FionaMG

That and the coffee machines. And there was something in the Coco Cay cabanas that he went on and on about too. But to be fair I too find the videos useful. And to answer the OP's question, I am very happy with my MEI agent.

Glad you enjoyed it. Things were very slow to appear on our cruise planner although I don't know how much of that could be put down to the fact that this was still quite soon after the post-covid restart. Certainly the English-language equivalents of the two Spanish-language excursions that we booked did not show up until around 3 months before the sailing date. I know how frustrating it is when you're just dying to pull the trigger; I was literally checking the planner every day and then, every so often, a new batch of options would show up. For the ones that say currently unavailable, it's probably a case of them not having finalised details with the suppliers, so definitely keep checking back.

If you've not seen it already, my Odyssey Greek Isles report from this time last year might help while you wait for some newer ones.

@teddy, I just wanted to share something with you regarding your layover in Lisbon. We recently flew back to Lisbon from Newark after our Anthem cruise and the additional security check that we have always had to go through in the past when arriving from the US was no more. Passport control and straight through. Now, I can't promise this is a permanent change or if, for some reason, this particular flight didn't necessitate it (this was our first time flying from NY; usually we are flying from Miami) but I wanted to give you the heads-up because it might be one less inconvenience for you during your journey. I've always thought that security check was pointless anyway, since you're coming from a sterile airside location.

Which just proves how subjective it all is. I really didn't like these at all but that is because I dislike the combination of sweet and savoury flavours and not because of poor quality. But I love the coconut shrimp they serve on Caribbean Night and could easily eat two or three servings of those instead of a main course.

My absolute favourite on our recent 8-night Anthem cruise was the salmon teriyaki from the Taste of Asia menu. The salmon was cooked perfectly and the sauce was very tasty. Unfortunately, that particular menu would not normally show up on a standard 7-night Caribbean cruise but appears instead to be an additional menu for longer cruises.

It was very good. And, in fact, everything we had in the MDR on Anthem was very good. We never had to send anything back. Our only issue was with the limited choices. I'm not a picky eater so I was able to find something to my liking most nights (although if we had had the Mexican menu on our cruise that night would have been a bust). But DH and DS, who are both pickier than me, struggled and both had the strip steak several times because there was nothing else to their liking on the menu.

I enjoyed every bite.

My DH won't even eat that miserly serving. I always have his as well as my own. Lucky we're not big eaters, though, or we'd have had to order something else to supplement it. You can see from the pics that there's not a lot of food on the plate but it tasted fine.

This was ours on Anthem a couple of weeks ago, with and without shell:

Sounds about right.

Watching like a hawk just in case there is one even though the chances we would be able to make it work for us are minimal. Doesn't cost anything to dream.

I think basically it boils down to there not being an indoor family pool. If you're travelling with kids that could impact the first and last days when the weather is likely to be less than friendly. And even if you're not it could mean that other indoor spaces will be busier on those days because people that would be using that indoor pool will be occupying space in other indoor venues. Having sailed both, I felt that better use was made of the upper floor of the seaplex on Odyssey than on Anthem, where that area seemed very bare, so that may help.

Anthem is sailing out of Southampton for the summer 2024 season. The last cruise finishes mid-October. And she has to fit in a dry dock at some point after that, which isn't going to leave much time for a repo. But if there is going to be one, I'd guess it would have to be either from Southampton or from somewhere in the Med area.

We very recently used Carmel Limo https://www.carmellimo.com/ We arranged for them to pick us up at Cape Liberty and take us to our post-cruise NYC hotel and also from there back to Newark. Regret not having booked them to take us from our pre-cruise NYC hotel to the cruise port as Uber and Lyft both turned out to be more expensive. You can opt to pay the driver in cash or by card if you prefer not to pay upfront. I admit I don't know how they work regarding child seats as were not travelling with children.

Not from where we are. Or at least not connecting. We'd need to book first to the UK and then from there to MLB, which would add a lot to the cost. Currently, our route to Florida is with TAP as they have a connecting feeder flight from our local airport (FAO) to LIS and from there to MIA.

I've been keeping my eye on this because it might sailing out of Port Canaveral most accessible for us. At the moment it's much more expensive for us to fly to Orlando than it is to Miami but this could open up the potential for a theme park/cruise combo for us. Hmmm.

Ho @Rookie Cruiser and welcome to the boards. I'm pinging another member of the forum who will definitely be able to give you some insight into this. @twangster can you help?

I think what racks up the $$$ is data usage on cellular@sea, so as long as you have your data roaming switched off it shouldn't be an issue.

It may show up on the app on the morning of boarding but before you actually board. Once you are connected to the ship's wifi (which you may be able to in the terminal while waiting to board) you should be able to see the full rotation. I agree that they can sometimes change. I had a rare itinerary (8 nights out of NJ on Anthem) and did the exact same thing you did. I was planning to book our specialty for night 6, which on the previous identical cruise had been the Mexican menu. Lo and behold on my cruise that night was the Asian menu, which is very new and, for me, so much better than the Mexican, so I was glad I checked immediately after boarding before actually booking the specialty restaurants.

It would be great if you were right about that. The month of January 2025 is blank and has been since the sailings first went on sale. And I agree that it doesn't seem a terribly sound move financially to do a dry dock over a period that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas, given that those are high revenue sailings. It's just really annoying that they won't just come clean and tell people who have already booked what is actually going on to either put our minds at rest or let us make alternative arrangements. It shouldn't be necessary for anyone to put down deposits on two cruises "just in case".

Ours was backdated to September so there's definitely still hope.

Indeed. My eyebrow is raised so high it's touching the ceiling. I do have my eye on Explorer's December 5th sailing as a possible alternative but with the two extra nights it does push the price up. I guess I'm kind of hoping that they'll price protect us on to that one if and when they do cancel the Freedom sailings. (Yeah, dream on, I know )

I and others are still waiting to hear what's happening with our Freedom sailings in November/December 2024. They've been off the website for weeks and everything points to her doing her required dry dock in that period, including a booking at the port of Funchal in November that pretty much confirms this hypothesis. But we have yet to hear anything from Royal and those who contacted them have essentially been given the run-around, which is not fair because it prevents you from making alternative arrangements far enough in advance that the prices are still reasonable. Obviously it's way too far out for anyone to have air booked yet but, even so, a couple of the apparently affected sailings are holidays sailings that will be extremely difficult to replace closer in. I used to work in tourism and the one thing we held as gospel was always to keep our guests informed. Even if you have nothing new to tell them, you go and tell them precisely that, and you keep doing it until you do have some news for them. Nothing stirs up a beehive of discontent more than people feeling they are being ignored and disrespected.

If things go according to plan I'll be 2 points from D+ by mid-July. If only we had cheap 2 or 3 nighters here in Europe. Sigh... Can you believe tge 3-night Symphony cruise before her trans-Atlantic in October costs more than the 7-night itinerary in the couple of weeks before? Nearly $900 pp for the cheapest cabin!