Lovetocruise2002

@rjac I am still so confused about this too. Have you called them out on their calculations?? And if so, I am so curious as to what their response was. Or is their regular price not $55? It is very confusing since prices are different depending on what ship you are on.

I can honestly see that over time the solid rule will be purchase the deluxe and if exempted then you must purchase the refreshment package. Because you really can't argue your way out of that one and they are still making money off of you.

Yes, BOGO you are restricted to the first two nights. The $30 covers your appetizers, entree, and dessert but not beverages. I don't pay attention much to the alcohol prices so maybe someone else can chime in here. I usually get the drink package and it has always covered me so far. I know the specialty cocktails can be a bit more. They pre-book the restaurants for you with BOGO but if you don't like it you can change it once on board. Just go to any specialty restaurant or they are usually set up in the MDR to make changes. And yes, I am pretty sure you can pick Chops both nights if there is availability but you have to wait until you get on board.

For our Harmony sailing, we were in a GS and it never showed up on our Cruise Planner. We ended up asking the concierge to make reservations for us when he contacted us a week before sailing. You can also make reservations once on board. For our Anthem sailing coming up, it was strange. It showed up in our cruise planner right after we booked our cruise. Then it disappeared for a few weeks. It reappeared again for a few days about two weeks ago (at which point I made our CK reservations) and now it is gone again. Strange but typical RC website glitches I am guessing.

Whenever we book a cruise we make sure we find out before where the designated smoking areas are. Then we purposely choose staterooms far from them. I have read on many reviews that cabins around or above smoking areas do get affected, especially if you are sensitive to the smell.

For those of you who have done the Space Center on your own are taxis readily available when you get off the ship?? What about when you want to get back to the ship? Are taxis easy to get then? I want to do this too but I agree that it is way overpriced through the ship.

Wow! @Boston Babe hats off to your husband. 30 years in Spec. Ed. Not many people know how hard that is. Amazing. I will have to think about people like him when I get frustrated with my hormonal 12 & 13 year old students that I deal with daily

Hmm...interesting. Thanks @twangster. Going to file that little bit of knowledge away for the future.

Running that "data checker" again...lol

Joe, teachers need more parents like you!

This might be dated info but, according to this site, they may have been taking people on Day 1 for North Star. http://eatsleepcruise.com/2016/05/anthem-of-the-seas-secrets/ and someone also posted this video on YouTube from a few months ago of riding it on embarkation day. So there might be hope.....

Yes, I have found they have more available when you call them. Checking online gives me the price range and I go from there.

The steak we had the last two cruises in the MDR has not been the greatest. Poor cuts of meat, not much flavour. I have never dined at Chops but it is my understanding that, quality wise, it is slightly above MDR. They offer (for and extra cost) steaks from Chops in the MDR....

Ha! @Boston Babe you and I are a lot alike. Started with the TA, then the control freak in me decided I needed to have more control so I started booking with RC directly. Then two years ago, I was swayed to go with a TA again because they made an offer on a sailing that I could not refuse. Did not like not having control over my booking and having to contact the TA for every small change. And i like to fight my own fights. So now I am back to booking directly with RC on my own. My husband often says I should become a TA when I retire from teaching lol. I will check the prices first online and then call directly to get the full inventory of rooms available. I have notice (as many have) the website is fussy. Sometimes it shows availability and then it won't take you through all the way. That is why I call them in the end.

@JLMoran here's another thought that might work.....could just book it now to hold your time and spot and then when you get onboard if there is a sale you could cancel your reservation completely and re-book it as a new booking? I thought of this because on our last cruise we booked and prepaid for Jamie's online. Then 2 days into our sailing we decided that we did not want to dine at Jamie's on the night that we booked it for. So when we cancelled that booking it was refunded back onto our onboard account and then on the last night when we dined there it was put back on.

If you're going to change it make sure you do it before 6 months prior to sail date because that extra OBC that comes with the NRD is only for bookings made 6 months prior. I actually got slightly upset with my family over this because we had been looking at this Anthem cruise of ours for a while (prior to 6 months) and no one could make up their minds if they wanted to go. I kept telling them to decide quickly. Then all of the sudden in September they all decided they actually did want to go and of course we had just missed the 6 month mark.

@twangster I envy you...freedom too now? Looking forward to more beautiful pictures afterwards

You get priority boarding but not priority disembarkation. You also get upgraded bath amenities, double C&A points, and dinner only at Coastal Kitchen. I'm assuming your ship is Anthem right? Never booked this suite before but I have looked into it. There are some good reviews on cruise critic and there's also a few YouTube videos.

Yes in July their policy changed for GS and above. You don't lose out if you don't change your ship and sail date. It all goes towards your final cost at the end.

I may or may not be in the minority here but we totally fell in love with Coastal Kitchen. Hopefully, Anthem's CK is the same. For our 8 night coming up we plan to try MDR maybe one night (to compare) and spend the rest in CK. There was a noticeable difference in quality and service. In my opinion, CK is the same caliber as specialty dining. One of the waiters told me that our first night there and I was skeptical but by the end I was a believer. I had a filet mignon there one night and it was probably the best one I had eaten on a cruise and they told me it was the same as you would get at Chops. So I agree, you paid for it, might as well take advantage. I would be interested to know too from someone who as recently gone on an Oasis class and smaller class recently as to how the MDR compared...I realize my opinion might be skewed because my last 3 RC cruises were Oasis, Allure, and Harmony. Maybe @twangster could chime in too because he was on Grandeur and Harmony recently. Would be interesting to know his opinion too...

This is too funny! I have no idea about @JLMoran, Joe is on a far more superior level than me but I just go and do a mock booking to see what is available and if I am really curious and I have time I will call them and inquire.

Same here. I can't bring myself to get the BOGO even though it is the best deal because I don't like to miss the first night and I don't want to spend formal night (day 2) in a specialty restaurant.

I might be wrong but I don't think they will book you into Solarium Bistro since that is a no charge restaurant. That would not make sense. We use to be die hard MDR diners as well. Acutally, we did not try a specialty restaurant until this past summer on Harmony and that was our 9th cruise. It was all MDR before that. Loved it, never had a problem with it. We never really felt the need to spend more money when the food was already pretty decent in the MDR. I have since changed my thinking though and here's why....on the Allure last summer (2016) we did MDR all cruise and noticed a few things. First thing was that the MDR menu choice was not that appealing in the sense that the food choices were very "typical". Secondly, the portion size seemed to have gone down a bit. We are not big eaters but it left us just slightly unsatisfied in the sense that you feel like you're paying just as much but getting less. Not sure if that makes sense. And lastly, and probably the biggest issue was that I felt like the quality of the food had gone down. Flavours not as rich, poor quality cuts of meat, sometimes things arrived slightly cool, etc. This was still not a total turn off as we are not super picky eaters but it was just something I noted and for the first time in 8 cruises (at the time) I was not 100% happy the with MDR food. So Harmony this past summer (2017) was an eye opener because there were actually 2 restaurants I really wanted to try. Wonderland, because of how unique it was, and Jamie's, because I cannot say no to fresh pasta. So grudgingly, my husband agreed to pay extra for specialty dining. We did not do the BOGO (although that definitely is the better deal) because we did not want to dine nights 1&2. But after dining at both, I can see why people like to spend the extra for specialty restaurants. The real game changer for us was the opportunity to dine in Coastal Kitchen. I found their quality to be excellent, and we dined there almost every night. The menu was varied, food was always fresh and excellent quality, service was excellent. It reminded me of MDR meals from the past. For research purposes, we did make it a point to check out the MDR as well and we looked at the menu each day even if we did not eat there to compare. But sadly we found the same experience as we did on Allure. Not terrible, but not great. Nothing really stood out on the menu. So not sure if it is because these are their biggest ships and they can't keep up or if it is a trend with them to push more people into specialty dining. Going forward, we recently booked a cruise for this coming March on Anthem. My husband was the one who suggested that we book the 5 night dining package or book a suite to dine at Coastal Kitchen. And this says a lot because he is not one to spend extra. I had to really do some convincing for him to dine at Wonderland and Jamie's. In the end, we are in a suite so no dining package for us. But I will still check out the MDR to compare. Sorry this was long, you may have gotten more thoughts than you asked for...

According to the RC agents on the phone they claim they have zero problems filling the sailings. I questioned them about the same a while back. They claim this ship sails at full capacity every sailing. I don't believe them though. What I find interesting though is that for the sailing I'm on (March 9/2018) the ship has maxed it's 3/4 capacity already a while back. I am assuming that they probably have a lot of non-suite cabins booked with a 3rd and 4th passenger. I've been checking pricing and availability everyday and there are quite a few suites still available. So at this point no families (of more than two people) can book into one stateroom. You would automatically have to book two or more cabins. Non-suite cabin pricing has pretty much stayed quo for a while but suite prices keep climbing even though they are not moving. I'm guessing because most families cannot book 2 or more suites. This is where I am puzzled and perhaps others can shed some insight. Wouldn't the logical thing to do be to lower the suite prices and hope that some of your families upgrade thus freeing up more lower rate cabins? Then it might make more sense (and more affordable) for others still looking to book to book 2 cabins? Or am I looking at this all wrong?