FoxboroCruiser

On 3/1/2024 at 12:17 AM, Minuet888 said:

Are you local in NJ/NY?  If not what hotel do you stay at when flying in?

We drive from Massachusetts.  There's a couple of hotels close to the port but the area isn't the greatest.  We opt to stay 20 minutes or so away where there are more restaurants and stores, etc. We did stay closer to the first time out of NY/NJ and stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Newark Airport Elizabeth and there was an Embassy Suites by Hilton Newark Airport nearby.  Both were nice enough.

We're booked on this sailing! Third time sailing out of Bayonne and first ever Oasis class cruise.

No reservations needed (or taken). It does fill up fast, so strongly recommend you get there early. 30 mins…

Agreed! Fun to do and very helpful late night…

We disembarked at Port Liberty yesterday. Last time we were in the garage, this time we parked in the lots past the garage. Short 5 minute walk, easy peasy. Last year when we parked in the garage we paid on the way out…less convenient that pre-paying in the lot this time. We loaded the car and drove away. That said, neither were burdensome. Easy in, easy out.

Didn’t have it last year when we were onboard. Not sure where they’d have it…

Sorry, I “think” there were two, I don’t see it now.

On the Facebook group there are 2 slot pulls set up as an opportunity to meet up. I imagine we’ll go for drinks after, and/or set up another meet up.

Liberty's first trip to Halifax today.

I chose to book a cruise with Royal for our honeymoon in 1994, so for our 25th anniversary in 2019 we took our second ever cruise and it just seemed fitting to stick with Royal. We took our 2 adult sons and they loved it, and they came along again in 2022 for our next voyage. We have 2 more booked and the boys still want go with us ( we know this won’t last forever) so we don’t want to rock the boat and switch lines.  We will stay loyal to Royal until something changes to make us think about trying NCL…

We normally get the DBP but went with the Refreshment Package for this sailing. The damn alcohol package would be as much as the cruise for the 4 of us. We’re going to roll the dice and are pretty sure we’ll come out ahead.

Checked in and ready to go! Just 45 days until we sail!

Not having the machines means I have to lug an 8 pack of Powerade Zero onto the ship…  Anthem had them but they were a pain in the ass to use. Never worked right, and always out of the Powerade mix, it felt a little bait and switch to me.  Still p.o.’d about it to be honest.

On the last night of our Empress cruise in 2019 near the end of diner in the MDR there was a 5 minute speech given (microphone in hand) about giving all 10’s. I was stunned how far he went. On Anthem last year, I never heard it mentioned. 

I know from my day job that surveys can be great tools, but not when the audience is manipulated into falsely reporting their thoughts and experiences. It’s disappointing that RC would allow that to happen.

I find the blind schedule for the tournaments to be a ridiculously fast. They are really “turbo” tournaments and I don’t find those fun. I play to relax and be entertained and that shard to do when the game feels forced.  
 

Love the idea of a side game in the card room would be awesome. Tough to lug a suitcase of chips on board though!

Thanks for the tip. I’m still looking for the drag feature but found the deck plans at the bottom where they are all in a Row and it is it true to life we’d be over the cupcake cupboard and looking at cafe promenade.  Better than near the bar I guess!

Were trying a promenade view on Liberty in June, and love reading all the positive feedback. We are on deck 7, but not 100% what we are near. Is there. A good way to figure it out? I looked at the deck plan on Royal’ site but the Promenade deck doesn’t show the bump out that I see on deck 7 plan…

I am a dessert person and would have to agree that RC desserts aren’t  as good as I’d hope they’d be.  The Baked Alaska on Anthem was decent, and is something I don’t see often on menus these days. Think I had a decent carrot cake once too.

We stayed at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Newark Airport, NJ for our Anthem cruise out of Port Liberty last April.  It’s an industrial area, but there’s an iHop there, and the room had two beds and a separate room with a sofa bed, which worked well for us.  Walmart and Target nearby as well. Was minutes from the port, reasonably priced.

We’re thinking of staying a little further away for our Liberty cruise this year only because we found a nice area in the region when we were in NJ a couple of weeks ago and want to check it out more.  There’s a lot of restaurants and shops over there, it’s La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham in Fairfield NJ and was like $100 a night. It’s about 35 mins from the port.

15 hours ago, RCVirgin22 said:

I'm curious how you know which ship belongs to which class though? Unlike NCL where if you click on ships it tells you most all relevant data such as tonnage, guest capacity, year built and year renovated. As well as destinations. Yet when I click on ships at RCL I cannot find any of that, namely class/year built. All I do know is that Oasis are the latest five ships which feature the openings in the center for boardwalk and central park along with cabins overlooking. And only because they feature a button for that class while the others not so much that I've found. I would like to experience the Oasis class one day but at present none of them are assigned to the destinations I'm currently looking at, specifically Alaska and Mexico, and I'm not sure what to make of Ovation and Quantum which sail out of Seattle. Or Navigator that sails out of LA. 

People say you can't go wrong with any RCL ship, and maybe that's so from RCL loyalist pov, I just would like to read more about the ship to know how old and when renovated if really old. I sailed on NCL Getaway and while it had been refurbished it felt old, not that it's that old as some were built much earlier. It simply felt quaint.

I use the Wikipedia page a lot for referencing ships and classes: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Caribbean_International

I wish they’d re-order the classes by size a bit, but still find it useful, and hope you find it useful as well. 

5 hours ago, Srp431 said:

Majesty of the Seas for our honeymoon cruise in 1996

Ours too in 1994

We used AAA Travel to book Cuba cruise on Empress back in 2019. We had two cabins with 2 adults in each.  The agent neglected to explain that there were drop down bunks on either side that would be in our way for 5 nights, when she could have just made sure we were in cabins that didn’t have those features. That was one of 2-3 “hiccups” that ensured we’d never use AAA again.

The real point in my reply in is now is that even though we now use MEI, I still look through every bit of info I can before agreeing to the cabin they offer.

I lastly, while I am the opposite of a conspiracy theorist, something about the number of these random cruising issues that get raised by one-and-done posters makes me think there are motives beyond the face value of at least some of these posts. Just my opinion.

We did Kennedy Space Center in our Anthem cruise from Port Liberty last year and it was the highlight of the entire cruise.  IMHO 4 hours there is still worth the price.

10 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

If its a 3N sailing it's possible they aren't putting one on.

If a cruise is 4 nights does it increase the odds a ship with an ice rink schedules the featured show?

10 hours ago, letscruise said:

I ended up booking a Peggy's Cove tour (one of the shorter ones) to lock in an excursion.  I was going to stick with Hop On Hop Off, but so many of the comments are about wait times and full buses and I don't really want to deal with that on this trip when we only have 1 port day.  I'm getting excited as I also purchased dining and drink/internet packages.   Not much else to do, but wait.  

150 days to go! We are excited to try Sabor and Giovani’s!