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With regrets I'm only accepting applicants who have Pinnacle status or above at this time. ? Glad I could help to contribute to the economy using your wallet. ? I prefer the 'indoor' seating. There is seating that is part of The VIA but you have people walking past you all throughout dinner. Arrive a few minutes early if need be. Thanks! I had my CPL on. With the cold temperatures there was an inversion layer clouding the distance. All I did was add some vignetting to draw focus towards Lady Liberty.

From time to time I see people asking about what drinks are included in the Coca-Cola Freestyle drink dispensers. @Matt has written blogs on the Freestyle machines. Here is one from 2015: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/20/coca-cola-freestyle-machines-royal-caribbean While I am on Anthem I have some free time so I grabbed some pictures of all the Freestyle drink menus. Let's start with the main menu: From here you can see the types of drinks available in each category. First are two pages for the "All Drinks" category: Here are the types of drinks available within each option: And of course plain water: The same drinks are sorted by "Low/No Calories" options: The same drinks sorted by "Caffeine Free" options: Finally the same drinks are sorted by flavor: Here are the Cherry drinks: Orange drinks: Raspberry drinks: Grape drinks: Lemon drinks: Peach drinks: Strawberry drinks: Lime drinks: Fruit Punch drinks: Vanilla drinks: Cherry Vanilla drinks: Mixed Berry drinks: For those that are asking what is a Freestyle drink dispenser? Certain Royal Caribbean ships have these Freestyle drink dispensers. See the blog above for a list of ships that have them. Freestyle dispensers work only with special cups provided with beverage packages. The souvenir cups have a chip embedded in the base that is read by the machine when you place the cup into the machine. There are various designs that are provided. When a cup is first used it is registered in the system and an expiry date is assigned. The expiry date is usually a few days longer than your cruise. The machines also function as ice dispensers. Lastly, these menus were captured in January 2018. It's possible that menus will vary over time and by ship.

@Sabrinaklai, this must be a teacher thing as I think @Sweety is too if I'm correct? Even though it was hubby who was the teacher, I'd just a soon stay on board too for some ports! LOL

We don't get off on some cruises. We have a great time reading and talking with each other. We have busy schedules at home. My husband calls it Love Time.

I was able to get a balcony for 2200 for two with obc of 175. That's not two bad. Same price on Harmony for school break. Husband loves the way I budget.

Brilliance of the Seas 5 Night cruise...Day 4 in Cozumel at Nachi Cocom and a little wandering across the street from the International Pier. I hope you enjoy!

Hell, I'd be happy to be his personal man servant, suit case carrying, camera lens cleaning, bottle opening, food tasting (has to be the right temperature and spice level) body guard!

Just returned from 7 day Liberty from Galveston and wanted to comment on the food. My family of 4 (Wife, 16 year old boy and girl) did the 5 day dining plan and went to Chops 3 nights and Giovanni's 2 nights. MDR 2 nights Awesome: Chops - our waiter Jiri was just outstanding. We went to Chops the 1st night of the cruise and his service was impeccable. We requested him on our 2 other visits and he was a shining star! The food was excellent! from the salads right to the deserts. on the last formal night (lobster night) they made sure to let us know ahead of time that they would have lobster tails which made for an awesome surf and turf. It's been a few years since we cruised and the lobster tails used to be rock lobster. This time around they were Maine lobster tails. We are from New England and eat a lot of fresh lobster so we may be a bit picky. These tails were frozen which I would expect but they were still very good! Giovanni's - Service was again excellent. Food was very good. We visited on the 2nd night of the cruise and the waiter pretty much brought us everything on the menu including appetizers and main pasta dishes. there was so much food on the table that we couldn't come close to finishing. We ended up not touching the eggplant parm and had them box it up to go for our cabin fridge. The only thing they cold improve on is the deserts...taramisu was mediocre and cannoli were soggy. Not really a biggie because we ate so much there wasn't room for desert! Mediocre: MDR - went for breakfast the 1st morning because my wife and I always like to get the eggs benedict...they were both cold, overcooked, and had just a dribble of hollandaise which had no taste. Kids got pancakes with bacon and sausage which turned out to be the same quality as Wind Jammer buffet (just plain bad). Bacon is like beef Jerky and almost unedible...sausage is as low quality as you can get....no casing and mushy! lunch was good and we only went to lunch in MDR on sea days because of the salad buffet. Dinner was a bit better but lowest quality of any cruise I have been on (Disney, Princess, and multiple RCR). One annoying service issue was the waiters trying to sell us a bottle of wine on both nights even after telling them we had the drink package (glasses of wine included). Both of our waiters were incredulous that we wouldn't buy a bottle of wine at 40% off instead of ordering single glasses of wine. Why would I spend additional $$ on a bottle of wine when I can order the same wine by the glass which is included in my drink package. just strange. Plain BAD!!!!!!!!: Wind Jammer: This was by far the worst buffet dining experience I have ever had on a cruise ship. Barely edible items up and down the buffet line for breakfast and lunch. The ONLY thing I can recommend here is the egg/omlette station for breakfast. get your eggs cooked the way you want...grab some toast and get the heck out! "Sliced beef" carving station at lunch looked like pork...never seen sliced beef that was white in color...i passed. Burgers are hockey pucks. pasta...how do you screw up pasta!? Johnny Rockets: they didn't cook the burgers in front of you on the grill. they were same quality as the buffet hockey pucks and were just pre-cooked low quality burgers. It took 45 minutes to get our burgers AFTER we had cheese fry appetizer! We were there for 90 minutes one day just for burgers/fries and almost got up and left. This was really a disappointment as we have been to Johnny Rockets before and were expecting a decent burger....not Wind Jammer quality pucks. NOT WORTH THE UPCHARGE! Bottom line is that I am very happy we purchased the 5 night dinner package. If you want good quality food this is the only way to go. I had heard that food quality had gone down but was very surprised at how bad Wind Jammer quality was. I expect typical mediocre quality for mass produced food items in a buffet but this was close to unacceptable.

I am not either. I am going to work those sparkling water knobs.

those be fightin' words. I'm on Long Island and work in NYC. Less crust!

Think it ends up being StudioB

That sounds a lot like us. With both of us working and running around with tweens, we cherish our once a year kid free cruise. We would gladly take a cruise to nowhere but I have learned from @twangster why those do not really happen any more.

Now I have to find a 9 day with Miami.

Sadly not. We are sailing on 24th Jan and 2nd Feb. It's a shame as I would like to meet some of the people that contribute here. I need to have a look at Roll Call and start comparing sailings.

Also take into consideration the itinerary. If you are going to spend a lot of days off board in non Royal locations, ie, Labadee, Coco Cay, a drink package may not be for you.

Ever watch "The Lorax"? lol. That's what that last comment reminds me of. There is lots of debate over whether or not it is worth it. We personally have gone with and without in the past. Lately we have gone with it. It is nice not having to keep tabs on drinks and have a constant supply of bottled water in our stateroom (we drink a lot of water so that alone makes it worthwhile for us). And it's not just alcohol, it's all your premium coffee, smoothies (without protein powder), fresh juices. @Matt wrote a piece about it just this past week for more info. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/royal-caribbean-beverage-package-costs-info-tips With the changes now to the package, that every adult has to get one, we will likely reconsider yet again. My husband doesn't really drink much of anything other than water so even the refreshment package doesn't make sense for him. Another thing to consider is how long your cruise is. A shorter cruise it might make more sense but with a long one, drink fatigue might set in as well. Hope that helps a bit.

New Year cruise! I am so envious! I have found that Christmas/New year prices are the craziest. Even more expensive than Spring Break and summer.

Welcome aboard! The port in Falmouth has a very large shopping area that is fenced in and very safe. There is even a Margaritaville also that offers free wifi. If you are adventurous and do not mind being constantly badgered by street salemen in a "shanty town" environment, then take a step outside of the gate towards downtown Falmouth. We preferred to stay within the fence where it was a lot cleaner. Or, you can always stay on board and enjoy the ship's amenities.

We have the eight night New Year cruise December 2018.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try to secure a position to take photos upon our arrival.

@Sweety, we have the 8 night version which doesn't include Miami. Keeping my fingers crossed for smooth seas come March in and out of NJ. This is one of my concerns with this ship. Saw some footage of the NCL ship last week. It looked a bit frightening for lack of a better word.

Amiga is a blast. Its not owned by Royal, so drink package does not work...cash bar only.

Similar itinerary is offered in 7, 8 and 9 night variations. Some don't have Miami. Keep in mind winter storms do happen along the NE coast of the US. Spring to Fall not as much. I'm okay with storms, it doesn't bother me, but they do their best to avoid the worst of it. An NCL ship out of NYC sailed into one last week, as did Anthem a few years ago. Since then Royal hired a full time Chief Meteorologist. His one year anniversary is this week. Royal is the first cruise line to have a dedicated Meteorologist on staff.

Yes! There were seven ships and about 20,000 people on Cozumel the day we were there. It took a little while to get past the traffic at the International Pier, and when we arrived at Nachi, it was full and didn't feel crowded at all. My next post will have the Nachi video....

Can't wait to see it too! We are booked at nachi in March on a day with tons of ships. Looking forward to the limited crowds and warm weather! Jane

And all I want to be is Mrs. @twangster LMAO!!! Or at least adopt me!

Read your description of dinner at Jamie's and all the photos. The garlic bread starter looks amazing! I was only planning to do Wonderland with my wife for dinner the day of our overnight in Bermuda, but I may have to see if she wants to try Jamie's for lunch on one of our sea days as well. I love your live blogs, @twangster, but between add-on camera lenses, specialty dining reconsiderations, new itineraries to check out... you're gonna bankrupt me, man!

This is an amazing shot! Were you using an ND filter to get the sky so uniformly gray, or is this just a crop of the photo before it with some Gaussian blur applied to the sky?

He's still got it! Wonderful photos! Meep meep!

i still say they should tow a dinghy behind the ship with a rope ladder attached, and smokers have to climb down to it to smoke

Have a look in Cruise Planner. In your reservation there is a tab at the top 'Cruise Planner'. Click on that, BUT...don't click on get started. Scroll down to "Shop Royal Gifts". Under 'Choose a Category' pick On Board Delivery, then Choose a Category again and choose Wine Cellar.

One day I learn how to stick to just one login!

There are still cruise lines that are all inclusive. Oceania (charges for alcohol only) and Crystal come to mind. That includes bottled water, ice cream, soft drinks and juices all day. Yes, they cost a bit more but I appreciated not having to pay an extra $30+ every night just to get a high-quality meal. I was disappointed enough in the LIberty MDR that I probably won't be sailing with them again any time soon unless they add some new and interesting ports (not just private beaches) to the itinerary out of Galveston. There are plenty of cruise lines that go the cheap-o route to attract that crowd. People who are happy to eat hot dogs and burgers from a buffet so they can cruise for 3 days for $299. I hate to see RCCL head that way.

I think DocLC nailed it. Not all agents are the same (I'm sure Michelle agrees).

Just coming off of the Grandeur January 2 cruise, (yes that cruise) and was promised my cruise certificate before I got off in Port Canaveral. Never got and on the morning of debarkation went to Guest Services and they couldn't help. Was told that the casino staff was unavailable and to call CR, which I did. They reduced my certificate, that was originally $300 (according to the casino hostess) to $100 and was allowed to apply it to an existing cruise. For the first time in my life I didn't want to argue with a cruise line, so I just took the $100 and used it. Candie