JLMoran

So I've scaled my goals for a 2020 50th birthday cruise back to whatever I can get out of Bayonne or New York City, still shooting for something actually in January if it can time with my actual birthday. Royal's only option that fits this is an 11-night sailing on Anthem to the "Southern" (really Eastern) Caribbean, but it's not exactly my ideal cruise: Only 5 port days and a whopping six sea days Out of those 5 ports, 3 would be ones I've already been to (St. Kitts, St. Maarten, and San Juan); only St. Lucia and Antigua would be new The pricing is a little steep, between $5,000 for a pair of lower-cost balconies and up to $8,000-ish if I did the much-desired JS with connecting balcony (so wife and I can get the double C&A points and be really close to Platinum status) That pricing is before any drink packages, wifi, specialty dining I might want to get, etc. And just now I took a look at NCL's site, and their brand-new ship Norwegian Bliss has a pair of 14-night options -- one to the Western Caribbean, which looks really really nice; and one that is similar to the same "Southern" (Eastern) Caribbean offering on Anthem, but has 3 extra port stops to new locations Both itineraries are 8 port days and only 5 sea days; the Western itinerary has one of those sea days after the first two ports, so there's also a little breather in there Western Caribbean option is all new ports, while Eastern is 5 new and 3 repeat Pricing is much higher at the 2-balcony end ($7,600 for Western; $8,000 for "Southern"), but the jump from balcony to Mini-Suite is only a couple hundred dollars more, putting it even with Anthem at the JS+Balcony level NCL has their "Free at Sea" offer, so we'd get the drink package and full specialty dining (wife and me) or specialty dining and wifi (kids) included Only the "Southern" option overlaps my birthday, but I'd be OK with taking the Western option and getting back a few days "early" Obviously no chance to build up loyalty points with Royal, but I also remember the advice of many here and elsewhere to not worry so much about being loyal to a line this early on in my cruising experience, and being open to trying out the various lines and seeing what they're like I know NCL's ships have a reputation for tiny bathrooms and balconies, but it seems like Bliss is trying to directly compete with Anthem (similar size and capacity; lots of stuff to do on board, including a go-kart track that makes Anthem's bumper cars look downright silly; lot of good specialty dining options that I can see; etc.). Could be that she's been designed to work around some of those shortcomings from the other ships in the line. I've emailed my TA to ask about her experience with both, but I'd also like to hear from anyone in this group who has also sailed on NCL and can speak to the pros and cons of going with them vs. Royal. Food quality? Staff friendliness / attentiveness? Crowd management? Quality of the onboard shows and entertainment? (I saw Bliss has Jersey Boys showing right now, which I certainly wouldn't mind seeing) This is most definitely not a "talk me out of this crazy idea" post; I'm seriously considering it, just like @Lovetocruise2002 is trying out MSC Seaside because it seemed like a good chance to try out another cruise line and see how it compares while getting a good deal. I'm still not sure about the latter part of that statement, but I'm not booking anything for 2020 for at least another month and a half yet, when my Bermuda trip is paid off and I've had a billing cycle or two to see how I'm managing. Looking forward to your insight! And thanks in advance!

I continue to be floored by your photos. As Raye said, the color of the ice is just stunning. Definitely have to make my way up there at some point, just have to be patient and wait for a time when the budgetary stars align.

Cool! If you play craps I'll be happy to meet up at some point one night. The slots gods are never happy with my offerings, but the dice deities seem to be OK with my play style. ? Will have to find a time slot my wife doesn't mind me slipping away for a little, since this is our extended date getaway and secondary 20th anniversary trip.

If you're going on October 13, you'll be on board with me and @ellcee; might be turning into an unofficial / "mini" group cruise at this rate!

And this is why I find the pizza onboard to be abominable -- After all, the best pizza on the planet comes from New York / New Jersey! Chicago's a close second. ? And with that, we've met the requirement that "all conversations must eventually come back to the pizza."

St. Maarten -- Soualiga Destinations / Capt. Bob's! You can find my review here:

I love the one pic with The Brass Pic -- "House of Negotiable Affection"! What a euphemism! ? If that picture of the bike ride you posted is at all representative of the overall experience -- DON'T DO IT!! That looks scarily like like the one I did on Maui from the summit of Mount Haleakala back down to sea level. See those little guard rails between the side of the road and the cliffs? Sure, the bike will be protected if you lose control, but if the ride requires the same kind of minimum speed going down that we had to maintain on the Maui ride, you'll be vaulted right over in any kind of collision! "Bear food" indeed! ?

Out of all itineraries I've looked at and heard about on the podcasts, Alaska is just about the only one where I consistently hear that a balcony is all but mandatory. Yes, you can do an inside or even an ocean view and just take advantage of outside public spaces to see everything; but if those get crowded you'll be wanting the privacy of that balcony to take it all in. That said, I think if the ship had a panoramic ocean view room available, I'd probably book one of those instead so I could enjoy the sweeping views without freezing my buns off when the weather turns colder, as it's wont to do. And then use the public spaces for less-crowded or warmer times of day.

Great whale pics! Especially impressed that you caught the trio spouting together. What kind of lens did you need to capture those? I'm guessing something with a fairly decent zoom on it?

Unlike SCUBA, snorkeling doesn't really have any formal training behind it or any requirements for training. Most excursions that offer snorkeling as part of the activity should offer a brief bit of instruction to people who are new to it so they understand things like how to tell if their mask is fitting correctly, how to clear the snorkel tube after diving and resurfacing, etc. Good excursions will help the newcomers with checking the mask fit and fin sizing so they have as good an experience as possible, and will recommend the excursion to their friends and family. FWIW, I'm probably the world's worst swimmer and I was able to figure it out my very first trip to the Caribbean maybe 25 years ago now, with no lessons besides the 15 minutes we got on the beach at the start of our excursion. Hardest part for me was getting used to the feeling while breathing through the tube, as it's easier than you think; once I realized I didn't have to breathe so hard or so quickly, I relaxed and was able to enjoy it fully.

Count me in the "stay on the same ship and stateroom" group, but only if the itineraries are different or, as @melski94 noted, if it's a port-intensive Med cruise where you just can't see and do it all in one shot. It would be a huge relief to know that I could skip a port day on one leg to see as much as possible the prior day, and just make it up on the next leg!

This is correct on all counts. It's not only to allow for possible internet glitches, but so you have time to pull up things like your C&A number if you have one, dig up your credit card info (you'd be surprised how many times someone will start filling out one of these forms and realize they left their wallet / purse in another room), fill out all those online forms, etc. I'm just glad it's not like TicketMaster, where you have only about 90 seconds on the initial screens to confirm selections, and then only 5 minutes to complete the payment info screen before your tickets are released. Talk about feeling the pressure if you're a slow typist! ?

My younger daughter (age 14) did the cupcake decorating class on Freedom and said it was worth the money. She said they had good quality cupcakes and icing (she's something of an avid baker and foodie), and she said the staff did a good job explaining how to do each step. I'd imagine it will be the same on Harmony since it's the same cupcake chain. She booked her session on board during embarkation day, using some OBC she and her sister had available. They also had no problem with my daughter taking some artistic license with the final decorating steps; she didn't think the original design of the "pupcake" looked very pup-like, so she made a few on-the-fly modifications to get a Pomeranian pupcake! ?

@Joe01, I also use the “Image Size” app on my iPhone before posting to the blog. Make the shorter dimension 900 pixels and you’re good to go; not a big image for bandwidth, but still very good resolution for live blogs. That app also has a basic text tool I use for watermarking, although big images like panoramics tend to make the app crash when editing the text. For those huge images, I’ll use the app “Snapseed” from Google; that app also has a bunch of nice tools that the stock photo apps don’t include, sort of a Photoshop/Lightroom Lite.

That’s the film they were shooting when @Matt and a few others (@twangster?) were on board and even had a chance to be extras!

Is that @crzycatldy5 there on the right? Face looks a lot like her profile pic. smh. "Pretty good", he says. Sir, those are not merely "pretty good", those are stunning and gorgeous!

That's correct. The first GTFO calls go out around 7:00 AM (we heard it while going into the MDR for final breakfast), and the final one is around 9:30. Honestly, if I had it to do over again I would not wait until that final call to leave. The crowds are so massive at that point and the gangway becomes such a bottleneck that I think it took 2 or even 3 times longer to get off than it would have if we'd gotten off at 8:30 when we were done with breakfast and had the last of our stuff shoved into our carry-ons.

No changes for my Anthem sailing. VOOM for 2 devices has been at the same $28 and change for about a month now, regardless of active sale or not. Once I'm on my next card cycle I'll be grabbing that regardless of sale price. Last thing I need to pick up before sailing in October.

Absolutely gorgeous photos of the glass museum, @twangster! Really wishing I could be on that trip with all of you, or any GC that's coming up, but as with @KLAconQueso I've got life getting in my way for the foreseeable future. Maybe in 2020, if I don't have something else booked by the time Matt announces the group cruises for that year...

As an alternative, could I entice you with a 7-night sailing on Anthem at the end of March that goes to Port Canaveral, Coco Cay, and Nassau? You'd still get to experience Wonderland and the Bionic Bar, and an inside cabin is only $630 for the Mar 22 sailing. Sincerely, the Oasis Class Denier. ?

Hi @Paml514, welcome to the boards! This article from @Matt is a good primer on Labadee -- https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/08/20/first-timers-guide-labadee When I went last April, the Nellie's Beach area had the loungers taken up fairly quickly from what I could see. I was in a cabana for that day so it wasn't an issue, but I would say to treat the loungers on the beaches there the same way you would loungers on the ship's pool -- if you want one, grab it as early as possible. No umbrellas that I'm aware of or saw on my day there. Per the above article, there are sun shelters available for rent on Dragon's Tail beach and Adrenaline Beach. The other beaches have larger cabanas that up to six people can share available for rent; only one person has to actually purchase the cabana rental, and then that person will tell the attendants who the other guests allowed in are so they can get wristbands. The coaster is towards the far end of Labadee relative to where you get off the ship, closer to Columbus Cove beach than any of the others. It's certainly not bad, maybe a 5-minute walk from the ship and maybe a minute from Columbus Cove. Do be aware that if you want to ride the coaster, it's best to do that earlier in the day rather than waiting until the afternoon. I went in the morning shortly after leaving the ship and going to our cabana, and I was able to ride four times in about an hour with absolutely no line at all. The rest of my family waited until midafternoon, and the line was much longer; they only got to ride the coaster once and gave up on waiting for a second ride, which made the all-day passes I'd bought for them something of a waste.

@Joe01 after meeting Michele: ?

Following! Another chance to see the Med from stateside! What's your itinerary like on each leg? Based on your cruise history recap, sounds like each leg starts in Barcelona; are you seeing the same ports each time or is there a bit of variation? Or is this trip less about the ports for you, and you just want a full two weeks to enjoy the ship as your destination?

True. Expensive as hell, but true.

Aren't you supposed to be on a plane to Seattle right now? ?