LisaT91403

Our sail date is 6/29 (Bahamas on Navigator). There's no chance we are going. Our final payment date is 4/15, and it seems unlikely that our sailing will get cancelled before then. I believe our options are:

1. Take FCC (which we don't want)

2. Pay in full, then hope that the sailing gets cancelled (this would be a big risk considering the deposit is only $400)

Is anyone aware of any other options I am missing here? It's a "non refundable" deposit. If we take the FCC now, and then they cancel the sailing altogether, we are stuck with FCC rather than a refund. I feel like we have no good options in regards to getting cash back.

I am also looking for 4-day compass (specifically, the itinerary with 2 stops at CocoCay). Any idea where I might find those?

4 minutes ago, amybk27 said:

For those of you that did the water park, is is work $125 a person?

Also, what age do you have to be to enter the water park without an adult? Thanks.

We are looking at a Navigator 4-night leaving on 6/29. I know there are other sail dates as well. If you look at the title of the cruise, it says Thrill and Chill Bahamas for the ones that have 2 stops at Coco Cay.

I haven't been to the "new" Coco Cay", and am considering a short voyage that stops twice at the island. I've searched on "Coco Cay" to try to find a post that will give me a complete rundown of what there is to do there, best activities and food, best place to relax, etc. I can't seem to find such a post. If you know of a place where I can read an excellent review/summary, I would appreciate it if you could please point me in the right direction. Thanks!

32 minutes ago, torpeedo said:

Well I think if you're coming from LA I would would definitely go for the balcony on the Allure. Maximize your time and make the trip worthwhile.  Ship has much more to offer than the Mariner or Navigator.  

We just got off a 3 and 4 night Mariner cruise.  We cruised with the Navigator beside us so we saw the Navigator and spoke to some on the ship.  Not having kids or doing any of the big activity things, it appears the Navigator is a better choice for activities from our observations and feedback from those on Navigator.  Nothing wrong with the Mariner but the Navigator seems to have more.

Whatever you choose, have a great time!!

Thanks for the info! If we did a 3/4 night, we would hop over to Atlantis for 2 nights as well. My kid likes waterslides 🙂 We would probably use the Nassau day on the cruise to stay on the ship and enjoy the slides and so forth with less of a crowd.

So with either option, we'd still be gone for about a week.

18 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Mariner had always been our favorite ship until we first cruised Oasis Class.  We have been on Oasis, Allure and Symphony.  Allure is now our favorite, we have a 21 night B2B booked on Allure for Oct./Nov. 2020.  Looks like you are Diamond, only a few months left before the awesome DL is ripped out and moved to the basement.  I would have no concern that Allure would be in excellent shape even on it's last sailing before refurb. happy cruising 

I have been on all 4 Oasis class ships. Curious why you like Allure the most? I think my son would miss the slides if we went back to Allure.

Thanks for the replies!

So in doing the research, I found an Allure sailing that seems like a really good deal. It also goes to Coco Cay. I haven't been on Allure since her inaugural season, and I realize she's due for a big refurbishment in a couple of months. So, in essence, maybe it's the "oldest" ship when comparing to Mariner & Navigator? Just wondering how long in the tooth it might be at this point. Anyone been on recently? Will we be disappointed after having sailed Harmony & Symphony already?

7 nights in an OVB on Allure would be the same cost as 4 nights in a JS on Mariner/Navigator.

I haven't been on anything other than an Oasis-class ship since they first started sailing, but we are looking to do a quick 3 or 4 night for the sole purpose of visiting Coco Cay in December or early January.

If you were picking between Navigator our of Miami or Mariner out of Port Canaveral, which would you pick and why? I realize both are very old ships. Do you like one better than the other? Thanks.

Thank you both for the info.

For our most recent cruise, we booked on the first day that the sailings were available for purchase. I found that this rate was the best rate offered at any point for our sailing, even though it was a loooong time before we actually sailed.

I'd like to try to do this again for our next cruise. Is there a schedule as to when Royal makes each sailing available for purchase? I seem to remember that different destinations went on sale at different times...e.g. Europe cruises might have a different on sale date than Caribbean voyages.

Thanks!

49 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

Thank you for reporting back. That is a pretty sizable discount on top of a good discount, especially for someone that does not gamble much.

 

But just out of curiosity, Royal has a 60% of 2nd guest sale right now which works out to be 30% off.   Is the casino discount of 30% off on top of the the fare that is already 30% off?   If not, then the "exclusive" casino rate is really just the same sale that is on the regular Royal website.

 

 

 

I priced out the cruise on the regular Royal website, using the current fares and my Diamond discount. Then I called the Casino phone number and gave them my code...and they gave me their rate for the same cruise. So...the discount was 30% off on top of the current promotion. 

My email was a bit different than the one you posted. Mine didn't list the offer (e.g. 60% off or anything like that)...just a code. 

I called, and got more info. It is not a free cruise, of course, as we barely gambled at all. But the discount was actually pretty good. For example, I priced out a JS with D discount for $4358...and the casino rate was $3217.72. If you were to take away the D discount, the casino rate is about 30% off the regular fare. I priced out a different sailing at $5768 with D discount, and it came to $4007.20 for the casino rate.

Anyway, just wanted to report back in case others were interested in what I found out.

Okay, it sounds like you get postcards in the mail, not an email with a "special code" like I got. I'm guessing mine isn't really so special 😉 

Yes, I've heard that the casino rates can be fantastic...I'm not questioning that at all. 

My question is whether or not the email I go is the real thing. Do they just send the casino offers to anyone? Or is mine not a "real" casino offer...just a regular Royal marketing campaign. 

How do you get your casino rate offered to you? Is it via an email from Royal?

Thanks.

Last week, I received an email from Royal with the subject "You've already hit it big this year — here's an exclusive Casino Rate". There is a "exclusive" offer code in the email, which allegedly entitles me to save big.

Just curious...is this a true discount (aka a "casino rate"?), or similar to the "sales" that are offered all the time that are not really sales, just marketing spin? I'm guessing the latter since I spent very little time in the casino on my last voyage.

On 1/6/2019 at 10:38 AM, SULROSS said:

Actually happened the last week or so of November.  He was a good one.

I was on the 11/7 sailing. Raj was in the D Lounge for the first half of the week, then disappeared. At the time, we were told that he had to fly home for a family emergency. I’m guessing he never came back? Did anyone find out what happened? Strange to leave right in the middle of a voyage.

7 minutes ago, Grenouille21 said:

 

I doubt I would get a solid answer by calling.  I was hoping someone had either successfully or unsuccessfully had a 13 year old participate in the Escape Room.  

You won't get an answer by calling. The people answering the phone don't really know what's going on on the ships 🙂 Hopefully, the answer I posted above will help you.

We sailed on Symphony the week of Thanksgiving, and had the exact same question as the OP -- if we reserve the whole room for our group, can we bring younger participants.  Here's some info that might help you:

1. There were no time slots that would allow us to book our entire group. We booked 6 people in one time slot and 7 people in the time slot immediately following it. Then, when we were on the ship, we talked to the concierge about moving our 2 parties into one big one at the earlier time slot. They said that the room wasn't designed to hold so many people, but if we really wanted to do it, it was fine with them. So that's what we did.

2. When we arrived, we saw a sign posted outside the room. See below -- it says minimum age of 12. The cruise planner wouldn't allow us to book anyone younger than 14 years old...but we brought the younger kids with us at our designated arrival time. Even though we had made the reservations for the adults, we simply had the kids take their places when it was time to go in. The person running the room didn't seem to care. The youngest in our group was 13 years old.

3. I've done several escape rooms on land, and one on Harmony as well. The one on Symphony was the first that I have not successfully escaped from. The teens/tweens in our group were helpful and engaged. And while every kid is different, my opinion is that anyone younger than around 12 would not be of much help...and would be in the way. We did not try to take our 10 year old to the activity, and I am glad that we didn't -- it was too difficult.

Hi all,

We were on the first week-long journey on Symphony out of Miami. There have been lots of great live reports from Symphony, so I am not going to outline what the ship is like -- that's been covered. Some background...I was traveling as part of a group of 23 people, ranging in age from 10-81. We had all cruised before,  and most had access to the Diamond Lounge, Suite Lounge, or both. The same group did Oasis 7 years ago when she first sailed, and my immediate family has also been on Allure and Harmony. This is all just background info so you can know where we are coming from,  and ask any questions that you might have.

We had a great time. We all felt that we could have used about 3 more days on the ship just to get a chance to do and see everything that we wanted to. I know that some Royal Loyalists get upset when there are criticisms on the board...but I am going to offer my observations (both good and bad) for whatever they are worth 🙂 

Some random thoughts, in no particular order:

- We really enjoyed being able to use our Diamond drinks in the MDR. We only ate their twice, but it was nice not to have to worry about bringing D drinks in with us. 

- We liked Coastal Kitchen a lot. To us, it feels much more relaxed and upscale than the MDR. It's not loud, the service isn't rushed, and the tables are not on top of each other. On the other hand, it seemed like the meals would be well-paced until it was time for dessert, and then it took forever. Not sure what was up with that.

- We have been on all 4 Oasis class ships. Whenever people would ask me if the big ships felt crowded, I always said "Not at all!" Symphony, however, is the exception to this. For some reason, the events that people in our group attended (Bingo, karaoke, Finish the Lyric game, etc.) were all held in On Air. This venue was too small to accommodate everyone. People were bringing chairs in from the Starbucks area outside, and there still weren't enough seats. Take Bingo, for example. After a morning session on a sea day, the Bingo guy said that we should come back at 3:00 if we wanted to get a seat for the afternoon session. So several of us showed up then, and we were told that cards weren't going on sale for another 45 minutes. Further, there was a different even going on in the venue, so getting there early didn't help in regards to getting seats. Even the final Jackpot Bingo was held in On Air. On every other ship, the big Bingo sessions were held in either Studio B or the Royal Theater. It really made no sense, and it was frustrating not to be able to attend events because there were no seats available.

- We enjoyed the shows. Hairspray wasn't the best version I've ever seen, but we were entertained. Hiro was really good, and we liked Flight as well.

- Our Stateroom Attendant was excellent. She was visible in both the morning and evening, was really friendly, and quickly took care of the requests that we had.

- There was no kid's menu at Coastal Kitchen, whereas there definitely was one when we sailed on Harmony 2 years ago. We also asked for a kid's menu the one day that we ate lunch in the MDR, and they said there wasn't one there either. I'm not sure if there was one at the MDR for dinner, as we didn't ask for one the couple of nights we were there.

- In our experience, there was no trouble getting lounge chairs by the pool, and the lines for slides were not bad. 

- The vending machines up near the arcade were pretty cool. They are well stocked with items you might have forgotten to pack. There was also a cell phone locker/charging station in the vending area. You could lock your phone into one of the little charging lockers -- convenient if you were swimming and didn't want to leave your phone unattended. There was no cost to do this.

- The Coke Freestyle machine in El Loco Fresh was out of order for the entire cruise. We didn't really like El Loco Fresh. The salsa/condiment area always seemed kinda yucky (maybe it's because we don't like buffets?), and we missed having burgers up by the pool. 

- We kind of missed "the good old days" when early diners went to a late show (but not all that late), and late diners went to an early show. We felt like we had to eat earlier than we wanted to, and that we were rushed to get to a show each night. I think there were "late" shows, but with the kids in tow, those didn't really work for us. 

- The WiFi was pretty awful, maybe because I only got Surf. But you couldn't Surf with it, and could barely check email. And boy oh boy did it drain your battery fast! When ships were smaller, it was easier to find friends and family. You could leave notes and use message boards. But with these super ships, that just doesn't seem practical. It's a lot of walking! Royal should have a texting-only plan, similar to other cruise lines.

If I think of more, I will come back and post. In the meantime, please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Update:

We used VIP back in 2011, and had a positive experience. So when we had another cruise planned for this Thanksgiving, I called VIP to set up transportation. 

Sanaa was very responsive when I called. I explained that we had a group of 23, and all wanted to travel together from the hotel to the Port of Miami. She offered a bus, and sent me pictures of it...showing how spacious it was, how it had big screen TVs, etc. We negotiated a fair price, which was to include gratuity. 

Fast forward to the morning of the cruise, and VIP is nowhere to be found at our confirmed pick up time. That's pretty much a nightmare when you have 23 people waiting, and they are all blaming me for not having the bus there!

I called Sanaa, and left a voicemail. She called back, and seemed surprised that the bus hadn't arrived yet. She said she would call the driver and get back to me. I did not hear back for several minutes, so I called here again because our group was getting anxious. She did not answer the phone. Eventually, through a series of calls and text messages, she informed me that the bus was "in traffic", and therefore wasn't coming. She said that she would send 2 vans instead.

We had booked the bus because we all wanted to travel together as a group. The bus never arrived. I should not have had to call to tell VIP that the bus wasn't there -- the bus driver should have alerted his employer that he was stuck and not going to make it, and VIP should have made alternate transportation arrangements for us PRIOR to my calling to say that the bus never showed up. When the vans arrived, the driver asked me for a tip...even though it was already negotiated into the price. The van was not large enough for our group. There were enough seats, but not enough room for luggage. So we had passengers sitting with suitcases on their laps. 

Overall, it was a very disappointing experience. VIP did not deliver what they promised (transportation via bus...a vehicle large enough to accommodate our group and luggage). They made us a half hour late to our arrival appointment. They caused us to start our vacation out in a stressful manner -- that's the last thing you want when you are traveling.

I gave 2 stars because they did eventually get us to the port. But I would not recommend or use again.

Just off Symphony, and they said no.

Just off Symphony. Raj was in the D lounge the first part of the week. However, he disappeared late in the week. I was told that he left the ship for a family emergency. That’s the only information I could get.

A woman took over in the lounge, but I unfortunately did not get her name. Maybe someone on board now can get further info.

Thanks for the review! We are onboard now, having a great time. We escaped the rubicon on Harmony, but failed miserably here on Symphony.

I was looking forward to some inaugural season swag, but we haven’t gotten anything.

Dinner in Coastal Kitchen was great on Night 1, but MTD last night was pretty awful. 

Thanks again for helping to get us ready for our voyage!

4 minutes ago, brady.bunch said:

I’m on it with you. I love the idea of getting on an empty ship. It will be so super ready for us!!! 😁

Can't wait, but I'm not packed! I can't imagine it will be empty, will it? They must be doing 1-night travel agent cruises or something.