Susie Posted October 22, 2018 Report Share Posted October 22, 2018 Just now, Rimmit said: I figured as much. We live in KY so Baltimore is just a 6.5 hour drive for us, so It is our closest cruise port and have done the Grandeur twice as it is so convenient. What was your son’s name. I will ask Zack if he remembers him. If you saw 7 year old boy running like a crazy person that was probably zack. The Grandeur is definitely not the most exciting ship in the fleet but the kids club is really all Zack needs to stay entertained., but the extra amenities like an ifly and bumper cars don’t hurt. My son name is Nicholas. He went to the kid's club one time. Not sure why he doesn't like it that much. He seems to like to be in the pool even though we have a pool at home. This upcoming cruise on Anthem, we possible will try the Adventure Ocean again. He might like it this time. We went on Grandeur 5 times so kind of want to get on the new ship. Because of the school calendar, we only can go during Easter, Summer, Thanksgiving or Christmas. We are thinking of booking the cruise for this Easter break but not sure yet what ship we will book. Maryland changing the school calendar and now we only get 3 days off for Easter break so we possible only can do 7 days cruise this coming Easter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2018 1 hour ago, Susie said: My son name is Nicholas. He went to the kid's club one time. Not sure why he doesn't like it that much. He seems to like to be in the pool even though we have a pool at home. This upcoming cruise on Anthem, we possible will try the Adventure Ocean again. He might like it this time. We went on Grandeur 5 times so kind of want to get on the new ship. Because of the school calendar, we only can go during Easter, Summer, Thanksgiving or Christmas. We are thinking of booking the cruise for this Easter break but not sure yet what ship we will book. Maryland changing the school calendar and now we only get 3 days off for Easter break so we possible only can do 7 days cruise this coming Easter. We’ve been on 13 different ships in RCI’s fleet and in all honesty the Grandeur is one my favorites. It is not the prettiest ship and it needs a definite face lift as it is looking a bit tired these days but, we love the smaller ships. We like meeting new people and on the bigger ships you see people once and that’s it. On the Grandeur as you well know you really make some great friends. Not so much on the larger ships. Plus the walking with kids on larger ships can be tiring. If it was just me and the wife we’d probably never do the mega ships unless the intinerary suited our needs. Totally understand the school calendar thing. We homeschooled zack this year to buy us some more vacation time. Might do it one more year until Lucy gets to kindergarten and put them both back in school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted October 22, 2018 Report Share Posted October 22, 2018 10 hours ago, Rimmit said: We’ve been on 13 different ships in RCI’s fleet and in all honesty the Grandeur is one my favorites. It is not the prettiest ship and it needs a definite face lift as it is looking a bit tired these days but, we love the smaller ships. We like meeting new people and on the bigger ships you see people once and that’s it. On the Grandeur as you well know you really make some great friends. Not so much on the larger ships. Plus the walking with kids on larger ships can be tiring. If it was just me and the wife we’d probably never do the mega ships unless the intinerary suited our needs. Totally understand the school calendar thing. We homeschooled zack this year to buy us some more vacation time. Might do it one more year until Lucy gets to kindergarten and put them both back in school. We had never been on a mega ship like Oasis class. The biggest ship, we went on was Freedom OTC so Anthem will be our new biggest ship. I still not rule out Grandeur OTC, if the price and time are right, we will definitely cruise with her again because of convenient. LOL, I can't teach Nicholas so have to let the school do that. Your pictures are great. I have questions about a camera. Do you use filters? I love to take pictures but definitely no expert. I still have my ancient 6 years old Nikon P510 Coolpix. It is a great camera for me and easy to use. My camera does not have a thread for filters lens so I will need to buy an adapter first then buy filters. Does it necessary to use a camera hood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2018 On 10/22/2018 at 10:21 AM, Susie said: We had never been on a mega ship like Oasis class. The biggest ship, we went on was Freedom OTC so Anthem will be our new biggest ship. I still not rule out Grandeur OTC, if the price and time are right, we will definitely cruise with her again because of convenient. LOL, I can't teach Nicholas so have to let the school do that. Your pictures are great. I have questions about a camera. Do you use filters? I love to take pictures but definitely no expert. I still have my ancient 6 years old Nikon P510 Coolpix. It is a great camera for me and easy to use. My camera does not have a thread for filters lens so I will need to buy an adapter first then buy filters. Does it necessary to use a camera hood? I use a Canon 5D MK IV. No filters. Lightroom Classic to process on the computer. Good helps reduce lens flare esp, when the sun is the side of the pic. More importantly it helps keeps my kids hands off the lens. we have never done he Oasis class ships in all our cruising. Every time we schedule it we have conflicts. We are schedule for it This Feb 10 so we will see if it sticks. I doubt I will like it as much as the Grandeur. For me the smaller the ship the better, although with kids there is a balance. I did a couple expeditions that were 14 nights long and only 80-50 people per expedition without the kids. It’s so nice to really get to know people, and on a mega ship it’s hard. We still keep in contact with cruise friends from 15+ years ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 Day #10 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/22/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-10/ ellcee, Susie and Skigoofy 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted October 23, 2018 Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 On 10/22/2018 at 10:28 AM, Rimmit said: we have never done he Oasis class ships in all our cruising. Every time we schedule it we have conflicts. We are schedule for it This Feb 10 so we will see if it sticks. I doubt I will like it as much as the Grandeur. For me the smaller the ship the better, although with kids there is a balance. I did a couple expeditions that were 14 nights long and only 80-50 people per expedition without the kids. It’s so nice to really get to know people, and on a mega ship it’s hard. We still keep in contact with cruise friends from 15+ years ago 4 If I do not wrong you possible scheduled to sail on Harmony in Feb. I think Zack and Lucy will like Oasis class because a lot for them to do. I am thinking to book either Harmony or Symphony for Easter break. Anyway, I still hesitate about it. First, they are expensive and second, we have to drive to Miami 15 hrs. (Airplane tickets is really expensive) I also think about Anthem for Easter but the sailing is for Bermuda. I think April is still cold in Burmuda. The water temp like 70 F or less. Still cannot make my mind. LOL, your camera is out of my league. For a beginner like me the Nikon 3400 possible good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellcee Posted October 23, 2018 Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 47 minutes ago, Susie said: For a beginner like me the Nikon 3400 possible good enough. Just bought this, great camera for beginners. Susie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 4 hours ago, Susie said: If I do not wrong you possible scheduled to sail on Harmony in Feb. I think Zack and Lucy will like Oasis class because a lot for them to do. I am thinking to book either Harmony or Symphony for Easter break. Anyway, I still hesitate about it. First, they are expensive and second, we have to drive to Miami 15 hrs. (Airplane tickets is really expensive) I also think about Anthem for Easter but the sailing is for Bermuda. I think April is still cold in Burmuda. The water temp like 70 F or less. Still cannot make my mind. LOL, your camera is out of my league. For a beginner like me the Nikon 3400 possible good enough. It's definitely Oasis. We were debating a B2B on the Oasis to justify the drive. We are going with friends, and that's the only cruise dates that would work and the anthem dates in Feb. wouldn't work which killed me as we had a killer deal on the Feb. 3rd 12 night Anthem sailing. We hate driving to FL to catch a boat. In the end we are doing the Enchantment 4 night on Feb. 4, going to Disney for two days, and then hopping on the Oasis on Feb. 10. I was looking at Spring Break Airfare from you area, as we have some friends that tried to recruit us onto the Celebrity Silhouette Mar. 24 sailing out of FLL. It wouldn't work as we had a wedding on Apr 6th, and the rehearsal Apr. 5 when we disembark. The wedding was in DC, so I was looking at BWI, IAD, and DCA for possible flights. The flights weren't awful. For four of us, I got it down to 900 dollars on SWA. Not great, but not $2000 dollars expensive. Ultimately they decided to have the rehearsal dinner midday so logistically it won't work for us as we had to make 1015 direct flight that would land at 1230, but that left no margin for error. It was nice itinerary going to the really south caribbean and 4 ports we had never been to before and we've been pretty much every where in the Caribbean that isn't Cuba. We are instead doing the Mar. 22nd Grandeur, and possibly one of the Bermudas on the Anthem or Grandeur in April. It'd be nice to hit up Boston, as we have only been there once and only briefly. If you are tiring of the Caribbean I've been stalking some Prestige cruises deals. They quoted me $5600 for a 13 night Princess cruise starting in Singapore ending in Tokyo, with 3 nights hotel in Singapore WITH AIRFARE out of ORD. That is insane. We couldn't make the dates work, but it was sooo tempting. The 3400 is a great camera. All DSLR's take awesome pics these days. The higher end cameras just take marginally better pics, and only if you truly know how to use it to it's full extent and then process the pics correctly afterwards, otherwise, it's just as good as a 3400 or Rebel imo. Just keep practicing and I'm sure you'll move up the camera world over time. ellcee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2018 Day #11 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/23/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-11/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2018 Day #12 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/24/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-12/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted October 25, 2018 Report Share Posted October 25, 2018 On 10/23/2018 at 5:30 PM, Rimmit said: It's definitely Oasis. We were debating a B2B on the Oasis to justify the drive. We are going with friends, and that's the only cruise dates that would work and the anthem dates in Feb. wouldn't work which killed me as we had a killer deal on the Feb. 3rd 12 night Anthem sailing. We hate driving to FL to catch a boat. In the end we are doing the Enchantment 4 night on Feb. 4, going to Disney for two days, and then hopping on the Oasis on Feb. 10. I was looking at Spring Break Airfare from you area, as we have some friends that tried to recruit us onto the Celebrity Silhouette Mar. 24 sailing out of FLL. It wouldn't work as we had a wedding on Apr 6th, and the rehearsal Apr. 5 when we disembark. The wedding was in DC, so I was looking at BWI, IAD, and DCA for possible flights. The flights weren't awful. For four of us, I got it down to 900 dollars on SWA. Not great, but not $2000 dollars expensive. Ultimately they decided to have the rehearsal dinner midday so logistically it won't work for us as we had to make 1015 direct flight that would land at 1230, but that left no margin for error. It was nice itinerary going to the really south caribbean and 4 ports we had never been to before and we've been pretty much every where in the Caribbean that isn't Cuba. We are instead doing the Mar. 22nd Grandeur, and possibly one of the Bermudas on the Anthem or Grandeur in April. It'd be nice to hit up Boston, as we have only been there once and only briefly. If you are tiring of the Caribbean I've been stalking some Prestige cruises deals. They quoted me $5600 for a 13 night Princess cruise starting in Singapore ending in Tokyo, with 3 nights hotel in Singapore WITH AIRFARE out of ORD. That is insane. We couldn't make the dates work, but it was sooo tempting. The 3400 is a great camera. All DSLR's take awesome pics these days. The higher end cameras just take marginally better pics, and only if you truly know how to use it to it's full extent and then process the pics correctly afterwards, otherwise, it's just as good as a 3400 or Rebel imo. Just keep practicing and I'm sure you'll move up the camera world over time. 11 Sorry that your wife was seasick on the cruise. I was sick the first sea day on Grandeur in April. I had never been sick like that since I took 17 cruises. I took the medicine from the service desk and keep drink coffee or coke so I don't need to sleep all day. This time I will prepare and take some Bonine and Seaband with me. Enchantment 4 night on Feb. 4, going to Disney for two days, and then hopping on the Oasis on Feb. 10, is a really great plan. We wish we can do that. With Nicholas's school schedule no way I can do that. My husband also works in a Corporate company so he cannot take many days off. I have my own little handmade business so I can take any time off with no problem. The Prestige cruises is a killer deal, for that price with airfare. Yes, we went almost all countries in the Caribbean and we want to go somewhere else (sometimes). These are the cruise that we might book. (I still not make my mind). We have never been to Bermuda so we are more toward to Bermuda but water at the beach probably cold in April. Anthem April 13 Sailing to Bermuda & Boston (Drivable & Nicholas's take off school 3 days) Grandeur April 18 sailing to Bermuda & South Carolina (Drivable & Nicholas's take off school 3 days) Symphony April 13 sailing to St. Kitt, St. Thomas & Nassau (Nicholas's take off school 4 days, expensive cruise, have to drive to Miami (15-16 hrs) or fly, and the Caribbean again). Harmony April 14 sailing to St Maarten, San Juan, & Labadee (Nicholas's take off school 3 days, expensive cruise, have to drive to Fort Lauderdale(15-16 hrs) or fly, and the Caribbean again). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2018 On 10/25/2018 at 10:05 AM, Susie said: Sorry that your wife was seasick on the cruise. I was sick the first sea day on Grandeur in April. I had never been sick like that since I took 17 cruises. I took the medicine from the service desk and keep drink coffee or coke so I don't need to sleep all day. This time I will prepare and take some Bonine and Seaband with me. Enchantment 4 night on Feb. 4, going to Disney for two days, and then hopping on the Oasis on Feb. 10, is a really great plan. We wish we can do that. With Nicholas's school schedule no way I can do that. My husband also works in a Corporate company so he cannot take many days off. I have my own little handmade business so I can take any time off with no problem. The Prestige cruises is a killer deal, for that price with airfare. Yes, we went almost all countries in the Caribbean and we want to go somewhere else (sometimes). These are the cruise that we might book. (I still not make my mind). We have never been to Bermuda so we are more toward to Bermuda but water at the beach probably cold in April. Anthem April 13 Sailing to Bermuda & Boston (Drivable & Nicholas's take off school 3 days) Grandeur April 18 sailing to Bermuda & South Carolina (Drivable & Nicholas's take off school 3 days) Symphony April 13 sailing to St. Kitt, St. Thomas & Nassau (Nicholas's take off school 4 days, expensive cruise, have to drive to Miami (15-16 hrs) or fly, and the Caribbean again). Harmony April 14 sailing to St Maarten, San Juan, & Labadee (Nicholas's take off school 3 days, expensive cruise, have to drive to Fort Lauderdale(15-16 hrs) or fly, and the Caribbean again). All those are good choices. Really can't go wrong. I really enjoyed the Anthem. I know the Quantum class got a bad rap at the beginning because of Dynamic dining, but we really enjoy the quantum class ships. They are awesome for inclement weather. Day #13 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/26/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-13/ Skigoofy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted October 27, 2018 Report Share Posted October 27, 2018 1 hour ago, Rimmit said: Day #13 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/26/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-13/ Stunning pictures as always, especially that sunrise and the overlook along the coastal view. The pineapple greenhouse reminds me of the science channel show "what's on earth?". In Almeria Spain, the greenhouse complex is so big and it can see it from space. I am a science channel fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellcee Posted October 27, 2018 Report Share Posted October 27, 2018 @Rimmit Maybe the group was from Mersey? Liverpool? That seems to make more sense but who knows! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted October 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2018 On 10/27/2018 at 7:50 AM, ellcee said: @Rimmit Maybe the group was from Mersey? Liverpool? That seems to make more sense but who knows! You're getting ahead of the blog, but a couple days later they revealed where the name came from. Day #14 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/29/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-14/ Skigoofy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmit Posted November 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 Day #15 https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/10/31/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-15/ Skigoofy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 On 9/30/2018 at 4:07 PM, Rimmit said: So for those interested, we are starting a live blog on the Norwegian Breakaway TA. This may be somewhat relevant to RCI cruisers, as we primarily cruise RCI, as we are almost Diamond Plus and this is our first Norwegian Cruise since 1991, so it will basically be new to us. Much of our commentary will be somewhat of a comparison between the two lines. We are very anxious stepping outside our comfort zone of Disney and RCI, but the price was right and itinerary a little different. https://thesmallworldfamily.com/2018/09/30/northern-transatlantic-cruise-live-blog-day-1/ Thanks for the link. Our first 3 cruises were on NCL. We really like their Freestyle cruising. It took us awhile to do our 1st RCI, now we are 4 points away from Diamond. Unless a specific itinerary comes up on another line, these are the 2 we like best, with RCI being first. We will be sailing Beakaway in February and that will be our first time on NCL in several years. Enjoy your cruise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted November 24, 2018 Report Share Posted November 24, 2018 @Rimmit, just wanted to see if the final 3 sea days, plus your final analysis of how the ship compares to Royal, will be coming out some time in the near future. I know you and your wife both have day jobs, and with it being the holidays that just adds to the workload; but I just realized it's been almost a month now since the last update and, well, I kind of feel like the story was left on a bit of a cliffhanger. Firemanswife2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firemanswife2 Posted November 25, 2018 Report Share Posted November 25, 2018 Looking forward to hearing about your final comparisons (and sea days). Great Blog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted November 26, 2018 Report Share Posted November 26, 2018 On 11/24/2018 at 5:31 PM, JLMoran said: @Rimmit, just wanted to see if the final 3 sea days, plus your final analysis of how the ship compares to Royal, will be coming out some time in the near future. I know you and your wife both have day jobs, and with it being the holidays that just adds to the workload; but I just realized it's been almost a month now since the last update and, well, I kind of feel like the story was left on a bit of a cliffhanger. The last updated from @Rimmit I think they are in Northern Europe and Rusia adventure trip right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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