JLMoran

Just booked my next next cruise -- Anthem, October 13, 2018.

The Northeast itineraries are out. And I'm booked on Anthem for Bermuda!!! :D :D :D October 13 to 18, 2018, Deck 9, room #9244 (hump balcony!) So now I have two cruises to wait for. One in 367 days, and now this one in 563 days. An-ti-ci-PA-tion! An-ti-ci-PAYYY-AAYYYY-TION! ;)

Or how about "Titanic" on the trans-Atlantic voyages? ^_^

I saw the same 7-night itinerary for Anthem out of Cape Liberty, also just one sailing (in November!! :o ) I guess they're trying out some new options? Odd itinerary, too -- 1 sea day out from Cape Liberty, 3 nights in Bermuda, then two sea days to return. So the ship will just be making a lazy, meandering trip back to port, I guess.

We'll also be looking forward to having the same table mates and a chance to make some new friends. I seem to recall reading that tables go up to 12 people, and my family of four all agree we'll ask for one of those to have a shot at a nice variety of table mates.

I thought AB Positive was the universal recipient?

Just did a quick look on cruisedeckplans.com. Looks like a junior suite on Freedom of the Seas or one of its siblings. Check https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Freedom-of-the-Seas and view the available videos (have to click the link for cached copies).

This was actually the second reason for us that led to choosing the late dining slot -- worries about having to rush back to the ship to make our dining slot. Totally forgot it was also a factor when I wrote my original reply. And we're so used to eating between 6:30 and 7:30 that 5:30 just feels too darned early for us. :)

Maybe true for RC, as they're the "mass market" line, but as I'd noted earlier you can find a pretty good number of 14-night or longer itineraries on sister line Celebrity that depart from US ports for Canada & Northeast, Southern Caribbean, Western Caribbean, etc. And they're not disguised back-to-backs, the routes clearly show return to the port of origin only on the last day. [edited to note departure specifically from US ports]

A factor for us was the crowd we are expecting to see. Since we're traveling during the spring break week for most schools, we're assuming there will be a lot of families on board, many with younger kids. We're making a SWAG and guessing that those families with younger kids will make up the bulk of the 5:30 PM dining slot on Freedom, maybe with some older passengers who also prefer to eat early, so we chose the later slot at 8:30. The hope is that we'll be more likely to be seated with other families that have older teens and are close to our age bracket (late 40's / early 50's) No idea if that SWAG will pan out. For all we know, the parents of those little'uns will come to the 8:30 dinner after putting the kids to bed and leaving with them with a sitter!

Chris, appreciate that feedback about Anthem. I'm due to be booked for a 2018 5-night to Bermuda at the end of this week when those itineraries open up (and I'm really hoping for a hump balcony room, if they aren't already snatched up by various other travel agencies). Between your feedback, Mike's periscoping (craft beers in Michael's Genuine Pub!!! W00T!!!), and a few others here, I'm really starting to look forward to it even before it's booked. And if all goes well, I'll be looking to take the family on her for the 12-night southern Caribbean itinerary in 2019 or maybe 2020, depending on budget and our kids' schedules.

I noticed this, too. Yet sister line Celebrity has many 14-night itineraries to southern and western caribbean. Even from the northeast, there are no itineraries that run 14 nights, even to the "southern caribbean" or "northeast and Canada". The cap there appears to be 12 nights. But here, too, I see 14-night itineraries from Celebrity that cover the same regions. Maybe there's an agreement between the two lines that RC keeps to under 14 nights so that Celebrity can hold those itineraries without major competition from the mass-market sister? Or maybe the Royal Caribbean ships that run these itineraries are too large now to fit in all the ports that Celebrity visits, so they're naturally limited?

Great explanation, Billy! Thanks a bunch! I have to say, I'm both not surprised to find out how much smaller a world cruise ship is, but also semi-surprised. I was thinking they'd need to allow for potentially a lot more passengers, at least if the ship is providing various "legs" for people to get on and off and thus needing some flexibility in the total available cabins. But given what you said about it being such a different type of cruise, it also makes a lot of sense that a ship as "small" as 684 passengers works. And what does it say about what a cruise n00b I am that I didn't even think they made ships that "small" any more? I thought they were all "minimum 2,500 berths or bust!" :D

OK, I'm guessing no one here has actually gone on one of these. But after reading the descriptions and seeing how these cruises typically last anywhere between 66 and 110 days, I can't help but wonder... How the heck does the cruise line keep both the passengers and crew from going stir crazy and feeling total cabin fever on such a long trip? Do they change out the show staff every couple of weeks so that they can present different shows in the theater over all that time? Change up the menus while they're at it? Swap out live performers for the pubs and other watering holes? I mean, these cruises tend to be on smaller ships like Voyager class, correct? So you're already talking about comparatively less to do on board during sea days than you get with a Freedom or Quantum class. I know I could only watch the same 2 or 3 theater shows a couple of times before I was wanting something different, and while having whatever specialty restaurant options helps diversify the menu, even that can get old after a while. The ship's library will help, certainly, and the big variety of ports to see. But there are still a good number of sea days while crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and that's where I'd imagine the risk of people getting bored out of their gourds is highest after an already long time on the ship. I guess this is a big reason why they offer the flexibility to do different "legs" of the trip and embark / disembark when and where you want. But for those who really do want to do a true 'round-the-world cruise -- and I'll admit I've been contemplating something like that as a FANTASTIC bucket list item after I'm retired, assuming I can convince the wife to join me -- how do they manage things so everyone finally disembarks with a feeling of "My God, what an amazing trip!!", and the crew is also feeling good at the end of it all? And of course, I can't end this without mentioning the retiree noted in one of my recent RCI emails who has decided to live out her remaining days on a cruise ship. ;)

I think I've seen a couple of itineraries like those before when I was just scanning for possible itineraries of interest for the future; as Jerel and you guessed, it's to allow people to embark / disembark at a port of their choice along an itinerary that loops through the same set of ports. I want to say it's limited to two ports on the itineraries I saw, not necessarily at the "ends" of the itinerary. I guess it's a variant on that "open jaw" cruise format I had asked about on another thread. Wish I could remember which cruise line it was where I had seen that. Maybe an RCI Scandinavian tour, or another Mediterranean trip.

I'll be even worse, seeing as all my right-side shoes have to be modified with a lift. I mean, if I literally own one pair of sneakers that I wear for both work and home, you seriously think I'm going to be bringing dress shoes with me for formal night? The only reason I'll have a second pair will be if the water shoes I'm looking at can be successfully modified. :P

I'll see your headache and raise you a "borderline asthmatic". I can't be around cigarette smoke for any length of time without breaking out into a major coughing attack. So I'm sorry, but if you're on the balcony next to mine and I get a whiff of cigarettes, I'll have the cabin attendant on you faster than you can blink as soon as I've verified it's definitely you and not someone more upwind.

To reach Cape Liberty, the ship has to clear the Verrazano Bridge. Anthem manages it with only 16 inches of clearance, so there's no way an Oasis class ship, which is larger, could ever fit. And as already noted, the O class does seem to be designed for warmer climates, especially spaces like Central Park that may not hold up well in a late September or early October frost.

So according to the image in Matt's blog post about the 2018/19 Caribbean, Alaska, and Northeast itineraries (http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/03/15/royal-caribbean-announces-2018-2019-caribbean-alaska-and-northeast-itineraries ), Cape Liberty in Bayonne, NJ is going to get Adventure of the Seas doing the New England and Canada run (among other trips), and Voyager is heading off to Galveston. Can anyone who's been on both give an idea of whether this is an improvement, a downgrade, or just a "lateral move" for those of us in the Bayonne area who would prefer to sail out of Cape Liberty and use the money not spent on a flight towards getting a better cabin or other upgrades? It certainly looks like it's quite an upgrade over Vision. Adventure is a much bigger ship, and I see in the brochure pages on the RCI web site that they put that larger size to use with things like a water park and racing slides, golf area, more specialty dining options, etc. Plus, it was recently refurbished, so it's got all the new shiny. But how is it in person, not on paper? Is the overall experience on there better than on Vision for a family of four, where the kids are becoming older teens, or for a middle-aged couple traveling on our own? It's scheduled for the same itineraries Vision ran out of Bayonne, but will it be able to manage the same ports? Or will it have to change to some maybe less desirable ports because it can't navigate the same places that Vision could? Looking forward to people's thoughts on this. Those New England and Canada itineraries on Vision looked really nice, especially for an alternative to a typical fall foliage tour. I'm hoping that Adventure ca hold up to that.

I watched it, and it was pretty darned amazing to see (albeit in rendered 3D glory instead of reality glory). The "magic carpet" section off the side of the ship was especially impressive, just for the engineering and tech that probably had to go into it to even make it possible. My only concern seeing this ship, is that it makes me think that Celebrity is starting to turn into Azamara, as this appears to be a genuine luxury liner and not a "regular" cruise ship. Certainly the pricing seems to buck the trend of other Celebrity ships, at least for the limited itineraries currently on offer. Hopefully when it gets a "regular" cruise year, the prices will become more in line with the other ships in Celebrity's fleet (of a comparable class).

Ok, we need to agree on different abbreviations for "travel agent" vs. "transatlantic". I was scratching my head for five minutes, trying to figure out why WAAAYTOOO had booked a travel agent, or if she meant she had her agent do the booking for her, or... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My invoice just says "Vacation protection plan included". No idea if that's Royal's plan or MEI's independent one. Seems to be part of the overall cruise booking notes as I see the promotions listed and the $100 OBC applied to the cabin.

If the cruise was booked with a TA (MEI in my case), and the TA also books the flight, will they use Air2Sea behind the scenes to get the insurance tie-in that was mentioned earlier? Or they'll just go with whatever gets the best rate? Asking because we did purchase the insurance for the cruise at booking, would like to only be paying one insurance charge rather than two.

If your son is younger and wouldn't be OK to go by himself, then one ticket is fine. If he's older and you're OK with letting him go on his own (needs to be able to use the hand brake at the end), then maybe get two tickets so he has the option.

Especially since, unlike cabin fares and excursions, gratuities are only ever bound to up and not down.