giswam

Thank you for sharing your stunning photos. I was also on this cruise and we had a wonderful time. Absolutely loved the ship and unfortunately don’t miss Majesty when compared to Enchantment. It’s a wonderful upgrade from Majesty and I will be sad to see her go when she relocates to TX. Hoping I can squeeze in one more cruise on her before she’s relocated.

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My favorite cruise line and I also do not cruise in suites. Each cruise is better than the last and at times I do not have a beverage package. Both the service and experience have been stellar and as soon as I can steer my teens away from the "bells and whistles " of the sister cruise line, it may be the only cruise line I choose.

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Thank you for sharing. Off to a wonderful start. The TA is also one of my bucket list items and I'd love to do it on a Solstice class ship so your review will be very helpful. Congrats on your nuptials.

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Agree with the original poster, cruising value is definitely diminishing, and in my opinion so are the the service levels. Lots of new ships and up-charges but what about the things that we have already paid for improving since we are paying more for them than before?

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Highly recommend the Celebrity Constellation, especially for a romantic couples only getaway. The service and food on Celebrity are far superior to Royal, in my opinion. My kids love Royal because of all the bells and whistles but my husband and I definitely prefer Celebrity. The rooms are more spacious, less crowds on board and just overall more upscale environment. If you book Celebrity, they are currently running the pick your perk promotion that could cover your gratuities or if you enjoy adult beverages, a nice drink package to enhance your trip. In my book, there's no bad cruise, so I'm sure you'll enjoy whatever you choose. Enjoy your anniversary.

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Thank you! I have a Nikon Coolpix 8200 and an Olympus Tough 8010 (waterproof), nothing fancy. All the pictures on the ship were taken with the Nikon and the ones in Nassau and Coco Cay were from the Olympus. I love the Nikon because it's small, fast, does well in indoors and has a 14X zoom. I'm not as happy with the Olympus because it's pretty sluggish between pictures. But it's great for snorkeling or at the beach or pool. I might try a different underwater camera next time.

Thank you so much for sharing, I will be sure to check out the Nikon when I'm shopping. I love that it has a nice zoom and is compact because I definitely need a camera that's easy to carry.

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Thank you for a great review of a great "little" ship. We have sailed on her a few times and have a sailing booked, just my husband and I in early November for a weekend getaway. Your photos are amazing, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Do you mind sharing your camera information? I'm in the market for a new camera and would love some input. Thanks again for taking the time to post this review and I will be checking out your blog as well.

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Congrats on a great upgrade. Enjoy your cruise.

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Welcome back Victoria, so happy to see you have already started your review. Enjoying it thoroughly so far. Looking forward to reliving your week aboard the Fantasy. Love the gifts you created for the gift exchange.

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The mini bar is serviced by someone other than the stateroom attendant.

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After playing in the water for a while we headed back to our loungers and got a couple of drinks from the bar waiter as he went by. It really was a perfect day to be at the beach.

 

After a while it was time for lunch. So we headed for Cookies. Let me just say that the lunch provided was FABULOUS! Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, tons of freshly cut fruit, potato salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, and lots of other stuff I probably can't even remember. It was all delicious! I ate WAY TOO MUCH! There is free fountain soda available just like on the ship as well. There is also self serve soft serve ice cream! I had a banana/strawberry twist, that was wonderful!! I was very very impressed with lunch, not 4 star cuisine or anything, but absolutely perfect for an afternoon at the beach!

Thank you for a wonderful review, complete with photos. I completely agree with you about the lunch at Cookies. It is the best private island BBQ lunch we have ever had and I find myself thinking about the food on occassion.

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Thank you for taking the time to do this review. I am enjoying your writing and the photos. I live in South Florida and as you mentioned the Divina reviews are not as common as others. Would love to jump on some of MSC deals but since vacation time is at a premium, I need to get a good feel of what I'll be commiting to. Thanks again and looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

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Those with existing bookings are making out on this deal but looking at new bookings there is something fishy going on. Gives you one price when you sign into the website and it changes and goes up if you enter a C&A number. Price of 1st person jumps substantially and 2nd person is half of that. Take out the C&A number and you get standard rates. Rates are same for both person and total is exactly the same as the supposed 50% off promotion to the penny. In short, there is no deal. Did this on multiple cruises and its exactly the same cost in the end.:mad:

Well stated, no deal here. Wanted to take advantage of this promotion and book something for 2015 but cannot find anything that makes sense.

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Amazing review and photos. I just came across your review in my recents feed and I'm so glad I thought to have a look. You do a great job of recapping everything and it's very entertaining. Don't change a thing. Thanks for taking the time to do this review and I plan on checking out your other reviews on here and your blog.

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Great review and "ridiculously" :) amazing photos. Thoroughly enjoying all of your review. We will be on the Allure on the Eastern itinerary over the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks for all your hard work.

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Very detailed review. There may not be any photos but your attention to detail and word choice make everything easy to follow and visualize. Looking forward to the rest. Thanks again.

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Thank you for your review. You're off to a great start. We leave on the Connie two weeks from today so I'm looking forward to all of your commentary about the ship, staff etc. Subscribed.

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MSC Divina has some 7 night cruises for $279.00 pp. Check the hot deals section of their website.

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We did the Character breakfast just last November on Liberty of the Seas, it was enjoyable but I definitely will not pay $40.00 for my family ( 2 adults and 2 kids over 10) to do it again. The interactions were very brief and as others have mentioned there are character photo ops all over the ship that are free. I'm so glad we were able to have the Character breakfast experience while it was free. I am beginning to see the value that we enjoyed in cruising slowly diminish, and that's sad. I hope Royal will not be using this as a trial to begin "upcharging" all of the other activities we enjoy ( rock wall, ice skating etc.). We enjoy cruising but as the value in it decreases we will explore other vacation options, especially now that the kids are older.

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Real great idea and very cute. Nice job and enjoy your cruise !

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Hi all.

 

I have posted on this awhile back but now I have more details. We are docking in St. Thomas on Nov 26th on the Allure (Thanksgiving week). There will be 6 ships in St. Thomas that day. Port load shows 21,000. I'm assuming that means number of people? I'm not even sure how I know we are in crown bay but it seems like someone told me that. I can't find that info anywhere.

 

We want to go to St. John for the day. We are there from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. We have no issue with the DIY way but from what I understand we will need to get on a taxi ride to be able to get on the REd hook and with that many people we might experience some crowds with the travel and long taxi rides.

 

I'm considering Royals ST03 excursion at $34 pp. It is basically just a roundtrip ferry from pier side to Cruz bay and offers 4.5 hours of self explore of St. John. Problem is that it doesn't leave until 11:45 a.m. I'm afraid with that many people in port by the time we arrive we will be behind all the crowds.

 

Would it be better to do the entire thing DIY? I'm not sure how to go about that. I'm more concerned with time and convenience than I am with how expensive the other option is but that is always good information as well.

 

Thanks so much for any help.

 

Debbie

We are also on your Allure sailing and definitely want to visit St. John. We have been to St. Thomas once before and enjoyed it but my husband really wants to visit St. John. I am leaning towards the cruiseline excursion ST03, definitely understand wanting more time on the island but nothing beats the peace of mind of knowing the ship won't leave without us. Still researching and I'm glad to see your post, didn't realize that many people would be in port that day. . Based on what I've read so far, the earliest ferry you'd be able to catch is at 11:00 with approximate arrival at Cruz Bay at 11:30 if all flows smoothly. I'm thinking it's not a huge difference between the cruiseline excursion and it will eliminate possible ferry waits due to crowds.

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