MadameButterfly

03/19/2017 will be my 2nd cruise on RCCL, I've been on dozens of other cruises and have had a couple snafus with cabin placement. I agree with the advice given about watching for public spaces above and below.

My late husband and I booked a gty outside cabin on Princess and we had a fantastic view forward, port side. Only problem was that we were over the theater. Sleeping in wasn't an option and there was no such thing as an afternoon nap! Sure sure, the shows were in the evening and that was fine BUT, you know when the dancers, etc rehearse? Morning/afternoons were filled with loud music playing beneath our feet, same track over and over. Ok, from the top! Omg. At that time, my dear husband was working night shift and transitioning back to being a day-walker was hard. We didn't say anything about it, so of course we enjoyed our cruise the best we could, no harm done.

Avoid the promenade deck being over your head, another cruise we ended up under the jogging track and were woken up every morning by the earlybird joggers/walkers. During the day it wasn't as bad, I think just because the usual din of daytime about the ship muffled the footfalls of the runners.

My parents had the misfortune of being in an inside cabin one deck below the pool and had some minor flooding in their cabin. Before the flooding, my Dad said he heard the crews upstairs power washing the deck each night after 1-2 am, this was preceded by deck chair stacking and other furniture moving. Disney was incredibly apologetic and gracious about this, moved the contents of their room, free dry-cleaning/laundry for anything that got wet, shipboard credit and more sincere apologies.

Stuff happens regardless of how well you plan, thankfully it hasn't happened too often to me/my family. I used to love the thrill of booking a gty cabin with the possibility of getting a nice cabin above the lowest category but with my vacation time being at a premium, I'm finding myself more willing to pay/choose for peace.

This BOGO thing seems like a good deal. Did I understand correctly that they assign you the premium restaurants you will dine at initially? I see on the website that you can amend and reschedule but I'm wondering how much of a mess that is? Like if I wanted to go to Wonderland and they have me at Sabor on night 1, I can request Wonderland/whatever else I want and try to get the reservation switched, yes?

Thanks :)

Thank you Carol, you're fantastic!

All points well considered. This evening is dinner and vaca planning for the two of us and you've given me plenty to think about. I feel like I have options now! :)

Hi Folks,

My boyfriend and I just booked the 03/19/2017 sailing on the Anthem. We live in the Baltimore, MD area and are considering a few options for getting to Cape Liberty. I've not sailed out of this location before and I was wondering if you could weigh in on a couple points.

1. Same day drive in? According to Google, this is about a 3 hour drive from home to port. Departure day is Sunday, so the traffic shouldn't be horrendous, right? Are there any big traffic snarls that I should know about that might make us want to consider driving in same-day?

2. Parking wars. I see the cruise terminal parking and it appears the going rate is $20/day, so $140 for the duration of the 7 night cruise. Is there cheaper parking or a better option? Is it safe?

3. Stay-Park-Sail, is this is thing? We considered just getting a hotel room for Saturday evening and then seeing about parking at the hotel and catching a shuttle to the port. It seems from your posts in this thread here that staying near to Cape Liberty the night before makes for crazy shuttle service departure morning. Do the hotels generally charge to leave a car there for the week? Is it safe?

Any other thoughts or questions are welcome, just having booked last night I'm still trying to get my head around this stuff to make for a low-stress first cruise for my boyfriend.

Thanks! :)

Hi fellow CC Geocachers!

It's been a while since I've geocached, but I was trying to think of something fun to do on our upcoming cruise in October aboard the CB since we're going to some ports of call that neither my husband or I have ever been to before. Definitely check out Geocaching.com if you're interested to see what's out there!

Also, I question for you all - has anyone used the Columbus app on their droid for caching? I've got a small handheld GPSr which really does the trick for our needs, but I was just wondering how the apps fair out in the field. This might be a stupid question BUT, I was wondering, I have t-Mobile US (we live in Rochester, NY), if I'm in Bermuda, will I be able to use my phone's GPS even if I don't have cell phone signal? I think the two operate independently, but I don't know.

Thanks!

S

Thanks for the responses, I see what's going on with this Sanctuary place now...

Which leads me to another question... Is it really worth the money? I mean really? What is so spectacular?

I'm for sure looking forward to at least checking out the new use of space on the CB, but admittedly I've got a white-knuckled grip around every last dollar, so I'm just wanting to know from those who have experienced it. In the back of my mind, I'm feeling a little nickel and dimed to death with the news that this is a pay-to-relax venue. Hmmm...

Does this $10 fee also apply on the Caribbean Princess' Sanctuary area? Can someone give a little bit of a description of the area? I've read the information posted on the website, but of course its just a bunch of sales-y fluffy stuff...

Much appreciated!

I too love that cruise ship smell and breathing it in deep as soon as you step on board,

the drone of the captain's voice over the PA system, he's in control of where we're going today,

the itinerary channel on TV with the map, our route, cruising speed, etc (I'm a little big of a map and statistics junkie)

the food and the ability to try new foods and enjoy classics like creme brulee or the obligatory molten chocolate cake

the staff, they're 99% of the time real, warm and friendly people, I love to find reasons to show and tell them that I really appreciate their efforts to make my vacation special, not to mention learn about their families and homes

waking up really early and watching the sunrise, the process of the ship pulling into port and greeting a new world day after day

the ability to do nothing or pack my day full, whatever I want to do

getting dressed up for dinner, somehow it makes the food taste better

fruity cocktails, dirty martinis, and the ability to say "surprise me" and enjoy something new and delicious to sip by the pool

people-watching on board

sitting on deck and watching the ocean go by

the promenade deck - I didn't like the Enchantment of the Seas because it lacked a proper one

getting a little bit sunburned, I'm very fair-skinned, so it's almost inevitable, but it means I'm on vacation, just a little bit - so calm down

oh, the list could go on and on...