KashasMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
Thank you VERY MUCH for this review. You have touched on a lot of my questions and concerns regarding RCCL. I am in a similar situation. We have never Cruised on RCCL, and love the service on DCL. In fact we just got off the Fantasy a month ago.
I have been on NCL, Carnival, DCL and Cunard previously, but have no experience with RCCL.
We are also looking at Alaska for our next cruise, and have been looking at RCCL as an option. The cost for DCL to Alaska for a family of 3 is a bit "hard to swallow...." So I have reluctantly looked at alternatives..... Princess, RCCL and NCL. I have heard good things about RCCL, so I thought they might be a good compromise. I did however also hear good things about Princess, but a friend of mine just came back from Alaska on the Emerald Princess, and said "I will never Cruise on Princess again". Most of his complaints were service related, and they have never sailed on DCL, so he bar wasn't necessarily set high. So, I took Princess off my list. Maybe someday we will give Princess a try, but not going to chance it for what Alaska costs. So, we are down to NCL or RCCL. The reality is we would prefer DCL to Alaska, but the cost differential is literally THOUSANDS. I don't mind paying a premium for Disney, but cannot justify a few house payments worth. We could make compromises, to get the cost differential down, but should we?
So, narrowed it down to NCL Bliss, and one of RCCL Quantum Class ships.....can't remember which one...
So, your review is very helpful for me, coming from DCL to RCCL. Not sure if I want to gamble and see if we have a different experience on RCCL. Most of the points you addressed, are the same things I would have trouble with, coming from DCL.
Definitely disappointing to hear........
We just did the Bliss to Alaska and it was one of our worst cruises. We were so bored. I don't know how they can have a ship homeport for 5+ months in Alaska without a retractable roof over the pool! It's a brand new ship...didn't they take that into consideration when building it? There were no appropriate shows for our family (daughter is 9) so nothing to do at night. If your kids don't go in the clubs forget it...no activities. Their big family activities were a 30 minute circus workshop and a 30 minute balloon-animal making class in the middle of the noisy and overcrowded atrium. Ugh. Three times I had to contact guest services because they incorrectly charged my account (3 separate charges). Our stateroom attendant actually told us that she would only be making up our room once a day - so did we want morning or night? What??!!
Bliss wasn't my choice - we went with extended family. Previously we were on Epic, Breakaway, and Getaway - all with extended family. Whether it was Alaska or the time of year, the cost of the cruise was high (my 3rd time in Alaska - previously RCI and Celebrity). I won't ever cruise with NCL again. The only high point was that the food was actually good - better than our previous NCL experiences. I also loved the port valet service (no charge!) - they took our luggage the last night and we didn't see it again until we were back at our home airport. We've never spent as much time in our room on a cruise as we did this cruise and I spent most of the time wishing I was on an RCI Oasis class cruise!!