heatherb1958

Thank you for taking the time to write an indepth review , sorry to read it didn’t live up to your expectations . We spent 24 nights round trip out of the UK on Sky to Canada and New England in September this year and had the best MDR experience ever with excellent service and food. Nothing was too much trouble for Antonio and George . Our worst meal and service was in Catch so you never can tell , food I can put down to the choices we made but service was abysmal. We went there for my birthday but wished we had stayed at our assigned table in the MDR with our excellent waiters.

On the Independence cruise in question they had oversold balcony and JS GTYs , friends onboard had 2 JSs side by side and were offered the Presidential suite for free as an incentive to give up the JSs which they did . We visited with them in the PS which no longer exists now on the ship after the drydock when they added the slides .. Other friends had booked the balcony gty and lucky for them they got a JS , we also visited with them in their cabin. Us? We booked the balcony GTY and got a D1 on deck 6 😆. Now , here is the thing , we were B2B and still waiting on our cabin assignment at 2pm on the last day of the first cruise , the Diamond lounge Concierge didn’t even know what cabin we were scheduled to be in and kept asking us on that last day if we had heard anything yet . I am going to be constantly checking after final payment our Anthem cruises for cabin assignments.

May I ask what is wrong with a British accent ?? . Unless you are talking about regional accents like Scouse or Brum .... I'd be more wary of sub continent accents where most of our scam calls come from .

As others have said so long as you are out of your cabin by 8AM you can stay onboard an MSC ship in Europe as long as you want , we have done it many times out of Barcelona . We keep our luggage with us , find a comfortable place to hang out , usually the indoor Solarium . We have to take it in turns to grab any food but it is much better doing that than hanging around at the airport for a late departure ..

The situation in Australia was extremely unfortunate to happen on a sold out ship , hopefully RCI have learned from it but I doubt it as it wasn't the first time GTYs have been oversold . We personally have been on 2 RCI cruises where they oversold GTY cabins , one was a Brilliance TA and the other was on Independence , both with the balcony GTYs. On the Brilliance folks were being contacted to give up their cabins and move to insides with great incentives , we had an inside cabin so weren't able to take advantage . We currently have 2 RCI cruises , a B2B , both GTY cabins ... I am not even thinking about them until near final payment date , thankfully we don't have flights involved. It pays to book flexible travel plans these days , you just never know what is going to happen .

Transatlantics used to be very very cheap with relatively low numbers for high tier C&A members not the case now . Now they are heavy loaded with lots of C&A members entitled to 'free' stuff. Got to recoup the money somehow .

A lady who was able to walk off onto the pilot boat was medically evacuated. We watched from our balcony. I would be more concerned about the noro onboard. Crew were serving the food in the buffet this morning. Entertainment crew not currently allowed to use the buffet, cushions removed from cabin last night.

I find those photos of Serenade quite shocking but not surprising , we were on Brilliance one time and she looked exactly like that , felt ashamed to say we were on the ship ! All other lines we have been on with ships just as old as Serenade were in much better condition .

@kernow, aw that is a shame about your tour and I bet not cheap as RCI excursions aren't!. Cartagena old walled city is a gem of a place to explore on your own , an easy taxi ride from the port. I went with Sheenagh and Joan though our ride out in a shared mini bus was a bit of a nightmare start. There were guys in lime green tshirts in the city who would approach you asking if you wanted guided tours and one said he could show us where the sloths were in the park. They work for tips and he delivered. Our taxi ride back was cheap in 2018 .

Had to laugh at this . Reminds me of when they sneakily hid kettles in all the cabins on Brilliance for us Brits , think it was when she wintered out of Barcelona before going to Dubai . There is a panel next to the fridge which can be removed , we could see through the gap the kettle and all the gubbins and the room steward miraculously had a tea tray of supplies appear on their cart . This was a loooong time ago . I would need to look at my cruise history but we were B2B , saw the hidden kettle first cruise then it appeared next cruise like magic 😆 🤣

I use ship dressing gowns for when getting out of the shower until ready to get my glad rags on ...

Friends I know from over the pond get off and new ones get on , how cool is that... look forward to the continuing adventure vicariously.

Have a wonderful time J & M .xx

As mentioned earlier , we were told years ago it was securing the riggers that was the issue, RCI just couldn't get them. Was it coincidence that MSC brought out ships with Cirque de soleil shows ?, they still continue on the ships that had the show installed, seen them all . MSC are known to pay the money to get what they want. We were lucky to see the ones on both Brilliance and Serenade but they were over in a flash and to be honest once seen was enough. Think I prefer the ship put back to the way it was .

I have friends onboard so nothing is secret 😆 plus the activities manager is my friend's daughter ...

@orville99, 😆 you haven't mentioned the flood in the casino, water pouring through the ceiling , I have seen the video on a pinnacle social group. I jokingly said it was the pesky new washing machines not plumbed in correctly in the white space above on decks 7 and 8 and lo and behold you post a diagram of where I was talking about 😆 🤣... The casino was closed for 2 hours for repairs..

I have also downloaded my husband's , a walking stick user who requires no assistance in an emergency, for 3 cruises . I saved them on my phone to Google Drive for off line access, no wifi required .

Fab read, thank you for all the food photos.. We cruised on Iona Jan 22 and dined in Aqua every night , didn't like the look of the huge 2 tier aft dining room. Our experience in Aqua was great and hoping to secure similar for the NYE cruise. With regards mobility needs , my hubby needs a high bed . One time at West Quay Premier Inn they only had enough elephant feet for one side of the bed in the accessible room, we said that's fine... was too funny him being a good 8 ins higher than I when saying " night ,night," .

The crew have to pay for their day to day uniforms , I wonder how many pairs of thermals will given for free... 😂

Haven't stayed in the cabin but would say that unless you want to have a lie in that is going to be your only issue, lots of activity by crew when ship arrives into port . Don't forget once the ship sets sail that area will be packed up and stored so your night time sleep shouldn't be affected. Also depending on the port the gangway can be on different decks , you might find deck 4 isn't used the whole cruise .

That is a shame. Hope you get recourse from your meeting. We did the ship tour to the Tarcoles River back in Nov 2018 and have to say it was very good , got to see a big crock and lots of bird life. In Huatulco we did a ship tour to a beach, you had to pay to use the toilets in the bar at the beach and there was no warning given, no one had loose change or small dollar bills .So annoying .

Thanks for posting lots of photos , I keep looking for our Irish cruise friends who are onboard in the background 😀. We have done the canal east to west twice , first time on Radiance in 2002 and last time was Vision Nov 2018. The first bridge in your photos was due to open when we were there , we took a local taxi tour from Colon , drove over the lock gates and returned by a ferry which I am sure is probably defunct now due to the new bridge. It was an amazing experience .

We have had 3 of these e.mails for Ventura in 3 weeks , Iona for New year then Arvia next March . I have given in to the bullying nature of them and completed the questionnaire for my husband . He does use a walking stick but can manage the stairs much better than I who is over weight and asthmatic . He said P&O are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut with the way they are handling this . Edit : on Arcadia in July when picking up a tender ticket you had to prove you could step over 2 lines that were placed on the floor in tape completely unaided . At the tender area there were another 2 lines for you to repeat the process again.

We just recently returned from a 24 night round trip from Southampton to Canada and New England on Sky Princess . They opened up one of the main dining rooms as a reading/card/craft room from 10am til 3pm , it was a brilliant facility as there wasn't a seat or table to be had anywhere else on the ship during the 2 Transatlantic crossings. loved our visit to Cartagena, Colombia... the old town is stunning , reminded me of the Canary islands .

Agree, every night in the Crystal room , 1st September sailing , we would walk through and there was ballroom dancing, some fine dancers too.