Evangaline

Will be sailing on the Serenade of The Seas in November and have a question about lunch on embarkation day. Is the Windjammer the only spot where you can get lunch?

If you go to an a la carte restaurant is there an 18% gratuity added to the cover charge or is it included in the cover charge?

Serenade has a higher member ranking here than in Anthem. Just saying.

 

Anthem has often seemed like a cursed ship to me.

I can understand it. Serenade of the Seas is the only ship I am sailing on twice. For a reason. It does not have spectacular bells and whistles, but there are many nice things about it.

Just booked a 'casino rate' with Holland on Eurodam (7 nights, Nov 12 out of Ft Lauderdale). Sailing solo in a verandah cabin. Cost was $498 + $140 tax + $94.50 gratuities.

What is a 'casino rate"

Royal notoriously has the worst website in cruising. People constantly complain, but it never seems to improve. [emoji35]

Pam

This is so true. And the problem now is when you give up on the website and phone them for post-booking information (dining shore excursions etc.), the staff is no poorly trained that each one gives a different answer. Didn't used to be like that. If the website is NG then at least the staff have to be with it.

Very true. However, they are amongst many people's favorite class of ship. That's all I have experience with on Carnival besides the Vista which I don't care to go back on.

Curious. Was there a real adult serenity area on Vista? I thought I heard the aft pool was a kiddie pool.

Mainstream cruise lines with big ships need to figure out how to accommodate a wide range of travelers to be successful. It can't decide to cater only to families with kids. Given that kids have the main pool areas sewn up, this just sounds like a poor corporate decision to eat up the adult area as well.

As for telling people they now need to go to the luxe enclave and shell out megabucks-- well that is not what people will do. That makes no sense.

I was going to try out Carnival because I thought it might be fun, but I think it will go on my 'Do Not Sail' list along with Costa. I'm not bothering to figure out which ships it applies to and which ones it does not. The policy could migrate to all ships if that is their attitude and, regardless, it is Carnival's attitude.

Great!

Thanks Blue Marble.

Now hopefully the prices have not gone up which may account for the confusion at RCCL

Your Cruise Planner on Royal's website will have the prices. Izumi is a la carte.

Actually it did not. It was making me go through to payment before seeing the prices and that was only for the package. No where did it indicate whether there was a choice of doing a cover charge or doing it a la carte or what the prices were for the speciality restaurants. When I called RCCL people there could not find the information either.

RCCLs customer service seems to have face planted. Made 4 calls to the folks who are supposedly there to ask dining questions. No one could tell me if the restaurants were on a cover charge system or an a la carte system. Two could not understand the question. One said cover charge and the other said it was a la carte only without a dining package. Has anyone been on the ship recently enough to know. If it is a cover charge, how much? Also wondered how The Chef's Table works. One of them said there was no Chef's Table on the Serenade OTS which I kind of doubt is true. Any help would be great.

You can't be serious. Do you actually think they would irritate literally thousands of people with old unused coffee cards?

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I'm not sure cruise lines are opposed to irritating thousands of people. They seem to do it all the time.

Sometimes I wonder if they don't do it on purpose, like, "Hey, what don't we do this messed up thing and see how crazy they get." okay maybe not. But there was this dunce cap at Norwegian who decided one fine day that passengers would no longer be able to bring food back to their cabin. He eventually backed down because cruisers got so angry it was scary.

Many cruise ships have you put your key card in the slot in your cabin to keeps your lights on. How does that part work now?

I can't see them doing away with the Patters completely but it might make sense if they reduce their production and make it an option. For example it might just be something that your steward asks you on the first day. Would you like a paper version left with your chocolate, yes or no?

Hopefully there are sensible enough to do it the way you suggest. It's easier to bring a light piece of paper along and glance at it quickly when needed as opposed to dragging around a cellphone and firing that puppy up every time. I also bring them home for my vacation scrapbook and reference when someone asks about something. A lot of reasons to keep them. I am not anti-tech. In my work I am linked 24/7 to several computers and 2 cellphones, so part of the joy of vacationing in leaving the electronic chains at home.

 

Will I be able to opt out of or turn off this new technology?

"If you do not want to take advantage of the full Ocean Medallion Class experience, you can switch your privacy setting to "Safety Only" and enjoy the cruise the same great way you do today."

 

Translation: No, you won't be able to opt out or turn off this new technology. You can switch your privacy setting to "Safety Only" but we will still track you, we will just hide the results from you and others.

 

That's what I thought. Actual privacy is not preventing you from having the information, it is the cruise line respecting a passenger's request to not be tracked and respecting their request for privacy.

Can you ask them to disable the part where it tracks your every move? This part is seriously creepy. Would make a person feel like a prisoner out on parole.

I don't understand the issue. If one happily puts a cruise card in their pocket or purse,

why not simply do the same with the medallion?

 

There is no requirement that one wear it, regardless of any allergy.

The photo I saw had this silly looking bracelet which looked too bulky to put in your pocket, but maybe there are other choices. I will say, though, that I am not paying for something to replace the bracelet. In the wonderful world of cruise upcharges, just on principle, I definitely draw the line before paying for accessories so I can use my sea pass.

I booked a solo cruise on NCL Spirit to the Greek Islands - 11 nights for $1099 with a $50 cabin credit plus your choice of one of their bonus offers. This is for the October 22, 2017 sailing in an inside cabin.

So was that a guarantee or where you able to pick your cabin?

I have a horrible skin allergy to cheap metal. I am hoping you can get a card if you can't wear the bracelet. Although, to be honest, I have never sailed on either Princess or Carnival so I suppose it is only a theoretical issue unless this spreads to other cruise lines.

Is this just a bad time of year to find good solo deals? I can't seem to find much.

I have tentatively booked a D2 cabin on Serenade of The Seas. I want the configuration with two twins. Does anyone know how much space is between the beds when that is done? Do they put the night table between or are the night tables fixed permanently against the wall.

Carnival cruises can be fun and really wired energy-wise, but you really do need a place where you can retreat and have some calm without kids leaping and screaming in the pool. When we book, I always look for adult only area so this new, unfortunately, puts these ships out of the running for us.

Posh is totally different on Epic than on Getaway/Breakaway. No hottub, the shower didn't even work when we were there. Very crowded with Haven guests, who have the use of Posh. I wouldn't waste the money on Posh again. GA/BA however, was really nice with nice shower and hottubs.

We did end up getting Vibe passes on the Getaway. I was hesitant after the Posh experience on the Epic, but I will agree Vibe is very different from Posh. I think the hot tubs make the difference. We had a nice time there. The location also seems to be more sheltered from the wind than Posh.

No cabanas on Escape as of 12/17 sailing. We had cabanas on our June GA sailing, but it was too hot to enjoy them. No airflow. But, as the biggest Vibe Fans ever, I offer an alternate POV. What if, just if, you find yourselves captive with the ship's biggest and loudest a$$'s??? Yep, you paid for the privlidge of being with these a$$es. And, the bartender exasperate the issue by serving them shot after shot. You guessed it, their offensiveness just gets louder, and louder, and louder. No regard for those Vibe guest who want to escape from the mahem of the pool deck. Nope, take all that you hate about it and amplify it. A lot!! Add shots and light the fire. Holy he||. Can you say frat party you'd Vibe Beac

never be caught at??? Well, that was our 12/17 sailing experience. Clearly, there are no background checks for Vibe passes. You can be the loudest, lowest of the drunks and destroy the respite of the Vibe. Be warned. We bought three passes and our 20 y/o wouldn't be caught dead near the fools

Who inhabited our Vibe experience. It could happen to you.

The whole idea of VIBE Beach Club is as a quiet retreat . That is why the premium is paid. I feel that someone at Norwegian ought to step in when something like that happens to destroy the concept. They seem eager enough to enforce all kinds of other rules when it suits them. At very least you should have you money refunded.

With a rental car you have instant luggage storage and the freedom to do whatever you want...Everglades, shopping, Water Taxi, beach...

 

The only other option would be a post cruise excursion dropping you at FLL.

I was faced with the same situation a couple of weeks ago. Definitely wished we had rented the car rather than go for the post cruise excursion. Firstly, the post cruise excursions cost way more than what they are worth, but they also get you to the airport at a set time which means you still could be killing hours at the airport. If you have a car, then you get there when you need to.

But the big unforeseen for us what that we were given the wrong disembarkation instructions and the excursion left without us. What I never realized in the 7 cruises we have done, is that after you disembark at the end of the cruise, recourse is very difficult. It is madness outside the port and no one from Norwegian was interested in helping.

Back home, I have spent so much time trying to get our money back. I have had to fill out lengthy reports and waited endless on the line for post-cruise guest relations that is slimly staffed. I was told it would take about 2 months to be refunded. And then there is the fact that we were stranded outside the port with no plan.

So definitely go with the rental car.