dodgestang

Hmmm....call me 'weird' but I like the Royal Loft on the Anthem with its wide open to the ocean shower......obviously you pull the curtain in port....but morning/evening showers at sea are awesome. The royal lofts on the oasis also have a side facing shower/bathroom but it doesn't have as good a view....this new rendering looks like the shower looks out over the pool....so it gets MEH from me. Then again....I never really liked the royal loft on oasis class anyway because of the large part of the balcony that facing the pool and just isn't private to begin with. I was always picking the owners because it had an 'almost' private deck and still had the personal hot tub. Also.....I love the piano (miss it on the Anthem and when I get a room without it)....but my kid is a fantastic player...so I enjoy live piano music daily already

Royal could have settled against the auths they already had instead of creating 3 auths (2 during the week for partial amounts and then one at the end for the full amount). The auths are 20 days old at this point and still show pending. Normally this stuff just goes unnoticed by all but when your septic system blows up for Thanksgiving right after you paid off the cruise and you opt to hoard the cash for the plumber....and then you find 8k sitting tied up restricting you as basically ghost charges....it gets irritating

In a really weird spot....I know it will clear itself up but it's frustrating. Got back from my Christmas cruise.....we spent a bit of money on board having a great time. During the course of the week RCCL 'auths' partial balances against your credit card. Then at the end of the cruise rather than settle against those auths, the processed a new auth and settled against it. This results in literally 8k in 'pending' charges showing on my account killing my credit lines while I wait for them to expire. Both RCCL and Citi shrug their shoulders when I contact them about it...."they will expire in 30 days"....and I'm like "yeah, but in the meantime my wife just got embarrassed at the grocery store when she was low on cash and tried to use her credit.

Swim in the big pool is free (which is like 3.5 feet deep). Playing in the water park cost extra, this is all the slides and the wave pool

casino? - if you table gamble, bring cash. You can't get money free there unless you already have status. Nassau? - want any souvenirs? Bring cash, barter for better price in markets. Cococay? - I was the straw market on cococay once before it became perfect day.....haven't been back since, don't even know if they still have it....but again....if you want chachkees (?spell?) you will need cash if its still there. Tips for room stewards you will need cash

I can only related my anecdotal experience. We arrived 25 minutes late for check in window in Nassau over the summer because our flight was a little delayed. When we arrived the hotel for check in we were told to go right up and do check in. It is probably different per port since when we sailed over christmas out of Bayonne there was just a long line outside of people waiting to be let into the building with no way to tell who had what time....luckily we were in Star so Genie took us right through without any waiting for us. Where are you departing from?

Waiting is essentially outside for standard cabin in Port LIberty. We sailed out of there over christmas.....the line was outside in the cold for people waiting for their 'times'....then you moved in, checked in, and went right on ship.

The purple chairs are a trip to try and sit in if you are in star

On last day I saw it at the indoor pool. They started getting a lot more vocal about it towards the end of the sailing based on my anecdotal POV

As I always enjoy saying for people who are concerned and ask these things on FB and forums....there is the rule and there is the ship by ship, person by person enforcement of that rule. The rule is/was to wear a mask. Sometimes a crew member would point this out, most times they didn't. But the rule was to wear it so for an expectation setting point of view, one should expect to wear it ahead of their sailing at this point. If you leave expecting to not wear it and end up surrounded by people heavily enforcing the stated rule you are setting yourself up for disappointment

Was on Anthem for Christmas....they wanted you to wear a mask in solarium.

Thanks for the trim!

Think about this. We like to cruise. The whole family. We took the Nassau cruise this summer that was supposed to be mask free.....that change to not mask free 4 days before the sailing. Our 10 yr old is a huge fan of rock trivia games and singing.....both things she couldn't do over the summer because she wasn't vaccinated. So we made the choice and got her jabbed so she would be vaccinated for this cruise. A vaccine that has a HIGHER % chance of a negative side effect than the virus has % chance of causing her harm....just because we wanted her to be able to participate fully in the vacation and be able to enjoy parts of the ship mask free since she is vaccinated. So for her.......EVERYTHING has changed.

Ohh I agree its all about the stock price but other than that my opinion differs from yours. They did it NOW because it is essentially too late for anyone with holiday plans to make alternative arrangements. If they had done it 5-7 days ago.....there is a larger viability for transferring to tropical land based destinations with less stringent masking rules but stricter testing rules for entry. Now.....not so much.

WE (and I use that term collectively) are keeping the industry alive by continuing to cruise and book cruises. I am one bad discussion away (and I suspect many others are as well) from walking away from the industry completely. Yes they have to walk a fine line.....but they are off the line right now (AGAIN). I can drop 5 digits a trip ANYWHERE but I choose to do it here multiple times per year......but not much longer