WAAAYTOOO

It's a lovely property. We stayed there a couple of years ago (pre-hurricane). Nice casino.

We did the Bermuda Triangle glass bottom boat tour a year ago and we were very disappointed. It was pretty boring and you really could not see much of anything below. IF you're just looking for something to pass the time then this one will be fine. If you're looking to actually see something, I would not recommend it.

I haven't seen a 5 night package in a while.

I have never booked a guarantee cabin so I don't know anything about how they are assigned but I would find it very difficult to believe that they would assign less desirable cabins to casino comps on purpose. I think you may have just gotten incredibly unlucky on that one. As for changing cabins, if you change from 1 cabin to another cabin within the same category there should not be any additional charge. I would have your TA call again. That does not sound right - especially if the cruise is still a ways out.

I believe they showed the new Mary Poppins film on Freedom last week. We did not go but I think I recall seeing that it was being broadcast on the big screen by the pool.

We just stayed there on April 27. Nice enough. Nothing special but clean and convenient. It was about $18 (base fare) from the airport (taxi) and about $21 from the hotel to the port (taxi). We arrived very late so didn't do anything except sleep there and leave for the port the next morning. I used Marriott points so there was a -0- charge. I don't know what the actual rates are.

We did a RFD excursion on Aruba this week. It was 100% as advertised and lovely (RIU resort). Unfortunately for us, we have decided that the all-inclusive just aren’t for us. This is the second one for us (we’re not including any of The Coz AIs in this category. We have always enjoyed those very much) - we also did one in Jamaica a few years ago - we just don’t take advantage of enough of the amenities to get the value. So, like the cabanas on Labadee and CC, we will not book them again. This is no reflection on RFD. It is a style issue for us.

I love the suites sun deck on the O class ships but it is not close ! It’s quite a hike to get there but nice once you’re there. i didn’t realize that SY didn’t have palapas. Interesting

Room service for disembarkation is a great way to end the cruise. Thanks for the great posts all week. Glad you made it home safe. The time flies by, doesn’t it ?

I have never sailed in a Suite on NCL so I cannot compare to RCL but I will be the first to admit (and have said so before) that the suite bathrooms on RCL are pathetic. They definitely skimped there.

We took the scenic railroad the last time we were in St Kitts. While interesting, I felt it was waaaytooo long. Depending on the age of the children, they might get bored. So might you, AAMoF

As a JS guest, you will have access to the CK for dinner only on a space available basis. Therefore, you will not be able to make advanced reservations. You will do best by going up to the CK as soon as you get onboard and talk to the concierge there. Have a great cruise. Allure is awesome.

+1

I agree. It has never taken that long for any refund I have received.

+1

Told ya Jesus is an artist !

+1

We are currently on Freedom and have both the Unlimited Dining Package and the Deluxe Drinks Package. We decided that we were going to put the new “unlimited” rules to the test ! On our last sea day (yesterday) we made reservations for Sabor at 6:00 just for chips, guacamole and margaritas with an 8:00 reservation at Chops for the “real thing”. Epic fail ! We had Johnny Rockets for lunch (including shakes) and at 6:00 there was NO WAY we were ready to eat again. Regrettably, we called Sabor and cancelled our 6:00 snack rezzie and showed up at Chops at 8:00 just BARELY ready to eat again. The good news is, we could have done both but made the rookie mistake of gorging on JR at lunch. Note to self: Eating at multiple venues for dinner requires stalwart fasting in preparation. A little personal self control would have worked as well...unfortunately, we have none. We did make one small “unlimited” sortee at Chops though. We decided to both order filets and also order a third entree (spicy shrimp) to share so the old limitation about only being able to order 1 entree each seems to be gone. Opinion of new Unlimited Dining Package ? Yippee !!! Happy dance ! One additional [probably] unrelated observation...the specialty restaurants on this sailing have been JAM PACKED. Even the normally lightly visited Sabor has been extremely busy. I don’t know if the new package has anything to do with it (doubtful since it’s so new) but all of the restaurants have been fully booked every night. Food and service has remained good.

Yes, there is a doctor on board and yes it is expensive. You must pay all charges up front and if your insurance covers the expense (many do not) then you must file with insurance to get reimbursed. This is a major advantage to getting travel/cruise insurance to cover the cost of unexpected medical expenses.

Slightly off topic but we are on Freedom this week and the ship’s water is skunky. This is only the second time in all of our cruises that the ship’s water was undrinkable (to me). The other time was on Liberty but after a couple of days Liberty's water got better. Not so on Freedom. You can even smell the “moldy” smell in the shower. Luckily we have the UDP so have been able to get bottled water for drinking. Is the ship’s water unsafe ? Obviously not as many are drinking it but I think it stinks and I’m not going to drink it. If I did not have the UDP not sure what I would do but it’s not an issue since we do have the pkg. So, if you’re the least bit picky about your drinking water you might consider a pkg just to have the option to drink bottled water exclusively if you have a question about the ship’s drinking water.

We just had lunch at JR on Freedom. The food is unlimited with the UDP and any and all beverages (normal limits apply) are included with the DBP.

How is a Dennis doing ? He was a complete nuisance on our B2B in Feb. He loves the sound of his own voice.

I just embarked out of San Juan on Freedom. Everything is fine there.

Hmmm....I don’t have my cruise archives handy (sitting on Freedom in Aruba) but the first one was around the fall of 2016 and the more recent was Feb 2017 or thereabouts.

As it seems that this was an attempt to answer some of the more common questions about the program, it’s surprising that they did not clarify the rules for Hibachi. It would have been easy to mention it by name as they did with Playmakers. <shaking my head>