JLMoran

I live in NJ and Bayonne is 45 minutes from my house, so it's the ultimate in convenience even though the itineraries for Royal are pretty limited. I was looking at the deck plans for Anthem since I'm planning to book a Bermuda trip for 2018 when those come out March 30. Only outside space is from deck 14 on up, everything else is indoor only. Makes me think I definitely want a balcony room for the trip so I can get fresh air whenever I want, especially when it's only a couple hundred more than the interior with virtual balcony. It does make me wonder if I want to take that ship for the 12-night Southern Caribbean offering they have in December, January (birthday trip!) and April. Not sure how well I'd do on a ship where the only outdoor space is basically the one deck with the pools, rock wall, etc. guess I'll have to read you live blog if you have one, and Matt's when he posts!

I remember reading elsewhere on the boards that older ships like Voyager and Radiance class (and I think also Freedom class) won't be getting retrofitted for the smart bands and Royal IQ app use, just because of the sheer cost and effort it would take to retrofit things like all the door locks. Saying they have this on 20% of their ships is a little bit of a shell game. They have 25 ships total (26 after the fourth Quantum class is built), so they only need 5 ships supporting this to make that claim. If I'm remembering correctly, Harmony of the Seas already supports the smart bands, and I think the Quantum class ships might as well (so that's four down). Assuming Symphony also supports it, there's your five by the end of 2017 (not quite when Symphony is due to start making sailings, but close enough for government work).

More outdoor space and fresh / sea air is definitely a good thing (see: central park on Oasis class). But if the ship is still so big that it can't make it into all the ports, then no bueno. Of course, there are destinations like Alaska or Norway where they have to keep smaller ships handy in order to navigate the fjords and other tricky spots where the best scenery is hiding. So I would really hope that as ships like the Voyager or Radiance class age out and have to be retired, that the cruise lines would be smart enough to make modern replacements at the same size as those, rather than replacing them with something bigger that can't (fully) reach those destinations any more. Then again, given that Royal has Celebrity and Azamara as it's mid-level and up-market alternatives, we could be seeing the start of a trend: The lower-end lines in each conglomerate make only mega-ships with limited destinations that cater to families and younger people, and seeing more "exotic" locales that require smaller ships means moving to the mid-level or luxury line in the group. [edited to fix my grammatical redundancies :P ]

My biggest complaint about the largest ships (Oasis class), bearing in mind I haven't actually been on any of them yet, is that their sheer size limits what ports they can go to. When my family and I were searching for our first cruise, I was beyond frustrated that Oasis ships are all stuck with 7-night itineraries, typically visiting only three ports; I hadn't realized at the time, but the reason is that those are the only ports with harbors large and deep enough to accommodate these massive ships. If part of the point of cruising is to go to places you normally couldn't, and be able to change out those places from cruise to cruise, why would I want to artificially limit myself because the ship is too damn big? That said, the Anthem with its 12-night southern Caribbean itinerary is a notable exception, actually hitting 50/50 between sea and port days and giving a nice set of ports. Maybe RCI realized that while the Oasis class was an engineering marvel, it's ended up limiting the kind of cruisers they can draw? Maybe that's why the Quantum class ended up being smaller and closer in size to Freedom class. Part of why I'm planning to book that 5-night Bermuda trip is to have a chance to try out Quantum class before making a longer booking on it; I'm hoping I'll find I like it.

Saw this term for the Quebec / Bayonne itinerary coming next year for Adventure. What does it mean that the trip is "Open Jaw"?

Just year-round Caribbean, no seasonal like Bermuda yet. Boo! :(

Web site working fine for me on Safari (both Mac and iPhone). Just logged in to see if Bermuda itineraries showed up with the other Caribbean stuff, but no dice. :(

TripAdvisor has very positive reviews of the dolphin swim / experience on St. Kitts. Haven't looked at the one for St. Maarten, but the reviews I read very frequently commented on how the men who work with the dolphins very clearly care for them and about them a lot. This is the one we're planning to do on our cruise in 2018, mainly because there are other excursions we want to do in St. Maarten and I've been advised here not to try and do more than one excursion a day. Very important to us that the dolphins are well-cared for; I've read that some places don't care for them that well and it shows when you go to them.

All Caribbean and Bahamas, or just the year-round itineraries? Really want to see the new Bermuda itineraries for 2018/19, but I'm pretty sure those are in the seasonal set.

A rhapsody isn't just a type of musical composition. The word "rhapsody", per Merriam-Webster, also means "A highly emotional utterance" an "effusively extravagant discourse", with a sentence example of "The major launched into a long rhapsody about his plans for the city." Clearly in that example, it's a synonym for the mayor's vision of where the city is going, which (albeit as a stretch) does let the name fit with the rest of the Vision class ships. I have absolutely no idea what the talking heads at RCI were smoking when they came up with the other names for the Oasis class ships. Plenty of synonyms for "Oasis" they could have used. Haven, hideaway, refuge, resort would all work fine (thanks, thesaurus.com!). That said, I'm guessing asylum, hole, and safe house wouldn't have made the cut. ;)

I actually am a bit of a train person (older trains at least; modern commuter rail could disappear and I'd never notice), and like chances to ride passenger trains and enjoy a meal on board while watching the countryside go by. Driving to sight see doesn't work for me; when I'm driving, I never pay attention to the scenery unless it's something right in front of me (like a spectacular sunrise / sunset / harvest moon), because I'm too busy watching the road and where I need to go! And buses just feel crowded and cramped and noisy all the time. Give me a train tour option any day, I'll be happy. I doubt I'd do the dog sled, just because of my feet and doubts about how well they'd hold up standing on a bouncing dog sled for an hour in freezing cold. But taking the copter to the top of the glacier and walking around for a little bit, getting pictures and just soaking up the sight of it would be awesome! (another bucket list item) But, I've got plenty of time to think about it and plan. I could change my mind about all of it. :)

How about the more-or-less all day train ride that I remember hearing about? I forget where it leaves from, but goes across the Canadian border over some really crazy mountainous areas (like you can't believe the train isn't falling off the rails), then "turns around" and heads back to where it started. I'm not doing Alaska yet, but that was one of the excursions I heard about that I pretty said, "oh hell yes!" when I heard it described. The helicopter tour to the glacier I know is expensive; one of Matt's podcasts about Alaska brought that up and how much it costs. (especially if you want the dog sled ride with it!), but there's a reason things like that are all "bucket list" items -- you only want one shot to do it, so damn the budget and full steam ahead! :D

I just rechecked the passport site and I don't see any reason to have more than the card for a Caribbean cruise. Card is enough for entry / exit to all of the Caribbean islands, not just certain islands, as well as re-entry to the US, so a book seems like overkill long as you know you're not (or don't expect to be) doing any international air travel for the next ten years. I already have the book, and my daughter has to renew hers this year. Maybe I'll get myself a new card version and have her renewal also include a card. Definitely would prefer carrying a card in my wallet that I'll already have on me over carrying a separate book.

I can confirm that two connecting balconies are MUCH cheaper than a grand or loft suite. My wife and I looked at a grand suite on Freedom, since we're a family of four and that seemed the smallest single cabin that could hold us all with any reasonable comfort. Then I found out about the connecting cabin option and priced that out -- somewhere between half and two thirds the cost of the grand suite (and same price as a single Junior Suite). Needless to say that's what we've booked. I know Matt has booked connecting rooms for pretty much all of his cruises, even when his kids were as young as yours. They would leave the connecting door open at night so the kids had easy access and Matt and his wife could if one of them was up or needed some attention. So I don't think you'd need to worry about them being in another room and getting into trouble. Plus, Matt noted it's great for getting the kids to bed and still being able to stay up, watch TV, etc.

Oh my god, I never saw that second one before. I was laughing my ass off! :lol:

Finest in the district, sir! It's so clean!

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat!

Ding ding ding! You beat me to it! ;)

What is "high value" in this context? Does that mean you have a reputation as someone who never settles for anything less than a grand suite, alway buys high end excursions, or is otherwise a "big spender"? Or is there some other factor involved?

I've got to say: The way this was handled and the overall process for chartering, quite frankly, sucks. I read the link posted earlier that gives an FAQ about chartering a ship, and they only require 9-12 months advance notice. Meanwhile, the itineraries are announced nearly two years ahead of time. So now you have a ship with some (not insignificant) number of bookings, who have been looking forward to this trip for at least several months, maybe even a year. And they're told nothing more than, "Sorry, someone just bought the ship for that week and you've all been kicked off. Figure out some other vacation plan for that time." The FAQ does say that if they have a certain percentage of the ship already booked, even if it's in the allowed time frame for making a charter, that they can deny the charter request. But who knows how full that threshold is? If they're going to allow ship charters, that should be something that's worked out before the itineraries are announced. Then no-one gets bumped because some super-wealthy group or individual decides they want to have a private party for several thousands of their members / closest friends.

I haven't actually taken the cruise yet, but thanks to you good folks here I learned to book just one excursion in any given port (unless we plan to split up and do different things at the same time).

I can confirm from my own first-time booking that Crown & Anchor benefits don't start applying until your second cruise, since the "points" aren't applied until after the first cruise ends. My TA confirmed that for me when I asked. That said, it's still good that you signed up right away, especially if you plan on doing more cruises with Royal. If nothing else, you get to go on one of the priority embarkation lines on all your future cruises instead of the one for "steerage". ;)

That's worrisome. I hope they're not trying to track the bookings by hand or anything and overbooking the ship. Probably a good idea to call them daily until they send you an official confirmation and get the cruise reservation showing up when you log in to the site.

Just checked the RCI site (6:15 AM EST). There's a banner for the new promo and touting the Symphony itineraries, but doesn't seem to be anything new there yet for Caribbean or Bermuda. Date selector still ends like before, in April 2018. :(

They have ramen?!? Dammit, now you've forced me into booking a cruise on a ship with a true Izumi on board and not just Izumi express. Lucky for me, Anthem has one and I'm already planning on that Bermuda cruise next year. ;)