Boltswin

Thank you. I'll have to dig through the pictures and videos to see if I can figure out what we bought with them. Nice souvenir to add to the collection at this point.

I came across this coin while cleaning out the garage. This would be from our honeymoon cruise in 89. Anyone have any clue what the coin would have been used for?

I have 1 LA sailing currently book, but will book more as 2023 sailings are announced. 2022 vacation schedule is full with 3 cruises.

Would love to see a few 9 night cruises, opposite the 5 nighters. Could easily add Acapulco and/or La Paz to the 7 day itinerary. But won't get greedy at this point, just glad to have West Coast cruises back in the mix. Hopefully ship #2 will be based in SD.

It was available in the Sea Plex on our Anthem cruise last September. You should able to find the cruise compasses from our cruise using the link from the previous post.

As of this mornings announcement, Bermuda sailings have been cancelled through October. “Bermuda sailings will be suspended through October 31st, 2020.”

Annette, You will be greatly missed by all of us that have had the pleasure to meet you, cruise with you, and bar crawl with through Victoria, BC with you ( and of course Tracy). I surely hope we continue you see you on the group cruises as a fellow blog member now and not a pizza party baby sitting service! ? Best of luck with your new endeavor, hopefully we'll meet again soon.

I’ll be interested in seeing how the continuous monitoring goes. I’m not sure that is something I would want to deal with on my vacation. I have no problem with the temp check, just not sure I want to deal with the added lines and delays everywhere you go to eat , enjoy a show, getting back on board, etc.

I would wager the majority of their staff comes from one of the listed countries. Will they quarantine the staff for 15 days once onboard?

My first cruise was in 1987 on the Carnival Holiday. First Royal cruise was our honeymoon in 1989 on the Sovereign of the Seas, which at the time was the world's largest cruise ship. ?

I’ve been waiting for that to happen as well. As of Saturday it was still showing in our cruise planner. Won’t be surprised if once we get on the ship we find out there are no dining packages available and that it was an error. If that happens we’ll just book a few specialty restaurants we haven’t been to be for and roll with the punches. Luckily we’ll also have MEI on board with us to help fight the battle if needed.

You shouldn’t have much trouble getting a table for two, using my time dining. We’ve used it a few times and have always received a table for two. With that said, in our experience the tables for two are surrounded by other tables for two and very close together, about 8” apart. Very slim chance you’ll have a nice quiet separated table for two in the MDR.

I followed Matt’s advices and booked it as soon as I saw it was available. Figured I could always cancel and rebook if the price went down. I’ll start at the specialty restaurant and hopefully be able to get close to what we’ve penciled out. If no luck then we’ll try the diamond lounge concierge.

We have the ultimate dining package on the Symphony group cruise over thanksgiving. I know we have to make our reservations once we’re on board, but was wondering if we’d have better luck making the reservations with the Diamond lounge concierge or at one of the specialty restaurants. We made mock reservations in the cruise planner today and not many times available online.

I don’t see it so much as nickel and diming, as much as a constant sales pitch. As with most on here I’ve learned to either ignore it or politely say no thanks. However I agree that it does worsen the overall experience. To me it’s like sitting on a nice beach and constantly having vendors approach you with their goods. Does it wreck my day, absolutely not, but not having to deal with it makes for a much better day. With all the electric compasses and signage on the ship they can advertise all the extras without having to constantly ask you if you’re interested in this that or the other. With that said, see ya on the Symphony in November! ?

Thank you very much. My wife always struggles with the pillows on board, and with flying to each port there isn’t room in the luggage to pack one of her own. Would be happy to pay if they’re available. If not, may have to find a suite guest and work a side deal. ?

Any chance these pillows are available in a non suite cabin for an additional fee either through Royal or your cabin attendant?

Thank you for sharing the PDF, that will make decding when to purchase Voom much easier going forward. We got the 1device surf & stream for Symphony GC for $11.99 a night, but our Anthem & Freedom cruises are currently at $19.99. I’ll keep an eye out for a sale on those sailings, and if not just buy it on board on day 2. Does day 2 start at 12:01am, or is it 24hrs after sail away?

These all appear to be penalties if you cancel after the final payment dates. What happens if you don’t make the final payment by the final payment date? Do you lose your reservation and deposit? Luckily never missed one so never knew for sure, but thinking if it’s just a penalty for canceling after the date then there is no real pressure to have to remember the exact date if you don’t plan on canceling the reservation.

Him and the activities staff were probably my least favorite of all the cruises I’ve been on. I just didn’t find him funny or that engaging. The activities staff I found to rude at times, I think they thought they were being funny/playing with the guest, but I found it to be a bit rude. I usually always come away from a cruise with at least one favorite/memorable cruise activities staff member, not this time. With that said I still had a great time on the cruise, I’ve never found that the CD staff makes or breaks my cruise enjoyment. I’ve only had one cruise that I would consider poor and it wasn’t on Royal.

We sailed on explorer in June as part of the group cruise. I thought the ship was in very good shape. I didn’t notice any excessive wear and tear in the public areas. We had a couple of minor issue in our room with our balcony railing and door being in bad shape. We mentioned it to our room steward (who was fantastic) and he had both fixed immediately. Couldn’t have had a better resolution.

We had reservations for 8pm the same day to try and catch the sunset. We had no line at all, walked right up the elevator.

Dawn T, thank you for the pictures. Really looking forward to our first hump balcony.

Just booked a hump balcony on Freedom of the Seas for the RoyalCaribbeanblog.com New Years group cruise. I’ve been trying to determine if the size of the balcony on the hump rooms is any larger then a standard balcony. Has anyone been in a hump balcony room on Freedom, and if so was the balcony any larger then a standard balcony?

Just booked the Edge for March 2019, can’t wait to check out this new ship. We’ll be on Symphony in November 2018, will be interesting to compare the two new ships. If it’s even possible to compare the two.