karl_nj

I doubt the lack of linking of the reservations has anything to do with it.  The map on the back of the cabin door says what the muster station is -- the cabin is associated to the muster station.  So it seems very odd that connecting cabins have different muster stations.
Hopefully they have a procedure to make an exception onboard, and move all of you to one or the other.  Or worst case, they can swap an adult and a kid, though it would be better for all of you to be at the same muster station.
I've run into similar issues with reservation linking.  I've even had a situation where I booked at the same time, with the same travel agent, but Royal's system did not allow them to be linked.  Apparently one reservation was associated with the travel agency "group space", and one was independent.  But i've never had any issues with my kids being at a different muster station then my wife and I.

Based on the renderings I've seen, the cabana's there don't look that great:
 

 
Do they look any better in person?  They look all packed in, in a busy part of the water park. 
I really enjoyed the Cabana at Castaway Cay, and I also enjoyed a Bungalow at Coco Cay (pre-Perfect Day).
I've gotten a cabana at Universal's Volcano Bay, and that was really, really nice.  But there was a time where my kids were all sitting in the cabana relaxing and reading, and I was very conflicted.  I was paying alot of money for the cabana, so I wanted them to enjoy it.  But I also wanted them to enjoy the water park, which I also spent alot of money for.  So I think you husband may have a point.
Of course, it's also really nice to have a dedicated "home base".
 
 

The 50 pound limit for flights is what has kept me from buying compression backing cubes -- i figure i already end up near the weight limit, don't need to make it even worse.  I have some ultralight ones I use when flying, and some "regular" ones I use for cruises I drive to.  I guess it depends on what size suitcase you are using though.
I've been very happy with using packing cubes.  I find it makes unpacking my suitcase when I got on the cruise ship much quicker and easier.  It's something I want to get finished with ASAP, so I can start enjoying my cruise vacation.  Just place them in a drawer and unzip.  Or, if my wife and kids use up all the drawer space, then they get put on the top shelf of the closet.

The 50 pound limit for flights is what has kept me from buying compression backing cubes -- i figure i already end up near the weight limit, don't need to make it even worse.  I have some ultralight ones I use when flying, and some "regular" ones I use for cruises I drive to.  I guess it depends on what size suitcase you are using though.
I've been very happy with using packing cubes.  I find it makes unpacking my suitcase when I got on the cruise ship much quicker and easier.  It's something I want to get finished with ASAP, so I can start enjoying my cruise vacation.  Just place them in a drawer and unzip.  Or, if my wife and kids use up all the drawer space, then they get put on the top shelf of the closet.

I work in one of the buildings to the left in this photo -- there is certainly a Starbucks within walking distance of the hotel.  It's across the street from the Gregory's Coffee, just walk a little south past the PATH station to Exchange Place.
Let me know if you need any other Jersey City advice!  Enjoy your cruise, looking forward to reading about it!

Yeah, I think I need to look into buying some straws.  Perhaps I should go with Titanium https://countycomm.com/products/ti-straw-ultra-lightweight-titanium ?
 

Thought it would be a good idea to post a quick photo look around of the offerings a Skipper's Grill on CocoCay. I'm going to assume that Chill Grill would have the same offerings.
Per signage, the hours of operation are 11:30 to 3:00 

Starting off it was nice seeing the beverage station outside of the buffet area. This area also has a soft serve machine.
Getting a closer look at the beverage island area.

Better view of the drink dispensers

I'm not sure if the beer by the ounce dispenser is covered by the beverage package or not. Also want to say a hand washing station was on the other side of the dispensers.
Fruit carving just so you know where you were.

Skipper's Grill was divided up into multiple sections.
Once for cold salads and pre-made sandwiches.


Some sandwiches being made.
 
Grill stations with the classic hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, corn, and not shown fries.

Next up was a taco/mexican station, here they had chicken, beef, pulled pork, rice, and beans. (Need to double check if I have any pictures)
One highlight was the freshly made flour
Finally two different topping stations. One geared towards burger fixings and the other for taco fixings.

 
 
Finally a photo just for drool factor. This plate was a cuban sandwich (made with a soft sweet style bread), rice and beans plus some of the pulled pork.

 
Also forgot to mention there is a small bar counter within the Skipper's Grill area. Don't recall if they did blended drinks but they did carry plenty of beers and spirits.
Only major complaint I had was food temperature, nothing seemed really that hot. Most of what I tried was almost warm, some stuff was hot but for the most part it wasn't consistent. I might mark that as being there probably when they first opened around 11:30. Overall they weren't that busy at the time.

I've read that when Royal Caribbean first put Johnny Rockets on the ship, it was free, and that the fee was added because of over crowding.
They bumped up the price to 9.95 within the past year or so.
Carnival's "Guys Burger Joint" is free, and people claim the burgers are better.  But then you have to sail on Carnival... ?

Annoyingly this is how the bartenders were making Pina Colada's and Strawberry Daiquiri's on the pool deck of Anthem in April -- they blended virgin drinks, put in cups, and then poured a shot of rum on top.  I guess they were too lazy to wash the blenders.  You couldn't even mix it youself, because the paper straws that start to disintegrate immediately.  My wife and I were quite disappointed.   We gave up on frozen drinks by the pool after that fiasco.  

Just wanted to share a video I recently produced during our Eastern Caribbean cruise onboard the Symphony! 
 https://youtu.be/xoHpBLS2TvY

Thanks for the recommendation of St John's Pizza @Skid - we've just had a nice meal there. Top tip for anyone else going: the small pizza is plenty for 2 to share. We had 2 smalls between 3 people and couldn't eat it all. 
I also had a glass of the Kendall Jackson Chardonnay so it felt a bit like being on a RC cruise ?
 

Good Morning Hayley and hubby. You guys have certainly packed in a lot already.
A must see while here (and this is about the building, not a religious statement) is St. Patrick's Cathedral---5th Avenue and 51st Street. Stunning architecture. https://www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/     
  
If you like Italian food, you can try Becco, 355 W 46th St., between 8th and 9th Avenues. It is actually pretty crowded and noisy, but something always draws us back. If they still have it, you can keep the cost down by trying their 3 pasta price fixe lunch. 3 different kinds of pastas of the day, all you can eat. They keep coming around to fill up your plate. https://becco-nyc.com/
If you want pizza, try John's Pizza, 260 W 44th St, between 8th Ave & Broadway...thin crust brick oven pizza. No slices--pies only, but easily sized for 2 people to share. The bar alone in there holds probably well over 100 people.  Not your average pizza place.  https://www.johnspizzerianyc.com/
Another place we like is Brasserie Athenee, 300 West 46th St at the corner of 8th Avenue. Wife loved the seafood linguini and I had one of the best burgers ever. " Corner bistro with a Parisian ambiance plating French classics plus a pre-theater fixed-price menu".
These places will be most crowded on Wednesday afternoons because of the Broadway show matinee performances.
If you do decide to take in a show and you are a kid at heart, try Frozen. Amazing special effects and a really fun musical.  https://frozenthemusical.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhMHqhO274gIViY3ICh0u3wonEAAYASAAEgIQDvD_BwE That is playing at the St James Theater, 246 West 44th St between 8th Avenue and Broadway. There may be 1/2 price tickets on day of show. here. Discount tickets should be available on that site also or maybe at the hotel where you are staying. You can also buy discount tickets here. Very reliable site--we have used them many times.
Enjoy your stay!

Doesn't the $49 price not include the 18% service fee?  So it's really $57.82?  $46 would be $54.28? 
So about 4 $12 drinks/day at the $49/day price, or 3.8 drinks if you snag $46?
 

Sounds like the safest option.  It's certainly possible that when you choose to pay at Final Payment, Air2Sea works differently then Princess/Cunard EZAir.  I do agree that getting seat assignments is quite important when traveling with kids, so i'll keep this in mind for the future, in case I ever want to use Air2Sea again.
It's also possible that these people lost their seats for other reasons, and whoever they spoke to at the call center didn't accurately describe what happened.  People lose their seats when airlines change plane types, people run into ticketing issues even when they book directly with the airline, and there are often issues when one computer system talks to another system and doesn't accurately transfer every piece of data.
 

That hasn't been my experience.  There might have been another reason for not being able to reserve seats.  Some of the European airlines don't offer reserved seats, even for long haul flights.
This FAQ even says that you should be able to:  http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Air2Sea/17054737_Air2sea_trade_flyer.pdf,  and http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Air2Sea/18066051_Air2Sea_Pay_Later_FAQ.pdf although it's vague on "when".
When I used Air2Sea for my Norway cruise, I actually had the opposite experience -- I was able to book seats in the Air2Sea system, even though I wasn't "supposed" to be able to reserve seats w/o paying an extra fee, as I was flying SAS.  However, this was a few years ago, back when Air2Sea made you pay for the flight at booking, not with Final Cruise Payment.
I've also used a similar service that Princess runs, EZAir, for Princess and Cunard.  Much like Air2Sea now, you don't need to pay for the flight until Final Cruise Payment.  I was able to reserve seats for my QM2 transatlantic flight back, but that was on Delta and they let you reserve seats, even before final payment.  I forget if I was able to reserve seats when I used it for a Princess Alaska cruise.  I vaguely recall being able to do it for one leg of the trip, but not the other, as I was flying two different airlines. 
You do get the airline confirmation number, so you should be able to login to the airline website directly, once the booking is made.  If the seat selection made in Air2Sea doesn't get transmitted, another option would be to try to pick it on the airline website.  You should confirm your flight in the other system after booking anyway.
I ended up having to cancel the Princess Cruise (before final payment), so i'm very happy that I used EZAir for my booking.  So that is another advantage.
I do concede that I have not personally used Air2Sea since they changed the system to not require payment for the flight until Final Cruise Payment.
TL;DR: My experience has been that not being able to book seats is more related to specific airline rules, and not using Air2Sea.
 

I live in Bergen county, not far from the GWB.  Out of the 3 NYC area airports, JFK is the hardest to get to, but it's not as bad as you imagine.  You won't be driving yourself anyway, so does it really matter?  It just means that the car service or uber bill will be more expensive.
JFK has many terminals, and they are all quite different.  It's not like EWR that has one nice one (C) and two crummy ones (A and B).  So I can't really answer your question on how "good" the terminal -- it really depends on the airline much more then other airports.
I tend to use all 3 airports.  I can actually get to LGA faster then EWR if I leave really early in the morning.  Something to think about next time you need to fly Domestically.
Make sure you look into booking the flight though the cruise line.  I've gotten great prices for international flights, especially for one way flights.  I used Royal Carribean's version to fly round trip to Denmark for a cruise to Norway, and Cunard's for a one way flight back after a QM2 transatlantic.  I flew in a few days early for the Norway cruise, to explore Copenhagen, and stayed in London for a few days after the transatlantic. 

Lol, Derick came to our room at 8. We were in our towncar by 8:15! Amazeballs. 

Yeah, sounds like royal gives you the best of all worlds. All the advantages of self carry off.  But you don’t need to schelp all your bags off yourself.  It works like it would if you ask bell services for help at a hotel.  Nice!
Enjoyed your posts for this trip. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us. 
I don’t have any immediate plans to cruise in haven or star class anytime soon.  Kids traveling with us + multiple cruises per year + saving for things like college necessitate other priorities, but it’s certainly fun to see what sorts of experiences are available. 

Don't worry about the sale ending, Royal Caribbean has continuous sales.
If I were you, for your first cruise I'd fly to Florida and do a more "traditional" cruise, to the Caribbean, and save Alaska for the future.  Though it is a bit of a long flight to Florida from the west coast for a 3 year old.
There are other cruise lines that may do sailings from California to Mexico, but since this is a Royal Caribbean message board might not be the best place to discuss that.
I recommend finding a good travel agent.  They can help you pick the right cruise for you and your family.

Very nice. How does Haven handle it?   Not quite as well?
Cape Liberty is much better these days compared to the Manhattan or Brooklyn cruise terminals. So it goes pretty smoothly even for the us peons sailing in steerage. 
Two weeks ago they didn’t even bother doing customs, since immigration was handled in Boston. I was finishing my coffee in the MDR at 730am and opening my front door at 828am.
I was shocked. Everything was super smooth. My luggage number was called early, all my luggage was in one place in the terminal (4 bags!). They had people helping at the parking payment machines and at each exit gate. Was very impressive. 
But you never know when things can go wrong, so having that sort of service available can come in very handy...

Yup. We haven’t had any expiring money in the US like has happened in some other countries. 
It’s a big boost for the US economy to have people in foreign countries to hold dollars, so I think the government does their best to encourage that  
 

The rules are so complicated, I’m not sure they fully understand either.  Frequently I get some sort of partial credit, with a vague answer that doesn’t quite make sense.
Doesn't really matter though, since the primary reason to own the stock is not this shareholder benefit plan. 

Don't worry about the sale ending, Royal Caribbean has continuous sales.
If I were you, for your first cruise I'd fly to Florida and do a more "traditional" cruise, to the Caribbean, and save Alaska for the future.  Though it is a bit of a long flight to Florida from the west coast for a 3 year old.
There are other cruise lines that may do sailings from California to Mexico, but since this is a Royal Caribbean message board might not be the best place to discuss that.
I recommend finding a good travel agent.  They can help you pick the right cruise for you and your family.

Sorry, unfortunately you'll have to wait until your 2nd Royal Caribbean cruise to get the crown and anchor coupons.  They used to be actual physical pieces of paper, but now they are electronic, so it's sort of a pain to keep track of when you use them.
Each stateroom can carry on 2 750ml bottles of wine and 12 cans or bottles of water or soda (17oz or less).  You have to lug them around until you can get into the cabin.  On my last cruise we had 2 cabins so I had 4 bottles of wine and 6 cans of seltzer.  I put it all in a small carry on suitcase with wheels to make things easier.