Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is okay to complain, OP. There are plenty of trips to beautiful places that are awful and it is super annoying to find your upgrade is still cheesy or fake fancy.

OP here, thank you. I'm merely just telling people my experience for informational purposes. Alaska itself is beautiful and definitely worth going to.

Let's not sugarcoat it as "informational purpose." You had a bad experience and blame your SIL for it. That's why you're here.

You can certainly do that, but have you paused for one second to consider your own role in the whole fiasco? You had no curiosity about the place you're visiting, thus doing no homework or research about it. You had high expectations but little to no adaptability to reality, thus the daily fight and pouting about wanting to leave. Your SIL may have done poorly in her selections for the cruise, but you come off sounding like a toddler.

No. If I had a real beef with my SIL, I would've posted about it in the family relationships thread. I'm sharing an experience and I can separate the cruise line from the place. The difference between being on a seriously top cruise line (not one that was known to be good in the past) and RC was minimal to my family and we should've done it. Everyone agreed. I'm sharing my opinion so others can look into this trip in a way I wish I had. Sorry this hit a nerve for you PP but take your moral high ground somewhere else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went on a cruise to Alaska on Holland America maybe 25 years ago. I don’t remember the food or the entertainment specifically, but I do remember having so much fun with my extended family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

And remember seeing otters.

My point being, ten years from now, none of you will remember the microwaved frozen chicken cordon bleu you had for dinner one night, or the silly 30-minute musical production you watched on night 3. But your family will remember you acted like a stuck up snot the entire time.

Best perspective on this thread. I did a vacation I wasn’t interested in- Gatlinburg, TN. I didn’t love the crowds and the kitsch, but the memories of hanging with my parents, sister, and nephews are cherished.

Wrong. The attention on my SIL is not the issue- she admits to screwing this up and she hated it as well. We could all afford better and these vacations matter. This kind of vacation requires being really careful and getting very trusted opinions (if I had researched cruises here for example I would've called the whole thing off and it would've saved us all alot of pain). I'm glad some of you can go on vacation and not care and eat chicken cordon bleu or whatever else. But I can't. Our time away is precious, Alaska is far and we wanted to make it count- I'm sharing what I perceive our mistakes.

This makes total sense to me, OP. Life is too short to take crappy, disappointing vacations. And that is what a cruise on RC is going to be.

Anonymous wrote:Re: food on cruise ships -

I’ve cruised multiple lines and the food is largely the same.

The upcharge restaurants aren’t markedly different—except for the sushi.

Pro tip: generally speaking, don’t order chicken or pasta. Go for the specials—particularly the vegetarian or Indian (or other ethnic) option. Why? The chefs are typically from countries where the more ethnic meals are from, and they tend to have better seasoning.

Seafood is hit or miss. I’ve had some very good seafood on cruises.

But yes, chicken and pasta are bland. Steak is hard to screw up.

Better cruise lines have interesting ethnic options in their buffet. Celebrity offers an Asian breakfast (among other options) as an example.

Tell me your palate is so unsophisticated that you have no business commenting on this thread without telling me ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went on a cruise to Alaska on Holland America maybe 25 years ago. I don’t remember the food or the entertainment specifically, but I do remember having so much fun with my extended family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

And remember seeing otters.

My point being, ten years from now, none of you will remember the microwaved frozen chicken cordon bleu you had for dinner one night, or the silly 30-minute musical production you watched on night 3. But your family will remember you acted like a stuck up snot the entire time.

Best perspective on this thread. I did a vacation I wasn’t interested in- Gatlinburg, TN. I didn’t love the crowds and the kitsch, but the memories of hanging with my parents, sister, and nephews are cherished.

Wrong. The attention on my SIL is not the issue- she admits to screwing this up and she hated it as well. We could all afford better and these vacations matter. This kind of vacation requires being really careful and getting very trusted opinions (if I had researched cruises here for example I would've called the whole thing off and it would've saved us all alot of pain). I'm glad some of you can go on vacation and not care and eat chicken cordon bleu or whatever else. But I can't. Our time away is precious, Alaska is far and we wanted to make it count- I'm sharing what I perceive our mistakes.

Anonymous wrote:I went on a cruise to Alaska on Holland America maybe 25 years ago. I don’t remember the food or the entertainment specifically, but I do remember having so much fun with my extended family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

And remember seeing otters.

My point being, ten years from now, none of you will remember the microwaved frozen chicken cordon bleu you had for dinner one night, or the silly 30-minute musical production you watched on night 3. But your family will remember you acted like a stuck up snot the entire time.

Best perspective on this thread. I did a vacation I wasn’t interested in- Gatlinburg, TN. I didn’t love the crowds and the kitsch, but the memories of hanging with my parents, sister, and nephews are cherished.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is okay to complain, OP. There are plenty of trips to beautiful places that are awful and it is super annoying to find your upgrade is still cheesy or fake fancy.

OP here, thank you. I'm merely just telling people my experience for informational purposes. Alaska itself is beautiful and definitely worth going to.

Let's not sugarcoat it as "informational purpose." You had a bad experience and blame your SIL for it. That's why you're here.

You can certainly do that, but have you paused for one second to consider your own role in the whole fiasco? You had no curiosity about the place you're visiting, thus doing no homework or research about it. You had high expectations but little to no adaptability to reality, thus the daily fight and pouting about wanting to leave. Your SIL may have done poorly in her selections for the cruise, but you come off sounding like a toddler.

I am also not a cruise person, so I can understand where you are coming from. However, I think your experience is colored by your expectations of the trip. If you had done some research to prepare yourself, perhaps you would know going into it that the food wouldn't be stellar. And that maybe the excursions, compared to what other tour operators offer, are actually par for the course in that region.

Re: food on cruise ships -

I’ve cruised multiple lines and the food is largely the same.

The upcharge restaurants aren’t markedly different—except for the sushi.

Pro tip: generally speaking, don’t order chicken or pasta. Go for the specials—particularly the vegetarian or Indian (or other ethnic) option. Why? The chefs are typically from countries where the more ethnic meals are from, and they tend to have better seasoning.

Seafood is hit or miss. I’ve had some very good seafood on cruises.

But yes, chicken and pasta are bland. Steak is hard to screw up.

Better cruise lines have interesting ethnic options in their buffet. Celebrity offers an Asian breakfast (among other options) as an example.

I went on a cruise to Alaska on Holland America maybe 25 years ago. I don’t remember the food or the entertainment specifically, but I do remember having so much fun with my extended family—grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

And remember seeing otters.

My point being, ten years from now, none of you will remember the microwaved frozen chicken cordon bleu you had for dinner one night, or the silly 30-minute musical production you watched on night 3. But your family will remember you acted like a stuck up snot the entire time.

OP, i’d be willing to bet that all of these people talking about how the food was fine on Royal Caribbean or even “good” cruised prior to Covid. Things took a pretty serious downturn, quality-wise, on Royal Caribbean after the pandemic. They lost a lot of money and had to really cut corners, and it’s been bad. I totally understand why you felt like it was a nightmare and wanted to leave. The lunch buffet seems like a middle school cafeteria to me. Cheap hamburgers and hotdogs. I remember thinking “ at least I can make a salad” and there being nothing but a little bit of a limp lettuce, some cherry tomatoes, some chickpeas, and a little thing of Italian dressing and a little thing of congealed ranch dressing.

After the first night, we made reservations in specialty restaurants for every dinner, and ate in port when we could.

I will never cruise on Royal Caribbean again. In large part because the food was so bad. And I’m no foodie, so if I think it was that bad it was that bad. Plenty of other problems as well; the atmosphere was that of a cheap hotel in Las Vegas.

I might consider cruising to Alaska though. But it would only be on one of the really luxury cruise lines. You get what you pay for I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is okay to complain, OP. There are plenty of trips to beautiful places that are awful and it is super annoying to find your upgrade is still cheesy or fake fancy.

OP here, thank you. I'm merely just telling people my experience for informational purposes. Alaska itself is beautiful and definitely worth going to.

You couldn't have thought it was that beautiful if "It was an argument the whole time cause all I wanted to do was leave. "

I feel bad for your SIL. I hope for her sake she never goes on vacation with you again.

+1. OP is impossibly rude and entitled. Even if it wasn’t her favorite experience, she could suck it up and keep her mouth shut for a few days. I don’t know why in the world they didn’t just leave her at a stop and let her find her way home.

I hate cruised. Hate them. I have been on two with extended family for various reasons, and couldn't stand them.

And yet, OP, you acted unbelievably badly. You argued and complained the whole time because you wanted to leave? Were you raised in a barn?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people cruise to Alaska for the experience of seeing Alaska, not for the food and ship entertainment.

Except there are so many other ways to see Alaska...

Cruise is easiest way to see SE Alaska.

Anonymous wrote:I think most people cruise to Alaska for the experience of seeing Alaska, not for the food and ship entertainment.

Except there are so many other ways to see Alaska...

I think most people cruise to Alaska for the experience of seeing Alaska, not for the food and ship entertainment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is okay to complain, OP. There are plenty of trips to beautiful places that are awful and it is super annoying to find your upgrade is still cheesy or fake fancy.

OP here, thank you. I'm merely just telling people my experience for informational purposes. Alaska itself is beautiful and definitely worth going to.

You couldn't have thought it was that beautiful if "It was an argument the whole time cause all I wanted to do was leave. "

I feel bad for your SIL. I hope for her sake she never goes on vacation with you again.

+1. OP is impossibly rude and entitled. Even if it wasn’t her favorite experience, she could suck it up and keep her mouth shut for a few days. I don’t know why in the world they didn’t just leave her at a stop and let her find her way home.