2chiefs

We loved the Tutti. Wife would get a salad and I would just tell them to put feta and prosciutto in a bowl and give it to me!! I wish they would bring it back. Seems the pandemic gave RCI an excuse to get rid of a lot of things we used to like. With ship's all sailing a full capacity, they probably won't bring back popular things we used to love. When and if bookings start to wane, perhaps they'll start bringing back some good things!!

We always do late dining and it varies from 8p to 830p. I guess it depends on ship and or itinerary?? I heard some of the ships are trying 3 traditional dining times which should really throw a monkey wrench into it!

2 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

<<<SNIP>>>

 

@2chiefs Our recent cruises have always provided us with a very nice B2B lunch but, since Utopia cruises are only 3 or 4 days, I am not sure how they will do it.

Glad to hear they are still doing it. Our "non-B2B lunch" on Harmony was in December 2022 and we thought it was just another thing that went away after covid. Glad to hear they are still doing it. I remember the by-gone days when it sometimes included wine and some officers.

Do they still do the B2B lunch in the MDR anymore? Last time we did a B2B on the Harmony our "special lunch" was in the Solarium Bistro but it ended up opening for everyone so there was nothing special about it.

2 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

in my book the best thing to come from COVID cruise related is the elimination of the in person muster briefing where the ship basically shutdown for an hour or so on embarkation day. 

Woo hoo! I hated that. Especially when there were always some folks very late to the muster and nobody could go until everyone showed up! 

On 4/16/2024 at 7:21 AM, dazey said:

Thanks for all the opinions.

 

We do not purchase the drink package on Celebrity any longer as we are Elite and enjoy happy hour and events providing beverages. We do purchase a bottle of wine(with discount) and maybe a mixed drink a few times.  Our cost never comes anywhere near the cost to what a purchased beverage package would be.  We are not big drinkers so it works for us.  And if only one of you does enjoy a beverage then for sure no beverage package should work.

 

Celebrity is quiet and stressless and we do enjoy it.  That said, if we find an interesting itinerary we might try RC just for something different.  The four drinks RC program would definitely work for us.

We cruise both lines like others here have motioned. One thing we like about RCL that CCL does not have is the Crown Lounge exclusively for Diamond and above. It's open 24 hrs and has a nice coffee/expresso machine. Most Crown lounges also have a continental breakfast and then light snacks in the afternoons. In the evening, usually for about 4 hours, they have a "happy hour" with heavy hors d'oeuvres. (in the old days, this was when you could have as many drinks as you want but now they simply put 4 on your card for diamond, 5 for diamond+ and 6 for Pinnacle) We noticed that CCL has cut way back on their Elite and above functions that they used to have nightly. On our last two 12-night cruises they only did this for two nights of the sailing and didn't even have hors d'oeurves like they used to. 

3 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Hence my earlier comment about using the bed as a trampoline for awhile and then taking him to medical when I was finished with "my work-out".

I'd rather just throw him overboard...

Fog?

25 minutes ago, Saab4444 said:

I hope everyone tipped him extra! 

Here's a good tip: Tip him over the side.

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I think that is what we will find when we board Connie the end of this year.  We really love the voucher program on Royal.  

We are on Connie two weeks from today and hope they have some evening Elite functions like Celebrity used to pre-covid. After covid, they ceased and then recently announced that they would re-start them but on a limited basis instead of every night (except embarkation day) like they used to. We were highly disappointed on our Beyond cruise over Christmas as they didn't have any Elite functions. We really enjoy the events and look forward to meeting other frequent cruisers over the include drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

9 hours ago, HicksRA said:

I recall a piano player in the D Lounge on Enchantment a few years ago, but never on Vision. 

Cool. I've never seen that. Is the Crown Lounge larger on the Enchantment than other classes? We've sailed Vision ships before (including Enchantment twice) but that was long before Crown (Diamand) Lounges came about.

From an article here on CC:

11 hours ago, georgiaguy said:

21 days until we board Ascent…but who’s counting?

I'm not counting the 22 days till our next cruise on the Conny. 😁

22 hours ago, newfiegirl4 said:

To be honest I didn’t even realize the difference in the robes or towels. Now maybe the towels (I have long hair and something rung a bell when you mentioned that…lol). Only did concierge once. Not worth the extra money(that we paid). 

We got robes in our Oceanview room on the Beyond this past Christmas cruise. We are Elite though, maybe that was why.

On 2/13/2024 at 9:49 AM, Another_Critic said:

1 in the afternoon on pool deck

2 during HH

1 at dinner

1 at show

Sounds like my routine.

1 hour ago, tjunmin said:

The worst of her is not too bad. Here are photos from this past December: [photo album link].

Beautiful pictures! They decorated very nice for Christmas as well. We were on the Beyond for Christmas and while it was a great ship, we liked Reflection when we sailed her much better and really look forward to trying the Constellation. After riding such big ships, we're thinking smaller might be a little more to our tastes now that we've aged ... LOL.

1. Freedom class

2. Voyager Class

3. Radiance

4. Oasis class

5. Vision class (last resort)

We have not tried Quantum or Icon, but they just don't seem to grab our interest at this point.

On 1/31/2024 at 11:28 AM, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

If you like Freedom class, you'll also like Voyager class. They have the same layout. The only difference is that Freedom is a little longer. I've been on both classes and to be honest, I don't see/feel a difference. Each ship has some different venues/amenities than the others so you'll notice that.

Agree.

We've been on Voyager twice and loved it!  We have cruised these Voyager and Freedom classes:

Voyager - 2

Mariner - 5

Adventure - 4 (and 1 booked)

Explorer - 1

Freedom -1

It just seems to be the right size for us. We've been on several Oasis and Radiance class cruises too but prefer Voyager and Freedom Classes.

Thanks for posting your review!!

I'm pretty good with 5 drinks (Diamond +) for a cruise. Every once in a while, I'll have a 6th but then Sallie never uses her 5 so I'm good to go! LOL

We love the Adventure and have been on her 4 times (last time May of last year). We also sail her again in May 2025. Thanks for the review. We love the RCL ships with the Crown lounge way up by the Viking Crown Lounge. The new lounges in the "basements", not so good. 

We just got off the Beyond last month. We had a forward-facing cabin which was not noisy (except for a crew area in the bow that partied one night) but we heard a lot of cruisers complaining about the very loud creaking noises in the verandahs which was much louder than they experienced on other ships and lines.

Note on Beyond's forward-facing ocean view cabins: We've sailed many forward-facing cabins as they have a great view and are usually much larger than a regular ocean view. We didn't like Beyond's forward-facing cabin however. While the deck plan seems to show a larger cabin, the reality of the very steep forward bulkhead makes the deck space beneath it unusable. In our opinion, while this room seemed to be larger (floor space-wise), it was functionally smaller than a regular ocean view.

We've sailed concierge twice but only because it was less expensive than a verandah (yes sometimes the prices can be inverted- at least it happened back when we sailed concierge). So I guess for the few extra perks, the value would depend on how much extra it was and how much you value the perks. We would not spend a lot extra for it. It would have to be very close to a verandah price for us to choose it. 

We are on Connie in 4 weeks. The last cruise before the Trans=Atlantic. I guess we will see the worst of her LOL.

Maybe some new carpeting and furniture? That's easy to do in a two-week turnaround.