What do I need to know about Royal Caribbean?

LifeIsCruising · August 25, 2005

Sailing on RCL for the first time next month, Empress of the Seas, smallest ship I've ever been on.

Sailed the heck out of Carnival and Princess....what do I need to know?

The usual questions:

Easy to bring my own spirits aboard?

Tux on formal night too much?

Blazer with open collar shirt on non-formal nights ok?

How early can I board?

Thanks!

cruisinmama · August 25, 2005

Easy to bring my own spirits aboard?

Sorry have no idea on this on...

Tux on formal night too much?

We had a man at our table on our Cruise that wore his tux and I saw many men also wearing them... and heck men in a Tux....Prrrrrrrrr

Blazer with open collar shirt on non-formal nights ok?

again a go as far as I know...as thats what my dh wore..and other men at our table..

How early can I board? not sure on this one.. we got on by 12:30..

HTH :smiley:

jbond · August 25, 2005

Hi Chris,

We haven't sailed Empress of the Seas, but we've sailed RCI 19 times and Princess 7 times and I don't think that there is anything to choose between them regarding food, onboard service, dress code etc.

RCI has just stopped selling liquor on board for in room consumption, and we just got back from Adventure and I thought that they were very attentive to taking liquor on board.

Boarding times, we usually get there around 11:30, check in, go to the Windjammer for lunch and our rooms are available around 1:00 pm.

KeithnRita · August 25, 2005

Chris,

Based on three Carnival cruises and just one RCI cruise, we did not see a lot of difference. Maybe the food, which seems a tad better on Carnival. However, that's just an opinion. Our RCI cruise was on the Rhapsody out of Galveston and seemed a little less formal than normal. I wore my tux and would guess about 25% wore tuxedos.

One noticeable difference was the pool area did not seem as crowded on RCI with fewer chair hogs.

As far as boarding early, can't remember for sure because we did not try to board early. We walked on with no line or crowd around 1:00.

rogue · August 25, 2005

Chris,

We were on the Explorer in April, and did not feel out of place at all with a tux. Two of the Three other men at our table also wore a tux to both of the formal nights. Also, a blazer on the non-formal nights would have been OK also. I did wear one on one of those nights and did not feel out of place.

We sailed out of Miami, and arrived at the pier around 11:30 and was on the ship around 12:15. The embarkation process went very smooth.

Have a great time. :cool:

GottaCruz · August 26, 2005

All of our cruises have been on Carnival. Now that DD doesn't use the camp anymore, I'm hoping to try RC soon. Our last few weekend cruises have been on Carnival with friends of ours that have worked for RC so they have cruised RC for years. It was interesting to hear them compare the lines. Of course, this is just their opinion, but they felt that there were more food choices on Carnvial on the LIdo Deck but more choices on RC in the dining room. They said that RC crowd gets more dressed than the Carnvail cruisers. One huge difference, though, was when they realized , as we tried to catch a breeze from a window on deck, was that on RC , every other window is open , whereas on Carnival, there are only 2 open windows on each side of the ship. That would make a huge difference in the hot weather. They also felt that the shows on RC are better . Anyway, as I said, it's very subjective and that's just their opinion.

I'd be interested in hearing about your cruise, Chris, and your comparisons, since I do plan to sail Majesty of the Seas when we do cruise

next time. Unfortunately, no plans right now.

DaCruzNut · August 30, 2005

Chris:

I'm not a big RCCI fan.... Their ships are fantastic and probably the best designed of all the lines. However, I feel the "plus" stops there!

There may be more choices on the dinner menu than many other lines, but I think the quality of the food is only so-so. It's good, but not exceptional. The entertainment is very good, but I think NCL and Carnival are better.

Of course, everyone has their own opinion. While I have, sometimes, been disappointed in RCCI, I still had a great cruise!