Loyal To Royal

We considered doing a portion of this cruise but so glad we didn't. Having sailed nearly every ship in the RCL fleet the "Old Ser" as we call it LOL from the movie quote in Captain Ron, it is by far the worst ship we have been on due to the condition and overall lack of maintenance. On a 21 night cruise that was over Christmas and New Years they were installing a giant screen on the pool deck and we all faced endless days and nights of them welding and sawing with a huge area roped off and unusable.

Good to hear how their MDR works. The process will be new to us as on RCL You select either early late or my time right at the time of booking. We personally always select the late seating so as to not miss a lot of activities and cocktails right before that time. We are getting close to Pinnacle with RCL so they gave us Gold staus right away. Recently saw in the news a lot of cruise lines now are offering some sort of status match! Thanks for the good and positive insight.

Fantastica package so good to know that. Galveston as well for us since we live just a tad North of Houston so most of our cruises are out of Galveston. Booked a back to back on the Seascape April 2026. Unfortunately the same ports as we do all the time on RCL but looking forward to trying a different cruise line especially since they status match.

Great info and much appreciated. I highly agree with your suggestion of Marriott Water Street as well. I see where it is super close to the terminal and rates seem pretty good. Trolley sounds interesting as well as Columbia and Berns for good eats!

We are cruising out of Tampa on The Constellation for the first time and need input on the best hotels near the port as well as any waterfront restaurants that might be good. Thanks in advance for those that might have some experience with this.

Excellent replies and much appreciated. We booked their package deal where the fare includes the mid level drink package and basic internet for two. The cruse takes place when the Seascape starts up out of Galveston so we have plenty of time to do more research as well. Have watched many videos comparing RCL to MSC to get more info. Seems most compare the two pretty much the same. Pros and cons of each.

We will be sailing MSC for the first time and on the Seascape and have specific questions that are a bit vague so far even after watching MSC YouTube videos. We cruise nearly full time on RCL but this will be a new experience for us. Thanks in advance for answering our questions. 1. Do you really have to go to a kiosk onboard to register your credit card for expenses or can that be done on the app prior to sailing? 2. How and when do we select the preferred main dining dinner time along with a request for a table for two? Does that have to be done once onboard? 3. How is the service at dinner in main dining? 4. How good is the internet at sea?

1. What is your favorite RCL ship and why? 2. What has been your favorite port to visit and why? Ours is either The Independence or Mariner of The Seas as they are less crowded. Has Playmakers sports bar with great food, and the adults only Solarium pools are very nice. Favorite port so far is Grenada. The island is super tropical with unbelievable views.

We just returned form a back to back Adventure of The Seas cruise out of Port Canaveral where both stops at Labadee were cancelled but replaced with Perfect Day stops. The latest from RCL is all Labadee calls will not resume until this September but they are looking at it on a month to month basis.

Our hearts go out to the very sad news of Captain James recent passing. He was a stellar Captain and so friendly. My wife and I have cruised with James a lot both on the Liberty and The Harmony out of Galveston, and we loved his charisma and that deep Texas drawl along with his special way of getting your attention on the PA before his announcements! We chatted with him a lot as was one of the few Captains that walked around the ship from time to time. It was so nice to hear that all RCL ships flew their flags at half mast yesterday in honor of him!