jticarruthers

Think Navigator was refreshed to include more "stuff" than Indy but I haven't looked too closely at either one in a while. More similar than different so price/itinerary as mentioned would probably be large drivers for me.

Disney - liked it better but the value isn't there at the price point Disney commands so I don't look their way except for special occasion cruises. Carnival - found Vista compares well to Voyager and up on Royal, prices generally slightly lower ... better value prop for me. Norwegian - found the Getaway class compares well to Voyager and up on Royal, prices generally competitive with Royal but include Bev Package .... better value prop for me. Definitely different flavors, Carnival and Norwegian less broadway show more comedy club and other smaller activities. Similar sizes/range of amenities, Ropes course vs climbing wall, slides vs flowrider, etc.

Judging by the description on the original post of "chicken cordon bleu", coupled with scrolling back through the posters' other posts to find the menu for the day featuring "chicken cordon bleu" .... I would conclude this is in fact the "chicken cordon bleu" ordered off the MDR menu. That would make this : Ham and cheese filled breaded chicken, rice-peas pilaf, seasonal vegetables and something unreadable on my menu copy Updated: Found a legible copy .. that should be lingonberry relish :)

I think the context is the advertisement in the background behind the plate .... 20% off specialty dining ....

"delighting our guests in Asia Pacific" .. guess this one is going direct to China as well then.

Ballpark March 2018. Royal likes to do their schedule rollforward in weekly waves starting in the late Feb/early Mar timeframe ... so the next rollforward should be early 2018 and would probably include May 2019.

Very little was done in the original Refurb, NO cabins were update for example.

Non-alcoholic drinks are usually topped off fairly regularly, I have also resorted to brining alcohol with me and heading out to the nearest bar though if I plan to drink alcohol with/during dinner. Last couple of times we weren't even offered drinks on some nights and typically didn't see the drinks waiter/waitress until well into the meal if we did see them.

I thought I had seen this a few years ago claiming it to be Oasis but the name although illegible looks more like a capital A for Allure ....

Yes joking ;) Although though sometimes it would be hard to tell from the results with RCI's website.

There used to be one that I looked at but I don't recall what it was. It became useless when the sale of the day never ended.

This is IT related though Doc .... Royal still runs their systems on TRS-80 grade hardware ....

As a longtime Virgin Atlantic flyer, I am very interested to see what Virgin Voyages brings to the table .. couple of years to go still though.

Have done a lot of eastern Caribbean and never had a port cancelled. We typically cruise march and November so I would say go for it.

In a little bit of two minds on this one ... Frankly I would never have started cruising if it wasn't for the great deals we used to get in Florida on last minute cruises ... 2 of my first 3 cruises were "hey we can go for a few hundred bucks do you want to try cruising as a vacation" type decisions. (The 3rd one was ultra cheap as a timeshare presentation gift). So from that perspective I miss the idea. Similarly back in my first few years cruising, I was constantly checking sales and regularly got prices knocked down when new sales started. Certainly since the great BOGO sale of 2014 (I think) began I have yet to have a sale price come in lower than my first month of availability price so I never bother to check anymore. It's nice to know that I wont ever feel that someone got a better deal than me .... but kind of makes all the rest of the sales and stuff a joke ....

Had a table for 13 on Freedom a couple of years back. It was a long straight table on the bottom floor running from the Captains table to the stairs. There was a second similar table next to us. Foot traffic was very light, noise wasn't a problem.

I passed mine a while back :) For about 4-5 years I was an RCI loyalist ... when it came time to book a vacation, I only looked at one website, didn't even consider any other alternatives. A few years down the road and they are just one of many options .... and frequently don't win my business anymore. Of course, they don't care since they have more than enough new customers to fill the ships anyway, so losing me as a loyalist hasn't hurt them at all. I guess it will be interesting to see what happens next time the economic cycle swings back down and whether it hurts them then but probably not in all honesty ;)

Said differently ... refundable deposits become non-refundable after the final payment date , non-refundable deposits are always non-refundable.

I wonder in general how well all the "extra fee" deals work (not sure how you would go about testing it but that's another story). Seems like the specialty restaurants are generally underutilized and I frequently see deals offered to try and fill the space ... perhaps if the pricing was back at the $20 level they would be full all the time ... now whether you make more money off a partially filled restaurant at high prices or a filled restaurant at a lower price is the part I don't have enough data to test ;) Same thing with alcohol ... lets jack up the prices and then sell expensive packages to people but then offer discounts and "cards" and other things to try and bring the prices back down again when we don't sell enough at the higher prices ... but revenue from onboard spend is at all time highs so I guess ultimately they have a pretty good formula going. Same thing with the cabins ... lets jack up the prices so we can constantly advertise the sale of the day which really isn't a sale just a way of making sound like it is ... As trying to figure out what I am really going to pay for the "package" of Cruise, Meals and Drinks gets more and more complicated my enjoyment is less and the feeling increases that I am paying more for what I used to get included rather than getting a "deal".

Interest usually does not count but I cant say for that card specifically without doing some research ;)

Similar experience Doc, think we are at about 20+ cruises now and never a problem ... our Majesty cruise this past May had nothing on the final bill but an extra charge showed up post cruise and it was for the "water we drank" ... argued, got credited and got the same message about changing the policy.

As stated there will be a THanksgiving menu. Usually its an add-on to the existing menu for the night although we have had a "special" menu printed on fancy paper at times and have also had them rearrange the menus to move lobster night off of Thanksgiving. Christmas decorations will be going up, used to be the last day of the cruise last year they were going up the weekend before thanksgiving when we boarded. Thanksgiving day football games are usually on the pool screens but it will depend a bit on your itinerary and satellite reception :)

Our first time or two at Chops I would have compared it to a Ruth Chris ... since then it has generally dropped off in every way. I would say about level with Outback for me at this point (and I both like Outback and used to work there so that's not a negative).

Correct, the freestyle machines are on a limited selection of the ships ... from memory I believe Navigator is one of those that does have them. Sure someone will be along to correct me that has been on Navi more recently than me though.

Expanding on Matt's statement you do NOT have to tip anyone. IMO you should still tip something since a lot of the waiters from the Main Dining Room also work shifts in Windjammer, pool deck, etc. but you are not required to tip anyone if you choose not to.