foxrunner

i just figured it was utopia’s version of the empire supper club. 
looking forward to seeing more about this concept!

We live in New world.   I'm subject, with a few others, of a national social media smear, no basis in truth and lawyers say just let it go.  I grew up with 3 news outlets, then 4, 5 and then IMHO it all went south.  Good news is most of it is niche oriented and never blows up like this!   Next big thing and they are not even a memory.   It is just sad!

I have seen a few places where people are defending taking non cruise line tours..  they claim cruise trips too expensive snd not as good.  I am fine with that.  You be you!  I live a fast pace high presure life.  I prepay drinks so thst I don't have to stress over it.  I get the key because it includes internet snd my bag is always in my room!  I get an interior cheap room cause if I'm there I'm sleeping.  I take ships tours cause at that point I don't have to worry about time.
 
My brother has another few companies he loves for excursions.   He does that and if we go together we take ships trips.  I have never felt gyped on a royal excursion, princess another story.
If I were ncl, I would refund rest of them money, fly them home and ban them from future cruises.  They have lied and misrepresented the facts for their own 15 minutes of fame.  
I was on a carnival ship (free cruise) and they kept paging this couple and people started chanting LEAVE THEM.  People met them at gangway and heckled them.  In today's world that would have made them social media darlings.  In reality, I bet if they cruised again they were never late.
I always wonder first day when people don't get their muster done immediate if they are part of a game on who can get name announced the most.  I heard a couple on last cruise say, we needed a nap, we paid just like all you did, we will do it our way.  It made me sad.  Our world has devolved and the impact our actions have on others, just doesn't matter.  
That said, if you sign up for a trip with 2 to 6 thousand people, you should be willing to play buy the rules you paid to participate in!
 
Enough preaching!   Sorry got carried away!
 

In certain ports we overpay for a Royal excursion due to the guarantee. Most of the time we are very comfortable with 3rd party.  As for the couple from SC, I have zero sympathy. Their take is that the other thousands of guests should have been inconvenienced because of their issue. Yes stuff happens in life but taking to the Today Show to accuse NCL of an overly strict all aboard policy is entitlement at its best. The couple is threating NCL that they will not board the ship! Ha Ha! please don't throw me in that briar patch.   

In certain ports we overpay for a Royal excursion due to the guarantee. Most of the time we are very comfortable with 3rd party.  As for the couple from SC, I have zero sympathy. Their take is that the other thousands of guests should have been inconvenienced because of their issue. Yes stuff happens in life but taking to the Today Show to accuse NCL of an overly strict all aboard policy is entitlement at its best. The couple is threating NCL that they will not board the ship! Ha Ha! please don't throw me in that briar patch.   

In certain ports we overpay for a Royal excursion due to the guarantee. Most of the time we are very comfortable with 3rd party.  As for the couple from SC, I have zero sympathy. Their take is that the other thousands of guests should have been inconvenienced because of their issue. Yes stuff happens in life but taking to the Today Show to accuse NCL of an overly strict all aboard policy is entitlement at its best. The couple is threating NCL that they will not board the ship! Ha Ha! please don't throw me in that briar patch.   

Not RCI but a nice reminder to make sure you are back in plenty of time, especially when not using a cruise line's own excursion! Ouch.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/norwegian-cruise-passengers-stranded-africa/index.html
 

Threads live forever!🤣
My issue is I have sleeping difficulties at home. But onboard I sleep much better. Even in very heavy seas when I’m getting pushed around, I still seem to sleep a lot better while on a ship.
I asked my doctor, solely in the interest of my health and wellbeing, to write a prescription for me to cruise as much as possible…but my cheapskate insurance company still won’t pay for my cruises. Ba$t@rds!😡

Finally made it home. We left ship around 730ish with wonderful Norman and Kenny concierge escort. On road before 8am and arrived home after 500 plus miles of driving around 430pm. I’m smoked and have added joy of work tomorrow. Did I mention I wish I was retired? 
awesome week with getting to meet @OCSC Mike and his lovely bride and seeing matt briefly twice. Wonder is just an awesome ship. Crew killed it as always. Royal for the win!
Next cruise is icon in August. y’all thanks for following our posts. 

Last food pic (although I brought home enough ranger cookies for a few more days, lol)…

I really enjoy the MDR for breakfast too but, unfortunately for me, DH gets antsy sitting waiting for his food to arrive so most of the time we just head to the WJ. 🙄
One thing to bear in mind is that the power wrap is not included in the brunch menu that some ships have recently been offering on sea days, so if you want to try it you need to go on a day when it's the full breakfast menu.

I didn't request the sides; they just brought it to me like that.
However, it may be ship and/or sailing dependent because the previous times I've had it, all of which were on Anthem, it did not have as many sides.
September 2022:

April 2023:

And July 2023:

So the one on Symphony was the best as it came with lots of sides. I expect you could ask for them if they don't come out straight away. The salsa was really good.

It was more of a soft Asiago bread and went great with the steak and egg. 

Hoping the pricing will be more along the lines of specialty dinning not the Empire or Chef's Table level. We just had an opportunity for a very nice wine all included dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. The problem was the price at $250 for a couple, we did attend when it was $150 a couple.   When on the cruise I also factor in that we have paid $20ish each as part of our cruise fare. 

Is the steak and egg on a croissant? Looks delicious! Not an onion fan but if that was a bacon frittata, oh boy yum! Please keep sending food picts!

This is my new “go to” spot for a quick breakfast! I normally go to park cafe but decided this morning to try something different. The steak & eggs sandwich and classic breakfast sandwich (sausage,egg,cheese,ham) are equally delicious! The service was very quick at 6:45am. There are 2 lines that eventually form, one to the left for speciality coffee (most likely drink packers speciality coffee option) and one to the right for food. The food line was short!

The food is great but the ship overall is even more impressive. The Icon makes the Oasis class seem boring (as crazy as that sounds). There’s so much to see and do! 

Too much to see and do for me, lol. I kinda like boring (and of course Oasis class isn't actually boring). We went back on Indy in 2022 for a 3/4 B2B after almost nothing but Oasis class for several years and had a good time mostly chilling in the Solarium and going to CocoCay (now that could be considered boring although I guess relaxing fits better). The only thing I missed was the extra food venues (think I went to ELF everyday last week except for when were off the ship in St. Martin from like 9-4). I wish it were Freedom that was in PC at the time.
Wonder is currently my happy place and we have some Utopia B2B's booked which I know I'll enjoy since it's so similar to Wonder. I'm sure we'll try Star at some point (you know I stick to PC); I'll just feel the need to have a plan in advance since it will be new to us. I like stepping onto Oasis class and knowing exactly where everything is, what our routine will be, etc. Others like winging it. Different strokes...
Enjoy the rest of the cruise and keep the reports coming. You sail a lot more than I do and do lots of shorties but I enjoy your reports as we seem to enjoy some of the same small things (like early AM egg sandwiches, lol) and have some similar opinions.

Excited to share with you all the CREW NEIGHBORHOOD onboard the Icon Of The Seas!
 
This is an exclusive first look into our home away from home, whilst we work onboard the ship!
 
 

Well we are just off Anthem today on a 7 night cruise to Coco Cay and we just absolutely love Anthem. The crew is amazing off the bat. Drink service can be a bit slow here and there but crew was amazing overall. 
Cape Liberty is a mix of good and bad. Royals side excellent, 10 minutes and on but the security screening is not good. The lines they say up are odd and take longer than they should. I'm not sure I understand why it's set up that way. 
Anthem itself is in excellent shape, looks just as good as we sailed on her a few years ago. The elevator situation which thankfully I take the stairs is terrible. It's a combo of too much use and rude people. My wife with the baby take the elevator everywhere. It was just not great. 
The food I'd say is hit and miss. I'm not gonna be a cheerleader and I LOVE Royal Caribbean but I'm not gonna be a cheerleader. The food is just hit and miss. MDR, some things were good and some ok, and some not so good. I got lasagna one night against my better judgement and honesty I wanted to see what they consider lasagna as I am Italian. It was um not great. It was to be kind, not good and not what I consider lasagna. 
Windjammer is the same, hit and miss. Breakfast actually really good. Lunch which we did once was ok to be nice. The burger was almost awful which I don't get because on Coco Cay the burger was much, much better. The Mac and cheese was extremely bland. The fries were excellent though. 
Cafe 270 was excellent, everything was excellent. Oh the doughnuts and pastries at all places we ate were excellent. The chocolate doughnuts were extra good, small but plentiful and so good. 
Sorrento's pizza serves it's purpose and it's ok. It could be better but still not bad. It's a good quick bite. 
Desserts pretty much everywhere were excellent we thought. Some better than others of course. 
Jaime's we loved but the chicken Parmesan is not what I consider good but that's from an Italian that has eaten that so many times I could not count. It was on, edible but not great. Apps amazing though.
Wonderland is so much fun. It may be going extinct and odd but I love it. We love it. It's an experience and I like the food. It's just interesting and fun. 
Chops too upscale for me but food was excellent, like definitely a step up in quality. I don't like steak so I can't speak on that. Branzino was awesome. 
Now Coco Cay, that island is pure magic. Period, pure magic. The water was cold, not going again in winter but still a freaking ton of fun. We only do the free stuff and it's just a blast. With 2 boys, 10 and 2 it's amazing. Plan to go back again and again just not ever in winter. What is the earliest for Coco were the water is warm? May? 
That's my take and will add more when I think of more stuff. 

We did a 4 day shorty when our plans unexpectedly changed for a land vacation. We were flying to Florida anyway and used the vacation week with hotel stays on the bookend and a nice cruise Freedom sandwich in the middle. We had a blast and the cruise ended too quickly. If you're ever in a bind the short cruise is a great way to make some lemonade.  

My wife did a 3-4-3 B2B2B on Freedom last June (with different family member co-cruisers each leg). She didn't report any difference in the fellow passenger experience for the pair of 3 night weekends vs. the 4 night weekday. The food was repetitive, but since she doesn't venture far from her standard comfort zone that wasn't an issue. 

Food - As you know, this is subjective. I survived a 3/4 on Indy with no "extra" included venues but that was my only complaint. If I had ELF like you will, I would have been much happier.
Pax - You're a shenanigans-magnet... does the length of cruise really matter? I could tell you they were also fine on that 3/4 but it was in July (lots of families with tiny humans) and we somehow stay in our own little shenanigans-free bubble.
In all seriousness, given all you've been through based on the last few live blogs I've read, I think you'll be fine.

For the folks residing near a cruise port, a mini-cruise could work well.  For folks like me that it takes a 12-hour+  flight window plus a motel stay once I get to the cruise city, a mini-cruise would be a waste of travel resources.
 
That said, as I get multiple cruise offers in my mail box every week, the most recent ones have been for these abbreviated cruises.  Seems they are indeed trying to fill these rooms. 
 
 

If I lived in FL I’d be down with 3-4 night cruises but I’m an 8 hr drive from both Tampa and Port Canaveral so they don’t really appeal to me.