RCIfan1912

Ah so there is some hope. Thanks and I hope some of the older ships get some upgrades and some love.

Do you expect more refurbishment news for other ships other than Allure with how well Royal Caribbean is doing now financially? We absolutely LOVE Liberty OTS and have 3 booked including a back to back but she could use some love and attention plus Coke freestyle machines. I don't see why opening in her schedule though that would make that possible so I guess that's an indication.

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.

Oh that kinda stinks, but oh no I guess we'll have to do another Royal Caribbean cruise. Oh the torture.

The "next cruise" desk was able to fix it. I only have one now. Took all of 2 minutes to fix. Can you use it to book a Celebrity cruise? I may try that but we are booked for 2025 already. I don't even see Celebrity cruises 2025 are out yet. Waiting for that.

We have only sailed Royal so new to Celebrity but want to try it. When will the 2025 schedule be released and will that include some of 2026 like Royal does? We sail out of NJ I should have specified. Thanks for any info.

Excellent news, thanks. I will never book on my own. We always use a TA and found a great one that we are sticking with.

My TA should get this booking correct? I'm not gonna book for quite a while now. I don't have to do anything TA wise till I book the actual cruise right?

So I did screw up, oh boy. I made two then. Oops, and thanks for the info. Maybe my TA can fix that? Or I guess I'll just have to book two at some point. Maybe look for another back to back in 2026. We booked already for 2025. We are in Liberty in October this year.

Currently on board Anthem of the seas on our way back to NJ and was always curious about the "next cruise" program and then I saw it on the app itself. I was like huh how does this work and I think I messed up kinda bad. I wanted to just put down 200 bucks and pick a cruise at a later date so I did that but it only had my name on the pending reservations not my wife and kids. I didn't know if I had to add them or pay 200 bucks per person. I was confused and just did another with their names but I don't I had to and I think I now have 2 pending? I hope I explained that so you can understand cause I'm confused myself. Thanks.

Awesome, I was right. Walking to the right. I honestly didn't even see that. Good I was in the right though. Thank you.

I just learned something, I thought right was walking, left was running. I didn't see any markings here on Anthem indicting which is which. The runners here seem to be on the left though which is why I stuck to the right walking. It's really, really rough as it gets a bit later as people are waking up with coffee in hand and just walking all over the track at a snails pace. Even I found that annoying and saw that was an issue on the first day. Maybe I'll try treadmills at some point but that seems a bit boring as going around the ship is just gorgeous. Thanks for the info.

I was going to say the Oasis class ships in my opinion have the better jogging track set up. It's lower and that's all it is, it's not where chairs are set up to sunbathe.

We are on the absolutely beautiful Anthem of the seas and it's been an awesome time. Tough at times with a 2 year old but just gotta take the good with the bad. I'm doing something or trying to do something I always wanted to do on cruises and use the jogging/running track on the ship but as a rookie would like some pointers. Now this is a "winter" cruise so weather has been an issue, no rain but good Lord windy. Most days the very front of the ship was closed so you had to kinda make a 3 quarters way around and not the full track. I have been waking up or getting out to the track at around 5:45/6:00 which seems to be a sweet spot. It feels awesome, just awesome getting in 10,000 or more steps before breakfast. Always holy cow is it beautiful when you get a good sunrise. I came around the very front of the ship one morning not even knowing the sunrise was coming and there it was, just stunning. Now we are on Liberty in October which weather is definitely going to be an issue to Canada. Then we are on Liberty again on May 2025 to Halifax and then Bermuda back to back. What are some tips for using the jogging/running track? By the way I'm just walking briskly. I stick to the right and I always make sure to not get in the way of actual runners. Is wind pretty much an issue on most sailings? Is around 6 o'clock the best time because it seems to be on this cruise at least. Thanks.

I knew I missed something, . That makes perfect sense. That's a strange law I have to say. So if you are going to a different port then the one you started from Canada doesn't count. That's a wild law.

I'm not doubting your explanation but just not fully understanding. You say you can't use Canada as a foreign port to satisfy the requirement but we take cruises from NJ to New England/Canada every year. It's ok in that instance? Is there a difference that I'm not following?

We sail from NJ only but even here we have a few short cruises. 4 nights to Halifax and I consider 5 nights to Bermuda short. The rest are 7/8 day cruises to Coco Cay and 9 day cruises to Canada/NE then throw in a few 11 and 12 night Caribbean cruises. We are Anthem now, 7 nights Coco Cay and Liberty in Oct 9 nights Canada/NE which we do quite often, its our favorite cruise that honestly I could do every single year. Next year we stuck a 4 night Halifax cruise and a 5 night Bermuda cruise together for our first back to back. Long winded way of saying, we do not like short cruises!

Well Jaime's was really good again. I say really good and not excellent or amazing because the chicken Parmesan was just ok. It wasn't bad, it was just good and not exactly what I think of as great chicken Parmesan. The risotto was awesome and the apps were awesome, the desserts were very good also. The tiramisu was a bit too strong for me but not bad at all. That's me being a bit critical or taking a objective look at it. The staff is amazing though.

I could see that. Only in Oasis once but could definitely see that happening. After that show could be a crazy bottleneck. I didn't see any of the shows there but my wife said the show she was was awesome.

I only have taken one elevator ride and that was because we were going from deck 4 to 15, too much on that one. I had to get off on 11 and walk the rest of the way. Too many people getting in on other decks. Coughing? That's not cool at all.

The elevator situation on this ship is rough. My son and I beat my wife to just about every deck by taking the stairs over the elevators.

I'm taking the stairs all the time but feel I'm still losing the battle with the weight part here.

Well it's just weird how two people could be on the same ship at the same time and have such different takes on the food. I guess it's truly subjective. I would agree though that with the prices kinda skyrocketing the food should be a step up so the way around. With that said though we have no complaints.

Well here is my take so far and this is our 3rd or 4th time on the beautiful Anthem of the seas. We just absolutely love this ship. It feels like home now actually we've sailed on her so many times now. Hate to see her go but Odyssey will be awesome too I'm sure. On this cruise though it is really, really nice to have the indoor pool of which I'm writing this from. The security line at Cape Liberty is really bad I have to say. It's not insanely long but longer than it should be. Once you get through that is a breeze. The ship looks great, it's only 8 years old. We love Captain Felix also. He is personable but at the same time no nonsense and knows his job. The food has been excellent. MDR excellent, Jaime's for lunch yesterday, excellent. Jaime's was exceptional actually, wow. Tonight is Jaime's for dinner but that wasn't the plan. We have the 3 night dining package and we made reservations at Jaime's for lunch at about 1 but all the times we wanted at the restaurants we wanted were gone already. We kinda had to change things around. I don't think we are gonna get a dinning plan anymore if it's like this. Just pay for them outright and you can book them well in advance. Unless they actually change to plans can book on advance also. We just love Anthem!

And nope, at Cape Liberty today the app just would not load. Good thing we had the paper set sail passes.