Tatka

Quantum class for amazing Solarium and Indoor pool (we should see how Odyssey without Indoor pool will work out) Smaller classes for Viking Crown Lounge. (especially ships that have Boleros)

I am not a pizza gourmand and trying to avoid pizza due to high calories intake (and my husband long time ago had a side job with pizza deliveries so he cannot even look at pizza), but we absolutely loved Primavera Pizza on Liberty in May! It was probably the second best pizza or even equal in quality to one we ate while visiting Italy (that one was not Primavera, but consisted of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella) We basically binge on that Primavera several times. 🤣

We do little tailgate parties before boarding so by the time we board mental state is pretty good. 🙂 No, we do not go overboard (no pun) with celebrations.

I do not think it is difficult to answer but we were not. Mostly out of Bayonne and Baltimore. The very first was out of FLL.. that one I do not remember.

At boarding? Never. Only during check-in in app.

Last reservation I remember were 10+ years ago. Then they were giving out free tickets on Promenade. I recommend checking for schedule. On our last 5 dayer on Liberty shows were scheduled 1 show for the first evening 2 pm and 4 pm on last day. Apparently majority wanted to see it during the first night. There were so many people!

Haven't witnessed it on any of my 12 rci cruises postpandemic.

I am struggling with this. We don’t cruise with kids anymore so we don’t need towel animals , year most of the time we get it. I feel bad that stewards feels need do this and don’t feel comfortable to ask not too.

I described you real life where million kids lived like this daily and there was no mass abductions of children. You are taught and you practice daily. It becomes your rule. Of course everything may happen, but you cannot live overprotected life. Overprotected 10 years old may easily get into difficult situation due to lacking skills of being independent.

I remember myself at this age, kids around me. I raised kids and watching kids around me. I can absolutely confirm that unless child is severely neglected or has developmental delays at 10 he or she can assess many things. For example what may happen if she/he crosses a street without looking walks with a stranger plays with a matches etc, etc, etc Of course if parents treat 8-9 yo as 3-4 years old this may never happen. Then people are surprised older teens behaving as if they were young kids. Why would they behave differently if they are treated as if young kids for so long? As I already described in this thread and with a picture in my country we mostly lived in midrises (5-16 floors). Most if not all apartments had balconies. We did not have rules about when kids can be home alone so majority of kids if they were not signed for afterschool program just walked home and spent time alone doing homework, attending activities in various places (sometimes taking public transportation) since they were 7 years old. Kids were not falling from balconies. Btw we did not have micriowaves till late 80-s (and then only some people) so many kids warmed prepared food in gas or electric stoves. (I do not remember fires or explosions of gas) When I was 6, I and my friends were walking several blocks for baby food provided by city (for all kids) for our baby siblings. It involved crossing one large road. It was late 70-es. It was pretty common practice and everything worked fine. Families mostly had 1-2 kids sometimes 3 so it is not like we were replaceable and our parents did not care if we would die. I am describing very late 70-s and 80-s.

I am trying to understand connection between DL and what you saw in hot tab. Unless hot tab was in DL I cannot.

I am not sure how 3-12 are lumped in the same group. IMHO 10 is much close to 13 than to 3-7.

Is this a serious assessment?!?!

Was hot tab in DL? New feature? 🙂

Enchantment has a very small DL and in weird location. When we sailed on her in 2022 and 2023 we just took snacks and spent time in VCL by large windows. We do this in all places possible. We are thinking what to do оn Vision next year. We do get coffee from time to time in DL. This is a nice benefit.

It is good to have a talk with kids about balconies. Many in US grow in 1-2 story houses without balconies or elevators so they are not used to them. It’s more of “get used to things” than age. I grew up in 5 then 9 story building with 1 and 2 balconies, surrounded with 5-9-12-16 story buildings. I don’t remember ever kids falling from balconies.

This sounds like usual fare in DL.

Interesting. We noticed that on Anthem lounge was used, on Oasis (no windows) not so much

We always use overflow on Anthem. Love high tables near windows

We go on Quantum and smaller ship with VCL It is fun especially during saiaways … nice snacks, drink or two and ocean goes by.

I wish they had Family pool covered as as Anthem had, but it is a different story.

I do not thing Quantum class has water slides. It has other things you may be interested in https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/11/08/20-free-things-do-odyssey-of-the-seas

I don't know... We live not far from Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun in CT and many new casinos in Massachusetts. We also live 1 hour from Boston port, 3.5 hours from Bayonne and 2 New York ports, 6 from Baltimore ... and even Florida ports are in driving distance although we now avoid driving to Florida if we can... but we used to do 1 run a year. My husband has gambling problems, this is why he avoids casinos all together. Well, down payment for our first townhouse was 100% from winning, but we were young and even then we figured out that playing against casino in a long run is dangerous. We are in positive territory, and we play the highest odds game Blackjack, still odds are against you. 🙂 (Well I am not completely truthful.. he can play even on ships once in a while, but he uses lets say $50 and if he wins he continues if not .. well... next time.) We do 5 a year. 2 longer Southern Caribbean, 1 Bahamas, 1 Bahamas or Bermuda, 1 New England/Canada. Sometimes 1 is substituted for European cruise. Technically we can do more, but we want to keep excitement. Congrats on your new fun!

Exactly! Different standards for different size of people. My kid is 30+. I don't have a stake in this discussion, but this is such a strange discussion overall. I can understand criticizing parents who force screaming child to sit through the dinner in MDR rather than bring him/her outside or arrange dinner differently, but memories? Who can/should measure this?!

Not a flame, but it’s your choice really. In US vacations are smaller than in majority of this world as is. It’s a good time to spend it with kids. Vacation is a time from work, not from kids for many. You are right about different strokes.. What strange is .. suggesting that kids will not remember this or that to a parent who clearly wants to vacation with kids. Reminds me when people ask about quality of internet there is always somebody who mentions putting phone in safe. 😞