bross2410

The Mrs and I are booked on a RCCL Baltic Cruise sailing Aug 1, 2017 out of Copenhagen. We spend 2 days in St Petersburg and I'd like to go to Moscow and back the first day. RCCL offers a package where you fly, but we are more interested in the high speed rail. I browsed some of the major tour companies and they seem to indicate that you only go to Moscow as part of a 3-day stay not 2. Also Alla Tours says the tour starts at 6am but the official arrival time from RCCL is listed as 7am. So now for my questions:

1. As this sailing was just announced last week, will the tour companies have an adjusted train-to-Moscow tour for this cruise, and I'm just getting ahead of myself?

2. My wife and I collect Hard Rock Cafe pins from around the world. If we take an organized tour is stopping at the Moscow HRC even an option?

Thanks in advance for any input.

The hard part is my wife would love both destinations although she feels like Alaska is a bit more family (we're 34 and 32 going to be married 5 years in August). We've been on Liberty once before a couple of years ago for a 4 day Western Caribbean cruise. She's excited for the food on both voyages but possibly the NE/Canada cruise a little more especially for lobster rolls!!

 

On this cruise, we were wondering if we could get some sun on the cruise and just lay by the pool.

My wife and I took the Canada/NE cruise on the Brilliance a couple years ago in the last week of September. We swam and got sun in Boston, it stormed the first at sea day, and during the second at sea day we lounged around and did the spa etc... Weather was sunny in Bar Harbor and Portland. But as others have said it's hit or miss in New England.

If your wife feels Alaska is more family, keep in mind that at 36 we were among the youngest guests on the ship. The demographic was such that they pushed the dinner times earlier and handed you a bingo card as you boarded. Not that any of that was any bother to us. We had a wonderful time - this is a great cruise.

I am a brand-loyal cruiser with RCCL. Not for any particular reason at first and then I just stuck with what I know. I'm always pretty happy with everything they do, but during my last cruise I started thinking about seeing what the other lines had to offer.

If I had to find a complaint with RCCL it would be the food. And of course I'm speaking about quality, not quantity. But I read about food complaints a lot across many lines so maybe it's a cruise thing and not an RCCL thing.

So my question for other past or current loyal RCCL cruisers: Have you ever left Royal? Why? What did you try? Did you come back? Why?

A quick note about food: I've seen people get flamed for making negative comments about cruise ship food on these boards. If that is your intention please move on. This isn't a thread about cruise ship food, I am simply providing a baseline for why I might consider switching lines. Thank you.:o

Does anyone have any experience RC Lime and Ginger Scrub?

I want to surprise my wife with a spa treatment and the couples Lime and Ginger Scrub w/Full Body Massage sounds nice - but she has sensitive skin and I wouldn't want this to irritate her skin or cause any problems.

Any input is appreciated.

Starboard. You can in fact see the shoreline (after your first day at sea) as your cruise. You don't see much but it's there and you can see some of the lighthouse lights at night. Also starboard offers the best views of the Port Headlight during sail away.

Unless you are taking an excursion inland there are not a lot of colors to be seen. Lots of rocky shores and pine trees.

I was on that cruise last September and did not see one. In most of these towns, once you get off the main road parallel to the port things tend to go uphill which wouldn't be so good for the pedal bar. Lots of great pubs to visit in these towns. We just walked it.

To the OP - I've seen plenty of posts about too many drunks; I could even argue I see that more than complaints about kids. IMHO the problem isn't the quantity of children but that some parents also take a vacation from their parental responsibilities while on their cruise and let their children interfere and aggravate other cruisers. Plenty of adults also take a vacation from common sense and courtesy while on a cruise too. Just gotta roll with the punches sometimes and enjoy yourself or you can drive yourself crazy.

Throw your swimsuit in that carry-on too. Took a cruise out of Boston late September last year. Turns out to be a hotter than normal day, low 80's and all sun. We had our suits in our carryons and were the only people in the pool. Some people were soaking their feet and legs but everyone was jealous!!

Thanks for the response. I think we may look into doing something else.

All responses so far are right-on. This is an amazing cruise. Did a 7 night on the Brilliance last September to the same ports. Only excursion we booked was Whale Watching in Bar Harbor, the rest of the ports we just walked around, tried local beers and food and checked out the shops and just talked to all the locals. We loved New Brunswick.

The cruise definitely skews toward the older demographic, my wife and I in our mid-30's were some of the youngest passengers on the ship, but I think that's changing as word spreads about these great destinations. Because of the older demo they shifted the dinner times and made them earlier. We were MTD so it didn't matter. Things winded down a little earlier than your typically Caribbean cruise. Very light gambling. When asked about why things were so quiet the staff would tell us things would change when they get to Tampa for the booze cruise!

Just to note, if the cruise is hitting ports from South to North the coast will be on the port-side, from North to South it will be starboard. The Portland Headlight Lighthouse is on the starboard side as you leave Portland. Boston, New Brunswick and Portland were the three best sail-aways I've ever seen.

Take this cruise - you won't regret it!! If you book it and have more questions feel free to reach out. This was my favorite trip of all time.

Submarine in Nova Scotia, Cozumel Runners, Whales, Porpoise, Sea Otters, rescuing of Hatian Refugees, Fort Independence, Sunsets, Lighthouses, David Geffen's yacht, the Port Pilot leaving is always fun, once we had these birds that were eating the bugs that were attracted to the lights of the ship, the birds were so white they glowed in the ships lights and made the neatest sounds while they were dive-bombing for bugs...too cool.

Balconies are the best.

On the Dec 29th 5-night sailing of the Brilliance out of Tampa, I understand that the regular formal night is Tuesday (the first full day, at sea day). New Years Eve is Wednesday and from what I've read there is special dinner in the MDR and everyone dresses up.

My question: Will they shift formal night from Tuesday to Wednesday or add an additional formal "recommendation" for Wednesday night?

Any other input on spending NYE of a cruise would be great.

Thanks.

Looking at RC's Shore Excursions I always see these glowing reviews and wonder if they are staged. Until I looked at the Grand Cayman Kayak, Snorkel and Beach Excursion. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?ProductCode=GC76&DestinationCode=CARIB&sourcePage=shorexByTypePortDest&ActivityTypeId=6

Although it's not on the link above, in RC's cruise planner it has one review of this excursion and it's absolutely scathing!

Having done Stingray City, albeit 20 years ago, I thought this sounded like a nice organized taste of water-fun and a little beach action.

Has anyone done this through Royal, or anything similar through another line?

The author of the review names Royal Sports LTD of Grand Cayman as the tour operator.

Any input appreciated.

I am looking at a few different Shore Excursions for Grand Cayman, including Stingray City. Through the RCCL Cruise Planner it only has one time listed for these Excursions, in and around 8:00am. Not being early morning people, I'm wondering if as we get closer to the cruise (December 29) they will be adding later times as the early tours fill up?

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Quick note that we leave Grand Cayman at 3:30pm that day so perhaps they are only offering early excursions?

Thanks for the info Cari I really appreciate it! I think we're going to take our chances and try the early flight.

I'm looking at a 12:25pm departure out of Tampa Airport after a cruise in January 2015. I've never sailed out of Tampa before. Are cabs plentiful? If we get a porter to help us with our bags do we get to use a preferred cab line? Is this the fastest way to the airport? Any other input is appreciated.

Ship - Brilliance of the Seas

Deck - 9

Stateroom # - 9608

Stateroom Category – Superior Oceanview Balcony

Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Yes

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Standard no obstructions.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Normal

Was wind a problem? - No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - Bathroom smell was pretty funky. Couldn't do anything about it.

Any other comments? - Nice size, close to Centrum. Steward was Asa Ranking who was a super nice guy but a lousy cleaner.

She was my first cruise in 1992, 4 day Bahamas (Freeport, Nassau, Coco Cay). I remember rolling up to the Port of Miami and I couldn't get over how HUGE she was. A ship from the Dolphin lined followed us on the same itinerary - that just made the Empress look bigger.

I followed up that cruise with cruises on the Majesty, Monarch and Sovereign.

In 1997 when I was on the Sovereign the final morning in Miami waiting to disembark and the Captain announced that the newest member of the RCCL fleet would be entering the port of Miami for the first time. I don't remember which ship is was (although I'm sure if I searched long enough I'd find my old camcorder videos), it would have been Vision Class, but I was amazed at how much bigger the new ship was as it sailed by us (with all the waterworks...very cool).

I hadn't been on a cruise since then until February of this year when I was on the Liberty of the Seas - wow how times have changed!! I can't even fathom what Quantum is going to be like!