RobInMN

Add Minnesota to that list

AmaWaterways AmaMagna has a variety of table sizes including 2-tops & 4-tops. It also has a secondary option (Al Fresco) that's all 4-tops (different menu than MD). You can also have dinner at Jimmy's Wine Bar. It serves the same thing as the MD, but family style at longer tables (not what you are looking for) AmaDante is one of their older ships, and I think they were most 6-tops, but some of them were half booths that could be split 4 & 2. We will be on AmaSiena (one of the newer ships) next spring and looking at videos, it looks like the MD is mostly 4-tops, with a few 2-tops and only a few larger. I would assume all her sister ships are the same? They all have a Chef's table. Not sure if that counts for what you are looking for, but depending on the ship, there's some to plenty of 4-tops.

Refundable makes sense to me if: There is a high chance that you won't be able to make it If you can't make it, you have no plans to sail on RCI in the next 2 years If the chances are low, and you have every intention to book another one in the next couple years, the $100/person change fee makes more sense to me than paying the refundable upcharge. You'll be ahead in the long run.

This is the one we travel with. It's USB, very quiet, and surprisingly powerful: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9B1SVHD

We did Vantage with my parents back in 2005. I've only done Grand Circle and AmaWaterways since. Not a fan of Vantage or Grand Circle, but a fan of Ama. The president or owner of Vantage is/was the brother of the president or owner of GC. Pretty sure GC is nearly identical to Vantage, down to the ship floor plans. For comparisons with other lines, search/peruse this forum for threads asking for comparisons Here's a few recent ones:

You tell them. Probably more important to tell them when you don't want a voucher used than when you do, as I think many bartenders will typically use one if it's available.

"Pending" doesn't mean it will definitely go through. I had a pending once, that never happened. Got the denial about 9:00 PM embarkation night.

Or by 9:00 PM embarkation day. 😉🤣 Oops, guess @Ourusualbeach already pointed out the late notification time

Should be the same as a Firestick. Plug it into one of the HDMI ports. Change the TV to this port. You may need to bring a universal remote that you program to Samsung so that you have a Source button. On newer ships, with the interactive TVs, you may need to unplug the wired network connection and power cycle the TV. When that is connected, it auto-launches a custom app that prevents the source button from working. On the Roku, you will need to switch to the ship's WIFi, and then launch a browser to do the login like you would with any other device you connect to the ship's wifi. Assuming you you don't have a dedicated device count so that they Roku has it's own full time wifi connection. Alternatively, you could have the Roku pre-setup to a hotspot that you bring with you. This could be a hotspot device, or if you have an Android phone, you can wifi hotspot your phone's wifi connection (iPhone does not support this). Once connected to the wifi, turn on a VPN. (set this up at home before you go). I suggest a VPN so that you are not geo-locked from anything you want to watch. This is especially important for YoutubeTV. I find it also helps to turn on the VPN on my phone that my firestick is connected to. Not sure why (seems redundant), but I have less issues with YTTV suddenly realizing it's not in the US anymore.

I'm going to guess that you are not in the US, Possibly UK? Apparently the phrase "back to back" meaning "Consecutive" is more of a US thing. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/back-to-back https://www.dictionary.com/browse/back-to-back https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/back-to-back

We did this in 2018. I tried to look at my Google Maps timeline, but while all the places are there, it seems highly confused by the times and order. Anyway, if you are on the ship excursion, I highly doubt that there is going to be time or opportunity to do anything on your own, even if you ditch part of the tour. If you do, make sure the guide knows so that he's not holding everyone else up trying to make sure that everyone is accounted for, as they usually are checking numbers at any transition. From my recollection (and trying to piece things from timeline), you take the boat to Capri, you get on a bus, and that bus takes you up to the top (or as far as vehicles are allowed to go). The guide gives you a short tour and then maybe an hour of free time to wander. Basically, time to go to the Capri Overlook on the south side. Then you have to take the Funicular back down and back to the port where you get on another boat to Sorento. Maybe 2 hours total on Capri. Google Maps says that the Blue Grotto is 22 minutes from the ferry port. In Sorrento, you walk up to Piazza Tasso, and our guide's job was to push this wood inlay shop. and then to a local restaurant for lunch. I think there was a free 30 minutes or something. Then off to Pompei. Maybe 1.5 hours? 2? from boat to bus. Just over an hour bus ride to Pompei, and a short walk from the bus parking. If timeline is correct, we arrived about 3:00 PM at Pompei. About 1 1/4 hours walking tour in Pompei, then he led everyone out and to a gift shop across the plaza, just outside the exit. After promoting their Lemoncello, complete with tastings (which was arguably good), he then gave us 30 minutes free time to shop. Seriously?!?!? I'd rather have spent 30 more minutes inside Pompei. This was the first ship excursion where it was really evident that these guides get kickbacks to push specific shops/vendors. He was not real subtle about it. Maybe he was just a bad guide, I don't know. I think I did say something to the Shore Excursion team when we got back though. Then maybe an hour back to Naples.

If you are staying for a number of days (a week?), I would totally recommend the AirBnB that we used. It was about 3 blocks from the Vatican's main entrance, and a couple blocks from a couple Metro stops. We took the Metro to everything, but it was very convenient. I figure 30m commute to just about anything we wanted to see. It had a full kitchen (but only used the fridge - bar sized), 2 bedrooms (only needed 1), and most importantly, a washer and a (condensing?) dryer (European dry - had to empty the water tray and re-run like 3 or 4 times). "Via Tolemaide Private Apartment" (by Cory). I just looked it up, and they've more than tripled their price, so maybe it's not as good of a deal as when we rented it.

When we went in 2018, I zoomed in with my phone's camera. From 1 angle, you can see the line of people that I think are waiting to climb to the top of the dome. But yes, photos just don't really do a good job of conveying the size. This is about the best I got:

Us too. And we use a VPN

Total number of passengers is a tough one. I think you'd have to go ~3000 (or more??) for the economics. But if I recall correctly, some of the potentially desirable ports of call that are limiting or looking at limiting cruise ship sizes are targeting 2500 & under? So that might be a factor also?

Can't hurt to call and ask.

Voyager is 3100-4000, so you can increase the footprint without necessarily adding decks. The pool deck on a Voyager class and Radiance class are both on Deck 11. Voyager's extra decks & height come from the "Crown" (Deck 14 vs 13) and the stacks. I am pretty sure you could add 1 deck to Radiance without having any issues with the vast majority of bridges. I think you could add a deck without increasing the overall height too much as they seem to have abandoned the "Crown".

4 cruise directors vs 1 is not an apples to apples comparison. I can only give you examples of Grand Circle (4) vs. Ama (1). On GC, the entire ship was divided (equally?) amongst the 4 CDs. On board, presentations would be done as a full ship where it was led by 1 or more of the CDs. Off ship, you were divided into these 4 groups. These were you permanent groups. In my experience, these CDs led all excursions (unless we were visiting something that had their own guides), as experts on everything. These 4 groups could be 40-50 people each depending on the passenger count of the ship/sailing. Your tour size will only be smaller if people in your group choose not to do the excursion at all. On Ama, where there was 1 CM, they were more of a coordinator. They led any on ship talks, as well as the occasional all ship evening events (like a wine tasting), but all off ship excursions were done by local guides. There were as many guides as necessary as there were typically multiple options (up to 5?) and any walking tour usually with easy, normal, and active options. Each group had their own guide and depending on interest, multiple guides doing the same excursions. Each group is always kept small, maybe 20(?) max, but typically much smaller. Once it was just my wife & I and the guide. Also any on ship local evening presentations were done by experts brought onto the ship.

Since others brough up AmaWaterways, I'll chime in. We are fans of Ama. Note that there is a noticeable difference between the Nuremburg to Budapest portion and the Budapest to Bucharest portion. I highly recommend the Nuremburg to Budapest portion over the other for a first time river cruise as the cities you stop in are more what you probably think of when you think of river cruising. To me the stops in the lower section through the former communist countries is a bit more interesting than fun if that makes any sense. I recommend doing it at some point, just not as a first one. If you are considering Ama, I would throw out there to consider AmaMagna. It's a double wide and only travels on the Danube. It's an amazing ship. However, doing it first, you might be disappointed in future river ships 🙂 We did the Grand Danube (both portions) with pre in Prague and post in Brasov/Bucharest. Review is here: @CastleCritic went on the lower half with the Brasov/Bucharest extension also shortly after, and his review is here: The stops were the same, and he did a more in depth daily post.

We've done a number of ocean cruises (D+ on Royal Caribbean), and a few river cruises. Bratislava is on the Danube, and a stop on some Danube cruises. But as other's have said, you are not guaranteed a docking time or when the ship might leave until maybe the day of or day before? And it might move during the day. Occasionally, the ship will drop people off for excursions, then move to a port down stream to pick those excursion up. Other times, they may stop only for the morning and then move during the afternoon. A private driver that is very flexible might be your best bet, and likely doable, depending on how far away the villages are. I looked a the online itinerary of a couple of Ama cruises that stop in Bratislava (the one I was on did not), and they don't seem to indicate whether they stop all day or not. They only list 1 set of excision options without saying anything like "later..." like they usually do when there is are morning and afternoon sets. This doesn't mean they aren't there pretty much the full day, but doesn't guarentee that they aren't wither. I only looked at them because they are who I am familiar with. Other companies might have more detailed info. If not, you could try calling to see? I don't believe Neuschwanstein Castle is near enough any river cruise port to do as a day trip. When we went there, we did that as a full day (10 hours) tour from Munich. We did a few days in Munich prior to a river cruise (Ama's Rivers & Castles) that left from Nuremburg. We took the train from Munich to Nuremburg (1-1.25 hours), and then a taxi to where the ship was docked. I highly recommend visiting Munich for a few days if you have the time. In addition to Neuschwanstein, we also did Dachau, a Third Reich Walking Tour and a Bavarian Beer Tour (all with Radius). Anyway, even if you don't do Neuschwanstein itself, I think you'd need a full day with a car rental to visit other villages near there. BTW, Google Maps says Neuschwanstein is a 5 hour drive from Nuremburg.

I believe that the issue with Baltimore is the bridge heights more than anything else. So, if they decide that they want to continue to service Baltimore, then they will limit the height and use retractable stacks to make sure they can continue to use that port with newer ships. Vison and Radiance class ships aren't going to be in their fleet forever. Either they will be replaced by something that they can get under the bridges, or they will abandon Baltimore.

It's based on comments made by Michael Bayley as well as various captains. But note that when we talk about replacing Radiance, we are talking about replacing it in use, not size. I think everyone is expecting it to be somewhere around the size of Voyager. Currently, the Voyager class is not designed to go to "exotic" ports or go through the Panama Canal. Radiance was designed as a Panamax, and has self-contained tendering abilities. I personally believe that it will be new Panamax (Neopanamax), LNG, and likely have self-contained tendering abilities. Height will be limited by bridges that get them to certain ports as well as Bridge of the Americas. But overall, Voyager sized. I also think that there's a possibility that it will have fewer passengers than Voyager since cruise ship passenger counts is starting to become a limiting factor to populate destinations, and that will likely spread. This could easily result in it being a more expensive option than Oasis/Icon.

You are assuming there there is a 1:1 people to devices. If you have more devices than people, then the second option gives you more control. It's still not necessary, but it has a definite advantage. There's 2 of us, we have 4 devices. I still do option 1, but I can see where option 2 could work better for people, especially if one of those people is playing online games. You wouldn't want someone else logging into a new device to kick you off if you are in the middle of a game. Since we have Android phones, we have the option of doing a WiFi hotspot on our phone's WiFi connection to connect our other devices, so we don't even have to worry about kicking anyone off. This is only good as long as you are together. If you plan on using WhatsApp for communicating with each other when you are not together, that won't work.

2 people with 1 device each: Each person has their own "account" and their own log in. Each person can switch which device they are using without affecting the other person. 2 people sharing a 2 device plan: There is 1 "account" and 1 log in. If either person attempts to connect a 3rd device without first explicitly logging out of their current device, then the system will kick one of the current devices off, connecting the new one. Anecdotally, the belief is the system kicks off the device connected the longest. The first way is more controlled. The second way can be much cheaper. Especially when you go to 3 or 4 people.

In the "Project Discovery" thread, @Jumping Cruiser posted this: I would tend to agree. Project Discovery may look something similar to this. Yes, it's a parabolic bow. Anyway, to me it does have a slight Royal Caribbean vibe to it. Looks like the bridge may be deck 10 (like Voyager/Freedom class) or 11. For reference, Radiance is 9, Odyssey, Oasis and Icon are 12. and a pool deck maybe at 14 (counting a deck 13). So might need to drop a deck or 2 depending on where they decide they want to be able to take her?