The Never-Ending-Anything-Goes PTR

[Leshaface]

WHAT A CRUISE!? You're crazy and I love it!

Definitely very jealous. I was just telling DH about the awesome deal that's going on through DCL right now out of Galveston in October, but I don't think newborns are allowed on cruises

Can't wait for the day where I can be spontaneous again, like you!

 

[stephielela]

Well, we survived Isaac! I haven't started my mini TR on this cruise just because it's going to be short and sweet, and mostly words lol.

As some of you may have heard, Hurricane Isaac wreaked minor havoc on the cruise ships in the Bahamas area, so this was DEFINITELY a unique experience. We did not get off the ship once in 3 days and we got into port 10 hours after we were scheduled to, so that was an interesting obstacle. I WILL be doing a write up though, just because this was our first RCCL experience and I spent a lot of time comparing it to the DCL, NCL, and Carnival cruises I have been on. I hope to get it written up this week and it will probably be just one post. I do have a Fall trip update to post though

 

[jenseib]

I can't wait to hear about it.

 

[stephielela]

It's been so long since I really posted anything about our Fall trip soI am just going to recap everything!

Dates: Sept 27-31 in Gainesville
November 1-6 in WDW

Resort: Pop Century- I REALLY wanted Art of Animation but they weren't offering it with Free Dining so back to our "home" resort it is!

Travelers: Jack and I (of course!) and for November 1-3 one of my best friends and her husband and probably her sister

We are heading to Gainesville first to have my friends baby shower. They live in Italy but will be home visiting her family so it's the opportune time. We can spend a few days relaxing and shopping ofr baby stuff before heading to WDW. We are going to drive up first thing on the 1st and probably head to Epcot to enjoy some F&WF time. She knows they also want to do Magic Kingsom but they haven't decided on a 3rd park yet. Then once they leave Jack and I will do whichever park we didn't do with them and then another day at MK and another Epcot day. We are doing MK before we leave on the 6th since we will have all morning. I am so thrilled to be able to do F&WF this year since that was the thing I was most sad about missing when we did our DCL trip last year instead of WDW. We are also doing the last MNSSHP on November 2!

So far we aren't making any ADR's, we are on the QSDP and while I would usually want to have a tleast one sit down meal in Epcot, with F&W I doubt we will have any room in our tummies for anything else. We may make one or two for after our friends leave (they are very last minute kind of people lol) but we'll see.

I absolutely cannot wait! I LOVE Fall at WDW and this year we are getting to spend way more time than we did 2 years ago so we will get to have much more fun! I'm getting ready to look through the F&W menus etc to start pinpointing snacks and drinks ) I want to try!

 

[Leshaface]

Sorry have not been on lately and am now catching up on all my threads.

I'm so happy you survived Isaac and can't wait to hear about your TR on the cruise!

 

[stephielela]

Sorry have not been on lately and am now catching up on all my threads.

I'm so happy you survived Isaac and can't wait to hear about your TR on the cruise!

No worries!! I know you have PLENTY on your plate right now!
Besides, I've barely been on lately so nothing new to read

 

[stephielela]

Wow, it's been a whole MONTH since I've updated!! I actually thought I had LOST my camera for a couple weeks Turns out it fell through a hole in the lining of my carry on!!! Even so I didn't take many pictures (since we never got off the ship) so I've decided to just write a quick review and if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!



Overall I really enjoyed the RCCL experience. I felt like it was pretty comparable to DCL as far as luxury level. The price difference is what makes it my favorite NON DISNEY cruise line If I could afford to sail with DCL every time, I would, but the truth of the matter is their pricing is out of my range most of the time.



Dining:

The food was great in the dining rooms. We skipped formal night and went to Johnny Rockets that night so I can't compare those, but the food and service was excellent the other nights. I didn't enjoy the buffet as much as DCL because their food was a little more "complicated" which was fine for me but tricky for Jack. They also did an amazing job making food available the entire last day which would normally be a bare bones breakfast since is the day they offload. The wait staff was very friendly and did their best to communicate with our table mates who were Russian and spoke almost no English.

Johnny Rockets was good, but the upcharge ($5) to eat there was a little irritating, though I knew about it in advance. I guess it irritated me more that there was an upcharge AND we had to pay for milkshakes... We ended up spending over $20 there. However the service was awesome and we enjoyed our quiet dinner to ourselves.

Drinking:

Let's not pretend that this isn't one of my favorite things about cruising. The drinks on RCCL were reasonably priced and delicious. I would say the cost was slightly higher than DCL, but that's because DCL has the program where you keep your cup and basically just get refills on the drink of the day. This ship had the new Coke Freestyle machines, but it is not fleet wide yet, my parents and several clients just got off ships that didn't have them.


Entertainment:

Obviously Disney has cornered the market on the live shows aspect, but RCCL did a phenomenal job of making sure there was always something going on to keep passengers entertained all day. That being said I didn't partake in any of them Once I realized this was going to be a non-destination cruise, I decided to use the time to actually relax, which I did an excellent job of. I do know there were constant announcements for bingo, trivia etc so if I had wanted to be social and play games I could have. I did catch part of the last night's show, and it was nice, but the theater was packed and the seating wasn't that great, really bad views from a lot of seats. The movies were pretty crappy as were the TV channels.

Staterooms:

Disney wins no contest here. Our room was tiny. I mean really really tiny. I have been in an interior on NCL as well and this was much smaller. I booked the cheapest category as a GTY so I wasn't expecting anything grand. I figured we'd be ok with only a 3 day cruise, and we were, but if it had been any longer I would have lost my mind. Disney's cabins are built for families so it's not shocking that they are larger and better equipped. Also the TV channels were awful with nothing that Jack would normally watch.

Public Areas:

The ship was much nicer than the Carnival and NCL ships I have been on and most of the areas were as nice as DCL. I liked the decor etc and it felt more "luxury" than the other two lines. There were plenty of bars, lounges etc and I never had trouble getting a spot by the pool to watch Jack swim. The pools were fine, there were no slides or "extras" but Jack had a great time splashing around. I love that DCL has pools without the salt water though, so that will always win. The shops were nice, but the liquor store never opened since we never docked anywhere else, and that's where all the medicine etc was so when I needed to buy a bottle of advil they had to walk me into that store and back out to pay for it elsewhere.

Kids Club:

DCL is built for families and their kids clubs are awesome. I do think Jack spent a greater percentage of time in RCCL's clubs though, and there was NO fighting about it this time!! I don't know if this is a product of getting older or what but even on DCL I had to beg/bribe him to go to the clubs a couple times and on Carnival it was always a fight. He had a good time on RCCL's and spent basically the entire day one of the days in there.


Guest Services/Interaction:

Every single encounter I had with RCCL staff was pleasant. I literally can't think of one time when I was less than happy. When we were waiting for our room to be ready we went to the pool bar and I ordered a drink of the day. The bartender chatted with me AND Jack and for the next 3 days referred to both of us by name everytime he saw us. During the muster drill there was a guy who chatted with Jack a bit. Turns out he was a waiter in the restaurant. He wasn't our waiter but every single time he walked by our table he came to give Jack a fist bump. Same for all the stateroom attendants we encountered in our looooooong hallway. Everyone was super friendly and personable. I am sure the staff was completely overwhelmed by the passengers freaking out about flights etc but they were patient and friendly regardless. They were pretty good with communicating updates about the weather situation as well.


Crisis Management:

I have nothing from DCL to compare with (thank goodness lol) though we did have weather issues on our NCL cruise in 2009. On that cruise we missed our private island day and had a day at sea instead. The information was very poorly communicated that time, but as there were no delays in getting back to port, it wasn't as crucial.

Once RCCL realized the extent of the weather issues we were going to have, they opened up the internet cafe so it was free to use. There was a 10 minute time limit which was enforced pretty strictly when there were people waiting. The computers worked surprisingly quickly given that we were out at sea. The phones at the desk were available too.

I will say I believe a little bit of compensation would be nice. I wasn't really upset until I found out the other ships DID dock in Nassau even though our Captain said the port was closed. Some OBC for my next cruise would be nice... we'll see. I had no issues with the decisions they made, they can't control the weather and I understand that but the fact that every other ship made it to Nassau... Well it would have been nice to be able to get off the boat at least once!

The only horrific part was getting off the ship. People refused to follow instructions and wait in lounges, and those of us who wanted to follow instructions couldn't get to the lounges because of the solid mass of people waiting in the atrium before we even docked. We finally got off the ship around 5 pm. I was pretty sure a riot would break out, and it came close a couple times...

Once we were off we got our shuttle to our hotel near FLL. We had rescheduled our flights for the next morning and one of my coworkers had found a hotel for us. The hotel was awesome. Also SAS Transportation was outstanding. I emailed them while on board and they worked with us to get our travel arrangements fixed. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza right near the airport with the free airport shuttle and it was perfect. I took pics of the room there as well.

So there you have it, my thoughts on RCCL! I will post picures next!

 

[stephielela]

First Drink of the Day

Rock Wall

Closet- oops, i mean room- door

Ice cream for sailaway!

That's what we are sailing into...

We got SOAKED sailing away!

Not looking good...

Bread and water... because we are prisoners on the ship...

D.O.T.D

Not sure why they had a fence the split the pools up... the "mostion of the ocean" as our captain called it made the pool pretty wild!

Frozen goodness... in a light up cup!

Milkshakes!

Towel animal:

This was the little Russian boy at our table. He was very sweet and he and Jack didn't let the language barrier interfere with play time!

Our room- I am literally standing at the door...

Land!!

Our guide boat!!!

Follow the leader!

 

[stephielela]

 

[jenseib]

sounds like it was just relaxing...which is good. And you made the best of it you could. Too bad you all had to worry about making new flight arrangements though so that took some of the relaxing time away.

 

[stephielela]

sounds like it was just relaxing...which is good. And you made the best of it you could. Too bad you all had to worry about making new flight arrangements though so that took some of the relaxing time away.

It did have me a bit stressed at first but only because I was terrified they would make me pay the difference or something. I should mention that Southwest was AMAZING, my mom called, told them the situation and they just rebooked us on a flight the next day. I used points for the trip so I was nervous. Once that was done I wasn't worried anymore at all. Plus Nikki found me a great hotel so I barely had any stress time! Thanks again Nikki!!

 

[stephielela]

Ok party people! I'm pretty sure I'm down to about 3 readers, but that's cool.

I leave in ONE WEEK!!!! Now that we are so close I have a few more details...

Next Saturday I am working a half day, and Jack has a soccer game. Then we are meeting at the airport and our flight leaves at 2 pm!! I am BEYOND excited, despite the fact I am super unprepared!!! We arrive in Orlando at 5:40 pm but... we aren't staying!

The first part of our trip is to visit one of my best friends who lives in Italy. She is coming home for one last trip before she has her baby Her family is from Gainesville so we are heading there for a few days first. Her sister and I are hosting a baby shower for her on Sunday. I am almost done getting the supplies and I am so excited to be able to celebrate this with her!! We are staying in Gainesville through Halloween, Jack will go trick or treating there (as Captain America) and we will spend some time relaxing, visiting and I'm sure baby shopping

We are heading back to Orlando on November 1, in the AM. We won't be in too big of a hurry because the plan is just to hang out in Epcot. We are staying at Pop, so we will go there first to check in, pick up park tix etc. Then we will head to Epcot for my first ever Food and Wine experience!!! Can you believe I have been SO busy I haven't even had time to check out menus etc??? Better add that to my list of things to do!!

We are spending November 2 at Magic Kingdom. I can't wait to check out the new Fantasyland!!! All the pictures and updates lately have made me really excited about it! That night we are doing MNSSHP, where I am looking forward to finally "for real" meeting Jen and her daughter Claire. Jack is going to be a pirate for the party.

November 3 is our friends last day with us, and I am leaving the park choice up to them. This trip is going to have minimal plans, since we are really trying to go with the flow. My friend isn't sure how much she will be up for, she is pretty tired from her pregnancy so this is a good chance for us to do some more relaxed touring. They will leave sometime on the 3rd to head back to Gainesville for their flight home the next day.

November 4th we will be doing whichever park we haven't done yet. I am looking froward to spending some more quality time at AK this time around, we never seem to be able to do that. I'm also thrilled about the new Phineas and Ferb stuff at DHS, since Jack (and I) LOVE that show!! Also Jack has grown ALOT so he will be able to ride lots of things he couldn't before!

November 5th it's back to Epcot!! We will be trying to help Agent P out on a few missions, I think Jack will really get a kick out of it. I'm also looking forward to checking out some more F&W fun.

November 6th we have all morning so we have an early ADR at GF Cafe and then we are heading back to MK. We will hang out as long as we can and then head back to Pop to catch the ME back to the airport! Our flight doesn't leave until 5 so we will grab dinner and browse the shops!

I am so excited about this trip. Of course I have a thousand things to do before we go so I'm a little stressed but I work best under pressure

Once I take this trip this Never Ending PTR will actually end I will do a seperate TR for it and then... who knows?! So for those of you still here... stay tuned!

 

[jedijill]

Sounds like a great trip! I'll be MNSSHP on the 2nd too...I'll keep an eye out for Captain America.

Jill in CO

 

[jenseib]

woohoo! I can't wait to meet up.
Claire and I changed our costumes for the party today. She was going to be a pirate and I was going to be a graduate.
We are now both being Mary Poppins.

 

[stephielela]

Sounds like a great trip! I'll be MNSSHP on the 2nd too...I'll keep an eye out for Captain America.

Jill in CO

Woo hoo!! What are your travel dates?

woohoo! I can't wait to meet up.
Claire and I changed our costumes for the party today. She was going to be a pirate and I was going to be a graduate.
We are now both being Mary Poppins.

I'm so excited! That's adorable! I don't think I am dressing up...

 

[jedijill]

Woo hoo!! What are your travel dates?



I'm so excited! That's adorable! I don't think I am dressing up...

I'm flying down the 2nd and staying until the 11th.

Jill in CO

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I'm still reading! I forgot about that Crowne Plaza stay. Haha!

So jealous about your WDW and that you'll get to see New Fantasyland. Did you ever think it would be open this far in advance?! I'm amazed!

 

[stephielela]

I'm flying down the 2nd and staying until the 11th.

Jill in CO

We will be there until the 6th so it's very possible we will cross paths!

I'm still reading! I forgot about that Crowne Plaza stay. Haha!

So jealous about your WDW and that you'll get to see New Fantasyland. Did you ever think it would be open this far in advance?! I'm amazed!

I hadn't even considered it!!! I'm thrilled

 

[stephielela]

Naturally plans have already changed! This is what happens on a go with the flow adventure lol! New plan is for Jack and I to head up with my BFF Lindsay and her husband John Thursday morning. We will most likely do DHS since its open till 8. Lindsay's sister and john's son will be joining us that evening ( we got a second room). Friday we will head to Epcot for a little Food and Wine fun! Jack and I will break off and head back to the hotel to change and get ready for the MNSSHP! Saturday we will do Magic Kingdom and then our friends will head out!

 

[jenseib]

Hows the weather?