Royal Caribbean Here I Come

Can you believe it!  Here I am a huge Princess Fan, have sailed with them for over ten years now, have done 30 cruises with them!  I had sailed four times with Carnival but found it wasn’t a good fit for us and really like what Princess offered.

Then of course Princess’ Loyalty Program kept us going back.  At first it was to get to Platinum, then Elite was our next goal.  And now that we are at that stage we really appreciate all that comes with that status:  free laundry, mini bar, priority tendering, afternoon tea in our cabin, wine tasting, wifi package, priority embarkation etc.  And now we are getting loyalty on board credits.  A few years ago we purchased 100 shares of Carnival in order to get a shareholder benefit of an on board credit every time we sail on a Carnival owned line. 

So why try another line you may ask?

I really never thought about sailing another line until Oasis came out, then Allure with Royal Caribbean.  I know I know the ships are huge – 225,000 tons big, but there was something that was drawing me to them.  Being a cruise addict I wanted to see what they were like, how can a ship handle that many passengers. 

The  first drawback is it only does 7 day cruises out of Fort Lauderdale one ship sails Eastern Caribbean, the other Western Caribbean.  We don’t normally do 7 day cruises, our usual cruise is two ten days, usually on the Emerald. 

The second drawback is my honey (Bernie) isn’t interested in sailing on another line at all, especially RCL, feeling it would be more of a party cruise he feels.  Too flashy he says, too crowded he says, too expensive is his last comment.  Which is true Oasis and Allure are more expensive per day than most other Caribbean cruises. 

So for a long time we just didn’t look at either ship as an option.  Until now.

Next year in January we are sailing again in the Caribbean on the Emerald.  Originally we thought about tacking on the 7 day cruise to our Emerald voyage in January but the dates just didn’t line up unless we spent a few days in Fort Lauderdale and the price was high too.  But we have a week’s vacation in December of this year and after checking the prices for that week I brought up the option again to Bernie.  What about going to Fort Lauderdale and sailing on the Oasis in December?  Price is starting at $749 for an inside, and yes I am okay with an inside as this is an “extra” trip and balcony cabins are just way to pricy to justify this trip. 

He said yes!  So I booked, and I am still in shock that I am going on Oasis to the Western Caribbean.  Our ports will be Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; and Cozumel, Mexico.  I have been to Jamaica and Cozumel before but never Labadee.

Now I am asking advice from friends who have sailed RCL for advice and what the difference between Princess and RCL.

One thing I have realized right away is RCL is much more high tech, their website is much easier to go thru, my reservation is easy to access, and the ability to book restaurants, and dining times, and even purchase gifts (Princess makes you print out an order form and fax it in) ahead of time a bonus.  Closer to sail date we will be able to reserve our entertainment and excursions.  I like this option and find it will be okay for our short seven day voyage but also find it will also mean our holiday is much more structured and filled.  As usually our cruises are much more relaxed and carefree with decisions made that day for what we want to do, including dine time, shows and events.  Normally the only thing we have scheduled is a specialty restaurant made a few days ahead of time; however we have made reservations the day of too.

So I hope to sail with an open mind to not compare the two lines until the end and to enjoy the change and the extra voyage we will get in before the end of the year.