karl_nj

Early Dislike I guess I’ll have to figure out some sort of clothes line I can string across the room to dry my towel for when I need to shower twice, like after a beach day. Towel is not going to dry all bunched up on a hook. also going to be annoying when my ice is melted by the evening. and I’ll be joining team “dirty dishes in the hallway” now, instead of leaving them in the room.

And keep in mind a 13 year old is an "adult" I usually find the delta between a room for 2 and a room for 3+ is even worse, because I can usually get a 'good deal' though my travel agent for the double cabin using their 'group space', but the room for my 2 kids and my mom ends up being way more pricey, since that is "list price".

As far as I can tell, you end up with size that is something in between king and queen. I've never brought a tape measure along to actually check the dimensions.

You need to be 13 to create a Royal Carribean or Celebrity account. Was an issue when we wanted to use it with my (at the time) 12 year old daughter on Celebrity Edge in 2021.

I think their point was just that at one time you were able to get to Diamond after cruising for 15 nights, so complaining about the post-restart "double points" and saying it will ruin C&A is kinda crazy. Which you have also pointed out yourself... for most people, the ended up with about the same number of points as they would have anyway, if the covid shutdown never happened.

I always thought it interesting that the carnival corp brands tended to have self service laundry onboard, but not the RCL brands It does make sense to have it for long cruises

It's likely both—staff will be getting more pay and less of that increase will be coming directly from NCL, but instead though this increased fee.

Bermuda. I guess Grand Cayman too (since it's a tender port) but I'm not sure anyone would really complain about that, and I think that port fits in your semi "anti cruise ship" bucket. But I think Bermuda would be an issue if the Royal fleet only had ships Oasis size and larger. People like Bermuda. Though the larger corporation does have Celebrity to go there. In fact, the reason Celebrity was created was to go to Bermuda.

Is it different then the big "group" one they will on some ships, like in 270 on Anthem (or one of the other lounges on ships like Adventure)? That one was themed to some sort of art museum heist or something like that.

Yes, this is the issue with RCL switching to having room stewards only visit a cabin once per day. Switching to once per day was easier for Carnival, because of the way their ship cabins are setup for 3rd and 4th passenger bedding. They would always leave the sofabed in "bed" configuration, and any pullmans would always be down. This was fine for Carnival, because the design/layout of the room allowed this. RCL ships, on the other hand, are much harder to move around in with the 3rd and 4th passenger bedding in 'sleep' configuration. If this was the direction RCL wanted to move in, they should have look into alternate room designs years ago.

Your travel agent can book the "generic" transfer for you, you can't do it online. If you aren't using a travel agent, you'll have to call royal to get the price and book it. I agree that generally they are more expensive than other options, but there are times they may make sense. If you are traveling alone the price may be competitive. If you are traveling in a larger group that doesn't want to split up into seperate ubers/cabs, and you don't want to try to arrange a private transfer, it might make sense even if it's more expensive. I've found UberXL isn't good for a family of 5 with luggage, because you never know if the car will actually fit everyone and everything. Minivan taxi's usually can, but then you can end up waiting a long time in the taxi line for one that can fit everyone and everything. In some ports, Minivan taxi's may not even be a thing.

I totally agree, but before Anthem there weren't any RCL ships sailing out of NJ in the winter with an indoor pool anyway. Explorer of the Seas was here for ages, sailing out of NJ year round. Other than Anthem, the only other ship that sails out of the NY area on a regular basis that has an indoor pool available to all passengers irregardless of age or cabin category is QM2. I don't think any of the NCL ships have them.

It would be nice to get a new/different ship, but losing the indoor pool in winter would be a bit of a negative, especially for kids.

no.

I don't know if any of the other Oasis class ships have the retractable funnels (or at least ones that work). They had to make updates to them for Oasis. It's possible there will be no Oasis class ship out of NYC in 2024.

How very, uh, Dynamic. Or something.

I once saw a family disembark the ship from coco cay because a member of their sailing party passed away. I assume they took a boat to another island in the Bahamas and then got a plane home. You would need a passport for that.

Seems like Royal is in the process of killing Lunch in the MDR and transitioning to a Brunch concept. I noticed this on Wonder back in August. They still had lunch last week on Anthem.

My daughter will be sad to not always have the pasta bolognese and the strip steak as options, they were frequently her go-to's. It was almost like the "picky teen menu"

On Cunard they don't even put the plain chicken/steak/salmon on the menu. But it's available if you don't like anything else.

Well, it turns out embarkation for my cruise last week was super smooth. Much better than it was Christmas of 2021. Disembarkation was amazing too... looked at my watch when leaving our stateroom and I was opening my front door in just under one hour...

We had a French class on Anthem last week. There were 3 sessions; it was fun. We are going to visit Paris for Spring Break next year, so it was a nice little refresher.

Yes I was really surprised how smooth things went October 2021 on Oasis (they were checking set sail pass times, etc.) and then what a mess it was just a couple of months later on Anthem. Nobody was checking any times. I was told JS's could not use the suite line for check-in, and that there was no line for Emerald or even Platinum and was sent to just one huge check in line. I even tried asking nicely again and was yelled at by overwhelmed port staff. Lots of fun.

Yeah... I realize... I'm just a little amused that yesterday they sent out an alert to give yourself more time to get to the terminal, and then today they sent out an alert that said basically said you will be punished if you arrive early. Based on how things went the last time I sailed out of Bayonne (Christmas 2021) I fully expect to see lines like the ones in the photos you shared. Nobody pays attention to the boarding times, and the terminal staff doesn't seem to do much about it.

It's been a long time since I've worn a tux on Royal Carribean. I think it would be overkill. I'll still bring my tux on Cunard though. Sometimes I will bring a suit on Royal. Other times just a sports coat/blazer, and sometimes none of the above. It does depend on if we are driving or flying, and if we are flying how long the rest of our trip is (sometimes if I fly for a cruise I'll add some time pre or post cruise to do something on land.) It also depends on what the weather is, am I packing mostly shorts and polo shirts, or do I need clothing that is more bulky and heavy? Yes, it is possible to pack a suit in a regular suitcase. There is a way to fold it to avoid too many wrinkles. If it's the last thing you pack and the first thing you unpack, the wool fabric tends to de wrinkle itself pretty well. usually. When I first started sailing on Cunard 15 years ago, I would bring my tux, a suit *and* a blazer. The blazer (no tie) was for "casual night" on day 1 and the last night.