emeraldcity

Make sure she at least takes her grad cap for some pictures. We did a number of photos each evening at the photo backdrops. We also took the cap ashore with us (it was a Greek Isles cruise), so I have pictures of her wearing her cap at the Colosseum in Rome and on the Acropolis in Athens.

I did the March transatlantic on the Symphony and was hoping to utilize the library. It's a good thing I took some books with me (to leave behind after reading) because the shelves were nearly bare. They have ample shelving in the card room for books, so if you're cruising soon on the ship and you have some books around that you'd be willing to part with, it would be awfully thoughtful if you slip them into your luggage so you can drop them off.

Correct. The funds just simply go on your on-board account.

Follow the advice above. It's really very easy. I was a bit hesitant, but I asked at the casino cashier about it and they even gave me a little folder that stepped me through the process.

Oh woe! This all starts March 10th. I sail March 9th. So I guess I'm stuck with the old program. Or perhaps my steward is primed to sneak into my cabin at the stroke of midnight and confiscate my plate of cookies they left the day before. And I can't call and change my amenities (currently slippers and tote bag) because you have to call 10 days prior to the cruise ... and I only have 9 days. What rotten luck. I was getting tired of the slippers and planned to change them before my next cruise anyway. I hadn't changed it because nothing was terribly appealing. And a new offering like the toiletries bag definitely caught my interest. However, the thought comes to mind that if they actually deliver slippers to my cabin at some point on the cruise, I will be in possession of pristine collector's items. Will they increase in value the longer I hold onto them? Inquiring minds want to know.

I know the libraries were apparently emptied during Covid. And the well-stocked library on my pre-covid cruise on the Allure was a treasure trove of good books for that transatlantic (March 2020). When I cruised the Allure shortly after start-up, the shelves were bare. So I have an upcoming transatlantic on Symphony and I was hoping someone who's currently been on that ship can tell me if the pickings are still pretty slim. If so, I'd better plan on bringing a nice supply with me.

Thank you for the chuckle.

This is going to rank as one of the most trivial questions I've ever posted, and I apologize in advance for this bit of nonsense. But I love my salads and I love being able to customize them. And when I'm done putting the perfect salad together, I want to drizzle ranch dressing on it. I was rather surprised to find that it wasn't offered on the Vision. So I'm hoping some cruiser recently off the Symphony can advise if the Windjammer or the Park Cafe is offering ranch dressing. Because, if not, I'm seriously thinking about smuggling a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing on board.

I totally agree. Not only was Prins Christian Sund breath-taking, it was also the best day weather-wise of the entire trip. I didn't know Royal was offering a Greenland itinerary out of the East Coast. That's a stroke of brilliance. I hope it becomes a regular offering.

Go on your cruise and enjoy yourself. I had plans with two friends to cruise last February. We hadn't seen each other in over 2 years due to the pandemic. We had each booked our own cabin. Two days before the cruise I fell and broke both ankles shortly after checking into my pre-cruise hotel. It would never have occurred to me to expect them to cancel just because I couldn't go with them. Frankly, that would have made me feel worse. I encouraged them to go and have a wonderful time ... just be sure and send me pictures.

Thank you for the info. I'd love to do the entire South America segment, but I've written it off as out of my price tolerance. But I'd give some serious though to a portion thereof ...

Gasp! Potentially no chips on my TA this March. Must consider visit to Walgreen's to stock up ... and you thought us Midwesterners flew in a day early because of potential flight delays.

Unfortunately, this post has gone off the rails. My experience is that the vast majority of people are very considerate. Last February I broke both ankles in a fall shortly after arriving in Ft. Lauderdale for a cruise on the Odyssey. You can't imagine the heartache or seeing your ship in the port as the plane is taking off returning you home two days later with both legs in splints. Fast forward about 100 days and I returned to Florida for a cruise on the Symphony with my granddaughters pushing me through airports in a wheelchair. Once we reached the room (fortunately there was an accessible cabin available three weeks prior to sailing when it became obvious that I wasn't going to be ready to take on the world yet with a walker) the scooter we rented was waiting for me. That scooter saved my vacation. I set it on turtle mode when in a crowded situation and found that people were very considerate overall. They held the door for me without asking. They commandeered an elevator for me without my asking. They squeezed themselves against elevators walls and encouraged me to join them in an elevator that I thought looked too full. They moved chairs out of the way in the Windjammer to help me navigate to an empty table. The list goes on and on. It was a very hard way to learn how challenging life can be when you have mobility issues. But I will never forget how grateful I was to all those strangers who made an effort to make life a little easier for me.

The Alaska Cruise was amazing, but it wasn't the cruise or the walks around various towns that ended up being the cherished memories we still savor. It was the excursions. The train in Skagway, the small plane out of Talkeetna to land on Ruth Glacier on the slopes of Mt. McKinley, white-water rafting in Denali, 4-man zodiac boats we got to drive on a guided tour in Ketchikan, the glass-topped train from Denali to Anchorage. It was an incredible experience. Determine what your goals are. I went primarily for the scenery, but I also wanted to get a feel for the history and the geology. The Visitor's Center at Mendenhall is a fantastic resource for helping understand the forces that create the glaciers. The Skagway train helps you understand the huge obstacles the gold rush miners faced in trying to reach the gold fields. The white-water rafting and the zodiac boats involved stepping out of our comfortable world and experiencing something of the wild and rough side of life that Alaska epitomizes. And the staged Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan turned out to be an incredible way to learn about how the skills of the loggers were developed to deal with the terrain and the environment. Take a look at a map of Alaska and you will realize what an incredibly tiny portion of the state you will see when you skirt the edge on your cruise ship and step ashore in a few towns along the way. If you only ever get to do it once, will you have short-changed yourself if you skipped an excursion or two because it cost more than you were expecting?

The best answer is "It depends". It doesn't hurt to call and have them check into possible change. My cruising partner had to bow out, so I called to see about changing to a solo booking. For the staggering fee of $4.10, I was moved to a balcony cabin with the larger balcony and now I get double points. Win-win.

Kim S. - I'm glad they worked with you to change to a different itinerary. For those who are under the impression that the Spring TA's are not inside of final payment, that may be the case for most of them. The Symphony will however set sail in 60 days. For me, vaccination requirements are a non-issue. I got my fourth shot this past October. I'm not trying to convince anyone to do the same, as that is a matter of personal choice. For me, it makes me feel a greater sense of ease in social situations. As mentioned earlier in this thread, there are undoubtedly concerns on the part of the cruise line about the risk of a mid-ocean medical evacuation. We experienced that very situation on the March TA 2020 on the Allure. Four hours north west to meet a helicopter from the Azores. We were very fortunate that the seas were calm. I hope they work with those unvaxxed folks who are booked on the Symphony to find a suitable alternate. A cruise should be something to happily anticipate ... not something to stress over.

For me, this is absolutely true. Frankly, I'm surprised to find myself at my current points level. As for the Diamond Plus access to a lounge, I rarely stick my nose in the lounge anyway ... and when I do, I ask myself what the fuss is all about. I love the switch to the drink perk loaded on the card and the ability to get a frozen virgin drink at any time of the day. I don't consider myself "loyal to Royal" as I do look at what else is out there. But my first choice is always Royal. I just wish they'd put some greater variety into their itineraries.

I guess I'm a bit surprised at all the negativity. You cruise for the experience ... certainly not for the amenities. That's just a little bonus. If they don't have the particular item (which they didn't last week) they provide a list for you to choose something else. I chose the truffles and it turned out to be a delightful choice. My personal preference is to have something of a souvenir nature you can take home with you, but if they don't have it, I can go with another option.

We had a group of 12 and we did self-assist. We went right to the taxi line. He said "How many?" I said 12. He looked at me in shock and I pointed to 2 XL vehicles and said, "we'll take those two." And we did. We tipped our driver's very well, made it to FLL by 9:00 and paid considerably less than any other option I had researched. Sometimes the simple solution is the best one. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I did this trip with my college age daughter. We bucked the trend ... we started in Vancouver and went northbound (on the Radiance). This had the delightful benefit of visiting the Nature Center at Mendenhall before doing any glacier viewing. They do an outstanding job of visuals to help you truly understand the forces that create glaciers and allow them to move. Then, when you see the glaciers as you travel further north, you have a better understanding of the geology. My principal reason for wanting to do the cruise before the cruise-tour is that we are all about the ship! And I didn't want to be looking forward to getting on the ship while I should be enjoying the land portion. As for the cruise-tour, we did a 4-day tour. Alyeska, Talkeetna, Denali, Anchorage. The train was the last leg (Denali to Anchorage-8 hours). The one thing that bothered me about the cruise-tour was that we couldn't book any excursions until after we got on the bus. That really cuts into the concept of pre-planning. Fortunately a cruise-critic member a few weeks earlier posted the list he got on the bus, so I was able to make some early decisions. Step outside your comfort zone and try some really amazing excursions. I'm considerably older than most mothers with a college age daughter, but I still went all-out to experience some amazing adventures. There were three buses on our tour and my daughter and I were the only ones to book a flight out of Talkeetna to land on Ruth Glacier on the slopes of Denali. They'd just had a foot of snow ... it was like landing on a marshmallow. And the last morning in Denali when we would be boarding the train just about noon, we booked the white water rafting on the Nenana River (Class 3 and 4 rapids). It was fabulous fun. Of course, we were the only ones who booked it. The other people in our boat were a couple who were doing a land tour on their own. Once on the ship we did the usual excursions like the train to White Pass and the hike to Mendenhall in Juneau. But in Ketchikan we were among an intrepid group of 12 that booked 4-man zodiac boats (you get to drive) for a guided tour in a chilly rain that visited the tiny islands in the area and learned about the eagles, the seals and life for the locals in the unforgiving environment where 8th graders have to do a survival course and spend 2 nights on one of those distant islands foraging food. (Google 8th grade Ketchikan Survival for an interesting read) And when we left Alaska, we did the usual thing where we try to pinpoint the highlight of the trip. We couldn't ... in the end, we decided the highlight was ALASKA.

Thank you for taking the time to review your trip. I was on the Voyager TA last month and I was curious to get another person's take on the ship. Frankly, I was disappointed in the food. It was hit-or-miss throughout the cruise. Some things were really great ... others unfortunately overcooked. So are they still pushing tuna like they got a great deal on a warehouse full of the stuff? The cafe had tuna sandwiches nearly every day ... sometimes two different varieties. And the WJ invariably had a tuna dish. So sad they still have the Franki Valli guy. What a colossal disappointment. The way he mashed up songs was unfortunate and the long introductions, accompanied with prancing around the stage was pretty dull. I kept thinking he simply didn't have enough material to fill the allotted amount of time. As long as he stuck with Four Seasons songs, it was enjoyable, but I don't think half of the ones he did were theirs. (One of our group thought that perhaps there was a copyright issue that limited how much he could use from The Jersey Boys.) And yes, the rap number was ill-conceived. And as I recall, he closed the show with Build Me Up Buttercup ... the show closer should have been a Four Season song ... but that's just me. I was also surprised that there was often no major entertainment on many evenings, but I rationalized that the length of the TA was the culprit ... but your cruise was certainly shorter. I wonder if they limited entertainment is a new trend.

This week's document doesn't list the number of days for each sailing. I usually do a quick scan and eliminate everything from consideration if they are under 7 days.

After three cancelled Odyssey cruises, I finally made it onto the ship a couple weeks ago. It was an amazingly positive experience. I've taken a number of cruises since the start-up, but this one will always be a stand-out due to the extraordinary entertainment. We saw the Showgirls early in the cruise and loved the high energy and lavish costumes. I felt the production numbers were well executed (I'm not a fan of dance numbers that rely heavily on artistically flopping on the floor, and they held this to a minimum). And it's always a plus when they perform to music you are particularly fond of. The Book was amazing. I liked it better than Spectra's Cabaret (the Anthem), but admittedly, this one had aerials to add to it, whereas the Anthem wasn't yet rigged to include the aerials in January. The Effectors was simply fantastic. An amazing amount of talent went into the development of that show. My favorite number was Shatter Me with the stunning laser effects. If you cruise on the Odyssey, don't miss these productions. They are high quality, high-tech productions that you would pay serious money to be able to see in a venue like Las Vegas.

We had a couple members of our party decide late in the game that they wish they had booked our excursion ... and the evening before, several slots opened up.

After leaving Greenland, we had 3 sea days before we reached Boston. My flight home would be a direct one, but it wasn't leaving Boston until 8:30 p.m. Generally, I would find this a pretty outrageous schedule, but not in Boston. This was going to leave me enough time to stash my bags at a holding facility and go get New England Clam Chowder ... in a bread bowl, of course. We encountered fog again a few hours after leaving Greenland and the mournful foghorn came back into play. As we made our way down the western coast of Newfoundland, we hit rough seas from current apparently coming from the St. Lawrence Seaway (according to the captain). Add that to the wind and it played havoc with the neat rows of lashed loungers on the deck. I hope nobody was out there trying to negotiate the running track. We had our final day of He/Said/She Said and the ladies won. The certificate is worth a read. Sounds great until you read the disclaimer on the bottom. When we arrived in Boston three of my cruise buddies agreed that a trip to Quincy Market sounded like a great idea and off we headed. The clam chowder was amazing ... I knew it would be. It was a great way to end a wonderful trip and I look forward to the next time our group can get together on another cruise. I hope it won't be three years before it happens this time.