CoupleOfCruisers

I’m with ??cruising is dangerous and not for faint of heart!!!! ? 

On my cruise they dropped from $1299 to $999. Still a hard no from me tho.

Depending on the ship/itinerary, they can also handle show reservations, cabana rentals, and shore excursions for you.

I just try and avoid the casinos but while on Adventure we wanted to enjoy the guitar player at Boleros and the smoke/odor wafted over from the casino. Unpleasant.

No, the Concierge is normally not on duty during embarkation. He/she should begin working around 4:00-4:30.  My recommendation is to ask for whatever reservations you want when the Concierge reaches out to you prior to the cruise - usually 5 days prior to cruise day.  That is really your best opportunity to coordinate with the Concierge prior to boarding.

And be sure to prepare your next cruise immediately after or even during your first cruise! PCD (Post Cruise Depression) is real and there is only one cure! ? 

I vote for a Chocolate Martini....mmmm very addictive
Enjoy your cruise!  you'll love the Suite Lounge on Liberty, the espresso machine is nice too, it's available all day....

Interesting..and good to know.
 
Sorry to hear as well. Perhaps 2nd place is a free cruise..on NCL.....

And be sure to prepare your next cruise immediately after or even during your first cruise! PCD (Post Cruise Depression) is real and there is only one cure! ? 

I’ve been on about 20 cruises and still read blogs & you tube Non Stop before each cruise! Cruise is all I’ll talk about! So it never goes away! 

I’m with ??cruising is dangerous and not for faint of heart!!!! ? 

Can only hope so! ?

I for one have stopped trying to promote the cruise industry and agree wholeheartedly with everything they said.
The last thing I need is more people to book cruises (driving up the cost for me).  
It's terrible out there folks.  The sea was 90' yesterday (away from the Promenade deck).  I hear that 99% of all cruise ships got stranded (away from a boring existence) yesterday.  Everyone on board is sick (of being on land).  I went missing (and none of my clients know I'm on a ship).  There were 75 mph winds (for anyone driving on the interstate with their hands out the window in Florida). 
Yep, it's not a life for the faint of heart.  Avoid cruising (so I can book cheaper cruises).
If they don't want to go, please don't try to correct them.  
 

There is a lot of engineering behind the height and weights limits, for a reason.  Despite her objections, stick with the rules for her sake. If something ever happened you would never get over it.  

If you know your daughter would be too short, do the right thing and just wait until she is tall enough.  The rules are there for the safety of guests based on the design of the slides etc.  If you knew she was too short and "snuck" on and got hurt that would really ruin the vacation.

Added that missing bit, because let's be honest -- over the span of a 3 or 4 day cruise where you have one port that lets you use the drink package and it's maybe not a big deal. Get up to a 5 or 7 nighter, or even longer, and that extra cocktail each day becomes a bigger and bigger mountain to climb. Especially when you factor in the port days that don't let you use the package to its full extent unless you're "making up for it" after you get back from port.
My drinking capacity (aka my liver) hasn't magically changed just because the price went up. I'm fine having 3 drinks a day on average -- two at dinner, plus one mid-day or an after-dinner cocktail. Embarkation day and the first sea day I can probably swing one or two extra, but after that the alcohol fatigue definitely sets in trying to down those extra drinks. That's why I figured out that $45-$50 per day is my limit on buying the package, and that's after factoring in the non-alcoholic stuff I typically drink.
If Royal doesn't want to support that price point any longer, that's fine; it's their business and they can run it how they choose. I'll just switch to the Refreshment Package as my standard buy (until that gets too expensive, anyway ?) and go a la carte for my cocktails and / or wine. Royal still gets the same amount of my money as they would have gotten before, I just have to deal with the annoyance of paying it after the cruise instead of before.

Best locals place is Schooner Wharf Bar..... they also have live music (depending on day and time)

Thanks for the detailed information.
If I'm not mistaken, Winkleman was engaged the day of the accident.  I suspect if that is the case a local criminal attorney was also.  
They've moved very quickly.  Afternoon accident, understandably terribly distraught and sedated yet have researched and engaged counsel back on the mainland within hours.  My head would be spinning, I wouldn't be thinking about engaging an attorney at that moment in time. 
Why is Winkleman making such an effort to be so public about this?  A presser within 24 hours of the incident for example.
 

Interesting side discussion about the McD case.  
Likely the kind of confusion the attorney in this case is trying to create.
Attorney:
Dangerous play areas, dangerous hidden windows on cruise ships, media blitz with numerous pictures of a toddler, cruise ship FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).
Meanwhile my colleague is on the phone with Royal Caribbean right now as I stand in front of the press holding a press conference stating all these terrible, dangerous things about cruise ships.  Of course this could all stop... for a price.

I'm sorry this is wrong. Not calling you out in particular since this is a huge misconception across the country. 
McDonald's was absolutely negligent in how they served their coffee. 
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/16/13971482/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit-stella-liebeck
The 79 year-old victim suffered third degree burns on her legs and genitals which required extensive surgery to repair because McDonald's served coffee at over 190 degrees. They also knew that this was a problem because before this case they had already received over 700 reports of burns due to hot coffee. They didn't even deny they knew this was dangerous in the case! Yet they continued to serve it at near boiling temperatures. 
In addition the victim didn't want to file a lawsuit. She only wanted her medical expenses paid. McDonalds refused and only offered her $800. Her lawsuit was for those expenses only but the jury thought McDonald's was so negligent that they awarded her even more. 
So how did it end up that everyone in America thinks she was greedy because she got some lukewarm coffee on her? McDonald's funded a misinformation campaign that the media bought into and spread to everyone. Corporations have used this fake story to keep people with real injuries from pursuing damages for fear they might be considered in the same way this woman was. Don't fall for McDonald's lies.  

I know, I know, the bottom line is that this is truly a painful tragedy, but it bothers me that they claim they could not distinguish an opening in the "wall of windows"...
Two quick random pictures pulled up clearly showing how dark the glass is tinted on Freedom in the H2O zone, especially where the opened panes now overlap the adjacent fixed panes to the left of each opening.
I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone that was actually looking at the glass could miss the openings when we can all see them clearly across the deck in just these two photos (maybe 100 feet away?). We can count each and every opening... how do you miss them standing 1-2 feet directly in front of one? And once again, handrails are for hands, not feet or butts.
One shot is on a cloudy day and the other on a nice bright sunny day...

The attorney references a hockey rink and lifting her to the top of the boards so she could see through the glass.  This is apparently critical to his strategy since they have distributed a photo of it and he has mentioned it several times.  Yet the picture the attorney is distributing of her at a hockey rink shows her standing on the floor and leaning on the glass at the hockey rink. 

(Some news outlets have cropped the photo so you see just her upper body and hands on the glass.)
The ship also has glass starting at floor level.  She could have stayed on the floor on the ship, looked through the glass just like at the hockey rink and banged on it all she wanted to just like at the hockey rink, safely standing on her feet.  There was no need to pick her up so she could see out the window.  Why pick her up to place her on the railing so she could look outside when she could already see outside from the floor? 
It makes no sense.  The view isn't any better from the railing than it is from the floor, unless she wanted to look out the open window in which case they knew the window was open and he simply lost his grip somehow. 
There is a lot that just doesn't add up with the story.  
How is it the local police as first responders came to the conclusion that they did?  He must have said something or explained it in the anxiety of the moment that the police investigators picked up on.    
It will be interesting to see how local authorities handle this.

I don’t think the judgement would be so harsh if the family didn’t hire a law firm that sues royal regularly immediately after the tragedy happened. 

That's how I felt until I tried a Lemon Drop Martini.  That is my "go-to" drink now. 

When we cruised out of Port Liberty a few years ago, we stayed in a hotel near Newark airport the night before.  Most of the hotels in that area have packages that include one night, parking for the duration of the cruise and free shuttles to and from the port.  It certainly is less hassle than getting up early and dealing with several hours of traffic along with the boarding process.