Turtle05

I don't think it was apparent to everyone that your son threw up on the bed. It was implied in your original post, but it was not specified.

Haven't gone in Princess yet but the RCI hair dryers are push button, so you have to hold in the button the whole time. I have long, thick hair so it already takes me forever!

That might be true in FL, but police in other states can figure out numbers & letters LOL!!!

 

 

 

So which did you get? Suspense!!! I hope it was mbark, I really like that one.

Ok I misspoke. The O and 0 look exactly the same, so the state chooses one or other to actually call it.

DH and I are also early 30s with no kids, but we are kids at heart and rather active. I've done the Liberty, and I took him on his first cruise on the Allure. We liked that the Allure had two flow riders, one dedicated to stand up surfing and one to boogie boarding. That was nice because on the Liberty, they had to divide the time. Also, if you love shows, I say Allure/Oasis just for that reason. The shows are amazing. We saw all but the ice show. Bonus: you can book ahead online. You can also pre book spa and specialty restaurant appointments. The pre booking for shows was huge to me because I wanted to hit all of them (because I heard such great things).

Ugh I was already mildly obsessed with getting a CLS, and this thread makes me even more so! I love the floor to ceiling windows, which are bigger on the CL since it has the loft. I've priced several cruises, and it seems to fluctuate as to which is more expensive, the GS or CL, but they aren't off by that much! I personally think you made the right choice. :)

Thanks for the review! I'm considering this cruise in December or January. I do wish there was a newer ship that sailed the southern Caribbean, but since this is it, I will go on the Adventure if that's the itinerary we choose. Like you, we will be sailing for the itinerary. However, since I have seen so many negative reviews, it does make me apprehensive.

Spa treatments are usually cheaper in port. Also, if it's open, and you want to try it, the flow rider has much shorter lines in port. I took advantage of that on the Liberty several years ago in Labadee.

Save room for the red velvet cake! Or another dessert...

Yes another benefit is the price "increase" for the additional two days is really not much, even if I factor in extra for the additonal shore excursions.

A couple days ago I stumbled across this seemingly amazing itinerary on the RCI Radiance. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/9NightAlaskaNorthernGlacierCruise-RD09A005?currencyCode=USD&sCruiseType=CO&sDateMin=2017-05-01&sDateMax=2017-05-31&sailDate=05%2F17%2F2017

I was pretty stuck on going to Glacier Bay, which RCI does not, but this 9 day cruise has three additional ports (Icy Strait Point, Haines, and Sitka) in addition to the normal "big three." I've been to the big three before, so I'm drawn to itineraries with other ports. The one and only a Princess itinerary that had swapped Skagway for Sitka has since been changed to Skagway :(

I know a lot of people swear by Glacier Bay, and I really do want to go there, but this itinerary would allow me to go three other places I would not otherwise get to go visit. Please refrain from suggesting flight-seeing to GB, because that is not something we can likely afford.

Of course, CROOZ or KROOZ could be with either "O" or "zero"

Unlikely. License plates have one or the other but not both. Allows for too much confusion for the po-lice.

I just asked my DH for a cruise-related idea and he came up with this: 82MCH :eek:

This made me LOL!

Check out tripadvisor. That's usually my go to for restaurant advice.

Well I start my days with no less than two largish servings of coffee. Make sure you drink a lot of water all day to stay hydrated, to downplay the diuretic effects of the coffee, and to help ward off those nasty little hangovers. So my alcoholic choices are....

A summery type drink during the day. The drinks of the day usually have a beachy theme. Unfortunately I do not like coconut flavor and cranberry makes me sick, so I have to pass on drinks with either of those.

If I want a quick buzz....a martini. Usually of the apple variety, but I'll try others if I'm feeling frisky. They usually cost a little more because, well, it only takes one.

My go to at any given time... A good ole whisky sour.

With dinner, a nice white wine.

See what your drink package allows you to get at Vintages. You might be able to do a wine tasting there. It's a really cool place with that underground wine bar feel. Mostly because it's a wine bar. There have tasty tapas as well.

Jewel...dry dock in April as well...

As much as I am loyal to Royal, just say no to cruising just after a dry dock. I've never done it myself, but I've read enough horror stories to scare me off. ;)

I second making show reservations online ahead of time. You can also book spa appointments and specialty restaurants in advance. It's not a big deal if those are "must dos" for you, but if they are, don't risk missing out.

Just do a B2B and hit them both :D just kidding. Unless you can afford two weeks off and two cruises. Then I'm not kidding. Eastern is better IMO. I don't enjoy Labadee much (been twice), and Jamaica and Cozumel are not as nice as the Virgin Islands.

Been on the Liberty and the Allure. Both were awesome, but I'd choose Oasis over Freedom class if I could. As someone mentioned, check pricing for getting to the ports. I sailed the Voyager out of Galveston several years ago, and I lived "close" enough to drive. That $1000 price difference might get a lot smaller if you haven't factored in flights yet. The Oasis class just has more to do all around. The neighborhoods are cool. The kids will NOT get bored. Oasis has the boardwalk and two flow riders. They have the nice, serene Central Park for chilling out in a quiet non-pool area.

Thank you for the information! I think I will make ours a week-long thing, with a list of requirements that can be done on specific days [like in ports] or at any time. And I will include a few airport activities too. Then we can add up our score at the end of the week. This is going to be fun!

Awesome! Send me a note and let me know how everyone likes it!

So my teen boys are really excited about room service on our upcoming Liberty sailing in November. What's your opinion on the room service menu? What's good or what's bad or what's just simply, downright awful?

 

I was inspired by this article below and although it mainly talks about hotel room service...and it had me thinking what things should I avoid ordering on cruise room service menus.

 

http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-02-25/things-you-should-never-order-from-room-service?mbid=social_twitter

I always do breakfast in my room at least once a cruise! It's just a fun thing you can do for free that you pretty much can't do for free anywhere else. I agree that the breakfast is nothing special, but it's just a novelty to me.

Bad publicity for sure. Good for the snake cruise lawyer- absolutely.

 

Were any of these incidents preventable for RCI- unlikely.

Oh I certainly agree with you as well. Unfortunately whenever someone goes to book their first cruise they may have a little superstition in them, or they may just remember hearing about RCI in the news and not remember the specifics.

At Johnny Rockets on an RCI cruise, I saw a very large guy pick up his stomach, slide into the booth, and then place his stomach on top of the table :eek:

That sounds like fun! Would you be willing to share a list of your clues/items/etc? I think it would be interesting to make something like that which would cover the whole cruise....the ship, the ports, even the airports/travel days maybe.

Yes, our model was to pick a few places to choose from as "start" and "end" places, so obviously we threw four or five locations into a "hat" and selected two (tried to select places kind of all over the ship). Then we picked 15-20 "tasks," and selected a number of those from the notional hat. Another rule of thumb is we always have at least two of each eating and drinking tasks. Of course our drinking tasks are always alcoholic, but this can be modified for kids or people who don't drink. Examples are "eat a slice of pizza," "get a drink of the day from any bar," or "drink an alcoholic beverage at the Viking Crown Lounge." We are purposefully specific or vague. Makes it more fun. Then we have other tasks around the ship such as get a pool towel, take a selfie at a certain location, ride the carousel, run a lap around the track, etc. The strategy comes in what order you do the tasks. You can select ones that can really make a person get held up if they don't time it correctly. Some things have to be proven either with said selfie, pool towel, or a bar receipt, but others are sort of on your honor.

We have expanded a little since the inaugural game, and sometimes we have a series of games (Battleship, card games, bowling, laser tag etc.) that we play that are one or two points each, and then the official race portion is worth more,my it we usually make it so the race ends up being the deciding factor. It's also really fun to get vendors and others around involved. On a beach vacation, we had to get temporary tattoos during the race, so obviously we felt the need to explain why two grown adults were getting "professional" stick on tattoos....

So with all that being said, the rules can be as specific or vague as you want to add some variety, and it doesn't have to cost a lot or anything at all. Camera phones allow for quite a bit of proof.

This is a super fun game for sea days, but yes it could easily be used in port as well! Families and friends could make teams. The more the merrier! :cool:

Oh, I never thought of playing in the airport! That's a pretty genius way of passing a long layover!

We enjoyed Icy Strait Point. So far, it is still relatively unspoiled by the tourist industry. We are looking forward to visiting Sitka for the first time for same reason.

I wish there were more itineraries with either of these on it (especially in lieu of Skagway, which IMO other than White Pass does not have much), but then again, I suppose they would then be more spoiled by tourism. ;)

Many feel that Glacier Bay is a must see. If the OP comes to that point he/she can cross off Royal Caribbean and Celebrity as they have no permits to enter the Bay.

 

Princess and HAL have the most, Norwegian then, finally, Carnival has a few. (not sure about Disney, but I doubt it.)

 

Also, I would add that early and especially late season sailings (Sept) can be iffy. That means greatly diminished daylight hours and rainy, foggy weather. Not all the time, but there is a reason they are cheaper. Conversely, June, July, August sailings cost more for several reasons.

Agreed, especially if the OP thinks they are likely to go back to Alaska in the future. My first cruise did not go to GB, and I don't feel cheated. To each their own I suppose. It is a must-see on my next Alaskan cruise, though.