we did our first Trans-Atlantic cruise this year, any questions?

[bluecruisin]

I am no expert by any means! I had a fair amount of difficulty getting answers and information by the more seasoned cruises when I asked questions on the roll-call when I first booked, approx. 3/18.  So if I can help anyone I will give it a try.  We sailed ON the Serenade OTS  4/26/19, a 16 night cruise. And yes, we would do it again!! And again!

[fredflint]

Yes people who have never been on a TA don't understand the allure they have for many people.  All we do now is a TA every 2 years Nov 2020 is our next one.

[bluecruisin]

We are all booked up for cruise/vacations for 2020, but 2011 T/A will be booked as soon they release the schedule!

[Mugiwara]

I'm doing a TP next year that will be 15 days.  I have a few basic questions that I'm hoping you can answer.

 

1. What is the repetition on the Main Dining room menus - which ones did they repeat and how many times?

2. How many formal nights on a repositioning cruise? 

3. Did they offer any deals on food or drink packages closer to your sail date?

4. Do you have any copies of your Cruise compass?  It would be nice to get a feel for how things run on an extended cruise with a large number of sea days.

 

Thanks.

[bluecruisin]

!. We had a different menu each night, a couple of times a entrée of the day was repeated.        2. There were 3 formal nights, I did notice that for the most part most people were not ultra formal.  2 or 3 port days when time departure time was later, they only offered open seating in the MDR for dinner  as they have for breakfast and lunch. Only one dining room open and things were loud, ,crowded and dinner took along time.  3. No great rates on drink packages. before the cruise.  Around the last 4 days of cruise they did offer a 10 drink card for $70.          4. No Compasses. They offered an enrichment lecture several times,  apporx. 3 trivia games a day. A movie on sea days in the main theatre. Plus the other normal activities.    Our roll call group set up various card games and LRC on sea days, cabin crawl, slot pull and a book club. I am sure I am missing more activities.  Enjoy your cruise!

Edited May 27, 2019 by bluecruisin

[fredflint]

If the TP is on a larger ship you should have pretty good internet so plan on that for a fallback.  We really enjoy trivia but the last 2 cruises the people were not very good English speakers so we could not even understand the questions.  Guest lectures also vary the larger ships have been better than the smaller ones.

 

We used the buffet and Specialty  dining more than the MDR as we found the service to be slow, we got our shrimp cocktail then a few minutes later they brought the cocktail sauce.  The food was also not very hot and portions were small.  We found the Buffet to usually be a better choice for us, plus we did not have to do any planning for meals.

 

Specialty dining had all sorts of offers after the first half of the cruise.

[Biker19]

Just now, fredflint said:

If the TP is on a larger ship you should have pretty good internet so plan on that for a fallback. 

I would not count on that for the Ovation TP in '21.

[Mugiwara]

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I appreciate the info.  It will be interesting to see what kind of enrichment activities they'll have planned.

[cruisegirl1]

19 minutes ago, Mugiwara said:

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I appreciate the info.  It will be interesting to see what kind of enrichment activities they'll have planned.

Usually some sort of lecture series which may or may not be of interest.  Plus, there is often a port talk - NOT the shopping talk as in the Caribbean, but actual historic and  current info about an upcoming port or passage.  We found those to be interesting.  The lecture series is also shown on the TV.

enjoy

 

M

 

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by cruisegirl1

[goldfish65]

22 hours ago, fredflint said:

Yes people who have never been on a TA don't understand the allure they have for many people.  All we do now is a TA every 2 years Nov 2020 is our next one.

 

Thanks @bluecruisinfor this thread, it's my first cruise since the '70's, seen all the Caribbean I ever care to, I can't wait spend those days in comfort feeling the movement through the open ocean. 

 

Do they tone down the blaring "music" in the pool area that I hear in many videos? Since the majority of cruisers tend to be older?

Edited May 27, 2019 by goldfish65

[bluecruisin]

Pool deck was only in big use the first few days and was easy to find a lounge chair. I did not notice the music to be a problem as I have on other cruises.

[spookyfudge]

We are booked on a trans-pacfic, is it the same as the trans-atlantic?

 

[fredflint]

Usually 3 they tend to be more casual and you can also do any of the alternate dining locations if you want to skip  dressing up.

[fredflint]

Pretty much it seems a cruise of 14 nights gets you 3 formal nights, most cruises after 14-16 days are just 2 cruises combined.

[Biker19]

7 hours ago, spookyfudge said:

We are booked on a trans-pacfic, is it the same as the trans-atlantic?

 

Yes, except on a different ocean and depending on direction you either lose a whole day or repeat one. 

[majorjan]

9 hours ago, spookyfudge said:

We are booked on a trans-pacfic, is it the same as the trans-atlantic?

 

I've done many transatlantic and one transpacific on Royal Caribbean .  The transpacific cruise, a 24 day from Seattle to Australia, was a lot rougher seas, more rainy days, and most ports were tender ports in the South Pacific islands. There were many lectures and more daytime activities on the crossings, Much more trivia, and of course, on the transpacific, a big celebration at sea at the International dateline. Adding a full day, and time changes add to the experience. On the Transatlantic cruises, we've circumvented hurricanes at sea a few times. In my experiences , when a passenger gets a cold, half the ship gets it. The  Infirmary was packed with people coughing and wanting cough medication, After that, I brought my own with me. Also, we encountered  more emergency evacuations and missed ports due to illness aboard. I also noticed the food is geared toward the area we were traveling to,  ie more European food.

The transpacific cruise was amazing with the very late sunsets and long days.

 

 

[Bee Guy]

11 hours ago, spookyfudge said:

We are booked on a trans-pacfic, is it the same as the trans-atlantic?

 

We have done several TA's but only one TP and it was 2 years ago.  If I recall correctly there was more warm weather on the TP and more sea days.  When we did the TP it was sold as one cruise from Sidney to Seattle.  Now they break it up into two segments, Australia to Hawaii and then Hawaii to the West Coast.  In our notes there is no mention of rough seas or bad weather other than one foggy day.  We have missed ports or gone through rough seas on several TA cruises.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Bee Guy

[TwinMamainMN]

We are doing TP from Hawaii to Vancouver next year on Radiance and it has been slim pickings finding any information about it here on CC. We sailed Radiance in Alaska last August, so we know the ship, but I have no information about activities on board, etc. I'm not stressing about it and plan to relax and read a lot.

[cruisegirl1]

The last transatlantic  we took, there was a very active cruise critic message board. Many of our  semi private excursions were with other folks from that message board. Also people had gotten together according to their interests, people who brought needlework, people who played mah Jongg,  people who played bridge or   other card games etc.  I think there was even a book club   

 

 We were worried that we would be so bored. Seems that we had more than enough to fill our day, possibly because we lost an hour at least 5 mornings  to be at the correct time when we reached  the Azores. 

 

 It was one of the few cruises that we actually exercised every day.   Well, at least every sea😄. 

 

Enjoy 

[dstein]

I've just started looking a future TAs or TPs myself, as this is something we're very interested in.  I found 5-6 different Cruise Compasses online for a variety of ship classes because I, too, was curious as to how activities were structured.  Here are a few generalizations I've noted based upon my research:

 

• It appears that port days allow the ship to refresh the Headliners.  The more ports, the more variety at the theater.
• Oasis class have fewer different shows, but those they do are bigger.  They present each show 3-4 times per cruise (since limited seats and RSVP needed)
• Ovation class have shows in BOTH theater and 720 At Sea.
• Progressive events happen on Sea Days.  Lecture/Enrichment events happen on Sea Days (this last one isn't yet confirmed.)
• Puzzle Breaks might be exclusively on Sea Days
• Eastbound TPs lose 1 Sea Day at the dateline (so "Sea Day->Dateline Day" lasts only 24 hours, but ticks two days off the calendar)
• Westbound TPs gain 1 Sea Day at the dateline (so "Sea Day->Dateline Day" lasts 48 hours, but only ticks one day off the calendar)

And now, a question: for a given class of ship, to what extent does the Cruise Director/Activities Director influence the schedule of events?  For example, will ALL Radiance class ships doing some kind of crossing generally have the same event schedules, or does the CD/AD impact this?  Will some cruises be more dance-heavy while others are more trivia-heavy because the CD or AD prefer this?

[Clarea]

6 hours ago, dstein said:

 ...

And now, a question: for a given class of ship, to what extent does the Cruise Director/Activities Director influence the schedule of events?  For example, will ALL Radiance class ships doing some kind of crossing generally have the same event schedules, or does the CD/AD impact this?  Will some cruises be more dance-heavy while others are more trivia-heavy because the CD or AD prefer this?

 

Unpredictable.    We've done 3 transatlantics on Radiance class ships, and some scheduled activities were similar and some were not.