FionaMG

Hi @Stephen M and welcome to the boards. Thanks for your review. I'm glad to see you had a great cruise! Although I haven't personally experienced the new menus yet, I do agree with you that there should be a couple of "safe" items on the menu nightly. You don't even have to be a particularly picky eater, just someone who doesn't care much for "fancy" food and you're likely to run into a bit of trouble. Did you think to mention this in your post-cruise survey? I think if enough cruisers hammer home the point, perhaps Royal will do an about-turn and add the safe items back in. It wouldn't be the first time they've caved to cruiser pressure.

Never fails to make me laugh. As if anyone would answer "yes".

Hi @jd1977 and welcome to the boards. It depends to a certain extent on your ports of call. In theory, it should be: Day 1 - Welcome Aboard Day 2 (or 1st formal night) - French First Caribbean port of call - Caribbean First Mexican port of call - Mexican Day 6 (or 2nd formal night) - Royal (lobster) menu Final night - Bon Voyage Then they'll slot in either the Italian night or the British night (most likely the former. I think I read somewhere the British night is for use on cruises of 8 or more nights). If there is no Mexican port on your itinerary they'll also slot that one in somewhere on one of the "free" nights. Depending on when you're sailing, you can also check the current sailing in the app when the ship is doing the same itinerary as you. It looks like the first upcoming western itinerary is the 19th of February so once that sailing gets underway you can look it up on the app and see the menu order. Hope this helps.

Yes. I consider myself to be a fairly savvy traveller but I had no idea this was the case and would probably not have thought to check. I would have planned on bringing proof of our vax status anyway just because you never know when it might be needed so wouldn't be a problem for us, but I can definitely see some people turning up at the airport without it or even being unvaxed. Perhaps there is mention of it on the ESTA process? I will watch out for that when we apply.

It's an ongoing issue. The fix is to log in, go to your profile, delete your C&A number, re-input it and save.

One per person.

I know a couple who encountered precisely this on their first cruise as D; he's Asian and she's Afro-American.

Jamie's was discounted on mine (Anthem) but I already got lunch at that price during the BF sale. Even with the discount, dinner was still more than I was willing to pay.

Geiranger should be one of the real highlights of our cruise, weather willing. I have read that you should be up on the top deck around 4.30 am to enjoy the sail into the fjord. I'm not sure I'll make that but perhaps I'll make the effort. You get the same scenery sailing back out again in the afternoon but of course the light will be different and that can be significant especially for anyone looking to do some serious photography. This site here has some gorgeous photos and videos, just to give you all a taste: https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/the-geirangerfjord/ The town itself appears to be very walkable from the ship, as you can see from this map. The website shown on the map above has lots of helpful information, including another great map for anyone thinking of doing some independent hiking. It's a two-page PDF file that you can download here: https://www.visitgeiranger.com/hiking-map. DD and I are thinking of hiking up to Westeras Farm on our own. This site here offers a number of suggestions and photos: https://www.komoot.com/highlight/219354. It looks like it is perfectly doable without paying Royal $89 each to do it as an excursion. Geiranger Fjord also has its own official website here: https://www.geirangerfjord.no/english. It has lots of suggested activities, including tours at considerably cheaper prices than our Cruise Planner. Just to give one example, the Mount Dalsnibba Summit tour, which looks great if you want to enjoy scenery from a high-up vantage point but don't want or aren't able to walk far, is currently selling in the CP at $92.99 per adult. You can book it on the Geiranger Fjord website for 430 NOK, which is about $38. I checked the timetable for the date we are in port and there are two departures, the first of which, at 10 am, would work nicely. There are also a couple of panoramic bus tours that look to be very similar to Royal's offerings and, again, at much cheaper prices. I couldn't see any indication of whether or not they were accessible, though, so anyone needing that facility would be best to contact them and check.

That really is expensive. It's been swinging back and forwards between $88 and $95 on my upcoming Anthem cruise but I was lucky to get it for DS for $50 during the BF sale.

We've had OVs on decks 2, 3 and 4 on Splendour, Explorer and Serenade. Never been a problem. You only need to keep the curtains closed in port if your room is next to the pier and you're doing something you'd feel uncomfortable with others potentially seeing.

Hmm, that's got me thinking. I wonder if deleting and re-entering your e-mail address in your profile, in similar fashion to the "points not showing" fix, might make it work again.

Hi. Yes, that's correct.

Do you mean Europe to US? Because Explorer is sailing US to Europe in April 2024 (Miami to Barcelona) and spending the whole summer there. Her last cruise of the summer season ends in Barcelona on 2nd November so that would point to a return to the US in November 2024. The autumn 2024 transatlantic sailings have still to be released (potentially this month if some rumblings are to be believed) so if you're interested you should keep checking or enlist a travel agent to check on your behalf.

I'm wondering if it might be worth getting in touch with C&A a week or two in advance of my next cruise. I guess it wouldn't do any harm and might, just might, give us a better chance of actually being able to collect it on board.

That's very helpful, thanks. I'm always getting spam messages like that so it's good to know what to look out for.

Nice. Still waiting for ours (our first) from Anthem back in September/October. We did check on board with the LA who said we were on his list and he got us to confirm our address. However I'm not entirely convinced that they will actually ship it to us in Custard Tart Land. We are back on Anthem at the end of April so I plan on chasing it up then if it hasn't shown up before we set off.

It's an ongoing issue. There's a fix: Log into your account, click on your initials top right and choose profile. Then click on "My Loyalty" towards top right. Now delete your C&A number, retype it back in and save. That should put your status and points back on the screen.

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it too.

It's going back 10 years now but we used Godfrey Tours in St Thomas and were satisfied with the service. I can't really remember now but my pics suggest we probably did their sightseeing and beach tour. You can take a look at their website here: https://www.godfreytours.com/ but it doesn't look like they do boat trips or snorkelling stuff, I'm afraid, so I don't know how helpful this will be for you.

Great pics @JohnK6404. I just wish they did a non-alcoholic version of this. I know we could do it anyway and we wouldn't go thirsty but I would be looking to pay a cheaper rate for it without alcohol included.

Oh dear, looks like I missed the proverbial boat on this one. But I will chip in anyway as it might help anyone else looking at similar itineraries. Out of the two options @Pattycruise mentions, and assuming a similar price point, Dublin wins hands-down. This is because Dublin has US pre-clearance, which means you go through US customs and immigration at Dublin before you even set foot on the plane. This has the effect of turning your international flight into a domestic one so, on arrival at your US destination, you simply grab your bags and go in the same way as you would if you were flying domestically within the US. The 3-hour layover is about the sweet point, in my opinion, when connecting to a trans-Atlantic flight. It gives you time to get off the inbound aircraft without rushing, make the relevant pit stops and be at your departure gate with a bit of time to spare. As a nervous traveller, that's a huge consideration for me, especially as it also gives you a bit of a buffer if your inbound flight is running late. When flying to Ireland from Europe, even from Schengen countries, you have to go through passport control at your European departure airport. This is because, although Ireland is an EU country, it is not in the Schengen area. However, as a transit passenger with a through ticket you do not have to clear Irish customs and immigration as, officially, you never actually enter the country. If the TAP flight were significantly cheaper and budget mattered above all else, the process would be different. In this case, and assuming departure from a Schengen area country (e.g. Italy or Spain), you would not have any immigration or customs checks at your departure point and you would also have no inbound customs and immigration at Lisbon. However, since Lisbon would be your point of departure from the Schengen area you do have to go through outbound passport control. Lisbon uses e-gates for this and if you are unlucky enough to have your flight coincide with some other big ones going to places like Brazil or Africa, the lines for non-EU passport holders can be massive. Partly for this reason and partly due to TAP's less-than-stellar timekeeping, I would be unlikely to recommend a 90-minute layover on this route. In theory, it could be done and braver souls than I have probably managed it successfully but it steps way over my risk-tolerance level even with the potential buffer of another flight going out 90 minutes later. I'm guessing we're talking about the NY area here, since I think that's the only US city that TAP has more than one flight to on the same day (JFK + EWR). When departing from Lisbon to the US, there is also a secondary security check at the gate but no pre-clearance so you have to clear US customs and immigration when you arrive Stateside.

I don't understand how this could have caused "crazy backups at the remaining food venues". The Solarium Bistro is one of the quieter venues so it's not like 100s of people were being displaced into the other venues. And the guests who were part of the group and were eating there were not extra bodies on top of the ship's normal passenger load so they, in turn, would have been removed from the equation at the other venues. So unless my logic is flawed surely one would balance out the other...

I daren't have it in the house. Once you open that jar you're doomed to death by chocolate.

If you'd care to share your impressions afterwards that would be great.