The Big Booper

Are there lounge chairs in the covered areas surrounding the pool? We enjoy reading but desire to be in the shade and comfortable! Thanks!

S class ships are Celebrity ships.

To us Medicare recipients, Princess playing rat pack music is a positive:D.

Doesn't Freedom have the Tutti Salad for lunch in the MDR on Sea Days?

We were on the Vision in June for the 10 day cruise to Bermuda, Charleston and Nassau. It seems that our crowd was different then on the 4 and 5 day runs, lots of older Floridians who were not as active as the crowd on these shorter cruises. The ship never seemed crowded in the pools or anywhere. Of course we had late seating and I assume that the older crowd bunched up for early seating and early MTD.

There seems to be more of a dissatisfaction with this ship for shorter runs then the longer runs.

BTW we are young thinking 70 y/o's and would not dream of doing HAL.:D

We were on the 10 day Bermuda cruise in June. We had Late Seating as I would never think of doing MTD on a smaller ship like this. The crowd on this sailing was in large part older cruisers, many from Fl., and they all seem to prefer earlier eating times, either early Seating or showing up early for MTD. I heard from several people that the wait times for MTD were long. We had six people at our table for ten and had great service from the Wait staff. So be forewarned.

Our cabin attendant showed up promptly on boarding day, asked us if we needed anything; we gave him what we needed and he showed up within two hours with our extra stuff, and kept up with replenishing our cabin during the week whenever the stuff was needed. He was quite unobtrusive but did his job efficiently and effectively.

The Jammie was the Jammie. When taking hot food for breakfast or lunch always stir the serving pot and take stuff off the bottom which will be hotter then food sitting on the top of the pot. Frequently the plastic serving utensils were hotter then the food which shows the staff at least was trying to keep the food hotter.

The Park Cafe, in the Solarium Pool complex, had better food then the Jammie but a much more limited menu.

For lunch we either ate at the Park Cafe or did the Tutti make your custom salad in the MDR (Sea Days). Twice we did the Jammie. Tutti is the best choice for lunch on the ship. At lunch one day a fellow pax requested a dessert off the menu and did the Tutti along with us. We finished the Tutti and left the MDR. We found out later that she got her dessert 35 minutes after finishing her salad.

This is a common theme we heard, that the MDR is very slow for breakfast and standard lunch. so be forewarned.

An older couple at our table ate breakfast several times in the MDR as well as lunch. They finally listened to us and switched to the Park Cafe/Tutti salad choices and were satisfied the rest of the trip.

The ship has been totally redone and looks beautiful. Tilework, carpeting etc. all looks almost brand new. The world cup was on the big pool screen so we would mosey out from the Solarium pool to the main pool whenever a game was on that we wanted to see. Otherwise we hung out in the Solarium.

As for entertainment, the Vision is not the Allure/Oasis duo so what you see is what you get. The best show was the Jersey Boys tribute, with the four performers meeting each other while doing Les Mis on Broadway so there is a basic high talent level there. Don't know if they will appear on this ship again. Otherwise it is the standard RCI singers and dancers doing RCI singer and dancer routines, as well as the usual guest stars. The combos appearing around the ship were good and we could always find somebody we liked and go to their performances.

Best show was the new aerialist performers appearing in the Centrum on the final evening aboard the ship. Great show and the rebuilt Centrum with dazzling computer controlled lighting was an effective backdrop. Very crowded so get there at least a half hour early for good vantage points on whichever deck you want to watch.

We haven't been on one of these older ships in almost a decade; we booked strictly for the ports, Charleston and Bermuda. The rest we quickly figured how to handle issues and were satisfied. I would rather make the best of a situation and improve our trip then grumble during a long trip; no satisfaction from writing a long complaint letter when the problems are easily fixed while on board.

Boone Plantation is a must see in Charlestown.

I have to offload our 3 memory cards so I can set up a new photosharing site on the net, Webshots is gone.

RCCL enticed Port Everglades to build the very large and very modern Terminal 18 by guaranteeing a certain amount of passengers passing thru. This means that there will be 2 Oasis class ships going out of FLL for the foreseeable future. There will also probably be a Q Ship operating out of 18 as well as =X= S ships using that big building.

I believe that counting present and future builds where RCCL has exercised options there will be 4 Oasis class and 3 Q ships floating in the oceans by the end of 2018, plenty to cover the US, Asia and Europe. Not to mention the five =X= S class ships.

Just back from Vision and yes Futbol was on the big pool deck screen a lot. The one o'clock game always had no sound so as to not interfere with the calypso pool. band.

PIDGAS about Futbol but I sorta paid attention to it which is always my gripe about these big screen pool screens. After a while I retreated to the Solarium and no pictures of guys running up and down a field kicking a white ball.

Scorrrre.

New sale starts Monday 6/9

BOGOHO

Or

3/4 free

Book by June 30th

Sail Sept 1 - Dec 15, 2104

New bookings

Combinable with C&A

NOT combinable with senior, military, resident, going gone

 

This is NOT the current BOGOHO that is for 2015/2016

That is a long time out in the future.:D:D

I'm thankful that Anthem is being relocated to NY to replace Quantum/Liberty next year. That way there is no reason to book it out of FLL which I might have tried, being FL residents now.

I'll give them 2 years to straighten out this mess. Who wants to book a dining time a year in advance?

As always, enjoyed your photo review.

I'm hoping I can post photo reviews of our upcoming 4 trips this year. First I have to get a new photo sharing website since Webshots is gone now. You use Photo Bucket?

We were on the Freedom in 2006 and I recognize the ice show, especially the routine with the skaters in day-glo outfits. Now that we're in Florida I keep meaning to book a Freedom class ship but other cruises with interesting itins keep popping up.

We just booked an 8 night California Coastal on Jewel Sept 2015. Before finalizing the booking I printed out offers on 4 levels of cabins, so I can check after 5/31 and see what happens. The ship is heavily sold out especially balconies. And my TA said that sometime in the very near future RCI is changing cabin classifications on the Jewel so that also has to be taken into account when researching pricing. We wound up with the same cabin we have for the July 2014 Jewel b2b.

Been busy with some post tax season work that had to be done before our June 9 Vision cruise so I finally got back to your thread today.

We will be bookending your Nov-Dec Jewel trip with our own b2b on the Jewel in July and our just booked Jewel California Coastal in Sept 2015 from Vancouver to LA. Jewel is the only Radiance class ship we haven't been on.

At least you waited to post your diary until after tax season has sorta slowed down, only 10 extension returns to do...but most are bears.:eek:

My understanding is that if you want to use the Freestyle machine, you have to use the provided cup, as it has a computer chip in it that makes the machine work. If you don't want to use the souvenir cup, you'll need to get a soda from the bar. (I haven't actually tried it on RCCL yet, but that's what I was told)

 

Janis

Correct. The chip seems to be set with 2 week intervals.

The Coke cup can be used at any bar, some will ask to double check your SeaPass card.

"Ultra rich" don't book middle class ships like RCI. They either go on Seabourn or Crystal or similar. Or they invite friends along on their own multi million yachts.

Class warfare nonsense.

Terrific job....and almost 130,000 views!!

 

...>>>SNIP<<<...

 

As many of you know, my friend and fellow LIVE blogger Dale, who goes by MrFunInTheSun on these boards, joined me last November on Allure and we did something that doesn't happen very often: dueling LIVE reviews from the same sailing on the incredible Allure. I know people enjoyed seeing the cruise from two different perspectives and through different photos. Well Dale has now joined my friends and I on our Quantum sailing.

 

So I thought about it and discussed an idea with Dale and he really liked it so we have decided to take a LIVE review to a whole new level, perhaps a first ever for the Cruise Critic boards. So it gives me great pleasure to announce the following for Quantum sailing April 12th, 2015:

 

LIVE from Quantum of the Seas, sailing April 12th! A tag team review by Bugsy and MrFunInTheSun. :)

Don't forget Dale's little buddy!! I miss Andy.

Of course April 12th is right before the end of tax season so I'll have to catch up after the 15th.

The week always flies by when I am following a really good "Live" report. On Saturday I almost felt depressed, just like when I am on a ship.:D

Waiting for your reveal tonight.

wow, thank you so much chris for this great review and picture cruise.

 

It is going to be really hard to wait until february 2016 before i can board this beautiful ship.

 

I do have a few questions.

1. Are there life vests in each cabin? I had heard that they are not, that if there is an emergency you need to all go someplace to get them. I envision total confusion. lifejackets are given out at your muster station

2. I know there are specialty restaurants that charge a fee, but what else do you pay for on this ship? Like breakfast at johnny rockets? zip line, ice skating, cotton candy? Are the hot dogs free? all free, except cotton candy?

3. Is there a charge for any of the shows? Comedy show? all free

4. If you choose assigned dining instead of my time, do you sit in the main dining on the first floor or can you sit in the balcony area?

5. From what deck, which end, do you disembark at the various islands. all elevators have a special button labeled gangway. At port stops just push that button and you go to the right deck and follow the signs and other people.

 

i have cruised a lot but never on such a big ship with so much offered.

Thanks so much and sorry for all the questions. Hope you are enjoying your last night.

this ship is easy to get around

Phooey, "our" trip is almost over.:(:mad:

Jewel without a doubt. It is a much newer bigger ship. Legend was built 20 years ago and has been having mechanical problems the last year or so.

Jewel went into service in 2003.

Good morning SXM!

It appears that the winter is dwindling away as many ships have abandoned the Caribbean for Alaska and Europe, no more 6 ship pileups at SXM or ST!

There might be fewer planes zooming over the Maho airport as well.

Great job Chris. Over 80,000 views!

Freedom goes out of Port Canaveral, Fl. So there should be lots of other ships leaving from there or FLL or Tam or Miami. It is winter and all the ships that spend summer in Europe are back in Florida such as the similar Independence or Liberty, not to mention the slightly smaller Voyager class ships or the smaller Radiance class ships or the big girls out of FLL, Oasis or Allure.

Lots of choices, wait to see what RCI offers you as compensation for the cancelled cruise.

The pros all take their calendar shots from Paradise Point at the top off the tram ride. Great view of the harbor, the docks at Havensite and, if clear, Crown Bay. You need a superzoom (12x or greater) to get that last shot. I think we hit ST one week of our July b2b on Jewel OTS and the 14 night repo on EX in November.

Last two times in ST we were on Oasis class and Crown Bay is nowhere as good as Havensite.