Tin can

You say that but MSC is launching Euribia from Southampton which I think is nearly Oasis class size (I might be wrong). I think they are starting year round cruises as well from Southampton, I'm really surprised that Royal has never given this a go from Southampton.

We stock up on the milk cartons and put them in our fridge.. They aren't very cold though so we ask for an ice bucket from the room steward and always keep one on ice 😀.

From my research both pools are free including the lazy river in Puerta Plata. Puerta Plata overall looks quite fun, in my opinion La Romana less so and I think we will take an excursion there.

If anyone is thinking of getting the train from Venice we booked 'Executive' for £70 which I guess is around $80. There is only 10 seats in the carriage with lunch and drinks at the seat, as long as you are comfortable changing at either Ferrara or Bologna it may be an alternative option for some.

The poster is probably right, wine attracts no excise duty in Italy (perhaps for obvious reasons), beer does and spirits is about five times as much as beer. Its all relatively low though so things must be tight at NCL.

Great review, we were on Anthem 2 - 9th April and our thoughts are very much the same, we had a fabulous time. A lot on our FB group though had serious complaints about the food but we thought it was great.

This is an interesting post to read for me today. I booked a cruise two days ago and got a good deal. Yesterday email to say sorry there was a glitch here's the proper price and your new confirmation invoice. Spent a very heated hour on the phone and no movement. It was a good deal but not in the realms of an obvious error. Bait and switch was my thought.

Thank you for the heads up. Venice and Ravenna I am quite comfortable with from research but yes its the transfer between the trains where I think it may be testing.

Any sort of orchestrated formal MTD area to me would imply Icon will not home port in the States which obviously it is. Its been a long time since I have cruised from Miami but if its anything like sailing from the Florida ports the Maitre d' and his waiters would be sat in the formal side of the restaurant on their own.

Spend quite a bit of time in the casino and never won a hand pay or seen a hand pay in all our Royal cruises. Three weeks ago on Anthem there were regular hand pays..... sadly I'm still waiting but there were a lot of big winners.

Absolutely, I think you posted this whilst I was typing my post and I couldn't have put this any better.

Perhaps it's just me but I am not seeing Venice to Ravenna as a problem. I am really looking forward to Venice and equally looking forward to the train. I am not in the first flush of youth 😀 but think it will be good for me and the family to be outside of our comfort zone a bit and see and experience something new.

That’s what we are doing, train from Venice and changing at Bologna rather than Ferrara for Ravenna. I’m sure it will be a bit of a hassle but equally I’m quite looking forward to it. I just couldn’t face potentially 3 hours on a coach.

We have only cruised on Royal and love Royal but I think that is a very good point. There will be a tipping point with prices and traditional loyalty to the big two.

I don't think there is but hopefully someone else will chip in. You could buy arcade credit separately before the cruise in the planner at a discount but that wouldn't be limited to a certain amount per day.

With respect to a lot of 'typical' cruisers some are not experienced with travel. Travel to some is visiting the resort/village built at the port behind the fence then back on the ship. Thats not for me or my family and we will certainly be venturing out in the DR. I was amazed at our recent cruise stop in Nassau on a Royal Caribbean ship the number of people we spoke to back on the ship who were literally scared to step off the ship. As you say though, everyone is different.

We found on Anthem recently that you had to make it very clear that you didn't want to use the voucher as I don't think that request is very common. Funnily enough at the pool bar in Coco Cay when we did want to use the vouchers it caused a lot of confusion involving a number of staff on how to record it and in the end they just gave us the drinks 😀

We were on the 2nd April cruise and no engine issues.

😀 tea usually first thing in the morning only on a cruise for us Brits. After that its 5pm somewhere for most of us 🍹🍻. Great review so far!

Yes we got them a couple of weeks ago on Anthem. Very useful for our son as he was always losing his card and for when I was going to the pool so I could buy a drink without needing to take the card. There were lots of people wearing them on Anthem at the beginning of the month and I noticed the bar staff had handheld readers so you could keep them on your wrist to pay for things.

Yes lots of Kilts and national dress and its nice to see. We were on Anthem last May on one of the first proper cruises back after the shutdown and it was very formal. I would say it was 90% formal both nights but I think that had a lot to do with no cruising for such a long time.

It will be good to follow along, we were on the 4/2/23 sailing and had a great time.

I respectfully disagree with that statement, Royal was most definitely enforcing a dress code on Anthem out of the UK last summer in the MDR. We saw more than a few people turned away. I don't believe Royal bends to 'how badly some people want everyone to do things their way" as you state above but more they slightly refine the rule (for want of a better word) to the local market expectation. Us here in the UK are pretty formal in our dress and generally we are happier with a bit of formality, my experience of our many Florida cruises is there is no formality with dress whatsoever and any attempt to enforce any would be strongly resisted (as evidenced by threads like this 😀) . Just my opinion but I think Royal deliberately keeps things a bit vague to try and keep everyone happy.

I'm genuinely not fussed with this argument but I actually witnessed people turned away from the MDR last summer on Anthem in the UK for wearing shorts. In the main we are quite a formal lot over here and shorts in any restaurant any time of day would be rare so I can only imagine Royal was adapting things to the local market. Like you I also have never seen people in Asia in shorts in the evening, shifting continents when we cruised Royal out of Dubai every night was formal whether stated on the compass or not. We actually saw people in the Windjammer in tuxedo's and ball gowns. I think this argument only exists because the majority on this board cruise out of Florida where literally anything goes, we have just got off a cruise from New York on Anthem and the difference in dress from anything Florida departing is unreal. Not saying anything is good or bad, right or wrong but Florida cruises have a different idea of dress and good luck to them. If we were all the same it would be dull.

Personally I'm not sure US dollars will be widely accepted if at all in Europe even in tourist areas for small purchases such as lunch, coffee, public transport etc. Even for larger purchases such as tours or car rental I would pay in Euros as the vendor will only factor into any rate conversion his hassle of exchanging back into Euros.