Pima1988

Mainly most sales will run Weds- Sunday. Actually, the sales are suppose to run Thurs-Sun., as advertised, but they always set up on Weds., thus you get the price on Weds. This has been going on for decades. The only people that usually shop on a Mon or Tues are people that need it that day. Them and the very savvy customer that wants to shop with no crowds to guarantee that their size/product is not sold out. They will than pop back in on the sale dates and get their price adjustment. I have worked in mgmt. for multiple national retailers from Macys to fine men's clothing, they all operate the same. When I worked at Macy's we always joked about how every week there was a Super Saturday with the lowest prices of the season. Sure, there was maybe a few items that were the lowest price it had been in the season, but it was maybe 1% of the items on sale. They also make you think it is only Sat., however, reality is except for that 1% of the items, the rest of the sale was running from Friday through Sunday. Same is true for stores like Michaels, or J Crew, etc. Hence, my remarks regarding RCL is doing nothing different than any retailer. They just change it up to grab the attention of specific clients. If you are sailing alone you don't want the BOGO refreshment package, you want the price point package, which will show up the following week or two. I don't sail with kids so that sail means nothing to me.

Reality is you will find that on other cruise lines too, just like you will find it with most retailers. I am a manager with a national retailer. One week the sale will be BOGO, and the next week it will be a price point. The following week it will be specials for certain suits. Overall though in the end unless you show up at the store on a Monday or Tuesday, you will be able to get it at the same price regardless of the sale.

@fuce4609 Which cabana are you looking at? Chill, Oasis or Thrill? The prices really vary depending on which part of island you are looking at. We have one for our July on Chill and we got it for 449 last fall. Since the time we purchased it I have seen it go as high as 1099 one week and the following week it was down to 649, with the week after that at 749. You just have to watch the prices. For Thrill I have never seen it go below 800. Oasis usually hung in the 600 range.

We did an adult cousins cruise on Anthem, a group of 10. 4 people in the party never sailed on RCL. They kept asking what is this show...we just kept saying, just go with the flow and you will have fun, nobody told them anything about the show. 1 cousin who never saw this before could not stop laughing throughout the entire show. He went on Anthem again 6 months later with his wife's family that never sailed Royal. He did the same thing, would not tell them what it was about, only to go with the flow. They laughed just as much. One thing I would say is that show usually ends up standing room only, so make sure you get there early enough if you are traveling as a group so you can seats together.

@Mathew Jones Many of repeat RCL cruisers know they will ask for a thong item. You know repeat cruisers because they wear flip flops and hand them. YES, flip flops count because it is considered a thong. I dress appropriately for that show. I wear a strapless bra and, flip flops. We have won on those 2 because we were the fastest and I never showed anything. I agree Quest is not for the faint of heart. The 1st time we attended one woman took off her top to take her bra off. She never put it back on for the rest of the show. Most people that have attended the Quest keep what happens quiet just to see the shock value on the faces of 1st time Quest guests. I have never heard them ask for pasties. I also thought that guests must be 18 or older.

@BrewerJoe That does not show up on mine, however, it allows you to buy full day and zipline.

Ogalthorpe is correct, it is the outside pool by Johnny Rockets. Sorry for the confusion.

I wear a cocktail dress and my husband wears a suit. We don't do the pics. The thing we love about that night, is we make it special. We have a system. We do take a balcony cabin. We hit the WJ and make a nosh plate for us. He also gets his Bulleit Bourbon and diet coke. He gets ready 1st. I sip my glass of wine and eat some tidbits. When he is done, he goes out on the balcony. I close the curtains so he can't see me. When I am ready, I open up the curtains like he is picking me up for a date. It just makes that night special. We are married for 31 yrs and together for 36. We have done Anthem. We will be on Adventure in less than 9 weeks for the 1st time. They are really 2 different ships, and itineraries. Anthem is 5 nights, and Bermuda only, at least it was for our sailing. Adventure is 8 and includes Bahama and Coco Cay. Anthem dining options are sooo much better. Adventure is smaller and has a promenade. Anthem has I Fly, more balconies with removable wall, Adventure does not. To me if I had kids traveling with me at their age, I would choose Anthem. Anthem's solarium is amazing. They also have what my family calls the washing machine. Hard to explain, but think hot tub at high speed lazy river. You just keep spinning. Anthem has I Fly at no cost. Anthem has the bumper cars... 2 boys at that age will have fun. NorthStar is unique, but it is not something I would call a make or break. You go up, hang out, look around and back down. Anthem has better shows. It also has the kummelwreck. We opted Adventure this yr because it is only my husband and his siblings...no kids. We like the idea of us playing miniature golf as 50+ yr olds. No offense to RCL, but I hated The Gift on Adventure. Their acrobatic show was cancelled because the ship was rocking due to hurricanes. Hence, the only big show was We Will Rock You, which was good. Anthem in our case/price/itinerary was not competitive. My angst is their limited restaurants on Adventure. If you go on Anthem, make sure you do the relatively known things. 1. Go to the Solarium. There is a door on the right side when you enter starboard (right). If you hit the button it will lead you out to a Peekaboo bridge. 2. I can't recall which deck, but I want to say it is WJ, there is a spot cut out, laid in glass that looks all the way down to deck 4/5 (?) 3. Make sure you are on the pool deck when you sail out. You go under the Verrazano and due to the height of the ship, you will only clear it by 50 feet or less...Adventure does this too, but it is not as tall as Anthem. Hope that helps

Just realize it is not a full lobster. It is lobster tails. The tails are not NE, but I believe Pacific. Many posters have stated they will bring you as many as you want. FWIW on FB there is an Adventure of the Seas page. There are also sail date pages...it is a closed group, so you must ask to be invited. I am sailing on Adventure in July. I have seen a ton of pics showing lobster night. As stated by melski94 it is the 2nd formal night. I never order them because that is also the night they usually will do something like Osso Bucco or lamb shanks. Lamb in my area is much more expensive. I can get Maine lobster tails at my local grocery store fish dept for 3.99 a tail, lamb shank runs 9 bucks.

My 1st cruise was May 92 on P &O (Med) out of Venice. Sooo much has changed. I recall the midnight buffets. Drinks were included, alcohol or non-alcohol. People dressed up for formal night. On the pool deck they had a buffet set up all day long for our sea days....just tidbits and desserts that they changed out during the day...breakfast/lunch/dinner.. No specialty restaurants. Excursions at any port was very limited. Def. no lifeguard at any pool, nor slides, etc. The funny thing is I remembered they did their version of Love and Marriage, and Quest.

Looking at old compasses and talking to recent cruisers on Adventure. WJ does lunch until 2:15/2:30 They shut down and reopen again at 3 until 4, for what they call afternoon tea. Think light food fare. Hot food stations will not be open. They than reopen @5:30. This will be my 1st time on Adventure (July sailing), but what people are saying it reminds me of how Anthem does it too. You could go in at that time and they had a spread of deli meats, breads, and their famous cup assortments.. IE dessert in a cup., veggies in a cup, pasta in a cup, seafood in a cup, etc. My hubby and I love this bc we are not fans of their pizza (nobody flame me). It also works for us since by 3-3:30 we are done hanging at the pool. We get a light nosh, make a plate back to the room and put in the mini-cooler to nibble on late at night Than we change and go to Schooners for whatever trivia is playing, which is usually @ 5 For me, the food issue is something that is part logistics if you don't want to be stuck eating their pizza or pre-made sandwiches. We do traditional late dining. We love doing this for multiple reasons. 1. See above. It also allows us to see either the early comedian or part of the early movie at the pool (7 pm). 2. We do balcony cabins, so we get to see the sunset. 3. We may decide to hit the WJ when it opens for dinner prior to going back to our room and get another little nosh ---we leave those dishes out so the cabin steward will clean up when they do turn down service. 4. We find late traditional seating much better service than MTD at 6:30. To us, the dining room is less crowded and the waitstaff is more attentive. They know that things like Quest, Love and Marriage, 70's night, late night comedian, etc start at 10, so they will have you done by 9:30 and it is nicely paced. Lastly, I would add one last tip. You can order continental breakfast for your cabin for free. My hubby and I are early risers. We will go to the gym or walk the track and be back in our cabin by 7:30---yes, we don't go to bed until midnight, but that is the beauty of a cruise, you can nap on the pool deck during the day ? Again, because we do balcony, we order the continental breakfast and hit WJ for any hot items, like an omelet, hash browns, sausage and grits, etc. on our way back to our cabin. We love this because we don't have to search for a table in the WJ, plus we get to watch us pulling into port. On top of those reasons, we can leisurely get ready for the day...take a few bites, than, pick out your clothes for the day, take a few more bites, as you read over the Compass. Take your shower, get dressed, and than drink the last bit of your coffee before you leave your cabin. Obviously, our cabin steward has to do more work because they are clearing plates 2x a day, but this is also why we tip them extra 2x. 1/2 on the 1st day, and 1/2 the last night. Off topic, but I have always wondered if by doing this is that the reason we had towels animals every night, and extra towels in our room. Only saying that bc many posters have complained that they didn't get towel animals every night. Our 1st cruise on RCCL was outside view, so I know that the upgrade to balcony had no impact. I am not a cruise snob, but I agree with others once you go to a balcony it is really hard to go back.

@coneyraven I would also think that Lady G has way fewer balconies than most of Royal's fleet. I pass her all the time when traveling up to NJ, and when you look at her you can see it looks like there are only 2 decks that have balconies.

When we were on Anthem we had a table for 10 (rectangular), I could see them easily adding another 2 top. The reason I know this is because one a.m. we went for breakfast and sat at a 4 top with an 8 top right next to it. The thing was, those 2 tables would later that night be our 10 top. Most of the 8 tops that we saw were the round tables.

Until they add more things to the island, the capacity will remain at 10K, so nope you will not see Harmony, Symphony and Oasis docked at the same time.

I have seen that documentary. It really is amazing on how they flip a ship.

Are you saying you don't want to do your laundry in Anchorage. but later on for your cruise? I lived in AK for several yrs. and we did a lot of camping. If you don't want to do it in Anchorage prior to sailing, I would do it in Juneau. OBTW, I don't know when you are sailing, but you need to make reservations for Simon and Seaforts as soon as possible. You will NOT be disappointed. Sooner you make the reservations, the easier it will be to get a table overlooking the inlet. It is pricey, but waayyyy worth it. Try their prime rib, and their crab and artichoke dip. https://simonandseaforts.com/menu.php The minute you taste a bite of the prime rib you will be in heaven. It has been yrs since I lived in Anchorage, but the Hilton had an amazing bar and restaurant at the top of the hotel that looked at FT Rich's mtn. They have a star on the mtn. The Hilton is on the opposite end of Simon and Seaforts. Captain Cooke Hotel is between the two. It would be about a 10--15 min leisurely walk from the Hilton to the restaurant. There is a mall on 5th Ave. It includes stores from JCPenneys to Nordstrom. It is a quick walk from either of these hotels. Look for the whale graffiti on one of the buildings. There is also an amazing church on that street. If you are there for 4 days, I would do the following: 1. Go to Mirror Lake. It is right outside of Eagle River @ 30 min car ride. It has wonderful hiking trails, waterfalls, etc. Plus the lake reflection looks like a mirror when it comes to the trees shadowing. 2. White water rafting in Eagle River. Again it is @ 30 min car ride. It is an easy rafting trip, but 10 will get you 20 it will be cheaper than any RCCL rafting trip. 3. Portage Glacier. I am not trying to make a political statement, but if anybody wants to see climate change, Portage is the place to go. It is about 30 mins out of Anchorage. 4. I do not know if they still have this, but right outside the back gate of Elmendorf AFB (close to Hilton Hotel) they had a salmon farm. I hope this gives you some insight to Anchorage that is close to the port

I recall reading about 9 mos ago that RCCL was considering doing a Coco Cay Island for their Australian cruises. The only reason that it stuck in my mind is we had just come back from Australia (land vacation) a few weeks earlier and I saw Ovation (?) in port at the Quay while we were there that week.

@JoeFan Every sailing and every ship has different price points. I was using my cruise as an example. Before they ceased the 1/2 day, full day was $73.99 just a few weeks ago. Now it has dropped to 46.99 for a full day. A $27 pp savings. Thus, prior it would be @150 for 2, and now for 3 it would be 141, and for 4 it would be 188. In essence as I stated before, you could cancel and re-purchase for all 3 if it was running like mine at $47. Your bill was originally 120, if it was going for 47. than it would be 141 aka 20 bucks more. Now you may say, that my wife won't be able to be with me, and so I need 4. However, If you read how I see flaws in this system. That is one of them. You can walk in, drop them off and meet your wife at the Oasis pool or on Chill Island beach loungers. I doubt they are going to say, hey, you came in with 2 kids and now those 2 kids must exit with you. Your kids can go to you wherever you desire or 1 of you can go to them and give updates of where to find you. I don't know when your cruise is, but sometimes the sales promotions will change it up. RCCL has a target revenue for everything, including excursions. If they are not selling to their expectations than they may place that item on sale at a lower price for that ship and that cruise date. IE let's say your cruise is Aug 2019 on Mariner, which would be the only ship in port. Come Memorial Day or 4th of July they may drop it to what my current sailing is at 46.99. Hence, see above, you would be paying 20 more for 3 tickets. Do not read more into that than it just being an example. Just like mine right now is $12 cheaper than yours. I understand your frustration, cruising seems at FIRST like a cheap vacation, but than when you start adding in beverage packages, specialty dinners, excursions it becomes a lot more than you ever intended in the 1st place. I hope you don't cancel everything. Coco Cay is an AHHHmazing island. I have been there before when we had to tender. We have done different excursions there, our last one was parasailing and it was worth ever single penny. This time our big item is a cabana on Chill because we did parasailing there, so no need to do the balloon ride. We have done the swim with sting rays and dolphins on prior cruises. We will be doing snorkeling in Bermuda on this cruise. Hence, our splurge is the cabana. I also would again say if you go to FB every ship has their own group page, and many have a group page for that actual sail date. You will be able to find even more info for you and your family. IE many discuss ages of their kids. The Thrill Island says must be accompanied with an adult. You don't know, maybe there is a passenger that is on your sailing and has a 19 and 17 yo. This works 2 ways. 1. You know there will be kids in their age group they can hang with. 2. You can ask them if their 19 yo would walk into Thrill with them since legally the 19 yo is an adult, and now you don't need to buy another pass for Thrill. It is also great because you start to make friendships prior to the cruise. On my sailing we already have a pub crawl set up on the 3rd night for our 8 night cruise.

Time out, I never meant to paint you as a bad parent. I was just saying...this could be some scenarios, and injuries do happen. I have seen many a tweener running around the pool deck by themselves with no parent insight. I am not passing any judgement. If you felt that way, than my apologies. That is a problem when you deal with social media...you can't read intonation, or have the ability to explain in more depth.

Have you checked your cruise planner lately? I know prices vary ship to ship, sailing date to sailing date, but right now for my cruise date in July, the full day Thrill is 47 a day. Doing my math you paid $120 for just the kids. You can pay 20 bucks more, and walk them in without your wife. I am in now way condoning that, but as I stated in the other post this is where I see flaws in the system. Parents with kids, such as, your children's age, I would have no problem saying, Dad and I are going get a bite to eat and will be back in X amt of time. Hence, they are leaving the kids unattended. Are they now going to police everybody exiting for lunch or to go over to Oasis, or Chill,, or Parasailing, etc? IOWS, scan your seapass as you exit, and say....oops you have kids under 18 in here, you need to take them with you. A single parent with 2 children, could take 1 child to the inner tube ride, while the eldest child of 14 decides to do the daredevil. Thus, they will be separated too. It is not a small area. Flip side, I can see the corporate perspective. The insurance for the expansion is probably out the door crazy. By not only stating the rules prior to check out on your cruise planner, and than checking to make sure that there is someone over 18 with the minor (sea pas and photo id) they limit their liability. You choose to leave them alone, than legally they did cover their arse from a liability aspect. I do get the angst, but from a corporate aspect, I get their side more. Where is the line you draw? Draw at 17, and someone will say, but my kid is 16 yrs old 10 mos, let them go. They re-draw at 16, and now somebody says, but my 15 yo …. it really doesn't end. OBTW, I do get it. My 2 oldest, incl. my DD that got injured at Disney were certified life guards by their 16th birthday. They worked for the Y when they were in HS until they started college. Between them they had 23 saves. SO, yeah, it would infuriate me too, because basically at home, they were the ones that would save your life in a pool, but with RCCL they would need Mom or Dad to be there.

@JoeFan, I know this gives you no relief, but if you look on the page under important notes it states, that anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. In essence, they informed you of this before you hit the check out. I don't know about the rules of Disney, but think about it this way. You decide to stay on the ship, your 17 yo gets hit in his head in the wave pool, your 15 yo cannot give consent, nor can your 17 yo for medical treatment. That means they have to find you on the ship, and get you to the area before they can give medical attention by law, since neither one are consider legal adults. Don't think that doesn't happen? It did to our daughter when we were in Disney at their water park. She was 8. A strong swimmer (learned to swim before she was 3, and lived at the pool all summer, everyday). She was in the wave pool, with her siblings and Dad. Nervous Mom always stayed at the edge watching for all of them to POP UP. She hit the wall with her head, huge gash. I was in the water before my husband could get to her, because obviously they get separated with the waves, and all he saw was me running into the water. I pulled her out and got her to a medic. They put multiple butterfly bandages on her forehead and a bag of ice to take down the swelling. Disney placed a band on her wrist which meant she could no longer go on any slides, or activities. Now think about it from that perspective. It really is for the safety of your children in the G forbid scenario. I am sure they have some communication system to connect with the ship, and they can call your name off the intercom system, however, I recall when we were on the Anthem, you could not here any loud speaker announcements in our cabin,. I am sure they can also do that also across Coco Cay, but what if you decide to do the swimming with pigs excursion which is a 90 minute by boat excursion, or the kayak excursion, again 90 mins. Logistically, it would be a nightmare and a lawsuit waiting to happen because they allowed your kids under 18 to go into the water park without an adult. FWIW, there are many flaws in their system. The biggest is you could bite the bullet, pay the money, walk in with them, and than walk out 10 mins later and hang at the beach. Sorry.

I can be wrong, but my guess is NO. Lady G is older and typically those ships that have not gone through dry dock for an over haul, will not have the ability to have the balcony dividers to be taken down. Lady G will not go into dry dock until either 2020 or 2021. If you go onto FB there is a Lady G page. Just request to join. They are a fountain of information on that site. Everything from best hotels in Baltimore to stay at, to the bartenders you should search out. Lady G's passengers are very loyal to Lady G. Baltimore is a great port to cruise from. Happy travels.

Chops itself on my cruise (7/12 Adventure) is currently running at 42.99. Chops+1 is 64. 3 night is 69. I can't see why anyone on my cruise would do Chops +1 when you could do 3 night for $5 more.

Luckily for me, our kids are grown. The sailing I would do is Sept. It is not only the cheapest, but from someone that has lived through many a hurricane, and August is the month I try to steer clear of when sailing if I have to fly to a port. We sail out of NJ during the summer. Typically they don't cancel the cruise, they just change the ports. We found out 48 hrs prior on 1 cruise that Bermuda was not happening, instead we were going to Canada. Beauty was RCCL treated us well. They gave us 250 (couple) OBC, plus 50% of the cost to sail in OBC, if not used it went right back to our credit card. We had the money back on our credit card within days of returning home.

I don't know what your sailing is selling at, but for me, if I was set on trying it, it is only costing $11 more for full day vs 1/2. $46.99 for full day. When they offered 1/2 day it was 35.99 and full day was 73.99. Thus, it really is cheaper now for the full day. I live in an area that we have big water parks within an hrs drive, so Thrill is not so enticing to me. We have been to Coco Cay before, and love the beach there. Last time we were there we did para-sailing, which is something I can't do where I live. I have a limited budget, and if I had a choice between Thrill and parasailing, ziplining or swimming with the pigs for a few bucks more, than that is where I will spend the money. Now, that full day is only 47 I probably would give it a 2nd thought as an option to add as an excursion, because now it is cheaper than it was originally for full day. It would allow me to pop in and out all day long...spend a few hrs at the beach, hit Thrill to ride the wave pool, go get a drink at Oasis swim up bar, etc. In essence it allows you to pop around the entire island all day as you please. No, I am not going to purchase it because I blew my budget on a cabana, and there is no way I am leaving that piece of the island for the 9 hrs we are there except to get my food and drinks. I will be getting them from the beach swim up bar.