starfish216

Thank you.

Does anyone know when RC releases sailings for May 2017?

 

For the past five years we sail out of Bayonne every May and I want to book May 2017 before the prices get too high. I don't want to wait until we are on the Anthem in May 2016…..the booking while on board discount may not be enough to compensate if the fare rises by the time we sail.

 

On RC website I only see Hawaii listed as the departure port.

 

Thanks,

Renee

Thanks for sharing your journey crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Anthem with us. I enjoyed it.

 

Since you will be spending sometime in NYC I just wanted to let you know if you want to see the Statue of Liberty in daylight there is a FREE commuter ferry that runs from lower Manhattan to Staten Island that passes pretty close to the Statue of Liberty. You will also be able to get a view of lower Manhattan.

 

The ride takes about 25 minutes each way. The ferry will be less crowded in late morning and early afternoon after everyone is done commuting to/from work.

 

If you are planning a visit to the 911 Memorial the walk is ¾ of a mile to the ferry terminal.

 

The weather the next few days in going to be unseasonable warm…perfect for a quick ferry ride.

 

Enjoy the rest of your holiday in NYC.

Thank you for your blog…..I have been reading it daily and enjoying it.

 

One quick question…..when is the Anthem scheduled to arrive in Cape Liberty?

How disappointing that your daughter missed Halifax, it's one of our favorite ports. Did they say why they missed Halifax?

 

The weather for Saint John's tomorrow is 53 degrees, cloudy and 20% chance of rain.

 

We are getting on the Splendor on Sunday when she returns to NYC….I am hoping we are not sailing into the direct path of the hurricane. We live on the coast and have been watching the projected path of Joaquin, the forecast is all over the place. Latest update is NY area should feel her effects on Monday.

 

At least we live only 25 miles from port and don't have to deal with flights.

[quote name='spiritualtraveller']thanks for the heads up!!! we will be leaving on splendor this sunday. received an email from carnival saying to try to board between 10am and 12pm. we take the west side highway down from palisades parkway!![/QUOTE]

Wow you received an email, we didn't and we're leaving Sunday too.

I called Carnival before I made the original post this morning and they didn't know anything about it.

We have three cabins and FFTF for all three and none of us received an email stating to arrive early. Not that it matters since we always arrive at port around 10:30 anyway.

I just wanted to let everyone know to plan accordingly that there is a Bike Ride for MS scheduled for Sunday Oct 4th starting West Side Highway and W 46th Street and ending at Pier 92/94. I am not familiar with this event but this starting/ending point is where the cruise ship terminals are. The ride starts at 6:20 AM but I don't know the ending time. The ending time is the big questions….especially for those of us who like to arrive at port early, like me (lol). So along with my luggage I will be packing an extra bag or two of patience.

So, just be prepared for probable street closures or delays. I don't know if parking will be an issue especially for those who don't park at the pier.

If anyone is interested in the bike route here is the link to the event.
[url]http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/NYNBikeEvents?pg=entry&fr_id=26036[/url]

Few more sleeps to go...

I think the picture you are talking about are cabanas on barefoot beach. They do have beach cabanas there in the middle of sand like that. Kinda sneaky to put that pic in there.

 

Thank you for the answer….never had the opportunity to go to Barefoot Beach.

I'm guessing my next cruise out of Baltimore in January won't have much of a deck party lol

 

Who knows….maybe it will snow and there will be a huge snow ball fight on deck….Just saying

This question is for recent Labadee vistors…..

 

So I just saw RC now has beach and over the water Cabana's available for Labadee.

 

I have been to Labadee twice, once having a beach cabana. It was on Nellie's beach behind the yellow half wall, it's a group of about six cabana's. If you have been to Labadee you will recognize the wall. This location was great few steps across the sand and you are in the water. See photo below

 

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_4769.jpg.html?sort=3&o=40

 

But now the photo on the RC Excursion listing is showing a beach cabana in the middle of no where…. I don't recall seeing these cabana's spread out like this.

 

Is this section even near the water?

 

Where are all the beach chairs that all the other guest use?

 

Did they now build additional Cabana's behind the Cabana's with the yellow wall?

 

Were they alway's there and I missed seeing them?

 

The Cabana's in the photo actually looks like it's on the sandy area between Nellies Beach and Adrenaline Beach where the ground is more level.

 

Has anyone seen these Cabana's? I am only familiar with the over the water ones and the ones behind the yellow wall.

 

Thanks

Are the cabana's in Labadee available for all sailings?

 

I still don't see it listed on our May sailing. The only shore excursion showing for Labadee is the Beach Bed.

 

Thanks

We too have pre-booked all our dining. Do they provide you with a reminder of what you have booked once on board? Is there a card in the cabin to take down to dinner?

 

Also I can't pre-book shows yet (sailing in March). I'm hoping that we can prebook the shows as it saves the hassle of having to arrive extra early to guarantee a seat. Do you prebook a seat number or just the amount of people in your party?

 

When we sailed on the Quantum we just booked the amount of people in our party. We were a group of 5 in three different cabins.

 

There is no assigned seating but they do have a section of the theatre roped off for suite guest.

 

I actually like the pre planning idea….since we are a group of 5 (my self, DH, sister, BIL and our dad) that always travel on vacation together the conversation everyday is 'so what time are we meeting for dinner and where?' the response is usually 'I don't care where or when, what do you want to do?' We usually banter back and forth like this through out the day. lol

 

When we booked the Quantum I had a chance to pre plan I asked the same question and the response was 'it doesn't matter where or when we eat or see shows'. So when we sailed on the Quantum in March I booked each of the complimentary dinning venues once and left the remaining nights free. Most dinner reservation were between 6:00-6:30 PM which is early for all of us but I figured this early time left lots of options for booking shows when the schedule was released. We never had to wait and were usually done in little over an hour. I found service to be fast since the venues weren't crowded yet.

 

I also booked all the main shows, the times scheduled for shows worked well with our early dinner schedule. Sent my sister and BIL the links and said 'this is what I booked and if you want something different change it once on board.' My dad and BIL didn't attend some of the shows so those seats were just released to the public about 15 minutes prior to show time.

 

This pre-planning saved a lot of stressing over 'what are we doing tonight?'. Once on board, on the Royal IQ app you can see any reservations you have….so everyone already knows the tentative plans for the cruise…if they don't like it they can change it. The pre-planning gave us on opportunity to try most things once without having to worry about being closed out of a dinning venue or show.

 

For our family this worked out well. We tried all the complimentary venues once and the other nights ate in WJ when ever we wanted. Some nights all five of us ate together other nights we split up, this was our choice. We actually prefer to eat and go and not sit for an hour or so.

 

For our cruise on the Anthem in May 2016 (we will be a party of 7) I will be doing the same thing once the reservations open up. Again everyone will be sent the tentative itinerary with the options of changing things once on board.

 

For all those wondering I am not a control freak….I just know that a party of 7 people most times can not show up to a dinning venue at 7 PM (our normal dinner time when home) and expect to be seated immediately. I also know that it will make it more difficult for a party of 7 to wait standby to get into a show….you will probably get in but forget about finding seats together.

I usually bring my crocheting with me, I usually crochet afghans.

 

I either start a project so the piece is small or I do a project that has several small mofits that have to be joined. This way the piece I am working on will not hit the floor.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks for all the info!

Thanks

As previous poster has mentioned, unless you are sailing one way most of the time there is not much to see but the sea. lol

 

Of course you will be near land sailing in and out of the ports but sea days are just that…..sea days, nothing but the ship and the water.

 

I, personally, still book a balcony sailing to Canada because I prefer natural sunlight.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks so much for the info. Guess my iPad cellular data plan won't work either.

 

We are doing the northbound with 3 night post cruise tour. The last day includes a glass dome train ride from Talkeetna to Anchorage.

Does anyone know what time we will arrive at the hotel? I kinda want to fly back that same night/early AM. Is it doable?

 

When we did this last year, we arrived back to Anchorage around 8 PM.

 

The train ride was nice….we choose not eat dinner on the train. I spent most of my time on the back platform watching the scenery go buy and trying to get a photo of the front of the train as went around a turn.

 

The cruise was great.

I have been on cruises that the cards after each round get reshuffled into the automatic shuffler…..so forget about trying to count cards.

Just off Pride….Guys Burgers were just OK. They were thin and too salty….maybe that's because I cook with very little salt today and I am just more sensitive to the taste of it.

 

I find better burgers locally.

Just of the May 17 Pride sailing. We have been on over a dozen cruises on various ships, more than half have left out of NY/NJ ports so we are a little bit familiar with how you can feel the ship move going down the East coast.

 

We were in cabin 7259 on the Pride. We had calm seas the whole time so the ship did not move from wave action but we did feel a constant vibration in our cabin. Also the vibration was felt in the dining room, buffet area and serenity area. Our balcony door rattled most of the time and depending on the wind direction we had a whistling sound coming from the door. Yes, all this was annoying but it was not enough to ruin our cruise.

 

This sensation is a lot different than that of the ship pitching up/down or side to side. The horizon remained stable since the ocean was really calm. What we felt was just a vibration of the ship.

 

To give you some imagery - Imagine a car idling roughly or sitting on a couch and have someone sit next to you constantly bouncing there leg up and down on the floor, you can feel that vibration. This is what it was like in the cabin constantly. If the engines were on there was a vibration. You even felt it in the dining rooms where the water in the glasses had the appearance of simmering water.

 

I eventually got used to it..

 

Other than the vibration issue we had a great time.

I always went on the BQE to the Verrazano and it went thru Staten Island to the Bayonne Bridge. Are there any signs directing you towards Port Liberty after getting off the Verrazano Bridge?

 

I live on Staten Island and frequently use the Bayonne Bridge, it is under major reconstruction (raising the bridge) that will not be done anytime soon. There are constant closure usually Monday to Friday from 9AM to 3 PM and sometimes for the whole weekend. Use the link to get the latest updates.

 

http://www.panynj.gov/alerts-advisories/advisories-bayonne-bridge.html

 

For those coming over the Verrazano Bridge you need to go over the Goethals Bridge when the Bayonne Bridge is closed. Then take the NJ Turnpike North to exit 14 ABC and get off at exit 14A, then proceed to take NJ 440 S. At this point there is plenty of singe directing you to Cape Liberty. From the Goethals Bridge to Cape Liberty should take about 20 minutes with NO traffic. Do allow extra time for traffic especially during the week exit where 14 ABC is very busy.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Goethals+Bridge,+Staten+Island,+NY/Cape+Liberty+Cruise+Port,+Port+Terminal+Boulevard,+Bayonne,+NJ/@40.6842822,-74.2169686,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c24d22eac6f567:0x347f5333d7ed015d!2m2!1d-74.195978!2d40.635381!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c251e6aaaaaaab:0x7e3598347b19bfb1!2m2!1d-74.073947!2d40.664644

Really enjoying your review. Your photos are gorgeous. It's making me more excited about sailing on the Pride next month.

 

If you don't mind, what kind of camera do you use for the underwater shots?

 

I too like to snorkel but in the past have only used disposable underwater cameras.

 

Thanks

If I'm reading all the posts correctly, it looks like the $10.00 price increase starts on June 1st bookings and after...

 

My May 16th Glory sailing also still shows $49.95...

 

 

I think you are right, about an hour ago I purchased FTTF for our May 17th Pride sailing it was $49.95.

 

Our Oct 4th sailing on the Splendor is $59.95 but right now it's showing no tickets available.

I just purchased FTTF an hour ago for our Pride May 17th sailing and it was still $49.95.

 

I am so happy we were able to get it.

OP when you get off the ship go to the beaches on the right…..either Nellie's Beach or Columbus Cove. In the past we have found the beaches and water there to be almost rock free. You also get a nice view of the ship. We have found the beaches on the left side of the island to be more rocky.