JLMoran

Can you clarify what you mean by the "main" show? If you're referring to the headliner act for your sailing, that's open seating and no reservations are required or taken. And even with these ships, it's really only the Broadway / West End musical shows and maybe one or two others (e.g., Flight on Symphony, Columbus on Harmony, or The Gift on Anthem) that take reservations. The rest of the nightly shows in the ship's main theater are all general admission, first-come-first-served.

Some of the cheapest fares to be had might have a little something to do with it, along with some only-at-this-time-of-year itineraries.

OK, first @mworkman, now @twangster. I'm telling ya, the pizza is the gateway the Pod People have started using to get to the rest of us!!

OK, that's awesome! I don't know how I missed the itineraries with Indy unless I was just looking for the ones that also go to Iceland. Only ship I've seen paying a visit there in the times I've looked for those itineraries is Serenade, and then only during her transatlantic repositioning cruise at the end of the summer season.

Paging @WAAAYTOOO, as she's sailing Grandeur right now, along with @coneyraven (our Grandeur Pooh-bah!). One of them can confirm not only the coverage, but whether Grandeur actually has Starbucks coffee on board of if it's Illy brand. I'm pretty sure it's Illy only, but the resident experts can confirm.

Week of November 19, 2018: Europe (Phase I) Week of December 3, 2018: Short Caribbean Week of December 10, 2018: Caribbean (Phase I), Northeast, Canada & Bermuda Week of December 17, 2018: Europe (Phase II) @Matt, which of the two European release dates is the one that matters? Is "Phase I" the standard itineraries that go all season, while "Phase II" is the repositioning itineraries? If Phase I is the problem, I can see why -- that's almost a month with limited cabin selection being gobbled up before we even know what the CA/NE and regular Caribbean options are. And that's all assuming everything is actually announced on time; I seem to recall in 2016 that there was a solid month's gap on the Caribbean / Northeast / Canada / Bermuda between announced release date and actual release.

Not arguing this point, but at the same time it means Royal has a choice to make: Keep some smaller ships to serve the Baltic, Scandinavian, Mediterranean / Adriatic, Southern Caribbean, Australia / New Zealand, etc. sailings, where only a smaller (Vision or Radiance class) ship can actually get to the ports Give up those regions entirely as somewhere that the Royal Caribbean line serves, and restrict them to their higher-end Celebrity and Azamara lines Personally, I think option 2 would be a huge mistake, and I doubt that Royal really wants to go that route. Hopefully they will continue to maintain the Radiance class ships and further revitalize them from time to time, so they have some itineraries that continue to serve those hugely popular but also big-ticket-price itineraries. Royal is clearly committed to Voyager class and larger, given the current AMPED program; but if I remember rightly, Voyager class is too big for a lot of the ports on the aforementioned popular itineraries. If I'm wrong about that, then wonderful and I'll happily sail to Norway and Iceland (or Athens and Dubrovnik) on Voyager / Explorer / Navigator / Adventure / Mariner.

Can you just confirm if smartphones will automatically change to the correct time zone, as long as they have some kind of network connection (wifi, cellular)? I seem to recall this is the case, as it's caused problems on other sailings where the ship chose not to change over to the new time zone (per captain's discretion).

well, given the itinerary release schedule revealed today, we won't be finding out any GC destination before mid-December. ?

Man, I am never complaining about FTD or 1800Flowers pricing ever again. I was looking at this and thinking maybe I'd order a bouquet for my wife, but those prices Royal's charging are insane!!

The old "give 'em a free taste and they'll be happy to pay for more" strategy? Either that, or someone in their promo department saw your spreadsheet and said, "Awwww, fudge!!"; and now your "wait until day 2" strategy is just part and parcel of every sailing. ?

Quebec really is just an absolutely charming and gorgeous old city, isn't it? My wife and kids would love walking around there for a day, just peeking into all the different places and taking in the streets and buildings.

I use the same ones, second their recommendation.

I'm looking at the photos of your room, and trying to figure out if there is actually any space to walk between the bed and sofa or bed and desk so you can get into or out of it without barking your shins on either; or having to just sit on the end of the bed, lift your legs, and then swing to the side. Could just the perspective of the photos or effect of using a wide-angle lens, but it looks like you've got maybe 3 inches of clearance for each of them! ?

Loving the photos of Quebec. And really reinforcing the desire to some day book the slightly shorter (but no flights required) open-jaw foliage cruise from Quebec to NJ.

Latest update to the map has narrowed down the cone on the east coast, to the point where the storm center is no longer even likely to touch NJ. Not to say it won't still impact the seas north and south and bring lots of rain on Friday, but it's already looking a bit more promising. Better still is that the storm will be on the coast around 1 AM on Friday; that should be plenty early for the bulk of the storm to get clear of the eastern seaboard and leave Anthem with a clear path home on her final sea day of that CA/NE trip (she's currently docked in Halifax). I would guess that at worst, maybe after leaving port on Thursday they'll stay close to where they are, going slow or just waiting around somewhere, to keep clear of the worst of the weather, and then they'll ramp up the engines when they get an all-clear from their meteorologist and make up the time while slipping behind what's left of the storm. But, I'm neither captain nor navigator, and they're the ones making the hard calls. I'll continue to hope for the best while keeping my eyes open for an email from Royal later in the week, should they decide passenger safety and comfort would be better served by coming home a day late. Because even if that happens, I'll still be boarding the ship and will still have four days of vacation to enjoy.

Thanks for the live blog, @Traveler! Much appreciated, and glad you had a good time. Don't worry about not keeping up with the live part, vacation and down time are more important.

Climb 40 flights at a steady jog pace without stumbling, you're golden! ?

Have an awesome trip, @twangster! Hoping that TS Michael doesn't turn his gaze your way.

Spoke to @twangster. His sailing doesn't get to Bar Harbor until the 15th, so he'll slip in behind Michael after he's gone out to sea. Unless it shifts north, probably won't even get any major waves or winds. @ellcee, @Broons77, and I should all be fine as well. With the storm cleared out Friday and up in Canada early Saturday, the only impact I could see on our Saturday sailaway is if the ship gets held up coming back from the 9-night Bahamas / Caribbean CA/NE sailing she's doing right now. Hopefully won't happen, but will have to see. Edit: Just bought the MarineTraffic app and discovered Anthem is currently sailing from Portland to Bar Harbor. Not sure if / how that changes any decision the captain will make about whether to bring her home on schedule. And I'm sure any such decision won't be made before Wednesday at the earliest, anyway.

Yes, MyTime Dining is still done in the main dining room(s). Only difference is which part you'll be in. For ships with just one main dining room (all but Quantum, IIRC, but maybe some of the Oasis class ships as well), one or two floors of the dining room is used for traditional dining, while the other floors are used for MTD. Your specific deck for MTD will be noted on your SeaPass card. On the Quantum class ships, where there are four separate dining rooms, two are reserved for traditional dining, while the other two are reserved for MTD. Which dining room you have assigned will again be noted on your SeaPass card.

Man, I'm not sure whether to give that whole post a "sad" or "like" reaction. Sad to hear you had a really rough sailing to Bermuda, but liking the thought you might get an extra day or two in Bermuda or at sea (more likely the latter so Royal doesn't have to pay extra port fees). Here's the latest live forecast map from the National Hurricane Center; this seems to update automatically as the model is updated (currently shows Oct 8, 2 PM EDT, but earlier today it showed Oct 8, 11 AM EDT). As of the 11 AM and 2 PM updates, the storm will be back on the ocean and pretty much covering the DelMarVa area on 8 AM Friday, and off the coast of Nova Scotia on Saturday at 8 AM. Given it's updating as new data comes in, the actual image could change as we get closer to Friday / Saturday. Man, I hope this doesn't impact @twangster's "Snowbird Migration" cruise -- they're sailing out of Quebec tomorrow (boarding today, but get an overnight stay) and will be hitting either Portland, ME or Boston, MA around the time the storm is off the NJ coast. They could be held up a day waiting for it to go past into the northeast Atlantic before sailing down to Port Canaveral.

Keep in mind that you don't have to drink 5-7 alcoholic beverages a day to break even, especially if you catch the drink package on a good sale ($42-45 pp / pn). You get bottled water covered by that, all sodas, fresh-squeezed OJ if you want it with breakfast, all premium coffee beverages, etc. I'm not a huge drinker either, and I was on a cruise with four consecutive port days, but I had no real trouble "breaking even" (or at least coming close enough for government work) just having those beverages plus my typical sail-away margarita, a glass of wine with dinner, and maybe one more wine or other alcoholic drink before / after dinner (say, at a show). This is definitely the best option for you, but it's a bit of a crap shoot as to whether your particular sailing will actually offer it.

Just saw an alert about Tropical Storm Michael, which has formed in the Gulf down by Panama. Slated to hit FL and AL Wednesday, then swing northeast through the Carolinas and Virginia before heading back out to sea on Friday. Doesn’t look at the moment like it should impact departure of the Oct 13 Bermuda sailing, as by Saturday afternoon it’s expected to be well out into the northern Atlantic. But anyone flying or driving in Friday, especially from the south, may want to allow some extra travel time. As always with these early charts, the track could change a lot between now and Friday. But it’s been holding to this rough path the last 24 hours, just the speed of it has slowed a bit from initially being around NJ mid or late Thursday to now being more early Friday.

Still been waffling on this, because I'm trying to avoid adding any more charges to my card this month. Did another check on Cruise Planner, specifically for my cutoff date, and just saw that I have until midnight this Thursday (Oct 11) to make purchases, which is a day later than I expected and is perfect. My card cycles on Wednesday after 5 PM (close of business), so I'll hold off another few days, book it Wednesday evening so that it shows up on the next billing cycle, and then if I do end up canceling to take advantage of an on-board sale I'll be golden since it's all on the same billing cycle. I have noticed, though, that the 7 PM slot for Wonderland is now gone. So I'll have to hope that 6:30 and 7:30 stay available until Wednesday. Otherwise it'll be a late night dinner yet again. ?