dr martini

high winds this weekend changing some ship calls in the bahamas,  just watched disney wish try to get docked in Nassau and give up, she's heading back out of the harbor now.  Freedom is docked in nassau, mariner is waiting outside.  

looks like today's stop at perfect day was cancelled for liberty and oasis according to James Van Fleet.

https://www.cruisehive.com/storm-front-causing-issues-for-cruise-ships-in-the-bahamas/92360

https://www.portnassauwebcam.com/

@Maggie M did the escape room on navigator and had a lot of fun, we have done a few land based ones and also the room on symphony.  i would say navigator was on the slightly harder end of the spectrum.  as for other entertainment, that can only be reserved on certain oasis and quantum class ships at this point.  this is the message we have in the cruise planner on our freedom class sailing

there are also daily specials, a drink of the day where certain drink might be a dollar or two off, they are usually fruity rum punch pool side type cocktails but that's another option too. 

you can also bring two bottles of wine (we usually go with champagne) aboard in your carryon bag, even if you're flying in it's pretty easy to swing by a store and grab it on your ride to the port.

It looks like they may have reevaluated this concept, it's a lot of real estate to dedicate 24/7/365 when they can still do the puzzle game in another public space during the day on just certain days to bundle demand.  the escape room itself sits empty all night and early morning when that space could be staterooms on top of the added cost of designing/installing/staffing a dedicated escape room vs having entertainment staff run it as another game type event.

we recently came across the same thing booking freedom, there are various press releases, deck plans and other press stories online that mention an escape room will be added on top deck 15 during Freedom's recent amplification (as with Navigator) but on the official deck plans, cruise planner etc now there obviously is not one aboard Freedom.  doesn't make or break my cruise, we have done the room on symphony and navigator and really enjoyed it, but i understand royal's reasons for not having it too.  as it says in the cruise contract and all over Royal's site, exact amenities and availability are subject to change without notice, not every feature is aboard every ship for every sailing.  frustrating, sure, but also just a reality of running a diverse fleet.

i had this same question for freedom, although I don't see any food on the menu in the app so maybe they don't serve anything at all?

@zbrady is correct, the most formal evenings will be those of the days at sea, night two on oasis class for a 7 night is a solid bet.  it's never going to be night one or night seven to let you get unpacked and then packed back up, traditionally a sea day gives Royal time to sell more hair and spa packages and more time for everybody to get ready etc.

but don't worry too much about it, the dress code is not enforced and will vary GREATLY, it's only a suggestion for the main dining room and just not a big deal around the ship.  they will have promenade spruced up for formal pictures etc but you'll still have people in shorts and t-shirts all over, other nights you might see just a few folks dressed up for a specialty dinner or something (like jeans and a sport coat for men) but they will be the vast minority.  I remember full suits with a tie for men and fancy long dresses for women 20 years ago but just not that way anymore.  less and less formal wear every year.

we have cruised spring break quite a bit as my sisters and i all grew up, just cruised as a big family in March of 2022 on Symphony and are cruising again in a couple weeks as just a couple in late January on Freedom.  Pricing is wildly different on just about everything, our cocoa beach club day pass was $89 per person and it will be our first time trying, on previous cruises it was in the ball park you're seeing which was just too expensive for us to justify. 

just the nature of cruising over spring break versus going off peak times.  it is what it is, simple case of supply and demand.  so many families locked into those school schedules and Royal obviously has decades of data on all those trends by now.

three weeks from now almost to the exact minute we'll be in the car on the way to the port.  settled on Hilton Bentley South Beach 95,000 hilton points for a one bed king Sunday night before our Monday departure, will try the $50 bill trick when checking in to see if there are any upgrades or ocean views, but it's just one night.  Chose South Point area because I have stayed there before and know a few bars/restaurants, it's a great vibe.  After booking I verified via phone with the front desk that we can use any of the amenities like beach chairs/pool etc in the event our room isn't ready until 3 or 4 (our flight scheduled to land just after noon), will just chill on the beach and get dinner.  I think we can handle that.

which ships have keyless entry via the app?  I googled a bit and can't find an exact list.  

Also earlier this year on symphony i had a heck of a time keeping my seapass card from peeling apart, never had that issue before.  always kept my card in my board shorts, pants pocket wherever, never had an issue with them being wet or peeling apart but on this last cruise i went to guest services twice to replace it as the laminate was peeling off and the black ink beneath would wash away - could have gone again but just lived with it for the last couple days.

We are past final payment and now all checked in for a four day on Freedom of the Seas January 23, 2023!!  It will be the first time away from the babies (both under two) for me and my wife for more than a night but, as I told her, we deserve it and at some point we just gotta do it (very fortunate to have some awesome nearby grandmas to help).  It's a cruise of many firsts, we are fortunate to have cruised a fair amount, we will pass into Emerald status on this cruise with a goal of being Diamond in a few years, this will be our first time in a Junior suite as well as first time with Ultimate Dining and first time at Coco Beach Club.  I have done almost all of the Voyager class earlier in younger days on family trips and together we've done two Symphony cruises and a Navigator (the most recent Symphony was during spring break of this past year which was unfortunately not a great time with the crowds, lack of activities, pretty poor service level overall compared to previous voyages and yes a cruise is better than no cruise, yes spring break is always busy but we were limited by teachers and school aged children in the group of family we had with us, so that's a whole other conversation, but looking forward to things being somewhat more normal and not have to worry about the testing drama for a large group, masks, blah blah blah) so while we don't have the time or budget for a big 7 day cruise every year we are very much looking forward to a getaway as the two of us and splurging a bit as our Christmas gift to each other.

I have been getting free interior and ocean view stateroom Casino Royale offers on all of these Florida based 3/4 nighters as well as a variety of older/smaller ship 7 nighters since before the shutdown and not being able to take advantage of them yet due to the babies and work commitments had been killing me!  We were on one of the very last cruises in Feb 2020 just before the shutdown to check out Navigator in her newly amped state as well as the brand new south beach and other additions at PDCC so this is a bit of a retread in a way, but hey, we know what we like and this ship appealed to us the most.  I say that because we really preferred Navigator over Symphony - I totally understand and respect of course that different folks like different things and Wonder looks amazing, lots of fun things to do, but for me the size and access to most areas, the connection to the ocean, the price, the familiarity to get around the ship easily .....that 2020 trip made Navigator our favorite of any ship we've been on and so that led us to being very keen to see Freedom in her relatively fresh state having been amped and then empty for two years.  We likely won't be onboard any Oasis class 7 nighter again until we can afford to truly go all out, stay in a suite, get ultimate dining etc to fully take advantage of all the things those ships can offer.  Being in a 'normal' non suite room on Symphony (without access to my favorite part of the Voyager class, the Viking Crown) and without doing specialty dining etc just created a lot of FOMO if that makes sense?  The base level approach was not for us, I don't think I would recommend it for other seasoned cruisers but would love to try Odyssey and will try to keep an open mind - we're all different and clearly Royal knows they had some challenges on the service end with the recent news about the main dining room menu etc and I applaud them for acknowledging that, but there's plenty of chatter about that elsewhere.  At the end of the day we are well aware of the business model, if you want more than the basic experience be prepared to spend more to get it and so on this particular four nighter we can afford to do just that.  It's good marketing and Royal clearly knows what they're doing, I'm fine with that.

Through a great travel agent we've used in the past we paid a very reasonable upgrade fee on top of my casino royale offer to get ourselves into one of the brand newly built out Junior Suites on Deck 11 (thanks @Matt for the tip in a previous live blog of Freedom).  Final price was a third or less per person than what they have been going for in recent sales.  We both have DBX with Wifi at a great black Friday rate (imo the key is a very expensive, unnecessary clump of word salad for any experienced cruiser who is organized even a bit) we grabbed Ultimate dining for the first time as well as a Coco Beach Club day pass for $89.  

We're flying into Miami from Ohare around noon the day before using American Miles and staying with Hilton points I've racked up at work (can't tell you how much I love having 99% of this entire trip already paid for aside from the cash we'll bring onboard).  Have yet to choose the exact hotel but we will stay on Miami beach so we can escape winter and start vacation mode as soon as we land!  Checkin is all set for 10AM Monday to take full advantage of our time aboard.  In the mean time, I'll be lurking around here and taking in as much content as I can to survive a busy stretch at work and get through the holidays.  I know we will miss our baby girls at times, but it's just a few nights and without them I will have time to review and be a blogger wannabe, looking forward to some time to play with my Nikon D5200 and various lenses, will link to my Flickr if necessary.  40 days and counting, happy holidays to everybody here and thankful for all I've learned so far.

Cheers

@ChrissyD We'll be on in January and I'll let you know! (i love eggs benedict, it's that or salmon on a bagel every morning).  i'm thinking of putting up a live blog maybe too, the short cruises have so many people on them every week all year and are under represented around here when i'm trying to get pumped up for it haha 

thank you @Traveling Mike very helpful stuff.  i was also confused about the complimentary booking thing but yes, looks like all the other reservations will have to be made on the ship, which we will do day 1 for sure!

thank you for this!  has me even more excited for a freedom getaway of my own coming up in January with just the wife and leaving kids at home, the 4 days are a bit more relaxed than the 3 days and not as sold out but i'm sure i will agree with you by the end (which will come to soon!) and wish we had a 7 day.  great blog @Funeegal

2 hours ago, twangster said:

Until you convince all cruise lines to go along none will volunteer to have the appearance of having higher prices.

May be time for some legislation.  Until then it is what it is but I don't disagree with you. 

this reminds me of the "will there ever be more small ships" discussion and the celebrity route of including drinks and wi-fi to help potential customers stomach the higher fare.   absolutely needs to be more standardized way to advertise fares, if and when that ever happens i think a lot of the adult Royal customers who are happily paying for all these add ons would see some value in the luxury brands.  i know it's making me look harder and Royal's reported onboard spending continues to be significantly up post pandemic.  

for now, the nail has been hit on the head, I am back on the road more for work and so have stayed in hotels more this year than the past several combined.  that experience is LACKING all around.  lucky to get housekeeping once a day if you call and ask for it and the moon is in the right phase.  closed bars and restaurants, no room service, no front desk help at all sometimes - better off checking in on your phone which doubles as your room key, it's now to the point that most of the time I don't interact with a human staff member my entire stay and my in room meal at the end of a long day is a bag of chips and cheap bottle of wine from the bodega or walgreens on the corner.  the world is not the same.  it will likely never be again, ground shifting 9/11 type changes for travel and hospitality.  if you want to even sniff the higher level of service you maybe used to have or are nostalgic about that's great, but you're going to have to pay for it.  choose a fancier hotel, stay in a different neighborhood, pay the higher rate for the higher class of room that has a stocked minibar and pantry etc etc.

royal is focused on staying king of the mega ship bracket, they are a business that like many others in entertainment/hospitality sold a lot of debt bonds and other financial devices to stay afloat and need to keep making money just to get back to their base line so they can get back to focusing on the new ship schedules, resort projects, resuming amplifications.....people vote with their feet, the passengers are wanting to get back in greater numbers than the crew, as long as we keep paying Royal will keep happily taking the money.

Looking to use Hilton honors points in miami before a short cruise this january on a trip that's becoming kind of a splurge getaway for me and my wife, first trip of multiple days away from our two under two.  

Anybody here have a favorite in the hilton portfolio or a big preference one way or another staying along the bay, over on miami beach etc?  i have cruised out of miami many times but usually stay the night before with family over by Naples and drive Alligator Alley over - haven't stayed on miami beach since a college bowl game trip that's now a bit....fuzzy.  all things equal i think we'd like to be on the beach, get vacation kicked off right 

any help appreciated!

man i really loved these as a kid to spread out on the dining room table and look forward to the cruise, so much so that i've been on ebay the past few years to track down the travel agent versions of these, maybe they're now totally online.  still have our original voyager class mags somewhere.

great share, thanks @twangster

@Orange Crushthat's the best explanation i can give as well.  it's very grey.

my dad and i are both blackjack table game players only.  we both tip well and play similarly (competently? (ha) at a middle table $25 or $50 per hand, never the biggest bettors but definitely avoid the crowded lowest play tables) Dad is diamond and has never had a piece of mail or email from club royale, but is also more stingy about scanning his seapass card everytime and maybe his accounts aren't linked? 

a few years ago i went on an absolute heater and won a pile of money on the last night of a navigator cruise ("just going down to cash in my chips, dear" and played until they closed the casino, whoops) and the pit boss was well aware, he and the dealers were cheering me it was a blast.  since then I have had free cruise and discount offers emailed to me regularly every month since as i'm assuming casino royale wants their money back.  cruised a couple times since without big winnings or big losses and the offers still coming.  no one has ever called or explained the points thing, don't know what any of that means, but i'll just keep cruising once a year or so and keep playing like i've been playing.  finally taking one of the free cruise offers for a 4 day this Jan.  My offers were for a free inside or ocean view room, or they said I can apply the value of that stateroom's fee towards a higher category as a discount.

@Pattycruise @asquared17 

Best deal I have found on Wifi is when combined with deluxe bev package.  Planner won't always show that as an option but I snagged it for our Symphony cruise earlier this year on black friday 2021 at less than $10/day and now again for our Freedom cruise this coming January bev is $$77.99, dxb with wifi is $85.99.

as you may or may not be aware, the key holds very few real benefits and is viewed as a pretty gimmicky offer by most here but there may be some success stories i'm not aware of.

5 hours ago, PeloAl said:

These people that choose to schlep cases of water and soda on vacation really boggles my mind...

exactly.  just like driving a half hour or more at $4 + gas to the huge gigantic box store to buy huge gigantic sizes because they are 'cheaper' when you could just hit the mom and pop places along your normal route for stuff you just need in the next couple days.  obviously not the same setup for everybody in every city but....sheesh.  c'mon.  

on a freedom four day in January 23 - just me and my wife getaway using a casino royale offer and turning this into a splurge on things we can't/don't get while cruising with our kids and the rest of my family we usually cruise with etc.

coco beach club for $89

dbx with voom for $85 pp/pd

no savings on ultimate dining vs price a couple weeks ago but booked it anyway

no use "trying to reason with hurricane season" 

you would make the same decision too with a huge investment like a cruise ship and priceless lives aboard, better safe than sorry.  you'll enjoy a sunny day in jamaica, i know i would and it's better than outright cancellation.

just booked sushi making for freedom in late January (2023)

could be wrong, but i don't see more small ships coming.  more big ships and amplifications to bring those big ship features closer to fleet wide as marketing tools (finish voyager class, then harmony/allure, quantum/anthem will be ten years old soon) royal as a cruise line is clearly focused on having the biggest ships in the world with the most things to do for families and we know that because actions speak louder than words, they're still aggressively advertising during NFL games etc and it's all the bells and whistles and go go go.  they know many, even most people who cruised with them as families will sail as multigenerational groups every once in awhile, more often still as retired couples and can always upsell unlimited dining, cabanas, suite life etc and give out the diamond type perks to keep them around.  

But if it becomes too much, or too busy, Royal Caribbean Group as the parent holding company is happy to offer higher end /more experienced cruise customers who want smaller ships and more exotic ports go to Silversea and Celebrity.  celebrity still regularly building and ordering ships, i've received more marketing info from them in the past year than in the previous 5-7 years combined....makes sense to keep building those brands out too.

you can search the forums which is a really handy tool, pages and pages of ideas and discussion already out there.  I would solidly recommend that you do NOT take the ferry to the mainland.  very choppy stretch of water, not on a reliable timetable, just invites too many opportunities for a problem to arise and there are a lot of great things to do in cozumel, some of the best snorkeling and relatively shallow water diving in the world along their wall reefs, some great resorts with day options, downtown shopping options, mayan ruins on the island.  i'm very happy making a day of it on cozumel herself, staying on the mainland in Cancun or Tulum or anywhere in between is a whole other trip imo 

yes @Ampurp85 that's correct, but there are two sides of the windjammer, park cafe closed at overlapping hours, solarium bistro was never open....the only options available for two hours were pizza slices and wraps.  the line in the promenade would grow ridiculously long, kids and babies needs snacks (and obviously other folks too).

i have my cruise compasses all saved with these hours listed, if i get some free time today i'll send them in to get them uploaded.