RCIfan1912

No harm in asking, but it's fairly normal for the answer to be no.
I used to think the benefit of a TA was to get bonus OBC, but it doesn't usually happen. The value of a good TA is in the service they provide and how much time they save you.
So sure, go ahead and ask if there are any extra booking benefits or agency specials going on, but you shouldn't be surprised to hear the answer is no.

New personal best:
Arrived at the terminal at 10:12am by Lyft, $16 from my hotel near EWR airport.  Security had a short line mostly due to some guests in front of me who apparently had never seen or heard of a metal detector before. 
Boarding started at 10:30am.  
Specialty dining (BOGO2) reservations booked, reservation for Ripcord by iFly booked and KummelWeck in hand (along with a B&B) by 11am.

For some reason my SetSail pass needed to be re-printed at check in.  I made a "Wines of the World" booking just before the Cruise Planner closed a few days ago.  The check in agent made reference to "a last minute change" making my SetSail pass invalid.  Oh the mysteries of Royal IT.
Jamie's for dinner tonight, Chops on day 2.
No time to take pictures in the terminal, it went that fast.  In the waiting area there are around six rows for Diamond/Diamond Plus guests.  Our one row hadn't filled up yet when boarding commenced.

Gregg, 
I’m also a Greg. We sailed on Anthem in February 2018 since we are from NY. We had a great time. There are plenty of things to do on the ship. While an Oasis class may have more, quantum holds its own with activities. ifly, bumper cars, North Star, sports plex etc. I liked the bands in the music hall. 270 is really cool.
 I also felt that the first and last sea days weren’t terrible weather wise. Sail away was chilly, but being from upstate NY, it was sunny, mid 40’s so felt like a heat wave. The last sea day I was still wearing short sleeves and it felt comfortable. The are indoor pools on Anthem so you won’t miss out on that either.


Welcome to the boards!
 

Yup..Royal math at its finest.  You are preaching to the choir here.  All I can do is book when I am comfortable with the bottom line price and then hope I can luck into a price drop at some point before final payment.  

I don't get it, every time you think there may be a better sale out there, Royal finds a way to not make it any special of a sale.
Booked clients with a BOGO 25% off and heard about the 30% off each coming in October, so I was looking to get my clients in at a better price but when I checked they raised the price of the cruise while giving the larger discount and it would actually cost more instead of less.  And these cruises are more than a year away and clients were recently booked in the last 30 days.
Very embarrassing and frustrating.

I already shared this in another thread.  I’m Platinum and while waiting to board on the Ovation in Seattle, I noticed some small signs indicating where the different classes of guests should be seated. But when boarding time came, I was “herded” in the same horde as the Suite and Key guests. Being alone and skipping the pre-boarding photo shoots, I quickly got to the front of the first wave of boarding passengers.  This Platinum cruiser was one of the first aboard the ship.

We did get there at 10:15 and we did check in quickly. I'm not complaining at all, I'm just curious what priority check in is because I didn't notice anything different. I seemed to be in the regular check in line so I'm guessing there really is not priority check in. 
On another note diamond and above plus The key only boarded a few minutes before we did. When I saw that I was very glad I didn't buy "The Key" because that was the one thing I thought was the best thing, priority boarding. Also disembarkation was absolutely incredible! We waited till 8:30 and were off the ship in minutes. We got our bags and did that face recognition thing which we had never done before and were out of the terminal. The longest part or slowest part was paying for the parking garage. That was maybe 10-15 minutes. Then out of the garage and home in 30 minutes. Can't beat sailing from Cape Liberty for us. 

I guess it's all subjective to who and where you're at.  For us, we were taken to an area next to the suite waiting location and after 30 minutes of sitting there one of the employees came to us and told us to report to whatever level we were under the C&A program.

You can't download Royal IQ any longer and from my understanding it's been taken out of service on the only ship left that was using it.  I think RCI app only has 18 ships listed so eventually the rest will be added.  Each update we try to figure out what's been added but it takes awhile to check each ship.

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. 
We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. 
We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. 
We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. 
Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. 
We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. 
We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. 
We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. 
Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

It's a very unusual repositioning, happening in two legs -- first leg is the one I'm on, going from NJ to Dublin; second leg goes from Dublin back to all the same ports, but ends in Boston. From there, Summit will do her fall sailings out of Boston port.
I'm actually going to be a bit more than 14 days, since we're extending the trip after getting to Dublin and taking some time to explore the country. I might have a few pints of locally-made Guinness while I'm at it. ?

Heh, I on the other hand looked at the itineraries offered for that and decided that was a no-go; I've no interest in going to an uber-water park or Nassau, and the ship is never the destination for me at this point in time.
And I'm currently booked on Summit for her 14-night Iceland & Greenland sailing next year. So something tells me we're on somewhat opposite ends of the cruising preferences spectrum. ? 

If you want a 7-night to Bermuda, take a look at the Empress sailings from Cape Liberty next year. 7 nights starting at $578 pp ($82.50 pp/pn) for an inside cabin. Just need to understand the ship has no "regular" balconies, just interior, OV, and suites; and is tiny compared to Anthem. But if you want a 7-nighter this is probably your best bet from a cost-value POV.
Celebrity also has sailings with 3 nights in Bermuda in 2020, along with stops in Newport (7-night sailings) or Newport and Charleston (10 nights). Definitely a step up for a cruise vacation, but now you're starting at $1,200 pp for an inside and $1,760 for a verandah on the 7 night option ($171 pp/pn and $251 pp/pn); or $1,680 / $2,780 for the 10-nighter ($168 pp/pn / $278 pp/pn).

They end in 229 and 629.

On a per person, per day basis, the shorter the cruise, the more expensive it is....especially on the newly amped ships.  The cruises we took in June and July on NAV are some of the expensive pp/pd cruises we’ve ever done.
If you only have a few days then it’s worth paying the high premium but if you have the time, it’s definitely a better deal to go on longer cruises.

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. 
We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. 
We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. 
We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. 
Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

I would have to agree with this as far as we are concerned. The cost and hassle of flying to any port we would want to sail out of, just doesn't seem to be worth it. If we lived within a couple of hours of a port, it would be the same as taking a long weekend, so that would be worth it. Until RC brings a ship to Chicago, it's 7 day plus cruises for us.

B2B, the ONLY way to cruise. We have done many, very easy. You will be told well before hand what to expect. Yes, you will have to leave the ship (to clear you from the ship manifest) and check back onto the ship (with a new sea pass card) so you are on the ship manifest. Almost seamless and your're on the ship well before the rest of the gang gets on board! Best part is the last night on board, just look out into the hallway and the luggage and know you don't have to do that! ENJOY!!

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. 
We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. 
We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. 
We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. 
Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

Went on a transatlantic cruise a few days ago, Hurricane caused us to instead of going to Halifax and Sydney (CAN) We got stuck with 2 more sea days and we spent a overnight in NYC, Nice to have more time in the city before I left but the cruise was mostly sea days, It was a bit disappointing.

Oh thank goodness. That's actually kinda cool then. Run straight to the buffet before it gets completely nuts. 
That is another thing, we don't go to the buffet that first day at all. It's too bad because it's a great place to start your cruise but it's too insane. It's just too crowded and too many rude people in there. In fact I think going forward I am going up try to book a specialty restaurant lunch for embarkation day. Can you even do that? I'd like to do that. 

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. 
We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. 
We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. 
We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. 
Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

You don't sit there.  You sit in a lounge on the ship.  Then they walk you off the ship and back onto the ship, typically parading in front of everyone waiting to board.  Then they start the priority boarding.

You have to briefly leave the ship to do your second leg checkin and also satisfy the maritime or other legal requirements that all passengers must be disembarked before the passengers of the next sailing can board. There are other reasons that it makes sense for the B2B passengers to disembark: the ship could have a USCG inspection sprung on them (and that's always a surprise from what I've heard), which also requires all passengers to be off the ship; if there was any incidence of norovirus or other illness, the crew needs to be able to fully disinfect the entire ship; etc.
Pinging @twangster, who's a serious B2B / B3B / B4B veteran at this point and well-versed in the experience of turnaround days.