IWORK2CRUISE

Glad you all had such a nice trip. Reading along was very enjoyable!

When we were on Enchantment in November we always kept track of our own 3.

There was a night that we knew we had #1 while at the Oasis Bar.

After changing for the evening, we visited R Bar and had 2 more. We then decided to have another and expected to pay. We once again received a zero voucher to sign.

Now, I am not sure if this was a glitch in their system or had to do with the fact that we left cash tips each time we ordered.

I can live without the port & shopping, art auction and bingo announcements but please don't eliminate the daily announcements from the captain!

1)

5) Just get a 2 or 3 day pass for the buses and water taxis. We found plenty to do just traveling on the public buses. All the beaches are within walking distance from the bus stops, too. Hamilton has a little festival the first night you dock. It's small but fun. You can walk to it from the ship.

 

Have fun!

I am all for getting the transportation pass! You can go all over the island on your own. You can use the ferries and the busses.

However, the post above is not accurate. It would be a very L O N G walk into Hamilton from Dockyard.

Perhaps for festivals, the poster meant "Destination Dockyard" and not "Hamilton Nights."

We love Bermuda and have enjoyed several cruises to that beautiful locale.

There is never enough time there!

That being said, If we could choose between a 7 night cruise that only goes to Bermuda or a 9 night cruise that still gets us to Bermuda, we would lean towards the 9 night for more vacation time. Also, in your case, you would visit 2 new places.

We have sailed on may of the RCCL ships in most of the different classes but not on either Granduer or Liberty. Therefore, I can only opine on the trip, not the ship.

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great time!

We recently used Dollar as we arrived early the day before the cruise and wanted the freedom to drive around.

Good thing we did as we had a lot of rain and would have been bored otherwise.

The return was easy the next morning. Just a few blocks from the hotel. The Dollar shuttle took us to the ship.

FYI, we stayed at Radisson at the Port and they now have a special cruise rate that will transport you from the airport to the hotel and then to the ship the next day. If you don't want to have a car this may be a good option for you.

We cruised in Europe in 2012.

Brilliance of the Seas B2B Baltic Capitals and Norwegian Fjords. We began and ended in Copenhagen.

I didn't really know how it would all be with the languages but had read somewhere that the base was English.

As Americans, we were actually in the minority. However, all announcements were made in English first. Announcements were repeated in multiple languages and changed from week one to week two depending on passenger nationality.

There seemed to be a large amount of Spanish and Italian passengers.

One of the weeks had a fair amount of German passengers.

I do recall some announcements switching between German and Dutch.

All staff spoke primarily in English and many could communicate in multiple languages.

The main currency was USD.

Some of the bartenders took a liking to us as they caught on to the fact that we left some cash tips in USD.

We always travel as a couple and both my husband and my charges are on one CC. Therefore, there is one account. Any OBC that we might have is on "the" account.

No and yes.

We have had some success in making a last minute decision and walking in. We have also called shortly before we wished to dine and had no problem getting a reservation.

On one cruise a few years ago we always saw that Chops was very empty and decided late one afternoon, as we were enjoying the sunset out on deck, to just show up at dinner @7:30- 8:00. Well, that was the one night that they had booked a private party so we enjoyed the Windjammer.

Always have a backup plan!

No worst cruise for us.

Some may be better than others but we have never had a bad cruise.

However, there is always the worst day. The one where they make you get off of the ship and go home to reality!

(Sorry if this has been covered in other threads. I did go back about 20 pages and couldn't see anything obvious to answer this...)

 

We are wanting to book a European cruise with RCI for June/July 2016. I believe that they announce dates and prices around Feb/March 2015 for those dates. (Does anyone know the exact date they do announce these?)

 

When do people think is the best time to book, from a price perspective? Is it best to get in really early?Lord Mowbray

Lord Mowbray raises a good question.

We are considering a Med cruise in the fall of 2016. Royal has only one Europe cruise listed in 2016. 16 Night Suez Canal Cruise in April.

Celebrity, already has fall 2016 showing and we wanted to compare. Although we have not sailed on Celebrity yet, they are offering their 123 deals right now.

That is why we hoped to compare with what Royal had.

Does anyone know when Royal releases the rest of 2016?

Thanks!

I have enjoyed some of your reviews in the past and now have a new interest. I met Kathie and Jack on our Rhapsody cruise to HI in Sept...

We both missed the M&M!

Hope you have a great cruise!

Just be patient. I made D+ in 2012 and expect mine to arrive any day now:(

 

Thom

Ha, Ha! We don't have any either.

I was confused when we earned D+ as a note card came addressed only to my husband stating that he was officially welcomed to the D+ level and could expect to receive a pin on the next voyage.

I called C&A as I was concerned about not receiving the same notice.

It was explained to me that they always send it to the male. I did show the same points and benefits. Why? I make all of the plans! Ha, Ha!

Anyway, we did in fact both receive our D+ pins in our cabin (maybe night 2?) on our next voyage.

Has anyone ever asked for an upgrade? My TA told me it's not likely to happen, but I have read reviews here where people have asked and been upgraded from an inside cabin to a balcony (probably diamond members, I assume) But I am C&A so I figure it's worth a shot...

 

So if I go about this, who do I call and when? Do I wait until we are onboard?

As you are booked through a TA, you ask him/her to contact the cruise line to see if a paid upgrade or upsell is available.

Sometimes they are available at a nominal rate. Sometimes they are not.

"Free" upgrades are extremely rare.

I would call instead of trying to figure things out on-line.

You mention a travel agent so if you booked through a TA, they must make the call. Perhaps you can request a conference call?

Have your printed confirmation in hand for the call.

Shop around a bit for the airfare. If you really ant the cruise the rest can fall into place.

We sailed Vancouver to Hawaii in Sept and I kept searching as we needed airfare from NY.

I happen to have had points accrued with United and ended up flying free. However, I was totally surprised by that! I am sure that the first few times I checked, I had almost enough points for one RT ticket. So, the day that I saw we could both go free, I booked immediately! I was sure that it was one of those internet flukes that would later prove to be invalid. The return from HI was not direct and meant a small plane from Chicago to Newark but so what! It was free!

Actually, this was not our fist time on the same cruise itinerary from Vancouver to Hawaii. In each instance, I just kept searching for the best deal.

One time, I considered one-way flights on each end with different airlines, but patience persevered and we still got good deals.

Back to back on the same ship.

 

If I were to take an Alaska cruise on a different ship and get off that ship in Vancouver, would it then be legal to take Solstice from Vancouver to Hawaii, the same day, or the next day?

That would be legal from all that I have seen and read.

Best bet is to order it by the bucket.

 

At least you know it'll come covered in ice.

 

Otherwise I've found most cruise line beer, including NCL, to be "cold enough", and usually by the bottle unless you're in the pub.

Ah, the best cold beer does come that way!

However, in my research, I have found that if one has a beverage package they can only order one at a time. No buckets.

Fortunately for us, the last time I did the math we would not drink enough beer to cover the cost of a beverage package.

I have a cruise booked with an online travel agency for Jan 18, 2015. The package came with onboard credit. Shouldn't this be listed in my Edocs? or is it too early for it to show up? We said in 46 days, YAY.

You need to ask your TA to send you an invoice.

The OBC that comes from sources other than NCL will not show in your MyNCL or E-docs.

It is also typical that OBC does not "show up" once on board until the 2nd day. Another reason that it is good to have that invoice.

We have been there more times than we have missed.

Several years ago we were in the area and saw the crashing surf before the captain announced that we would divert to Nassau.

This past November we sailed on the Enchantment 4 night cruise 11/10/14-11/14/14.

It looked rough on our arrival and I would not have been surprised to hear that we were diverting. However, we were staying!

Tendering was late and slow so we did not get off until after 11:00 as we didn't wish to wait on the long line going down the stairs.

Once we got over to the island it was almost comical to watch other tenders arrive. I guess it could have been dangerous.

We took the last tender back to the ship and it was quite rough. The water did come over the top deck at one point.

We saw some waiters through the ship windows who started clapping and dancing as we made it back to the ship.

While we enjoyed our adventure, I would still need to say that if there is a matter of passenger safety at ANY port of call, be safe!

jebl,

Thank you for sharing and I hope that your husband will be well.

So it seems I'm not destined to sail on Allure! I previously cancelled a few years ago and now having booked the TA from Barcelona next Oct looks like I have to cancel again! (DW and I live in Ireland)

 

A good friend of mine is getting married on Oct 31st in Chicago so it means I can't do the TA. Being in Ireland cancelling means losing my €330 deposit so I was looking at option of booking a different cruise (this way I have to pay €75x2 admin change fee but don't lose all my deposit).

 

With the Wedding on Sat 31st of Oct in Chicago, sailing on Sun 1st Nov from FL or Port Canaveral really isn't an option so as far as I can see only real Option is Enchanment on Mon 2nd (fly down to Florida on Sun evening) for a 4 night cruise.

 

I am very disappointed as really wanted to do Allure (second time booking) but friendship comes first! I have read tonnes of stuff on Allure so I wonder would Enchantment be a good choice? I know it's much smaller and older but as it's our first cruise the 4 night might be a good place to start. Would appreciate any insights from those who have sailed on Enchantment. I have read few posts on Enchantment but views seem to be mixed.

Yes. Friendships are important. So is vacationing!

We just sailed a few weeks ago on Enchantment. The 4 night cruise was very nice but short. We had other business in FL so could not go on a longer cruise at that time.

Another option for you, since you would like to sail on Monday, might be to sail back to back ("B2B") with a 4 night followed by a 3 night.

Yes, as you stated it is an older ship. The staff/crew on this ship were really wonderful and really tried to go out of their way to be friendly and accommodating.

In our case, we did not visit the main dining room as it was a quick getaway and we just wanted to be casual. We did dine at Chops on the 1st night and I must say that it may have been our best Chops meal.

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a wonderful time!

We did not use all of our BOA OBC on our September cruise. There was @ 36.00 left that was credited my BOA card.

I don't know anything about the combining of OBC with a promo as the BOA points credits are always separate.

Since you say you are booking with friends could you share your OBC credit by linking their accounts with yours and then just have them reimburse you?

We like the Sky Bar on that class of ship.

As you are centered and up above you have free reign to roam both sides of the ship.

To me and just to me the Oasis ships have the poorest itinerary of all ships. It would be a no brainer if they went somewhere a little better. Do I take a ship to somewhere that I don't really want to go to experience the awesomeness of an Oasis ship?

That kind of sums it up.

We mostly like the opportunity to visit different ports. New ports, if possible.

Ships the size of Oasis and Allure (maybe Quantum and Anthem?) can only visit larger docking ports. Thus, the ship becomes the destination.

We truly enjoyed our one cruise on Oasis. There were very many lovely areas to visit and explore on the ship. It was a little different than other ships.

We had already been on a traditional Western Caribbean route so no new stops.

In my dreams, Royal would bring back smaller ships that would allow us to visit some of the Caribbean Islands that we have not been to.