coaster

Details please. You need to state why to back up the 'stay away' statement to be fair.

They charge for burgers and tacos at the 5 O'Clock Somewhere?

Forgot about the fuel surcharge..... Another fee other lines don't charge and have never have paid in over 30 years of cruising. Valet parking is another thing which is annoying. Make a point to never stay at hotels with valet only. The need to tip on top of it and waiting extra time to retrieve your car is not worth it.

Guess the robot delivering the pizza necessitates the charge...

YouTube bloggers are very active now. Follow this couple often and have watched at least 50 or more hours of their cruise videos. Not overly dramatic like many. MDR food looks very good. They said the water tastes funny like the younger couple. They passed by a sweet treat venue and prepackaged vending machine type cookies that were $2.99. Never seen an upcharge for a cookie. A slice of cake was $4.99. Really? The Buffet show looks like fun. Just the added charges would really turn me off for things that other lines never charge extra for. They like the old school style of the ship also.

Breakfast on the Allure last week they made an announcement to please exit the WJ if you were done eating. I agree that Radiance class WJ is really better at handling diners. Haven't been on Quantum class yet...

Car dealership guy is no longer around. Huge! Royal really catered to this guy in the past to bump those off with a future reservation outside of his promo for a free cruise if you bought a car from him.

You can't turn a 31year old ship into something new to attract younger cruisers. Norway never tried to do that besides maybe a revamp to turn Checkers Cabaret into a Sports Illustrated sports bar. Margaritaville should be marketed for older cruisers who appreciate her style when ships were built like this in the early 90's. Rename her just as Classica without having having to pay Jimmy a royalty. No need to have spent all the money to turn her into something else with a new theme as her age will still show underneath. Sail her on longer cruises like Premier and Regency did on older ships in addition to the 2 night cruises that this ship seems so focused on.

Reminds when SS Norway was sailing for NCL. She was around the 31 to 32 year old mark that the Margaritaville is now when we sailed Norway. You either loved or hated her, not so much between. I loved her! Hard to please the younger crowd these days... Option to have longer sailings and maybe moving this ship to Tampa occasionally where we are used to smaller and older ships could really help bookings and feedback.

They submitted other videos after the one I posted that were more condensed. Honestly, I love the older ship vibe. They were so harsh about it. Young people who don't appreciate older ships. I am not in that category. They did say food was good which is all I really care about. Love the older ships and all the varied lounges that ships from this era provide. They kept saying it was a cheap cruise and I disagree. They were basing it on the total price and not per night. It is very expensive if you divide the total of $560 they said they paid just for just two days. If this ship ever sails on longer cruises with a lower per day price, I would love to go on it. Too far to drive from Tampa here just to take a 2 night cruise. Too nice of a ship to just go on 2 night cruises all the time to crappy Freeport. I can ignore the astroturf and arcade machines in the observatory if longer sailings were offered.

Just curious. We are going to be in St Kitts in November. Only ship in port will be Grandeur of the Seas. This ship is small by today's standards and attracts an older crowd. Is it just the cruise passengers that make some of the things I am reading here rowdy? I know our ship will be really genteel.

HAL did not warn us that AC would not work in the cabin we booked. Not offered a refund if we cancelled. They knew about the issue before we boarded. Anyone taking a shower in our cabin just made the lack of AC more unbearable due to the steam factor. Slept at night with no shirt or bed covers to tolerate the heat. Hats off to RCI for offering a refund and to disclose the issue on this Alaska sailing. OP has little ground here to demand more compensation or be so surprised. OP just joined to Cruise Critic to complain. Really a waste of time for me and other's here to respond.

Did not know RCI was allowing a refund on these cruises. Good to know. They did the right thing.

The never sail Royal phrase hurt your feedback here. Expecting everything to be perfect is not a good mind set. Had no AC on HAL in our cabin and someone commented here they moved from our exact cabin the week before. What is the chance of that? Anyway, still would sail with HAL again. Nothing is perfect. Ok to share your disappointment, but the never sail again take is going to the extreme. HAL cruisers we have been with onboard were the most cranky of all of our cruises also. I sense a HAL trend in regards to the demographic they seem to attract the most to put it as lightly as possible.

They do. No problem with that. One rule they enforce.

Why does Royal keep sending emails to stick to your check-in time then? Sent an email to corporate about why bother getting online 45 days ahead to get an early check-in time after the cluster in May at PE. They said thank you for your feedback, but nothing has changed.

It is not a Covid thing as much as it is rude that others with later check-in times are checking-in ahead of us who play by the rules. Rules need to be enforced or not exist.

We had 10:30 check-in that just opened up a few days before our 8/28 Allure PE sailing and switched to it. None of the signs stated a 10:30 am line when getting there at 10:10. Asked the contracted port workers and they did not know a 10:30 time existed. Waited in the combined 11 to 12:30 line. PE is certainly not enforcing times. The emails from Royal that remind you to adhere to your check-in time is just theater. PE was not checking back in May either. Tampa did check late last year and I give them credit for that.

I didn't ask and they didn't tell us that. We only ate 3 items between us, two orders of shrimp and one burger so not a real test of that. It was ok for the promotion at $29 price we locked in at, but just not like the recent past. Burger and shrimp were very tasty though as before. Just not the same service wise. Strange putrid smell around the bar did not help the vibe either. Just don't expect as much as in the past is my main point.

Just back from Del Mar Latino last week. Something has changed here since our visit in May. Ordered one food item while in loungers and had to follow up three times on where it was. Another time for my first beer. Rain came through and moved by the bar. Finally got the coconut shrimp. Walked up to bar to order a burger later and got that. No club sandwich even though it is on the menu. Just like they are trying on purpose to ignore orders. Shame as it was so nice in May. Seemed much more than 30 people that they advertise as the limit. I told a bartender in May on our ship she should go there, but told her last week I no longer recommend it. Drinks were easily available if you walked up to the bartender to give them some credit. Planned to go back again in December, but not now.

Love older and smaller ships. Sailed many NCL ships in the 90's that were also older and smaller and continue to sail Royal's older ones. I have always wanted to go on the former Grand Classica since Bahamas Paradise bought it. Love the traditional public areas. Lots of quiet nooks to sit in. All the marble is very classy. But.... Astroturf on the top deck? Looks hideous and so cheap. The arcade machines in the observatory. Who would want to sit there with the arcade machine sounds and the slamming of the table hockey and basketball hoop game? Ruins a great space with perfect 360 views of the outside. A design team approve this stuff? Or was there one?

Parade is back! It was not on our cruise on Allure in May either. Someone just uploaded this video a few days ago. It is listed in the app for next week also.

Thanks for posting the pictures of the tapas. Looking forward to having them next week! A great value as it is a lot to share and not a flat pp price like the specialty restaurants. We had them twice on our b2b in May. We saw some of the cast from Mama Mia at Vintages on their last sailing as new cast were going to board the next cruise. We bought them a bottle of wine and they were very appreciative.

Knew this was coming. Many of us got edocs with this new rate for sailings this week. Mine still show the new rate for our cruise leaving Sunday. Guess it was an error as nobody knew when you called Royal to try to prepay what we were talking about. We didn't get an email either ahead of time.

Just booked Serenade in Sept 2023 from Tampa. Going on Allure next week. Thinking we would be better off cancelling and rebooking onboard Allure as it looks we would save $200 on our 12 night sailing. Booked Serenade at the higher refundable rate. See something about booking more than 12 months out on Next Cruise and it is confusing to me. Terms say something about waiting 2 months if you book further out than 12 months. Anyone book a cruise over 12 months out on Next Cruise and can clarify?