Fairlynew

I tried search and found nothing. I apologize if this has been asked and answered. I saw a sky class jr suite on oasis for a fall 2025 sailing. Is this a one off or are there other ships and dates offering sky class for jr suites? I love sky class and a jr suite is plenty of room. Thanks

I longed to try a Central Park balcony-until I did. I had thought it would be a beautiful peaceful place with fun people watching. Boy was I wrong-it was really loud! The music from the pool deck was non-stop all day! At night, there was music in the park. I had always heard that the Boardwalk balcony cabins were loud, but I can't imagine that they are any louder than the Central Park ones.

I am also on an earlier sailing-March 2-9, and am wondering about airports.

I wonder if the increased price has anything to do with the new MDR menu, with no classic options available. I have seen mostly negative reviews of the menus, though I have not yet experienced them myself. I can look at the menus and know that there are nights where there is little to nothing that I want to eat. I used to rely on the classics to fill that gap-oh well. I only have one Royal cruise booked now. I may also start exploring other lines.

I wonder if the fact that the pricing for refundable deposits is so high compared to non-refundable rates. In the past, I usually booked refundable, but now, the price difference doesn't make sense to do that. If people have non-refundable deposits, they are much less likely to cancel.

We did the train from the port to Rome. It was somewhat complicated. We were glad that we had our son who has a lot of experience with trains in Europe to help us navigate. The station is very close to the port-we walked. I don't remember the time of the train, but we did have to wait at least 45 minutes. We bought our tickets at the station. The train was packed. We had a lot of trouble finding seats and luggage storage was non-existent. We used a car service to get from Rome to the port to begin the cruise and it was (obviously) much easier. With 6 people, I'm not sure how much we saved using the train. It was convenient to store our luggage at the station in Rome when we arrived.

If the price is right, the Key is helpful. I always get internet, so I factor that in. I like the priority boarding with the lunch. It makes the first day much more relaxing. I also like the departure breakfast and the escort off of the ship at the end. Again, it makes the day easier. I also like the reserved seating for shows. When I am on a Quantum or Oasis, my preference (when it is affordable) is Sky Class. (I am sure I would also like Star Class, but that has never been an affordable option.) I find that the Key gives me many of the benefits of Sky Class (except CK) when I travel on other ships.

As a novice cruiser, my family flew into London and arrived about 7 am the day of our cruise from Southampton. We did use Air to Sea, so had some protection. Due to different vacation schedules, this was the ONLY thing that would work to allow everyone in our family to go. We had a connecting flight from JFK out of Charlotte. This was thunderstorm season in the south, so it was risky. Our flight from Charlotte was delayed but we did make the flight to London. We reserved a driver to take us to the port (it was the least expensive way to get 6 people from the airport to the port in a timely manner. We actually arrived and got checked in for the cruise prior to boarding. I would not recommend this, though, nor would I do it again. Last spring, we were sailing out of Civitavecchia and wanted to spend some time in Venice. We were booked from Charlotte to Madrid to Venice. Our flight to Madrid was delayed several hours and we missed our flight to Venice. We were supposed to arrive in Venice at 10 am, but ended up getting there at 7 pm. We missed a lot of time in Venice, but it was not a disaster since the cruise did not leave for several days. We were meeting the rest of our party late in the afternoon the next day in Rome, so we had about half a day in Venice-not nearly enough.

I will give contrary advice. We did this trip last spring. We choose to sail from Rome because it is so far from the port that you will not get to see much, if anything, on an excursion. We went to Venice for a day, then took the train to Rome (beautiful scenery). We had a day in Rome with a private tour guide (there were 6 of us so it made sense) and saw both the Vatican and the Coliseum. We had time the next morning to see the Pantheon and do some shopping before meeting our driver to get to the port. Sagrada Familia was our priority in Barcelona and we had plenty of time to see it and explore some of the city.

I was on Voyager last week, and we had a lot of issues. We bought the refreshment package to supplement our 4 free drinks a day, which we used only for alcohol drinks. We had charges on our account almost every day. My husband's latte, covered by the refreshment package, was charged as a diamond drink. Same with my fresh squeezed orange juice and other non-alcoholic drinks we had through the day. I had to go to guest services almost every day to get charges removed-it was not an issue to have them removed-it was just inconvenient for both us and guest services. And, yes, I know I could have gone to the diamond concierge, but the hours were not convenient, and luckily, guest services was usually not busy.

If they can do it on the ship, it is an inconvenience, but I can't imagine having to disembark everyone in Bar Harbor for customs-it's a tender port. That would be a nightmare!

We have decided that we would like to do the 3 night dining package on an upcoming trip. The only reservations available are for 9 pm on night 1 or 8:30 or 9 pm on night 2. When I look at the availability on the UDP, there are lots of times open on night 1-what are the odds of getting the reservation for night 1 or 2 moved to an earlier time once we board? We are traveling with a group, none of whom what to do specialty dining, so we don't want to do the UDP. Our boarding time is 10:30 am if that makes a difference. Thanks so much for all of the help and guidance this board continues to provide.

I sometimes use it for a quiet space on sea days, when I don't want to be out in the sun. I also use the diamond concierge instead of guest services.

I am a diamond and have never gotten a pin for any level-nor has it mattered to me to find out why. I can't imagine a situation where I would want to wear it.

I am diamond status and have the drink package. I am traveling with friends, who will be in a separate cabin, who will not have the drink package. Can I share my diamond drinks with them? Obviously, I know that I cannot share the DBP drinks.

I am trying it for the first time in October. I usually travel in suites, but we are in a regular balcony on this trip. I decided that the Key would replace some of my favorite suite perks-priority boarding with a sit down lunch, reserved seating for shows and easier disembarkation. I will see how it goes.

I am on the same cruise. I would like to go to Baddeck and the Bell Museum for the stop in Sydney, but the excursion is fully booked and I can't find a private tour. Does anyone have any idea about how easy a taxi or ride share would be? Is there anything interesting near the port? Thanks.

My family and I just did a Mediterranean cruise on MSC in the Yacht Club. We had a wonderful time. Drinks are included in the YC and the YC restaurant is very good. They also have a nice grill area on the YC pool deck that serves breakfast and lunch. The interior YC cabins are a very good value, especially on a port intensive cruise. The entertainment is not as good as RC, but we were so tired in the evenings that it really didn't matter.

Once when I was in CK, I asked about the world. The maitre d arranged for us to have desert in Wonderland. Other people in CK had it in CK. This was on harmony pre Covid. On ovation post Covid the maitre d brought 2 worlds for our group of 4 to CK.

The desert-the World-is really good in Wonderland. You should at least pop in for that!

Yes, our joke when the weather reports call for snow is that the grocery stores must be overstocked on bread and milk.

I can relate to this too. Most of NC shuts down with a quarter inch of snow. Several reasons: 1. We get very little snow and none of us know how to drive safely in it 2. We get so little snow that it makes more economic sense to shut down on the rare occasions than to invest in snow plows 3. Most of our “snow” is really ice.

When I was a child (and rode my dinosaur to school-ask my kids), we had no AC in NC schools. We also did not start school until the tobacco had all been cropped because the farmers relied on the high schoolers to help. This meant that we were usually in school through a good bit of June. When temps reached a certain level, they let us out of school early. I don’t remember the temps but I remember it being very hot. Plus high humidity is a given in NC. At a certain point it equalizes but 90 degrees with 98% relative humidity and no rain is really miserable. Our first RC cruise was out of South Hampton in September 2017, a very hot time in London. We spent several days post cruise in an unairconditioned boutique hotel hotel. It was hot but bearable. I cannot imagine what it’s like this week.

This is interesting. I would like to be able to get only a serving of sushi for lunch-the entire meal is much too filling for lunch. I will be Voyager in October and would like to avoid the Windjammer for boarding day lunch. Chops is the only option in the CP, and it is more money than I want to pay and more food than I want to eat. I would happily go to Playmakers or Johnny Rockets but that ship has neither. The app lists Izumi as open for lunch on boarding day, so I will hope that is an option.

If they want to encourage traditional dining, they need to adjust the times. 5:30 is simply too early to try to get ready for dinner after a busy day in port (or even on the ship) and the late time will not work for most families. I'm not sure what the solution is, but perhaps instead of offering MTD, they could stagger the traditional dining, and seat groups at 30 to 45 minute intervals instead of 2 fixed times.