MoneyMan702

I will be on this itinerary in November.  I'll be traveling solo so I should have some time to chat with you on this thread about the ports and the onboard experience as well.   
I'm still researching on the ports myself.

"Poop Cruise" - awful to be on, but a great band name.  Maybe Pablo Cruise missed an opportunity.

Just remember, it could always be worse.  I have some friends who just went on a cruise earlier this month on the Carnival Triumph.  I don't think they knew that that ship was the host of the infamous "poop cruise" in 2013. 

I remember that!!!!!!! 
https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/travel/carnival-cruise-triumph-problems/index.html

You know it's bad when people go to the cashier and ask to change a 5 dollar bill.

EEEWWWWWWW!!!!!

It Has Been spotted that in 2020 that Serenade will be in Alaska In The Winter. Look Your Self 
https://www.portofastoria.com/Cruise_Schedules.aspx
I Think It Will Do Alaska In The Summer And The Caribbean In The Winter. Like The Norwegian Bliss 
If You Think that will happen let me know
 

And note that in this case "cheap" is very relative. A lot of those $30-40 bottles on the ship are ones I can get on land for $8-9. So if it's a variety of wine you know and have bought before, you may want to do the mental math to see how the price works out after the discount compared to land price, and decide if that price is OK relative to your opinion of that wine.

I enjoyed the Perfect Storm water slides recently on Mariner, but I only rode them a couple of rides each.  We were docked next to the Disney Dream in Nassau and the rider experience on their slide, the AquaDuck, looked like it was quite a bit of fun.  It also looked like it was designed for the ship, rather than retrofitted.  I'm not suggesting that they install slides that wrap entirely around the upper deck of the ship like the AquaDuck, but I think that a design that is a little more unique designed for the pool deck on the Icon Class would be a good design move.

I check the cruise planner and cruise fares several times per week for this reason alone.  Sometimes the prices are adjusted sporadically, or the price of something in the cruise planner may drop during a big sale, even when the sale isn't supposed to apply due to the sailing date range applied to the sale.

I wish they would build a new small/mid size shop , I am sure it will be much better and might get some of things which the 20-25 year old ships do not have and you can not ass them just by renovation

Not sure why this question is crazy?  I also like a small fan running while I sleep.  For me, it is a function of being a woman of a certain age.   I like both the hum and the feel of the air circulating.  I think the AC will be sufficient to accomplish this but maybe not for everybody.

These are my rankings in order for Allure's specialty restaurants, based on our March sailing.
 
1) 150 Central Park. We loved it so much that we went 2 nights. 
2) Chops. A very close second for us, and one we love very much. 
3) Giovanni's. The food and service were excellent, but the top 2 are in a league of their own. I also think Giovanni's pales in comparison to Jamie's.
4) Izumi. The hibachi is great, but I personally have a hard time paying what I did at sea vs. what I normally do on land for a similar experience. However, the sushi is some of the best I have ever had. 
5) Sabor. I thought this was a good meal, but it just didn't stack up as well for me when compared to the competition. Plenty of people love it though. 
6) Samba. Without a doubt, this was the weakest of the 6 for me. They had a lot of meat options, but I wasn't blown away by any of them. 
 
Ultimately, if you are torn on what to try, I'd highly recommend getting the ultimate dining package and going to all of the specialty restaurants at least once. You also get free lunches on sea days. We did this on our Allure cruise and it was well worth it to try all the specialty dining on that great ship. 

Not only this, but if you need access to your cloud-based system for work, that will also perform much better on Surf & Stream. As a rule, unless you only plan to use the internet for messaging apps like WhatsApp / iMessage / Facebook Messenger / etc., basic email, and maybe some VOIP calling, you'll want to spend the little extra money for Surf & Stream.
At a more technical level -- on the newer ships with better VOOM service through O3b satellite networking, you'll see between 2 and 4 Mbit download speeds on Surf & Stream, and around 0.5 to 1 Mbit upload. Older ships not using O3b, or ships in areas further from the equator that already get poorer satellite signal, will be noticeably slower. Surf-only is throttled to around 1/4 those speeds.

St Kitts - First time I went we did the volcano hike. Not sure I'd recommend unless you're an athlete. (I am not.)
2nd time - We did a resort for a day - made the mistake of going to the Atlantic side - not the Caribbean side. Beaches weren't swimmable that day due to sea weed. We had a great time in the pools but I'd recommend going to the Caribbean side.
Barbados - I *think* it's a 2 mile-ish walk each way - we walked to The Boat Yard. Drank, ate, swam and relaxed. One of the most memorable and best port days ever.
 
 
 

We'll be in Barbados and Antigua in November.  Will report back on our experience.  

Valley Church Beach in Antigua is quite lovely

This hike is not at your own pace. It's up the mountain and the guides have to get you up and back down to the bus. If you're interested please read other's reviews on this particular hike. I say this because I jog 1 or 2x a week and I was not prepared...

That is good to know. Unless we both do some serious training between now and then, I'd say we may steer away from this then. I'll look at some other reviews as you suggested. 
Thank you again for the input!

I just checked our March 11 night sailing on Serenade and it was also $11.99 per night. My wife needs internet for some school work during our trip, so there goes most of the OBC I had for that cruise. 

Sorry for the back to back posts, but it is also $11.99 for our December 2019 cruise on Independence. 

Thanks @tonyfsu21, didn't realize there was a different train option...given at the price point Brightline is at, it ends up being more ?

We did Southern Caribbean about 2 years ago...
St Kitts we booked Greg's Safari tour directly. His company is the one RC uses for their tour.
Barbados we walked to Carlisle Bay, rented jet ski's, did a little $5pp snorkeling excursion right from the beach and ate conch fritters (so good)
Antigua we booked the RC swim with stingray excursion then asked our driver to take us to a beach for a couple hours 

I think it should be since it seems most of these are musical/orchestral terms!

I still stand by Melody of the Seas ---- After Harmony, Symphony, Anthem and Ovation ..... Melody should be the next in line.