FionaMG

Thank you @Elenor6, I'm glad you enjoyed them.

Hi @Mamasafar and welcome to the boards. I'm delighted that you enjoyed my blog. Here is the list of "Suggested Attire" for each day on my cruise: Day 1: Casual Day 2: Formal Day 3: Smart Casual Day 4: Casual Day 5: Casual Day 6: Smart Casual Day 7: Casual Day 8: Casual/Tropical (lots of the men were wearing Hawaiian-type shirts on this night) Day 9: Formal Day 10: Casual Day 11: Smart Casual Day 12: Casual I hope this helps. If there's anything else you'd like to ask, feel free; I'll be more than happy to help if I can.

Interesting. By sheer coincidence, I will also be on a cruise on Super Bowl Sunday. Being from the other side of the pond, I know virtually nothing about this, so it will be interesting to see how it impacts the atmosphere on the cruise.

Hi Tyffie! Welcome to the boards.

I think they're all seriously underwhelming. I'd say out of the ones I've tried my favourite was the Asian night but that isn't one of the more common ones (it turned up on our 8-night cruise on Anthem out of NJ). I particularly liked the salmon teriyaki on that one. Out of all the others I've tried, the ones I disliked least were Welcome Aboard, Caribbean and Bon Voyage. I have yet to experience the Mexican and Taste of the USA menus, both of which look so bad to me that I would probably be tempted to pay for speciality dining on those nights. Obviously it's all very subjective and others will inevitably love the things I've said I dislike.

Fingers crossed for you!

I tried it for the first time ever on my recent Anthem cruise. We had booked an oceanview guarantee. When I saw we'd been allocated an OV all the way forward on deck 3, I decided to try a bid on Royal Up and ended up with a large balcony cabin for just $50pp extra!

Well @CHRIS WONG, you know what they say: every cloud has a silver lining. And a stop-over in Portugal is a solid gold silver lining. Hopefully you will get the chance to have some really nice food during your flying visit to Europe's westernmost country. The food here in Portugal is nowhere near as well-known as, say, French or Italian cuisine but I promise you it is every bit as good!

Thanks. To be honest, the thing she hurt most was her pride. It was a very undignified slip and slither down the seaweedy ramp. She did laugh about it later, after we got her back to the ship and cleaned her up!

Nice saving. Well done.

The OBC will immediately be released back to your Cruise Planner for you to reuse. The part you paid with a credit card will be refunded to that card. This could take a few days. When you repurchase, any amount over the OBC will have to be paid again, while you await your refund.

Corsica is one of my favourites. I spent almost a month there one summer back in my student days (now very lost in the mists of time). There was a group of us, one of whom was actually from the island so I got to experience so much more than most visitors ever do. We had Ajaccio as a port of call on one of our cruises. We were with SIL and BIL and we went on the little train that takes you out along the coast for a bit for some great views. Then we had to cut things short as just afterwards SIL managed to slip on a boat ramp (where she obviously shouldn't have been) and ended up on her whatsit in the water, totally soaked and with scraped knees and elbows! It's a pity so few cruises seem to have the island on their itineries. I'd love to go back again.

Hi @Fwman and welcome to the boards. There's actually a very recent discussion about precisely this question just a little further down the page. You can read it here: In my opinion, "worth it" depends on how likely you are to be able to do a whole-day visit to KSC at some time in the future because it really is the sort of place you could spend an entire day. That said, you can still see a fair amount just in a few hours. Bear in mind that if you're there for the whole day, there would be some down time as you'd need to stop for lunch and/or a bit of a rest which you can largely avoid doing if you're only going to be there for 3-4 hours. We did this same excursion back on April and managed to see a lot. The trick is to head straight to the bus tour out to the Saturn Centre as soon as you arrive because that's where the majority of the really interesting stuff is located.

+1

Panama Canal is on my bucket list too. I feel for you.

There was supposed to be a Panama Canal one, wasn't there? I guess that was one of the ones that Royal axed. I would love to try one of the group cruises. Maybe one day one will be for dates that work for me.

Ah, right. I've seen new pinnacles being recognised at the top tier events and just kind of assumed that the perks would come along with the recognition. Thanks.

Usually afterwards. The exception is if you reach pinnacle during your cruise.

I had not even realised they were still in force until you posted. What's the situation in NZ?

Love Cinque Terre. We've done it a couple of times now and it never gets old. I hope you get a decent day weather-wise.

Thanks very much. It looks and sounds amazing.

Maybe you could try the Solarium Bistro? In theory, you're supposed to book it in advance (no charge) but you could always wander along when you're ready to eat and see if they can take you as walk-ins.

I'm enjoying following along so thanks for sharing. I've been eyeing a cruise that happens to have a call at Portofino. I'd be interested to know what makes it one of your favourites?

Anthem definitely has kettles, I think largely because of sailing from the UK. If that's your ship and you have a particular brand that you like, bring some with you in case the offerings on the ship are not to your liking - e.g. despite sailing from the UK in summer season, you'll not find Brit favourites such as PG Tips or Tetley. I've not seen kettles in any of our cabins on other ships (note that we don't sail in suites).

We have a 23.30 flight home after our cruise. Our plan is to do the everglades tour then leave our bags at the airport and head back to bayside for a wander and a meal.