bcarney

Last week Dan Dan was the CD on Rhapsody, and the Activities Director was a guy named Erick, but it was his last day before vacation.

I'd recommend anything from Voyager class on up, excluding Oasis class. Oasis class is like a land resort, only at sea. It's not the real "sea" experience you get from other class ships.

...because if you are using an iPhone, you'll have to log in EVERY TIME YOU USE YOUR DEVICE. It was a right PITA on Rhapsody two weeks ago. Check email, put phone in pocket, then remember something, and you have to log in all over again. Highly annoying,

We did Giovanni's for the first time on Rhapsody a week ago Thursday. I'm still full from the meal. Dessert wasn't an option unless I risked damage to some of my internal organs.

We were on Rhapsody two weeks ago - whomever cooked the curries there knew how to do it RIGHT - nice and spicy!

I find that gravity is the best organizer for me.

Sail on Vision class ships - it's the last class of ship Royal designed that has a proper elevator/passenger ratio, IMHO.

I just got off Rhapsody. When you go, please look up Rupert in the Schooner Bar and say "Mr. William the Ron Zacapa drinker says 'hello'". :)

I had it seven straight days in a row. On the last morning my family and I were wearing matching T-shirts, and one gentleman came up to my wife and asked her what I put on the corned beef hash because it looked good!

Stupid policy of not issuing seats, which causes everyone to hover around the gate vying for a place in line. Flight down to Florida from Michigan was delayed 18 hours due to them overbooking multiple flights, leaving my family stranded in Chicago (and not even at O'Hare, at the crappy City airport). Refused to even provide compensation for meals. Return flight a week later delayed on the tarmac due to a mechanical issue. 2 hours later we were told to disembark and go to a certain gate. No one from SW was there. Mass confusion. Eventually herded onto a plane and flown to another airport. From there we board another plane to Detroit...which ALSO has mechanical problems! Originally supposed to land in Detroit at 3pm, wound up finally arriving a few minutes before midnight. No way in hell those people will every get a dime of my money, ever. Period. I'll drive before I subject myself to them again.

You are very welcome! Goat curry is one of my favorites as well! If you have a chance go to a Caribbean restaurant and try their spin on the dish.

You are very welcome! Goat curry is one of my favorites as well! If you have a chance go to a Caribbean restaurant and try their spin on the dish.

How timely! I just boarded Rhapsody today and I'm looking forward to starting my day with this tomorrow!

We did Oasis once, that was enough for me. It was the cruise where we discovered we cruise for the itinerary and not necessarily the ship. Any 7 day itinerary has to have a minimum of 4 port days otherwise I'm not interested anymore (thought I'd be willing to fudge that for sailings out of, say, Baltimore, due to geography). I love the Voyager class ships (haven't been on Freedom or Quantum class yet), but in the end, it's the islands that is the draw for us.

I've seen enough Periscopes since my sailing that make me think they've got the kinks worked out. I'd be OK with keeping it. If you get onboard and you don't feel it meets your needs, you can always cancel onboard.

I was on Adventure right after the half-"refurb" while they were still tweaking it. 24 hours with no access at all in the middle of the week sucked, but oddly enough one of the better locations with a strong signal strength was on my balcony in the aft corner of deck 9.

I've only had dinner in the Windjammer maybe 3 times in over 120 days at sea. But it's where I discovered Indian food, and my life hasn't been the same since. Give it a try!

Royal's reservation system and website are a complete cluster foxtrot, so if you don't get the answer you need today, try again tomorrow when the moon is in a different place in our solar system and the wind is blowing in a different direction. To be honest, this far out it's usually the other way around - MTD has plenty of openings, but early and late are completely booked. But hang in there, you'll eventually get what you want.

We did Nachi Cocom last year and enjoyed it so much we're visiting it again next month. It's definitely a 'chill by the beach' place. If you want an uptempo, dancing sort of place you may want to look elsewhere.

We did it on Adventure and thought it was interesting, but like JBC it's a one-time thing. The sit-down lunch afterwards consisted of a couple of different options, one of which was a nice steak that must have been from Chops.

They had a ramen dish that was served in a mildly-spicy coconut milk that was really good. My son had it, and I wish I could have ordered a small bowl as a side....but I was too full by that point. :)

I'm usually the first one to bellyache about booze prices, but compared to the cost of a rum and coke in the bars on the ship, I think it's an acceptable upcharge for the convenience if you like to have drinks in your room.

http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/12/15/spotted-bottled-alcohol-packages And that photo is of a full liter/litre bottle of Bacardi, not the .375l bottle.

I'd much rather lose a wallet, etc over the passport. If I lose my wallet I can still enter the US when I get home. If I lost my passport, I may be S.O.L.

As the resident drunkard here (I'm a 'consumer judge' at the Miami Rum Festival this April http://www.rumxp.com/RumJury.html ), I'd suggest buying a bottle of your favorite spirit from a distiller that isn't available in your area, or getting something that is expensive that you can drink as a "treat" like http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20170210/jwn-pay-homage-joy-spence-appleton-estate-joy-rum When I first started becoming a rummy, I enjoyed drinking from a certain set of distillers. As I was exposed to other expressions of the spirit i learned I really enjoyed rums from a specific geographic area and distilling method, and I wouldn't have learned that if I didn't buy those oddball bottles when on vacation. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new.