UkuleleCruiser

If you are drinking enough at Senior Frogs you won't notice.

First drink: Lava flow
First meal: Windjammer!
Onboard location: Windjammer!
Embarkation day activity: Eating at the Windjammer!

I see a pattern here. ;)

When I was in Nassau, there were at least 4 ships. Not crowded.

My wife and I cruised on Navigator of the Seas November 2015  -- Our first experience with Royal Caribbean. Loved the promenade concept of the ship -- That was really a focal point. However, the very best thing about the ship was the California Wine Pairing dinner we had at the Chops Grille. Wonderful! We are cruising on the Liberty of the Seas December 2016, and the very first thing we signed up for was the Chef's Table Dinner. We are looking forward to it.
 
What are the coolest or most unique things you have found about the ships you have been on? I am particularly interested in Liberty, but eager to hear what everyone thinks.
 
-Ukulele Cruiser
10/09 -- Carnival Conquest
10/12 -- Carnival Conquest
11/15 -- Navigator of the Seas
12/16 -- Liberty of the Seas
12/17 -- Norwegian Pearl

I just played with this on my Allure cruise in January and figured it out.  You need to checkout and complete the "purchase" before you can select another night and time.  It will let you reserve all nights, but you have to do them as individual purchases each night.  It is kind of a pain, but it can be done.  Once you complete the "purchase" or reservation, the cart will be cleared and it will allow you to reserve another night.

With all the talk of the new ICON class cruise ships and the recent podcast regarding icon and her size
 
Do we think they would ever make a smaller ship again?
 
My thoughts would be maybe build a ship looking exactly the same as Quantum class but smaller maybe radiance class size but with all the quantum gizmos and look.

My wife and I cruised on Navigator of the Seas November 2015  -- Our first experience with Royal Caribbean. Loved the promenade concept of the ship -- That was really a focal point. However, the very best thing about the ship was the California Wine Pairing dinner we had at the Chops Grille. Wonderful! We are cruising on the Liberty of the Seas December 2016, and the very first thing we signed up for was the Chef's Table Dinner. We are looking forward to it.
 
What are the coolest or most unique things you have found about the ships you have been on? I am particularly interested in Liberty, but eager to hear what everyone thinks.
 
-Ukulele Cruiser
10/09 -- Carnival Conquest
10/12 -- Carnival Conquest
11/15 -- Navigator of the Seas
12/16 -- Liberty of the Seas
12/17 -- Norwegian Pearl

We just got upgraded on Liberty of the Seas to a Promenade View cabin. We are very excited and looking forward to it. I wondered what experiences other people have had with the Promenade View rooms? Not just possible noise issues or closing the blinds when we change: Was it cool watching activities from the room? What stories do you have. Thanks!

I love the 3PM Nacho Bar frequently found in the Windjammer! 

Blog was very helpful Matt. Thanks.

We are going to listen to your podcast abut it once the grandkids go home.

Berlitz never published this: They kept sending journalists, but they never came back...

Thanks for the tip: I can share that with my wife as well.

Here's a list:
CRUISE SHIP MYSTERIES (YA) Deadline by Eric Weiner (YA) Mystery Cruise by Gertrude Chandler Warner A Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh A First Class Murder by Elliot Roosevelt Birds of Passage Bernice Rubens (not quite a mystery but interesting) Birds of Prey by J.A. Jance Board Stiff by Tony Alexander Buzz Cut - James Hall Charlie Chan Carries On by Earl Derr Biggers Cooks Overboard - Joanne Pence Damned in Paradise - Max Allen Collins Dana Chambers' THE BLONDE DIED FIRST Death in a Deck Chair - K.K. Beck (1984) Death in the Middle Watch by Leo Bruce Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie Death Takes a Passage - Sue Henry Decked by Carol Higgins Clark Don’t Blame the Snake by Tony Fennelly Inspector's Holiday by Richard Lockridge Jane Heller: PRINCESS CHARMING Killed in Paradise - William DeAndrea Lori Avocato: DEEP SEA DEAD Maddy Hunter: HULA DONE IT Murder in Absence by Vincent Starrett Murder on "B" Deck by Vincent Starrett Murder on Deck - (ed.) Rosemary Herbert Murder Sails at Midnight - Marian Babson Nancy Fairbanks: BON BON VOYAGE Nancy J. Cohen: KILLER KNOTS  Night Train to Memphis - Elizabeth Peters No Honeymoon for Death - Mary Kruger Nobody Cared for Kate by Gene Thompson Risk by Dick Francis Several Deaths Later by Ed Gorman Shelley Freydont: HIGH SEAS MURDER Singing in the Shrouds - Ngaio Marsh Susan Sussman: CRUISING FOR MURDER The Angels Will Not Care - John Straley The Case of Sonia Wayward by Michael Innes The Cruise of a Deathtime - Marian Babson The Fennister Affair by Josephine Bell The Goddess Affair by Lillian O'Donnell  The Informant - James Grippando The Midas Murders - Margot Arnold The Patient in Cabin C by Mignon Eberhart The Trouble with Going Home- Camilla Crespi The Widow's Cruise by Nicholas Blake To Davy Jones Below by Carola Dunn  Too Much of Water - Bruce Hamilton Voyage into Violence by Frances and Richard Lockridge You Belong to Me - Mary Higgins Clark

Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz?.......on second thoughts, maybe not.

Take a look at the Freedom of the Seas group cruise podcast. Matt has one of these rooms and said he really liked it. Plus you get extra seating.

I may be flogged for saying this but you need to go on the Queen Mary 2. Best library at sea.
 
 
https://youtu.be/Xj4oWfSBtlk

On our Christmas cruise this year on the Liberty, we are booked into Sabor for our "first dinner". Looking forward to that. Also, it will be our first "promenade view" room.

Never mind the expense, think of the laundry bill!

I have a story to tell. I just got back from a Panama Canal 14 day cruise, (not RCCL). I ate in the MDR with the same woman 5 different night, she was a solo cruiser like myself. She explained to me that flying was her greatest fear and she refused to do it, so every year she plans a 4 to 5 month cruise, (many different cruise lines, a few hotel stays), to not fly. She has done this for the past 5 years.
 
Her starting point was San Diego, we ended in Miami, from there she was spending a day or two in a hotel and then doing a 4 day RCCL cruise, hotel again, then a 7 day Allure cruise, getting off of Allure and doing a 15 day TA, I think on the Independence, this would take her through most of November. While in London she was doing a HAL cruise of the Mediterranean, 10 days I think, doing another HAL with Spain, Italy, etc. Until at the end of February, beginning of March, she would board a TA that would bring her to Vancouver or Seattle and then a cruise from Vancouver/Seattle to San Diego. On the Panama Canal cruise she had an interior, all other cruises were an ocean view or a balcony.
 
All of this so she doesn't have to fly. My first question, after her cruise itinerary, was "Isn't this expensive" and of course it is, but it is only once a year and she said you told me that you have 6 cruises booked for 2017, with another possibly being booked, (SNAP, she showed me). Next question, "Aren't you seeing a lot of the same ports" and of course she is, so she doesn't get off, she reads, she does needlework.
 
She explained to me she led a very frugal life, she was married, now a widow, had no children, and when her husband passed she sold her home in Denver and moved into the RV that she and her husband vacationed in, after moving the RV to her sister's farm, so no rent.
 
If you were able, would you do something like this? I am not afraid of flying, and to me, it is way too much trouble to set all of this up, just so you don't have to get on a plane, plus being on a ship for 4 months is just mind boggling to me.
 
Sorry to go on and on, but I found this to be so interesting. 
 
Candie

I am 100% sure you are right.

My cruise is already paid for, so I didn't save any money. However I got an upgrade from an inside cabin to a cabin with a window overlooking the promenade. I imagine it will be sort of like cruising along a New York street scene...One note: My original cabin did come with a $100 shipboard credit, which I had to forfeit for the upgrade. We'll have a better cruise because of it, but now I gotta come up with another $100 for drinks and miniature ships and the champagne brunch galley tour and stuff...

I don't recall anything that stood out in Roatan, but we only walked through the area before boarding because I neglected to set my watch correctly and we returned to the ship an hour early.  I would have preferred to spend the extra hour at Little French Key.
 
As for Belize City, there was a little bar there with some cheap beers, and I had lunch at Annie's Lunchbox just outside the "compound" (for lack of a better term).  But nothing there stood out as a "let's come back and just hang out here!" opportunity, especially given that Belize is a tendering port.
 
That said, I'm still the guy that gets off the ship at every port, because after all "I'm here", and I might as well check it out...you never know what you might find.

Nothing wrong with being near Buckee's