HOHS on Mariner questions

[flamedFXSTC]

My wife & I have just booked our first cruise with a group called "Hogs on the High Seas". It is a fund-raising cruise for dialisys (sp) patients, and is geared towards motorcycle riders. In thier literature, they state that there are some variations to some of the dining rules. In addition, we have some other preliminary questions:

 

1) They say that for the Formal Dining nights, RCCL has changed the rules for this group. They are saying that these nights are leather required (with an emphasis on discretion). Does anybody know if this also apllys to Chops & Portifino's?

 

2) Does anybody have any opinions, photos, reviews of stateroom #8692. That's the one we booked. It's aft, between the outside most room and a suite.

 

3) As far as the shore excursions...is it a better idea to go with the shore excursions planned by the ship, or find an independent. In my, preliminary research, the independents are less money, and seem to offer a little more. Deos anyone have any recommendations for excursions?

 

Thanks in advance for any help! I'm sure we will have many more questions before it's time to leave!

[Hypo]

Though we are not bikers, we were on the first HOHS cruise on the Voyager. The regular passengers were assigned to first seating for dinner, with the HOHS folks at late seating. Most wore leather for their "formal" dinners, some did not. Portofinos was not leather on those nights. This was a fun cruise and we had a great time.

 

It was interesting, while we were waiting to check in, I was talking to a couple of the guys that were complaining on how "cruises are a dumb idea, and our wives dragged us here". Two days later, these guys were totally sold on the idea of cruising vacations and were seen booking more cruises on the ship.

 

We all had a great time.

 

Hypo

[rollingstone]

Hello!

Come and join our thread for the HOHS. Just go to the "roll call" for Mariner 11/5/06. There aren't many of us yet but we are growing

Nancy

[PVDCruiser]

My wife & I have just booked our first cruise with a group called "Hogs on the High Seas". It is a fund-raising cruise for dialisys (sp) patients, and is geared towards motorcycle riders. In thier literature, they state that there are some variations to some of the dining rules. In addition, we have some other preliminary questions:

 

1) They say that for the Formal Dining nights, RCCL has changed the rules for this group. They are saying that these nights are leather required (with an emphasis on discretion). Does anybody know if this also apllys to Chops & Portifino's?

 

2) Does anybody have any opinions, photos, reviews of stateroom #8692. That's the one we booked. It's aft, between the outside most room and a suite.

 

3) As far as the shore excursions...is it a better idea to go with the shore excursions planned by the ship, or find an independent. In my, preliminary research, the independents are less money, and seem to offer a little more. Deos anyone have any recommendations for excursions?

 

Thanks in advance for any help! I'm sure we will have many more questions before it's time to leave!

 

I would go with shore excursions planned by the ship - from what I've heard this is better because the cruise line will know if somethign goes wrong.

[Max Circus]

3) As far as the shore excursions...is it a better idea to go with the shore excursions planned by the ship, or find an independent. In my, preliminary research, the independents are less money, and seem to offer a little more. Deos anyone have any recommendations for excursions?

 

It depends. The big advantage of the ones planned and purchased through the ship is that in the event of a problem, you are covered. For example, if for some reason the excursion operator was late getting you back to the ship, the ship would know and wait for you. Not true if you booked independently - you'd be on your own. You also wouldn't have to worry about getting refunds if the port gets cancelled.

 

When you book independently, you'll likely be on an excursion with passengers from other ships and probably some that aren't on a cruise at all. The point is that everyone will have a different time and place they need to be after the excursion. My advice is if you want to book something this way, try an excursion that would be for a half-day starting in the morning (assuming you dock in the AM and depart late afternoon). That way, there shouldn't be any issues in returning to the ship in time for departure.

[Palla]

Flamed:

 

We, hub & I, went on the first HOHS cruise on the Voyager. We both ride Harleys and thought this would be an awsome experience. Well, it was Dean & Debbie's first attempt at having a HOHS cruise. Given that, I guess it was an OK experience - from the Harley standpoint. We did pay more for that cruise than any other we'd been on - we got no discount at all. The group that went was wonderful - everyone got along well and I don't think any real problems were encountered.

 

As for the shore excursions...they will have things planned for you to do, e.g. poker walks, etc. that you should participate in if you want to be "part of the group", however don't feel obligated.

 

Dinner...you saw people in all leather to just a leather tie. Dinner in dining rooms is really casual attire for the group. No need to bring "fancy" clothes for this. Not sure about Portofinos or Chops.

 

The one REAL problem we had was with the every-night event of going into the theater room. This lasted anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours. We missed the regular shows due to this. We'd go in the theater and sit while they talked, yap, yap on and on. Then they'd have the big "giveaways" of which us and 2 friends who went with us, never received anything. That was the joke of the cruise. Dean & Debbie went on and on about all their giveaways and what they had personally put into the cruise (money wise). Wasn't worth missing the ship's shows, in our opinion.

 

I know Dean & Debbie worked very hard for this first cruise, and I feel quite sure that it has improved dramatically since that first time.

 

I know you'll have a great time and I look forward to hearing all about it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me!

 

Palla