JLMoran

Best thing to do is reserve tickets via the Cruise Planner ahead of your departure date; just pick the specific day and show time you want. If you find they're not available at all on the Cruise Planner (earliest availability is 90 days out, IIRC), you can check when you board but that could be a sign all the shows are "sold out". if that happens, you can always get on the standby line about 45 minutes before show time and see if any held seats open up.

I think an equally big issue, if not bigger, will be availability of the airport. Many itineraries depart from and return to San Juan, especially the southern Caribbean ABC island routes, and people have to fly in to and out of San Juan to do these trips. If the entire island is without power, that means the airport also has no way to operate until power is restored (unless they have a seriously massive generator system available). Another potentially big issue is that a couple of radar towers were completely destroyed by the storm, although I'm unclear if those were used purely for weather monitoring or if those were also used by the airport and/or seaport for things like flight and marine traffic control.

I'm also disappointed to see that, although on a "smaller" ship like Grandeur maybe it's justifiable. If RCI has decided the typical passenger manifest skews to a demographic not generally known for liking craft or at least darker beers, I guess it might make sense. At least we know that on larger ships like Anthem we can have some better luck finding those craft and darker beers we crave. I'm also continuing to be disappointed by the red wine selection I'm seeing in these menus, especially given how many ships have a Vintages on board. Lucky to find one Malbec (which I do like if it's not too fruity) and maybe a single Merlot (meh), with everything else either Pino Noir or Cabernet (both of which I despise). If it's supposed to be such a great place to discover wines, how about some options in Zinfandel, Chianti, Shiraz, or Sangiovese?

Just checked the latest on Maria. St. Maarten is "only" on a tropical storm warning / hurricane watch. So with luck they'll be spared any further devastation. Unfortunately, now St. Kitts and Nevis are on hurricane warning along with Puerto Rico, the USVI and British VI. This hurricane season really is shaping up to just decimate the entire eastern Caribbean. ?

That sounds like a variation on a classic Greek gyro. In case you haven't had one, the main differences are that in a gyro the meat is a mix of beef and lamb, you don't add the step of searing the meat on the flat top grill after shaving it off the spit, sub shredded lettuce for cheese, and it has a tangy yogurt-based sauce called tzatziki. Definitely sounds good, will have to remember to try one when I finally do a trip up to Canada with my family (either by cruise or land vacation; want to visit the Canada side of Niagara Falls in the next couple of years).

OK, I'll bite. (see what I did there?) What is Donair?

Why do I feel like this is turning into the "Four Yorkshiremen" skit from Monty Python?

I got an update from Capt. Bob Cass, who owns and runs Soualiga Destinations in St. Maarten. This was in response to an email I sent yesterday simply to express my hope that he and his crew were all well and safe: He also said that he thinks Maria might pass to the south and may not be too bad. Granted, that's now two days ago and the track has been updated, but I didn't hear any comments in last night's news broadcast about St. Maarten being under threat, only St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. Might just be US-based focus of that broadcast, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that he's right.

OK, if we're talking computer nostalgia... First computer I owned was an Apple ][e "Rev B" that I got my freshman year in high school. By the time I graduated (1988) I had saved up from all my odd jobs and "tricked it out" as much as possible. I can't remember everything that was in there, but the big items were: 1 MB of RAM via an Applied Engineering "RAM Works" expansion card; the fun part was having to buy all the individual RAM chips (64 of them!!!) and socket them into the card by hand! A "Zip Chip" replacement CPU, which ran at a blazing 8 MHz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_accelerators#Zip_Chip_.E2.80.93_Zip_Technologies) When I say "blazing", I mean that literally; the first one I installed actually burned out in less than a year, and I had to buy an external cooling fan that clipped onto the slots on the side of the computer to keep the replacement chip from suffering the same fate. A 2400 baud modem An Applied Engineering "Phasor" sound card (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasor_(sound_synthesizer)) An installed copy of GeOS, that gave that ][e a Mac-like GUI OS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(8-bit_operating_system)), along with apps like GeoCalc, GeoWrite, GeoPaint, etc. For a guy who had wanted a Mac in 1984 but couldn't afford one himself and whose parents didn't want to buy one when there was no software for it, this ended up being a pretty good substitute, and one hell of a workhorse system. It got me through high school and 3 of my 4 years in college before it finally burned out for good and was replaced with a Mac Classic.

I'm also wondering what will happen for our Eastern Caribbean cruise, especially now that Maria is on a track that will not only hit St. Maarten and the other Virgin Islands for a second round of devastation, but is also on target to give Puerto Rico a far more devastating blow than the relative "glance" it took from Irma. At first I was thinking that only the St. Maarten stop on our trip would be impacted, but now it could potentially be St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, and Labadee. Granted, our cruise isn't until March 31 next year, and a lot can happen in six months. But I'm seriously starting to wonder if our 8-night Eastern Caribbean out of FLL on Freedom could end up becoming an 8-night Western instead, or even somehow be shifted to a Southern Caribbean itinerary of some sort. And in the end it really doesn't matter, because it doesn't change the fact there are a ton of souls out on those islands who are maybe only just now starting to feel some hope of recovery from this, and now find themselves with another massive storm coming their way.

According to reporting by Matt, cabins on the port (left) side of the ship are best for views of the NYC skyline during sail away. With that in mind, I'm in room 7238 (a Junior Suite) for my trip to Bermuda next October. While I'm a NJ native, I haven't had occasion to stay in any hotels in the Newark / Bayonne area. I'm sure the recommendations from @zgilliam and @CGTLH are solid, and if you decide those don't work you can definitely take a look on TripAdvisor. I've booked plenty of hotels based on the recommendations / reviews there, and I find them a lot more accurate (honest?) than what I find on Expedia, Hotels.com, etc.

I'd exercise some caution with CruiseCritic as far as things like reviews or commentaries. I started off there and quickly found that it was a sea of negativity and noise, especially when it came to ship reviews. Maybe because it's such a "general purpose" site, maybe some other reason, but it definitely wasn't a great "signal to noise" ratio. I have read, however, that it's a good site to use for roll calls of your specific itineraries and arranging meet-ups or group activities. I'd also add TripAdvisor to your list. It has entries with reviews for many shore excursion options that you won't find listed on the cruise lines' sites (which you'd have to book on your own), as well as excursions that are available on sites like Royal's Cruise Planners. It's a great way to find alternate activities you may not have considered or even known exist, as well as get information on excursions you can't otherwise find.

Also, keep in mind that some TA cruises are only offered at very specific times of the year. Prime example being the once-yearly TA that goes to Norway and Iceland, with varying other stops depending on the year, that only happens in August.

My wife sent me this link this morning. Good overview of how all the various islands in the eastern Caribbean have been affected. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/caribbean/articles/hurricane-irma-hotels-open-island-damage/

As a native New Jerseyan I can offer a suggestion on this, if you really want to see New York at all. Since the port is in Bayonne, which is close to Newark, I'd think you should be able to book a hotel in Newark that's situated either close to the light rail or the Newark PATH (Port Authority subway system) terminal in Newark. From the Newark terminal, you can take the PATH to 1 World Trade Center, where you can see the World Trade Center memorial. If I remember rightly, you also have a reasonably short walk to 30 Rockefeller Center (where they film shows like Today, NBC Nightly News, and have the small skating rink area in the winter time with the giant Christmas tree). Both areas have a decent number of restaurants to try out, and from the World Trade Center you have about a half-mile walk to Battery Park. Of course, I also have to recommend Hoboken as a place to check out, especially if you're any kind of foodie. Just take either the light rail or the PATH from Newark to Hoboken, then go up the main road through town that ends at the Hoboken PATH station; in a quarter to half a mile you'll be surrounded by all kinds of fantastic dining options. My favorite place there (if it's still open after all these years) was Bangkok City; amazing Thai food for really reasonable prices. Both the PATH and light rail are pretty reasonably priced each way, and they run fairly frequently during the day until around 10 PM. I commuted on them for years and the prices haven't changed much at all. But, the drawback of this is that hotel prices in Newark can be high compared to the surrounding area; and you'll also need to make the drive from Newark to Bayonne the morning of your cruise, which could take a while depending on traffic (guaranteed in and around Newark) and any construction going on (almost guaranteed just about anywhere on a major road or highway in NJ).

So St. Kitts was not impacted at all by Irma? I'd have thought, given how relatively close those islands are to each other vs the size of Irma, that St. Kitts would have been as wrecked as St. Thomas and St. Maarten. It's six months away, so I'm really hoping that by then St. Maarten will have been (mostly) rebuilt / restored; but if it's not, I wonder if my eastern Caribbean itinerary in March / April would change to do an overnight at St. Kitts, since that's already on the itinerary as the first port before St. Maarten. I'm also hoping that Puerto Rico manages to recover by then, since that's our third port and they were saying that the area that was hit the worst by Irma will be without power for up to six months.

Serious. I looked it up and confirmed it's not whiskey. It's actually a mix of amaretto and Bacardi 151 (which is the flammable part). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Doctor_Pepper It was a drink I had in college only a couple of times, because you're supposed to chug it after dropping in the shot and therefore you get a kick like a mule. But it really did taste like Dr. Pepper. Damnedest thing I've ever had.

If you light that shot on fire before dropping it in, isn't that a Flaming Dr. Pepper?

Also for St. Maarten, as long as your ship is there from at least 9 to 5, consider the all day snorkeling adventure from Soualiga Destinations. As with other recommendations, it will really depend on the shape the island is in and also whether the owner (Captain Bob) still has boats available. I'm booked with him for April next year and praying he'll be up and running by then. I'd hate to have to cancel / get a refund and deprive him of income I'm guessing he'll very much be needing by then.

Added! It looks like you'll be onboard the Anthem with @JLMoran Not only on the same cruise, we were originally in the same room one deck apart before I upgraded to a JS. ?

Welcome to the "family", Christine! Any questions about your upcoming cruise or another one you want to plan, ask away; guaranteed there will be plenty of folks here who can answer. Brian, we've talked plenty on the other boards so you get no special welcome from me.

Welcome to the group, Michael!

Oh, I can believe it! I've seen enough blog posts here now to know that plenty of folks in Europe like to cruise around "their backyard"; and of course there are folks in the rest of the world who I'm sure enjoy a trip to the Med or Scandinavian regions. I was just thinking that if concerns such as terrorist attacks or political unrest were increasing that they'd have a global impact on bookings, not just a North American one.

Interesting. But if those overseas tensions are an issue, then how is Europe simultaneously "getting to be popular"? Is that not so much from an American bookings point of view, but just general global trends? I'm looking at some European itineraries that I hope will also be on offer in 2020, as I'm turning 50 that year and I'd like to do a European cruise of some stripe. First choice is a Norway & Iceland run in the summer, but also looking at some Mediterranean options (particularly ones going to Greece and/or Croatia, most of which do leave from Barcelona). I would suspect that if those issues persist, it could lead to depressed bookings and reduced prices in the areas most impacted but increased prices in the regions deemed "safer" or less risky to travel. Will have to keep a close eye on this over the next year or two.

Please enlighten me! I've really developed a liking for the craft beers over the last year or two, and if there's good local stuff to be had I'd love to try it. I'm actually going to the Big Brew Beer Fest in Morristown next month with my brother, so if any of those local brews are on offer there, I'll be sure to check them out!