The Fun Researcher

No, not on the Quantum last summer. ...and not only that, but we had preordered the winter blanket (from the gifts section of the cruise planner) and they were out of those too. That was a bummer because they were going to be a nice surprise gifts for quite a few of our group of 14.

Always love more options!!! Having said that, if the price is excessive we're perfectly fine staying with Nachi Cocum, or trying Paradise beach. Dan

10 is the biggest table we've done on Royal, a couple of times, but they can do it. Great advice above. Nice to see someone planning ahead. Leads to better odds of an enjoyable cruise.👍

We were in connecting Central Park 9591 and 9593 on the Allure a few years ago and loved those rooms. Central to everything and YES they had widows with a nice area that was like a window seat. Room felt larger than most standard connecting interiors. I can't imagine them boarding up the windows or something and classifying them as regular interiors 🙂

Independence of the Seas doesn’t have a Central Park. 😜😉 (Indy is the OG IOS)

Awesome information! Thank you. What a great combo for Alaska cruisers, the one way all the way to Seward (or vice-versa) and the excellent Quantum class (or Quantum Ultra) for colder weather! Might convince me to go back to Alaska sooner rather than later!

Agreed. We've really like both the Anthem and the Quantum, but we sailed them both in cold weather sailings (one to Alaska, and one from Cape Liberty in March). They are fantastic ships for cold weather. Along that point, I think it's weird that they moved the Odyssey to Cape Liberty during cold months given that the Odyssey switched the indoor family pool area into an outdoor pool area. However we look forward to sailing Odyssey next year in March out of Cape Liberty, we love that it has Playmakers and one large dining room I think Quantum class is fantastic for Alaska, given the weather. I wonder what keeps Royal from using them for one way sailings like Seattle (or Vancouver) to Seward and vice-versa. Would be great if they went to Glacier Bay (but Princess and Holland have the lions share of those openings)

Not boring, agreed. Alaska is a truly amazing cruise experience… Having said that, we personally don’t have plans to go back, at least for quite some time. It’s not because we didn’t love it. We did. It was awesome. We would rather see other places in the world first (Iceland, Norway, the Med, Australia and New Zealand, etc…) before I go back to Alaska. Plus there are all the warm weather options in the Caribbean/Bahamas that are more budget friendly and it is so nice to get out of cold Michigan to warm weather.

Yeah good call. 18 and older now for the Solarium. I forget that our own kids are all grown up. 😂. Last summer the solarium on Royal ships was still 16 and older so our kids were able to be with us when they wanted. The solarium is right next-door to the indoor family pool area with lots of windows in there as well so that whole area in general has great places to view from. Happy sailing

So are there any ways that are known to be o.k. with Royal Caribbean to expand the number of outlets in your cabin?

You will see shorts and T shirts in there ALL THE TIME, especially embarkation day lunch. We've done embarkation lunch twice and between the two occurrences all 19 of us were in jeans or shorts.

We did Quantum to Alaska last summer. Was fantastic. The first day and last day are the only ones in open ocean. The others are travelling between islands or near the coast in the "inner passage" There are great views all the time from the Solarium, and a bonus is that if you walk all the way to the front lower level of the Solarium you can open a door(s) to the outside where you have great views from the "wings" on both sides of the ship. It's absolutely a big trade-off of more cabin space versus that balcony. Alaska is one place where the balcony was worth it for us. We were constantly popping open the door and getting out the binoculars, etc and on a balcony you can see fully in front of you and to both sides. Very convenient. All other cruises I'm perfectly fine with an inside, and only upgrade to a balcony if it's not much of an up-cost. If you don't mind the lack of convenience, you can still get great views around the ship but a balcony is a little more protected and easy to pop back into your room to get warm.

You aren't missing anything. Royals benefits for Diamond and above are WAY better than X's Elite. The 5-7 happy hour with Elite is very inconvenient as it's right around dinner time and you can't order drinks with Elite benefits from the MDR. We've never used laundry either, but that's the next best benefit in our opinion. If you have the drink package already then the vast majority of Elite status is moot.

https://www.tomlovescruising.com/2019/01/28/independenceots/ The Indy was Amped so that's a big positive. Love what Royal does with their AMPED ships!

Ooh, sounds exciting! We should name the ghost.

The more we've sailed on varying styles of ships, the more we appreciate the Royal Promenade/Esplanade. They make it very easy to navigate around the ship and provide a grand casual space. We do not care for Centrums at all. They don't provide the grand space inside the ship like you get with the Promenade, and makes the inside feel chopped up. It's a night and day difference to us, reinforced by our sailings on NCL and Celebrity both of which only had Centrums. You mileage may vary but that's our take. Liberty for sure all else being equal.

Glad your mom is on the rebound.

Thank you for the wonderful video Tatka. Brings back great memories of sailing on Liberty (our previous sailing was out of Galveston). In Bermuda, did you tour on your own and use local transportation or did you book through Royal. We're doing the 5 night on Liberty to Bermuda in June this year.

Ah perfect thank you!

I totally thought this was going to be another thread about Bluetooth speakers

Used to see their posts all the time. Typically enjoyed their content. Haven't seen anything months. I hope all is well.

Rushing to open the door to the hallway is a pain. I wish you knew ahead of time what they were going to announce. 🤣 Art sale, no thanks. Captain's announcement providing some relevant information about the sailing or port, yes please.

Agree completely. A few other small differences... Freedom class has the cantilevered hot tubs, a separate Sorrento's and Café Promenade (instead of them being combined), and I think Freedom class has freshwater pools vs saltwater for Voyager class (I could be wrong on this last one). Personally, I love the AMPED versions of both classes the most.

I'll let you know in June 🙂 We used to say Freedom Class and the nearly identical Voyager class (especially if they are AMPED!), however it's been almost 5 years since we sailed on those classes. We've done Quantum and Oasis classes since then. We've grown to really love both the Quantum and Oasis class mainly because there is just SO MUCH to do on those ships, but we'll be sailing on the Liberty again in June. We'll see if the Freedom/Voyager class is still our favorite. What we do like about the Freedom and Voyager class is the over all layout and flow of the ship and they do a great job of dispersing the crowds. They still have tons of amenities/venues and are not small ships by any means.

These cuts to quality and increases in upcharges is across the entire cruise industry, not unique to Celebrity. We've experienced it on Royal too. However, the problem is, the changes at Celebrity are bringing it down and removing it's "upscale" separation compared to 3-4 years ago.