Royal Caribbean Fans

The leading cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean have been in the firing line of BBC's Watchdog Daily.

The show, hosted by Sophie Raworth and Rani Price highlighted the high costs of using the ships Wi-Fi when at sea. 

The Watchdog team sent out 'Mystery Shoppers' to see why Internet at sea was so expensive compared to Wi-Fi in hotels and bars on land. 

The team first posed as customers, who enquired about the cost per minute with the 10 major cruise lines. 

They found that the cost per minute for Royal Caribbean International was 65 cents (roughly 40p).

Disney, Holland America, Princess Cruises, Norwegain Cruise Lines, Carnival and Celebrity Cruises charged 75 cents (roughly 46p) per minute. Costa Cruises charged 40p per minute and cheaper still, P&O charged 35p per minute. However, with MSC Cruises, they found you can only buy packages, which would cost you £20 per hour.

The team also investigated the packages offered by cruise lines.

"P&O were among the cheapest, with a 30 minute package for £10.50."

"Some like Disney quoted as much as £93." 

As is with many of these programmes, they 'big up' figures which can not truely be compared to one another. For instance, they stated that "Disney quoted as much as £93" to use the internet. For that price you received 500 minutes of access, which compared to buying two of P&O's 250 minute packages which cost £62.50 each, would actually work out £32 cheaper. 

They then wanted to find out why it was so expensive. The cruise lines all said it was because of the cost of getting the signal to the ship whilst at sea, but Watchdog didn't want to stop there. They suggested that maybe "the cruise lines were just making it up as they sail along" and that they want to "extract as much cash out of your wallet as they possibly can."

Sophie explained that "not surprisingly all the cruise companies deny that."

Rani explained that "all the cruise companies we spoke to, blame the high cost of satellite technology, which is the only way internet can be delivered whilst at sea." 

The Passenger Shipping Association told Watchdog "their members are looking at ways to make it more affordable and many offer packages to suit guests individual needs." 

Royal Caribbean and Carnival said "they are already doing this." 

Not only was Royal Caribbean in the firing line of Internet charges, but also its gratuities.

Maria Scrivener complained about the gratuities they had to pay, including for their 8 month old baby .

She explained because they had choosen the My-Time Dining option, they had to pay their £65pp tips up front. She said "I dont believe any of us should be paying gratuities up front, let alone an 8 month old baby, who received absolutly nothing for her money."

Royal Caribbean pointed out that gratuities "are standard practice, to make things easier for passengers and they are optional in most cases."

If you live in the UK, you can watch the show on the BBC iPlayer here.

A new TV show will air on Royal Caribbean's ships called "The Avid Cruiser Takes On...", which aims to showcase the various things you can do while at the many ports Royal Caribbean visits.

The series will be comprised of 10-minute shows that feature cruise destinations, primarily in Europe, and showoff what passengers can do in these ports. The show hopes it will "get people off the ships, and into the destinations".

You can view the episodes on Royal Caribbean ships and possibly on the company's sister cruise brands such as Azamara Club Cruises and Celebrity Cruises.

The first episode is about Copenhagen, Denmark. Destinations that will be highlighted in future episodes include

Stockholm, Sweden

Le Havre, France

Var Provence, including Toulon, Sanary-sur-Mer, La Seyne-sur-Mer, and Saint-Tropez

Venice, Italy

Nice, Villefranche, Cannes, Antibes

Charlottetown, PEI

Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Saint John, New Brunswick

Well after coming back from my cruise onbaord Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas. One of the songs has stuck in my head. This is the Farewell song performed by the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers. Here are the lyrics and I've managed to find a video too (we do not own this video)...

It's been our pleasure to have you with us, as we sailed the open seas.

And shared all it's beauty, as far as the eye can see.

With so many ways to relax and so many things to do.

The only challenge you had to face was to try all that's here for you.

Weather it was dreaming beneath the stars or just bathing in the suns warm glow. These memories you'll take with you where ever you may go.

And though we bid you farewell for now. As our cruise comes to an end. We hope the magic and the memories will stay with you my friend. Until we meet... Until we meet... until we meet again

And though we bid you farewell for now. As our cruise comes to an end. We hope the magic and the memories will stay with you my friend. Until we meet... Until we meet again

[Ladies and gentlemens, let's hear it for the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers, and the SHIP of the Seas orchestra. We have your activities managers led out by NAME, your activities manager here. Alright, let's bring up the light, we got representants from all the crew here onboard the SHIP of the Seas, led out by your hotel director, NAME, our senior officers, our galley team, dining room staff, your stateroom attendants, the Windjammer Cafe staff, the bar staff, the explorations staff, our facilities cleaners, ladies and gentlemen, please let them here it, the crew that has been looking after you, here onboard the SHIP of the Seas]

And we bid you farewell for now. As our cruise comes to an end.

And though we bid you farewell for now. As our cruise comes to an end. We hope the magic and the memories will stay with you my friend. Until we meet... Until we meet again.

Until we meet again.

Wow! I found Paul Merton's Adventures on Channel 5 awesome!

UK fans had a treat tonight, with an hour long travel documentary following Paul Merton on Allure of the Seas. It featured all the things that you can do on a Royal Caribbean ship and on a cruise in general. I didn't warm to Paul that much, but one character, I loved. This was Guest Relations, Scot, Sam! She was very funny!

We'll try to add the programme onto our site if it is released on YouTube.

Allure of the Seas is to feature on a brand new TV show on Wednesday 19th October at 9pm. The program is called Paul Merton's Adventures and will be on Channel 5. The show follows comedian, Paul Merton on an adventure around the world.

The comedian will take a trip on the largest cruise ship in the world, Allure of the Seas. He will showcase some of the amazing features onboard, such as the zip line, but will Paul dare do it? Tune in to find out!

During filming, Merton was impressed on the size of the ship, he commented that "I was amazed by the vastness of the vessel. You only appreciate how tall the ship is when you disembark and realise you’ve been in a floating tower block.”

The show will be showcased on Channel 5 on Wednesday at 9pm and will also be available on Channel 5 HD and Demand 5.

View the trailer:

I have recently been scowering YouTube for good videos to display on our site and I stumbled across the movie trailer to the brand new movie 'Jack and Jill' coming to Cinema's this fall, 11/11/11 (February 2012 for the UK).

During the trailer, a particular scene caught my eye. Allure of the Seas is in the movie! Take a look...

The film stars Adam Sandler (Jack), who hates his identical sister (Jill) also played by Adam, but when he hears she is coming over for Christmas, he isn't all too happy. For a full synopsis of the film, we recommend visiting IMDb