DDaley

Like this cool animated one I got yesterday for my birthday!? Funniest part to me is they must know I’ve already purchased the DBP, Voom, excursions, dining for this sailing yet they still offer these “discounts” “for my birthday.” Then there is Celebrity, who I have never sailed with, offering me actual discounts on fares! 
 

I hope you and the family are doing ok. I also can’t wait for your next adventure because perhaps there is a @Rags1 blog coming? 😉 by then, I will need something to pass the time 
Oh my, I cannot even go there in my mind. I know post secondary is coming and I keep asking myself where my little girls have gone. 

Just got caught up in this!  Spent the last couple days dealing with the Tropical Storm that just blew through Southern California. Can’t wait to follow your next adventure!  It will surely help to pass the time until we board Allure again in about 19 days!

Woohoo! We'll be back on Liberty in a 2br on her first sailing out of Ft Lauderdale. 73 days for us. It is the last suite we have on the books for now - going to try connecting balconies. I look forward to following along.!
@GregD I need to go back and read your blog again, we're going to be in 9708 again.

@asquared17 that looks delicious!!! I will have to ask my sisters if they want to go here one night. We have plans to see Wicked next month and I noticed there is one close to the Gershwin Theatre. 😋

@TroyDuncan  Which sailing are you on? My wife and I are doing the Jan 19 for our first trip over to Cabo, PV, & Maz. Looking forward to this one. 
 
@DDaley @Luly @Va4fam @HeWhoWaits Thanks for the Info on the opportunities at these ports. Some very cool details.
 
Have to wonder if we could actually see the SAME whale(s) on Quantum in a few weeks in AK and then on Navigator in Jan in PV??  Might have to go check them out down South in the Pacific. 

That is an excellent idea! I have a super compact one that will work perfect! Thank you for responding 😄

Well the cruise is now over. 
 
After making a very late port at Ensenada on Day 2 of the cruise, we headed northward and spent our day at sea in the Santa Barbara Channel. 
 
This was much farther north than we initially expected to be heading, but Captain James announced that it was outside of the area affected by the storm. We spent the day circling the waters in the channel and the water was very calm. 
 
At night we headed back to the Port of Los Angeles and definitely sailed through a part of the storm causing it to be pretty rocky. We got back to port safely though. 
 
thanks for all who responded!

I found him. Meet Craig Setzer
 

Maybe you could bring a folding camping pad? They weigh almost nothing and could be clipped via carabiner to the exterior of your carry on bag or rolling suitcase, thus not taking up valuable real estate. 

What do you call an arrogant criminal walking down stairs? 
A condescending con descending! 

Love that you’re doing it up for her Golden! I agree that you can’t go wrong with Freedom. It was recently Amped so the pool deck actually looks newer than Allure and I agree that I would choose the ship that had water slides over one without any day!
I also agree that you should save sailing an Oasis class for a future 7-night cruise when you can take better take advantage of everything it has to offer. My only brush with OA class was only 4 nights and I barely scraped the surface!! 

I toured with another cruise line but booked tours on my own and we had an amazing time! 
Athens
There is a 30€ package available that bundles several ruins/historical sites together and is of great value. Seeing the Acropolis alone is 20€ so for 10 extra bucks you can see 6 additional sites. We were able to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Acropolis and slopes, Ancient Agora and Hadrian's Library in the span of 4 hours or so. Once you are in Plaka, all of the sites are easily walkable. The Uber from the port of Piraeus to this part of Athens was around 15€ and took about 10-15 min. I recommend visiting the Acropolis right at 8am when it opens to miss the heat of the day and the majority of the crowds. As we were descending at 9am, the crush of people just entering was crazy! 
For restaurants, I recommend the Anafiótika Cafe Restaurant on the stairs (has a Cycladic feeling in the big city) and Strofi Athenian Restaurant (amazing Acropolis view). Also be sure to try souvlaki (kebab style) or gyros meat (shaved) from any of the hole-in-the-wall type spots, the meat was amazingly tender and tastier than any of the major restaurants we tried it at. 
Thessaloniki
We did the hop-on hop off bus tour that circles the city and hits a bunch of important sights. The White Tower, Gallerius Arch, the Rotunda, the remaining city walls to name a few. The waterfront is easily walkable from the port and leads you straight to the White Tower. Departing from under the tower are a couple floating bar cruises I definitely recommend. They cruise the harbor in 30 min intervals and the only ticket price is buying a drink! (4€ without consumption). We took the Klio cruise bar and had a great ride. 
Kusadasi (Turkey)
We toured Ephesus via the cruise line but I know Royal does the same as I saw RCCL lanyards/Whisper ear pieces on a ton of guests. I definitely recommend a hat and/or SPF umbrella to protect you from the unrelenting heat! There is no shade to be found at the ruins. (Thanks to @FionaMG for this idea!) Also, if you're planning to buy a guide book, buy it at the starting point on top of the ruins. Once you get to the bottom/exit and decide you want one, they are priced 5€ more than at the top! 
There are a couple nice seaside restaurants/bars walking distance from the port. Everything is priced pretty cheaply. Try an Efes beer, made in Turkey and my favorite of all the Greek beers we tried. 
Rhodes
In Rhodes we toured the old town and the Citadel of Knights on our own and took a walking tour of Lindos and the Acropolis through GetYourGuide. The old town is easily walkable from the port and has lots of shops and restaurants. There is also a small beach right by the port and a nicer beach about a 20 min walk away. Lindos is about a 50 minute ride from port but the Acropolis view was worth it! You have to walk up about 300 steps from the town and maneuver along a winding path with no handrails. 
Heraklion (Crete)
We toured the city on our own since we had a short stop from 7am-12pm and skipped visiting Knossos. The city was about a 20 minute walk from port and was flat to the old port with the fortress and up a slight hill to see all the shops and the historical Bembo and Morosini Fountains. The city is heavily influenced by Venetian architecture. 
Santorini
We took an excursion via the cruise line to Megalochori and Oia in order to be among the first tenders from the ship. On excursions you get a bus ride up the hill from the new port and return via pre-paid ticket on the cable car to the old port. Sunset in Oia was nice but the crush of people was unreal! I recommend finding a spot at a restaurant to escape the crowds during the prettiest part. Restaurants will ask you at the door if you intend to eat, SAY YES! Even if you just order an appetizer.. if you say you just want drinks they'll lead you straight to the back tables with no views. We ate at Thalassia and had a gorgeous view, tasty wine and sampled the Moussaka (eggplant lasagna) and Keftedes (meatballs), all was amazing. 

Mykonos
This was my favorite port stop. Our cruise line provided a free shuttle from the dock at the new port to Chora old town (Odyssey guests got to use a sea bus instead, Brilliance guests tendered right to town) and it was super easy to walk around and see the alleys, Little Venice and the windmills. We also took a tour that included a stop at Kalafatis beach and in the small central town of Ano Mera, it was worth it to get to see the countryside and all the rounded off houses/tiny trees! Wind speeds can reach 70km/h so all the buildings and landscape reflect this. 

If your cruise departs late, I absolutely hands down recommend a reservation at 180º Sunset Bar on the hill above the old port. The views are spectacular and it makes the minimum spend pricing worth it. If you want to try and walk in (no minimum $), be there right at 6:30p when it opens to access a spot at the bar. The place gets jumping and we could hear the music even after walking all the way back to town (easy 5 min downhill stroll, we took a taxi uphill - 20€). 
Milos
You can easily walk around the port town but the best views are found in the town of Plaka (Plaka Castle) at the top of the hill. We did a boat tour to the pirate sea caves in Kleftiko from Agia Kiriaki beach (Zephyros Milos Tours) and it was absolutely jaw dropping! They provide masks, snorkels and noodles and you get to swim through the caves. We also had another deep blue swim at a second location. The tour provides raki shots after! We also visited Sarakiniko beach on the north side of the island, the lava flows are stark white and feel like a moonscape, definitely instagram-worthy. 
Chania (Crete)
We took several tours while staying at a beach resort in Kolymbari, all booked via Viator.

The first was a boat tour to Balos beach and Gramvousa island. We were bussed from hotels to the port at Kissimos and took the Gramvousa ship to these 2 locations. The ship had food and drinks for sale and rented beach umbrellas (5€ rental + 5€ deposit) which were absolutely necessary at both beaches since there is no available shade. At Balos, the ship docks directly onto the rocks and you wade across the lagoon to access the beach side. The lagoon is less than a foot deep all the way across and was very warm, perfect for young kids. The beach side has a very rocky coral entry so I recommend water shoes or bringing a float to cross the area "croc-style." Gramvousa is also very rocky so don't plan to lie comfortably on the sand. There is a castle on the top of the hill at Gramvousa if you crave a hot uphill hike to get a beautiful view! 
Our second tour was a snorkel adventure with Chania Diving. We met the tour in Marathi beach (although they offered pickup) and walked easily to the dock for our boat. The tours are very small with no more than 10 guests for snorkeling or scuba excursions, offered at the same time on separate boats. We made two stops and got to see some pretty interesting stuff at both including some debris from a sister ship to Titanic that was shipwrecked in the early 1900s. The first stop had an interesting effect in the water where 3 freshwater springs poured into the sea creating a "blurry" effect in your mask and a flipped water temperature phenomenon that had the hot water trapped below a layer of cold fresh water.  We also had goat onlookers on the cliffs surrounding us! This tour provided your equipment as well as wetsuits and the mask/snorkel was the best quality I've ever encountered on a tour. 
The third tour was from Georgioupolis Safari and had us riding automatic ATVs across the valley from the beach to the mountains and included an exhilarating amount of pouring rain on our ride back down. The tour provided rain jackets which were much appreciated, I believe it was also supposed to stop at an olive oil farm/factory but this was skipped due to the rain. I still loved this tour as the views were incredible and I liked riding through all the tiny hillside towns you'd never get to see in a car. 
 
Let me know if anyone wants links to the exact excursions we booked, I enjoyed all of them. 
Here are some pics because who doesn't like those?

Athens Acropolis from MS Roof Garden bar


Acropolis (Parthenon) from the site


Thessaloniki White Tower (AKA Blood Tower because they used to chop off heads at the top and let the blood rain down the walls!)


Klio Cruise bar in Thessaloniki


Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Kusadasi, Turkey (There was a brothel next door so men would tell their wives they were "heading to the library" 😂)


Citadel of the Knights in Rhodes old town


View from the Acropolis of Lindos. Rhodes



Oia, Santorini, looking back towards Fira


Little Venice, Mykonos


180º Sunset Bar, Mykonos



Sea caves in Kleftiko, Milos



Balos Beach, Crete


Gramvousa Island, Crete


Elafonisi Beach, Crete


Snorkel stop near Marathi Beach, Crete


ATVing near Georgioupolis, Crete


PS, last minute Athens hotel recommendation for Coco-Mat BC... it has a roof pool with stunning Acropolis views!

In Cabo there are tons of snorkeling excursions that shouldn’t be too expensive but that port is also easy to navigate on your own. The tender will drop you off in the south west corner of the marina and from there you can walk about 20 minutes to a nice beach (Playa El Farito). There are tons of kitschy bars, restaurants and shops in this area surrounding the marina like Señor Frogs, El Squid Roe, Cabo Wabo, etc. Another cheap option would be to water taxi to Lover’s Beach under the cool rock formations you see in Cabo pics. 
In Puerto Vallarta you can also easily get yourselves to the beach by way of taxi or Uber. We called an Uber right outside the port area and took it to Playa de Los Muertos in the Zona Romantica area of town. I just really like this area (Panchos Takos are the best tacos I’ve ever had in my life) and the Malecon/beach here so we went that far (about a 20 min drive). There are plenty of closer beaches! As for excursions, I have been on a sunset catamaran booze cruise that was fun (~$70pp) and also an ATV adventure that goes up into the mountains (~$100pp). 
In Mazatlan the area the ship docks is a major shipping port and has a small, sectioned off area for bars and shops; anything else requires a taxi to get farther afield. There are the cliff jumpers a short drive away and a bunch of resorts that offer day use passes. When we were there we took a ship-sponsored excursion to a lagoon to ride/drive mini speed boats followed by included lunch and afternoon use of the El Cid resort. This was somewhat expensive but was super fun! The resort had a beach and nice pool area with covered grotto and water slides. 
Congrats on your engagement! My husband and I also took a cruise while on our honeymoon last summer. 😀

I guess I had the highest golden birthday that you can have....31 !  After that I guess it's all downhill....

Freedom has waterslides while Allure does not..go with Freedom.

We are looking to book a 4 night cruise to the Bahama's with stop at Coco Cay April 1, 2024.  We already have flights booked to Orlando because we anticipated spending the Easter break at Disney.  Then our older daughter shared with us that 2024 will be her Golden Birthday.  She will be turning 10 on April 10!  I never heard of such a celebration, but I am learning that this is indeed a special occasion.  Our daughters have had birthday cruises before so we thought since we will already be in FL, let's book a cruise!   Our choices are the Allure of the Seas from Cape Canaveral or Freedom of the Seas from Miami.  I was all ready to book Allure today until I learned, from my travel agent...thanks Matt we always book with an agent, that Freedom from Miami is half the price.  On the Allure we will need 3 rooms for our party of 5.  All of the 3 and 4 person staterooms are sold out so we will need 2 rooms for 2 people and 1 room for a solo traveler.  If we travel on the Freedom, not only is the cruise fare almost half the price as the Allure, but we can book a 4 person stateroom thus only needing 2 staterooms.  We can save on not booking 3 rooms on the Allure.  I am excited for the Allure.  We are trying to build up class by class.  We traveled the Anthem of the Seas last Easter.  Were looking forward to Allure in 2024 and Icon in 2025.  I am worried I will be disappointed on the Freedom.  However, if we book the Freedom there could be extra funds for a specialty dinner or fun excursion.  I just want our daughters Golden Birthday to be one to remember.  The zip line would be epic and would have made her lifetime on the Allure!  Thank you to anyone who can share their thoughts or experiences on either. 

As of now we haven’t heard anything and are preparing to board in about an hour and a half. I’ll keep y’all updated on this unexpected change!

It can be said.  It doesn't make it true, but it is certainly a possibility.  I am glad they squashed it without letting the angst linger for too long

I think this has potential..think Giovannis Kitchen style pizzas. They're already adding a take-out (for $$) sushi window to Icon..I could see them doing a take out fancy pants pizza window that piggybacked a sit down restaurant. 
I also think they could get away with charging for pizza delivery for anywhere on the ship via the app. I would imagine people would be willing to order food poolside and have it delivered for a fee, even if it's offered free elsewhere. At home people foot the upcharges for food delivery all the time (think UberEats or DoorDash). I even thought they were even headed that way at one point with the app.

The current price structure is pretty simple; charge as much as possible as long as purchasers are willing to pay to fill all available slots.
As purchasing tends to drop, so shall the price. Supply and demand.  

After the losses during Covid, I really don’t expect RC (or any for-profit business) to fix pricing based on what seems a fair trade allowing purchasers to buy spots based on a ‘first-come first-serve’ basis. Although that may be good for customer relations, especially for those ‘in the know’ repeat customers…it doesn’t make business sense.

Since the shutdown, and the accompanying loss of revenue, it seems the ‘maximum profit’ mentality has taken over. Gone is the reasonable pricing which provides a service for a fair fee plus profit. Now it seems it’s all strictly get whatever they can get…and then some!   

Oh, well…I can chose to purchase or not to purchase. 

The difference is you can still get off and enjoy PDCC without spending a dime, you make it sound like you can't. So if you choose not to get off, that's all good- but you can still enjoy a lounger on multiple beaches or the pool without spending money. The new area in Nassau is pay or don't go, I'd assume....so I get if you don't want to visit .. I most likely won't.

That's certainly it @steverk.  It's a free market.  I don't love the current PDCC pricing and I also expect the beach club will not appeal to me in value, but the business isn't about pricing everything so everyone sees value.  They have a limited supply so they only need to price things to leverage that supply for the maximum profit.
Any of us who gripe about prices of anything (and I do my share of griping), would sell the goods and services we might produce for the maximum return.  

No worries, you absolutely shouldn't feel stupid.  Twain has offered some famous advice (or at least it has been attributed to him!) about avoiding arguments with certain people.  You followed it perfectly.  I don't want to violate the board's TOS, so I'll leave it to be Googled if so desired.

This seems rather harsh. If you don't wish to pay for it, then don't.  For better or worse, others will. As long as that's true, Royal or someone else, will be happy to take their money.