WAAAYTOOO

That future might be in doubt now (if it wasn't before....).  The situation with Cuba is even less clear now than it was before the election.  Guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes...but it doesn't seem like anything is likely to happen soon,
 
It seems like RCI is having trouble keeping the Empress booked and with Cuba seemingly even further away than ever, it may have turned out to be a bad business decision.

And then he can say "I married into Diamond Status"  :)

I wish RCI would incorporate more calls at Costa Maya.  I love that port

I sure hope they don't have this problem on my upcoming NAV cruise (23 Dec.).  Sounds like a Charlie Foxtrot.
 
One of the posts I read (not sure it was here or on CC) said something about there being dedicated lines for Suite guests...but I have a suspicion that those only materialize AFTER you get through Security, and thus, would not help with the massive line outside.
 
Does anyone know if there is a Suites line to get through Security at MIA ?  I know there is at Port Everglades and Port Canaveral but I can't remember if there is one at MIA or not.  It's been a while since I embarked at MIA. Who knows what the process is for "THE TENT".

The Nov 17th sailing on Empress was full, with a surprising amount of kids.  So it may not be all doom and gloom.  Now I do know some Casino Club members were given comped cruise fare for some sailings for awhile and there has been the 3rd & 4th passenger free deal.  Still the booze was flowing always and the casino was busy a lot of times. I've sailed Empress twice this year.  It's a fun old school ship, with good food and excellent staff. I think Empress is here for awhile.  

When you do go to a mega ship, book a back to back. It will take the first 7 days to see everything on board and the second 7 days to enjoy them! My wife and I did a btb on the Allure this past Feb. I wish we could have booked another week! We were seriously thinking about stowing away, but, we were out of clean clothes....bummer.

I think you may be correct. Look at Fathom. They were using the humanitarian aid exception to sail to Cuba. And while those sailing were popular, they were limited and they just couldn't keep their ship full without drastically cutting prices. As a result, the line in creating operation mid 2017.
 
Perhaps Royal needs to follow NCL's lead and turn the Empress into a party ship and include the beverage packages with the fare.

That future might be in doubt now (if it wasn't before....).  The situation with Cuba is even less clear now than it was before the election.  Guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes...but it doesn't seem like anything is likely to happen soon,
 
It seems like RCI is having trouble keeping the Empress booked and with Cuba seemingly even further away than ever, it may have turned out to be a bad business decision.

The sacrifices we make . . . ;)
 
Enjoy your holiday cruises.

They definitely need to honor the original price.  I don't care if the difference was only a nickel.  You shouldn't have to pay ANYthing more than what you did, originally.  If it were me, I wouldn't let this one go.  That's just NOT right

Junior Suites have access to the CK for dinner only.

I've always just created my own spreadsheet with the entertainment dates and times and dinner times.  I especially have to do this when we travel in a big group.  It's a nuisance but it's the only way I can make sure we don't miss anything !

The only experience that I have had like this was years ago during the infamous "world wide escargot shortage".  Escargot had disappeared from the menu but since my husband LOVES escargot and expressed his disappointment that escargot was not on the menu, the server brought it to him anyway.  Bad part of this story ? ....the server brought them EVERY night for the rest of the cruise which was a little too much for Dan, even with his love for the little critters.  Morale of the story ?  Be careful what you wish for !
 
I have heard others tell stories about getting special dishes (Matt talks about getting Indian dishes that aren't on the menu) but the escargot is the only personal example that I have !

They probably will, I just made my final payment  :blink:

You should receive the email very soon. It's usually about the 1 week mark. If you do not get it tomorrow, I would write the Concierge. I have been in suites many times and have never failed to get the email from the concierge prior to the cruise.
 
You will love the Grand Suite and as a Tony suggested, you will never be satisfied with anything else again ! Enjoy it !

To contact the Concierge on Liberty send an email to
 
[email protected]
 
LB <underscore> Concierge
 
The Concierge should be either Jorge Gutierrez or Carlos Ortiz.

Trail mix? How many cruises do I need to book to get trail mix?

To contact the Concierge on Liberty send an email to
 
[email protected]
 
LB <underscore> Concierge
 
The Concierge should be either Jorge Gutierrez or Carlos Ortiz.

Royal just  upgraded me to a guaranteed suite. Santa gave me my present early.

Hello everyone!
 
I am currently 40 minutes from landing at Chicago Midway so I thought I would start my review of my Liberty cruise! I will break this down into sections as to not try and cram everything in one post, and I will even include my thoughts on being Galveston and sailing from there for the first time ever.
 
Overall I enjoyed Liberty very much. There are a few minor complaints that I will get to but they didn't even come close to impacting my enjoyment of the cruise. The voom issue is a very sore subject with me.... more on that later.
 
And before anyone asks, I ate at Sabor four times. That pretty much says it all, but I will include a full review of the restaurant :)
 
I will try to start up the first part of the review later this evening or tomorrow for sure. The first part will be Galveston and sailing from there.
 
Stay tuned.... :D

I thought it might be kinda fun to look at some of the differences between the Harmony and the Oasis/Allure.
 
Deck 4 - The Blaze nightclub on the Allure/Oasis has become the Comedy Club on the Harmony. The old Comedy Club on the A/O is now the Diamond Lounge on the H. There is no Blaze nightclub at all on the H.
 
Deck 5 - The Starbucks that is on the Promenade on the A/O is gone (you will see that H has moved it to the Boardwalk when you get to Deck 6). The Champagne Bar on the A/O will be a bionic bar on the H. The complementary restaurant on the A/O is called Silk. On the H this restaurant is named Chic.
 
Deck 6 - It appears that they have removed 2 of the interior rooms that they added during the A/O refurb. The Starbucks has been moved from Deck 5 up to Deck 6 on the H. Either the donut shop on the A/O has been removed on the H or they just haven't finished naming all of the little shop/retail areas on the Boardwalk of the H (a number of these spaces are just labeled "retail" at the moment. No doubt they will fill those names in later). The space that is labeled "Candy Beach/Star Pier" on the A/O is now an Arcade on the H. The bar that was smack, dab in the middle of the back of the Boardwalk on the A/O has been moved over closer to the Sabor restaurant. This seems like a good move. That bar was really in the way, IMO.
 
Deck 8 - It looks like they have removed 1 interior room on the starboard side of the ship
 
Deck 10 - It looks like they have converted/combined a couple of the smaller balcony rooms into Grand Suites. There are 6 GS on the Harmony (3 starboard, 3 port) and only 4 on the A/O (2 each side)
 
Deck 11 - They have added 1 new interior room the front cluster of the ship. Again they have converted/combined some smaller balcony rooms into GS. Same config as Deck 10, 6 vs 4. What was the lower level of the Diamond Club on the A/O is now Wonderland restaurant on the H. It appears as if they have removed the Library that is on the A/O completely from the H. The 2 Grand Suites that they added to the aqua theater area on the A/O during drydock are now AquaSuite rooms on the H. They are much bigger than the GSs on the A/O. The GS on the A/O are 466 ft sq (room) 470 ft sq (balcony). On the H, these new AS rooms (classified A4) are 606 ft sq (room) and 626 ft sq (balcony).
 
Deck 12 - Same conversion/combinations of balconies becoming GS. What was the upper level of the Diamond Club on the A/O is also Wonderland restaurant on the H. Similarly, the GS added to the aft during drydock for A/O are now AS (A4). These GS were 433/362 ft sq and the new AS are 604/631 ft sq.
 
Deck 14 - The GS added to the aft during drydock for the A/O are again AS (A4). The GS were 421/136 ft sq. The new AS are 562/589 ft sq.
 
Deck 15 - There appears to be some changes to the H2O zone (kids' pool area). It looks like they have added a water slide and made some other modifications. They seem to have moved the Wipe Out Café on the A/O a little bit and it's called Mini Bites on the H.
 
Deck 16 - Either they have removed the Mast Bar that is on the A/O or they just haven't named it yet on the H. That space is just empty on the H deck plans.
 
Deck 17 - Very curious. It looks as if they have removed both of the Royal Suites with balcony (RS) rooms on the A/O and replaced them with much smaller Crown Loft Suites (L2) on the H. It also looks like the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen on the H are much smaller than the they are on the A/O. So, unless I have missed something (entirely possible) they have completely removed the biggest suites on the ship - the Royal Suites. Perhaps they had trouble keeping them sold since they are SOOOOO expensive. Who knows.
 
Deck 18 - They have added a new upper level on the H that serves as the water slide launch area.
 
So...once again they seem to be downgrading the Diamond Lounge, relegating it to some small, interior area on Deck 4 vs the beautiful glass area that it currently has on the O/A and have eliminated the Concierge Lounge completely (as both the Oasis and the Allure have as well).
 
There are probably plenty of reallocation/changes of different staterooms/categories throughout the decks that I missed. I did not look at every room nor its category. I just got the ones that kinda stood out.

Welcome to the blog and to cruising.  You will never be the same !!!! ...in a good way

My family and I are hooked on sailing from Europe in the summer, so I track airfares regularly. I've noted that there's been a 35â„… drop in fares from LA to Paris. While we're sailing out of Amsterdam, it's only a $54 flight from Paris to Amsterdam and a similarly reasonable train fare. In addition, the flights are about $500 then flying directly into Amsterdam.
 
As of today, round-trip airfare is about $750, perhaps less from gateways on the East Coast. Thus, if you're thinking of Europe for next summer, it may be worth exploring airfare now as it's rarely this low and typically $1200-$1400.

Also keep in mind that the 2 most expensive weeks to cruise (any line) are Christmas week and New Year's.  In contrast, some of the LEAST expensive weeks to cruise are those between Thanksgiving and Christmas (early Dec.).  I absolutely love cruising for Christmas but it is expensive !

We had a group of folks (maybe 6 ?) one time on St. Thomas.  We walked out the gate and hired a van for the day.  No idea what the price was (sorry) but it was a lovely day.
 
Once in Coz we booked a local snorkeling trip from the vendors in the compound.  $25 PP.  It wasn't the most imaginative location - right offshore near the port, but it was definitely worth $25 PP.
 
We had a very BAD experience with a local driver in Roatan once...but that was really the only bad experience we have had with local excursions.  The roads were just SOO bad in Roatan and it had been raining so the roads were basically impassable.  We just had the driver take us back to the ship.