Compare/Contrast?

We just booked our 4th cruise (NCL, CCL, DCL) on RCI - definitely playing the field! There have been differences and similarities with all of the above, liked/loved/hated something about every single one. I am NOT looking for anyone to bash any line, just tell me what to expect on RCI that may differ from the other lines?

This will be our first October cruise (always did April), first time going north to Maine and Canada (always did Caribbean) and first time out of Boston (NY and FLA 2x) We chose My Time Dining and have an inside cabin for the first time (always got balconies ... this is what I'm most nervous about LOL) We're on Serenade of the Seas

What is different about RCI? The good, the bad, the strange ... whatever you've got. (Even if it's links to threads I may have missed)

I did my first RCI cruise two weeks ago on a NE/Canada itinerary. I was on a ship much larger than Serenade which was one of the things I did not care for (I prefer ships in the 2000 passenger range).

The My Time Dining was horrid. None of us (5 in party) had had it before and mistakenly thought we could show up when we wanted, maybe have to wait 15 or so minutes like in a restaurant and then be seated. Not what happened. Some people had made reservations and we had not. Even the people with reservations were waiting 25-30 minutes - ours was 45. After that we made a reservation each night for the next night. Even then we could not always get the time we wanted (ex. Asked for 6:30, earliest available was 7:30).

The Internet was horrible! I write a blog on cruises and over the previous 150 days at sea, I almost always was able to complete my blog before going to bed each night. I was only able to do that two out of nine days on Liberty.

The food was better than what I expected from reading info on Cruise Critic.

The staff was fantastic! My room steward was the best, most personable one I've had on any cruise.

Entertainment was about the same as most other cruise lines with the exception of DCL which has, in my opinion, the best shows at sea.

Inside cabins are not for me but I must say, with such a port intensive cruise (5 ports in 9 days), I spent very little time in my cabin.

You will probably feel the same after you cruise with RCI as with the others - they all have good points and bad.

I have to agree with Scrapnana on the bad and the good. We were on the Oasis last week and it seemed crowded with 6000 passengers. The best meals we had were in the Italian restaurant. All the venues were very noisy. RCI is geared for families and there are usually many children aboard.

I don't know if they have it on all ships or if they are still doing it at all, but.....the ice skating show was probably the best entertainment I've seen on any cruise ship. And IMO the dining experience was a step (or two) up from NCL.

Serenade is a Radiance class ship. We spent 34 days on Radiance of the Seas in an inside cabin in Australia. While the cabins aren't huge they're extremely well designed. Lots of storage space. The bathroom is small but again not an inch of wasted space. Take some kind of small night light for the bathroom - I'm going to get some of the little battery tea lights for our next cruise.

What I like about the Radiance is the wonderful public spaces - lots of places to chill and watch the scenery go by.

We just booked our 4th cruise (NCL, CCL, DCL) on RCI - definitely playing the field! There have been differences and similarities with all of the above, liked/loved/hated something about every single one. I am NOT looking for anyone to bash any line, just tell me what to expect on RCI that may differ from the other lines?

 

This will be our first October cruise (always did April), first time going north to Maine and Canada (always did Caribbean) and first time out of Boston (NY and FLA 2x) We chose My Time Dining and have an inside cabin for the first time (always got balconies ... this is what I'm most nervous about LOL) We're on Serenade of the Seas

 

What is different about RCI? The good, the bad, the strange ... whatever you've got. (Even if it's links to threads I may have missed)

I have not sailed NCL. Have sailed the other two.

Food: comparable to Carnival( and way better than our experience on Disney outside of Palo)

Staff: about the same across all lines although I will admit to feeling 'looked down on' by our waitstaff on DCL since I never ordered every course and skipped dessert every night( and when I did order I ended up never eating it cuz it was nasty)

Cabin: okay we only do suites on Royal and did balconies on the others. the cabin on Disney( Navigator Balcony) was awesome. the balcony on Carnival was..adequate. the suites are our preferred for the amenities and the room. I hate loathe and otherwise will not ever stay in an inside. I will wait the six months until I can afford a suite.

Dining: with MTD you can essentially get the same experience as standard seating. just takes a little extra effort on your part by going ahead and making a reservation. they will almost always be able to accommodate any request to sit in the same spot/area and have the same waitstaff.

Shows: Disney wins here, hands down. I can count on half of one hand the number of shows we went to and stayed for the whole thing on the other lines. Caveat: I have not seen the water production shows on Royal yet in the Aqua theater. I do love the ice shows.

OnBoard activities: a little less belly flopping than Carnival. Trivia is popular.

Decor: not full on immersion theming like Disney. not over the top like Carnival. tasteful, fairly subdued and elegant.

overall Royal is our go to line. we will never sail Carnival again. Disney only if we want to pair it with a trip to Mouse Town.

I think that RCCL's buffet offers far less choice than on Carnival. I can remember several occasions looking for a sandwich in the buffet for a late afternoon snack and all that was available was a hamburger which I don't eat. So I had to go downstairs to a cafe where they had lots of pre-made sandwiches.

We do like the specialty restaurants and Izumi is so far the best sushi restaurant we've tried at sea - they will even make special rolls to order if the restaurant is not very busy.

I see Serenade also has Giovanni's table - that is usually pretty good and the Chef's table should be good as well.

The RCCL ships are more oriented to physical activity than other cruise lines.

Very family oriented.

The shows are more spectacular than on other cruise lines. The newer ships offer ice skating shows, diving shows and acrobatic shows. Serenade has acrobatic shows.

The good thing about these smaller and older ships is that they do really great itineraries where you will get to see a lot of different islands. Have fun on your cruise!

I'm absorbing all that was shared, it's all appreciated! NCL Jewel was about the same size, give or take, and we LOVED that. Carnival (Dream) was bigger, and we weren't all that crazy about the bigger ships. That was the best cruise we've been on so far - Disney (Magic) was our least favorite (I think because it was built up to us, and for the price, it just didn't measure up)

I wasn't a fan of the PG-13 "adult" stuff going on after hours on Disney, and the shows (while good!) were just alright for me - it was a little too much Disney for this otherwise huge fan. I loved Norwegian's entertainment. Carnival's was decent.

Really looking forward to the sushi restaurant on this ship - Carnival had one and it was really good. Palo on Disney was excellent. I don't think we'll be doing any specialty restaurants, other than sushi, this time because my husband recently has been eating vegan and so food has gone down on his interest list :) But I think I saw something about Ben & Jerry's? My daughter and I are ice cream junkies!

We originally had an inside for Disney booked and my husband caved and upped to a balcony. I have a feeling that could happen again, but it's hard to tell (we're going to WDW in February and I'm going to Ireland in March '17, so this was a last-minute "screw it" trip idea that he thought of when I got a sudden bonus at work LOL

I have a feeling we'll experience more of the activities on board this time, since it's going to be less about the pool (Swimming in October in New England?! Not for me! I was born and raised in Boston, but never got that New England blood, I belong in the tropics.)

Thanks all! Keep the info coming, if you've got more.