golden6911

I am on this cruise and can confirm norovirus. So far 3 of the 4 of us have had it on three different nights and I have heard others talking about getting sick. My daughter had it Monday night, me Tuesday and my son on Wednesday. My daughter and my cases were quite mild, but my son is pretty miserable. We have all been religiously washing our hands, but honestly, with the way this ship is set up, it is a lost cause. The real only way to control it would be if they didn’t allow you to exit your bathroom or stateroom door without washing your hands. All of the elevator and touchscreen buttons are just spreading the germs. Plus there are lots of small kids on this very full ship.

Currently on Anthem in a balcony room. There is solid soap bars and something called 2in1 shampoo in a wall dispenser.

Hey there, we are a family of 4 on the same ship, and I have to agree with a lot of your comments, particularly about the general disorganization and lack of information on the ship. My husband and I were probably one of the families you saw milling around the Royal Theatre last night....I KNOW the cruise director said the Gift was rescheduled for Monday night!

Another story...this morning I dropped my soda cup and broke the top. No biggie, I went to the Brass and Brock and asked if they had a replacement. They were out at that bar, and I was sent up to the pool deck, who sent me to the Windjammer, who told me to go back down to another bar. I finally tracked one down in the Solarium. I was really annoyed that no one seemed to know where anything was.

We were probably on the same tour going to KSC too. Too bad about the launch, but the bright side was no horrible traffic going back. Also too bad about Cocokay. I had booked parasailing and was really looking forward to it. We ended up just walking to Junkanoo beach and hanging out.

Just make sure you book it early. I booked Anthem 7 months out and traditional dining was not available. However I am going during a busy week.

Interesting how different the answers are!

It makes me wonder whether you get a lot of variability between ships on the same line, or whether the departure port makes a difference, especially in the availability of fresh meat, fruit and produce.

I did like O’Sheehans a lot. It was nice to be able to grab a small pub meal at anytime, although we only used it once on our cruise towards the end.

I sailed on NCL recently and definitely agree that the desserts were all show and no go. In particular, I remember having a terrible piece of apple pie in the main dining room. The buffet was decent and the specialty restaurants, Cagney’s in particular, were very good to outstanding.

I sailed RCL years ago, and I remember the food being excellent, a bit better than NCL, and I will be sailing next week (yay) so I will judge the difference then.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cool! I booked that excursion! I can’t wait to do it with my kids!

Hi all,

I am doing my last minute second guessing and looking for some input on the specialty dining package.

I am sailing on Anthem with my husband and teenaged children. I originally bought a dining package, then cancelled it because the idea of fighting with all of the people boarding in order to make reservations on embarkation day for the rest of the cruise seemed a bit stressful. I decided to just book the meals I really wanted for the times I wanted, and suck up the extra cost.

Now that the sail off day is getting closer, I am noticing that there is still plenty of availability in the specialty restaurants, so I am second guessing my choice. I could probably save a decent amount of money with a specialty dining package.

Has anyone had a lot of difficulty booking specialty restaurants at the time of their choice on a sold out cruise?

You can also buy a coffee card on some ships if you want to have specialty coffees but don’t want to spring for the refreshment package. It is like $32 for 10 coffees -not terrible.

Congrats! I got an upsell a few years ago on Norwegian to an Owners suite from a balcony and I surprised my husband. It was so much fun! If he can handle surprises, I would totally wait.

$650/pp? A little steep, but I would consider it.

$650 total. Abso-damn-lutly.

I just booked the embarkation Chops lunch on the Anthem for the same reason, to avoid crazy embarkation crowds at the buffet. The menu is smaller, but there is a filet, which is what I would have ordered anyway. It seems like a great way to start a cruise!

This will be the first trip with my kids, but when it is just me and my husband, we usually board on the early side, grab some lunch before the crowds, then start to explore. Once the cabins open up, we drop off our stuff, relax for an hour or two, then head back out for a snack or an early activity.

I don’t expect this will change much with the kids, except that we might take them up to the pool deck or seaplex if they are bored.

I got an upsell to the Haven on our last cruise, but never used the pool. I went up to the haven to check it out but it was too quiet and lonely for my tastes. I preferred hanging out at the pool deck, and if I wanted a quiet space, I really loved the thermal spa pass for that.

Meh, some people have to make other people small in order to feel big.

Thanks for your videos! I am looking forward to sailing on Anthem next month, and your reviews of it are part of why I am enthusiastic!

I sailed on the NCL Pearl to Alaska in 2015, and I really enjoyed reading your review about the Owner’s Suite, because we got a last minute inexpensive upsell to a similar suite on the same ship (it didn’t have the outdoor jacuzzi; it was the smaller owners suite up on the front port side). I definitely think that the Ovation would be a great one to sail Alaska since it is a cooler weather ship.

Thanks for the review! I particularly liked your detailed reviews of the entertainment. We are sailing next month so I wonder how much will overlap (besides the main shows of course).

The chair hogging thing is pretty terrible. I am from Boston and it reminds me of how people use space savers for parking spaces when it snows. RC really needs to get a handle on that somehow because it really reduces the appeal of what would be a desirable place to hang out for awhile.

Thanks for this review!

I am sailing with two teenagers during April vacation week, and so I have been looking forward to reading reviews of the February school vacation week as a comparison. I am glad to hear that it wasn’t as insanely overcrowded as I would have thought. I am also doing two balconies, but not connecting, just next to each other. All the other ones were sold out at 7 months prior to sailing when I booked.

I gotta agree. The RC website is one of the worst to navigate through that I have seen. It takes about 10 clicks to get into my reservation and see the calendar. Plus they no good mobile app.

Meh. I view it a bit differently.

I first started cruising in 1997, and back then everything was included, no specialty restaurants. The MDR food back then was better than it is now but not as good as the specialty restaurant food. However, the cabin prices were more expensive ( factoring in inflation). Also, the ships were not as full featured.

Basically, your price of admission to cruising has gone down, along with the overall service and food quality, but you can pay to upgrade that to a better quality experience. It opens up cruising to people who could not afford it before. I am happy to pay a bit more and get a better experience, but some would rather save their money.

I also like buffets, because I like getting a little taste of a lot of foods. Maybe that makes me low brow, but so be it. Plus, I don’t want to spend all my time at sit down restaurants, even if the food is higher quality. It takes over an hour each meal and that can suck up your vacation quickly.

For my upcoming anthem trip, I did spring for the 5 meal specialty dining plan, mostly for my daughter, who loves fancy foods. She is looking forward to Wonderland the most.

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Enjoying this so far! I like that you put your trip goals front and center, along with your sense of humor.

I am also an engineer, so I am looking forward to seeing your trip from that perspective. I also appreciate all your tips, particularly about calling a few weeks ahead to check entertainment.

Thanks for your review!

I am actually kind of glad to hear that the windjammer is better quality food than the main dining room. I personally enjoy a more casual style buffet if I am traveling with my family and sitting for hours in a dining room for just okay food is not really appealing with teenagers.

I wonder if they are trying to push people away from fixed reservations to the buffet since it requires less service people per passenger.

Got some good deals for our April 2018 cruise, the non alcoholic drink packages were down to 18/pp from 26/pp and some of the cruise excursions were 30% off too. I saved a few hundred overall.