karl_nj

Thanks! I now think I need to book a cruise to Cuba...

Yes, that is because BOYB restaurants in NJ are not permitted to charge corkage by law: https://www.nj.gov/oag/abc/faqs.html#4 Are non-licensed restaurants permitted to allow customers to bring their own alcoholic beverages (byob) for consumption with their meals? Unless there is a local ordinance prohibiting it, customers of an unlicensed restaurant may be permitted by the ownership of the restaurant to bring and consume only wine and beer. The restaurant can supply glasses, ice, etc., but may not impose a cover, corkage or service charge On the other hand, Royal Caribbean reserves the right to charge a corkage fee if you "consume their personal wine and champagne in public areas" https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/charge-corkage-fee It doesn't have anything to do with who opens the bottle or what specific type of closure is used.

I'm not really sure that one can compare a BYOB restaurant in NJ, which doesn't have a liquor license and doesn't sell wine, to the dining room on a Royal Caribbean ship, which does sell wine. If you bring a bottle of wine to a restaurant on land that is licensed to sell wine to customers, they are going to charge you a corkage fee no matter how your wine is sealed, cork or screw top.

Carnival tends to do 4 or 6 or 8 night sailings out of Manhattan, but I think that is mostly to avoid the NCL ships that have priority on Sat and Sun.

Quite an interesting theory! Of course, many other cruise lines are moving ships away from China, and I think Quantum class is way too big Antarctica. But it's certainly an interesting idea. I think if the larger RCL corporation wants to do Antarctica, they would probably built a very small ship, and leverage Celebrity, a la their Galapagos ships.

Well the ship won't be ready until Fall 2020. (https://www.meyerwerft.de/en/meyerwerft_de/schiffe/kreuzfahrtschiffe/royal_caribbean_international/n_n__2/n_n_7.jsp) Anthem is going back to NJ in November 2020. Perhaps it will replace Anthem in Southampton?

You know, Royal Caribbean once had to cancel a whole season of scheduled Quantum sailings to Bermuda, once they figured out that the ship was a little too long to safely make it to port...

My Anthem sailing earlier this year had something similar: Sat - Bayonne Sun - Sea Mon - Florida Tue - CoCo Cay Wed - Nassau Thu - Sea Fri - Sea Sat - Bayonne https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compasses/anthem-of-the-seas/sat-2018-03-31-0000 The issue is that you don't get to Florida until noon. So it's not really one sea day, it's 1.5 days down. My Disney Magic cruise last year took 2 sea days to get down to Florida, but we docked very early in the morning in order to have a full day at Walt Disney World. That cruise only had time for 2 ports (Florida and Castaway Cay).

Sounds like a great plan. Hopefully you manage to get him to become a cruise enthusiast! I love those 5 day Bermuda cruises.

That must be quite the restaurant! I’ll have to keep it in mind next time I’m in the area.

You will get a weird error message if one cabin is booked in a "group" and one isn't.

I've been charged, occasionally, but it's sort of random. Same thing on other cruise lines too, sometimes they charge, sometimes they don't. If they don't charge me, I just add it to the cash tip I give them at the end of the cruise. So in my case, either the cruise line gets the cash, or the wait staff does.

There is a glass blowing shop at Dockyard in Bermuda. My wife bought some earrings there a few years ago, when we were on a cruise. Unfortunately one broke on Thanksgiving day. We were both kinda bummed out, since they were nice earrings and they always reminded us of the first cruise (and only) we went on together without our children. Normally I have a few vacations planned ahead, but I hadn't booked anything for 2019 yet. I had been mulling over a few options for spring break, including a few cruises. That evening I emailed my Travel Agent to see if there were any connecting balcony cabins still available for the week our kids are off for Spring Break. I figured if there was anything available, it was meant to be. A few minutes later I got an email back letting me know that 2 connecting balcony cabins were indeed available. So, of course, I told her to book it immediately! Anyone else ever come up with tenuous reasons for booking cruise vacations?

I was really worried that something similar would happen to me last Spring Break. My wife and I were in one room, and my 2 kids and mother were in the connecting room. My mother had to cancel before final payment. I was worried that we would be forced to move cabins, but it worked out OK. Not sure if my travel agent had to pull any strings, or if we just lucked out. Perhaps they realized that moving 2 minor children out of a connecting cabin would have been a bad idea.

Royal Caribbean libraries have little to no books onboard these days.