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Would love Itinerary help!


KAA

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Hi everyone!

My husband and I are trying to decide which cruise to take this summer (July) and would love any help in the decision.

The three choices:

1) Anthem OTS- 9 night Bermuda- only 1 day in Bermuda, then off to San Juan, St. Marteen, and Labadee. 

2) Grandeur OTS- 9 night Bermuda- overnight in Bermuda, then off to Nassau and Cococay

3) Freedom OTS- 7 night Southern Caribbean- St. Marteen, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Johns, and Barbados.

 

Other information:

* We love Anthem, but will be doing the Bahamas itinerary in just a few weeks in April. 

*We haven't been to Bermuda or St. Lucia and both are appealing to us to visit.

*I am not sure if we would regret not having more time in Bermuda on Grandeur if we went on Anthem.

*I'm not sure if the Southern Caribbean itinerary will be unbearable weatherwise. We did Greece last year and Italy the year before and survived :) The Freedom itinerary has the most adventure of them all.

*We are diamond members, but would likely be staying in a balcony for anthem and possible grandeur and a suite for Freedom.

 

As you can see, I am quite conflicted! Any recommendations or feedback would be great.

 

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! :)

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Haven't been on 1 or 2 yet, but 3 I have and that will be my vote, love that itinerary and ship.

I will be on Freedom in October out of San Juan, going to Aruba and Curacao, have Anthem picked for July 2019 may be same itinerary and no plans for Grandeur yet.

I'm also Diamond and have Grand Suite picked on freedom.

Welcome to the form BTW.

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I would say that if you're doing a Bahamas itinerary in just a few weeks, which presumably will already be stopping at Nassau and Coco Cay, then the Grandeur itinerary might be the least interesting unless you just want to experience Bermuda and what it's like on Grandeur. Certainly, an overnight in Bermuda is a big plus if you've never been; I'm finding out how much there actually is to do there and glad I have an overnight for my trip there in October on Anthem.

Apart from that, I can't really be much help. The Freedom itinerary sounds the most interesting to me personally, as I'm more of a "ports matter more than ship" guy, so I'd go with that one myself. But I'm not you. :12_slight_smile: How many times have you been to those ports, and how eager are you to see them again? Same with the Anthem itinerary, which also sounds pretty good to me even without an overnight in Bermuda.

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I've sailed twice from PR doing Southern and the only consideration is how port intensive it is.  That may not be an issue for you, but it can be exhausting. 

I love Anthem but Grandeur has the small ship charm going for her.  I did that trip on Grandeur last summer. 

July 2019 the blog group cruise has that Anthem itinerary I think.

I could make argument for or against all of them.  At the end of the day, you know best what works for you.  You didn't reach Diamond without some cruising so follow your gut.

 

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2 minutes ago, kaa124 said:

I don't hear too many people talking about Bermuda (I could be looking in the wrong places....) 

Well, I'm only sailing there for the first time in October, can't really say if no overnight is a problem. I know that @coneyraven has been a few times and loves it there. He regularly sails Grandeur on the 5- or 7-night single-port itinerary, as it's a favorite of his. Hopefully when he sees the mention he can chime in with some more advice about whether no overnight could be a deal-breaker.

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All are good options and I actually have 1 and 3 booked myself.

I would do 1 for the ship, but 3 for the itinerary. We may actually cancel our Anthem cruise simply because 1 day in Bermuda simply isn't enough. I really wish they'd overnight there a skip the Bahamas.

Option 2 is good for a classic ship and ease of boarding/convenience of port, but I still think 3 is the best of the 3.

 

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The real issue with Bermuda is, it's bigger than you think ..... once you fall in love with the island, which you will, you will want to see the whole thing (with a Rum Swizzle in hand).

Horseshoe Bay is as stunning as they say, there's tons to see and do around dock area.  That one picture of the building with the two clock towers is the Clock Tower Mall.

When we go back in October, we're dedicating the full day there to St. George....it's the one part of the island we haven't made it to.

Bermuda is incredibly easy to get around in .... especially with the famous Pink Buses

IMG_4053.JPG

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1 hour ago, kaa124 said:

Hi everyone!

My husband and I are trying to decide which cruise to take this summer (July) and would love any help in the decision.

The three choices:

1) Anthem OTS- 9 night Bermuda- only 1 day in Bermuda, then off to San Juan, St. Marteen, and Labadee. 

2) Grandeur OTS- 9 night Bermuda- overnight in Bermuda, then off to Nassau and Cococay

3) Freedom OTS- 7 night Southern Caribbean- St. Marteen, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Johns, and Barbados.

 

Other information:

* We love Anthem, but will be doing the Bahamas itinerary in just a few weeks in April. 

*We haven't been to Bermuda or St. Lucia and both are appealing to us to visit.

*I am not sure if we would regret not having more time in Bermuda on Grandeur if we went on Anthem.

*I'm not sure if the Southern Caribbean itinerary will be unbearable weatherwise. We did Greece last year and Italy the year before and survived :) The Freedom itinerary has the most adventure of them all.

*We are diamond members, but would likely be staying in a balcony for anthem and possible grandeur and a suite for Freedom.

 

As you can see, I am quite conflicted! Any recommendations or feedback would be great.

 

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! :)

I will be on anthem for the Holidays this year. I have been on all three ships. They are are very good ships. I am doing the 9 day Bermuda on Grandeur in June 2018.

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2 hours ago, coneyraven said:

We Love, Love, Love Bermuda ....... And, as you look at my signature, Grandeur ..... in fact, we'll be going back again in October for the 7-nighter (3 Days in Bermuda).

Instead of going into something wordy, here are a few pictures ....

IMG_3002.JPG

clocktower.jpg

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IMG_4454.JPG

IMG_4463.JPG

IMG_4464.JPG

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IMG_4804.JPG

royal-caribbean-grandeur-of-the-seas-solarium-gallery.jpg

Beautiful pictures! I’m starting to think that even 2 days is way too little! ;)

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3 hours ago, KAA said:

Beautiful pictures! I’m starting to think that even 2 days is way too little! ;)

Which is why we booked the 7-nighter in October.....

We love Grandeur, that's the easy part .....

In this case, here's the itinerary

Thurs. Oct. 25, Depart Baltimroe

Fri. Oct. 26, Sea Day

Sat. Oct. 27 -- Arrive in Bermuda at 5:00 p.m. --- Just in time to see what's going on over at the Frog & Onion

Sun. Oct. 28 - In Bermuda all Day --- that's the day we're devoting to St. George.

Mon. Oct. 29 - Depart Bermuda at 5:00 (I believe)

Tue. Oct. 30 - Sea Day

Wed. Oct. 31 - Sea Day -- AND Halloween 

Thurs. Nov. 1 -- Arrive back in Baltimore.

There's so many plusses here ---- 3 Sea Days, 3 Days in Bermuda, and Halloween.

Can't wait..... 

 

Mark

 

 

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10 hours ago, coneyraven said:

Sat. Oct. 27 -- Arrive in Bermuda at 5:00 p.m. --- Just in time to see what's going on over at the Frog & Onion

That's a pretty late arrival for the first day there. Is that normal for the sailings on Grandeur to Bermuda, or unique to this longer one? I just checked my Anthem sailing, which is two days in Bermuda, and we arrive at 9 AM. We then have until 5 PM the next day to explore and enjoy the island, so we get the better part of two full days.

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I would choose #1.  Bermuda is one of the best islands!  It is so friendly and easy to get around.  Even though you only have 1 day there it will give you a flavor of what the island has to offer and I can gaurentee you will be booking your next cruise to Bermuda.  We have been there 5 times for 2-3 days each time and have never gotten bored or even done the same thing twice (except for Horseshoe Beach of course)!

The itinerary for #1 is one of our bucket list cruises!

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2 hours ago, JLMoran said:

That's a pretty late arrival for the first day there. Is that normal for the sailings on Grandeur to Bermuda, or unique to this longer one? I just checked my Anthem sailing, which is two days in Bermuda, and we arrive at 9 AM. We then have until 5 PM the next day to explore and enjoy the island, so we get the better part of two full days.

This is unique .... on the 5-nighters, we got there around lunch time..... my guess is, there's another ship that will be leaving earlier in the day to make room for us.

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21 hours ago, KAA said:

1) Anthem OTS- 9 night Bermuda- only 1 day in Bermuda, then off to San Juan, St. Marteen, and Labadee. 

2) Grandeur OTS- 9 night Bermuda- overnight in Bermuda, then off to Nassau and Cococay

3) Freedom OTS- 7 night Southern Caribbean- St. Marteen, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Johns, and Barbados.

I'll cast a vote:  #3, #1, #2 (w/ apologies to ConeyRaven), with the caveat being ease/cost of embarkation if that's a significant factor.    It sounds like you could drive to Anthem and possible Grandeur.    The itinerary for #3 is more appealing to me though Anthem is a slightly appealing ship to me right now, but I think itinerary would trump ship this time.  It will be hot, but all the Caribbean/Bahamas ports will be hot so that shouldn't be a deciding factor.  

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Thanks everyone! You probably wouldn't believe that I am still stirring about this.... On tiring days, I go with Anthem/Grandeur and on days that I am excited to adventure, it's obviously Freedom. Thinking that maybe I'll wait and see what I feel onboard Anthem in 2 weeks.... Looks like the fares are only headed up though.

 

Hey, @Matt - what would you do?!

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55 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Agreed.  The longer you wait, the more likely the prices are going to be up.

 

58 minutes ago, KAA said:

Looks like the fares are only headed up though...

They just jumped quite a bit today because the 30% off sale ended.  Now, it's second person 50% off.  Prices increased over $1000 for our family of 4 on our bookings.

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18 hours ago, KAA said:

Hey, @Matt - what would you do?!

I'd go for Anthem OTS- 9 night Bermuda- only 1 day in Bermuda, then off to San Juan, St. Marteen, and Labadee.

We're doing that exact sailing/itinerary for a RCBlog group cruise in 2019!

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/23/2018 at 10:05 AM, ellcee said:

I've basically done #3 with one swap out, I loved it, those were my favorite beaches.  The only thing is it's very port heavy. I love being on the ship doing nothing for a few days.

What does port heavy mean? We are newbies...

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18 minutes ago, heathercebs said:

What does port heavy mean? We are newbies...

It means that you have several consecutive days in port, with no sea days in between. So if the trip was 10 days total, and the six day’s in the middle were all port days (say, six different islands in the Caribbean, one right after the other), that would be a port heavy trip.

The good side of port heavy itineraries is that you get to see and do a lot of things in a short time frame. The bad side is that you don’t get a rest anywhere along the way, since all the sea days come at the start or end of the trip.

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