2chiefs

1 hour ago, tallnthensome said:

Florida departures forum for parking garage questions. This has nothing to do with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. 

Of course it does. That parking terminal is for Royal Caribbean departures.

So, with the Diamond, Diamond+, and Pinnacle drink vouchers, my go to beer is now Fosters (Oil Can 25oz).

It used to be about number 3 or 4 on my "faves" list but now that I have 5 vouchers per day (Diamond +) for drinks up to $13, it's now #1 on my list!

I even purchased a nice Fosters koozie on Ebay to bring with me on my next cruise to keep it cold while hanging out in the hot tub....

It's like getting 10 drinks instead of 5 (if you like beer like I do).

On 7/14/2022 at 1:17 PM, ARandomTraveler said:

I noticed when looking for price drops and perusing all the different categories last night that CP and BW view inside cabins are $150 more than an oceanview balcony (on my Thanksgiving Symphony cruise).
 

I was wondering if that was normal or not, I guess not. 

 

 

On 7/14/2022 at 2:19 PM, John&LaLa said:

 

Maybe they were connecting cabins. Big premium on those sometimes. 

Another possibility is the algorithm in the website software. Sometimes when a specific class is almost sold out, the price skyrockets and makes the prices go "Topsy-Turvey". 

2 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 Some may post "family time" later in the day after prime time, especially on ships with enclosed solariums if there is poor weather by the main pool. Usually after 4pm.  Rare though. 

Maybe on cruises in cold weather like Alaska? That would make sense. We've only been on one Alaska cruise and didn't notice it if they had it.

18 hours ago, moposh said:

I thought it was 18.  I was irked a bit one time there were some young kids in Solarium and in hot tubs.  

 

If it's 16, that's good as my daughter is 16 and I thought she wouldn't be allowed in there.  Either way, we'll check when we go.

 

Last cruise, the solarium pool was very small and adults were just standing in the pool socializing (which they're allowed to do :)), so I went to the outside pool.

This irks us as well. The sole purpose of the Solarium is a retreat away from the kids.

Some ships enforce it and, unfortunately, others do not.

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

I never understood why a chain fast food place on a cruise ship was so popular.

I agree. However, I don't see many Johnny Rockets in the areas we've lived in. But I do like going to Johnny Rockets on occasion. (Beats any other burgers available on RCL-in our opinion). At least I used to when it was only $3.95 flat fee. Burgers, fries, and onion rings are great and the fee wasn't bad. Now that prices are much higher, we don't go anymore. 

I was just going to post some pictures of the Stow-A-Way piano guy but Rewind beat me to it. He was on the Mariner on our May Bermuda cruise. What a hoot.

Johnny Rockets: We used to go there when it was just a few dollars. I think it's up in the teens now. Single price includes burgers/dogs/fries onion rings as much as you want. If I remember correctly, Sundaes were included?. Milkshakes were extra. Even though it's 1950's theme, for some reason the staff dances to cheesy 70's Disco.

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I've sailed a number of times around Xmas.   In my experience they begin decorating the ship at the very end of the Thanksgiving Cruise and then keep building up to full decoration by the week before Xmas.  

They really make the ship look festive.

Agree! We cruise every year, usually a B2B, in December every year just before Christmas. We cruise both RCL and X. Decorating starts early and is usually pretty much complete about a week before Christmas. So, for example, it's fun to watch the actual building of a massive gingerbread house over a period of time. Timelines seem to be ship dependent so YMMV.

14 hours ago, OCVTSGIRL said:

Our go to on all of the ships is Sorrentos.  The pizza isn't bad and it has never been crowded.  We have gone to the WJ and found it to be packed.  

We never did that. We like Sorrento's so maybe we'll do that next time.

15 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

As do we.

 

Like to board early when it’s not crowded and head to the Windjammer kind of a tradition with us.

That used to be our tradition too but the Oasis class ships are really crowded up there so we broke off our tradition for that class. We still like the Windjammer first on other classes.

We like to go to the Solarium Bistro to avoid the Windjammer crowd.

Park Cafe is a good choice too.

12 hours ago, davekathy said:

Sane here. We did a B2B in March on the Explorer and had the lunch for consecutive cruisers the MDR. Some of our B2B cruises we also were served complimentary wine with our lunch. 

I liked the complimentary wine but haven't seen it in quite a few years.

8 hours ago, ScottC4746 said:

I AM the OP and I missed that, I guess from ducking. LOL

So what does "ducking" refer to???

34 minutes ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Call me crazy but I store my opened bags of chips in the freezer, keeps them crispy and the flavour intensifies. I like them right out of the bag like that but on the ship by the time they’d be served they’d be at room temperature 🤷‍♀️

Never tried it. Now it's on my to-do list....

31 minutes ago, skyking said:

Boarded the Anthem in Southampton right at 10:15am on the June 17th sailing.  

 

Cheater cheater pumpkin eater!

I'd laugh if she said Na, Na, Na, Na ...  Na ...  Na

39 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

I sell harmony B2B in January. I think they offered us lunch in the solarium bistro. It was also open to the public so nothing special for back to back cruisers. If they offered a “real” luncheon in the main dining room, it was not on my  sailing. 
m

Sorry to hear that. We've been on lots of B2B's and they always had a special lunch (usually in the MDR) just for B2B'ers. I guess it must depend on the ship.

Lunch is always open for lunch in the Solarium Bistro on embarkation day. It's our go to place on that day (or Park Cafe). We stay away from Windjammer on embarkation day.

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Was in 9103 for the Apex TA , it is ok 

it is 950 step to Oceanview and back 

it was a great location to watch an evacuation at night 

i wouldn’t pick over an infinity balcony

 

 

 

I know what you mean about the 950 step walk to the Oceanview and back. We booked a rear cabin once (on RCL) because of the larger balcony. It was a lot of steps to the elevators and especially to the front of the ship! No problem though because we like to count steps in order to burn all those calories from eating 24/7!! What we didn't like about the rear cabin was the shaking and vibration we got from the screws (propellers for non-nautical types) and the engine room. I suppose that may not be the case on all ships but we never booked an aft cabin since.

6 minutes ago, journeymore said:

Funny seeing that guy out there washing. Probably need to make sure the curtain is closed when naked!!!

Last time we cruised Celebrity, they had many good wines available for under the $9 limit.

Looking at the dining room menus on our next cruise, I don't see any wines less than $11. Are the prices higher now or are there other wines available that are not listed on the menus?

(Asking for a cheap wine drinker friend 😁)

2 hours ago, TMLAalum said:

Those cabins look to be fabulous for a forward view over the bow. I would chose one of those over an Infinite veranda when we next sail an E-class ship.

We did sail in 7003, which is a supersize OV with a large porthole window, on the Millennium and had no issues being that far forward.

Our cruise happens to be on a Panama canal touch cruise so we thought the forward window would be good while cruising the canal if and when we are in the room. (we would probably be out on deck though).

I thought this thread was going to be about someone finding a rat near their hotel.

😁

We like both Celebrity and RCL. They both have their plusses and minuses.

The main difference between Diamond and Diamond+ on RCL that would make a difference for us is the drink voucher. You get 4 drinks per day, per person for Diamond and 5 drinks per day per person for Diamond+. We don't drink heavily so being Diamond+ has the advantage (for us) of not having to pay for drinks or buying a drink package on the RCL cruises. These vouchers are plenty for us. It saves us a lot of money.

If you like Celebrity more than RCL, then I don't see why you would need to attain Diamond+ unless you plan on cruising with RCL some more in the future. If you do, then you'll make Diamond+ anyway so perhaps it might be a moot point.

We booked a forward facing Deluxe Oceanview cabin on the Beyond (#8104).

We've never sailed in a forward-facing cabin before and would like to hear any comments from anyone that has done so.

Thanks

I think the OP needs to lighten up about the "cheating".

Remember, there are a lot of folks that have to take shuttles from Airports, Rental car agencies, Hotels, Parking garages, etc ... 

I don't think we've ever been on a shuttle that is in synch with our check-in times. We've checked in both early and late because of this and we never felt like we "cheated"

For instance, at Ft Lauderdale we always park our car at the hotel we stay at the night before. The hotel includes a shuttle but they only have two scheduled times. We have no choice except to "cheat" or pay for a taxi. I think RCL realizes that when there are upwards of 6000 cruisers on a ship that there will always be circumstances out of control for many. 

The upper most continuous deck seems to be the one with the helo pad.

I'm not sure what you mean by "depth">