It was soooo great to see Jim & Jennifer again and to
meet their other friends and family that they cruise with often. Thank you guys for inviting us to join you and all that you did to make the voyage special!!
Here are some of our overall thoughts:
The Good:
Seeing Jim & Jennifer again! Did I mention how much we
missed them?
Pretty ship
Check in was painless and we arrived around 11:30 (despite
the 2 emails saying we couldn’t check in before 2:00 and they would leave
promptly at 4:00 even though check in was delayed.)
We love the Solarium area.
The soda card was easy to use. Any other time I have used one, they avoid you like the plague and you never get to use it.
Our waiter was great about bringing extra food to the table for everyone to share. More lobsters, shrimp etc.
The food was all over the map in quality. Some things were really good, some fair and some downright inedible. One that stands out in particular was mushrooms in puff pastry. The mushrooms were cool to cold and the puff pastry was 2 thin bricks of pastry that couldn't be pierced with a fork. So, didn't taste bad, but it wasn't worth the trouble.
The "Bad":
Only 7 days long…..
I will preface this with a 7 day Caribbean cruise is “going
on vacation”. That may sound obvious, but some of us “travel” rather than go on
vacation. Short cruises just are a lot of work for such a short time. However,
for friends and or family traveling together, it’s great. We have been quite
spoiled by long cruises.
Can’t get into cabin to even drop off your carry-ons since
they wait until all rooms are done and open them all at once. 1:30 wouldn’t be
too bad, but nearly 3:00 was a long time to wait.
No chocolates on the bed at turn down
No ice in the room – there is no ice bucket in the room, so
we assumed they didn’t offer it in the rooms. (we found out later that you just
had to ask for it)
No tissues in bathroom (empty hole where they should have
been)
Refrigerator was warm to cool at best
No pen and note pad in cabin
Dessert on the buffet was the same every day. Exactly the
same right down to the layout.
Ice machines were broken all over the ship. Once in a while
you could find one that worked. The drinks sit out so they are warm and it
would have been nice to have some ice.
The waiter at dinner had way too many large tables to
service so dinner took a long time every night.
Rita’s Cantina – not open until 3:00. Seems like the
inexpensive Mexican restaurant should be open for lunch as well as dinner.
Only one show time for Welcome aboard and Farewell shows and
it was too early for us to make it both times due to how long dinner took each
night. (7:45 show and our dinner time was 6:00) The second show was at 9:00 and it
wasn’t an issue except for the night we went to Chops.
The ship seemed vague about what time zone the ports we were
visiting were on. Royal Caribbean stays on ship time and they don’t adjust the
clock to match the port. So, it can often lead to confusion for people seeing a
clock in port and thinking they have an extra hour before boarding. That part
wasn’t so bad, but they said “IF the port is in a different time zone we don’t
change” not “Roatan is on Central time and the ship stays on Eastern time.” We
have never been on a cruise that didn’t tell you which ports you needed to be
aware of a time change – but we needed to look it up ourselves. Luckily, it was
only the one port. The Captain made an announcement that we needed to change
our clocks back, but it wasn’t in the Cruise Compass or on an announcement on the
bed. Plus, the Maitre d' came around and said we stay on ship time don’t set
your clocks back to match. So….a bit confusing as to what to do.
The "Ugly":
Their smoking policy. The right side of the ship was for
smoking. It made for some smoky air walking through certain areas. Especially
in the Casino or on that side of the pool.
Chops had the worst steak we have ever had. The steaks in
the regular restaurant were much better. We ordered Ribeyes that despite saying
bone-in they were not. They were dense instead of marbled. Greg’s was cold,
mine was warm. The appetizers and the desserts were very good however.
Disembarkation was a disaster. We opted for self dis-embarkation
and wheeled off our own luggage. (they said it was the fastest way off the
ship) We were in line for 1 hour and 45 minutes. They started out with 2
immigration windows open. Then, a 3rd one came after we were there
for an hour. Then, a 4th for a short time and they took someone in
the back with their luggage and never came back. None of that was the fault of
the cruise line, but how they let people off the ship was controlled by them.
They didn’t let the self dis-embarkation people finish before sending off the
other groups to collect their luggage. The porters had 2 lines and people that
didn’t use a porter had 1 line. So, people just walked off the ship and got off
and we are still in line. Because the porters are union they get priority in
the lines. They also put all the entertainers and the people in wheelchairs in
their line ahead of us. (I understand giving priority to the people in
wheelchairs) So, it took 2 hours to get off the ship and out the door to the
car. There was a medical emergency that held up both of the porter’s lines so
it only went as fast as it did since they continued to take our line.
We don't expect that everything goes perfectly, but it was just a lot of little things. All worth it to see our good friends again and we enjoyed the ports. Of course we would do it again to see them. It was a relaxing cruise for us and I think we needed that.
I also want to say that there is a "flavor" or type of cruise line for everyone. That's why there are so many options out there. We all find our comfort zone with a certain line or several lines. Actually, there are pros and cons to almost all of them. You just choose the ones that fit you best!
December 1 we had the RV detailed. Process took 3 hours and
cost around $450. Required every 6 months or the warranty is invalid.
We have been busy getting caught up with “stuff”. Setting up
Dr. & Dentist appointments before we leave the end of January and working
out the kinks with Medicare and my new RX plan.
I also want to report that our feelings about this park are now more positive. Once we understood how it works here with the Park Models, it seems like a great concept. There are a lot of people from the Midwest and Canada (and other places of course and for snowbirds it's a very nice active community with lots to do. (since they are considered RVs instead of mobile homes they aren't taxed in this county) Having to not live in them for 3 consecutive months is doable for snowbirds that go back home when the weather improves up north.
We have enjoyed going to the pool every day since we got back from the cruise and as we have walked around on our daily walks there are what seems like well over a hundred Park Models here. All are kept up well and the people are all very friendly.
Tomorrow we travel to the Fort Pierce area (closer to Port St. Lucie) so we can take care of medical etc. We also need some time at the storage unit reorganizing our stuff and dropping off the stuff from this past cruise and organizing things for the next one. RV maintenance is scheduled as well to fix a lot of things and just normal service.
Thanks again Jennifer & Jim for including us and all that you did to make the cruise special for us. You guys are the BEST!
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