RobInMN

Since you're only on a 4 night cruise, have one person use the 4 free days that you get total, and buy a 1 device plan to cover the other person when it's on sale in the cruise planner.

I believe so, but when considering bridge clearance, the Oasis class (all at this point???) have retractable stacks allowing them to clear bridges with less than 236 ft of clearance. For instance, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a clearance of 228 ft (69.5 m) at mean high water, and I believe I've read that you need 15 additional feet of play on most any bridge like this.

I mixed up m & ft, but corrected it right away. Apparently not fast enough I also corrected depth vs. draft

236 ft above the waterline. The first 4 Oasis ships should be very similar. Not sure if Wonder or Utopia are very different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis-class_cruise_ship Add 30 ft for below the waterline. This one says 210 ft, but I wonder if that is not counting the stacks, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/world-largest-cruise-ship-harmony-of-the-seas-sets-sail-first-sea-trial#:~:text=The ship%2C with a height,height of the Eiffel Tower.

In 2018 we did the Western Med from Rome to Rome on Symphony. This was the last stop for us, and by this point, we were kind of exhausted. We had originally booked this tour, but changed it to Florence-only. My wife was told by people in Rome that if you want Italian leather, Florence is the place to go, so Florence beat Pisa. Pisa is 1.5 hours from port, Florence 2 hours, and there's 1.5 hours between them. The bus time is 5 hours. As it was explained to us by the Shore Excursion team, Pisa was essentially a 30 minute photo-stop. Florence requires (or did at that time) that busses park about a 30 minute walk from where you want to go (so that's another hour). I want to say that there was also some walking distance in Pisa also, but don't recall exactly. The ship's tours did not include tickets to the museum where David is. Switching to the Florence only tour added a stop at a leather factory. That was just a shopping stop for overpriced leather goods. The guided tour was limited, but there was a lot of free shopping time. Could have probably used this to go to the David museum also. There was a lot of waiting for others. I don't know if I could honestly recommend either ship's tour here. If I were doing this stop again, I would seriously look at a private or small group tour that might be able to park closer and only do the things you want to.

Nice choice! We are booked for Enchanting Rhine on AmaSiena May 15, 2025. We are doing the 4 night pre-tour to Zurich and Lucerne package, and will spend a couple days in Amsterdam post on our own. For reference, I book all our ocean cruises directly. I do all the excursion research whether it's ship or independent. I am very, very hands on. This is our 3rd Ama cruise. Ama seems to prefer that you book through a TA. If you google the TA we used, she appears to be highly recommended, and supposedly specialized in AmaWaterways. However, I really am not sure what all she really did for us. I had very little contact with her other than to book it and pay. That said, when it cam time to book the May 2025 cruise, I looked around for an alternative, but ended up just using her again. On an Ocean cruise, at least with Royal Caribbean, if you book through a TA, you have to do everything other than on-board pre-purchases through the TA. With river cruises, or at least Ama, there really isn't anything extra to worry about booking. So even if I don't necessarily see where the TA has been advantageous for us, I don't feel like there has been any downside from having used one.

We had a great experience using Galveston Saltwater Moms from IAH to out hotel in Galveston pre-cruise.4 of us in a minivan

Yeah, the map is overly simplistic. That's why they have the long table at the bottom. 🙂

Actually, it does have that in the "Additional Details" for Germany in the long table at the bottom. It says: "It is prohibited to sell, serve or supply fermented alcohol beverages (beer, wine, cider and sparkling wine) to anyone under 16 years of age. However this age limit drops down to 14 if a minor is accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. It is generally prohibited to serve, sell or supply any beverage containing spirits and foods containing spirits above negligible amounts, to anyone under the age of 18 years. Violation of the "Protection of Young Persons Act" can be fined up to €50,000."

"All" is a bit strong, and makes your comment false. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/drinking-age-by-country

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them... maybe you can hire the A-Team.

On the pre-massage questionnaire, write "no sales pitch please" somewhere in the notes. In our experience, they've followed that. I believe that there's less options for couple's massages than solo. I think we've done the hot stone couple's massage, and I put deep pressure for mine. Not sure what my wife put. There's usually an embarkation day special that will give you the longer massage time for the shorter time's price (or something like that) for that same day.

Agree 100%! Especially the screaming into the PA that has horrendous audio quality.

I use the following 2 adaptors (don't have a need for a full convertor): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058EG0KC/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YDF8GCT And I use this, which negates much of the need for needing to use multiple outlets (recently upgraded from an all USB-A one): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BX3V6ZZX

Monday's Thread:

Dupe

Ever run across Vika?

They are both Sky. On Allure: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/ships/Allure-of-the-Seas GS: Cabin: 371 sqft (35 m2) Balcony: 105 sqft (10 m2) Combo tub/shower OS: Cabin: 556 sqft (52 m2) Balcony: 213 sqft (20 m2) Separate shower Bidet

You're 2 days and 2 threads too late:

Embarkation day typically has specials, like 80/90 minute massage for the 60 minute price or something like that.

Feel bad for the family, but to sue RCI is a ridiculous deep pocket money grab. They were on a third party excursion and not a ship one. You can not convince me in the slightest that even if there was wide-spread communication about strikes and work stoppages in the medical services areas that the family would have done anything differently. They want us to believe that they would have what, not left the ship? Not jumped off the platform? Makes me loose all respect for them. They've been poorly advised by their ambulance chaser.

Spacious balcony with a tub and double points. 🙂

When we did the Arctic Circle and Iceland & Ireland B2B on Jewel in '22, we had early seating (don't recall if it was 5:00 or 5:30). There were a few port days where we weren't scheduled to get back until later. The first time this was going to be an issue, we wanted to let our servers know that we would not be at dinner the next night. They told us that if we were able to get there within about 30m they'd hold it, if not we could check in with MTD. Pretty sure that a couple times that worked for us and we told them we'd be there within that window and there was no problem. I think we did an ad-hoc seating with MTD once, and probably just hit WJ a couple times. (not 100% sure) I'm sure this probably varies from ship to ship.

Here is a video from the room exactly opposite from 11729 on Allure, followed by your same room on Symphony, which is what it will probably be comparable to post-amplification (March '25) We were in 9330 on Allure, which is one of the 2 BR AquaTheater suites, 2 decks lower and further back, so not quite the same thing. That was a great view of the show.

We did Star Class once. We said that our favorite seats were the ones right behind the ledge on upper tier of the main floor, and that's exactly where he reserved them with popcorn and drinks waiting for us. 🙂