TJEvans72

As said previously . The port for Havana can't handle of the bigger ships . The limit is the depth of the tunnel under the harbor.

I see. I'm pretty loyal to Royal Carribbean, but maybe I need to think about a luxury line that has a really nice small ship. I suppose it's lucky they still have the Sovereign class floating around for these kinds of ports!

There are many threads and reviews on this very topic.

 

We just booked yesterday.

 

The port or terminal can not handle the larger ships....Yet

 

We want to see it before it turns into a tourist trap.

Yes I thought it would be something about the port--I suppose with the number of passengers on the larger ships, tendering is not an option.

I was so excited to see Royal Caribbean is sailing to Cuba now!!! The only problem is the little old ship they've assigned as the only vessel to include that destination. It would be wonderful if they'd assign a port of call for Anthem or any of the newer, larger ships. Has anyone been to Cuba on Empress? What was the experience like?

Not surprising but the rep gave you wrong (misleading) information. The cruises are available to book on the website until sometime between 12 and 3 pm(ish) the day before the cruise. Technically I suppose that is more than a day but when they say 2 days I interpret that as closer to 48 hours and not the 24-28 hours that is actually the case.

Yeah--he was leading me to believe that if the sailing is Saturday, the last possible booking is Thursday. Glad you pointed that out!

I just spoke with a Royal Caribbean reservationist and he said there is no way to get a cabin less than 2 days in advance. They told me that if people cancel due to missing the departure, they upgrade passengers already on the ship.

That's a bummer. I'll call RCI and ask what's the last date their reservationists have control over the manifest before turning it over to the port staff. Though I do know there is tight security at the terminal, I didn't realize you can't go in and try to negotiate a deal.

July 14 sailing is sold out, but I bet there will be at least one cabin where people have missed the sailing for one reason or another. I would have loved to be able to take that cabin rather than let it go empty.

What kind of deals could you expect by showing up at the pier on departure day? I'd really like to get a great deal on cruise, but even the cheap sites are very expensive this time of year. I love Royal Caribbean and don't live far from Bayonne. I thought I might pack a bag and head down there within the next couple of departures. It wouldn't be a problem at all for me to do that, but does anyone know if I might get a really great deal by showing up there at the last minute on sailing date?

I loved all the food options - there were so many. Some of the menus changed during the cruise. Although I really like traditional dining, I'm looking forward to Dynamic Dining on more ships.

Yes. If you try Anthem and they have the same restaurants (or if you go to asia on Quantum), the restaurant staff will explain the menu changes. We found that helpful--especially when we liked a restaurant and wanted to try the alternate menu on a different night). Also, the website makes it seem like reservations are very limited, but there are lines at the restaurant (not long lines) for people without reservations. They seat you very quickly.

We were on the same sailing. Our first day was not a smooth as yours. We started boarding at 1:00 but we were not able to get into our cabin until 7:30 pm. Luckily, we had a 5:30 dinner reservation at The Grande. We were tired by then of dragging our carry-ons with us. At first the woman said we could not bring them in, but we said that the cabins were not ready and we were not going to miss our reservation so they let us bring them in.

 

When we got to our cabin, we had things in our frig but we did not move any of it. We did not have any magazines which I did not realize until we were leaving the ship because they were putting them in the cabins.

 

We had the same problems with the wrist bands. We really wanted to try them but they were also too small for my husband.

 

We were also missing towels, our gift, and our water that we ordered but we got them the next day.

 

We had lunch in 270 which was great ----the roast beef sandwiches.

 

The muster drill was not as smooth for us. We were in the top part of the music hall. Because we did not have our cards or wrist bands at this time, they were checking our setsail passes. It was crowded but we did find a seat.

It was chaos because they were trying to check everyone in but had to do it manually. The next day we had a message saying we did not attend the muster drill. We try going to guest services the next morning but the lines were long and continued to be long for several days.

 

I thought that RCCL would have given everyone some sort of compensation ( free wifi or OBC)for the rough first day but nothing happened.

 

I met someone who was on this cruise and the cruise before (Back to back). She said that they were asked to leave the ship and were given a free tour of New York for the day.

 

We love the ship, the food, shows, internet, and activities.

WOW! They must have made some big changes before my sailing on May 2. We arrived at the terminal by 12:30/1pm, walked right on the ship and the rooms were ready with our wristbands and passes ready for us. There WERE some other challenges onboard, as they seemed to be replacing the staff for its new position in Asia. You could see training happening and there was some confusion--especially with restaurant staff. Other than that, it all seemed to go smoothly.