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Usually, yes. But this one last year actually hit Bermuda!

There's no way you'd be kept off a ship for a (US) misdemeanor. I'd also venture to say there are convicted felons on every cruise. It's just not that particularly uncommon. I'm no expert in the justice system, but I also imagine some violent ex-cons -- and certainly anyone on probation -- aren't able to hold passports, so their ability to go anywhere too interesting on a cruise would be limited to begin with.

This is true. There are people suffering everywhere. There are people within miles of where you live. In general, people enjoy life while others suffer. That's no sin. That, as well as empathy, is part of humanity. So much of this is misconceptions and assumptions. Granted there's active violence going on in Haiti, but the murder rate in Jamaica is 3x what it is in Haiti -- in fact, it's the highest murder rate in the world. But none of us think twice about getting off in Jamaica for a cruise because YA MON JAMAICA IS PARADISE while Haiti is a dirty slum. But in general in all of these places, the violence takes place far from where tourists go. These countries depend on tourism for their economy. They are very careful to keep violence, poverty, etc. hidden from view.

Yes you're correct. I didn't realize you were getting the drink package. If you drink regular coffee vs. specialty coffees, you can get that in the park cafe.

Ehh... I'm not going to give you some angry "WATCH YOUR WILD CHILDREN" answer a lot of Scrooges on these boards will (I have kids that age as well and believe the presence of lots of kids is a given when cruising Royal), but I wouldn't leave my kid at the pool for that amount of time. If you were to do it, I'd say they would need to have a phone on them that's connected to ship internet and you would have the same so they could reach you if needed. Pool or not, that's probably a bit long to leave a kid that age on the ship. It has less to do with their own maturity and trustworthiness and more to do with them simply being unaccompanied. Things can happen that have nothing to do with it being their fault, particularly on the pool deck.

You make an entirely different point here which I fully agree with. As far as variety and choices, I definitely boast what people are going to find on cruises. One of the biggest reasons why we choose to go on cruises vs. other vacations is because anyone can basically eat whatever they want, whenever they want. If one kid is hungry at 12 and the other isn't until 1:30, who cares? One parent can stay at the pool with one kid while the other runs the first kid to the WJ. The other can go to El Loco later (I don't know if you have kids, but any time multiple kids don't have to eat from the same place at the same time, it's a massive benefit for anyone taking care of them). My kids also love that if we're walking through the Promenade they can snag a piece of pizza and sit down for a few as a mid-afternoon snack. When walking through Central Park I always peek into the Cafe to see if something catches my eye. And, as I said, we frequently visit both the MDR and WJ during dinner. That is absolutely a selling point of cruises. It's one of the things I love the most. It's the 5-star meal that I don't want people to have expectations for.

This whole thing is insane. Sickening, obviously, but as someone (like all of you) who has taken a number of cruises I'm trying to imagine how and where you'd even hide a camera in those tiny staterooms that would go unnoticed but also have an angle that would capture anything this guy wants to see. It seems like even if it worked once or twice, pretty quickly someone would find it. There's just not that many areas within a stateroom that go unseen for very long.

I agree. It's not that I want to influence people's opinions. It's more so that a lot of people still have the perception that high-quality (even fancy) meals are a big part of the cruising experience. We're going on Odyssey later this month with a few families. One of them hasn't been on a cruise in a long time, so I've told the dad who I'm friends with not to get too excited about the food. Not that it's bad or that everything is going to be awful -- just not to have high expectations. The food quality isn't horrible, it's just not a reason go to on a cruise anymore.

I was a little surprised but moving it indoors was clearly an intentional change to at least avoid wind and natural elements. Obviously the Aqua Theater is something they really like and has more reward than risk because they didn't make any adaptations to Utopia or, as far as we know, Oasis 7. We usually go to the Aqua show twice during our cruises so this is something I've noticed as well. With diving, it's doesn't seem to be a matter of a member of the cast participating in the show or not -- it's literally that particular dive. I don't know how it works, but you'll often see a diver walk out onto the platform or diving board, look out above the crowd and then walk back behind the stage rather than dive. There's some kind of go/no-go signal they get as to whether they should dive or not. I don't know if it's based on conditions, position of the other cast members, etc. Sometimes they come out and dive, sometimes they come out and walk back, and sometimes they don't come out at all.

Yeah, we do this as well sometimes for a couple seasons. One, sometimes my kids want to see a little more variety than what's on the kids menu in the MDR so we'll head up there after. Second, sometimes we want more dessert options. It seems kind of gluttonous but honestly there's not a ton to do right after dinner so it's a fun thing to go up to the Windjammer, grab dessert, and then walk around the top deck outside a bit.

We were on Wonder last year and the same thing happened. The seas were a tad rough and she slipped off one of the lower diving boards and fell fortunately into the pool. They nixed most of the diving for the rest of the show but I think they said the next day everyone was okay.

If you're on Deck 8, your balcony would be facing the ocean and not Central Park. You'd be in a closed hallway and would have to walk back to the elevator banks to access the park itself or the Park Cafe. You definitely will not get any noise from the park. In fact, even if you were to get a balcony overlooking the park on Decks 9 or 10, Central Park is always pretty quiet. Just keep in mind that regular coffee is free. If you want specialty coffee (espresso, a latte, etc.) that is additional. But if you're just out to grab regular coffee, you won't need anyone's cards. Also, if you do switch to Deck 8 and you only want regular coffee, you can get that at the Park Cafe and won't have to go to the Pearl Cafe.

I tell people -- particularly those who are going on a first cruise -- very openly that I don't go on cruises for the food anymore. It's not what it used to be. You're going to an all-inclusive resort. The food is average. You go to the MDR for the experience of having a meal with family and friends after a day in the sun, but my expectations of the food are virtually nil at this point. It clearly looks and tastes like food made in large quantities. If you go expecting a good meal at the MDR or Windjammer, you're absolutely going to be disappointed. That's just not the point anymore. But I've adapted my expectations to that point and I don't care anymore. I'm there for the fun and the vacation -- not the food.

We took a cruise out of NJ to Bermuda a couple years back in September. We were told not to worry about hurricanes as they seldom hit Bermuda because it's much further north and "Atlantic" vs. the Caribbean islands. A week before we left, a huge hurricane popped up and we spent days online just watching the weather news worried we'd be stuck on the boat and unable to go to Bermuda when that was the entire reason for going on the trip. In the end, we got lucky. It hit the island a few days before we got there. There was visible damage (mostly just branches down and stuff) but it wasn't enough to prevent us from going. In all probability, you'll be okay and your cruise will be fine.

Timing will be everything for this. If you want to do it in the morning (before 10 or so) or in the evening (after 6) you should have no trouble finding some areas with no one around. If you want to do it in the middle of the day, it may be tougher. If you're going to do it in the morning or in the evening, Deck 16 should have plenty of areas. It's the area above the pool deck and there are some decent-sized open spaces. It'll be windy but scenic. If you want to do it mid-day, there are plenty of venues that won't even be open depending on the activity calendar. Boleros or the karaoke bar might work if you're quick. You might even be able to get them to let you use the lobby area of the main theater, which would be quiet and private.

You get what you pay for. Guaranteed rooms are a great way to save money if you don't care where your room is. Truthfully, I've never had a horribly placed room (never done GTY) but we get inside rooms often and it's fine with us. We don't spend much time in the room anyway, and if you don't plan to either, I wouldn't worry about going this route.

I'll be on Odyssey 3/24.

There's an elephant in the room here. The entire cruise industry and its profitability is built upon cruise lines paying workers wages that, in the First World would not be considered a legal or viable wage. This has been interpreted by lots of mainstream media and investigative journalists as exploitation -- and I understand that conclusion -- but that's First World-centric view. Cruise lines hire people from places where what they pay is considered good pay and a good opportunity. When people go to a resort in Mexico or any other country where low-level workers are paid low wages, it's seldom they stop to question the ethics. The cruise lines are held to an inconsistent standard because they operate out of the US, even if they aren't hiring American workers. Everything is a function of the economy of a particular place and context. Tucker Carlson recently went to Russia and raved about how a week's worth of groceries that would've cost $300 in the US only cost $175 in Russia. That seems like an indictment of the US economy until you consider that the average American makes in a week (~$1,100) what the average Russian makes in a month. Their groceries cost 60% of ours, but they make 25% as much as we do. With that bit of knowledge, their groceries cost far more than ours. It's all context. Long (long) story short -- small amounts of money that mean very little to us mean a lot to the people from places like India and the Philippines, who work on these ships in the menial roles. Any amount of cash you can give any of them is extremely worthwhile to them.

I'd be interested to know what, if anything, gets shaved off the top. Like when you donate to a charity and they say "100% of your donation will go to...", does any of that money end up with Royal as some kind of administration fee to the workers? Going through the trouble of removing daily gratuities and doling all that money out individually seems like a lot of work (and you miss tipping some of the people you may not see, like laundry workers). But I'd be inclined to try doing it if it's not all going to the workers.

I'll be on an Obstructed View on Odyssey in a few weeks. I used photos of the side of the ship to pick one that was as unobstructed as possible. Mine is at the end of a row, so there's the bar that holds the lifeboat partially in front of the balcony but the left side is basically fully open without an obstruction. You get what you pay for. If you want to stare out at the ocean in the distance without a lifeboat preventing you from seeing down, get a regular balcony. But for the lesser cost, an Obstructed View is a nice option.

I will say Cozumel is more built to handle it and there's a lot more to do around there, but nine is insane.

More cruise ships? This month (Feb. '24) there is an average of FOUR ships per DAY, and on four days there are SIX (which I assume is the current maximum). Do we really need a port with seven large cruise ships docked in one day? And what do they mean larger? We've seen Icon dock there. How much bigger are we getting?

Next, have them install something to do.

We always comment on how bad we feel for the band that plays when you walk onto the island because they have to stand there and play that song over and over, not only for hours, but day after day. It must haunt them in their sleep. It's possible they killed it because it had run its course. It's also possible there was a licensing deal for the song that ran out. Usually, it's fair game to cover a song. Any band can cover a song at any time in a live performance. But that song may have been commercialized to a point where Royal might've had to buy rights to it. More likely, though, they're just done with it.

We had a virtual balcony on a cruise last year. I loved it. My family really didn't dig it as much. I just felt, with an interior room, it was nice to have some view of what's going on outside. Obviously a balcony is better, but so is a 2-story suite. You get what you pay for. I found myself turning it on every time I came into the room just to have a sense of outside and feel less closed in, especially during the day.