- Joined
- Jul 7, 2010
- Messages
- 10,357
Just got back from my RCCL, and yes, it ended exactly the same way - all the suitcases lined up neatly with their luggage tags outside the doors by 10pm. My husband and I only did that on our first cruise - we'd much rather haul it down and out than have it outside our stateroom door to be taken away early. I need the toiletries and some clothes the next morning anyway so its just easier in our opinion to keep it all with us so we can pack it all away normally than make up a separate overnight bag.
Nothing tragic happened on our RCCL, but there definitely were some negatives that I can't quite stomach. I could go on and on as I did in the survey yesterday while I was stuck waiting for a delayed flight at JFK...!
These are all specific to the Jewel of the Seas - newer and or larger ships could be very different. If you have any specific questions (I know firsthand how hard that can be, I'm sorry!) I can answer them now! TLDR wrap-up at the bottom:-The drink package is probably my longest rant. It was problematic... after giving in and buying the Royal Replenish drink package ($19/day) I ended up really disappointed BUT I WOULD GET IT AGAIN. Why? Because in the end it is cheaper than buying drinks piecemeal, plus even if I didn't have it I'd still have most of the same problems. I did cheat and shared some of my drinks with my husband - we're married and thats just how we work. Even today (we took an extra day off to recoup) we bought one mocha and split it. Cheaper to get a medium and share than two smalls, you know? Everything else about the package I hated. Yes, hated. I hated having to go to a bar to get a non alcoholic drink. Want a bottle of water? Get in line and jostle at the bar with everyone trying to get an alcoholic drink (got more and more fun the later in the day it was). I can't even begin to tell you how many times we were overlooked or stepped in front of trying to get water. Every time I had to sign a receipt with a tip line, for them reaching into a cupboard to get out a bottle of water - IF they had it. Very often they were out of them and I had walk to another bar to try again. I got in the habit of hitting two bars if I went to get a bottle so I had one in the mini fridge. Better to just do it in one go... it was easier to go out of my way to go a couple of different places but was demoralizing. I feel like I really shouldn't have had to do that. If I wanted a coffee and a bottle of water in the morning they had to run my card twice - I got into the habit of asking for the water after they made my latte, since if I did it at the same time I got asked if I had a second card with a package. No, I don't, I just like water with my coffee. It dehydrates me. They glared at me suspiciously. Oh well. Orange juice always got them explaining to me that if I wanted fresh OJ it could only be from Windjammer in the morning, so I had to wait for them to finish so I could tell them the regular bar OJ was fine with me. It got old fast, so I started saying up front that the stuff out of their tube at the bar was fine. You could tell they didn't like doing it - the few times we got a beer they were always much friendlier but the moment I said I wanted something without booze in it the conversation ended and the card/receipt tossed at me without a word. Sometimes they didn't bother to print a receipt which was much preferable - I could run away that much faster! The hours at Windjammer are fine for meals, but not so much grabbing a drink when you want one. They DO close in the afternoon for a few hours and after 9pm so I often found I didn't have a choice but to brave a bar crowd if I wanted something. Maybe kids have options in the clubs..? Can you tell how seriously the water thing was getting to me? Well that is because...
-The water faucets started putting out BROWN water two days in. BROWN. Water. As in the stuff you wash your hands and brush your teeth with. YUCK. Before ANYONE says this was surely a one off let me tell you it is NOT. We called. We complained and asked twice and were told that it ALWAYS happens when they switch tanks but would clear up. So we waited but it didn't get better in the next couple of hours - I went out about 11pm in my PJs to collect some water bottles (yes, I shared these with my husband especially) so we had clean water to use that night. Call me prissy, but I won't drink brown water out of my own faucets at home and I certainly won't drink it out of a cruise ship's either. I noticed it at first in the bathrooms up on 11 when trying to wash my hands and was so disgusted I just wiped the soap off with some towels and used hand sanitizer instead until I could get back to my room, but it was brown there also. So I know it wasn't just my room... which is why we called and asked.
-My time dining is surely a joke. I signed us up for dinner at 6:30 every night that we weren't in Chops or Portofino (I'm not going to review them fully since food is subjective) and when I showed up on time the first night I was told not to come at that time. Excuse me..? They said it wasn't convenient if we came at 6:30 because the early diners were wrapping up and to make sure to come around 6pm instead from there on out. So... what is the point of it? Shouldn't they just not have 6:30 as an option? I wasn't given the choice of main or late dining when we booked, but made reservations on their site where 6:30 was clearly an option (I could have picked any time really - they offer them at the :15 mark throughout their open hours). So we apologized (why do I apologize even for things that aren't my fault I'll never know) and made sure to come earlier the next night. We were rewarded with them skipping the offer of drinks and any bread and rushed through appetizers and mains until we caught up with the diners around us for dessert. After that we had had it and simply didn't go back to the main dining room. We heard literally the same joke from the main server at every table (I wish I were making that up) and the first night when he went over the specials he said them loudly to six tables at once. SIX. Luckily I was listening in - he didn't ask for anyone's attention when he did it and did not offer to say them again to us though I suppose we could have asked him to. The tables for two were on top of each other - I know people say the same thing about tables on DCL, but this was your butt pressing one table while your unmentionables only had an inch to go to hit the other one. Many couples had just given up and were talking to the people on either side as if they were at a communal table. I, personally, thought the food in the MDR was not good. Again, we only ate there twice, but what we had was very bland. The soups were really thin, the salads really basic, and the entrees were not great though if you were looking for size you'd be happy. Halfway through and we were done with them. Saucy and under seasoned, but maybe I ordered poorly? The servers (both the girl getting the drinks and our main server) gave me a hard time about not licking my plate clean both nights which I hate. Things like "was the salmon no good?" "You don't want anything else then?"
-I was more excited than I should have been to see hot food on the room service menu for breakfast. We went to the buffet for comparison sake (I know, I know, don't compare but I am certain people are going to ask me anyway so we tried everything at least once) and I didn't like it at all. The eggs were oddly textured, bacon really thin, oatmeal watery and the fruit tasted of salt water. I also tried the fresh OJ that morning since everyone seemed to think it was the bees knees (else why always compare the 'other' OJ to it up to and telling me I couldn't have OJ since they assumed I wanted this fresh stuff). I am not a pulp lover though I do enjoy fresh OJ at breakfast at other places around town, but I could NOT drink theirs. Pulp lovers will be in HEAVEN! Sorry to tangent there because what I really wanted to say is that the "hot" food is cold by the time it gets to the room, and it really is the same stuff as in the buffet which makes sense. We stuck to granola, coffee and pastries after that just as on DCL and it was fine for breakfast. I wish you could get the muffins like the have in the case at the coffee bar, but since I went up for coffee from there every morning anyway it was easy to grab a bran one on the way off the ship.
-The pool slide and rock wall hours were practically non existent. They were only open for a couple hours every day, while we were in port and thus off the ship. So was the desk to sign up for their loyalty program so we didn't have a chance to do any of that.
-The smoke DOES waft out of the casino. Obviously only when there is enough smoke to do that, but every day at some point as we went by the atrium I smelled it. The air circulates it and the atrium is 9 stories or so tall, so it really gets around. Unless you are really sensitive to smoke you may not notice it, but I did as did my husband less frequently. I did not get any migraines from it which I usually do, so I am sure it is not much, but that was a concern of mine and may be other's. The casino itself is easy to avoid as long as you are mindful of where it is. Much like you have to go up or down a level to keep out of the adult area on the DCL ships we had to do the same to get around the casino. My husband ventured in a couple times for things - $2 mimosas one morning (they'll gladly give you a double for $4 in a pint glass BTW) and change for room service/taxi tipping. If I didn't have him around that would have been frustrating but only a little - I'd have had to go wait at guest services instead for change. Every time I went by there was a long line, but it was always at prime times such as the morning going off the ship and in the afternoon having come back.
-24 hour pools= awesome. I LOVED the solarium though it was kind of muggy in there in the evenings. Smoke wafted in there too through the large automatic doors if you were on the starboard side (they stay open a bit after someone goes through, so there is no helping it) so we would try to stay on the other side. We never once got a lounger when we returned from port - the area is too dang popular. Lots of "empty" ones with stuff like towels or a book on them, but I couldn't be bothered to wait the half hour to see if it was really abandoned, nor did I want to get into it with anyone if they came back so we just sat at the tables by the windows instead and played cribbage.
-The showers ARE small, and the bathroom could have used another shelf or a little bit more counter space but the closet was WONDERFUL. Lots of space and shelves and hangers and mmmmm. Who knew a closet could make cruising easier? Our luggage fit under the bed just fine to boot. The couch felt really small - we barely fit on it together and we are, I think, average sized (he's a men's 32 and I'm a woman's 8). The bed was still the one where two twins are pushed together so the seam was annoying at night.
-Getting off the ship and on was the same as DCL, so I don't have much to say about it. They DID take our booze away at each port (though they missed a bottle my husband had one day so he just kept on walking to my mortification - we put it right in the luggage and didn't touch it fwiw >_<) and I was really worried it would be broken. I'm not sure how DCL has decided to do it, but they mark it with your room number and toss it in one of those HUGE laundry roll carts. SO much weight. SO much clanking of bottles... but they all made it back to us unharmed.
-Entertainment was I think my largest disappointment. We spent a LOT more time in the room and on the verandah this trip. Nothing seemed to be on the TV that was interesting and I noticed the same episodes of things played over and over again during the week. They played the same three movies in the theatre over and over. They didn't put any effort into advertising what the shows they were putting on each night were aside from a sentence or two hidden in the Compass (Navigator) and it just said who was in it, not what it was, so we only went to the welcome show and the finale. In both they had a comedian - two different very old male comedians. Oh my word - the RACIST jokes. My mouth dropped that first night and ruined all of the following jokes in that set. Right down to making fun of accents in the most cliche awful way you can imagine - I'm surprised they did that. There was a lot of dancing, and bands, and themed drinks. We could have signed up for a mystery theatre in Portofino but we didn't since it was expensive - moreso than dinner. They had some trivias while we were in port (again, we were off the ship) but honestly there wasn't much going on around the ship it felt like. People were swimming, or drinking, or gambling, or sunbathing. It was VERY MUCH an older crowd... we saw a handful of children the entire cruise and rarely a couple in their 30s. We bumped into a few honeymooners, but they seemed to be the only other people this side of 50 on the ship.
-The staff, overall, were not gracious. You know how the staff in Cove Cafe can seem disinterested, maybe even snooty? Or can you think of the type? That was almost everyone. They tended to repeat things to you three times, always in threes, which made us feel like we were being talked down to. You had to say hi first, and if you asked a question, such as where to get orange juice on the first day or if there is a list you could look at *ahem* they would wave off in a direction as they said try a bar. Everything was always someone else. I accidentally got into it with a guy in Windjammer because I went to the drink section on one side and it had a sign saying they were closed and to go to the other side (even with three workers talking behind it). So I went to the other side (no sign) where I was asked what I would like. I told him and he tried to pour it out of the bar tube and it wouldn't work so he pulled a face and announced he was closed and to try the other side. I explained that it was closed and had a sign pointing to him so I was really sorry (WHY DO I DO THAT) and did he know where I might get some elsewhere and he just kept saying he was closed which was absurd to me since he JUST tried to get me the drink. I went to the other side again, saw the sign and that they were clearly cleaning it up by then, so I went back to my husband and started telling him what happened when the guy RAN OUT from behind his bar to the other one snapping at me to go over there and got me the drink. He then started lecturing me to not tell anyone where I got it. When they were supposedly still open. I promised I wouldn't anyway. Weird weird weird....another time my stateroom host (whom I DID really like btw, better than the hosts I have had elsewhere) tossed the cookies I brought back from Chops the next morning before I had a chance to have them as my afternoon snack. My husband called and they said they'd send more up later, but they never did. I'd rather they just say no than not follow through. We went to the port excursion desk and tried to find out something they probably knew - hours for a visitors site - but they did not want to help unless we were booking a tour with them.
Man.... there I went with a novel again, I'm sorry. Its late and I could keep going if you can believe it...
TLDR, we did save money, and I did have fun, but I'm not sure I would choose RCCL over DCL unless I had to. They dropped the ball in ways that were important to me, mostly service wise and I often felt sad or embarrassed during my vacation which I'm not used to. I had to fend for myself for entertainment and in other ways to a very large degree.
