JLMoran

For my recent cruise on Freedom, the mid-cruise bag was just one for the cabin. In our case it was a little worse; we had our kids in the adjoining cabin and they got no bag! We had to cram just a few of each item (socks, t-shirts, undergarments) from our respective laundry piles where I had been expecting two bags that each of us could put maybe 5 or 6 of each into. I suppose I could have asked our cabin attendant for a second bag, but I made the assumption that it was some rule the ship followed and didn't think to try that at the time. @Matt, has this been your experience when booking two cabins for your family? If I had to guess, for regular (non D+ / non-suite) passengers it's based on the credit card bound to the sea pass cards, since there is a charge for the bag and they probably want to avoid complaints of double-charging or the like. Since all four of us were on my one credit card, we only got one bag. Maybe if my older daughter was over 18 and used her debit card on their sea passes, it's possible they'd have gotten their own bag and we'd have been in better shape.

Hi Megan_Rae, welcome to the boards! You can check out this comprehensive "What's included in my cruise fare" article, which includes a general summary of your dining options. If you know which ship you will be sailing on, we can give some more specific information around the dining venues on that ship.

Wow! So Brilliance / Radiance class with the Sunshine Skyway bridge is like Anthem / Quantum class with the Verazzano Narrows bridge -- hardly enough room to clear it!

I think the number @DocLC gave is more the "raw materials" cost per person, rather than the price a restaurant would charge. They buy in such massive bulk every week compared to a land restaurant that I have to imagine the per-person cost of the raw ingredients for each meal is a fraction of what land restaurants pay.

That first pic is from the "town square", for want of a better term, and right by El Morro. You can see the fort clearly from there if you were to turn around from where I took the pic; just cross the big field where you'll often see people flying kites and you're there. So it may well not be the old jailhouse that @Myisland was talking about.

Possibly this one? The Museum of the Americas is to the left of that building and I think you also have to go down a side street a little ways. Here are a couple of the pics I took from inside, and you can see one of the paintings on display through the large opening in the second story, left side of the close-in shot.

I can think of one thing greater -- sitting outdoors, watching a flick, and having the sea breeze with a Sea Breeze! ?

Actually, he was originally booked in an inside cabin, and got bumped up to the balcony room because his cabin had a water leak. So his complaint about not wanting to be "downgraded" was already rather bogus since he would have just gone back to the cabin class he originally had.

You may also want to see if there any active exhibits at the Museum of the Americas (the old Spanish barracks located close to El Morro, in what looked to me like the town center square). Supposedly it can be a great place to visit when they have an exhibit going on, but hardly anyone (including the locals) even realizes it's there. You'd have the place mostly to yourself and your family, so you could really enjoy whatever was on display.

Even more than this -- not only was his upgraded (due to a water leak), and then refused the downgrade, but they actually had another cabin become available the day after his first complaint, but he decided he would then wait and see (quote below, emphasis added): It doesn't say whether this cabin was inside or balcony, but if he was willing to take a "wait and see" then I would assume it was equivalent to what he had at that point. Why on earth would he not just grab the newly offered cabin right then and there? That itself is fishy. And then one more cabin became available the final night of the cruise, but of course by this point the gent was on the full "my vacation is ruined" path and turned that down, too. I really do have to agree with the outcome here. Royal gave this gent not one, not two, but three chances to relocate from the noisy neighbors. The first makes some certain sense to turn down, as does the last, but the second one he should have grabbed in a heartbeat if the noise and disruption was really that bad and the room was remotely equivalent to his upgraded one.

@monorailmedic wrote about this on cruisehabit just the other day.

Easy enough solution. Just quit your day job and make RCBlog your be-all and end-all! If John Gruber could do it with Daring Fireball, I don't see a reason you couldn't do it with this. ?

Having been in a balcony room with a connecting door and overhearing my kids getting into a somewhat heated argument one night, which was loud enough to wake my wife and I from light sleep, I can say that the conversation doesn't have to get that loud to be heard through the door. So if this person's upgraded cabin had one of those doors, I do see how this could possibly happen for the part about "...spoke loudly, argued and used offensive language."

Big congrats @twangster! Those are some nice itineraries to snag on that shiny new ship! If I had to make a total SWAG, based on my horribly limited knowledge of Asian culture and the fact this ship is by all accounts going to serve only the Asian market, Silver Suites are going to be this ship's version of Sky Class, while Gold Suites will be the equivalent to Star Class. Reason I'm guessing this is the cultural significance of silver and gold (look how popular the gold iPhone was when it first was released in China), and that names like Sky and Star Class would not resonate on the same level there. I guess part of what will make the "Plus Ultra" in Quantum Plus Ultra is these more exclusive suites. Seems like they're at least somewhat going into the "ship within a ship" concept, like The Haven on NCL and Yacht Club on MSC.

I wonder if they're going to reverse that or otherwise make it consistent with Harmony and Symphony as part of the planned big refurbishments. Otherwise that's kind of a jarring difference to keep around when everything else will be so much more in line with the other ships.

Must see the pigeon park, and let the kids each get a bag of corn for them! Even if you don’t go into the bird area, there are lots of little shops and probably that busker I saw, and the street is full of tables with umbrellas for shade. It’s about a 5-minute brisk walk from there to the cruise port, so could be a good last stop for the day if your ship departs at 2 pm. Also, try to find Tropical Taste if you want good food and a great mojito! Wish I could tell you how to get there, but even our guides sort of stumbled across it.

We had no map, only our daughter's friend and her sister who lived there and were our guides for the day.

Thanks, @DocLC. Now I've got a huge hankering for chashu pork tonkatsu ramen for dinner tonight. Good thing there's a place right on the way home! ?

@Shari, that dessert was also served at the Chef's Table on Freedom and is one of the standard desserts offered at Wonderland. It's called "The World", and you are correct that it is fantastic! I'm looking forward to having it again when I sail Anthem in a few short months and dine at Wonderland!

You're asking the wrong guy -- FR was my first cruise ever, on any line, and I was just too awestruck with the sheer size and number of venues and things happening onboard to really notice if the overall decor looked old. I will also admit to being a bit of a fan of vintage styling, and not a fan of modern decor trends like lots of shiny metal on the chairs and tables. So I very much liked the styling of places like Vintages or the Bull & Bear Pub, with their old-style tables and chairs and darker lighting, and even the MDR with its classic decor and table settings. I'm going to be very curious to see how I like the feel of Anthem, which I gather in at least some venues is a lot more contemporary decor in style. You can blame my mother for this. She is an avid antique collector and the home I grew up in was all Missionary and Shaker style furniture, old wood slab tables polished to a fine gloss, and knick-knacks (a lot of which I liked, a lot that I didn't) scattered everywhere and giving the home a lot of character. I guess I've come to appreciate that over what I consider the more-sterile look of modern design.

Since I'm still so new to cruising, I'm trying to pick an itinerary each time that gives new destinations and maybe a new ship class to try. The destinations are more important right now, so I don't have a problem re-sailing a particular class or even ship if it's going somewhere new. As far as on-ship activities -- I completely forgot to check out trivia games or things like that when I was on my first cruise. I was too busy enjoying the balcony or the helipad, exploring the ship, or just relaxing with a beverage somewhere! But I will admit there were a few times I was looking for something to do and forgot that I should check the Cruise Compass for any activities.

Considering Anthem is bigger than Freedom, and Freedom is considered on the larger end of "mid-size", I'm not surprised it wasn't what you expected! ? Add me to the list of those recommending Freedom class as the next to try. Even FotS herself, despite not being refurbished yet, as she is now sailing the port-intensive Southern Caribbean route; that should keep you busy enough that the lack of refurbs shouldn't be an issue. Plus we really liked our CD, and I know that's a factor for you (although he may well be on a new ship by the time you would sail her). Plenty of recent info and pics from her on the live blog I did back at the end of March through the first week of April. If you did an Alaskan itinerary, I'd definitely take the Radiance or Vision Voyager class option as it will get you into the smaller channels and other areas that Ovation just won't be able to reach due to her size.

I deleted the app. Not playing and frankly prefer to spend my time doing something more than just staring at the screen for hours on end. If I could spin 200 times and completely ignore it, I’d be fine. But all the slots games have various mini-games within them that further demand awareness that I’m not willing to give any longer. I don’t know why I’m surprised. I don’t much like playing regular slots, dunno why I thought this experience would be all that different.

Have a fantastic trip!

It’s been offered on my Cruise Planner almost from day one, and so far it’s no bargain. Current price is $56, which with the current $42 price for deluxe means I’m paying $14 per night for 1 device. That’s not even a dollar less per night than getting them separately. If I see ever that combo offered for a real sale price that discounts both by a good margin over the separate purchases, then I’ll grab it for sure.