StayFrosty

Airports in NYC JFK - The largest and located on the east side of the city. Jet Blue, American, and Delta have the largest presence there. It take about an hour by taxi or public transit to get to midtown. Newark - Still a large airport. United has by far the largest presence here. It takes about 30 min by taxi and about 40 min by public transit. This is also the closest airport to the cruise port which might be handy if you are heading straight to the airport after the cruise. LaGuardia - Is the closet to midtown but is a mess with construction right now. Delta and American are the biggest airlines here. 30 minutes by taxi and 50 minutes by public transit (the least convenient of the public transit options). All of the times will depend on time of day and traffic so take them with a grain of salt. I know a lot of people like Southwest; they fly out of LaGuardia but not in large numbers compared to the other airlines as well Long Island MacArthur Airport (about an hour and half east of the city)

I agree but it will never happen. If they do that but the other cruise lines don't, then Royal's fares will look more expensive up front. Of course we know better but most people compare costs based on what is listed on the website, not the final bills.

I believe that money was for a high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa. The governor did it because he thought the train was going to run huge deficits that Florida would have to pick up even though all of the studies said that the train would make money. Ridiculous.

Same thing happened to me. They looked at me like I was crazy. We unfortunately were not able to talk our way into traditional. I am not a fan of MyTime Dining. We were seated at a two-top by ourselves every night. I like being seated with other people in traditional dining. I also felt like the waiters were much more rushed in MyTime. I am glad you got it worked out. Love Navigator!

I love to hear your impressions.

The escape room pics that @Matt posted on the blog look awesome. Great production values. I am a huge escape room and space history fan. I might have to book the ship just for the escape room. Most expensive escape room ever!

Hit the slides while in port. Don’t miss the piano player in the Schooner Bar. I love the movies by the pool (the Lime and the Coconut Bar is open late!). Book the escape room. Don’t miss iSkate, the drones are amazing! Here is my live blog from June.

That escape room looks amazing!!!!! Is it bad that I want to book a sailing just for that?

No worries there. The Virgin Pendolino trains, like almost all British trains, have a narrower loading gauge (the trains are narrower). US lines can take wider trains so using a UK train set here would unnecessarily squeeze passengers. Those trains are electric and use a tilting technology that is not really needed on the Florida route which is very straight and non-electrified. Lastly those trains wouldn't meet US crash worthiness standards. I haven't heard any complaints about the new trains that Brightline purchased but they will need more once service expands to Orlando. Hopefully Virgin will make better choices than they did for their British franchises.

I think that the staff member running the escape room on Navigator said it had around a 30%ish success rate. It was not the hardest room I have done but it was a lot of fun. We only barely finished in time mainly due to not being able to fine something at one point.

It is my understanding the Virgin Trains bought out Brightline and will be changing the branding to Virgin sometime next year. That is how I read it as well. If it was the same train, it would need to do a fairly significant reverse move to access the Miami terminal and the port. Everything that I have read about this previously sounds like it will just be a single station at the port near the current trans-loading facility. So you still have the problem of the "last mile" to the terminal. Seems like a waste if you have to take the train to the Miami terminal, transfer to the train to the port, then transfer to the bus to the terminal. Might as well just get on a bus to the port at the Miami Terminal. Now if they the do a time-separated light rail and do a loop to all of the terminals via a combination of private right-of-way and street running, that might be worth it but it would be more difficult and costly to construct.

Enchantment of the Seas (988ft) has been in Baltimore previously and will be again and it is longer than a Radiance Class ship (962 ft).

They have added stuff other then specialty restaurants to the smaller ships over the year just not on the same scale as the Amplification Program. Most of the smaller ships have had kids splash pads installed, rock walls were added. The most significant renovation to a smaller ship was when they cut Enchantment in half and lengthened her. That added an additional pool and pool bar, more shops, Boleros and obviously more cabins. At some point they also added the trampoline thing to the front of the ship (not that it ever seemed to be open when I was on in 2015). All that said, I don't think you will see any big changes anymore. The ships are paid for, just keep them in good shape and make the money.

This is where Mariner got its Izumi and they got hibachi as well.

Where did you dock in Tokyo?