kevpeirce

@Boston Babe I looked into BWI and EWR as alternates but the prices are still high or close enough to the same as PHL the drive would make up the savings. @JLMoran The crowds were one concern about Anthem as we have family friends who had sailed on Enchantment with us and they said it felt very crowded. Are there hallways on deck 4 and 5 to walk past the rooms versus walking through the main area? On Harmony at prime times we had done that to beat the crowds. In the review I'm a little confused about the MDR compared to Freedoms being designed differently, is there more than 1 restaurant included or is the MDR smaller to make room for more a la carte options? One other thing that slightly concerns me with sailing from the northeast in March or April is it could be 70 or it could be 20 snowing and blowing. How much of the travel time is spent in the cooler weather until it warms up? Is the solarium warm and usable during these times and does the solarium have a pool in it or just hot tubs? Our only real experience is from Harmony as Enchantment was a splurge trip booked 13 days before(since we got home from Jamaica and spent 8hrs 11pm to 7am at home and then right back for a flight to Orlando.) and with 11 other people on a 3 night cruise we just didn't have the time to get there. From what I've gathered Harmony is somewhat lacking in the solarium and we didn't spend much time if any there other then to go out on the wings. Also FYI, if sailing from the northeast I'm between 2 itineraries, an 8 night Bahamas that stops in Orlando, Nassau, and CocoCay March 15th(or the 23rd for $12 more PP) or a & night Bermuda and Boston cruise April 27th. Cold weather may be a down fall for Boston with the wife but I'd really like being able to explore the city a bit. The 8 night is currently $1600 and the 7 night is $1900, oddly enough the 8 night is advertised at $711pp and the 7 is $724pp. That difference would be about half of our drink package as we get one premium alcohol package for me and the regular deluxe for her.

@mworkman being right across the bridge from Philly I'm not sure why I didn't consider this more, both ate within 2 to 2 and a half hours away. I'm thinking seeing the price per person scared me off but saving on flights and a hotel the night before makes up for that. After being on Harmony I'm a little leery about going to granduer as opposed to Adventure or Anthem. What are adventure and anthem like crowd wise, harmony never felt crowded to us except around the pool on sea days? Service wise we've never had a problem on harmony or enchantment. Price wise they seem to be somewhat similar. One question I do have about anthem, is the north star included? I apologize in advance for any grammar or spelling mistakes in this as I've done this from my phone.

Good morning, So the wife and I are looking to book another spring cruise and are working with a restricted budget again as well as limited to time when we could travel. We're restricted to going between January and May of 2019. Our original goal was to book a 7 night southern Caribbean out of San Juan as we liked the itinerary and have not been to any of the ports with the exception of St Maarten. The price on these cruises is good right now between $484 and $491 in March, however flights from PHL and EWR just aren't cooperating for that. Last spring we did the Eastern Caribbean and scored a great deal on Harmony over Presidents day. We somewhat ruled out Western Caribbean as most have 2 stops in Mexico and when we were there on our honeymoon in August of 2017 we were not overly impressed with it. This morning I've found a Western Caribbean out of Galveston that goes to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel on February 24th. This itinerary would be ok for us as we would get to see more than just Mexico. Also in our benefit for this is flights from PHL to IAH are just under $700 right now non stop for both of us. This would include flying down the day before and needing a hotel. Does anyone have any recommendations for hotels in that area? Anyone have any tips on other ways to save money on this? Also has anyone done this itinerary or sailed on Liberty and have suggestions of things to do or see? Unfortunately the live blogs the pictures are no longer there from what I could see.

Personally I've weighed many options out. I opted for the Capital One Venture card with no annual fee and 1.25miles earned per dollar spent and 30,000 bonus miles. This card is good for any type of travel so car rentals, hotels, cruises and flights. I also got the American Airlines Citi Advantage card which is mostly 1 mile per dollar with a few exceptions like gas and dining also had 60,000 bonus miles. These miles are good on American and their alliance airlines. The card also gets you priority boarding with the first group and free checked bags for you and up to 4 people you're traveling with. American worked well for me as Philly is an American hub and we can pretty much fly anywhere. We swipe these cards for everything and pay them off weekly via the apps. Doing this we've had free non stop flights to and from Vegas, as well as around $500 off our cruise in April and by the time October came around $175 to put towards out hotel in Vegas.

Tips always help weigh a bar tenders hand. Also on ships with the robotic bar tenders you can custom make just about any drink you want, I was making captain and coke with 4 or 5 shots of captain every chance I got. You can also control how much ice goes into that if I remember correctly.

A few years ago when we sailed on Enchantment we were on deck 2 or 3 and it wasn't bad at all. Some other plusses to being there is its very quiet at night and in the morning. Also felt very little motion from the ship especially on the final night as a tropical storm was following us back to Florida. Our friends and family that were on deck 8 or 9 both couldn't stop talking about how rough the seas were.

Awesome, thanks!

Were sailing on Harmony on April 21st and I was curious if the ports in San Juan and Phillipsburg were close enough to the city where we would be able to walk around or to a beach for the day while there. Were kind of on a tight budget so I'm trying to avoid an excursion since we spent a little more money then we had planned to go in April over October and on Harmony vs Allure or Oasis. If they are does anyone have any recommendations for things to do at these destinations? I know were only in San Juan until 2pm I believe.