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I tried "Show me cruises where I don't need a second mortgage to book one" and no results came up

We both have "head colds"???? We missed St Maarten like we missed St Thomas. Sad about that. Really wanted to go to tropical beaches. Have a deposit on next year, so here is hoping. After dinner Wednesday night at Chops I had to go to bed. St Maarten was 830am next day and I stayed in bed till noon. Then chills went away and we pressed on with day. Like 10 people in solarium so that was nice. Swim, sun, and looked at island views. Did Mason Jar and 2 shows. Not bad for people with "colds". PS this ship sounds like a TB ward. LOL. But we each have 6 shots. So not much can live for long in us. Also the AC in our cabin is fantastic. Colds could be from freezing room overnight. With the exception of the missed excursions it's a great trip. Not complaining. Just reporting. And we put deposit on Icon day it came out. So will be paying way less then everyone else. Still gotta pay it off. Tomorrow's problem. So glad we only got 3nt dine package. Any more would just be too much food. More to come.........

I knew it !

That's the automated bot I created.

We are arriving in Ravenna on the 28th and they are offering shuttles to Bologna and Venice because the train station in Ravenna is closed due to damage. Departure was pretty smooth. They checked us in at the old Venice terminal 107 and we boarded buses to Triste where we got right on. Added some time, but was neat to see Triste and everything leading to the ship.

How about an option to sort by what *I* think is most relevant to me?

So, it's working??

Kinda like choosing between the lesser of 2 evils, only this is the reverse of it. The greater of 2 goods. I've never been on either ship, and both of those itineraries do look good. I would however personally choose the Vision of the Seas cruise perhaps for the main reason being that I've only visited 1 out of the 5 ports she visits. On the Anthem of the Seas cruise, I've visited 3 of those 5 ports.

Closer port, extra day, extra sea day, less expensive. That's four in the positive column for Baltimore. Unless a particular port or two on the other itinerary really sway it the other way, seems like a no-brainer to this "doesn't care about the bells and whistles" cruiser.

Rhapsody is a sister ship to Vision, here is a video tour of Rhapsody. Here is a fleet guide with details about venues on board all ships. 22006272_Fleet_Guide_2022_Update_LR.pdf Vision has Chops, Giovanni's and Izumi. Entertainment will consist of Royal Caribbean singers and dancers versus a broadway style production. Vision is not even half the size of Anthem so naturally there is a lot less on Vision but she has all the core items for a classic cruise experience.

Missed Megan's Bay and St Thomas all together. 30 minutes before we were to leave the ship we got call about dog. He had been having the poops all night. They wanted the OK to take him to Vet. By the time we called they already brought him. He was on IV for dehydration. We spent the day on the phone every hour on the hour. Long story short he has a condition that creates bad bacteria and we told the doctor to put him on pro biotics. The next day he was feeling better and ate some food. But St Thomas didn't happen. They kept apologizing saying they know we are on a cruise, but then would ask how long we would be gone. After we told them, they would say "are you sure". This prompted us to check airfare from St Thomas. We were looking at $1500 each and 12 hours of travel. Then they would say they could handle it. But would ask our return date. And after we would say it, again they say "are you sure". So Wednesday was hard. Thursday they said he was doing better. LOL.

Wow, have I been wrong. All this time I thought your job is answering questions on this blog.

It'll switch to Alaska time.

For those that want to bitch about the new menus or the food aboard (or, the lack there of) I suggest you rephrase your argument on your post cruise survey. Tell them the food is not what they are capable of doing. Tell them they they are not utilizing the talents of the kitchen staff. Tell them they are not utilizing the millions of dollars they have spent in every galley. Tell them they have narrowed the serving staff and they are capable of so much more. This is a much more poignant and painful argument than "I want my French Onion Soup every night". And, everyone from the corner offices in Miami to the blue scarf wearing dishwashers knows that this is true. A much more of a direct stab to the heart if you will. Costco of the Seas is unacceptable.

Why can’t we take posts at face value and not do a personal “Columbo” forensic check on their posting history? Not sure it’s relevant myself.

For Christmas we prefer to give our kids experiences instead of random gifts. Either we're on a cruise on Christmas or we give them a trip as their gift. This year they got a Quantum Vision of a Christmas gift: TWO cruises, Southern Caribbean on Vision March 31-April 10 and Alaska on Quantum May 29-June 5, hence this is Part 2. If you're interested I also did a live blog on our Vision cruise. Hubby and I have been on two Alaska cruises and after sailing on Ovation just after the restart we decided we should finally take the kids. We've been on two Quantum class ships, Anthem and Ovation, and are excited to experience Quantum of the Seas. Who's sailing: Hubby and I and our 4 kids: D16, S12, S8, D5. D16 has minimal time to enjoy Diamond benefits as she'll be relegated to Emerald when she turns 18 next summer, as I understand it. S8 is technically still S7, but his birthday is on embarkation day. This is not considered a birthday cruise, it was just the least expensive time to go to Alaska without missing school. Also sailing are MIL and FIL, as well as MM (my mom) and MD (my dad). We are all on deck 11. The adults are all in balcony rooms, and kids are across from hubby and I in an inside room with virtual balcony. We have cruised with parents before, but never both sets of parents at the same time. MIL loves warm weather Disney cruises and snorkeling all day every day. They just returned from B2B Southern Caribbean sailings on Disney on Saturday and snorkeled 10 days straight. So she's really unsure about this cold and rainy cruise and I can't wait to show her the beauty of Alaska and all of the fun stuff on a Quantum class ship. Where to: Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Victoria. If you weren't aware, all of Quantum's visits to Skagway were cancelled this season. Some were moved to Icy Strait Point, others to Ketchikan, and some to Sitka, I guess it depends which ports were on your original itinerary. We got switched to Ketchikan. We're taking it in stride, but I am quite bummed. Our favorite excursion ever was in Skagway where we took a boat to a remote area and along the way saw lots of wildlife and waterfalls. We then canoed to Davidson Glacier where we got to touch the glacier and it was just really amazing and the college age tour guides were hilarious. They live in this remote area with no electricity and no cell service and in their free time make up skits using boxes. We had the three older kids as well as MIL, MM, and MD signed up for that. D5 isn't old enough so we were going to take her on the train with FIL, then a bus ride back down to see sled dog puppies and many other sites. Bummed to miss such exciting excursions but especially bummed my kids didn't get to see a glacier up close. Mendenhall glacier is just too far away. So instead hubby and I are going to wake up early in Ketchikan and do a 5 mile hike, MM and MD are doing an ebike and hike excursion, and MIL and FIL are going to stay with the kiddos and meet us for the 12:45 lumberjack show. Then we'll look for a delicious crab lunch. Good news: saved a ton of money...or so I thought. Last week Royal FINALLY released the excursion that allows us to get off the ship directly onto a boat in the middle of the Fjord. I figured since it hadn't been released at 30 days out that we wouldn't see it, so was surprised for it to appear less than 2 weeks before sailing. The ship will continue to Juneau arriving around 1 and we will meet it there at 2:30. This is one pricey tour, so no money saved by hubby and I in the end, but yay for my kids being able to see a glacier up close after all. However, MIL and FIL did have to cancel their helicopter tour in Juneau in order to go with us. I think FIL was relieved, he gets motion sick easily. MIL decided that she would be super disappointed if they got to Juneau and the helicopter flight was cancelled due to weather and so then they had no excursion at all plus she wants to be with the grandkids. Getting there: We were going to drive to Seattle, but then I checked Air2Sea and the flights were....drumroll.....$137. Roundtrip. Nonstop. First Class. On our preferred airline. It'll be the kids' first time in first class, but shhhh they don't know yet. I thought for sure this was some Royal IT glitch, but nobody has called me to up the price or return my money. I've never used Air2Sea but for this price I couldn't resist. The flights showed up on the Delta App within hours for us to make our seat selection. We fly out on Sunday!

I just spotted a new function on Royal's booking page. It's a "write in" search box right up near the top of the page. I was sceptical but I asked it to find me cruises to Europe in June 2024 and it did. I did try asking it to find me one-way cruises as that's something I'd like to see as a search option but, unfortunately, that overwhelmed it: "We're sorry, but we couldn't find any results that match your search. Please modify your search and try again"

We were on an 11 night on Vision of the Seas in Feb 2023. This was our 35Th cruise, we never complained about any of our cruises till this one. Extremely disappointed in the food in the dining room AND the Windjammer. The cut back on the quality and variety was so obvious it is ridiculous. I always do a future cruise booking every time we go at the end of the cruise I threw the form away. We talked to several people who also were very upset over the food. Sent the survey in and received a response that basically disregarded our concern. Talked to others that recently went on another RCL ship and had the same experience with the food. I will not book with them until the remove their "new" menu and return to the high quality they always had before. Has anyone else had this experience that we had? I am a stockholder and seriously considering liquidating before too many customers have this experience. We are going to try Carnival this fall.

In your case, it wont work at all because the 2 year old is too young and needs to be in AO Babies.

I can only see it on my desktop, not on my mobile devices.

Sabor, the itinerary, and Saturday Night Fever were probably my top 3 reasons for booking Liberty (not necessarily in that order)

Thanks I have yet to ask photographers a similar question. I do know a lot of bartenders And Of course I interigate every room steward I come in contact with on a regular basis even the one down the hall that sees me regular. Have met photographers that I both like and take good pics. Problem is as I only take the free one. But if they get credit for each Pic I'll visit with those i know and like more, even if not dressed for a Pic I'll select Will also talk shop with them a little more going forward Thanks for info

We have had this on other cruise lines but have never seen it on Royal, at least not in the last 6 years. Suspect that with COVID it was permanently dropped. In Galveston I did not see a departure lounge other than the Suite and Pinnacle lounge, so us lowly D+ and Diamond passengers have to wait and dash to the Schooner Bar for a drink when they call us in. Oh by the way, if you do go out of Galveston they call the boarding by tier level. The Suites and Pinnacles have their own departure area and the Key folks go first in the other area followed by D+, Diamond and on down. As a Diamond you get on quickly before the rush. This is a non-published benefit.

The week of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be full, expensive cruises because that's when most families have time. While mid March is spring break for a lot of schools, you would be okay if you are sailing out of Galveston. Therefore my opinion is mid-March. But ultimately it comes down to what you want and can afford.

While In the port of Mazatlan Mexico. The crew were preforming drills and a lifeboat fell into the sea you can read the letter attached for the details We left the lifeboat behind and the captain assured everyone that we had plenty left. I didn’t see it happen I was on a excursion but spoke with a guest and would did and they we shook up a bit Glad no one got hurt

Did he look like this?

Wow! Someone put down the RC pom pons and gave an honest review! I really enjoyed your video and appreciate all the post production work, Thank You For Sharing!!!

The answer to your question is "no". It is supposed to be used only for a new booking....but with all things Royal Caribbean, YMMV. There is one situation where your trade-in value can be combined with another offer and that is if you and your spouse earn certificates on the same cruise, you are able to combine them but I do believe it still has to be for a new booking. We did this recently. I had a relatively good certificate while Dan's was useless....so we booked using mine and used his to help with the cost of upgrading the booking. It is my experience that they are getting stricter and stricter on these kinds of things and I think using your certificate trade-in value to apply to an existing booking is getting harder and harder to do.

That list of benefits is the complete list of benefits. There are no hidden perks that they do not tell you about upfront and make you discover on your own.

Hmm, op doesn't have a lot of posts, but their first post back in may 2021 claimed they already did 35 cruises. Also said they had one booked for Oct 2021, but above says this Feb was their 35th cruise. Complaining about the food from a cruise 4 months ago, then saying they're going to Carnival

On board time may be just 30 min before departure. Check cruise compass. Most cruisers don't cut it that close, hence 90 min is recommended.

I do hear that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food.

IMO, if you are looking for higher quality, Carnival will disappoint.

Great video! I've sailed out of Cape Liberty 3 times last year (Feb, July, Oct) and never an issue for us. We would pull in at 10:20 (10:30 check in) drop luggage off, park, go through security, check in and be on ship by 11 each time. I will say, watching the line of cars on the top deck around noon getting in is the reason we get early check in. We will be cruising again next month and October out of Cape Liberty as it's only a 4-hour drive from home.

I think it was $25 per day but it has gone up just in the last couple weeks I believe to maybe $30. There's also a breakfast joint about 2 miles from the port The Broadway Diner that we really enjoyed.

Great review! Excellent video! Loved it.

Wow, I have to watch this in small portions because I'm at work, but first question is about Cape Liberty...we are sailing out of there in october for the first time, all of my previous cruises have been Port Canaveral or Miami... everything I have read about NJ was that it was a really smooth embarkation process, from parking all the way to on the ship. When did you sail from there....and what was the issues? Hoping it's all sorted out when we go since it will be almost the end of the "season" up there. Anyway- looking forward to the rest of this video, wonder will probably be our next cruise so I'm looking forward to this!

Whether or not Stormy applies, it is said someone like her would be cost effective for Royal as their presence on the ship doesn’t count against the lifeboat capacity since she has her own floatation devices. I don’t know if this is correct.

Daniels?

So.......drum roll............. I did it!!!!!!! I'll get into more post trip. But the psychological effects of many bad hard tight years vs the long anticipation vs reading too much of people's opinions vs the build-up vs the need for it to be perfect after a really long time, etc. Well it made the perfect storm. If it wasn't perfect it at least could have been in my head. Not living up after a decade of not being able to go anywhere was terrifying. You could right a book on it. Lots to say. Nothing bad. Will be updating. Wasn't planning on buying internet and broke down an hour ago and did. Didn't want to deal with the real world (and the cost), but it's hard to not look at your phone. Who sang that song that goes.........etc was driving me crazy. Little things like that get to you. Unfortunately, the real world came with an issue. The pet hotel left a message that my little 9lb boy is not eating. He gets like that. We told them. 2 pages of typed information and instructions. They know where we are and said they understand if we can't call but they are looking for ideas to get him to eat. We are trying to figure out if with T Mobile and wifi ( if and how ) we can call and potential cost? At sea now. St Thomas tomorrow. DH is messaging with T Mobile rep right now. OK he is telling me rep is saying to download whatsapp and we can call over that via wifi and not accrue any costs. This sound right to anyone?

I’d bring back the double points promotion. Let’s hear it for double points!

Every cruise I've ever been on has been different in one way or other, things offered on one might not be offered on others. First Royal cruise I was one had a buffet type setup beside the pool one night at 10pm, haven't seen it since, but it's not something that would let ruin my cruise. Menus have changed a few times, some WJ's are better than others. The handful of changes they've made recently don't bother me and honestly probably won't affect most people in a super negative way. Unless I get asked to go down to the engine room to get on bike to help propel the ship I'm not going to be too upset.

1 - Competent IT 2 - Transparency in pricing 3 - Consistent application of policies and practices 4 - Better pizza (go learn from New York Pizza on Holland America)

we are just excited to see it!

This is one of the oddest rants I’ve read. I cannot fathom not taking a vacation because of concerns raised by others in blog posts, particularly one that I had already paid for. I enjoy cruising. I love being on the ocean. I love sleeping to the gentle rocking of the ship. I enjoy exploring the ports. I like sitting with a book while the ocean goes by. I enjoy talented musicians every evening. Once a day service is fine for me, and I have never gotten room service. To me, the cabins are small for eating. But, food is not really my thing. Even if it were, however, I think I would try the cruise for which I already paid.

Think about your Solo Cruisers. You don't have many solo cabins and they sell out very, very quickly. I would make sure the new ships are designed to take care of Solo Cruisers. The cabins do not have to be big, but I would have a mixture of inside, ocean view and balcony cabins for Solo Cruisers. On my older ships I would have specials during off season for my Solo Cruisers. The last thing is having a Solo Cruise Director like NCL has that can coordinate events for Solo Cruisers.

1. Release the shows schedule early tethered to if I purchase the UDP I can look at it and make my dining reservations BEFORE I board. Boarding day should be reserved for making adjustments, it would just relieve some frustration on day one. I think they would sell more UDP if reservations can be secured before hand with the UDP. 2. For goodness sake standardize the suites product, it is different across the fleet and I think if the product was the same across the ships it would generate a better feeling of value, and possibly more bookings = more revenue. At minimum a Sky class experience for the Grands & higher, Sea for the Juniors. (Star on the smaller vessels seems not needed, ie. too small) 3. Along the same lines the Suites Lounge has become wildly popular and address in some way the capacity problems. If you stay in a suite you are afforded this amenity & if not then please enjoy another venue or make the lounges bigger with an additional concierge because one can't handle it. 4. This may be off putting but reaching 700 + nights sailings and achieving Pinnacle means a huge investment was made with the company, Pinnacles should be afforded "free room service" always no matter what class of cabin they are in as well as 9 drinks per day! Depending on the amount on board say 20 have a special luncheon service just for them.** 5. Open the theaters early before the shows and just allow people to enter at their leisure. 6. I've repeatedly stated allow cabins to be booked with or without Genie service (the Star ones) Have the service as an add on at booking for certain cabin types. ** I am not Pinnacle, but want to be one in the future! Only about 33 seven night sailings to go!! @FSUFAN thanks so much, this was fun!

I was charged for jeans this past summer.

Maybe we’ve just been lucky but we have included every kind of clothing item in our complimentary Wash&Fold laundry service and have neither been denied nor charged. Basically, if it fits into the bag, it goes. I send Dans Docker khaki pants all the time. I have heard plenty of warnings about clothing being ruined in the ships laundry but never had any issues whatsoever. Regarding timing, it is best to consult with your room attendant. Some attendants have allowed us to send out a bag on day 5 (of a 7 night sailing) but on SY, we were told that we could send out no later than day 4. On our recent B3B on OA, we sent out a bag on day 1 of the third leg which was laundry worn during leg 2….my point being, you might consider waiting until the beginning of leg 2 to send out the laundry, giving you the most time to get it back.

I think it's rude to hold up a ship full of thousands of people who were on time because of whatever reason they couldn't make it back in time. I think it's rude to cause a cruise line to burn more fuel at significant cost to make up for lost time to reach the next port because of whatever reason they couldn't make it back in time. I think it's rude to the dock workers at the port who want to go home after a long day of work but can't because of whatever reason they couldn't make it back in time.