bajathree

Like you mentioned...neither are really close to each other....about a 30 plus minute ride apart. I would look into maybe staying somewhere in the Westshore area as it's right off the causeway to go to St Pete and a very close 5-10 minutes to the airport. Fantastic museum by the way and well worth the visit.

I think people may be all shopped out from their time in lockdown....wasn't much else to do but online shop and eat and TV.

I have been on 6 sailings now since the restart and have noticed a consistent decline with all but the first 2 sailings. First was with Celebrity 7 night with only 1100 passengers....fantastic sailing....next was on Odyssey 8 night with only 800 passengers....another great sailing. Yes those first 2 were like being on a private cruise ship and I know spoiled us. Service at the start-up was fantastic...well with such a low passenger count it should have been...and it was....as well as food was fantastic and staff was thrilled to be back. Then came my 3rd sailing on Allure 7 night at which point ships were back to sailing full. Once we got over the initial shock of being back to a full ship we started to notice the changes that came along with it. Food substitutions on that sailing were abundant...this was the first sailing I was on that I can honestly say most items were close to inedible....I know food is subjective but in over 50 sailings that was the worst food I have seen on any ship. Service was noticeably slow and this is when crew started to seem stressed and overall attitude not the usually friendly it used to be...seemed like crew just didn't either have time to interact or wanted to. After over 20 Oasis class sailings under my belt I decided it was maybe a time to take a break from the mega ships and haven't been on one again since. Next came a quick 3 night on Indy in Nov followed by an 8 Odyssey sailing in Dec and again on Odyssey 8 night just last week. All those sailings sailed completely full with Odyssey breaking a record last week...believe we had 5400 passengers....2400 which were kids. All 3 of those sailings were an improvement from my prior Allure experience but they didn't come without flaws. A constant decline in service and cutbacks are very noticeable. There seems to be an obvious overall lack of staff and this created a stressed environment for both the staff and cruiser. We were told this was their last week before going to once a day cabin service...so there goes another cutback....and if you think this makes it easier for the room steward....well apparently not cause after a discussion with ours she said that she now has more cabins to clean and it makes no difference. On this last sailing we decided to do more specialty dining since were weren't all that happy with the decline of the main dining room from the prior sailings. Talking about main dining.....the line for MTD since full restart sailings has been terrible...BUT on this past Odyssey sailing it went to a new level of bad. I actually witnessed the MTD line several nights extend from the dining room all the way through the casino to the rear corridor. As for our specialty dining we at at Giovanis...the best experince of our specialty choices on the first night...Chops was so overbooked that it ruined the experience...line was out the door when we arrived and it just never got better. Table wait once seated was at least 15 minutes before we even had water. Cold items were served room temperature...steak was barely warm and we couldn't ever get a hold of our waiter cause he was literally running...I mean running back and forth to the kitchen cause he had so many tables.....again understaffed and Royal not only filling specialty dining to full capacity but overbooking. I can tell you...I have talked over the years with corporate as well as senior staff and was always told when asked years ago why I would see them only fill half to maybe 3/4 of specialty dining restaurants was because they were never designed for the kitchen to be able to handle a completely full restaurant. Then came Teppanyaki which we had booked for 2 nights. The very first thing we noticed when we arrived was again how overbooked they seemed to be. Tables no longer had 4 chairs to each side....they now had a ridiculous 5 people sitting on both sides and 6-7 along the front...CRAZY. the chairs were so tight that they arms were actually touching each other and the end people were hanging off the end of the tables. I do like the food overall in Teppanyaki but will say that both the lobster and scallops this time around were not good....very fishy tasting and lobster was chewy and very salty....even the chief noticed us not eating it and said I see you don't like your lobster or scallops. Overall again a declined experience with overbooking and a seemingly decline of food quality. We did do the dining room one night as for the first time in over 50 sailings found that they seated the 2 of us as a table of 4. I have been seated in large tables at times but never seated with just one other couple....it was awkward for both parties and we decided not to return to the dining room for dinner again. We also found out on this sailing that the main dining room no longer serves lunch on sea days...yet another of many cutbacks. The now have brunch....believe starts at 7am and ends at noon and then the dining room is closed till dinner. Overall I have seen too many cutbacks and changes since they have started to sail full after the restart...it's just doesn't seem the same cruise experience anymore that it was pre-pandemic. The last few sailings have been comp offerings and my loyalty perks (also declined) keep me coming back to Royal for now....so I have gone with the flow and figured how much can I complain ...but I have cancelled my 60th birthday sailing I had booked this year for Alaska which was not a comp sailing...I just can't see spending my own money of this kind of experience right now. Overall I think the cruise lines are playing a bit of a dangerous game....this was the first non-restricted spring break sailing since 2019 and I think that many people who are just getting back to cruising again for the first time in 4 years may be noticing just too many changes and cutbacks to be returning anytime soon....guess time will tell.

Saw plenty last week 8 night southern Caribbean. there is currently a 5000 mile long mass heading this way. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-5000-mile-long-mass-of-seaweed-is-coming-to-shore-heres-what-will-happen https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/seaweed-sargassum-florida-caribbean-scn/index.html

Absolutely...heard that exact thing many times from people....I played $30 and was up to $50 and ran...or I played $10 and walked away with $30.

I know...wish we met up again to say hello. I saw one BIG hit for $25K...women won the grand on a $3.50 bet. The only other hand pay I saw was for $2200 on a $50 bet and the guy was complaining away that he can't believe thats all he got for betting $50/spin. I was friendly with a couple that was down over $7K by mid-week....never anything close to a hand pay for either him or his wife. I watched the major grow on those tweety games by the bar all week ...the lock and link machines just sat there and grew and grew all week.....people threw tens of thousands combined into those machines....watched people throw in thousands in a sitting......in 8 nights that casino closed down without paying out the major....thats unheard of. There is also a sign in the casino that said they reserve the right to reset the machines after each sailing.....so that grand that was over $2400 after 8 nights playing gets wiped out for the current sailing.....thats like stealing IMHO. Shame on Royal....that casino made them a fortune on that sailing and they kept the majority. One night I walked to the cage to cash out a ticket and they had stacks piled high of $100 bills wrapped in $5k wrappers....I mean stacks and stacks ....all from what was taken in that one day or part of that one day I am guessing.

Was on Odyssey in Dec and it was the same thing....terrible paying out casino. I don't believe it was the luck of the person when I watched people drop close to 10 grand over the 8 nights and nothing....not 1 handy pay. Very different payout than what you see on land based casinos like Hard Rock in comparison. Normal land based casinos usually have something like a 92% return....Odyssey casino seems more like a 25% return....if that.

I was on this sailing and I absolutely agree......THE WORST paying out casino I have seen. And it wasn't just me....other than a couple big trophy payouts to a couple people....these machines were absolutely dead....saw people drop thousands in them and absolutely nothing in return. There is little doubt in my mind that they manipulate them to have a couple trophy hits for everyone on the ship to talk about to get people to play....and then shut them down to take everyones money.

I was on Odyssey this past week....I noticed a smashed evelator button panel on the ship from embarkation day...however as the week went on I started to notice several more smashed panels....not good. There were many posts/complaints on our group page of incidents that people experienced or witnessed through our sailing.

Guests may also bring non-alcoholic beverages as carry-on items on boarding day. Non-alcoholic beverages may not exceed 12 standard (17 oz.) cans, bottles or cartons per stateroom. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/food-drink-onboard-policy

I wouldn't do a B2B with the same itinerary for both weeks = boring...I would choose a sailing like Odyssey that does an alternating 8 night 6 night itinerary. I would also want to stay in the same cabin if at all possible...not having to switch up cabins would make it seem more seamless to me.

It was reported by someone currently on Odyssey that they ordered the water package last week on their sailing and received 1 Liter glass bottles of Acqua Panna

Honestly what's the big deal if check-in is a day earlier or a day later. If its just to get an early check-in time...I can tell you from my past few sailings over the last year...no one cared what time you had reserved...people showed up when they showed up and no one was turning anyone away. Back during the COVID era, yes they were adhering to check-in times...but I haven't seen that happen for the past year now...at least not in Port Canaveral or Port Everglades.

Thats probably going to be a much less expensive option than booking a Star Class Suite...and then you still have the cost of the party onto of the suite.

Apparently Anthem also sent out letters about an azipod issue back in Jan 2022 and also had to reduce speed and had a slightly delayed return back into Bayonne....not sure what had to be done but think the next sailing went out as scheduled....not sure if there were more issues reported since. Anthem azipods suffered significant damage back in that storm they hit back in 2016 where they burnt out all 4 clutches of one azipod and had to shut it down completely. Think that incident required replacing the clutches of both azipods.

Back last July they were giving out plenty Oasis class offers...some that were for as far out as this March right now...as well as Odyssey and yes saw offers for Wonder also.

I noticed this posted on the website of one of the sites that sells passes for Barcelo... BLACKOUT/UNAVAILABLE DATES: Jan 20 – March 31 and April 1 – 7 We are unable to take any more bookings for the Blackout Dates above. DO NOTBOOK THOSE DATES.

Yup....that is correct..this is the second time they oversold Wonder.

Absolutely agree...my point was that I think Royal screwed up sending out offers for free cruises on some of the most popular ships during one of the busiest most high demand, expensive months on the year....during spring break. Not complaining...just thought it was odd.

Yea......but free cruises is something that brings out the pins. I think that Royal screwed up with free cruise offers....I can tell you that they were offering free prime sailings on Odyssey for this time frame also back as far as last July....and Odyssey has been another pretty much sold out ship for the last couple months.

The internet was good on Odyssey but like mentioned above...it's not blazing fast. I was hoping when I went into my phone to download e-mails it would be much faster than it was...there was still a noticeable lag....but much better than it was years ago on a ship.

Thats crazy...I just ordered the 24 bottle package couple weeks ago for $20 and change including gratuity. And like others said...I just looked and the water package is now gone and not showing up anymore for purchase in the planner.

Wow...and there you go...a glitch with a Royal work around. Downloaded and sure enough the set sail pass in my wallet says SUITE CLASS

Not any kind of excuse but unfortunately this seems to be going on across all the cruise lines right now....declined food quality....poor service....understaffed. Hearing it over and over again with different lines and ships.

My luggage tags also don't show suite anymore like my sea pass.