Artemis908

We had a good experience with it. We took Southwest and put both bags under one person since Southwest doesn't charge for luggage. The only thing is I wish we had been able to print out boarding passes because they wouldn't let us get in line to print out boarding passes at the airport because we were so early. But tha was the airline's fault. Also if you have any items that were taken away at port (liquor or candles), call security the night before departure and they will bring them up to you to pack. They are suppose to watch you put them into your luggage but the guy didn't do that for us.

Overall good experience.

I saw that St. George had a min-bus that stops at various locations and makes a loop around the area. Has anyone done this and do they give you any information along the way like they do in large cities?

I don't give much of anything or anyone a perfect 10... a scale between 1 and 10 is a big scale. What's the difference between 8 and 10? 5 and 8? To me 5 is doing the job and 10 is going above and beyond every single time. Under normal circumstances I don't give 10s out and honestly the discomfort I felt when they asked for one and were so serious about it, just made the experience even less of a "10" to me.

I was kind of uncomfortable on our last cruise when our waiter mentioned giving him a "10" on the survey. I remember I kind of chuckled at one point (I can't even remember why) and he said, "I'm being serious, I really need you to give us all 10s." and I was just surprised by how forceful he was being.

I wouldn't go out on my own, but an excursion should be fine. We took an excursion during our Med cruise and the tour guide was great. She also addressed the "elephant in the room" about the safety of the country, terrorism, Muslims, etc. I never felt unsafe, however, people are pushy in the bazaars. It's not much different from walking through Chinatown in NYC or a market in Mexico, people bug you and get in your personal space to buy things and you're expected to barter prices. This made some people in our group very uncomfortable, but my method has always been to go in with a set price in my head for what I am looking for, have small bills so I can give exact change, and be willing to walk away.

The reason cruise lines go to Turkey in the first place is to avoid the VAT tax. By going to one country in Asia, they don't have to force passengers to pay for it.

Hmm... so "Complimentary Thermal Room Access" has become "1-day Thermal Room Access". That's unfortunate...

I noticed that too! And I thought maybe I had just read it wrong last time or something.

If you go look up certain cruises online you'll see a list of the suite classes and that it starts Apr 30

Sailings on Allure from May 1 on are now (as of tonight) being marketed differently. The "Deluxe/Suites" category when you go to book is now described as "Royal Suite Class" - so JS and above.

 

I didn't check, but I am guessing it's the same for Oasis, Anthem, etc.

 

 

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Same thing for our cruise on Anthem at the end of May. Suites are now labeled "Royal Suite Class" and each suite is labeled with what type of class it is in. They have also updated the exclusives for each suite with a list of what you get with each class. There's also a note that says, "The Royal Suite Class Program will be applicable on sailing’s beginning Apr 30th."

I'm not the OP but here's our experience. We arrived at port on a shuttle from Ramada Plaza Liberty Newark airport which is 8 miles away. It took about 20 minutes to get to Port Liberty cruise terminal. Arrived at about 10:45am, had our luggage dropped off and we were checked by 11am. About 10 minutes later they started boarding the suites guest and pinnacles. We, being D+, were the next group about 5 minutes later. IMO general boarding wasn't long after but we were already on Anthem before 11:30am.

Thank you! I have been researching how early to show up. We are getting a ride from my father and are suite guests. I remember the last time we were at Cape Liberty the line was pretty long for drop off and we had to wait about 30-60 minutes to board.

An Anthem of the Seas compass will be pretty worthless at this stage since the shortest cruise at this point has been 8 days. Once the ship starts to go to Bermuda, it's going to change and it's hard to tell in what way it will change. But here is a Compass from the Bahamas.

(Replace stars with royal caribbean blog dot com)

If you do a forum search, you'll probably find a variety of positive and negative reviews. What I seem to read most often is that they seem to be so busy trying to be different and innovative that taste is lacking.

Here are two reviews that have vastly different opinions of the food:

http://www.******************.com/2014/11/20/restaurant-review-wonderland

https://malcolmoliver.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/anthems-wonderland-nightmare/

Yeah I am going on Anthem in 90 days. Just wondering if it REALLY saves time... they have to check the photo anyway. And it says to take it behind a white or off-white wall, but we don't have empty walls, so did it in front of a pull down shade... not sure that will work.

Just saw this new addition to online check-in that said, "Upload a security photo to expedite the boarding process and help ensure your safety onboard."

Does anyone have experience with this and does it really save time? Do they make you just retake it if they don't like how it was taken?

We'll be on a cruise in May (docked at the wharf) with our 9 yr. old granddaughter. I think she'll like the caves. What is the easiest way to get there? Ferry to...? and then a bus? Please any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. :)

Do you mean the Crystal Caves? You might find this useful: http://www.caves.bm/planningYourVisit.html

Looks like you can take a bus from Hamilton. Hamilton is a pretty easy ferry ride from King's Wharf. Unless it's a Sunday! A lot of the island closes on Sundays :(

Best buy still has them. As do pawn shops.

 

I still have one, too...don't judge me ;):p

I think I am in the last generation of people who will ever know what "Be kind, please rewind" means. :)

As mentioned by someone else, if the cruise is in Europe and doesn't make a stop in a non-European nation (like Turkey) then they have to add an 8% VAT tax. Retail shop purchases have an 18% VAT tax.

You might find this thread useful:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2297106

To answer a previous question, yes it's available on Android now

I've done early April before in Bayonne and it was cool and windy. It didn't get warmer until we were in Bermuda, it was hard to spend days out by the pool during sea days because it would get so windy. You're probably best off bringing labels, be prepared that half of the cruise might be cool but you'll have a good idea about the weather since you live in NJ. This weather has been crazy anyway, it's going to be 60 on Saturday!!

The class system I wrote about has to do with the move to private lounges and restaurants for suite guests. When the cruise lines broke from the old class system that included the private areas they attempted to provide a really great cruising experience to everyone on the ship. Now the main dining has devolved to so so food. I do realized the value for the dollar I get on a cruise as opposed to what the costs were in the 80's is much better. I am not happy to have been booted from the concierge (suite) lounge twice. On the Oasis class D+ are back to a revised version of the D lounge since the suites are in the new Suite lounge. When it was the concierge lounge the appies and services were better (IMHO).

Sorry, do you mean you tried to go to the Concierge Lounge and got they asked you to leave? I don't know if I've ever seen them kick anyone out before, but I guess most of the non-suite guests I have seen in there were considered "guests" of people in suites.

Ah, I see! 3.5 hours of free drinks/night is a perk that cruisers might want to take into account. I mean a couple of drinks isn't going to offset the vast price difference, but it could come into play that maybe I'm paying $100/night but I'll save $30/night on drinks (replace with actual figures, of course). Yet I also understand the perspective that why is a special lounge necessary? Why not just put something on their card so they get free drinks anywhere during that time period. Then again, I bet they'd lose money that way. I can't imagine the suite set want to be tied to one lounge all night and miss out on entertainment elsewhere. Perhaps they grab a drink and go, but I bet they're also more likely to buy their next drink wherever they are rather than going back to the lounge.

 

 

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The choice of drinks is more limited so I think in the end the cruise line saves more money. We've done a suite once before and doing it again for our anniversary cruise. On that cruise, the Concierge Lounge was always really crowded and people invited non-suite guests to come with them, making it more crowded. My husband and I are introverts and he doesn't know how to start a conversation, so for us the lounge was kind of pointless except to get our free drink(s).

I don't judge people on how they spend their money. Maybe one person would rather get a new car or bigger house and spend less money on vacation, I am the opposite. For me, I save up all of my money on vacation. I think the added suite perks just encourage more people to spend money and get a suite because it seems more valuable. If all I got was more room in a suite, I would never get a suite. I mean there is only two of us, how much more room do we need?

Same thing for when we go to Disney World. I've stayed in all categories of resorts from Deluxe to Value and really the only benefits of Deluxe are the size of the room and location tends to be closer to a park. So I am more likely to spend my money on a cruise suite than a fancy hotel room in Disney.

I've sailed on Anthem. Here's the basic info for the Royal iQ app:

 

1. Make sure you install it on your devices BEFORE you embark. It won't work till you are on the ship, but you need to install it before.

 

2. And that's because you DON'T need a wi fi package or other internet connection for the app to work once on board. It connects to the ship's own internal network. All for free!

 

3. But you can't use the app to communicate with other people on board unless you have paid for some sort of communications package for each device on which you want to be able to communicate. (As noted above, the other app functions are all free.) And you still need this package even if you have purchased an internet package. We didn't buy the app communciations package. If you want more info about it, I suggest doing a search in the Quantum class sub-forum or asking your question there.

 

4. The luggage tracking feature on the app did not work on either end of our cruise. Don't worry about it. It's a gimmick, probably fun when it works but we all cruised without it before! :)

 

5. The app froze up pretty regularly. When that happens, just close it out and re-launch it. That took care of the problem.

 

6. Other than all that, I thought the app was pretty nice. It was good to be able to see my daily calendar, the compass, my account, etc, right there on my phone. It was also easy to book dining on it. (Of course, I'd normally keep my phone in the safe for the whole cruise. :) )

 

7. I think Royal could do much more with the app. For example, how about putting the deck plans on it? I'm sure that would benefit a lot of folks.

 

Hope this has been helpful.

I am actually pretty shocked that deck plans aren't in the app. Seems like that would be the most useful thing feature they could have, especially if it could tell where you were and how to get to where you want to go.

Can you save or set reminders for things that interest you from the Compass? It would seem really useful if you could even just highlight an activity or event for later.

I was reading up on the suite perks for Anthem of the Seas and noticed there is a key access suite sun deck. It doesn't look like there is any bar up there though, so do you have to keep on walking down to the pool level to get drinks?

Can anyone share their experiences with the Trivia games? Seems like there is a couple games a day on our next cruise. We've never been and I wondering what everyone's experiences are. Like how you play, what's involved, if they keep score, etc.

I saw this on one of the Anthem of the Seas compasses and wondering if anyone can provide any details. Do one of the chefs cook a dish and walk you through it?