JLMoran

It's good to know he's not on any Royal ship, but this is still a disturbed individual and the matter definitely needs follow-up by the authorities. Did Royal indicate if it's at least been relayed to police / FBI / RMP / etc? If not, probably should notify one of those parties. This is still an individual who needs help and possibly intervention before he does something drastic.

Hey, thanks for the heads-up on this! 2-device Surf & Stream for my 5-night Anthem cruise in just 50 days was stuck at $26.58/night forever, today it's marked as 30% off on-board price and down to $19.99/night! You just saved me $32.95! For those who were having browser problems (@KLA and @mworkman) -- I had no issues with Firefox on my mac here at the office, although that's the only browser that works through our proxy server here.

Bingo! Especially if the person combines it with the offered specialty dining package (the only other real value proposition I see in those offers). Be aware, per the latest podcast episode, not all venues are covered by the dining package. I forget which of Matt's guests had said this, but they originally wanted to go to one specialty dining venue that include a Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics show during the meal, and it was not included in the package at all. They would have had to pay full price, not even a discounted rate for having the package. So check those options in advance to be sure you don't have any disappointments or sticker shocks on board.

This is why NCL continuously offers the "Pick 2/3/4" promo and includes the beverage package, so the price of it is buried for all but those who don't choose it as one of their promo options.

OK, then. I'll take it as fate that this happened!

Realized my booking for Spectra's Cabaret at 7:30 PM was on our only formal night, and I don't want to be rushed through dinner that night. Moved it to the 9 PM showing on night four. Sorry if that messes up anyone's efforts at a "mini-group meetup". Also... Solarium Bistro has no reservations available for dinner on any night?? I realized that I wanted to book that just for one night to try it out, since it's a complimentary venue and not a standard option on most of the fleet, but when I just tried to add it I got a notice that there is nothing available (just like CK ?). Does that venue typically book solid ahead of departure? Should I have jumped on that a lot sooner?

Writer's block? Painter's block? ? I'm yanking your chain, I know you're teaching these kids the fundamentals of long-sequence encryption block chain so they can all become overnight zillionaires in the Bitcoin arena.

You neglected to tell them about the nanny-cam, eh? ?

Honestly, if you're doing a Northeastern cruise I'd just say wait until you're in Boston, Bar Harbor, etc. and get some lobster there. Will be light-years better than anything the ship will serve, and most likely fresh instead of frozen.

For you, @Lovetocruise2002...

Ahhh, customs!! I keep forgetting that whatever port you go to first after leaving the country is where you'll have to deal with that, not when you get to your final disembarkation port. So that probably does explain the southbound route. What you said about the northbound also makes sense; it could even be something as simple as that after working out the southbound route, it's simpler to just do the reverse of it when going northbound so the captains don't need to worry about keeping the two routes straight in the ship's navigation computers or their heads.

Kind of a side item to the above -- Why on earth do these itineraries on Adventure backtrack while in Maine? If you look at the northbound route, it goes to Bar Harbor first, then backtracks south to Portland, and then heads north again to St. John. The southbound route does the exact opposite -- St. John, pass Bar Harbor to go south to Portland, then backtrack up north to pay a visit to Bar Harbor. Why would the ships be routed this way, instead of just going in the logical northward or southward path? I'd think if the ships had a chance to go a shorter distance for a couple of nights and just go slowly, so they burn less fuel, they'd jump at the chance. Any ideas from the Canadian posse (@twangster, @Jerel, @monctonguy, @Lovetocruise2002)? That's the 10- and 11-night itineraries on Adventure. The 9-night itinerary on Anthem goes through Massachusetts and Maine in the "right" order -- Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor -- but then does its own little semi-oddity where it heads east and north to Halifax, then does a "U" to the south and west around the peninsula where Halifax is located to get to St. John. I can sort of see the reasoning for that one, as Bar Harbor is just south of the peninsula and it's more of a straight line to Halifax, and St. John is the northernmost point on the route. But it's still odd vs. going the relatively short distance to St. John, making the "U" in the opposite direction to get to Halifax, and then a beeline back to NJ.

An open-jaw Fall Foliage cruise, northbound or southbound, is suddenly a lot less expensive than I'd thought. My utter lack of geographical knowledge had me thinking that Quebec City was north of Maine's northern border and a 12-hour drive minimum, making for a semi-mandatory flight to get there or back. But nope! It's a beeline due north on I-87 to QC-15, and a very reasonable 8 hour drive. I drove 6 hours for college several times a year; doing an 8 hour drive with the family, even stretching to 10 hours for lunch and stretch breaks, is totally doable. And renting a car one way is only a few hundred dollars, vs at least $800-$1200 for the four of us to fly there. If Matt doesn't do a July 2020 CA/NE group cruise, I may just book the late September / early October 2020 foliage cruise for a (very belated) 50th birthday trip! Also from the department of "I was not aware of that!" -- All of those cruises include an overnight stay in Quebec, either as the start (southbound) or end (northbound) of your cruise. So we get a day to explore Quebec city without having to pay for a hotel in order to extend the trip. When do those 2020 CA/NE itineraries come out again? ?

Strictly speaking, the cruise line's rules say you cannot. In real terms, many here have brought a 12-pack or even full case of their preferred bottled water with them as part of their carry-on stuff and gotten through security / boarded with no problems at all. You may get "that guy" at security who's the stickler for the rule book and says no exceptions, but I've yet to hear someone on these boards say they had their water confiscated.

I would say to send it to Greg Purdy, who is SVP of Marine Operations, but his profile page doesn't give an email address. Same with Richard Fain, who should probably be made aware. Maybe call the regular 800 number, try to get through immediately to a supervisor, then their supervisor, and so on until you can get an email for their security division, Purdy, and Fain. Don't give details beyond you need to raise a possible security issue due to some material you saw on social media related to Royal Caribbean, lest you inadvertently speak to someone who knows that individual and could tip them off. And as others here said, take screen shots so you have permanent evidence in case the pics are taken down.

Welcome aboard, @Ashlynne12!

No, corkage fee only applies if you bring the bottle outside your room to a venue like the Main Dining Room or a specialty restaurant. You can request wine glasses for your room, and even a corkscrew if you didn't bring one and the bottle has a real cork, both with no fee. Once you have them there is nothing stopping you from filling a glass in your cabin and then walking out with glass in hand to wander the ship, go to dinner, whatever.

Following! Sorry to hear about your car, hopefully the damage to it is as minimal as the damage to you was. Have a great trip!

The last few Live Blogs that people have posted showed that Royal is now calling it "Dress your Best" night. Basically, even Royal has thrown their hands in the air on this one. If you want to dress in a suit / tuxedo or cocktail dress and live it up like it's 1959, go for it! If your attitude is, "I have to dress nicely for work every day and I'm on vacation, dang it!", then go more casually. Like @MikeK said, there's not much the staff in the MDR are going to turn you away for. My cruise last April on Freedom, my family and I as well as our table-mates were all dressed formally, but we saw plenty of people in shorts and at least one wearing one of those t-shirts with a tuxedo design printed on it. I never dress up for anything anymore outside of my company's holiday party, so I liked the chance to pull out my suit and look a little sharper than usual, and I did my best not to judge anyone who chose not to do the same. My teenage girls were both wishing they were those people wearing shorts and a t-shirt. ?

It does, and if it's a wine you really like you can actually come out better than buying four individual glasses (which is what a 750ml bottle typically pours). Just looking at this example menu from @BrianAlt: You can see that the bottle price is within a dollar or two of four individual glasses; sometimes a couple bucks higher, sometimes a couple lower. With the 40% discount for bottles of wine under $100, you can buy a bottle of almost anything on this list and come out much lower per-glass. Just using the "Luce della Vite" Tuscan (disclosure: my favorite wine on the ship): 4 glasses at $17 each = $68, just shy of the bottle cost Bottle with 40% discount = $41.40, cutting the per-glass price to just over $10 Here's the catch -- When you buy a bottle, that discounted price is charged to your SeaPass card in full, so you're going to have that $41.40 charged to your credit card at the end of the cruise. When you buy it by the glass, you only pay for the overage past $12 ($13 on Quantum and Oasis class ships). So those four glasses only cost you $20 ($16 on Q or O class) when your cruise ends. It's because of this that I chose to never buy a full bottle, even when it was an awesome wine like the "Luce della Vite". I already shelled out several hundred up front for the drink package, so I really wanted to minimize my final out of pocket. Now that said, there's one situation where buying a bottle on board probably does make sense: If you liked the wine enough that you want to take a couple of bottles home with you. If that's the case, take advantage of that discount and get a bottle or two on board. Reason I say that is that after getting home, I looked up that Tuscan wine I gave as the example in my local wine store; much to my surprise, a bottle there cost more than I would have paid if I'd bought it on board with my package discount! Granted, you'll need to be sure you can safely transport those bottles back home, so it's still a bit of a judgement call, but if you're driving to and from the port and not flying, this can be a pretty good option to get some awesome wines at a modest discount over the local land rates. For sure I'll be thinking about this when I'm on board Anthem in just over 7 more weeks.

Wow! Glad to hear your daughter is OK, and at the same time sorry to hear you had to abort before you even had a chance to board. Fingers crossed for a speedy claims process and reimbursement!

Forgot to note that the locker included a key on an elastic wrist strap that I kept on me the whole time we were in the water. And the lockers were in an open, visible area outside, right by the docks. I think that they had a couple of staff keeping an eye on the area while everyone was going through the activities, but won’t swear to it.

Hi @Stuman, welcome to the boards if you weren’t already! I did that excursion just this past April, the “push pull and swim” option. You do get a single small but pretty deep cubby-hole style locker to put all of your stuff into, but only one for your family. It was just big enough to hold everyone’s outer clothes plus the small purses / bags / backpacks we all had. There are men’s and ladies’ rooms in the small snack hut next to the souvenir area, which you’ll have to use for changing as there is no other dedicated changing area. We just kept our swimsuits on as we planned to go back to the ship afterward, but no reason you couldn’t go with your plan. Not much outside the port village, really, and the people there are very pushy with trying to get you to go into a store, take a taxi, take a pic with a monkey, etc. The dolphin excursion itself was great, and we all really enjoyed it. The dolphins were friendly and fun to watch and interact with, and the people running the show clearly know and care about them a lot. You’ll need to decide if you want to buy pictures or not ahead of time, and depending on how close to return time you’re running you may not have time to try and haggle for things like the full CD with all images. I will say on the latter, the photographers take a LOT of pictures. We had around 250 or so on our CD, and out of those I judged about 50 if them to be keepers. Just going by those 50, the price I paid for the disc ($210, IIRC, as we had no time to haggle) was actually not unreasonable. That works out to $4 per keeper, and they’re stored on the disc at full resolution (12 or 16 megapixel as I recall; not at my home computer, so will have to confirm later, but more than large enough to crop as desired and still get a good 8 x 10 or slightly larger print).

Well, you do have Adventure in Cape Liberty now, and she only just moved up there this year. And she was very recently refurbished as well, so a fair bit of new shiny there (although I don't recall hearing about new / updated shows). She doesn't have the Broadway shows of Anthem or the Oasis class ships, but based on others' recent live blogs she does still have some good entertainment available.

Thanks a bunch for another great live blog and all the pics, @Lovetocruise2002!