FoxboroCruiser

A lot of cruisers enjoy a nice cigar on the dedicated deck or on an island we are visiting. Please use this thread for any good cigar story's, cigar plantation experiences or excursions you have had or any good cigar brick and mortar locations you have found on the islands we all visit. 

DAS cigars in St. Maarten are absolutely phenomenal. I researched what cigars were on the island and found DAS cigars. Once I got off of the ship, I saw the Das store and I went over and started talking to the gentlemen that was sitting there. He explained all of the verities and I asked if I could sit there and enjoy one with him before I bought any. He said can I cut and light it for you? We sat there and enjoyed the beautiful day with a great stick. He asked what my name was and I asked him what his was - and said, I am Das! I was thinking holy cow, sitting here with the man himself. What a great experience and Das was such a gentlemen. I highly recommend Das if you are in St. Maarten. 

Was ANYTHING to your liking on the cruise? I mean, were even the pillows soft?

Letting the fan site know you aren’t giving Royal any more business gets you nowhere. 

The rant had all the telltale signs of being fake.  "Paid a big deposit" and "made multiple payments" and "no one told us"

Getting your cruise pulled out from under you due to a charter has to suck, but this instance doesn't pass the sniff test.

So there was this thing.  It was called a pandemic.  They had no income.  They borrowed a lot of money to survive.  They borrowed $45B dollars.  As a result they had to put off the amplification they had scheduled. 
Let's say you lost your job.  You were out of work for 2 years.  To survive you borrowed money from family and friends.  After two years you find a part time job that almost covers your mortgage but not the rest of your expenses.  You are still using the money borrowed from family to survive and then finally you find a real full time job.  Now three years later you have enough income to cover your expenses and have a little left over every month.  Phew.    
You are working full time now but you still owe your friends and family tens of thousands of dollars.  How would they feel if you took your paycheck and instead of paying them back you renovated your kitchen and bathrooms?  New shoes.  New purse.  New car.  Life is good!  But you haven't paid back a single dime.
While they are now making a profit they still have massive debt they need to pay back.  That debt didn't go away once they were able to start filling ships to capacity.  That debt will be around for decades to come.  

I always tip $1 per drink minimum, even if it is bottled water with my drink package.

I haven't been able to search the cruise up in a few days, so it must be sold out.  The Bermuda cruises before and after only have insides left.  That's a bummer, I was almost thinking I should extend my vacation...

our very first cruise was in the 90s  Majesty   to us it was huge.  We had never seen such beauty.  Is there any that small left?

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

My fiance and I will be on this cruise and starting our honeymoon.  Getting married the 17th. I'm so excited for this one because We've never been on Liberty or to Halifax. This is the beginning of our b2b2b2. We will be on Liberty until July 8. 🙂

Hi fellow cruisers!  We're getting closer and closer!  Are you ready?  We did a guarantee room, so still waiting for our cabin assignment.  Check-in is this weekend.....exciting!  

We've found it better to get on later. Just walk on, the food venues are less crowded and less waiting around for the ship to depart. Not big drinkers so drinking half the day before the ship leaves is not for us.  No problem getting up and off early for us.

I cruised first week of March and the MDR was great.  Service fantastic, food fast and hot.
There are several reports from that specific cruise sharing the experience of Ben and David.  I can't say what you will experience, there seems to be some inconsistency, but there isn't currently a swell of complaints like those from the video outside of that sailing.  Stick around the forum and read the dining section and you'll get a feel for how prevalent it is as your cruise approaches.

I really missed having a freestyle machine when I cruised on Liberty last week. I rely on it for my Powerade Zero as I rehydrate from an evening of Fosters. 🍺 Only Gatorade/Powerade options was at the Cafe Prominade, and it's not sugar free. I know, first world problems.... 🤪

We just got off Freedom and my wife and I had a wonderful time. 
We eye witnessed 3 marriage proposals and they were all accepted. Can anyone beat that record on a single cruise?
It was our 1st time with the UDP and that was great, Giovanni's being our favorite. The amount of food was staggering though! The wings at Playmakers were top notch but the loaded nachos not so much.  
PD@CC was as usual a great take. Our 1st time in the "Club" and it was fine but probably a one and done. We also watched the lifeguards save a drowning man's life right next to the swim up bar on South Beach. The life guard was amazing and without his immediate action I don't think the victim would have survived. The free snorkeling was just OK, they need to put in more artificial reef structures to attract and build up a reef. 
We didn't eat in the MDR or Windjammer, so no comment.
The "Battle of the Sexes" and "Crazy Quest" shows were really fun. The Freedom on Ice show was also very enjoyable. 
We thought the ship wasn't too crowded or over run with poorly behaving children as is often posted. 
We tried Bingo another first and it was just too slow. Not our cup of tea. 
The ship was in good condition and the slides and other pool side updates significantly improve the overall experience. 
We have mainly sailed the bigger ships and would gladly go again on the Amped ships in this class. 
  

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.

Welcome to DRY DOCK!
 
Over the last 3 weeks, Symphony Of The Seas has been located in the Navantia Shipyard located in the south of Spain, getting routine maintenance around the entire ship.
 
This is my exclusive look into what happens during a Dry Dock period, on one of the largest cruise ships in the world!
 
The first cruise of the Mediterranean season will begin tomorrow!
 
 

So we’ve had an absolutely great time on our cruise. Our wait staff has been absolutely top notch as have most of the staff that we’ve encountered on our trip. 
 
My complaint is the emphasis that has been placed to these employees on the post cruise surveys and the “please mark all 10s”. We have been asked at least 10 times during our cruise by pretty much everyone that we have encountered to do this survey. I don’t blame the employees. It’s clearly been impressed upon them how important that this is to their ability to climb up the ladder. 
 
That being said, Royal Caribbean needs to tone down the value of this. It’s off putting. It’s very distasteful to force your employees to harass guests to fill out these surveys. Traditionally customer service surveys are a garbage metric. They do not represent a true “voice of the customer” but rather are filled out by people who represent an extreme point of view. It’s really disappointing that RCI puts such importance on this toward its employees. 

on the individual deck pages, near the bottom, under the category color key
https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/cabin-check.php?ship=Liberty-of-the-Seas
 

Once you drill down to the ship, it's at the top left:
 

When using the drag feature, the individual decks aren't quite scaled the same.  For example, if you line up the rear elevators on deck 7 with the rear elevators on the promenade deck, the forward elevators will be off a bit.  But it's still useful enough to get the idea.

I managed to win one of the tournaments on Odyssey last summer. You’re right - the blinds are super fast and you largely have play super tight until you get a good enough hand to hopefully scoop one. Then once it’s down to 4 or so you can start playing more normally. 
 
To a certain degree I like that the game can be finished in 60-90 minutes. I enjoy poker but I’m not one to spend all day in the casino on a cruise, so somewhat of a happy medium.

My experience with Poker is on the Allure, Anthem, and the Symphony. All of those ships have dedicated, live dealer, poker tables that are usually packed nightly starting at around dinner time. Don't expect to walk up 9pm and have a seat open. Anthem, I believe, had one table, the Oasis class ships run two, when busy, or at least they do at night. Same experience with astronomical rakes and cash game blinds. But hey it's quite literally the only game in town, so they do what they want. I don't think one important point was mentioned and that is they will put you on a list so that you can go gamble away your money elsewhere in the casino and they will call your name when a seat opens up. That was my experience on the Symphony and the Allure. 
As for tournaments they are usually too time consuming for me, even though I agree they are structured very much like turbo. They will run the POKER tournaments, at the available poker tables AND blackjack tables where you are playing poker tournament but sitting at blackjack table and the dealer faces the players. The semi and final tables are of course moved to the "real" poker tables. The opening rounds of the poker tournaments are run at odd times in the afternoons and I'm thinking that's just the casino's way of getting the gamblers into the casino during off hours. 

Totally agree !