JLMoran

Other factors: Are you a "the ship is the destination" kind of person, or do the ports it goes to matter more? Are you OK with itineraries that never go over 5-7 nights, or do you want the option of longer trips in the 10-14+ night range? The bigger ships cater more to the "A" side of those questions, while the mid-size and smaller ones are geared toward folks who lean more to the "or B" side.

Yup, confirmed. And the price on the website is a little over $100 more than my original booking, not enough to make the OBC worthwhile. Thus, why my TA hasn't called me today. ;) Wilson, when I was doing the search it showed that room 9644 was available. Isn't that the room you said you booked for this itinerary? :o

WAAAYTOOO, that guide to figuring out the "pattern" is great! One question -- looking at the deck plans, I see as it gets closer to the hump area that the room "shift" outward and seem to form new "clusters". Following the pattern and finding an aft connecting pair on Anthem, then moving forward towards the hump, I see that the rooms shift and form a new cluster just before where the hump area starts. Do you know if that resets the pattern to where the shift and new "cluster" starts? Or they just account for that when fabricating the rooms and some of those pairs have the shift in location for the hump? I'm staying in a balcony just before mid-hump (room 9244). If the pattern doesn't reset, then I'll have the bed by the closet. If it does reset, well then... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This should help explain it: What you need to know about Royal Caribbean's My Time Dining

I can't make any comments about Freedom yet, but I wanted to say congratulations on the performance opportunity for your daughter! That's awesome! :D

So I wanted to compare my currently paid price for the Oct 13, 2018 5-night Bermuda sailing on Anthem against the 100 hour sale. I go onto the RCI site and do a search just for any sailings to Bermuda on anthem in October, and the only sailing listed is for the 7th. I was thinking maybe that sailing is already sold out, but in the past, I've seen sold out sailings listed with a "sold out" label on them. Plus, that sailing was only announced last week with the seasonal Caribbean / northeast sailings. Could that sailing really already be sold out, and Royal just doesn't say that any more on the site? The part that worries me is that if they don't list it now, it may not be listed for any other promo than the one in effect when I booked. Then I'll never (ok, my TA Heather won't ever) be able to rebook for any kind of savings or OBC. I suppose that would mean I really did get the best possible price, but I always figured there'd be something small I could at least qualify for. Especially when Anthem seems to get "bonus OBC" or other offerings like "balcony for ocean view price" all the time.

Toodle68, imagine taking a river cruise where it's only about 60 people. :) My in-laws have done a couple of those on the Rhine river. IIRC, first time took them through Estonia and Budapest (among other places), after having to detour south and maybe even onto a different river because of problems in / around the northern Rhine (too low for passage? a fire?); the second time they went the originally intended route through Germany and further north. They said it was really fun and I was amazed at the photos they got of places you could only reach by way of the river.

Since we're talking promos here, just want to ask a related question -- Why do so many promos that Royal Caribbean offers have a separate / additional "perk" when booking a room on Anthem? Seems like it's typically additional OBC or a special balcony room discount. I've seen this ever since last November when I first started searching for our first cruise to book. It's been out just over two years now, so I doubt they do it to help drum up awareness or get people to try out the "new shiny" any more. Have they had a hard time getting its itineraries filled up or something? Having just booked on Anthem and seeing that, once again, it had one of those Anthem-only promotions available, I can't help but wonder about it.

Considering how far off your cruise is, I'm wondering if fully paying it off in the next few months makes sense. If a promo comes along that reduces the cost of your cruise, and you've fully paid it off, there's no way to reduce your final bill since it's already paid off. I think I read elsewhere that if that happens, Royal just gives you the difference as onboard credit, and this may be acceptable in your case since you want OBC pre-applied for your trip. I kind of look at that the same way I look at overpaying my taxes and getting a refund -- that's an interest-free loan you can't redeem until your trip, and in the meantime you might want / need that money. Might be better to hold off fully paying off the trip and putting that OBC money on your account until just a few months out, rather than over a year out.

Good luck! :) And I will say, I've read articles on the tech blogs I follow that certainly make a case for times where it's useful as the "group photo" stick, rather than the selfie stick. If you have one already as you posted earlier, go ahead and bring it! That way you cover all of your bases and can fall back on it if no one is around or you don't feel so comfortable asking the people nearby. I guess part of it for me was seeing this series of photos that was recently posted. All of the shots are social / family situations -- a couple lying in bed, friends hanging outside, a family at the dinner table, etc. All of them were taken with the people staring into an empty hand where their smartphone would be, in accurate poses (the photographer had them actually hold their devices so they had the right position, then had them freeze and took the phones away). It really drove home how socially isolating these devices have made us. I've been making an effort for a while now to stop using it so much when family or friends are around and we're in a situation that conversation is expected (dinner, watching a TV show, helping with homework, etc.), and seeing those pictures reinforced that I need to keep making that effort and be more sociable. But just because that's what I feel is necessary doesn't mean everyone else should. And looking again at my last reply, I do have to say that I got just a little preachy there.

If you're mainly thinking the Grand Suite is mandatory to keep everyone in one space, and you aren't so keen on the suite benefits that Matt mentioned, may I offer an alternative that can save a sizeable chunk of money: Look at booking two connecting balcony rooms instead. When we were looking to book our first cruise last fall (family of four, two older teen girls), we also were first thinking we'd have to book a grand suite to have enough space for all of us. But my jaw dropped at how much more a grand suite is compared to a standard balcony. Yes, it's twice the square footage of a regular balcony room. Yes, it has the suite benefits that Matt mentioned. But on Freedom of the Seas (sister ship to Liberty), a Grand Suite room would have cost us four times the price of a superior balcony room, even though it's "only" double the square footage. And the suite still gives just one bed plus a sofa bed (our teens did not want to sleep in a sofa bed together). Once we realized the ship offers connecting balcony rooms, and saw how much money that would save us (heck, it's the same price as a Junior Suite for more square footage!), we knew that was our best option. That saved money was now available for excursions, spa treatments, internet packages, and drink packages. What you get with connecting rooms: two bathrooms two beds (three if you split the bed in the second room into the two double beds) about the same square footage as the grand suite IIRC you can remove the divider between the balconies and get a combined balcony that's comparable to the grand suite your teenager will have his / her own space Just a suggestion. If you really like the idea of the suite and are OK with the added cost, by all means go for it!

Gentlemen? :: looking around :: Where? :D

I always shake my head at the idea of a selfie stick. As posted earlier, it means you're using the lower-quality front camera on your smartphone to start with. Odds are you won't be holding it very steady if its extended all the way out. "Back in the day", if you wanted to be in the picture, you'd politely ask a passerby if they'd mind taking a photo for you, hand them your point-and-shoot, and presto! Now, because it's a smartphone, I guess people are less willing to do that for fear the stranger will run off with their expensive device or something. Or they're just becoming more and more antisocial. I thoroughly plan to do that old-school way of it when I'm on the ship, for sure. And when we're on an excursion I'll most likely ask our tour guides to do it, too.

I'm all for it if the boss man is on board. But my first cruise isn't until a year from now, so you'll need to be patient. ;)

Not that I have any experience with them; but from what I saw when looked at them on a lark, I think Crystal is rarefied air even among other luxury cruise lines.

How about Kia / Hyundai / Genesis (just spun off from Hyundai as new luxury brand)? Or Scion / Toyota / Lexus? :)

Totally agree, and I hope I didn't inadvertently imply inferiority with my last comment!

Yes. As @monorailmedic would say, they're the "mass market" line. Primarily geared to families and the least expensive of the three for comparable itineraries. Seems to be the trend with cruising companies. Have three lines to appeal to the different demographics. With the exception of MSC Cruises, whose parent company is mainly involved in cargo shipment. 😂

They're the luxury line. As opposed to Celebrity, which is the "Premium" (their marketing word, not mine) line in the middle.

Just read the blog post. Given that my cruise on Freedom out of Port Everglades is on March 31, 2018, I'll be on of her last sailings before she re-homes to San Juan. Maybe they'll have some extra parties planned. ;)

I just reread your goal in the initial posting. Have you looked at cruisedeckplans.com? That is a site with listings of the deck plans for every cruise ship, and all of the floor plans I've looked at have several rooms on each deck marked as having photos or videos submitted by people who've stayed in them. You can always see thumbnail images of the photos, but need to be a paid member to view the photographs at full size. Videos seem to be watchable by both members and non-members, although members may have a higher quality option available. Just throwing out another option for you that already exists and appears to have an active community. Something like that might or might not be possible to set up on this site, depending on the capabilities of the service provider that Matt (the owner) is using to run the blog, and how much it would cost to start hosting potentially tons of photos.

Hmmm. You don't suppose this is something new they're trying out that might also be rolled out to Cabana and Bungalow renters on Labadee, do you? That would be awesome if they did that, but I won't hold my breath. ;)

That's awesome! 🙌🻠Let's try to meet up one night (if we don't also end up table mates 😉ðŸ˜), will be good to meet someone from the boards face-to-face.

How early you can start booking depends on the ship and sailing. I'm a year and a day out from my cruise on Freedom, but I was able to start booking excursions and spa treatments last month. You do have to pay for the excursions when you book them. But this is actually an advantage, because you can start purchasing an excursion here and an excursion there and spread out the cost of the whole trip. Same with any drink / dining packages (those don't seem to become available until 60-90 before sailing), or internet purchase or pre-paying tips. Do it all with enough lead time and you won't have a big (or any!) credit card bill when you get off the ship! :D If you're going to Labadee, check out the blog posts about the cabanas and bungalows. Sounds like the group you have would be ideal for one of those. What you need to know about Labadee Cabanas If you do decide to get one those, book it as soon as you can since they're limited and sell out fast.

Take a look at this cruise review from eatsleepcruise.com -- http://eatsleepcruise.com/2016/06/anthem-of-the-seas-review-bermuda/ They mentioned staying at the Westin Jersey City Newport in the "Day 0" and "Day 1" sections of their review (scroll about a third down the page to where the tabs for each day are located), and have some photos of the place as well as commentary on getting from there to the cruise port. I do believe they took their own car as they live up in the Boston area (or did at the time they wrote this), but the info should still help with figuring out if it's an option and I'm sure you could book a Lift or have the hotel get you a car. If RCCL doesn't make arrangements for hotels any more, this could at least be an option to look into for self-booking or reserving through Expedia / your airline / your travel agent when you book your flight. Hope this helps!