Back from first cruise

[cruisentn]

Yes, they were right. You'll become addicted as we have already planned to sell our camper (that we haven't camped but twice in 2 years) and already planning the next cruise. Now, I'm going to answer my own questions that I had previously posted here. It might help some other noobie. This was a 7 night Serenade of the Seas from New Orleans to Key West, Coco Cay and Nassau.

1-No irons, it's a fire hazard. Send to laundry, let hang awhile or wear something else. You're on a cruise.

2-pocket knife was in suitcase and they never said a thing.

3-Read 2 mysteries, one a cruise mystery.

4-Deck plans and ship orientation was frustrating until we figured out what was going on. They do not leave you ship plans. You can get those at the Help Desk. But there are these huge electronic touch pads everywhere on board that update themselves and you can find anything you need to know there.

5-Cause of our new addiction? Mine is just being on a big massive boat slicing through beautiful water while it leaves behind the stresses of land and it's filled with quiet places, loud fun, good food, beautiful and clean surroundings, and i't s filled with happy human beings (crew and passengers) that reinstilled my faith in humanity. Left home just wanting to get away from all people but ended up making great friends. Therapy at sea. I also enjoyed the dynamics of the travel. Not stagnant like going to a condo or hotel. New places, new people, new music, new foods, new views. Allllll while you just nap, read, eat, workout and ride. wow.

6-The gym was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Very nice gym filled with Lifefitness equipment. On 11th floor bow so you can workout and see where you're headed. Nice walking track outside around pool and deck. Windy, but fun there. Steamroom and sauna and showers (male is all I saw lol) were perfect and comfortable with towels available everywhere. Very nice. I went to gym and steam room twice a day. lol.

7-How much money we spent? We spent $318.00 on board. 80 of that was for a wife's haircut because she didn't have time before we left. 30 for laundry. They did a thing on Wed where they left a bag and whatever you get in that bag costs 30 to be cleaned and brought back. I got 19 items in there. lol. Good deal. the rest was spent on drinks and souveniers on board. Oh and 50 on a cabanette on Coco Cay and that's TOTALLY worth the 50 for the both of us. Includes a ride from port to Barefoot beach, very quiet and secluded place, your cabanette is setup with two comfy lounge chairs, a big bucket of ice with two big bottles of water in it on a wooden table inside. Two floats and shuttle back to main part for lunch, shuttle back to beach and shuttle back to port. Drinks on board were like $8.00 a piece or so. We usually had a glass of wine or a margarita. **FYI**Anything that you buy on board is bought with your Seapass and tips are AUTOMATICALLY placed on the tab, no matter if you buy one or ten drinks. If you give them more, that's up to you.

8-We had breakfast and lunch in the buffet and dinner in the main dining room. Normally, I detest buffets. These are not a typical 'buffet'. VERY good food, served cleanly and always nicely staffed.

9-They were wrong about one thing. I had plenty of money but was sooooooo underdressed and didn't take enough clothes. Suit was fine for formal night. But, shorts and a tshirt are NOT ok to wear in the main dining room at dinner on other nights. I did, cause that's all I took, except one pair of pants. I didn't expect to mix and mingle like we did so I didn't take nice khakis and "church" clothes. Men, take em.

Women wore nice pants and nice dresses to ball gowns on formal nights. Other than those evenings..it's shorts and tshirts all day. I was so underdressed I was uncomfortable at night at dinner and going to movie or stage show or to the Centrum to have a drink with our new friends.

10-Purell is everywhere.

11-We had cell service from NO for a long while. Then nothing until Key west and had cell service great there. Nothing on board unless you pay for it. Nassau had a wifi (3.00) in Starbucks. Nothing in Coco Cay. I tried the buying the wifi on board to check on the kids, but really it sucked and didn't work on my S4. Didn't want to login at their terminals that you buy cause I tried that two and screw24 (haha) was still logged in on Facebook on that pc so it's not cache cleaned. Not worth it. Logged out and only paid $.25 cause it was half price. Didn't miss not having a phone signal at all. Mandatory seclusion is ok sometimes.

12-What to put in a carry on? I used a back pack, camera, Tablet, deo, toothbrush. That's about it. some were in the hot tub by the time they got ON the ship. lol. We just wandered around a lot exploring.

13-Finally, tips. We paid gratuities up front, which is $12.00 a day per person. That is divided amongst ALL of the crew. They do not get anything else, no hourly wage. That said, we tipped our steward $20.00 when we left. He was ok. But, he didn't do anything outstanding. We didn't ASK him for anything extra like ice brought every night like some of our friends did. He cleaned our room and that was it. Barely saw him. He has 9 rooms and suites to keep up with. He was older and extremely hard to understand. Nice guy, but nothing outstanding at all. Not really communicative or encouraging. Just sort of distantly present and cleaned our room while we were gone....which, um..is his job. Nothing above at all. Our fiends had exceptional and above service by happy stewards which they tipped a couple of dollars a day. We did tip him 5 for bringing our 3 bags to our room which were there by about 5 pm. He was ok.

They're right! Cruising is addicting for me because it's an escape and time away from cellphones and grumpy, stressed out human beings.

Hopefully this will help some other person on their cruise decisions.

 

One of my favorite things to do was to stand up front, alone, on the bow on the 11th floor, in the 80 degree weather, as the cool wind hits my face, listen to Moby in my earbuds and just stare into the horizon where there is absolutely nothing....

except for the places we are going.

Edited January 19, 2014 by cruisentn

[cb at sea]

Sounds like you had a great time!

Just a note:

Your tips of $12.00 per day is divided among your attendant, waiter, ass't waiter and head waiter....not divided among ALL the crew! They do get an hourly wage, although it's not very much...sort of like waitstaff in a restaurant!

[cruisentn]

Sounds like you had a great time!

Just a note:

Your tips of $12.00 per day is divided among your attendant, waiter, ass't waiter and head waiter....not divided among ALL the crew! They do get an hourly wage, although it's not very much...sort of like waitstaff in a restaurant!

More than one staff told me that RC had recently done away with their hourly wage, so all they got was the gratuities (12.00 a day included).

That's all I know. And they said that RC had also make them pay their own airfare now. But, they said they loved their jobs!

And yes, we did have a great time!

[destaw7182]

Happy to read that you had a nice cruise. Thank you or sharing and thanks for the tips from a newbie perspective!

[cruisentn]

Oh... And we didn't buy any of the posed pictures by the fake backgrounds. Lol.

Made plenty, but with real backgrounds.

[Suitcasefull]

Nice to hear our addiction group has grown. Think you were warned but probably didn't believe it! :D

Your post is great and likely helpful to other newbies reading it so that was very thoughtful of you! Enjoy planning the next cruise and the next and the next and the next................

[SeaTeach]

Enjoyed your "read", and don't mind sharing my addiction with ya!!

[JimAOk1945]

I enjoyed reading your "first cruise" experience. Have you shared this information on the Royal Caribbean section? I'm sure the readers there would enjoy it. Here is the link

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

 

Hope you have many more cruises in your future. It's a great way to explore the world.

Edited January 21, 2014 by JimAOk1945

[Krazy Kruizers]

I enjoyed reading your first cruise observations.

Glad you are now addicted.