FionaMG

I wasn't on the particular cruise in question but people posted about it on the boards (either here or over on Cruise Critic, or maybe both). I followed the thread because it was an 8-night Anthem cruise and I was going to be doing a similar one not long after. Luckily, on my sailing, the ports were the other way round so we were not affected by the situation. According to the reports, and due to US law, the ship had to be fully cleared so everyone on board had to get off and go through immigration even if they had intended staying on the ship all day. The problems arose partly because not everyone obeyed the instructions and a number of guests had to be hunted down to get them off the ship, and partly because there just weren't enough officials to handle the number of passengers. The whole thing was further complicated by the fact that because these guests were expecting to walk off, go through immigration and straight back on board, they didn't bring essentials for a lengthy wait, such as water and food. So instead of being able to enjoy a relaxing day on board the ship, many people were left crowding the terminal for hours and there were reports of some fainting or requiring other medical attention. It's significant that within days of this incident happening Royal changed the itinerary on an identical sailing for 2024 by dropping Miami altogether.

It appeared in my cruise planner today as well, for Southampton. It was definitely offered for many European sailings before the shut-down but this is the first time I've seen it back since the restart. I haven't used it myself but it might be handy if you have a flight towards the end of the afternoon or early evening and don't want to do a disembarkation excursion or sit at the airport for hours. The downside is that you still have to vacate your room at the normal time and you can't keep your checked luggage with you, so you need to be sure to keep everything you might need for those few hours in your carry-on.

As a "local", I wouldn't particularly want to cruise in the Med in winter so I was quite surprised to see both NCL and Celebrity testing the waters. I'm less surprised at NCL pulling out. Celebrity's programme is less extensive than NCL's but I'm wondering whether it will survive or whether they will abandon ship too, so to speak. I do think there is a potential niche market for short cruises out of and around the Canary Islands/Madeira and perhaps even Cape Verde during the winter months. Many Europeans fly to these places for winter sun holidays and I can't help thinking there would be a lot of people interested in doing a hotel/cruise combination if it were offered. However, if none of the cruise are doing it, perhaps they've done the market studies and come to the conclusion there just isn't the market for it.

I agree with @RafaellaCG, NY because it's the first US port after arriving from Europe and Miami because it's the first US port after the stops in Bermuda and the Bahamas. There was a huge outcry not that long ago about a stop in Miami where immigration was required. It was a complete mess, with people who had not intended getting off the ship at all having to wait for hours in the terminal while they cleared the whole ship. Meanwhile, people who had gone on excursions returned to the terminal to find massive queues because all the other passengers were still there unable to reboard. Of course, that may not happen in NY, but I'd say it would be worth paying the extra for the excursion to ensure you're able to be among the first off.

Lightning fingers.

If it's anything like Anthem (same class of ship), Spectra's Cabaret is the only show that requires advance booking, due to the small size of the venue. All other entertainment will likely be first-come-first-served on board, with no booking required.

It's SIL's favourite too. I prefer my cheese at breakfast. For me, dessert = chocolate.

Not the same itinerary, so no guarantee it will apply to your ABC cruise, but our recent 8-night Bahamas cruise out of NJ did not have the Mexican menu. We had British and Asian in addition to the other six. The Asian menu was my favourite out of all of them.

I just noticed yesterday that the artisan cheese plate has reappeared in the dessert section of the MDR menu so there is definitely still some tweaking going on. All the more reason to add those comments to the post-cruise survey.

Yes, you absolutely can. I very recently did precisely this. I had an OV GTY so I bid only on a JS until I received my room assignment. Once I had that I added a bid for a large balcony cabin (which actually came through for me today ). Once you check in, download your setsail pass to your Apple wallet or, if you have Android, use the "bar code trick" to see if your room has already been unofficially assigned. Then you'll know whether to bid on the spacious balcony.

The entertainment will show up eventually. My last two bookings have been like that for a while before they opened up. Check back every day. Entertainment only just opened up today for my sailing on the 7th of July.

Do you already have a room assignment? If you don't, I wouldn't place a bid on a spacious balcony because you just never know if you might actually be assigned one under your GTY booking. It's unlikely but not impossible. And if you do already have your assignment, look closely at the locations of all the large balcony cabins to be sure you would be happy with any of them, as Royal Up is essentially like a GTY booking too. I would like to think that the Royal Up algorithms are set up in such a way as to prevent 3 and 4 person bookings being moved into rooms that don't have sufficient capacity, not just because of the sleeping arrangements but also because of muster station availability, but who knows?

Thanks. It absolutely is. If I were to book a room in that specific category today it would cost more than twice what I paid for our cruise. And curiously, the minimum bid for a standard balcony cabin was $65 pp, so I passed on that and went straight for the larger balcony at the cheaper price.

Just got my Royal Up bid accepted for my upcoming cruise to Norway on Anthem. We're not talking suites here, but I'm pretty happy to be going from an ocean view guarantee which had us assigned (thank you "bar code trick") in the farthest forward OV cabin on deck 3 to a large balcony cabin on deck 7 for a minimum bid of $50 pp. This is the first time in 3 or 4 attempts that I've actually won one of these things.

I have to agree with @Ampurp85 regarding Odyssey. While I would sail on her again if it was the only ship doing the itinerary I wanted at the time I wanted, if there were an Oasis class ship doing a similar itinerary at the same time, I would definitely book that instead.

I can only see it on my desktop, not on my mobile devices.

Yep, saw this one too. At least they haven't "enhanced" it by removing the other sort options altogether.

We've done several of these and they've worked precisely the way @steverk and @Ryan79 said. I would just add to make sure you are given the correct tags to ensure your luggage also makes it off the ship in the early batches. On one of our excursions the bus was delayed departing the port by almost an hour because two passengers misunderstood what tags they needed. They were supposed to have tags 3 or 4 and they somehow read that as 34, so when they didn't get tags numbered 34 in their stateroom they went to GS and asked for some. As a result they exited the ship along with everyone else on the excursion and then had to wait for ages for their luggage.

I just spotted a new function on Royal's booking page. It's a "write in" search box right up near the top of the page. I was sceptical but I asked it to find me cruises to Europe in June 2024 and it did. I did try asking it to find me one-way cruises as that's something I'd like to see as a search option but, unfortunately, that overwhelmed it: "We're sorry, but we couldn't find any results that match your search. Please modify your search and try again"

There is a company called Bags and Go that offers this service in Barcelona. I definitely remember seeing their signs at the port and I vaguely remember reading a post by someone somewhere that they had used the service and it had worked well. However, I have not used them myself so can't vouch for them personally. This is the link to their website if you want to check them out: https://bagsandgo.com/en/

I don't understand. If someone wants an alcoholic drink won't they buy it anyway regardless of whether they consume it the bar or at a table? So if you're a paying customer sitting at the bar drinking a soda, why should you give up your seat to someone else just because their drink is more expensive? Why can't that person go and sit at a table instead of you? And what if you're travelling solo; are you going to occupy a 4-person table with your soda or a single bar stool?

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.