ZandZ

4 minutes ago, dwhe said:

 

Funny that, I'm an ex-smoker and it annoys the hell out of me. I hate the smell.

I loved everything about smoking - not an issue for me.  But I know most people would be annoyed, yeah.

Exactly!  

I was on her in February.  While I think she is my least favorite ship, I didn't find my cabin particularly dirty or the ship worn.  I personally would not go back on her but mostly because it does not have a boleros which is my favorite spot on any ship.  I didn't like the entertainment overall and found it boring but again, that's a question of personal taste.  Service was immaculate tho, one of the best in all my cruises.

Edited to add: Agree on the smoke but being an ex smoker it does not bother me.

Have not been on the Empress but Majesty has a soft spot in my heart being my first cruise.  I mas making the same choice a few months back and chose the Majesty due to the itinerary.  Cuba is my reason for going, not really the ship, so I chose the one that worked better for me.

just had my TA save me about 100 on my next cruise last week....  same cabin.  considering im paying for double and most likely traveling alone I am excited about the savings.

I normally email my TA - so its easier than a phone call.  I always reach out although sometimes I see an email from RCI about a sale and I am too lazy to check if there is an actual price drop.  I hate their site and if there was an easy way to check I would be checking more often.

I think everyone is different.  when i travel to small towns I am always amazed at what people consider good places to eat :)  Having said that, I am not bored with the decor and such but am also bored with the food.  And i didn't think that the menu change was for the better either.   I do think that this is pretty deliberate and funnels people (people who cruise a lot) into the specialty restaurants.. Which, imho, is a hit or miss.  Izumi is in my humble opinion is NYC lunch grade sushi.  Which is really not much.  Chops is pretty great.  Any vacation is still better than no vacation and any vacation on a ship is still better than a land vacation.  I have not had the opportunity to try other lines but I hope to try Carnival next.  

I travel with my two kids whose last name is different than mine.  I have sole custody.  I have never been asked for proof of anything related to custody or difference in last names.  We all have passports.

I was in a similar situation a few years back and the cruise that was chartered included a holiday date.  RCI was not able to offer anything compatible within the same time frame and their overall response can only be described as "lame".  Too bad that at the time I was hung up on being loyal and didn't just book with someone else.   

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

BTW, I have no idea where you pay $60 - $100 per night.  That's insane.  We've boarded a few times and it's like $25. Small dogs are generally less expensive.

That is what it costs where I live as well.  25 dollars is unreal.  Great, but unreal.

I do agree that I would never want to bring my dog on vacation.  I travel with her a lot and its difficult - even basic things are difficult.  I enjoy and love my pets but on vacation, I want to take a vacation from my chores. 

This clearly depends on the kind of responsibility/freedom your kid is handling on the daily basis.  My 9yo has been allowed to sign himself out on at least the last two cruises.  Before that time I was allowing my older son to sign him out - not because I trust my older kid so much, but because I trust my younger.  He has been walking to/from school for two years now.  He is allowed to go to the park with his friends since last summer.  My kids are allowed to stay home alone since about two years ago, when they were 7 and 12.  So, for me, I am not going to limit his freedom on vacation any more than I do at home.  I do require knowing where they are - and I am willing to pay for wifi to give me the ability to find them at any moment.     

Its a latin bar with live music.  Salsa, merengue, bachata.

On 3/26/2019 at 3:37 PM, LuCruise said:

Any pros of Majesty over Brilliance?

Also, as I mentioned - there is no Boleros on Brilliance.  That might or might not impact you.  Had I known, I would not have booked the ship.  

I know they call the room....  Are you going to be paying for wifi?  If so, I am sure you can leave your number with them. 

I am not sure if there are other mechanisms in place, but I hope so...  my kid is older and is self check out, and also has a cell phone.

2 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Too bad you found Brilliance boring.  Is it more the amenities that it offered (or didn't offer)?  Or no cruise compass activities interested you?  Or just too small when exploring/walking around?

It might have been the entertainment...  The music choices were not something i enjoyed.  None of the venues worked for me, actually.  The music and activities by the pool were boring as well.  The fact that it does not have a Boleros was also very disappointing.   Just not my scene, I guess.  I don't mind a small ship, I love The Majesty.. 

I would rather do Indy or Majesty.  Not a huge fan of Brilliance.  Its all personal preferences of course.  Indy would be my first choice...  

Brilliance was my most recent cruise.  Customer service was outstanding.  I just found it boring.  

Hi.  I was on the Brilliance very recently.  My take on her is amazing service, as good as I remember it being when I first started cruising (which may not be so long ago but everyone loves saying that so there!), really decent food - i was not a fan of the menu changes in general and my last two cruises I didn't like the quality of the food at all.  The ship was clean and well maintained and all the staff went out of their way to make the experience wonderful. 

Having said all that, I don't think I shall be back on her.  I was bored out of my mind.  The pool side activities and music choices were meh during the day, I never had the desire to get up.  The evening music choices were not my taste at all either.  This ship does not have Boleros which i where I find myself most of the time, and there was no getting away from the music playing in Centrum.  I have encountered this group before - again, not my taste.  I loved my down time, I read two books while on a 5 day cruise but missed dancing and interactions I would otherwise have. 

The demographic (Presidents Day week) was mostly older folks.  There were some kids on board but not as much as I would expect.  Please note that its not necessarily the size of the ship which was an issue for me - I have enjoyed The Majesty and am coming back to her later this year. 

25 minutes ago, perlotk said:

 

They said the same to me when I talked to their special needs team. However, they did say that we would get priority boarding and that we could have a private muster drill. At least that's something!

I do not remember offers like these when I called them - that is great improvement on their part!  

I think I called RCI years ago and was told that the program is only limited to certain ships/dates and this is just not how we cruise..... 

As other people have mentioned - the ship sounds are the main thing to prepare for.    Maybe go on youtube and listen/watch so he knows what to expect.  

Its a very personal experience, just like anything else, as I am sure you know.  Talk through the things that are going to happen - like the muster drill - and keep talking about it.  Make sure you make reservations for meals or go off peak times - I have never been on a large ship but I assume crowds/lines are worse than the smaller ships.  Opt to eat in a low key place instead.. I mean, those are all things we already do, right?  

My teenager has been cruising for a while and I have learned that he prefers to hang out in the cabin.  I try to book balconies so that he can still be outside in the fresh air.   I give him the option to hang out with me or do his own thing.  The kids club was never for him (he was in his reading stage at that time) but he did try the teen club thing once but bailed, lol.  He roams the ship (library!  windjammer!) or hangs out in the cabin. We use WhatsApp to keep in touch and I just make sure we have meals together.  He is happy not going on excursions and the one time I went there was a huge issue - i ended up calling Royal bc the length of the bus ride was misrepresented in the advertising.  THAT was probably my worst experience ever with him while cruising.   This upcoming cruise he actually wants to do a cupcake decorating class with me and my younger son.  A major improvement. :).  I've booked it but I am sure he will try to bail out last minute.

Walking the Brooklyn Bride is almost a must in my opinion...  

7 hours ago, Zee890 said:

I have never felt the need to respond to anything on here before, but goodness, what a callous thread.

 

For those that want to be the pet police - why? How is something so trivial truly impacting you?  There just seems to be a lot of holier than thou, animal haters on this board.

 

I have always felt people that are anti pet lack empathy/compassion.

 

For the record - I think it is irresponsible to bring a pet on a cruise. I feel like they would just be nervous and unhappy. But the pitchfork mentality by all the "Karens" in this thread is terrible. Loudly call people out and shame them? Wow. I would never want to interact with you if that's how you handle yourself (on vacation, no less).

 

To the person that said you went holiday shopping and saw a couple with their dog in a mall. How was that distasteful? I love seeing people out and about with their pets - shows that they care.

 

Worst of all, many of you seem to be older and criticizing the "snowflake/millenial" generation,  but have no problem posting strangers photos on a public forum? A. It is truly a heinous, invasive violation of someone's privacy. Whether you agree with their life choices or not. B. If caught, you can be persecuted.

 

Also, I have no dog (pun intended) in this fight - but again criticizing people that have emotional therapy animals.. have you seen suicide rates? I'm sure you all are the same people that are heartbroken when someone dies of suicide and comment on how tragic it is. If an animal is a calming presence for someone that is dealing with anxiety or BPD or another mental illness that you can not visually see, even if you don't believe in it's effectiveness, what's it to you? 

 

Basically, all you 'shame them/speak to the manager' people - gain a soul. I'm not saying you have to agree and again I do not think it is responsible to bring pets on a ship, but chances are your partner's mouth or that guard rail you touched or a toilet seat have more germs than an interaction with a dog. Put that into perspective. 

 

Edited to add: it would be one thing if this were a completely out of hand problem. I do not agree with people masquerading their dogs as service animals, but if they don't claim it to be and the ship has allowed them, so be it. But 4 out of upwards of 3000 guests is the vast minority because the rest of us are sensible not to bring pets on board. But for how minor it is in the scheme of things in life, why be so negative?

Thank you. 

11 minutes ago, ryano said:

 

The OP was talking about the ADA and service dogs.  There is no registration or certification and its against the ADA to ask for such but that ONLY applies to service dogs 🙂   Since emotional support dogs are not covered by the ADA, airlines can ask for whatever they want to and even still deny boarding.  

Yes, agreed - maybe i misread.  I assumed - since the dog was sitting on a chair - that it def was not a service animal.  My bad!

On 10/17/2018 at 4:29 PM, Vlad the Impaler said:

Funny part about that is (in the US anyway) you're not allowed to ask for papers. So even if there was a such thing as valid documentation, it wouldn't do any good to have. 

Not true - partially true.  I have a letter for my dog and last time we flew (Spirit Air) I was absolutely asked for it.  Furthermore - I was given a hard time bc the letter was not "current".  I was surprised at that because I am pretty sure that a diagnosis of Autism is not one that goes away.  However, I did get my son's treating psychologist on the phone and verified that the letter was still valid.  I was surprised at the amount of trouble the airline made me go through, reached out to customer service and was told that their policy is a current letter confirming the animal is an emotional support animal.  BTW, we have a small hot dog which was sitting in an airline approved carrier at the time of checking in.  

Disclosure:

I did not read the entire thread nor do I want to get into the discussion on this.  I would not and do not bring the dog on a cruise - I would chose a different vacation type if the vacation caused enough anxiety for my son to not enjoy it without the dog.  Flying is sometimes unavoidable and is therefore different, but yeah, lets not judge anyone unless we walked a mile in their shoes.  Life has a funny way to pay us back for being judgy.