbour itself is quite interesting.

A bummer was the fact that the climbing wall and flowrider do not operate until about 4pm on port days. I had hoped these facilities would be quieter and available on port days.

MISCELLANEOUS

Art auction – designed to part fools from their money. Went along once for a laugh. I think we annoyed the auctioneer because we just sat there sipping free “champagne” and not bidding.

Gym – my wife says this was superb.

Talks - womenfolk enjoyed lectures on “Lose weight by eating more” and “Drab to Fab”. Nuff said.

CASH ACCOUNTS AND DISEMBARKATION

No mistakes on my bill. Arranged for all family cards to be charged to my account so could keep an eye on TV screen in cabin. Paid off account in cash on last night otherwise the account is automatically charged to credit card. No check out process.

Were allocated a 715 am departure time. Yuck. Went straight to Guest relations who happily changed this to 9 am. Bags are all colour coded according to departure time. Ours were waiting for us in terminal. Would recommend disembarking promptly as you risk stoopid cruisers walking off with your bags

[EnglishSpitfire]

hi carhirer, what an excellent review thank you. We are travelling on the IOS in October. Just a few questions. When you settled your bill on the last night can this be done in sterling? and can you prepay cash onto your pass at the begining of your cruise? Did you attend the formal evenings and if so was the dress code enforced ie would a smart shirt, trousers, shoes etc be ok? How much is a Budweiser? Sorry its my fav beer
Have you ever been to a meet and mingle party? I just wondered what the age range (if any) at these are, we enjoy meeting other people not sure if to go.
Cheers

[Doc07]

Very good if slightly cinical review I enjoyed reading it very much.
I have been lucky enough to have sailed IoS twice before and have found things very similar to you.I've found it to be chalk and cheese on board when sailing during the school holidays.You have some beautifully behaved children but not everybodys child is the same.

You didn't state at the end if you would book IoS again,but I have found it's 'horses for courses' so to speak,and your own attitude to some things.

[It'sRC4ME]

What a great review! I especially enjoyed your cultural comments and observations. Yes, ice in drinks is big here in the States, and yes, the waiter at any but the finest establishment will overfill your wine glass in hope of running out the bottle so he can sell you a new one.

[AndyMandy]

Hi very good and honest review we are sailing on the IOS in September and I am expecting the cruise to be like what you described. But hopefully without the crowds, as we are not going during the school holidays but we will have to wait and see .

EnglishSpitfire- I believe that you can settle your bill in sterling by ticking the appropriate box on your sail pass. However if you do I believe that RCI will use their exchange rate which may not be as good as the commercial rate.

I always use my nationwide flexi account for all my foreign holidays as it has no fees at all for Europe and only a small charge for non Europe holidays(this fee came into effect on 1st June). For example when we were in New York when the dollar was two to the pound I got that rate every time I used my flexi debit card. Just be aware that it may be advisable to use a credit card for items that cost more than £100 as you get extra insurance.

So in summary I will be asking my onboard account to be billed in $ not £ and I will let my bank do the conversion rate at commercial rates

Regards

Andy

[Albert Ross]

Friends on this same cruise commented on the variety of football shirts and tattoos on display.....

[Megsdad]

Originally Posted by Albert Ross

Friends on this same cruise commented on the variety of football shirts and tattoos on display.....

Similar to P & O

[sotonjoe]

Originally Posted by EnglishSpitfire

hi carhirer, what an excellent review thank you. We are travelling on the IOS in October. Just a few questions. When you settled your bill on the last night can this be done in sterling? and can you prepay cash onto your pass at the begining of your cruise? Did you attend the formal evenings and if so was the dress code enforced ie would a smart shirt, trousers, shoes etc be ok? How much is a Budweiser? Sorry its my fav beer
Have you ever been to a meet and mingle party? I just wondered what the age range (if any) at these are, we enjoy meeting other people not sure if to go.
Cheers

I was on the same cruise and posted my review a while back.

In my opinion, you will not be suitably dressed for formal evening in the clothing you mention. I was in a slim minority wearing a dark suit when compared to the many, many men wearing tuxedos. A suit is an absolute necessity. I was really impressed with the level of effort most people went to on informal night actually, even lots of families had themselves fully kitted out.

[sotonjoe]

Another in depth review but a couple of points I don't agree with.

The pool decks generalisation is unfair as you haven't accounted for the change of atmosphere in the Solarium. Here, since it was adults only, things were much more laid back, and there was certainly no sign of the spilt ice cream or squashed french fry carnaage you have referred to.

I'm not sure what you mean by calling the casino 'scary', but it certainly was used on the cruise. By 10pm or so, people were playing on a selection of tables and it was quite amusing to watch some of the large sums being thrown away!

I musst say that I think your comments regarding alcohol strength are way off the mark. I drank at a selection of bars and the story was always the same. They were putting so much Jack Daniels / Jim Beam in my drinks that it was actually taking the fizz out of the coke mixer! Perhaps you either got unlucky or didn't drink enough mixed drinks to get an accurate picture.

Good to see you reinforced some of the points I raised in my review though.

[poet123]

Originally Posted by sotonjoe

I was on the same cruise and posted my review a while back.

In my opinion, you will not be suitably dressed for formal evening in the clothing you mention. I was in a slim minority wearing a dark suit when compared to the many, many men wearing tuxedos. A suit is an absolute necessity. I was really impressed with the level of effort most people went to on informal night actually, even lots of families had themselves fully kitted out.

I agree, Dh wore a Tux, and we made sure our kids were appropriately dressed, and most others were too, there were a few dissenters, but most did make the effort.

[poet123]

Originally Posted by sotonjoe

Another in depth review but a couple of points I don't agree with.

The pool decks generalisation is unfair as you haven't accounted for the change of atmosphere in the Solarium. Here, since it was adults only, things were much more laid back, and there was certainly no sign of the spilt ice cream or squashed french fry carnaage you have referred to.

I'm not sure what you mean by calling the casino 'scary', but it certainly was used on the cruise. By 10pm or so, people were playing on a selection of tables and it was quite amusing to watch some of the large sums being thrown away!

I musst say that I think your comments regarding alcohol strength are way off the mark. I drank at a selection of bars and the story was always the same. They were putting so much Jack Daniels / Jim Beam in my drinks that it was actually taking the fizz out of the coke mixer! Perhaps you either got unlucky or didn't drink enough mixed drinks to get an accurate picture.

Good to see you reinforced some of the points I raised in my review though.

We dont drink shorts so can't comment on the strength or otherwise of them, but I did observe the measures being dispensed, and they seemed very large to me.

Were the Solariums adult only? oops,!! I had no idea,.... we had our 12 year old in there most days, he was quiet though, reading or playing on his psp.

What I found "scary" about the casino wast that for the slots it appeared you didnt use cash, but your seapass card?.....a recipe for disaster imo, for the guest, not the cruise line, but we saw plenty players.....not sure if they were winners, but they were players.

[carhirer]

Originally Posted by EnglishSpitfire

hi carhirer, what an excellent review thank you. We are travelling on the IOS in October. Just a few questions. When you settled your bill on the last night can this be done in sterling? and can you prepay cash onto your pass at the begining of your cruise? Did you attend the formal evenings and if so was the dress code enforced ie would a smart shirt, trousers, shoes etc be ok? How much is a Budweiser? Sorry its my fav beer
Have you ever been to a meet and mingle party? I just wondered what the age range (if any) at these are, we enjoy meeting other people not sure if to go.
Cheers

1. Settling in £ - I don't know but they do say they deal only in $$. So I paid in $$ cash. Even if they do take £ cash I would not recommend this as they would convert at their own rate. So if you want the best exchange rate buy your $$ in UK and prepay it on board. Handing over the cash to them as a prepayment is also the best option security-wise (the cabins do have safes). The simplest option is to charge everything to your credit card and tick the box which specifies that the bank does the conversion

2. Formal evenings - I recall it was a sea of dark, mostly tuxes/DJs but many dark suits so the latter is absolutely no problem. (I wore a DJ but had I flown I would have seriously considered taking a dark suit which can be mixed n matched). I noticed one guy wearing a light tan suit but I doubt anyone cared (I wouldn't have wanted personally to stand out). Didn't see anyone in shorts etc. Most of the attention (welcome or otherwise) of course is directed at the ladeez!

3. Bud - I think $6 per bottle. All bottled beers work out v expensive. (But a lot of people seemed to be drinking Bud Aluminium - dunno whether that was on offer). 20 Fl Oz draught beer was reasonable at $6.50 and even the smaller 16 Fl oz glass was $6

4. - meet n mingle - sorry, didn't go

[carhirer]

Originally Posted by Albert Ross

Friends on this same cruise commented on the variety of football shirts and tattoos on display.....

True, but this wasn't really a problem because people were generally well dressed and everyone seemed to make a decent effort in the evening.

The Promenade had a "transfer" tattoo (you know - the temporary kind) stall. My daughters waited till the last night to have theirs done and found everyone had the same idea - huge queue!

Let's just say that money aint where it used to be!

[carhirer]

Originally Posted by Doc07

Very good if slightly cinical review I enjoyed reading it very much.
I have been lucky enough to have sailed IoS twice before and have found things very similar to you.I've found it to be chalk and cheese on board when sailing during the school holidays.You have some beautifully behaved children but not everybodys child is the same.

You didn't state at the end if you would book IoS again,but I have found it's 'horses for courses' so to speak,and your own attitude to some things.

I am not sure I would criticise the kids too much. They were reasonably well behaved but were kids after all.

I think my point about the pool deck (decks 11 & 12) was that the horde behaved like a horde. It would be the same at a land-based resort except for the big difference which is on a cruise you have a much larger horde crammed into a much smaller space.

I doubt if I would cruise again but that is simply because I am not a cruiser (I was outvoted!). I made the necessary effort to avoid going stir-crazy so things were fine.

[little miss chatterbox]

My DH and I were on the same cruise, we don't have children and do normally go to adult only resorts but decided on this ship to be our 'first' cruise.
We knew there were lots of activities for children, which would encourage families, but it really wasn't a problem. We mainly stayed by the adults only pool and normally had dinner quite late. We had a great time and now my DH tells me that he could not do another 2 week resort holiday as he enjoyed getting up having a look around a new city then getting back on the ship(not our same routine of breakfast, pool, lunch pool, sleep and dinner).
I think I might look at Princess/Celebrity cruises next as they dont seem to have lots of things for children/ teenagers (am I correct to think this?)
How do other ships compare?? ( I think I may have been spoilt by indy?)

We paid our bill in dollars, when we boarded the ship we put a deposit and then at the end of the holiday we actually got money back!!!!

[Sue L]

Originally Posted by poet123

We dont drink shorts so can't comment on the strength or otherwise of them, but I did observe the measures being dispensed, and they seemed very large to me.

Were the Solariums adult only? oops,!! I had no idea,.... we had our 12 year old in there most days, he was quiet though, reading or playing on his psp.

What I found "scary" about the casino wast that for the slots it appeared you didnt use cash, but your seapass card?.....a recipe for disaster imo, for the guest, not the cruise line, but we saw plenty players.....not sure if they were winners, but they were players.

You use cash in the casino, you put in your seapass card into the slots for the player's club so you can accrue points for different things. You are not using the seapass card as a source of funds.

[poet123]

Originally Posted by Sue L

You use cash in the casino, you put in your seapass card into the slots for the player's club so you can accrue points for different things. You are not using the seapass card as a source of funds.

Ah,not being a gambler I didnt realise this, I thought they were just putting the sea pass card in to play.....which seemed very scary to me. Thanks for that information.

[It'sRC4ME]

Originally Posted by little miss chatterbox

My DH and I were on the same cruise, we don't have children and do normally go to adult only resorts but decided on this ship to be our 'first' cruise ... I think I might look at Princess/Celebrity cruises next as they dont seem to have lots of things for children/ teenagers (am I correct to think this?)
How do other ships compare?? ( I think I may have been spoilt by indy?)

We took a Celebrity cruise a few years ago, thinking the same thing - boy were we wrong! Just because Celebrity doesn't have as much for kids to do it doesn't mean that families don't bring them, in droves, but it does mean that the kids are just running around the ship bored out of their skulls, and getting obnoxious. Granted, it was the end of US summer vacation (we restricted as to when we could go due to having teachers in our group), and maybe it's different when school is in session.

[EnglishSpitfire]

Thank you all for help given.

Looks like it will be a suit for me on formal nights.

For A bud i will pay anything (50p a bottle in tescos could i smuggle some on)

Will take any cash in $ seems the best option. May put on pass (see below)

With regards to the safe in room, i did read a comment on this site regarding a theft from someones safe in their room. My first thoughts (sorry to all the kids) was that their children could be the culprits, but if they were not to blame, then I presume somebody working on board had something to do with it, has anybody else experienced a similar theft? Very worrying!!!!!!!

happy cruising to you all

[Aquahound]

Originally Posted by carhirer

RESTAURANTS

Amazed by the quality. Cannot believe the complaints or even mediocre reports of food quality. Either I am living on a different planet or we have a bunch of toddlers on this forum.

Great review! I especially enjoyed this comment.