coffeeaddiction12345

I was running into the same issue. You don't need the app. In the upper right corner there is an icon. Click on that and then select the download now option.

Thank you so much! Worked perfectly but disappointed to see some downgrades - either way looking forward to it :) :)

My email got bounced back- am I asking the wrong place? Special needs at rccl?

Is anyone able to post these as photos? They are not available on I devices (iPads, iPhones, etc) without the app which I don't have. We leave Sunday so I'm dying to see the menus!

$3 off per day was more reasonable? It is very unlikely you will get a better price on board than buying online. The current VOOM sales are really that (unlike the fake cabin BOGO sales going on for the past 2+ years) compared to the prices on the ship.

 

Every day the VOOM package price on board will be cheaper by 1 days price - it's called the remaining days package. One 24 hr period of internet is $20. Surf is 12.99 per day - available only on the ship. Stream is $17.99 per day.

Yes, $3 more off a day was more reasonable for me. Thank you for the information, that's very helpful in my decision making.

Hello-

Looking forward to my first RCCL cruise this coming weekend! I have never sailed on this line, but have sailed on other lines.

I do not NEED internet (does anyone?:p) but I like to be able to check emails 2-3x a cruise. I went to book the internet tonight and saw it was 30% off, but still not cheap enough for me to pull the trigger. Do they have an onboard deals? For example, other lines have had specials the last few days of the cruise super cheap, or maybe something cheaper once you board?

I'm kicking myself for not buying it when it was 50% off a couple of weeks ago, as that was a very reasonable price. Any insight from RCCL experienced cruisers? Again- it's not a need so I'm willing to "gamble" but I'd love to know if there are any cheaper ways once you're on board and/or toward the end of the cruise. Thanks all! :)

So, did you make it?

I honestly believe you will make it.

Will it be easy? No. Will it be stressful? Yes!

We made a 9:30 flight when we disembarked at 8:15 in tampa. That was an hour and fifteen minutes and it looks like you have a similar time line. Was supposed to disembark at 8, but it ran late. I will tell you though, we are in our 20's and we were physically running down the ramps off the ship, through the terminal, out to the taxi stand, and through the airport. We probably looked very rude as we darted through and past people. It was not fun, but I do think it's do-able, and it is a fun story once you successfully make it on.

However, we did check our luggage so late (~5-10 min prior to take off) they weren't sure if would make it to our destination. For the record, it did make it. Would I recommend it- NO, but do I think it can be done- YES.

We apparently got cocky because on our upcoming cruise we selected a 10am flight too. When you're on a mission, you can get it done. I bet you make it!

Also of note: We waited through the regular security line, did not have priority disembarking, etc. Just regular old all by ourselves. We were very early in the line to get off the ship though, because we knew we had to fly! I think we were in line by 530am, maybe 6.

Ask to see the kid's menu! Anyone can order from it! Chicken fingers every night!

Well that changes everything! Sounds like I might be okay after all :)

Are you sure you would rather do the MDR (traditional time) instead of MTD...since you're used to freestyle ?

 

I too am more comfortable with a table for two....regardless.

 

In addition to the varied menu items each night (which many times I don't care for)...there are a couple of standard's available every night like chicken, beef etc etc. We actually end up eating in the WJ (buffet) more than the dining room on most all our cruise's.

 

RCI only suggest's dress...it's never mandatory...and actually it's becoming much more casual...the clothes you have mentioned above are going to be perfect...some will be more dressed up but many more will not.

 

Enjoy your first RCI cruise....more than likely it won't be your last ;)

I'd love to do MTD but the option didn't seem available, maybe I missed a step? I had no idea I could! We planned all our shows etc around the 8:30 seating so it sounds like I may need to re evaluate. I don't really like much chicken or beef so I am definitely nervous about the choices. I'm basically a 5 year old in an adult body and would prefer chicken fingers to any of the choices I've read on the menu so far!

Thanks to everyone- yes, I would STRONGLY prefer to do my time seating but the option was unavailable when I booked my cruise. Am I missing something? It was 'grayed out.'

We are sailing on the allure, sorry I didn't mention that!

Hi all- I'm wondering if I were to purchase the drink package would I be able to apply a gift card in the amount of $100 and pay the remaining with a credit card prior to getting on the ship? We sail in 88 days. I wanted to apply the card to the cruise itself but sadly we paid in full already.

Thank you!

Hi all- thanks so much for the wealth of info. Forgive me, as we usually sail NCL which is freestyle, so this will be a major adjustment for us.

We booked our cruise for November and are at an 8:30 seating time in the main dining room. I understand I am sitting with the same folks nightly at a table (so strange when you're used to freestyle!). However, I'm wondering how to find the menus ahead of time to see which nights I want to skip the MDR? I just looked at a sample menu ahead of time and am very, very nervous as the majority of the nights did not look appealing to me.

Another question- if we book other arrangements, do we just not show up at dinner or do we need to inform someone? If I show up to the MDR and do not find any of the choices appealing, is it appropriate to just get up and leave?

I know this sounds very whiny but I am a life-long picky eater and although I've gotten better with age, if I'm going to be on vacation I want to be loving what I'm eating. Johnny Rockets and the chips and salsa bar sound so much better!

Lastly, NCL is freestyle so I typically wear a sun dress, shorts, or a romper to dinner. Is this appropriate for dinner? What should my husband be wearing? Are long khakis and a nice shirt ok? I need to tread very carefully- he was reluctant to jump from NCL because he liked not having to dress up at all- must he on RCCL? We're in our 20's (for a little while longer anyway...) and RCCL seemed a little more age appropriate, but I'm trying to sell this dress up thing.

thanks to all.

You can make reservations for more than the number in your cabin, up to 6 or 8 (I forget which).

We recently traveled with 2 couples, I didn't know you could link reservations but I had no issues making our reservations for 6 each night on my account, despite them being in other part of the ships and as far as NCL was concerned, had no relationship to us.

Well, either they're going to adjust things or customers will go elsewhere.

 

Hundreds, if not thousands, of college town bars handle packed house crowds regularly. It's not rocket science; it's a matter of staffing, training, and logistics. Whomever was in charge of this failed miserably to understand his/her clientele and anticipate the demand.

 

The Star during the week of Oct 19th was my first NCL experience. Overall I had fun, but there were severe issues they need to sort out. If it appears they're actually improving, I may consider giving them a second try.

 

Time will tell, either they'll right the ship or do substantial harm to their reputation.

Yeah, we were/are NCL loyalists, but we will be trying another line next time. I have NO DOUBT the bigger mega ships aren't having these issues (at least to this degree) - I think they're hanging the smaller ships out to dry.

Thank you for sharing, that was really nice of you.

I am on the Nov 8.

Have a great trip!! I hope all the service issues have been fully sorted :)

Thanks for all this helpful information, coffeeaddiction. It is really appreciated, as my family will be on the Star in January. I was wondering if you could comment on how kids on board were behaved, or treated, or entertained? Even if you didn't have children in your party, maybe you saw or heard some things...? If you didn't, I TOTALLY understand. We will have a 9 yr old with us, and are hoping for another positive cruise experience for him. Thanks again for this helpful post.:)

To preface, I don't have kids of my own.

But, the kids all around me actually looked VERY well behaved. I saw the tour going around splash academy the first day and there was a lot of people. A lot of them were loving the waterslides, I saw plenty on every excursion we were on, and honestly never saw any kids acting or behaving inappropriately.

It was double cute for us, since it was Halloween they gave the kids a list of where they could go 'trick or treat' so they walked around in costumes and got candy!

I don't think we had tons of kids on our cruise, but they all really genuinely seemed to be enjoying themselves. Out at the pool I saw in particular a few kids just totally loving the whole atmosphere. On excursions all the kids looked like they were having a ball snorkeling (Belize), and enjoyed the magic show.

The only draw back I'd see is a couple of the main shows at 7 & 9 were catered to older crowds. For example, the Donna Summer's type tribute. I could see them LOVING the magic show that the cruise director did on the last night, though!

Thanks for the input. I might email them with these concerns. The reason we chose LFK over Maya Key was because we could come and go on our schedule and Maya Key is only for 4 hours.

Hopefully you don't get the same garbage we got.. "we just want you to get to the ship on time! you never know with traffic, you really need to get going now! Nobody ever wants to leave but you have to :( :( "

It's crap, we EASILY could have stayed another hour and been to the ship in PLENTY of time. It was beyond annoying that he basically didn't give a hoot that our ship time wasn't until 6:30. I really hope you guys get to stay longer!!

@coffeeaddiction. I know exactly what you mean about not feeling scared. but "on edge." That's how we feel. And we haven't even gotten there yet! lol Like I said, we are do it yourselfers. We think nothing of finding local jitney's and going somewhere for two bucks. Did it in St. Maarten, loved it so much we went back for a vacation. I know the reviews of the excursions are more positive than not, but it sticks in my head about what people are saying about it once being amazing, dead coral, trash on beaches.I'm not going hijack this thread thoug. I'm going to do what someone recommended in an earlier reply and spend some time on the CC Roatan board. I've started reading the posts. We'll see. Would hate to end up deciding to stay on the ship, but if we do it'll be a nice quiet day. Oh! And there will be five ships there that day I think .That was another reason we were thinking about not getting off. Thanks for your thoughts!

We like to DIY too. I think a lot of people really like LFK, maybe we had a bad day. I don't know. We were the only ship in port, so for nobody to talk to us at LFK I can't imagine if it were crowded. But, I do honestly believe those who got more expensive packages got treated better- I really, really believe that. All I could think of as we drove over was someone could shoot out the tire and easily rob all of us. As you drove by, there are 2 armed guards at every bank and ATM with bullet proof vests on. Not very comforting.

I am so very disappointed to hear this. I have been wanting to go there for almost a year! Now I need to rethink. I read it as 18% was just for a credit card as well. And I also emailed them about food prices, they told me the prices of pizza, never mentioning about only being open on weekends. Also the website says you can stay as long as you want. Were the animals there? I am doing a whole lot of rethinking now....

Right? It DEFINITELY is phrased like the fee is only for the credit cards. Everyone was so upset! It felt really, really sketchy, and the cashiers had attitudes about it as if WE were the crazy ones. The prices of pizza was still $18 (cheapest) and went up to $23 or so. The other food was $22-$25 (per person!). He DEFINITELY kicked us out. I thought at first it was a suggestion, but when he circled back and made the 'get going' motion (not in a rude way, but in a kind of hurry up type of way) I understood we were being booted. There were some animals, a dog in a cage, a lion, some birds, and some monkeys. I don't want to sway you in any direction, but please think of if whatever package you choose will be worth only 3 maybe 4 hours there. The kayaks and paddleboards were plentiful, however, and the platform was fun to jump off of too.

Sorry. Just one more thing. The Star needs a better system to keep the smoke from escaping the Casino. We couldn't sit at the bar near La cucina and Le Bistro as it is down the hall and stunk really bad. I felt bad for the piano man.

We completely agreed. It was truly awful, but that was the least of our problems. Still, rather annoying.

Where is Day 6? This is day 5 (again) and 7.... Thanks for posting everything as we are on the 1/3/2016 sailing and getting very excited.

It is a typo, you will see they are two different dailies.

Were there any spa specials? I always like the one where there is a list of things and you get three of them for a set price (ie scalp massage, hand treatment, foot massage, etc).

Yes, tons of spa specials including that one you mentioned!! We did the managers special which was on day 2, a scalp massage, hand massage, and Swedish massage for $139. We almost did a hot stone massage special for $149 for that, scalp, and hand but we were out of money- LOL. They had an awesome beard shave for men too, which was a pretty good price.

Thank you so much for sharing! I'll be on the Jade in Feb. 2016 with similar stops. DH and I have been debating about whether or not to get off of the ship in Roatan. It's crazy because we've never been there and we usually love port stops in new places. We tend to do our own thing. I hate to say it but all of the safety warnings have us saying no to that. I've read the tripadvisor reviews for the excursions and I agree that a lot tend to be so positive. But I read the negative ones too and those repeatedly mention trash in the water, bait and switch, etc. Doesn't seem like fun. We'll see. Thanks again! Glad you had a great time.

Honestly, going outside the gates was kind of intimidating. I wasn't SCARED, but I was definitely on edge if that makes sense. Safety aside, it was an expensive day for no pay off. I really really recommend doing something else. It was my first time there, but my opinion from reading trip advisor is that it once was an amazing place which has gone to crap. ALL the most recent reviews are not good.

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Anyone going to Maya Chan, even with the seagrass problem we still had a perfect day. Couldn't believe how fabulous it was. We saw people we went to LFK with at Maya Chan, and we all had a good chuckle how it was half the price and 50000% more amazing despite not even being able to swim.

How was the 5 o'clock Somewhere bar? Was service poor there also? We are sailing on Sunday and I can tell you we won't be happy without good bar service.

that bar was pretty much the same as the rest, not quite as crowded because they had their special drinks and didn't have a fully stocked bar, really catered to margarita type of things. There was sports on the tv so lots of patrons watching that. It is very small, and only 1 bartender most times that I saw.

I hope they fix this for you all leaving soon. I hate to be a broken record, but Horlicks in O'Sheehan's was such a fabulous bartender and if you get to know him the first day or two you will get top priority service from him. Bartenders at the pool decks were moving as quick as they could, but it was no match for all the people with UBP.

Bill- We self disembarked, we had to because of a 9:55 AM flight. It was mayhem behind us. Lots of shouting by passengers. We went with friends who used the ticket system and said it was better later in the morning, but still chaotic which is to be expected.

Chefcaw- I'm not sure who the hotel director is, actually.

Dennich- We ate at Teppenyaki and Ginza (highly recommend Samuel as a waiter, he was the best waiter our whole entire cruise!), we also ate at Moderno, Cagney's, La Cucina, and Le Bistro. I hate to be negative, but Cagney's was the worst Cagney's we've been to in the fleet including the star itself 2 years ago. The steak was wonderful but the macaroni and cheese which was a huge star for me was dry and tasted different. Moderno we had incredibly slow service, and the salad bar is much smaller compared to the larger ships.

I don't think even those in Costa Maya know exactly why the seagrass is so bad. We got LOTS of different answers from everyone we asked. Some say recent tropical storms, but others said it was an unnaturally terrible year for the sea grass in general. As we drove in the taxi, all the beaches just seemed totally trashed. Some blamed Patricia, others said Patricia had nothing to do with it. I'm sure it was a combination of many things.

Little French Key, ah. I couldn't believe how disappointed I was. I tried to stay as positive as possible- we felt baited and switched when we arrived and so did EVERYONE in line. We all got emails stating that using a credit card would be an 18% tax, or we could pay in cash. Almost all of us payed in cash and we were still slapped with the 18% fee. Everyone in line was really mad. I tried to stay as positive as possible and not allow it to color my view of the day. But, there was garbage floating in the water, half the place was under construction so there was loud banging all day, we got the cheaper package to save money and thought we'd buy our own lunch, but each plate of food was $25 so we ended up spending equal to the package anyway- which I guess is our own fault, but $25 for a small plate of food was insane. There was pizza on the menu that was cheaper, but they said they only have pizza on the weekends. Since the menu was a chalk board, I wish they just erased it- it was kind of a tease. No staff spoke to us all day, unless we approached them. And the WORST PART was they booted us at 3:15pm, after arriving at noon, and we didn't need to board the ship until 6:30. He claimed we needed time to get back... I get that, but we had planned to stay until 4-4:30. No, we were all out by 3:30 at his (owners?) demand. Everyone, once again, was livid. It wasn't a choice either- he kicked everyone out at 3:30. We were back on the ship by 4:15 and didn't leave Honduras for another 3 hours! We'd never even dream of returning, myself and others there were talking about trip advisor and cruise critic and were blown away at how it had so many positive reviews... we all collectively hated it.

Hi guys!

We just got back from a fabulous cruise. I just wanted to inform all of you that sadly, water at Maya Chan is unswimable, and you can't user water toys there either.

We were EXTREMELY IMPRESSED that when we arrived at the meeting location we were handed a letter that informed us that due to the sea grass and muddy water, they were offering us a choice of a FULL refund or a discount to still go anyway.

We went anyway and had a WONDERFUL day, I am so thrilled we booked there. We were definitely bummed to not be able to swim, but them informing us of the problem ahead of time won us over!!! We had the refund already in our email by the time we connected to the wifi upon arrival- WOW.

Just wanted to let others know, but if it is a true problem they will tell you as soon as you get to the meeting spot. I can't wait to go back when the water is swim-able again. I can easily see now why everyone raves about this place. Some of the best food and service I've had in my entire life.

Hi Ron!

1. The comedian was part of the first night welcome aboard show, he had his own show at 7 & 9 one night, and then he had a show at 8:15 in spinnaker on the last night. That was a 'clean' show (we usually found that the ones in spinnaker were adults only, but this was kid friendly).

I know you're going next week but FYI to others, he is only on board until thanksgiving then he gets off for the holidays, so his stint is/was short (our week was his second week). Not sure if he comes back after Christmas or not, but he specifically said he was taking off thanksgiving to christmas to go home.

2. I heard others say Versailles was open, but I'm not sure because we went to O'Sheehan's and had a delicious burger (their burgers were truly top notch! the black and bleu was absolutely incredible! A must try if you're into that kind of thing)

3. No info on the water package, we bring water bottles and a cooler so no need for us. Sorry!

4. You will board on deck 7 :)

ps: We loved the typo too, someone forgot to change the day! But you'll see the activities are different and the fronts of the dailies are too.

Ron and others, I posted dailies for the cruise plus a small review :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2276094

Attached here is the remaining 2 days