klc317

I have a small digital alarm clock that has 3 usb ports on it, think I found it at a dollar store or Walmart. We take it on cruises. Everything we have is chargeable with a USB plug and the clock only takes up one 110v plug in the room. Never had a problem.

Thats the handy part of flying in the night before. We usually walk from the hotel to a local store and pick up things that are inconvenient to fly with like extra sunblock, a can of lysol and air freshener spray (for the bathroom) and a container of Clorox wipes. We are picky about wiping down the room some before we go in and unpack and to spray down the shower and bathroom floor with lysol spray. Just pet peeves of ours...lol. But yes, things on the ship are VERY expensive like toothpaste, toiletries, etc.

I noticed you said you had been on Mariner and Independence before, if so you will be quite familiar with how Adventure is laid out....not exactly but similar flow. Majesty is small and older but plenty fun, looks nice and well kept.. We are pretty used to it. When we were raising small children over the past 7 years we could only get away for a few days at a time so we took 4-5 night itineraries which involved lots of Majesty and Enchantment sailings. That was before they put Mariner on the shorter Bahamas runs. Enchantment has a similar design and feel to Majesty to me but its a bit longer and has a solarium adults only pool area unlike Majesty. Ive never been disappointed in any of them. I am 41 and my wife is 37 now so we probably have similar interests and expectations as you would but no matter what size ship we end find ourselves on we still have a great time In fact we are going back to a smaller ship next year (Rhapsody) because it was the only ship that is going to a specific port we want to go to (Roatan) in a time frame that we need and the price was right. We have yet to try an Oasis or Quantum class ship.....would like to but the cost goes up significantly and a Freedom or Voyager class ship like Adventure is plenty big for us and the price is more affordable. One thing I've noticed about the smaller ships is they seem more "intimate". I guess what I mean is if you make friends with someone at your dinner table or at the blackjack table for instance you seem to see them around the ship more often. On the larger ships you don't seem to come across the same people unless you try to.

We were on Adventure last week, our third time sailing on her in total although the previous ones were in 2006 and 2008, long time ago....some of our first ever cruises. Great ship, easy to get around, large, and much cheaper than Oasis class. Have never been on a Radiance class ship so I can't compare. Next year we are preliminarily booked on Rhapsody which is fine, been on Majesty and Enchantment many times in the past. Just depends on if you are interested in the itinerary or ship honestly.....we always have a great time on all of them, they all have their own charm.

We had a stop there last week on Adventure. As a visiting ship we were docked at Old San Juan.

Honestly I'm not sure. That was 3 years ago and we don't have it anymore. Cant remember the brand. It wasn't an umbrella type.

When our daughter was 3 on her first cruise with us we brought a compact fold up stroller. We just gate checked it at the airport and it folded up fairly compactly in the cabin on the ship. It came in pretty handy on the islands as a beach bag/child bag cart when we didn't need it for her. The small wheels are completely useless to try to push through sand though. As for the naps....we traded every day as to if myself or my wife would stay in the cabin with her for an hour or so in the afternoon. By that point she only needed about that much time for a nap during the day.

Good idea. We usually just bring a couple garbage bags (one for dirty color clothes and one for whites) and stuff em into one suitcase when we leave. Its amazing how much laundry there is to do when we get home.

Marine Environmental Education Center at the Carpenter House. Just a small place near North Hollywood Beach area, in between the parking lots and the beach. They have a big sea turtle there that cant be released back into the wild due to medical complications so they care for it there. But yes, we've done this day long exploring on our own for several years as our flights home usually aren't until evening. We enjoy it. Last year one cruise was out of Tampa where we had never been before so we explored there a little and visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium which was great.

We got off of Adventure last Saturday morning in Ft Lauderdale and our flight home wasn’t until evening. We had a rental car reserved and drove around the Hollywood area on the A1A and found some fun beaches, an out of the way marine life sanctuary, and a couple dog beaches that our daughter liked especially since after a week gone we miss our dogs. I enjoyed hanging out at Haulover inlet as well and watching the big yachts coming and going. Really ritzy/high dollar area and you’ll see some nice exotic cars driving around you don’t usually see at home....at least for us! And some beautiful homes.

We almost always chose interiors because it does allow us more money for other things. We've learned to save space by bringing a few things like magnetic hooks (as mentioned in a previous response), a flat/foldable over door shoe organizer, you can stash a lot of things in that with all the pockets, and things like extra clothes hangers help since there aren't many in the closet. Its also useful to bring a small digital alarm clock with built in USB ports so theres extra places to plug in your devices and less adapters to take (and only take up one plug in the room), and a dim night light helps so you don't stub your toe on something if you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or whatever. Since we used a pullman for our 6 year old daughter this last cruise and since it was already partially above my wifes side of the bed we slid the bed (both) completely under it and it gave a much wider "aisle" if you will to walk on the free side of the bed without the pullman.

We have a Western Caribbean 7 night booked on Rhapsody for April 2020. Have been on its sister ship (albeit longer) Enchantment a few times in the past and from what I can tell its setup similarly. Was looking at a larger ship but the dates and itinerary are what we were looking for. Namely Roatan since our daughter who is 7 and is very much into sloths can see them in real life.

Just was on Adventure last week. It was 29.

We just were on the 7 night last week. Had 7515 near the front although we always chose not to spend a lot on rooms. Short walk to the forward elevators. But then again that ship is so easy to navigate I found it was easy to get around anywhere we wanted to go. Room was quiet and comfortable.

We were looking at Allure around the first of April 2020 for a western carribean 7 night but it disappeared from the website. We talked to Royal Caribbean and they said it was unable to be booked that week but they weren't sure why. Either it got chartered of thats when its going in for work before getting repositioned. Maybe thats when (and if) it will get the slides.

Personally, we prefer interior rooms. We don't spend much if any extra time in the room other than to sleep, shower, change clothes, whatever so even though we have been in more upgraded rooms before it just isn't worth it to us to spend the extra money. I'd rather either save the extra cost for another cruise or use it to pay for excursions at ports. Also, I'm one of those people who wakes up and cant sleep as soon as daylight comes so the darkness of an interior room allows me to actually enjoy sleeping in past 6:00-7:00am which is great! We have done several ocean views in the past and once a junior suite because we were offered a reasonably priced upgrade and it was nice but I'm perfectly content with an interior cabin.

Nice. We were on Mariner in 2007 IIRC. Was a cruise from L.A. to Mexico Riviera which they don't do anymore. Strange to see this size of ship doing the 3 & 4 day bahamas runs but I do see their logic in it and I'm sure the capacity is needed.

I agree. I enjoy the laid back vibe and kinda do whatever I want of Coco Cay, I more than likely wouldn't pay for the extras but for those who want that I don't have to pay for theirs. Fine with me

We use a company called SAS transportation for our ride form port of miami to FLL and vise versa. Very affordable and dependable, nice new vehicles.

We can get much cheaper flights to FLL than MIA from here, have Allegiant and Frontier airlines which are generally much more affordable than Delta or United. We usually use a third party transportation company (SAS if I remember correctly) and have never had a problem getting to port of miami flying in the morning of the cruise. The transportation company driver uses the express lane on I-95 and we usually breeze right on by even if there is some heavier traffic. Seems like it usually takes about 35-45 minutes. Its funny how you can look up in the sky at FLL and see planes on their approach to MIA and think that yea, for that extra 5-10 minutes of flight time we saved over $100 a person!

I agree. I've never encountered a problem with the water on the ships. I usually take a refillable water container as mentioned before. I tend to wake up at night thirsty and like to have some water handy. I don't particularly care for drinking water out of the bathroom sink faucet but thats just personal preference.

Why cant I get this lucky? lol Congrats, hope you took the upgrade

You don't need a car seat for a livery vehicle or shuttle bus type vehicle technically.......but our 5 year old daughter has been on several cruises before and we usually have a day before or after the cruise usually involving a rental car so we have always taken along her car seat. You can gate check it at the airport (if you are flying) and it doesn't cost anything like a checked bag would. It is kinda inconvenient obviously to carry around but beats renting one from the rental car company that who knows what has happened to it or what kind of nastiness might be lurking on it.

We generally go on an RC cruise once, maybe twice a year. Have always purchased the drink package (alcohol) previously so never paid much attention to what buying drinks cost. We are going on the 5 night Cozumel/Costa Maya cruise on Majesty on June 25th. Since they have changed the rules on the drink pkg it is cost prohibitive for us to both have to buy into it as my wife doesn't drink. I'm not a liquor/mixed drink person, mainly beer but I do tend to enjoy a few since...well...we are on vacation. Not an excessive amount of course and we have our 6 year old daughter going with us so I obviously want to spend more time doing things with her and not worry about it....but I always enjoyed not having to worry about the end of cruise cost in years past when I could get the pkg on my own. Just curious what the costs are a piece as I'm sure they vary from different classes of ships. I have read where it may be possible to call RC and ask if she can get an exemption on her alcohol drink pkg and possibly replace it with a soda type package but even then the cost might not be worth it. Thanks.

We are doing that itinerary as well on June 25th. Never been to Costa Maya before. Been to Cozumel several times and enjoyed it for sure!