FionaMG

@Vlad, are you sure the WJ won't be open until 7 am? If this is for a port of call rather than disembarkation day, and the ship has an early enough arrival somewhere that you need to be off at 7.30 for an excursion, the chances are that the WJ will be open earlier than 7 am. We had a lot of early arrivals on our Odyssey sailing to the Greek Isles last year and on many days the WJ was open at 6 am. On the one day we had an early excursion and it didn't open until 6.30 am, we were able to get continental style breakfast at the Promenade Café at 6 am.

Yup. I hesitated to post that I had actually experienced it since I am clearly showing my age by doing so!

Many moons ago soda was indeed free in the MDR at dinner time. It certainly was on our first cruise away back in 2001, but I think it had already gone away by the time of our 2nd cruise just over a year later.

Also, remember to pick an arrival time for each member of your party as the system does not default all passengers to the same time as the first person.

Not on Adventure. Free Internet for suite guests is only on Quantum and Oasis class ships. You'll have to buy an Internet package but that will still be a good bit cheaper than the key. Buy it in the cruise planner as it's more expensive to buy on board.

You absolutely do not need an excursion in Barcelona. You can walk up to the bottom of the Rambla in about 20 minutes. If that's too far for you, there's a port bus for a few euros and plenty of taxis right outside the door. Barcelona also has a pleasant city beach and promenade. Note that the taxis will be very busy up until about 9.30 as this is also the main embarkation/disembarkation port on this itinerary so lots of guests will be disembarking with all of their luggage. This will be a good day for you to plan on having a leisurely breakfast and get off a little bit later, rather than getting caught up in the mayhem of departing guests and their bags. I have used this site for research in the past: https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/ramblas/barcelona-las-ramblas.html

Yes, it's not looking very hopeful. I did look at the official Madeira port schedule myself later on and the booking for Freedom is definitely there. I questioned the other poster as to the reliability of the information and they said that Madeira is usually very reliable and update their entries regularly. I did try to find listings for Lanzarote to see if I could determine the port prior to that, but wasn't able to track anything down.

Hi and welcome to the boards I don't know the answer to your questions but I'm going to ping another regular poster who might. @Traveler Can you help?

Me too. Prefer the bigger screen and a proper keyboard.

I'm not usually one to repost unverified stuff, but under the circumstances... Somebody who regularly posts port schedules over on CC has just posted this (my underlining): "Funchal, Madeira Port Bookings (Correct as of 31/03/23) A new booking has been made for Freedom - most likely a stop on her way to dry-dock? I see she has port of origin marked as Lanzarote and a gap in schedules between 9th November and 29th December, so this seems likely. Also, the port call for Odyssey has been removed, as this is not a port on the final transatlantic itinerary. Odyssey OTS - 30th April 2024. *CANCELLED* Anthem OTS - 5th May 2024 Anthem OTS - 10th June 2024 Anthem OTS - 12th September 2024 Anthem OTS - 24th September 2024 Anthem OTS - 10th October 2024 Adventure OTS - 5th November 2024 Odyssey OTS - 10th November 2024 Voyager OTS - 16th November 2024 Freedom OTS - 21st November 2024. *NEW* Adventure OTS - 29th November 2024"

You could take a look at the menus on the current Enchantment sailing in the app. That's an 8-night sailing and would at least give you a rough idea, although as @Ampurp85 says they can change from sailing to sailing. I remember reading somewhere that on sailings to the Caribbean and/or Mexico, supposedly Caribbean night is should be on the day of your first Caribbean port of call and Mexican night on the day of your first call in Mexico. Whether that is actually happening, I can't say.

Availability of bathrooms both on any form of transport used during a tour and at the stops.

Thanks for this. I share your scepticism. Given that the whole of January 2025 is blocked, which I had presumed was for the dry dock, it crossed my mind that maybe they had decided to bring it forward but I can't see how that would make financial sense at it would mean cancelling two holiday cruises (Thanksgiving and Christmas), so I guess we'll just have to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I can still see the cruise in my planner too, with tons of excursions and other extras already on sale.

The US already DOES require EU (and UK) citizens to get an electronic travel authorisation and has done for some years now. It's the ESTA. It's only valid for 2 years and as at a few days ago (when I got ours) costs $21 per person, so the ETIAS is a bargain. Previously, our ESTAs cost us $14 each, so quite a big jump in price since the last one, which was just prior to the pandemic.

I guess they may not have updated all ships and maybe those that haven't been updated are still offering the old perks? Especially since @bigmoose7563 has confirmed they had the room service. This is what I see on my cruise planners for Anthem and Freedom: I would suggest you make sure you have a dated screenshot that you can take to guest services on board if it turns out you're not getting the perks you expected. That way you'll at least be able to prove what was shown in your cruise planner on the day of booking (in case it gets changed in the meantime).

Those look to me like the old perks that were in place during the post-covid restart. I'm pretty sure this is an outdated list and that the room service and 25% discount on specialty dining are no longer a thing. @Matt has an article somewhere on the site about the pros and cons of The Key and whether or not it's likely to be worth it.

Oh wow, what a headache for you! Fingers crossed it won't come to that.

It's been MIA for a couple of weeks now, and it's not just this sailing either. If you plug November/December into the booking engine, you'll see there's nothing at all between the 9th of November and the 29th of December.

You did, but you accidentally wrote UK rather than European. I don't remember ever seeing a UK outlet on a Royal Ship, not even on Anthem which sails from the UK. UK outlets look like this:

So true. And I had been planning on getting one of those external discs to back everything up for some time but just never got round to it. Lesson learned.

Well, am I glad I posted my research on this thread? My computer died and I lost EVERYTHING! So, finally, Haugesund. As far as I can gather, this port is a fairly recent addition to Royal's Norway itineraries. I remember reading a live or semi-live review about this port last year and the person who was doing the review said that only a handful of excursions appeared on Royal's website and very much at the last minute. That reviewer booked the Akrafjord and Langfoss Waterfall tour without doing any research into it but said it turned out to be a good tour. It's currently showing sold out for my sailing (7th July) but might be an option for others on different sailings. Although perhaps not as well known to the cruising community as places like Bergen and Geiranger, it does appear that you can easily spend some pleasant time ashore in Haugesund. There are various monuments that can be visited, including Norway's national monument (https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/norways-national-monument-haraldshaugen/1591/ ) and there are the usual boat trips in the fjord and plenty of walks and hikes. There is also an apparently renowned cupcake shop (https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/jåblom-bakst-cupcakehuset/212333/) which I suspect I will be unable to resist paying a visit to. Anyone looking to do an excursion with a local supplier can take a look at this page: https://govikingadventure.com/cruise, which lists excursions by ship and arrival date in the port. The prices are obviously much cheaper than Royal's. According to the information on the site, this company has a booth just by the port exit. They also offer the option of cancelling for a full refund at least 24 hours ahead of the excursion and a refund if the cruise call is cancelled or the time is changed to the extent that it impacts the excursion. Note that I have not used this company, so I'm not recommending them, just pointing out their existence to assist everyone with research. The komoot site again is a good one if you're looking for walks and hikes: https://www.komoot.com/guide/664244/hiking-around-haugesund And here are a couple of general ones that suggest a range of things to do. The visitnorway one, in particular, has some great images: https://www.fjordnorway.com/en/destinations/haugesund-haugalandet https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/haugesund-haugalandet/ I hope you'll all find this useful and it will help you have a great time on your cruises.

Hi John and welcome to the boards. I don't the answer but suggest you change the title of your thread to reflect what you want to know (rather than your name) as you're more likely to get a response that way.

I agree and, in fact, I have a vague idea that that used to be a thing in the somewhat distant past, many "enhancements" ago. Of course, I may also be having a senior moment and just letting my imagination get the better of me.

"Routine engine maintenance" was cited as the reason for adjusting a number of itineraries as far back as June last year. On our 12-night Canaries cruise in September/October, although we did not skip any ports, our time was cut in several of them, sometimes significantly, such as Madeira and Tenerife, where our full-day stops were effectively reduced to half. I have two upcoming cruises on Anthem, one next month and one in July, and I would not be at all surprised to get one of those emails any day now where they say they're enhancing the cruise by changing the itinerary.

I remember reading that too, although not where I read it.