slg1979

I've been calling in... lol.

First of all they absolutely won't admit that the independence is doing a dry dock? Ok.... then said it could be anywhere from tomorrow to three maybe four months before we know... called

The other day.: lady acted as though it would leave a few days later and get in on the 20th.. something about 12 nights. Idk, but this is a bunch of BS.. I hate having to guess?? I've also

Noticed all the other transatlantic cruises have been nice and inflated for the current 'sale'. About had enough[emoji849]

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Stay away from buying jewelry in Cozumel.. just last week I tried to buy a blue sapphire and white sapphire ring (think princess Dianna). Stared at $1500. Haggled to $150.. noticed a chip in the 'stone'. "No problem we fix it 20 mins." An hour later the ring appears. Not the same ring.. the white sapphires suddenly turned black when tilted against the light.. asked to see a loupe to do a little closer inspection. "We don't have a loupe" BS! I said any descent jewelry shop has a loupe... they produced a loupe. The ring had a prong on the mount that was broke and mended, the 'stone' was obviously plastic. The guy freaked when I asked if u could use a lighter to test it against heat.. I got my money back and never looked back:. Oh and the silver quality stamped on the inside began with a 3, not the 9 as advertised. This was in the large pavilion at the dock near the leather shop dead center of the tourist village. In the indoor market place.. yes. Shop at home. You can even haggle with ur local stores.. I did saved over $3500 on my favorite ring. Have a great Sunday.

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George,

We were assigned a number 2. We were able to begin disembarking at 8:45. We had booked a shuttle back to the airport through RCCL. We were told last bus would leave at 9:45. We decided to show up and be there at 8 am. Not one of the staff would commit to an exact time we would be able to start disembarking. The touch screens were right on the money for us. The bus driver got us through the backups on the interstate using side roads and we were checked into hotel at 11:45. I think the early disembarking perk is a sham.. anyone can go down to guest services and say I have an early flight and get an early numbered tag. Btw in line off the ship I saw a few guests with higher numbers on their luggage tags right with us (2 and 3). So, in the future I would just say eff it and get off when I wanted! All the bugs were there and ready to go. We carried our own bags to the bus as we weren't going to do the porter as there was a line and people grabbing porters off the floor..

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Have to ask-- How much are the ultimate packages running For every night?

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We're thinking the jewel TA and waiting to see what's up with the mariner. Would love to bring her back from Barcelona.

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We were allowed to book on board Liberty last march a cruise on Jewel for next March that had been chartered twice in the last 6 months. Next cruise consultant even called Miami to make sure the cabins we wanted were available. It took Royal 4 weeks to tell us we had to change.

Going to book back up cruise while onboard next week.. prices are going up up up on spring transatlantics since I checked last.. I checked when I booked lol [emoji23]

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We're sailing on Liberty on Sunday. I hope it's not quite as bad on the hard sales as you're describing, but I guess we'll just armor up and be prepared.

 

I do have a question. When we've sailed with RC in the past they put a lock on our credit card for $300 per passenger. I called and the agent said they do nothing of the kind. Can anybody share whether this has happened with them?

 

Our first cruise was on Liberty in 2008. I so hope this is a good trip. We really need it.

 

Thanks all!

Kristen

I have heard they do put a hold on your credit/debit card per person per day. How much? I have no idea. I always put down a little cash since we purchase everything before hand. See you on the ship Sunday!

Maybe ask the question on the main royal board? I'm sure you'll get an accurate answer.

Sarah

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No its not sold out.. it's been cancelled. They're going to redeploy the sailing, hoping it'll be longer w more ports.

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Thanks for all of the info! We will be doing the TA on Indy next year in May, so all of the pictures and information provided has been very helpful and has given us an idea of what our TA experience to Southampton will be.

The TA next year is showing sold out... we are booked on it as well... wonder what's going on?

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Seems that our TA on the Indy next may is showing sold out... redeployment or charter?? Looking for other TA's now..[emoji45]

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On some ships like the liberty OTS we're sailing on recently the specialty restaurants (chops and Giovanni's) are right next to the windjammer. You just walk up and talk to them on your way to or from the windjammer. What we do is hubby stakes up a table poolside for us and I'll go take care of it. I am so not worried about getting the correct times with the package, if these restaurants were super booked up they wouldn't be offering the packages [emoji6].

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You don't trust the authorized city taxi? That's what we used 4 times with no problem. Maybe that is an authorized city taxi. I just looked and they are.

Seriously it was very confusing. We would always ask what it cost to get to our destination before getting in a cab. If they don't have a meter don't get in. We've even had them not turn the meter on... that trip was five euros more with the flat rate than the trip back to the hotel. I even had a taxi driver take my cash out of my hand and make his own change.. I took a picture of his license plate and info.. he was watching me do it, got out of the car and gave me back what he considered his 'tip'. Lol. Again not a pronto taxi.

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We are doing the Vatican museums in Rome on a Friday evening at 7pm. Will there be taxis around there in the evening? If not does anyone know where a taxi stand near the Vatican is?

 

 

 

Thanks,

There will be taxis waiting. However they may not be honest taxis and try charging you three times or more the amount for a ride. At the entrance/exit of The museum there is a taxi stand/ look for the Pronto taxi.. they are fair & run meters. We have called for a pronto taxi and had a soda alfresco at the cafe across from the taxi lane and we had our ride within half an hour- this was later at night after nine pm I think.

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Thanks so much for all of the information! We have always purchased the insurance through RCI and actually had to use it for 3 cruises in the past year due to medical issues. We had no problems with being reimbursed. However I am a bit leery of being in the middle of the Atlantic and having medical problems . Is there no way to evacuate in that instance?

Hubby had medical emergency three days from east coast heading east across the Atlantic. The doctor and staff were excellent. I have complete faith in their facilities and staff.

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Oh my Gosh!! This is horrible to hear- we are sailing this month: have chops booked 6 times.. they better get it together. We are beef cattle ranchers and my husband will have no issue letting chops manager know exactly how it is. Like seriously bad beef sailing from Texas!?

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Hey ravenfeathers! We're on the same sailing.. I haven't seen it get any lower since way back last fall. U can always cancel it and rebook the package if it goes on sale.. I would book and then keep checking to see if it gets cheaper. Just take notice it will take five days for the refund to show up on ur credit card. It will cost quite a bit more onboard. But there's also been a ten drink card usually offered on Thursday Through the end of the cruise like 10/$75. The deluxe drink package at the 20% off is still a great deal compared to the $65/p/day of the old ultimate (same as deluxe) in my opinion.

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Ashamedly admitting to being a pack way way too early person, already into the bags and we still have 25 days to go:rolleyes:

We sail the LOS the 30th of next month.. it's killing me not having the luggage out.

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Does anyone remember seeing Newports?

Yes. Last I remember it was $106

For 4 cartons (40 packs!) of Marlboro. I do believe newports were a bit higher:

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They intend to stretch out the whole week for releases.

Let's just chill, they won't sell out immediately. And maybe their price barometer will simmer down.... Was hoping harmony TA would have been a few weeks earlier, oh well. Back to the May crossings. Do like the fact they will be a few weeks later departing than they were this year.. hoping for a voyager or larger class ship to Barcelona or Rome for the crossing. We shall see.

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Wellllllll.... okay.

 

My BF and I, we live for the music trivia. We're very good at it and we'll win now and then. The last night of the cruise was classic rock which is our forte.

 

We had settled into the corner with the seats opposite us empty and the bay next to us filled up with a largish party. One of them asked if she could sit across from us and we invited her to join us. She said yes, then no after checking with her party. Bounced over to them then back a couple times. Somewhere in there the cruise director staff guy asked if there were any first time cruisers and woman across from us raised her hand.

 

Trivia tends to get loud and this night was no exception with the cruise director staff guy talking on a microphone with a fairly heavy accent. And it was a hard trivia, often with very brief sound bites, consisting of as little as 2 notes. Moving fast too, so you have maybe 30 seconds to ID the song and scribble down the title and artist.

 

So this women, she goes into newbie cruiser mode, leans towards us and starts shouting newbie questions at us. "Is this your first cruise?" "Where are you from?" We're like we're trying to play trivia! She goes "Oh I'm playing too!" and points to her group behind her. I guess she thinks playing by proxy counts but she was not involved or contributing in any way.

 

I got to the point where I was extending my arm making waving go-away motions, BF was just ignoring her. Then a couple of her friends sit down with her and they start chatting. Shouting because it was really loud in there and talking about things that had nothing to do with trivia. "Did you go to the show? Have you had dinner?" That sort of thing. To the point where it became very distracting because they were in front of us and between us and the presenter. He was giving vague hints, vague but hints nonetheless we wanted to hear but became increasingly difficult to do given the shouting of the women in front of us.

 

We were telling them to be quiet cause we were trying to play and again got the "oh we're playing too!" bit but they obviously were not.

 

I finally got fed up and shouted WILL YOU SHUT UP! My bf shouted something too I didn't hear, it may have been STFU they claimed it was STFU b*tch, I didn't hear that either. It's possible he did, to my BF's defense he is bipolar and it becomes increasingly difficult for him to control himself in stressful situations. But they didn't. Shut up, that is.

 

So the questions/clues portion ended and we moved partly to find someone to switch papers with and partly to get away from the obnoxious people. Ended up sitting with a much more pleasant and charming couple who were horribly embarrassed because they only got 6 or 7 of the answers.

 

We ended up winning this trivia and got congratulated by the guy who'd been beating us all week. :D We got our prizes which were RC baseball caps. And I guess one of the ladies cried to her significant other that my BF said something mean to her cause about 4 of them approached us and they started ragging on us.

 

We were like they were yelling and being very distracting and we went back and forth for about a minute and the guy goes, "It's a *bar*". Like that explained everything. I threw back "we were playing a game!" At that point he just got very insulting - you know someone realizes they don't have a valid argument when they resort to insults. Go back to your pathetic little lives with your pathetic little hats. He was insulting our hats! Jealous much?

 

We separated shortly after that and I couldn't help but think yeah we're so pathetic that's why we cruise twice a year and that's why I'm diamond and we're so pathetic we're in a jr suite and we're so pathetic that we win at trivia. And they don't.

 

Sorry for being smug but they were just soooo clueless and annoying.

Don't care for trivia- we actually avoid bars that are having it. I do however understand that some people live and die by the trivia, as evidenced by your reaction and the others.. I had enough jeopardy and quiz bowl to last a lifetime. Hubby is very good, but doesn't hear well. So we don't do it. I've seen people get all bent out of shape at the various trivia games. Some people are more serious than others, obviously the lovely first timers were clueless going back to their unspecified cabin. This being said. We are smokers and only smoke where we are allowed-we get bent out of shape when non smokers walk through with snide remarks and noses held. We don't start a back and forth with them, we avoid a confrontation and resume our normal conversation. I think we should all be nice to our fellow cruisers and be as helpful as we can. Line cutters, feral children and loud people at trivia,The inexperienced scooter drivers are all on the ship for the same reason- to enjoy their vacation. Don't let their antics ruin your good time- I don't.

Here's my rudest experience:

Hubby had a medical emergency and collapsed on lifeboat deck. He was ok after being treated for anaphylactic shock and went to dinner same evening. Flash forward next morning I go to breakfast in MDR. Hubby not a fan so I go solo and sit with others.. I was sitting there sipping my coffee when this large woman, who brought her own pack of diet cereal to the dining room, starts in about how there was an alpha, alpha, alpha call yesterday outside on deck 5. She was so mad that security wouldn't let her out there to get a look at what was going on!! I sat there and considered my words, for a sec and said something to the effect of you wouldn't appreciate if you were laid out on the deck a bunch of gawkers coming up and looking at you would you? And how are the medics supposed to work with onlookers? She agreed maybe that wouldn't be so good if it was her.. so then I proceed to tell the story of my husband and his allergic attack ending in his collapse and the alpha alpha call to the table ending with I guess some people were mad they wouldn't let them out to gawk, can u imagine? Lol!! Her face was priceless! Come to find out she's a cc member and diamond. Was at meet and mingle.

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Thanks, I have checked out the deep sea fishing charters but I really don't want to go so was looking for something acceptable my husband could do with the ship. I haven't found any posts or reviews of this specific excursion.

Hopefully someone will post any information they have on this tour. Booked for hubby to go solo on the 04/30/17 cruise on the liberty of the seas from Galveston.

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I highly doubt it.

One could always hope -lol- thanks Bob!

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I remember seeing the $99 deal in the royal gifts pre cruise planner section last fall.. it's not there anymore. Was going to buy photo package but will wait to see if its on sale onboard. Hubby is signed up for fishing excursion- will photo package include pics taken on excursion?

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More than a year?

For sure more than a year- we're eagerly awaiting to see fall itineraries for 2018 released. Want to visit a cathedral in Spain along with attend a concert preformed by husbands favorite composer in Ireland. Hoping to be able to pickup a transatlantic that will port near the cathedral in Spain. Will have to plan for private car and driver.

Also, we visited Roma last year during the holy year and were able to obtain tickets for an audience with the Pope. This took many months of chatting back and forth with the Vatican only to get the wrong dates, thanks to the cruise critic people I was able to arrange to pick them up from the North American bishops in Rome. when we were married on the liberty of the seas we booked 15 months out.

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Also awaiting the release- really wanting to do a westbound TA- we are unable to travel after mid October through late April. Probably end up on an eastbound. We shall see-

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