Amos83

My wife and I always start the day off in the gym... great way to keep from adding too many extra pounds, even if it is just for a quick 30 minutes. I work to dang hard throughout the year to stay in shape to throw it all out the window while on vacation... plus I LOVE to eat a lot while sailing so I would gain 10lbs pretty easy if I didn't workout.

We also never take the elevator... stairs everywhere you go on the ship is a great way of burning some extra calories.

I echo everything that has been said so far.... as a professional photog myself I also lug around my DSLR, it is just habit and I love having the control and can get creative if I want. Is it a pain to lug around, absolutely, but it is attached to my hip all the time already so I like the chance to use my skills and get quality, sharp images of my family and vacation to remember. That being said, absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with a phone, camera phones are very good these days and can usually get decent enough photos for your to post on FB, instagram, etc.... it all just depend on what you want to get out of your photos. On another note, if I plan on getting off the ship and getting on the ocean some place I leave my camera onboard and take my GoPro... so I can get images while wet, etc. So maybe consider getting a GoPro and carrying that around with you... just a thought/

Has anyone done this excursion? I looks nice but curious to see if anyone has done it and if it is worth the $119 pp price.

I am in the camp where I don't find the drink prices "outrages" but will admit they are high for the quality you get. Also I found on my cruise that when I ordered a shot of tequila it was a very generous poor (probably more like a double shot) and it cost $8. To me that is pretty fair.

To add a little humor to this... Last weekend I visited a brand new Mexican Restaurant with a few friends. It was an higher end place, where the food comes out dressed up on nice plates with fancy decorations so I knew it was going to cost me more than usual. It was blistering hot outside but we still elected to sit outside in the shade and people watch as we ate. Anyway, they didn't have a drink menu so I asked for a margarita, the server promptly brought it out, I drank it and ordered another one. Come time to pay my bill I nearly had a heart attack... each margarita was $20! Needless to say I raised a little hell about it. So in comparison $12-14 for a Margarita on RCL is now cheap to me :)

Texas fares are cheap because they can only sail the western Caribbean. Most people want to tour the eastern. Better ports and beaches etc.

Agreed, personally this may work out in my favor as I've been wanting to switch things up a little and visit the Western side since for the most part all I've done is the Eastern side.

SO does any know which ports the Breeze visits from Texas? Will there be an 8 day cruise from there with the same dates I had booked from Miami?

 

Breeze is not an option on carnival.com now to even see for June 2016 sail dates. Will the carnival reps know this information already?

 

Why dont they give the option to cruise on the same ship with new ports AND or different ship with same ports? Instead they just move bookings to new ship with same ports.

 

Do you think we will have the option to stay on the Breeze with same dates, just leaving from Texas with new ports to visit?

I just got off the phone with my PVP... she said the new itineraries for the Breeze should be posted within the next couple of days. She didn't have access to them so she couldn't give me any clues to what they would look like.

Incase anyone was curious... I just got off the phone with my PVP... she said the new itineraries for the Breeze should be posted in a couple of days. I booked yesterday for a May cruising on the Breeze so this is a bit funny to me but as long as the ports are not too bad I plan on staying on the Breeze, the Splendor is just no comparison.

So it appears not of the new itineraries for the Breeze out of Galveston have been posted. My May cruise was moved to the Splendor as well but I'd rather stay on the Breeze even if it leaves out of Galv. Anyone have an idea when they will post the updated itineraries?

Also I literally booked my cruise yesterday, first Carnival cruise too.... SMH.

I've been on 3 cruises and always book an interior room. My view is that I am only in the room for as long as it takes to shower and sleep so why pay extra? Obviously others have their own preferences and since I have never gone the other routes I don't know what I'm missing :)

I'll echo Shof's post, bring some sort of night light and a clock. First time was a bit of an adjustment because it leaves you a bit disoriented due to no light coming in.

If I remember correctly they had some scheduled meeting times for 18-20 year olds... also a "Singles Meet & Great" for the same age ranges I believe... We were just on the FOS last week but since I dont have any children that old yet I cannot say with 100% certainty.

Yes they have mini-golf... they also have golf simulator that you can reserve in hour increments for $25. I didn't try the simulator but the couple next to us at night in the MDR did it several times and said it was worth the money (if you are a golfer)

Hey Janet, oh yes I did the flow rider.... I did it on the IOS a few years ago as well. It is a lot of fun! I'm not very good but the staff are very helpful & friendly and there are plenty of people that are giving it a try for the first time. Avoid peak times because the lines can get a little long but otherwise I highly recommend it, I saw people of all ages out there.

Great review. You almost lost me on the "did you touch any tongues":D

 

We leave along with son and his family on FOS eastern in July. He lives in Huntersville. How was the drive down?

Drive was a breeze, right down 77 to I-26 then hope on I-95 and you are there before you know it. Took us about 8.5 hours do to some traffic and a couple of quick stops.

Loved your review. I too am getting a bit leery of the negative reviews as our cruise is just around the corner (JULY). We have sailed RCCL many times and I truly believe that as long as your on vacation the rest is minor stuff. Hopefully that minor stuff is kept to a minimum and we can enjoy our cruise as much as you did!

You will have a great time! We are already planning our next cruise... probably for around the same time next year. Wish we could afford to go more than once a year.

I rather suspect auto correct got the better of the OP: perhaps tongs?

Really enjoyed your review - I'll be on FOS later this month. I'll also be interested in the drive (I'm planning on driving back to Charlotte in 1 day). Did you find the Windjammer to be crowded during the week?

The Windjammer was always busy but not horrible after that first day. We were able to find a table pretty easily for lunch each day so no worries there.

The drive from Charlotte isn't bad at all, took us about 8.5 hours with stops. Very easy drive. We drove it in one day both ways. Have fun on the cruise!

I rather suspect auto correct got the better of the OP: perhaps tongs?

haha yes yes I meant tongs... :)

Not to be out of place, and by all means if it's not appropriate, don't answer; but how much was your initial tip for Ariel on the first day of your cruise? I've purchased the drink package for my Aug cruise for myself and my gf, but just trying to gauge a good enough tip in order to keep the bar service coming from crew members at a quality rate.

Hey Viper, I don't mind answering.... it wasn't much in my opinion which is what really surprised me. I think I tipped an extra $6 on top of that first bill which was around $39. I think this is what surprised me the most the next day when he remembered our names. It was that second day we decided to keep tipping him a little extra and it paid off.... We averaged tipping an extra $2 per drink order which apparently meant a lot to him because when my wife or sister wouldn't order anything he would bring out 2 free shots for them which then lead us to tipping maybe another $1 or $2. One day they were serving drinks in Pineapples which we wanted a little stronger than normal so he brought out a sidecar of rum that my brother and I were able to add to our drinks for free and I think we tipped him $4 each which was half the price of a normal shot ($8 for patron). Also, there were a couple of nights at the evening shows where they would sell special drinks in "fancy" glasses and he would give us a 2 for 1 deal so we would tip a little extra then as well. Other than that first tip of $6 we never tipped more than $3 on any bill (except for the pineapple drinks where we tipped $4). We joked around with him a good bit so maybe that played into why he took care of us... not sure. It got to the point where I think he claimed us because other pool attendants walking around would ask us if we needed Ariel instead of asking if we wanted a drink. I would def look out for him on the pool deck if you are going on the FOS anytime soon... you wont be disappointed.

Edit: Viper I just noticed you said you purchased the drink package.... I want to note that we did not. I had $400 of onboard credit so I decided to test and see how far that would get me. So my experience may be different since maybe they thought they needed to try and milk me more????? I did see several people with the drink package and it didn't seem they had any trouble keeping the good stuff flowing.

Ok here we go... first review and first major post on CC..... Thanks to being back to the daily grind I don’t have nearly enough time to write as detailed of a review as I would like but wanted to provide some feedback for anyone who is interested along with a few pictures of our trip. This was our second cruise with RC and first time on the FOS.

Over the course of the last several months I’ve visited this forum almost daily and to be honest all the negative posts of horrible service, sky rocketing drink prices, and extremely slow bar service had my expectations pretty low. I’ve always found that if my expectations are low and I go on vacation with the mindset that I’m on vacation and as long as I wake up and not have to clock in for work then the trip is going to be pretty great. This cruise was to celebrate my wife and I’s 10 year anniversary so my brother and sister decided to join us to help party.

Okay, to the good stuff…..

Night before departure & Getting to the port on departure day:

We drove down from Charlotte on Saturday and stayed at the Radisson because it appeared to have a nice pool, and cheap parking for the duration of our cruise. Overall it was a great experience, pool was nice, they had live music playing for a bit Saturday evening, and the pool bar has some decent drinks. Only down side of staying here was Sunday morning trying to get on the bus to get us from the hotel to the port. What a cluster! I had called 2 months in advance to reserve a spot on a bus at 10:30 for 4 people. I confirmed this upon check-in, and then confirmed it again Sunday morning when we showed up at the lobby at 10am. There had to be at least 75-100 people waiting in the lobby trying to get on a bus at 10:30, the poor guy who was charged with getting people on the buses told me several time “yes, I have you for 10:30, we will get you to the port quickly” however so many people were pushing themselves on to the buses it was nearly impossible to keep order. So finally at 11:30 we decided to stop playing nice and just walked up to the bus, gave them our bag and hopped on. I’d recommend just getting a taxi, I think it was going to be $10 pp from the hotel (well worth it if you don’t want to fight through the masses).

Check-in/Boarding:

Went extremely smooth, we arrived at the port around 11:45, there were already a lot of people there so I was afraid it was going to take a long time to board. We did all the early check-in stuff online and are Crown & Anchor members, just gold status but it was good enough to get us into a smaller check-in line. There were probably 100- 150 people in front of us in line but the line moved steadily and once it was our turn it took about 5 minutes since we already had our paperwork filled out. Then it was on to the Freedom and officially begin our cruise….. Bring on the crew’s poor attitude, and expensive drinks!

Overall cruise review:

So here we go… after check-in was a breeze I braced myself for the hammer to drop since all I’ve heard about on this forum for months is there would be a wave of cranky crew members that spit on you the moment you walk on board. So with rain jacket firmly zipped up we walked onto the ship. Since we arrived later than planned the ship was already hopping with excited hordes. We quickly made the decision to skip the elevators and hike up the stairs to the Windjammer for lunch…. Little did I know it was my wife’s plan to only take the stairs the entire cruise to keep the cruise weight gain at a minimum. You see I made the mistake of buying my wife a very nice Fitbit for Christmas so she watches her steps as if her arm would be severed at the wrist if she didn’t take 10,000 steps each day. In case you were wondering she averaged 24,000 steps/ day on the cruise thanks a lot to going up and down 8 flights of stairs multiple times per day (dang me for buying that confounded gadget).

The Windjammer was chaotic; I bit like a scene out of the latest Mad Maxx movie to be honest. It brought to me an image of the main bad guy coming over the intercom mumbling something about finally making it to Valhalla then opening the water pipes to give his strung out followers a taste of the “good stuff” came to mind. People pushing themselves threw the lines to taste the deliciousness of hot dogs, hamburgers, well picked over salad, and tasty deserts it quite the sight. Sensory overload is an understatement as you walk around trying not to spill the food you just slapped on your plate and scroll back and forth hoping to find someone you think is making a move to get up from a table so you can dive in to claim it before another weary travel calls “dibs” before you. Finally we found a table for four people, we sat down, I took a big sigh of relief because I was beginning to think we would never sit again and then just as I was about to bite into my hamburger I caught the gaze of my beautiful wife’s eyes as she stared urgently at me. “What?!” I said…. She then goes on a 5 minute rant, asking if I touched any of the tongues to get my food… “Yes” I replied, “I’m not an animal, I’m not going to grab food barehanded. “Did you wash your hands afterwards” she asked… “You don’t want to get sick the very first day” she insisted…. In my mind I wanted to say “woman, I just want to eat the food I just fought to the edges of Mordor to retrieve in peace!” but 10 years of marriage has taught me to keep my damn mouth shut and went to wash my hands….

Lunch was over and now off to the pool deck to catch the first real rays of sun this pasty white boy has seen since last Fall. We had no problem finding 4 chairs on the top deck close to the bar. Since I hadn’t had one moist spittle drop on me from crew members I decided it was safe to take off the rain jacket. Now that we were close to the bar I proclaimed it loudly that I was now on vacation and dang it… it’s time to drink! I looked around expecting to see only one bartender at each bar and have a hard time finding any bar attendants walking the decks… much to be surprise the bars had 2-3 bar tenders each and there were several attendants walking around asking if anyone wanted bar service. This very nice gentleman by the name of Ariel (like the Disney mermaid) stopped, introduced himself and asked if we wanted a drink. My brother and I quickly looked at each other, coming to the same exact conclusion and said “shots!” so we each ordered around of shots and then a round of Long Islands since we figured we wouldn’t see another bartender for a while. Yes it took about 5-10 minutes for Ariel to go make our drinks and get back to us. Yes, the review are right the drinks are expensive… a shot of Patron was around $8 after tax and 18% gratuity and the Long Island was $11.50 but being the good older brother I volunteered to paid for the drinks and left Ariel a nice tip because the one bit of advice I’ve heard time after time is find a bartender you like, tip him well and you are set. We downed our shots, drank our Long Islands and decided to head to our room to see if our bags had arrived. They had, woot! Blah blah blah.. we had dinner in the MDR, service was very slow but in my opinion the first night is always slow and I was right as the rest of the cruise the MDR service was faster and service was excellent!

Day #2 was a stop at CoCa Cay or however you spell it…. Bar service here was EXTREMELY slow so we didn’t bother to drink much, we loved the island, and after a bit of walking, much to the pleasure of my wife as she easily attained her steps goal and the Fitbit vibrated in celebration of hitting the mark, we found a couple of chairs to relax in. We decided to head back to the Freedom a little early to avoid all the masses trying to scamper back to the boat at the last minute. So we got onboard and went back to the pool. The realization that bar service was indeed going to be slow started to sink in after our experience on the island but I was okay with that since it would mean I’d probably spend less on drinks than I planned. After getting our towels and lathering up in the great Satan (suntan lotion to those that think they are bad for you) we said a few prayers that our bodies wouldn’t get too burned so early on the cruise and before long here came Ariel… He remembered all 4 of our names and asked if we wanted the same as yesterday…. I looked at my crew as if a FOS miracle had happened…. Surely I was dreaming…. I haven’t been spit on yet, haven’t run into a single unpleasant crew member, and my drinks hadn’t been watered down… and now a bartender remembered my name and what I drank the day before? Why yes Ariel I’d love to have another $8 shot and $12 drink….. the drinks came I tipped a little again and decided maybe, just maybe, this cruise would be delightful after all…..

To shorten my review up Ariel really impressed us with his service and everywhere we went on the ship if he was working that area he found us and made sure we were taken care of. I know not everyone can afford to tip extra, after reading all the reviews on drink prices I made sure to budget more and therefore could tip well. I firmly believe that if you are nice to others they will be nice back, Ariel proved this. Our room attendant proved this, we spoke with her several times a day, joked with her, asked her about her life and family, saw her shopping in St. Maartin and bought her a drink. We never had a problem with getting plenty of towels, a clean room, had a different towel animal at night waiting on us and even had a fresh bucket of ice every day that we never asked for. Every crew member we came in contact with was pleasant and helpful. The ship is beautiful and in great shape. The boat did vibrate a little which has been mentioned before but it didn’t bother us. We had an interior room with a Promenade view (cabin 6579 to be exact). If you are staying in this room and plan on going to bed before midnight you should try to change rooms. You will be directly above the pub and get the “pleasure” of hearing Sam Collins or whoever else may be singing on your trip sing the exact same play list every night… unfortunately for us we were not fans of Sam.

St. Thomas:

Can’t say much, we got off and walked into town which is about a 2 mile walk… don’t let the taxi drivers lie to you and say it is 3-4 miles because it isn’t… just be prepared for the heat and your walk along the shoreline will be a good one. The only thing we wanted to do in St. Thomas was go to Big Kahunas and the reviews on Trip Advisor didn’t disappoint, we had a great time, the drinks were good, and we were having such a great time the owner even came out and sat with us a while as paid for a round of shots for all of us (including her).

St. Maartin:

All I can say is BEAUTIFUL…. We walked over to the shopping area and despite all the warnings about the water quality we decided to hang out on the beach and dip our toes in the water. I’m happy to report that I have yet to grow an eleventh toe or have my hair fall out any faster than it already is but will keep everyone posted if the 6 pack I’ve always wanted miraculously appears.

Windjammer Food:

Good, nothing to write home about but not horrible either… they have a nice selection of Gluten free options and if there was something my wife needed like a gluten free hot dog or hamburger bun all she has to do was ask a chef. They even had a nice supply of gluten free chocolate chip cookies but she had to ask for them so if you are gluten free just remember to ask…. Don’t assume they don’t have something.

MDR Food:

VERY good, we ate there every night except for the last night and were very pleased with the food choices. Friday night was lobster night for those curious.

Shows:

We saw Quest, The Marriage Game, and Battle of the Sexes…. All very good and highly recommended.

Casino:

Ah the casino, where the strongest of men can be brought to tears and the humblest of women can turn into raging psychopaths. This is where we spent most of our time at night…. Blackjack is a cruel game… I can’t tell you how many times I was dealt a freaking 20 and the dealer would hit 21. Dang you, dang you Casinal Royale! After a few nights of bad luck playing Blackjack I decided I’d donate to Royal Caribbean by playing Roulette… a game I’ve just started playing recently. So I’d sit down, play some of the higher odd options until I felt better about my stack…. There is just something about having a large stack of chips… even if they are only worth $1, a stack of 60 or so makes you feel like a true high roller. Then the fever would set in…. I’d look around and see the truly daring playing the lower odds $5 on #7 $3 on #23 most of the time they’d lose but occasionally their number would hit and BOOM look at those stacks of cheese! So there I went… like a lemming I threw off the cloak of safety and laid down my chips on 7,10, 23, 32… oh please please please come to papa! Clink, clink, clink “no more bets” the dealer would say… I’d raise up out of my seat praying for the good Lord to bless my random guesses at numbers….. “Double Zero” is all I heard….. NOOOoooooo there goes my monies! My Precious! My hopes of strolling off the Freedom a Trillionaire dashed.

Overall experience was fantastic, I firmly believe vacation is what you make of it. If you go in with high expectations and then you are setting yourself up for disappointment no matter the venue. All four of us had a blast, will be sailing with Royal Caribbean again and will continue to recommend it to friends. We spoke with countless people as we were disembarking and all that we talked to had a great time with little to no complaints. The crew seemed cheerful and happy to help, the bar service was excellent (especially out by the pool which is where we did most of our drinking), and the ship is amazing. Prepare to have a great time, and most importantly relax…. You are on vacation!

Hey I was just down the hall from you.... I was in 6579... felt a good bit of vibration as well. It didn't bother my wife or I but it was noticeable.

I am staying at the Raddison at the Port Saturday night so I can let you know my thoughts when my cruise returns.... but I've heard a lot of good things about it.

Wolf, I hate to hear this and feel your pain! On the very last day of my honeymoon I left my camera bag in a restaurant booth, remembered it when I got to the car and went back for it. It had only been about 5 minutes but it was gone. All my honeymoon photos were lost, thankfully the camera and lens were cheap but the images can never be replaced.

My wife and I purchased the water package last time, 12 bottles is a lot, we didn’t go through it all and my wife drinks nothing but water. We will purchase it again for our 8 day cruise this June and plan on sharing a few bottles with my brother and sister who will be traveling with us. It's sorta like buying the other drink packages... it's for convenience, this way you have all the water ahead of time and can carry it off the ship or out to the pool and not have to worry about ordering it while you bake in the sun. It’s worth the price IMHO

If you add the 18% to $49, you get $58.

Ah, should have done a little more ground work. I was just assuming that was the price then the 18% was on top of that. Thanks for the clarification.

Add 18% to the prices:

 

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

Are you sure that is the most recent set of prices? I am sailing on Freedom May 31st and when I go to select a drink package it tells me $58 for Premium and $65 for Ultimate. Maybe it is ship specific?

I applied for the Visa card when I booked my res a few weeks ago. I was approved and got the card within 10 business days. Just paid the remaining balance with the card and plan on paying the card balance off next week.

So to answer your question... the card comes pretty quick.