ColumbiaMDCanadian

Allow me to go one step further for those that are still insisting it's late night only..;.

Here's the *breakfast* menu link posted today:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/Room_Service_Menu_2017.pdf

 

Note it's from the US site and yep, want hot? $7.95.

Too bad, one of our favourite activities - breakfast on the balcony - on one our favourite cruise line spoiled by a nuisance charge. $8 per day isn't going to blow the budget but if you can still bring me all the cold stuff for free it ain't about the delivery. I understood that for late night - actually made sense. But a charge whether the tray has hot stuff or cold stuff on it? Seriously?

Sheesh.

Yeah, the bow looks "reversed" from the deck plans too. (https://www.celebritycruises.co.uk/getmedia/e4d5f423-f5ae-4d84-ac11-6133c76b12d7/CelebrityEdgeDeckPlans.pdf?ext=.pdf) I know they're schematic to some extent but...

Rest of the ship seems beautiful but if that's the bow I"m not impressed - don't know why anyone would copy that hideous AIDA thing. Looks like it hit a bridge or something! Unless it gets them some insane efficiency I'd pass!

Personally, we *are* fans of the formal night and will miss that ship wide evening. But let's not bring that dead horse out again! Instead I'm looking at these newer, big ships like a floating city - where you can go to a fancy restaurant, all dressed up, or to Taco Bell in your t-shirt.

 

As for RCL's version of My Time dining - by coincidence we've got our first cruise booked on NCL, followed by a quickie on Quantum so we'll be able to do a good comparison I hope. My concern is chaos - particularly by passengers that don't understand the concept (my mother, 84, has sailed often on RCL and is on her first NCL cruise *right now* - took me a few times to explain it to her). Other concern is that I really like it when the waiter remembers your favourite drink, or that you like tea, not coffe, after dinner. Can't see how that would work with the new system.

 

I think if they have a couple of ships that offer this option it could be a brilliant move - great way to lure folks from NCL. Just DON'T change the whole fleet to My Time Mark 2, please!!! :(

Yeah, there will definitely be days when they can't/won't operate it but I don't think they'll be as many as one might think.

 

hitaway4 pretty much explained it from a load perspective (it's all about the torque - on the arm as hitaway4 said but also on the base.

 

Cranes work very well when the load is directly below the arm. Once the load moves to the side, there's a vertical AND horizontal component to the force acting on the arm - and your typical tower crane arm bends/snaps.

 

The other image you see often is when (usually truck mounted) cranes flip over - and that's because if it's a truck crane it's NOT connected to anything or, if it's a tower crane (think high rise when they're starting construction), it's sitting on a long spindly thing. Neither applies here.

 

By the way, I also heard that the arm will have (has?) hyraulic dampers and its own stabilizer system to minimize the possiblity of, um, re-seeing what the special was at Windjammer that morning!

 

(Yeah, a civil engineer - though I don't work with tower cranes that often, let alone design them! :cool:)

No I was not joking. For many on these boards a $25 corkage fee per bottle is a lot of money. Apparently you are fortunate enough that it is not a lot for you. Good for you

 

Molly:

hate to break the news to you but as I posted earlier in this thread, if you buy wine on board, you've already been paying $25 corkage... :(

 

From our recent cruise on Explorer - a bottle of wine (Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio) that sells at Total Wine for $14.95 was $45 plus gratuities on board.

For those doing the math, we were on Explorer a week ago and had two bottles of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio - nothing special in the world of wines but one of my wife's favorites.

Cost per bottle in the MDR was $45. (Plus 15% gratuity)

Cost per bottle at Total Wine $14.95! With corkage, that would be $39.95 on board in the MDR.

Yeah, the difference is only $6 so bringing on your own wine ain't exactly where you're going to reduce the cost of the cruise! My point is that for those that are :eek: at the $25 charge, you're already paying it!

What I'm looking forward to is being able to sift through the cellar or store and pick/bring something more interesting and to my liking than what's offered on board.

Progress!

Boy, that brings back memories! We did the eastern Caribbean route on her for our honeymoon in 1984 (An early morning departure the day after our wedding and subsequent reception at the King Eddie in Toronto!). Remember thinking how HUGE the ship was!!!