Skigoofy

HI there!  I'm sailing on Adventure out of San Juan on Saturday, stopping in St Thomas, St Kitts, Curacao & Aruba. I'm kind of silent member, I listen to all of Matt's podcasts, and peruse the blog and forums quite a bit, but dont speak out too much.  :) I've learned so much here and would love to help pay it back and help contribute. I'll possibly blog here each day, if there is anything  you want to know, feel free to post here and I'll see how I can help.  **5 days and 23 hours, but who is counting?!**
 

Have a great cruise!

Good morning all!  In the words of @twangster, IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!
Our stay last night at Embassy Suites was quite pleasant. All in all, a very decent hotel. Beds were comfy, tons of space in the room (all the rooms are suites here), friendly staff. The bath products here are Neutrogena, that might be important for some out there ? and the bathroom here more than passes hotel snob approval.
Just sitting downstairs waiting for the kids to finish up breakfast. We are impressed, the complimentary breakfast buffet here is quite extensive. There is the usual continental breakfast items, oatmeal, fresh fruit, the usual hot items (French toast, bacon, sausages, hash browns), 24hr hot beverage station, and even a made to order omelette station. Hubby was pretty impressed by that as most of the other complimentary hotel breakfasts that we've had in the past did not have that option. There's also tons of space here for eating.

Overall, this hotel is not a bad choice at all for a pre-cruise stay. My only complaint, and it's minor, is that you can hear the planes quite clearly at all hours. So if you are a light sleeper, that might be a problem. 
The plan for the next few hours is to pack up, check out, and head on over to Cape Liberty. It's -1 degrees Celsius (feels like -7) right now. It's a cold one!  For my American friends, it's 30 degrees Fahrenheit (feels like 19). @SeasTheDayNJ I think it might be too cold for sail away in flip flops and sandals lol. Better luck next Saturday. 
Off for now, will check back in when we get to the ship!! ? 

Pre-cruise report:

Sailing:  March 9-17, 2018, Anthem of the Seas, 8 Night Bahamas cruise
 
Sailing with:   Hubby and daughters, ages 11 and 9, who I will refer to as D1 and D2 from this point onward.
 
Flying from: DTW to EWR via Delta.  
 
Pre-cruise hotel:  Embassy Suites in Elizabeth, NJ.  
We chose this hotel based on several factors.  When travelling with the kids, I like to look for hotels that provide a complimentary breakfast.  It is one less thing to worry about.  Also, this hotel came highly recommended by another site that I like, EatSleepCruise.com for value, space, and ease of getting to the port.  Also, being the hotel/cruise snob that I am, this was one of the few in the area that looked relatively clean and modern.
 
The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 – Cape Liberty, NJ
Day 2 and 3 – At Sea
Day 4 – Port Canaveral
Day 5 – Coco Cay
Day 6 – Nassau
Day 7 & 8 – At Sea
Day 9 – Cape Liberty, NJ

We booked the Kennedy Space Center guided tour through RC shore excursions.  Got a great rate on it during the Cruise planner Christmas sale.  At Coco Cay, we have the Aqua Park and Slide combo purchased for the kids.  And Hubby and D2 are going to do the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter in Nassau.
We are lazy cruisers.  The ship is often our destination.  So, going on 3 excursions (only two for D1 and I) is actually quite the splurge for us.
 
Cabin:  
Unless the last-minute upgrade fairy strikes it’s going to be a Family Junior Suite (FJ) this time around.  Initially, we went with 2 connecting balconies, but then KSF came up in November and we switched it to the FJ so that I could get my dinners in CK.  Picking a cabin with our kids is a bit more difficult.  No one sleeps well when the girls share a bed so we needed a room that has a Pullman or can accommodate a rollaway.  Also, with 2 girls and myself, a 2nd bathroom is becoming a necessity.  So, the FJ fit those requirements as it has 1 ½ baths, and we have one on Deck 9 that has an additional Pullman.  
Our plan was to book the FJ and then wait for the 45-60 day price drop (as I have seen on many sailings) and upgrade to a full suite.  However, this was one of the few times that this did not work out. The price did drop around the 60 day mark, however, KSF ended by then so it was not worth it to upgrade.
 
Random Pre-cruise thoughts:
-    It’s our first time:
•    Bringing our kids on RC.  We have sailed DCL with them 3 times in the past.  
•    In a Junior suite.  We’ve done interiors, ocean view, regular balconies, and full suites but never Sea class.
•    Sailing Quantum Class.  As many of you know, I am a huge Oasis class fan.  I also tend to favour the newer and bigger ships.  However, Hubby does not like to sail the same ship twice in a short time span.  That’s where Anthem fit the bill.  It also worked out nicely that this sailing just made the cut off date for KSF.  I must admit that I do feel some apprehension about this sailing.  As a creature of habit, I will miss my morning coffee and nightly strolls in Central Park and the amazing shows in the Aqua Theater.  In addition, sailing out of NJ in March makes me a bit nervous.  The weather and seas are always up in the air and sailing out of cold weather (and snow now, thanks to Nor'easter) doesn't quite sit well with me.
•    Doing a Live Blog!  I can’t say enough how much I love this RC Blog community and how much I have learned and benefited from all of you.  I see this as a way of contributing back.
-    We plan to eat most of our dinners in Coastal Kitchen.  We were able to make reservations in the Cruise Planner this time.  This option became available in the Cruise Planner around 170 days out.  Disappeared for a while and then came back again.  When we sailed on Harmony, we had to wait until we got the Concierge email or book on board.  Going from what others have reported on other boards, it seems that you can make reservations ahead of time on Quantum class ships but not Oasis class.  We also made reservations for dinner at Jamie’s for one night.  The pasta was calling, and we could not turn away.
-    We purchased VOOM for 2 devices.  Too bad for the kids but @twangster saved the day for them.
-    All other entertainment reservations (shows, iFly, North Star) have been made.  These all showed up in the Cruise Planner about 160 days out.
-    This cruise sold out over a month ago.  It reached the ¾ lifeboat capacity back in November!  It’s March break in Ontario and according CC roll call and FB pages for this sailing there will be lots of kids and many Toronto Maple Leafs fans!  Hubby will be in good company!
-    The teacher in me is hoping that this can be an interactive live blog. Meaning, if there is anything you would like me to find out please do not hesitate to ask away.  I will do my best to check back regularly and find out for you.
-    Lastly, I will likely be doing most of my blogging from my phone, so if you are replying to something that has pics attached, please do not include the pics in your reply.  Thanks!  ?
 

Awesome blog and wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Officially earning the title of worst live blogger ever - I am so sorry for not staying up to date. This is officially live-ish and I will be absolutely leaving official reviews on everything we did by Sunday evening. That said - Good Times Catamaran in Barbados is officially my favorite excursion I’ve ever done. 
That said, we are currently abusing the last of our drink package in the pub and I’m maybe not entirely sober. 
Cheers! 

Six more weeks of cruising! 

Woohoo! Another $1000 off between 2 bookings!!  TA said the 3rd didn't go down but I might upgrade that one down the line anyway.

I cruise solo often as my family and friends don't have my flexibility to travel like I do.
I really enjoy solo cruising and it makes cruises with family or friends even more special and different.  I used to travel for business a lot and became used to dining alone on business trips.  Due to that it doesn't concern me to eat in the MDR alone.   If you have a flexible calendar there are deal opportunities.  I can't count the number of times I've asked someone to cruise but they can only go a certain week and rate are double that week.  Being by myself I can sail in an interior cabin and have lots of room.  That alone saves a lot of money, like getting free excursions, internet and drinks.
Studio cabins tend to run ~75% of the cost of paying for double occupancy.  Sometimes they restrict promos and inventory to solo cruisers despite requiring you to pay for two.  In some cases I add someone I've cruised with before to a booking to get a cabin type or promo rate.  Truth is if that person could go at the last minute they would be welcome to join me but more often than not they are a no show at check in.  In those cases the taxes and port fees end up refunded automatically shortly into or after a cruise.   I don't pre-pay gratuity in the cases where a 2nd person is added who might not sail.
Studio cabins do not get double C&A points.  Booking a non-studio cabin including 'Guarantee' cabins do get double C&A points.  Not many ships have studio cabins and they go quickly.  Sometimes they are only slightly cheaper than a regular cabin.  Studio cabins are sometimes pretty small and if the price difference is small I'll go into a regular cabin and take advantage of the double C&A points.  I love suites but just can't justify them when solo.   
There is something really nice about solo cruising.  Do what you want, when you want.  There are often single seats in the theater available as people space themselves out when they sit leaving one seat between them and the next couple.  Sometimes there are single loungers by the pool available for the same reason.  MDR service tends to be very fast when solo.  
If you are the type of person who is comfortable being by yourself solo cruising is great.  Tons of happy people around and lots of public places but easy to slip away and have some alone time when you feel like it. 

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!
I flew into Houston Hobby airport last night and stayed at an airport hotel.   My hotel had renovations underway which has been a theme for me recently.   It wasn't until breakfast when I saw the new lower 3 feet of drywall everywhere on the 1st floor that it dawned on me it was from Hurricane Harvey flood damage.   
I'm in my Lyft ride heading towards Galveston as I write this.  Just over an hour for $50.   ETA 10:10am.   
Light traffic on this Sunday morning and we made the terminal at 10:03am.  Quick drop of luggage and into the terminal to check in.  It looks like they just opened and there aren't many people here.  A group of 15 headed into the Suites/Pinnacle/Diamond Plus queue leaving the Diamond/Emerald/Platinum queue just to me.  I went to next available agent and... the computers went down.  Around 10:30 they came back online one by one.  Unfortunately for me and my neighbor our agent's computers didn't come back so they slid us over to working agents and away we went.  I wasn't too concerned because I knew we had to wait for boarding anyways.  Upstairs into the top tier waiting area it seems they had started boarding when I arrived upstairs but suffering from the same computer outage they had halted boarding. 

The upstairs area has a vendor area where they sell lanyards.

I got some water from the dispensers and just sat down they started boarding again.  By 10:50am I was onboard.  Pretty easy boarding process despite the brief computer issue.  This trip is already starting off a lot smoother than my last Galveston departure on some other cruise line a few years ago (before I switched to Royal).
This seven night cruise will complete the Freedom class trilogy for me.  Freedom ✅.  Independence ✅.  Liberty ✅ . 
Leaving from Galveston I have two sea days, Roatán, Costa Maya, Cozumel, a sea day then back to Galveston.  Liberty has two primary itineraries.  This cruise is the more western of these western routes.  A nautical style map was on display in the Promenade.

The promenade is adorned with a large Texas flag to greet us:

Café Promenade was open so I had a roast beef plus a turkey sandwich.  Let the food coma commence.

With some time to kill before cabins are available I decided to check out a few spots.
Main Dining Room

Helipad (of course)

It's an overcast day here in Galveston so I'll wait to take more pictures around the ship once we are in nicer weather.
I was pleased to discover O3b based Voom.  With that I can confirm everything Freedom class and newer has O3b Voom.

With that it's almost time for cabins to be available.

As discussed, here’s a few villa pictures! 
3 bedroom (1 queen, 2 double), 2.5 bath Villa located in Old San Juan. AirBnB host has been great, and the property and location are incredible. 
 

I will get some pictures tomorrow and share out a link most likely when I get back. Right now we are back at the villa relaxing after a long day of travel. 
Other stray thoughts -
getting a taxi from SJU to Old San Juan was a painless process. Once you are here, it really does feel like you can walk anywhere and everything is well lit. 
Most leftover hurricane damage I’ve seen was outside of Old San Juan.. everything in this area seems to be up and running  and people are very nice  
And now I’m playing a drinking game and I lost because I was writing this so for my own sake I’ll follow up in the morning 

Checking in from San Juan!!! Currently sitting in Vaca Brava sipping a mojito. Initial thoughts: 
Old San Juan is beautiful and walkable 
the air BnB we picked is worth every penny. If you are spending at least two nights in San Juan pre cruise, I would gladly recommend it. Shoot me a message. 
Am happy. 

She's trying to avoid this

Waiting for @KLAconQueso live blog like

I'm a little over excited, so I'm going to go ahead and start the thread and give a bit of a cruise preview. If you guys have any questions or things you'd like me to check out, post it here!
This is my first time on this ship (and class of ship!) and all of the ports are brand new to us, so this will be a very exciting cruise.  
My husband and I plus 10 members from his side of the family (!!!!) will be traveling to San Juan early in the morning on February 22nd, and finally arriving around 3:00 PM (San Juan time). We are staying in Old San Juan in an Air BnB that we are splitting with our siblings in law (two other married couples all around the same age). My in laws and others are staying at the Casa Blanca Hotel. We got a great deal on this AirBnB, so really excited that we were able to find something reasonable in the area of the city that we wanted to be in!  
The cruise doesn’t embark until February 24th, so we will be spending two days exploring the city prior to our cruise. I know a lot of questions have come up here regarding the condition of the city, so I will be sure to share whatever pictures and information that I can!  
Now for our itinerary, we will be visiting St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados – leaving us with only one sea day! VERY port heavy itinerary.  
St. Maarten – We will be taking a Bernard’s SXM Tour (Third Party Excursion) 
St. Kitts – We have an early afternoon Island History and Rum Tasting Tour booked through the cruise line 
Antigua – We will be taking a taxi to Valley Church Beach 
St. Lucia – We are taking a Jeep Adventure and Beach Break excursion that we booked through the cruise line (and swinging by a brewery “tap room” with great reviews near the port!) 
Barbados – We have chartered a private catamaran tour for only our group with two snorkel spots, lunch buffet, and drinks included (SO excited for this!) 
As I mentioned, each of these ports are totally new to us so really excited to see what’s in store.  
For our cabin, we started out in an interior cabin beneath the casino. However, thanks to some price drops, we were able to move up to a Deck 8 Interior Promenade Cabin! It’s our first time in this type of stateroom and we are really excited to check it out based on feedback we’ve had.  
I don’t anticipate we will be doing any specialty dining this cruise (unless we can convince some in the group to join us in the newly added Izumi!), so we will be going to the Main Dining Room with our group during traditional early seating. Additionally, we DID spring for a Deluxe Drink Package this cruise once we saw it drop to $39/pp per day – worth it to us, especially since we are not diamond and do not get the perk of the nightly happy hour (though, this is our first cruise as Emerald!). I did also purchase a single VOOM code to stay connected back home (I worry about our dog!), and also to share our trip with you guys of course!   
Thanks for reading – very much looking forward to sharing our upcoming ADVENTURE on the Adventure of the Seas!   

@twangster...
Will take your place on a cruise.
Will share VOOM codes.
Will date a nice Pinnacle girl.
Anything else? JK
?

... AAAAAAND we've circled back to Sorrento's again. 
 
Sounds like you're having a great time - thanks for sharing your adventure with us! 

Thanks everyone for your nice comments.
this is our only cruise this year as we are off to Hawaii for 3 weeks later in the year for my birthday. Back on Explorer in March 2019 for a trip up to the Pacific Islands.
BROWN SUGAR UPDATE: they are now trained at putting out the brown sugar for my porridge. They put a huge bowl of it.
Mission accomplished. ?

Day 3 - Last Day
Woke up this morning at the same time as yesterday and we decided to go to Windjammers for breakfast again. There were even less people than yesterday so we were able to get a table at the back of the ship overlooking the ocean.
When I went to get my porridge this morning I took extra care not to spill the hot milk on my hand. Again there was no brown sugar but this time I spoke to the Windjammer manager who sorted the issue out for me.
After breakfast we returned to our cabin where we had a lovely surprise waiting for us. Rolly who was our stateroom attendant on Radiance, and who we met again last night, had organised for a bottle of wine to be delivered to our stateroom for us. It was a lovely gesture for which we were very grateful. He is one of the nicest people you could hope to met.

After breakfast we headed up to the mini golf to play a round. I have an app on my phone to keep track of the score. I can save the courses from each of the ships as we go on them.

As the FlowRider is next to the golf we spent a few minutes watching people having a go. There were about 10 people waiting for a go. On all the cruises we have done I never tried the FlowRider as I have terrible balance, as evidenced by my tragic attempts to ski

We had a few photos taken last night around the ship so we headed down to Studio B. We found a couple of photos we liked and ordered them using our diamond free printed photo voucher. This is a great benefit as we allowed one each, saving $40.
Next we headed off to the casino to get our 3 free spins. We didn’t win anything but the cashier did not swipe our sea pass cards so we will go back this afternoon and see if we can get another set of tokens.
Rather than talk about all the things available on the ship I have taken some some photos from around the ship which hopefully you will enjoy.
Shops and the Royal Promenade




 



Outside Promeande Deck


Gym,Early Morning Aerobics and Dive Centre


Peek a Boo Deck. This is a great way to see the bridge without having to pay for a bridge tour. I think a lot of passengers don’t realise the ship has this feature and miss a wonderful opportunity. The cabin was on the bridge in these photos as they were re-calibrating the GPS.


For lunch today we had a poolside barbecue. This is the first time I have seen this on the ship but the food was great. I hope we see it more often in the future.

Some random shots I liked.
Us up on the helipad

Memories of my misspent youth.

Seagull with an outside  cabin

A fun piece of technology outside the arcade.

The Australians will love this.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the features and sights from around the ship.
Tonight we went to Imuzi for dinner. It was very busy because Chops had been booked out for a private function. The menu on Explorer was much better than the one on Ovation. Ovation only had sushi but Explorer had the hot rock option. I opted for chispy chicken as the starter and surf and turf as the main. I really enjoyed the hot rock option and would now be happy to go to any Izumi that has this option in the future.

Well that is pretty much the end of the cruise as we only have hand luggage so we will get up early tomorrow and disembark ourselves. Ouch that sounds painful.
i hope you have enjoyed following along with me.
It has been an interesting experience, especially when I was just in the process of uploading my last photo tonight and Safari on my iPad crashed and everything was lost At least the second time was quicker as I already had a template in my head.
i have scans of the cruise planner and all the menus so I will send them through to Matt when I get home.
Right I am submitting this now before something else goes wrong.
Some bonus photos, these are the TV channels available on the ship

Greetings all.
I'm writing to you from my pre-cruise hotel listening to the dulcet tones of airbuses and boeings flying overhead as I await the arrival of the Anthem tomorrow morning.
Travelling with me is my wife, 3 year old daughter and a friend of ours who has NEVER CRUISED BEFORE. We are staying in a grand loft suite (I feel she may be screwed for any subsequent cruise if she likes...)
I'll do my best to post here daily but copious amounts of watered down American beer (if you can call it that) may get in the way.
Feel free to ask any questions. I'll do my best to answer them.
Oh. Before I forget.. The Lids store located within the Jersey Garden mall had paw patrol hats on for 50% off. I know you'll sleep better knowing that.
Cheers.

I am not really a blogger so this will just be some ramblings and photos from our 3 day Explorer cruise leaving from Sydney.
Day 1
We had to be up at 4am to catch a flight from Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia which takes approximately 3 hours. Today we were flying Latam Airlines. The flight was on a Dreamliner and was very nice. I love the mood lighting in the cabin on these flights. Due to the time differences between Auckland and Sydney we arrived just after 9am. Customs processing was quick so we though the airport in 20 minutes.
We caught the train from the airport directly down to Circular Quay where the ship was waiting for us.

As this is only a 3 day cruise we only had carry on luggage and nothing to check in so it was straight through to the check-in area. For this cruise we are in an Owners Suite (1592) so we could use the suite check-in line but as we were early everyone at the terminal could check-in without having to wait. 
The ship was not ready to board yet we had to wait in a reception area on the first floor for about 20 minutes. When they did start boarding we were on screened through security and on the ship within about 10 minutes. There was no customs processing for this voyage as it is a domestic cruise.
Once on board I changed out of my travel clothes straight into the swimwear I packed in our carry on. The Solarium was empty so I jumped into the pool and spent some time talking to the Life Guard so that he would get bored. I learnt he was from Indonesia and is on the ship until May. It is the only job he has to do on the ship so he was pretty happy. He said the main issue they have is not with people drowning as they are trained for that, but people falling over on the deck and hurting themselves.
When his shift changed (they are on duty for 30 minutes before changing pools) I got out of the pool and had a quick soak in the hot spa. I let the sun dry me off and then we grabbed some food from the Windjammer at about 12pm. It wasn’t too busy but we took the food and ate it out by the pool.
After lunch even though the cabins weren’t ready yet we went down to our cabin on deck 10 and left our bags outside our cabin door before heading up to Dizzies. They serve lunch up there for Suite guests so we just wanted to see what was on offer. The selection is small (similar to the food available on Cafe Promenade) so if you are after a quick light lunch it is fine. We didn’t have anything and went off to check out the Diamond Lounge.
The Diamond Lounge on Explorer is much nicer than the Concierge Lounge in my opinion as it is light and airy and has a nice outside area.
 
Diamond Lounge Inside

Diamond Lounge Outside

Concierge Lounge
After checking out the lounges we headed back to our cabin to see what that was like. Normally we have a Grand Suite but this time paid a little extra to try an Owners Suite. The layout was different from a Grand Suite in that’s the Island that normally separates the “bar” and “living” area is not there and there is a table and 2 chairs in its place. The living area itself is spacious with a large couch and a couple of chairs.
the bathroom has a free standing shower as well as a bath and a bidet. The Grand Suite normally only has a toilet and over the bath shower. The space itself seemed smaller than a Grand Suite but maybe that was because there was more in it.
The sleeping area was also large and had a picture window that you could sit and look out of. Very nice.
The balcony seemed a little smaller but still had a table and 2 chairs and it was fine for what we need.


Because we are Diamond and in a Suite waiting for us in our cabin when we arrived was 1) fruit platter, 2) 4 biscuits 3) 4 bottles of water 4) 1 large bottle of Evian water and 5) 2 cans of coke.
Here is the list of Suite services for this cruise.

At 5pm it was time for the guest assembly drill. We went down at about 4:45pm to avoid some of the crowds. Our muster station was on deck 4 and there were already quite a few people there when we arrived. Unlike Ovation they did not scan our sea pass cards, rather they ticked us off on a piece of paper. Even at this time it was clear that some people had spent most of their time on the ship at the bar. After the drill as we made our way back to our cabin following some people you would think we were out at sea in a 4 metre swell.
Once back at our room we changed into some casual clothes and headed off to the Concierge lounge. It was busy but still possible to get a seat. Most people in the lounge were suit guests but didn’t stay long. Prior to our cruise we purchased the ultimate dining package and I had emailed the concierge about booking Chops for night one. I needed to check with him what time dinner was booked for. We stayed for 1 drink and then went up to the diamond lounge. We were there just after 6pm and apparently it had been busy but a lot of people had left by then. It was easy to find a table outside and we grabbed a couple of Cokes. The Diamond Concierge came over to make sure we were “legit”. We asked her to book Giovanni’s for dinner for night 2. We stayed there for around 40 minutes and then got ready to go watch the sail away at 6:45pm before heading to Chops. 
The weather had turned a bit rainy by then but people were still having a good time.


P


It was now 7pm and time for dinner.
As we weren’t sure what Chop’s policy was on diamond drinks we grabbed a glass of wine and coke from the Windjammer bar before making our way into Chops.i checked the waiter and he said we could use our diamond vouchers in Chops so that is good to know for the rest of the cruise.
I ordered the shrimp cocktail for me entree and Anita had the tuna crab cake. Both were delicious as usual.

For the main I had the half roast chicken and Anita had the filet mignon. Sorry they were so good that we ate them before I took photos. They looked great and tasted better.
We had to wait a while to let the food settle before we were game enough to have desert. Anita decided not to have anything but I went with the red velvet cake and I didn’t regret it.

As we had the ultimate dining package there was no bill to pay so we decided to have a quick wander around the promenade. Most of the shops were still open apart from Port Merchants which does not open on Australian domestic cruises.
Anita was feeling pretty tired by this stage so she went back to the cabin.
i elected to go to the casino and try my luck on the roulette table. I retrospect I should have just gone to bed and saved my money. I enjoyed it all the same.
After that it was time to head off to the cabin for some sleep. It has been a long day but thoughly enjoyable one.
i suspect tomorrow will be a late start.
Stray Observations
Boarding was very fast. Getting to the port early certainly helped with this.
The majority of guests are Australian’s as you would expect and most would be under 45.
The guests are mainly composed of birthday, anniversary, divorce party hens and bachelor type groups and also families with children. 3 days is perfect for this type of cruise.
Explorer now has free style machines. It didn’t have those last time we were on her.
Voom has been working well. I take a photo of the voom code and airdrop to all our devices. This means if we want to connect another device I can just look at the photo without having to carry the piece of paper with me.
Right that is me signing off for day 1. Hopefully I will wake up before day 2 is over so I have something to post

I know the question was answered - but +1 for traditional dining with a large group. 
We frequently cruise with my husbands family, making 10-12 of us total. A set dinner time makes it easy for us to all come back together at the end of the day, even if we end up on different excursions. Plus, it keeps from yet another "what time are we going to meet" type of debate, and there is already a set seat for you with a waiter that knows each one of your group's preferences. When it's just my husband and I, we STRONGLY prefer MTD. However, large group - assigned dining is the way to go.