MandyMooToo

In my area there are only two travel agencies. One I am not impressed with and have heard negative things about so I really do not want to consider using them. The other agency doesn't offer anything by way of "perks." I called the TA that we have used over the years at that agency and asked what the benefit would be for booking a cruise through her or going direct. She said the difference would be 1. Someone to call if there was a problem and 2. They will do more research to be sure we get the best deal. Hmm, I cannot see a huge benefit here. I always purchase travel insurance so hopefully I'd be able to handle most problems that could arise and as for research, I look constantly at prices/deals, etc. so I am not sure what a benefit would be booking with my TA. I am leery of booking with an online agent as I have no experience there. Any ideas? I know that no one can give me a specific name of an agent but can someone point me in the right direction? Tell me where to look for another TA, whether online or not? TIA!

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I tried to brighten up the original photo. I put in two yellow arrows to show the reported damage. There must be some glass damage from a wave impact like that. Maybe it was just a few guests that spent way too much time at the Windjammer.

Thank you, I could not see the damage until you lightened it and put in the arrows.

I am one of those impacted. We booked this cruise 8 months ago. I did a lot of planning and we had high hopes for a fun week. Then came the oil spill and late arrival of Navigator. We boarded a little past midnight Sunday. Monday night at dinner they informed us the cruise was officially cancelled and the ship was not leaving Galveston. We decided to at least stay on board for few days before driving back home to Spring, Texas an hour and a half away from Galveston.

 

Three things happened Tuesday that really impacted our decision on what to do next.

 

The first was, as I suspected, they began shutting down the hot tubs and pools. Navigator uses salt water and the water is changed out frequently. They could not refill them when docked port side with the oil in the water.

 

The second was the announcement that we had until 6 pm to get our cars out of the parking facilities, including all private cruise parking lots, or else we would not get access to our car until Sunday. This meant we could not stay on board day by day and leave when we wanted.

 

I will get to the third item shortly.

 

Once they made the announcement about getting your car, we left the ship and went to our parking facility and confirmed that access would be closed until Sunday. We then went to find an alternate parking facility. There was none available that we found. Hotels would not accept liability for cars unless they were registered guests. City of Galveston parking has essentially daily metered parking lots which you must pay at least twice a day or else they would boot your car. So our choices to pay for a hotel room to allow us the option to go day by day, leave and drive home, or stay om board until Sunday. We went back to the ship to think through our options. That is when the third item happened.

 

It was 2 pm and we were not immediately allowed back on board., We had to wait in the terminal since they were moving the gangway. That was done for cleaning the ship of oil. So we then had to worry if we decided to leave the ship, would we hit another delay of missing our window to get our car because they were not just allowing you to go on or off the ship at any time.

 

We decided that since the last report was the ship was there for the week, the pools were going to be shut down, and we had been to Galveston many times and sightseeing was not really preferred over just going home and relaxing there, we decided to leave. We got off the ship a little after 3pm. We stopped along the way home for dinner. We got home a bit after 6pm due to rush hour traffic Tuesday. It was then we found out they ship planned to sail the next day to Cozumel.

 

At some point you have to call it. I asked my wife if she wanted to go and take the shorter cruise. We discussed and decided we were already back home and it didn't make sense to us. Yes, it is essentially a free cruise to Cozumel. But we already had a full refund. We were not out money and we will cruise again in the future. We had already decided what we would do instead for the rest of the week. Had we stayed on board, we would have enjoyed the cruise to just Cozumel. But the lack of car access until Sunday and the fact we were previously told in no uncertain terms the ship was not leaving meant we had to decide if five more days in Galveston was how we wanted to spend our vacation time. That answer was no.

 

I am very happy for those who had flights and no option to leave that they get a shorter cruise plus the full refund. Especially the families with children. For us, we made the best decision we could at the time. Stuff happens. We will enjoy our time together a different way and thanks to RCL, we are not out any cost of the cruise.

 

I am watching the Galveston cruise cam and RCL just moved away and is departing. Bon voyage and happy cruising to those on board!

I have no dog in this particular fight but I have to say that I appreciate hearing a positive attitude regarding this situation. I have been following these threads/posts about NOS and AOS wondering what I would have done in the same spot. I think we would have stayed for the simple fact that we have to drive 10+ hours to get to any RCCL port so it would have been even more depressing to make that drive home but if I lived within a couple hours I may not have made the same decision. I also think that there was a lack of good info, whoever was at fault, but RCCL seems to have resolved the situation well with refunds and future cruise credit (or whatever it is called :rolleyes:). Just my 2 cents...probably not worth a penny!

Good points. It isn't all about the alcohol. I didn't get it because I didn't want to feel like I had to drink a whole bunch to get the bang for my buck.

 

Note: My husband got to Premium Package which was $55 a day. I don't think the Premium includes the upscale coffees and jucies or even bottled water. So if you are in to these, and the alcohol the Ultimate sounds like it will work for you!

The Premium includes bottled water and the souvenir soda cup that you can use with the freestyle machines. From the RCCL website:

Includes: Call and premium cocktails (up to $10 value), frozen drinks, beers, wines by the glass (up to $12 value), non-alcoholic cocktails, bottle water (still), and fountain sodas with Coca-Cola® souvenir cup.

Ultimate Includes: Call and premium cocktails, frozen drinks, beers, premium wines by the glass (up to $12 value), premium coffee, premium tea, bottled water (sparkling and still, fresh squeezed orange juice, non-alcoholic cocktails, fountain sodas with the Coca Cola® souvenir cup.

Now here is my 2 cents worth. When I'm on a cruise, I am on vacation. Phone gets locked up and shut off. No internet, no email, no bothers. The one time I did leave my phone on accidentally, I was on my way to Cozumel and got a call from a head hunter about a job and actually broke out laughing at them because after I explained exactly where I was, she started laughing too. So I would have to say that yes, all this technology is great for the younger people, those who have been surgically attached to their devices and those who can't leave their jobs at the office or similar. I want to escape for those few precious days.

I like connectivity to stay in touch with my children and pet caregivers. We typically take a vacation with the teenagers and then have an adult parent vacation:p While I understand your point about escaping, I just cannot seem to do it if I am worried constantly about home so upgraded technology is a perk for me!

This will be our 1st time on Allure. What specialty restaurant do you recommend and why? Were so excited. We've done Chops several times and Portifino's wasn't that great the 1st time.

I loved Giovanni's!!

RCCL at Charleston would be so wonderful for us! 6-7 hour drive as opposed to 12 hours for most Florida ports. The husband and I have said this for many years but right now a large contingent in Charleston is raising Cain about cruise ships docking there in general (someone commented that it ruined the area's history...) so I do not see it happening anytime soon unfortunately. :(

Vintages is covered up to the package limits. For those glasses priced above the limits, you should be able simply to pay the difference. I have heard varying reports about how this is implemented. Unfortunately, the self-serve machines are not in the package.

Great, thank you for the reply. I was really hoping that Vintages was a "go."

Is bottled water on the premium package, on some links it does on others it doesn,t?

Yes, bottled water is part of the premium package.

Subscribed :)

Yep, got it.

Room service, in cabin honor bar, Vintages self-serve machines. I am sure someone else will chime in with the rest. Also, DOD and shots are covered, although the glassware/plasticware will cost extra.

Thank you! That is what I was looking for. I had read that Vintages was covered but then read again that it was not.

Great review, thanks!

Donray post was spot on.

 

I am one of the largest distributors on limes in North America and right now we are experiencing the biggest shortage of limes we have ever seen.

 

Two back to back hurricanes over the summer hit the lime growing region during the bloom. This has caused an enormous shortage of limes and record prices. As of this morning(3/25/14), a box of limes cost $115, this is before it is shipped out across the country.

 

As for the cartels..they are playing a small part, but not as much as the media is making it out to be. The cartels are also more focused in the Michoacan region. This is where Key Limes are grown. They do produce some Persian Seedless limes but the vast majority of Persian Seedless Limes are grown in Martinez, Veracruz. The cartels are not as heavily concentrated in this region of Mexico. I can more in-depth on this subject but it’s not really necessary.

 

So the simple reason Royal Caribbean does not have any limes is because they do not want to pay $1XX.00 per box. Which I don’t blame them one bit! The normal price on limes during this time of year is roughly $20.00fob Texas. The production on limes should increase around the 2nd week of May.

 

Hope this made sense, I am off to a meeting and wanted to get this out as quickly as possible!

Thank you for the explanation. I am a G&T with extra lime kinda gal so it was distressing to see that I may be out of luck on my cruise later this year. Of course I would then become a G&T with Rose's Lime added and get over it very quickly :D

I won't go back to Carnival until they throw the pool deck DJ overboard.

Thank you! I needed a laugh today...sounds like something I would say :D

At the risk of getting cyber scolded I have to ask if anyone can give me an easy break down of where you cannot use the premium or ultimate drink package. We had the premium package last year on Oasis and were never turned down but we never tried Vintages, or the like, and only tried Giovanni's for lunch one day so no use of the package there. We are going on Allure this year and have heard about Bolero's having amazing mojitos, a champagne bar, Rita's Cantina margaritas...can you use the package in all specialty restaurants? All bars? What are the exceptions?

**Yes, I have read thread after thread and post after post but could not find exactly what I was looking for. TIA for anyone that offers help :)

Thank you MandyMooToo..I feel better now. lol

You are so welcome :)

when do you get charged for MTD since it's prepaid, before the cruise on your credit card?

You do realize you answering a person who posted this back in January 2012 and they have posted anything else since...right???! :cool:

Someone (as quoted above) revived the thread with a question earlier today;)

In October we were on Oasis and on the final day we were not given any envelopes at all..we did prepay tips..I sure hope we didn't stiff our cabin steward...OMG ...I would feel sooooo badly since he was the best we ever had. We did tip him immediately on the first day..but that wasn't meant to be his full tip. Can anyone tell me if all the ships give envelopes as we are going on the Oasis again in August (prepaid tips) and certainly don't want to short change any of the hard workers..

Also...the prepaid tips don't include bartenders, do they? I always saw the mandatory tip on the receipt and added an extra $1 ea drink. Am I over tipping? (we got great bartender service)

No worries, your prepaid tips covered the cabin steward also (though we prepaid our CB gave us envelopes which we gladly added extra to because he was great). As for the bar tenders, if you purchased a package the tips are included, if not then you were right to tip. Some people tip a bit extra even with the package, we did and service was great :D

when do you get charged for MTD since it's prepaid, before the cruise on your credit card?

You are charged for the prepaid gratuity before the cruise. There is no "charge" for MTD, you just have to pay your tips/gratuity beforehand.

Vigilant 'both ways' as you say is good. Often we jump into the WJ to grab something and then head back to our poolside chairs to actually eat, generally gone 10-15 minutes in total. It is helpful to make friendly chatter with those sitting around you at the pool.

Absolutely! If it had not been for our new friends we may not have gotten my husband's seat back!

Wonderful and simple review of your Oasis cruise -- that I appreciate. I will be sailing on the Allure June 29 sailing, and hope that some of what you describe happen during that sailing. Specifically, how the staff handled the 'pool chair hogs'.

 

I was also happy to hear your feelings about Central Park and the Promenade. This will be our 15th cruise on Royal, and have enjoyed the Promenade on other ships. This time we have taken a balcony cabin overlooking Central Park, and hope we enjoy sitting on the balcony overlooking Central Park. We have had Ocean View Balconies on other ships, and found ourselves on the balcony a little bit (either early in the morning or just before dressing for dinner) -- I am hoping to enjoy the balcony on Allure more.

 

Having cruised quite a bit (and you have done even more cruises that we have), I really worry that the ships don't put a little bit more 'emphasis' on the muster drill. I surely pay attention, but when I look around, so many others pay very little attention.

 

When I look back at our cruises on Royal, all of them have had a broad range of passengers demographics. Since I have not cruised on other lines, I can't speak for them. I have found that Royal attracts many Europeans, Asians as well as Latin Americans. Many, many times there have been almost as many Latin Americans on board as Americans. When we cruised on Jewel out of San Juan, almost 50% of the cruise was Latin Americans (nor was I surprised at that).

 

With our cruise less than 100 days away, much of what you have said, helps me get ready for our cruise.

We were on Oasis last year and as far as chair hogs went i have to say that the staff was good about it. My husband and I usually choose one day to do nothing but lay by the pool reading and partaking of fruity beverages :D and the staff was always near by checking times. We actually had staff intervene on our behalf when I had gotten up and gone to the restroom and my husband went to the soft serve ice cream machine. I can't keep that man away from ice cream!! It is like he's never had it before, but I digress....we were literally gone for a few minutes when a woman walked up and moved my husband's shirt and towel off his chair. The persons we had befriended in chairs all around us told the lady we had only gone to the restroom and ice cream machine but she basically said "tough, you get up you lose your chair." Staff stepped in and she was moving as I walked back to our spot. So I guess staff is vigilant in both ways :rolleyes:

I thought RCCL had replaced all the old beds with the comfort top mattresses?

I usually look forward to sleeping well on a cruise, I wake up in the same position I went to sleep - they are that comfortable..:)

I was thinking the same thing. I sleep like the dead on RCCL cruises.

OP- I hate that you are having so much trouble, it really sucks to not sleep well, especially with all the other issues!! :(

If I remember correctly the wait times for the different dining venues were posted on your stateroom TV.

Yes, they have them on your stateroom TV and on various screens (if that is what they are called :D) around the ship. Any screen, near the elevators for example, could be touched to get info on eateries and their real time capacity. Loved that feature! It was nice to have an idea about where you could get in and out of if you were in a bit of a hustle.

I too thought the Windjammer was small for a ship of this size but on further consideration, for us at least, it was not an issue as we only ate there once the whole cruise. We visited so many other food establishments that we never really bothered with the buffet.

To the OP-Thanks for the review, love hearing other opinions/experiences!

I am sorry! That stinks :( I think we will wait to book on the ship as I have been told that they hold back some times for passengers that do so. We will see! Good luck.