sprint213

sharonann24,

We're booked on RCL Brilliance of the Seas for the July 18, 2019 - 12 night cruise. This is one of their smaller ships and will be just the right size for this cruise.

The cruise starts in Amsterdam and sails around the British Isles with stops in Scotland, Wales, Ireland (overnight in Dublin) and England. We're doing two days pre-cruise in Amsterdam, a wonderful city to visit, and four days post cruise in London.

Whatever line/cruise you choose will probably give you memories you'll share for the rest of your lives!

Happy cruising!!!

I've just about completed the worst experience with RCL that I have had in over 10 years. (I say just about because I've just discovered another problem that will take another phone call.)

I needed to cancel a cruise that we had made while on board a Baltic Cruise earlier this year. We knew that we would change the cruise but the onboard staff really talked me into booking through them and we did. (You can change anything, anytime and I bought that line!) After 1 1/2 hours on the phone last night (because all we wanted to do was switch the booking) I gave up and said just cancel the cruise and I'll take care of it.

Today I just booked a cruise for September and paid in full and the site displayed everything wonderfully. When I went to check the information through the My Cruises portal it showed I had a balance of nearly $650.00! I was WOW'd alright! I quickly called the help center (and received a person that you could hardly understand) and he checked out the reservation. It had totally dropped the credits that were previously applied. After about 30 minutes he was able to get the reservation back correct - BUT - he told me to continue to watch to make sure that they did not disappear again and the balance reoccur. I have never had anything like this happen before. It seems that even some RCL employees don't have faith in their site.

As to accessing their site I have problems sometimes with IE but can always access the site through Chrome. I liked the old reservation system better (as far as room selection) but the new site does look better.

I will say that the person I spoke with last night, Michelle and the person I spoke with tonight, Sergio were both very professional and helpful as they could be. (The supervisor that was helping last night was terrible.)

After all is said and done we are still Loyal to Royal and wish that they could understand that.

We're just back from the Baltic on Serenade of the Seas.

There was a post in the Cruise Compass, "Due to the outside weather conditions, we welcome families with young children to enjoy the pool in the Solarium from 10:00 am - noon and 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm."

I don't know that we ever saw small children in the pool although there didn't seem to be a lot of children on board our sailing.

We sailed the Navigator back in September and had a Virtual Balcony. We didn’t pay extra… it was just in the room we chose. Good things - you could see what the weather was like in port before leaving your room and it was like a “night light” to navigate the room. There is a remote control so you can adjust the sound to your liking. You can also turn the picture off if you like. There are curtains that can be pulled to block the light at night and that is what we did. (My wife does not like ANY light when she is sleeping.) Overall impression was it’s a neat idea although I would not pay extra to have one. The picture “froze” on ours a few time (almost always in port). They basically are a huge TV turned on its side. I think if they take a lot of repairs that they will be removing them one by one and not replace them. They are really like anything else - to each his own! Some will love them and some will hate them!

Happy cruising whichever room you choose!

My wife and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary with this cruise in the fall of 2011. The Liberty was a great ship and the itinerary was fantastic. As some others stated it gives you a "taste" of the region. We arrived a day early in Barcelona so we could get somewhat accustomed to the time change. We used RCL tours for the stops in France. The stops in Italy are especially good so we got together with three other couples we met on Cruise Critic and did custom tours. The cost was not really that much more than the RCL tours are and were fantastic! We arrived before the crowded buses to all three stops..Pisa/Florence, Rome and Naples. In Pisa our small van was able to pull into the plaza where the Leaning Tower was and we were literally feet from it while the tour buses were a quarter mile away. The same for the attractions in Rome. (Doing the tours this way saved an enormous amount of time.) You can't see it "all" in just a day port stop but it will give you a feel for the region.

We were blessed enough to return in the fall of last year (2013) to do the Eastern Med cruise...who would have thought! Do not worry about "missing the boat". Use a reputable firm as they do this every day and they will assure that you're back to the port on time.

This cruise we used private tours again for the major stops in Athens and Ephesus and were not disappointed.

Most of all use these boards to get ideas of what to do and you'll have a GREAT time!