JLMoran

"However....I still love having the shoe organizer and I will continue to use it". A shoe organizer, seriously? I usually cruise with a pair of sandals and one pair of "dress" shoes for formal nights. Don't need much of a shoe organizer for that. Of course, I do take a ration of you know what from she-who-mus- be- obeyed about my footwear. 

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.

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)_/¯

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)_/¯

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)_/¯

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.

if you want to see the new future of crazy cruise ships go watch the video of
the new Celebrity EDGE coming in 2018.  Now that is going to be a ship.

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)_/¯

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

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

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.

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 ]

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 ]

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 ]

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. ;)

The train in Skagway was a great time.  There is no meals or such, its not that long but the scenery was fantastic!  Old fashioned turn of the (last) century style cars.  We wook the train all the way up through BC and into Carcross, Yukon Terr. then took the bus back.  great day!
 
Since we did the southbound cruise from Seward to Vancouver we flew to Anchorage and the next morning took the Alaska Railway down to Seward to board Radiance.  About a 5 hour trip, Seating was Booth-style in a domed viewing car so the four of us (my parents were with us) had a table and lunch on the train was great.  
 
yes, shorex was a bit higher than in the islands, but then again everything is higher up there.  Our day in Icy Strait Point we walked into to town (Hoonah) (about 1 1/2 miles) just to explore.  Stopped in the little general store (a local store, not tourist related) and cans of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee were $4.50!

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. ;)

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

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

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

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?

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

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).