Solarium closed for sail-away

[Ocean Boy]

On 1/12/2024 at 12:36 PM, crewsweeper said:

Many groups with over 50 passengers will book the Solarium for specific event. No big deal, plenty of places to eat on boarding.

Well I disagree about it not being a big deal. One cruise on Allure in the afternoon of a nice sea day, they throw everyone out of the Solarium for a private party for one of the groups that were aboard. It was a big inconvenience to a lot of people.

[alfaeric]

27 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Well I disagree about it not being a big deal. One cruise on Allure in the afternoon of a nice sea day, they throw everyone out of the Solarium for a private party for one of the groups that were aboard. It was a big inconvenience to a lot of people.

Bring enough money to buy the Solarium for an hour, and you will be all set.  

[sgmn]

3 hours ago, alfaeric said:

Bring enough money to buy the Solarium for an hour, and you will be all set.  

It's already paid for in our cruise fare.  Public areas should be ......public

[Tlbecker1]

7 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

Bonus 😉 

It was unexpected and a lot of fun.  We were on a cruise where the Solarium Bistro was closed for the entire week making Kosher meals. We enjoy eating in there, but we’re unable to.  We still had a great cruise.

[Ocean Boy]

3 hours ago, sgmn said:

It's already paid for in our cruise fare.  Public areas should be ......public

Especially when it is a venue that doesn't have a similar area elsewhere on the ship.

[Ocean Boy]

6 hours ago, alfaeric said:

Bring enough money to buy the Solarium for an hour, and you will be all set.  

Yeah, ok.

[kernow]

11 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I am waiting for France to serve a "cease and desist" order for using the word "Champagne" being associated with the carbonated wine they offer at these events. It is far from "Champagne".

 

"Let them eat cake."

 

🤢

It's only Americans that call the fake stuff 'champagne', the rest of us call it sparkling wine.😀

[Ocean Boy]

12 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I am waiting for France to serve a "cease and desist" order for using the word "Champagne" being associated with the carbonated wine they offer at these events. It is far from "Champagne".

 

"Let them eat cake."

 

🤢

Kind of like the soft serve ice cream, I mean chemical mixture, out on the pool deck.

[Dewaldcruiser]

On 1/16/2024 at 8:17 AM, gerard43 said:

obsession with thinking royal Caribbean owes you much of anything for being loyal

Not really an obsession, but just as the airlines do, cruise lines have discovered that they can greatly increase their repeat business by offering perks to frequent cruisers.  Even Comcast has a loyalty program now.

 

And it is effective.  I like the trinkets and drinks that Royal gives me for cruising often with them.  Without these perks, I would likely cruise more often with Royal's competitors.  Do I think Royal owes me my free drinks? No, but if they were not offering them to me, I think I would like to try Princess cruises 😉

[sjb317]

We had this event on our Odyssey TA last October.  It was very nice but extremely crowded and noisy.  Waiters were passing around with trays of drinks, wine, sparkling wine, rum punch, and margaritas were some of the drinks I saw.  Plus different finger foods.  It reminded me of what top tier parties used to be years ago.😂

 

But, even though we enjoyed it, I do agree with the OP as it does not seem fair to close down a popular area during sail away, especially on the first day. On our cruise, they actually closed the solarium at 2pm to start setting up, you were allowed to walk through but staff chased away anyone who tried to sit down.  The event was from 4 to 6, long time to have it closed.

 

Sherri🙂

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, Dewaldcruiser said:

Not really an obsession, but just as the airlines do, cruise lines have discovered that they can greatly increase their repeat business by offering perks to frequent cruisers.  Even Comcast has a loyalty program now.

 

And it is effective.  I like the trinkets and drinks that Royal gives me for cruising often with them.  Without these perks, I would likely cruise more often with Royal's competitors.  Do I think Royal owes me my free drinks? No, but if they were not offering them to me, I think I would like to try Princess cruises 😉

Agree. And if not for the perks I would probably already have a reservation on MSC. It is wise to keep your clients from trying the competition. They might find that they like it better.

[alfaeric]

7 hours ago, sgmn said:

It's already paid for in our cruise fare.  Public areas should be ......public

Except when it's sold out to the highest bidder.  Then it's not.  Pretty much every venue has been sold to someone at some point.  

 

It's interesting that there's a thread that is trying to ban the word "free"- which is just as "free" as "public" is.  

Edited January 19 by alfaeric

[time4u2go]

7 hours ago, sgmn said:

It's already paid for in our cruise fare.  Public areas should be ......public

 

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Especially when it is a venue that doesn't have a similar area elsewhere on the ship.

Very true.

[Dewaldcruiser]

15 minutes ago, alfaeric said:

Except when it's sold out to the highest bidder.  Then it's not.  Pretty much every venue has been sold to someone at some point.  

I was on a recent cruise where a Country & Western group had taken over multiple venues for their paying customers.  Small deal in the over all cruise to me, but there are always people that like to make a big deal out of trivial things that should not impact fully enjoying their cruise.

[shipgeeks]

Years ago, we were on a cruise on which we intended to spend the first morning in our favorite lounge. When we got there, there was a sign at the door: PRIVATE EVENT.  We were not allowed in. When we read further, it said CRUISE CRITIC MEET AND GREET.

We were extremely disappointed that some group we had not even heard of had the nerve to take over a nice room, one which had no duplicate.  It was closed for the entire morning.

Just saying......

[taglovestocruise]

18 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

There are no longer free flowing drinks. Vouchers must be used.

Just talking about the sail away party, lots of appetizers, free flowing champagne, and a few other drinks. D and above and no vouchers needed to be used.