This morning our cruise ship docked at circular Quay. Sadly our most recent adventure on a cruise has come to a pleasant end. Our “The key” perks entitled us to a pleasant breakfast in one of dining rooms where Eric (Our main waiter from dinner) provided service. Eric was wonderful during the cruise. Friendly but very professional. All staff we regularly interacted with were fantastic as well.
Summing up the cruise, it was very enjoyable. The ship is well designed to cater for up to 5000 passengers and 2000 crew without seeming crowded. There are plenty of eateries, bars and entertainment. You can either partake in all the activities or if relaxing is your thing, just veg out. The experience on board ship is really up to you, which suits us fine. The design of the ship is modern, well-maintained and clean. The crew are fantastic as they are friendly but also professional.
This cruise was a holiday cruise at Christmas time on a resort ship, so there were many families and children which didn’t bother us too much over the course of the cruise. Certainly we saw some antics from some of the teenagers and some of the kids clearly had been given free run by their parents, but on the whole, most children were fairly well behaved. Probably the only complaint we had, was some children that use our corridor as a race track. It regularly sounded like a herd of elephants were going by. The other passengers, were mixed, very international with a strong number of Australians on board which led to a very multicultural cruise. As a result, Christmas was somewhat downplayed compared to other cruises that we’ve been on. For us, the multicultural nature of the cruise made it more interesting, as we met many people from different places.
Overall, we enjoyed our cruise. The only feedback we could give to Royal Caribbean is to stop the accountants deciding the charges and fees on board ship and treating customers as fools. Compare to other cruise lines that we’ve been on, this cruise line is probably the most guilty of “nickel and diming” its customers? Royal Caribbean’s basic fair is generally set at a reasonable rate most of the time. However, we found if you wanted to add specialty dining, drinks packages, and decent Internet it soon added up. For us, we found that our total fare with all items that we’re accustomed to was almost as expensive as a premium cruise line with similar additions. Another annoying aspect of Royal Caribbean, is their pre-cruise pricing and marketing tends to fluctuate greatly but in reality there was rarely a real special for customers. For example, a full price deluxe beverage package (which included alcohol coffees, water, and soft drink), had base price that varied from $155AUD to $165AUD per person per day.
We constantly got hammered with emails claiming huge percentages off and other deals, but often the price had been inflated prior to the sale. Buyer beware as Royal Caribbean maths had been put into play. Potential customers should monitor the actual pricing, and look at actual pricing and ignore the hype around percentage sales. In comparison to premium lines such as Princess and Norwegian (both of which we have cruised on) have set pricing tiers which are inclusive of all these add-ons and are very reasonably priced. Finally, most cruise lines use US dollars as the ticket price for onboard goods and services charges so beware of the exchange rate. Would we cruise with Royal Caribbean again, yes for sure, but with a financial lens over the costs.
The rest of the day spent relaxing at our hotel, the Sofitel Wentworth or wandering around the Sydney shopping precinct of Martin place, Pitt street and George street.
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