octagonmike

And as a 61 year old female I have found that the rudest people are those in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

You're not old for the record.

I may get slammed for this, but I'm a big boy, so I can take it.

 

On every cruise we have been on I have seen or had to deal with incredibly rude older passengers. There seems to be a segment of the older population that believes once you hit a certain age, manners and common decency are no longer required. It doesn't help that most folks (with the best of intentions) allow that kind of behavior to go on as they don't want to insult a senior citizen. Unless there is some medical reason that a person cannot control their behavior and what comes out of their mouths, I find this behavior obnoxious.

 

Please note that I am not painting ALL senior citizens with the same broad strokes. I have also met and spent time with some wonderful seniors on cruise ships an no doubt will continue to do so. On our last cruise we had lunch one day with an absolutely charming couple in their 80's. We saw them around the ship quite a bit and we always stopped to chat with them.

Totally agree

YEs, I have to reiterate that the majority of people were lovely. some people (and it was mostly the blue-rinse brigade) were just very very rude. also, they were ALL british.

 

I would have told the woman who told my wife to shut up where to go had I been there, I wasn't there at the time sadly, she told me about it later.

 

these sort of people though are best ignored. It's none of their business what I want to eat, or how old I am, or why I think i deserve to cruise, being only "lower middle class, what, what, what...."

My first cruise was on Ocean Village (probably the least snobbiest of all cruise ships apart from Thomsons).

There was a British woman on day one in Barbados who was probably lates 60's/early 70's who went to the pool bar to make a complaint.

What was her complaint ?

"It's too hot up here on deck !!!!!"

"Why are there no parasols"?

"It's ridiculous to expect people to put up with temperatures like this" !!!!!

"What are you going to do about it" ?

"GET ME A PARASOL NOW"!!!!!!

Silly Cow

3 days later I held a door open for her, she walked through without saying a word.

"Oh THANK YOU" !!!! I said to her sarcastically

"RESPECT YOUR ELDERS"!!!!!! She shouted back in my face.

As I say - SILLY COW !

I would just like to add however, that yes whilst I have experienced rudeness (although luckily for them not towads me or my wife) I have found that 99% of cruisers on RCI to be extremely friendly regardless of their age or nationality.

When the wife and I were on our 1st cruise last month, we found that generally, most passengers were very friendly toward us, but, there were a few occassions when we were felt to feel 'lower class', for example, eating in the windjammer on Indy one night, we both decided to have something a burger.

 

On a table nearby, there were a group of people, tutting, and muttering under their breath about "these young people always eating junk food!" (we're both in our 30's, and this was the only time, apart from JR's we ate burgers!)

 

Another time, my wife was told to "Shut up, girl!" by a woman reading, when she was talking to someone else by the pool. Others were complaining about the amount of 'young people and families'. It seemed to me that some of these people felt that cruising was the reserve of the upper classes, and the more 'senior' folk. I even said to one that if they felt that way, don't book a cruise on a ship like Indy, which is a family-ship.

 

do others experience this? Or is it a rare thing?

Sorry to hear this. I have also noticed some VERY VERY rude older people on ALL of my cruises so far. I don't let it ruin my holiday. Keep your chin up you have nothing to prove to any of these people. As for the woman who told your wife to "Shut Up Girl" I would have told her where to go.

I almost did not click on this thread also, so glad that I did. What a great story.

Likewise

Brilliant brilliant stuff.

Can I just say what an amazing story and what a small world.

I am looking forward to seeing the movie when it gets released.:D

Simple supply and demand. As long as it is booked solid at $15 why reduce it? As I said earlier I don't agree with price but not much I can do except for not pay it.

They will do anything to make an extra $50 a day out of a family.

If you are on the island for 8 hours and they take 50 people each hour, how are you going to get everyone their turn? If its free everyone will want to do it. By charging you reduce the number of people to a manageable amount. As I said my kids did this in Labadee once. While they did enjoy it if we make it back to one of the private islands again, they probably won't do it again. Cost being one of those factors!

 

The ice show can fit everyone on board, the water park can't :(. I would equate this more to the specialty restaurants, you pay for the opportunity to go as everyone can't.

Easily controllable. Ok so if they have to charge an hourly rate why not reduce it to $5 ?

So if we pay $30.00, they get the slide all day and the water park for one hour?

I think thats right

I completely agree with you. This is one reason why I find these "private" stops to be so annoying. You are basically held captive and they can charge whatever they want for anything they want. I never could fiigure out why they don't charge you just to go into the water.:rolleyes:

I think it would be a nice touch to offer free activities to kids at the very least.

One thing that surprised me at Coco Cay was that there was no fish option on the BBQ for non meat eaters. There was salad, pasta salad, maccoroni cheese and corn but no fish.

I was there last week.

It's $15 for 1 hour. Another complete rip off by RCI. I mean honestly, surely they could let kids use it for an hour for free.

Christie, I just came off the Explorer today and there was no latin music on our 9 nighter either!! The Aquarium Bar used to be packed every night on our previous cruises - there was always a great band there and many nights we would sit at the bar and listen to them, but this time there were a few guys and a girl singer who's voice was the worse I ever heard and the bar remained pretty empty the entire cruise. The lady was singing to an empty house..........LOL I filled out the survery and gave them "poor" for live music. I wonder why they took away the latin band?? They really drew a crowd!

We were REALLY dissapointed that there was no latin music on board.

To be honest we felt that the ship was a bit of a morgue to be honest.

Thanks for this Radio.

We are just setting off to Heathrow Airport in 30 minutes to fly to Newark and are boarding Explorer tomorrow for our 9 night Bermuda and Bahamas !!!!!

:D:D:D

Good morning from Beautiful Bermuda.. Before I go ashore, I thought I would post of few pics of our beautiful morning, here in Bermuda.

 

I’m off now to grab a local paper, and a cup of coffee. . .

 

Thanks for all of the nice comments.

 

 

Radio

 

 

 

The starboard side of Explorer looks over the North Basin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Cabin is also on the Starboard side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The port side can view Clocktower Mall, and the Dockyard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norwegian Spirit is looking at us this morning, from Heritage Wharf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very shortly, (after everyone wakes up) several thousand passengers will be exploring the many lovely area of Bermuda

 

 

 

 

 

.

Thanks for this report Radio. Hows the weather (temp) today ?

Was the sea warm enough to swim in yesterday ?

Regards

Mike

I hope you make it through the ash cloud!

 

Octagonmike, we're moving to the UK. I was wondering if we'd be breaking some law by bringing in our US purchased Motorola two-way radios that we hope to use on this cruise you'll be on. I thought I read somewhere that two-way radios were not allowed in the UK. Thanks for any info you can give regarding this matter.

 

We'd be arriving in the UK via the QM2 so would probably have them when we went through customs.

 

Thanks again.

 

Linda

a) Don't know where you heard that you couldn't use them ? We use them over here on consturction sites for example and they are freely available to buy in all electrical stores.

b) Don't know why you would want to move to this country right now. It's in a total mess in so many ways. We can't even elect a competent party to govern us.

This is really gearing me up - 25 days and we'll be on Explorer to Bermuda too :D

2 more days for us :D assuming we get through this ash cloud ! :eek:

Hi OctagonMike,

 

Yes , I have been able to visit him several times on previous contracts but will not be during this one unfortunately ( we are some of the lucky ones as some crew dont ever get to see thier familes while on contract)..there are discounts for family members for different cruises but not usually a huge discount and not always available because the ships are already so full..

 

Thanks for dropping in to say HI to him!

I WONT give him a kiss if that's alright though ;)

Radio, I am so LOVING this...I have been looking forward to your LIVE report on the Explorer since I read about you going on a month ago or so.

 

My DH is a bartender on the Explorer , he is working in the Chamber this cruise . so if you get a chance go down and say Hi to Troy and tell him his DW (leslie) sends a big kiss!!

 

Thanks again for doing the LIVE report , it is fantastic..makes me feel like I am almost back there visiting !

 

leslie:D

Leslie

Do you get to visit Troy on board ? Do RCI give you a special deal or discount for cruises as a wife of a crew member. I'll say Hi to Troy later this week hopefully :D

This is great to know, especially since we are in 7320, right near the library, on our June Explorer cruise!

 

I also take tons of photos, Radio, and to post them here I upload to Photobucket and link them. Do you do something similar? If so, doesn't the upload take a long time with the ship's connection speed? I'd love to be able to post some photos while we are on the cruise, but normally I do as much as I can offline before logging on.

 

Thanks for any tips, and have a GREAT time!!

 

Sue

Radio Says:

The Wi Fi is very fast, 2530kbps (WOW) and they have added some new packages.

What sort of temperature are you expecting today Radio ?

Thanks for the updates by the way. Just 4 days to go for us :D

Really looking forward to this one Radio as we are due to board on Thursday (hopefully) assuming the Ash Cloud doesn't prevent us from doing so of course.

Really interested to see how the weather is on your journey down to Bermuda.

The Epic looks a bit different that the above arrangement. From the pictures of the Epic you can see the holes only open to the level of the railings of the "open" balconies.

 

The Jewel class ships in hull balconies' holes are quite large and is more squarish in shape whereas the Epics are more a rectangle. I wouldn't expect a glass railing in the Epic's in hull balconies because of this.

I totally agree. The opening comes to in between waist and chest height so there will be no glass "railing" or rather screen.

Yes they also have glass railing but the balcony are cut out of the bulkhead so the opening is smaller but the glass railing is the same

Errrrr am I missing somethin ?

It appears to me there is no glass on those balconies. The opening is simply a hole cut in the hull of the ship and therefore no need for a "glass railing" as it is referred to here.

not sure on your question, but you can usually stay in the same category and change to another available cabin...

 

Also I am on your sailing, come say hello in the roll call

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=999857&page=12

I am also on this sailing. It will be the 2nd week of our B2B :D