M&JfromSDL

Is this for full suites or are JS guests also allowed to access this area?

Willie T's and Caroline's.  

Spent a long weekend in KW earlier this year.  Here are a couple of our recommendations:

Breakfast - La Grignote

Lunch - DJ's Clam Shack, Half Shell Raw Bar (waterfront)

Dinner - Nine One Five (loved the cozy bar area upstairs), El Siboney for Cuban

On 11/8/2018 at 8:55 AM, CruisingMom-2016 said:

Thanks, all.  We are drawn to the Southern Itinerary.

 

How about the aft cabin on Freedom?  9706.  My husband is concerned about not liking the balcony at the end of the ship.

Thanks for posting this thread.  We were debating Allure Eastern vs. Freedom Southern and think we'll go with the Southern. 

As far as the cabin goes, we had 8712 on Freedom a few years back.  I enjoyed the larger balcony but did not like having the superstructure in the way.  There is also a bit less privacy as the cabin above can see into part of your balcony. 

Sorry to read about your breakup. I'm not much of an expert on how the deposit will shake out, but if I were you I would go on that cruise. You never know, there's a ton of people on board and always lots of single people. Maybe you'll meet someone that loves to cruise and is in a similar situation!

I'm a bit of a foodie and have been disappointed with the food on my last Royal and NCL cruises. I was looking for an alternative one day and stumbled on a thread someone started in the Celebrity section about jumping from that line to Oceania. Oceania claims to have one of the better culinary programs at sea. After a little homework, I was pretty surprised at how close the all-in number is for an Oceania cruise when compared to the RCI cruise I have booked in January. I'd have to make some sacrifice in cabin (JS vs. Balcony) but might be worth it for some.

My strategy would be to reserve a later morning flight and try and sweet talk the gate agent into allowing me to standby on earlier flight if I made it. The mid morning flights on Saturdays and Sundays are often oversold so they will probably be looking for volunteers anyway.

Last year coming off Allure I carried my own bags, am a Globe Entry member and used the Mobile Passport app. Went to swipe my SeaPass card and turns out I got flagged for additional screening and ended up spending an hour or so with the nice folks down at CBP going through my suitcases.

I think it's a tough question to answer. My wife and I seem to think cruise ship food has declined in quality over the years but it could just be that our palate has refined and our expectations are higher.

We stepped outside of our loyalty to RCI a few years ago and sailed on NCL Getaway. Everyone raved about Le Bistro but our first night there was terrible. The 2nd visit was one of our best cruise ship meals ever. The steak restaurant was mediocre at best. But what we really hated was having to make reservations so far in advance. It seemed much harder to get into their speciality restaurants last minute when compared to RCI. We ended up at the asian place adjacent to the casino because we had no other choice.

I found the food quality between the two to be about a wash. Buffet food is buffet food. The two high points on our recent Epic cruise was the teppanyaki restaurant (cover charge) and the O'Sheehans Sports Bar.

 

O'Sheehans was really awesome. Think Schooner Bar but with excellent (free!) pub food. They had burgers, wings, hot dogs, onion rings and more. It's got a full menu during the day, and a limited menu 24 hours. Royal would do well to increase their late night offerings. So many times I've left the club and luckily caught Sorrento's just before they closed, but more often had to settle for Promenade Cafe.

THIS!!!! I think NCL stands out against RCI is the 24 hour food option with O'Sheehans and IMHO, their buffet was better. We sailed on the Allure last year and I remember saying to my wife around midnight (after a day of drink) that I wish I could order some wings and fried food from O'Sheehans instead of Pizza from Sorrento's.

I agree with the comments above about Falmouth. But I do love me some Labadee and usually seek out itineraries that include it. I also enjoy Cozumel. I have yet to visit Roatan or Costa Maya and would probably pick that itinerary for a little variety if it were my cruise.

However if you have yet to do the Labadee -> Falmouth -> Cozumel itinerary and are comfortable staying within the port area, that's probably the option I would recommend.

We tried NCL a couple of years back. While Royal is my "Go To," I think variety is the spice of life so I'm open to other lines.

Question on the hammock...did you keep it up all the time or take it down when you were not using it? Did your cabin steward say anything about it no being allowed? Thanks for your help on this!

I kept it up almost the entire week. They left a note in our room about balcony cleaning so I took it down those days. Our cabin attendant didn't say a thing to us about it.

This maybe the best live review I've ever read through. Following... stalking... subscribing... I'll call it living vicariously.

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Just when I was beginning to lose faith in Royal, I got a call from Guest Services to let me know my bag was waiting downstairs with our apartment office.

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So Southwest is a airline on the list for the Luggage Valet program from the ship? If so how much and do they still print your boarding passes as well. Thank you.

Yes, Southwest is an approved airline. It cost $25 per person and the boarding passes were included in an envelope with the bag tags.

You can sign up using the TV in your stateroom.

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Landed at DCA tonight and one of my Luggage Valet bag did not arrive. This was the bag that was part of my additional search with CBP. If I were a betting man, I have a feeling it is sitting exactly where I left it. I filed claims with Southwest and RCCL. We will see how it goes. Crappy ending to a great vacation.

Totally agree.....another pet peeve is getting handed a receipt for every drink you order even though you have a drink package. We ended up giving each waiter a $1 when we ordered a drink...the receipts stopped coming. Also getting nicely dressed for dinner, and eating with others who have t-shirts on.

 

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Sorry to read about your experience. We just came off the Allure this morning and considered booking your cruise because we loved the itinerary. Have to agree with the food and the mall feel of the Promenade. I remember Promenade sales on previous cruises but nothing like what we experienced on Allure.

Your math is a little off. The drink package covers up to $13. If you don't have a package that drink is $13 + 18% gratuity. If you drink $7 beers all day, then the economics may not work out. But you'll be hard pressed to find a cocktail for less than $10 especially if you prefer premium brand liquors.

Also, it's worth mentioning there's value in not having to worry about trying something new and finding out you don't like it.

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This has not been my morning. Slept terribly last night. Got selected for additional immigration screening. Gave up on brunch plans because of the rain.

Check in at airport and my wife was not selected for TSA Pre. I get randomly selected again for additional pat down at airport. Which gave me something to do while I wait for her to go through the regular security line.

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Popped by the NextCruise desk. Scored the most awesome deck 8 hump balcony on Allure this October. Wanted to do Harmony because it's new and the itinerary is better, but it was $800 more for the week and the Allure date jives with our family plans a little better.

I'll keep an eye on prices over the coming months.

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Really enjoying your live review. Thanks so much for giving us all a much needed fix till it's our turn! If it's not too much trouble, even though you don't have plans to go to the MDR, could you ask someone about the MDR menu rotation. I read on these boards that the Western itinerary is mojo, saffron, pimento, basil, jasmine, shiitake and pomodoro. I'm trying to plan which night to go to Giovanni's. Thanks.

Here's the menu order.

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Debating on heading down to NextCruise and checking out what they have to offer.

Our anniversary is in October and we have a family reunion to attend in Florida as well so it could line up well.

I'll cover this more later but I think the Oasis-class ships are a bit too large for us. I enjoy it more than my wife does. Seems RCCL only has Oasis class ships out of Florida in October besides Empress which could be an option.

I'll contemplate it some more from my hammock.

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