FitzLA

I cant wait either. It looks like an amazing ship. :rolleyes:

Then why are you rolling your eyes?;)

Great shots! Thanks. And fyi...It is Independence of the Seas. Not Independent. :-):) ;)

Almost identical to the Freedom site they had here before Freedom launched. Just updated a little for the U.K.

Unless you are standing at the edge of the balcony, no one can see you from above or below. Plenty of privacy.

We had 7408 (same as 7708 opposite side) and love it. It is the largest of the aft balconies, aside from the presidential suite. Unless I had more than two people, I would choose that over 1402. But I would never have more than two people in any cabin. The balcony in that cabin is amazing. You can see our pics here.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/554911413BnABIz

One is a JS guarantee and the other is a suite guarantee giving you the chance to get more than a JS. At least this is what I have been told.

BUT, since you can't book it with 2 passengers I won't dwell on it and make you suffer even more! ;) You also can't book the aft corner cabin on deck 7 with only 2 passengers on Freedom or Liberty, so that choice is out too.

Out of curiosity, is this a new thing? We had 7408 (corner aft) on Freedom and we are only 2 people. And our friends just booked in recently as well with only 2 people. When did they start this?

In our opinion, on the big ships......... go down to the seventh deck and try 7688 / 7388 . The room is standard but the balcony is not. We took Bonnie's advice on this a few years ago on Navigator. We have booked it again on Adventure for next April. Last year we had 1700 on Freedom and I agree it is a great cabin.

Note...... some people claim to not like the 7688/7388 balconies because of outward structure. It certainly is not a full sun aft balcony such as 9256 on Serenade but it is the roomiest and has an awesome side view also. We hold big parties on it.......dancing room too.

That would be 7408 or 7708 on Freedom class ships. We had 7408 on Freedom. GREAT BALCONY!!!!

I usually say Cay like way, but I hear Key all the time too. I think either way is correct, but I think that RCI says key.

Nope, there is nothing like this on RCI anymore. Sorry.

p.s. they do have wine packages where you can have bottles of wine delivered to your room. But thats it.

I like to take some of my own wine aboard, so is still ok to take on board and just pay the corkage fee.:confused:

 

I usually just take it with my carry on and they usually don't charge the corkage fee till I take it to the dining room.

 

CuriousCat

The new rules state that you can not even bring a bottle of wine on board for a corkage fee. You are not suppose to bring anything. Some people might allow the wine, depending on who finds it. But if someone took the corkage fee upfront at security, I am inclined to think they kept the corkage fee.;)

What kind of bottles can you have delivered to your room?

Thanks,

If you call 'Wellwisher' or 'Just because of you' you can have anything you want delivered to your room.

http://www.wellwishers.com but for the hard stuff, you have to call them.

 

Also, $5 for a beer and like $7 for a mixed drink is pretty ridiculous IMHO. .

Mixed drinks are about $5.25 or so + 15% gratuity. I never paid $7 for a drink on our recent Freedom cruise. Seriously though, check out having a bottle or 2 delivered to your stateroom.

Outrageous prices? Wow! They are about as cheap as I have ever seen. Usually pay $8 for a drink in L.A. so a litle over $5 is cheap as it comes for me. I will gladly pay their prices. I also order a bottle or 2 to be delivered to my room so I can have drinks on the balcony. Maybe you should try that. Call well wishers or just because of you and have it delivered.

OK i need help...i fully understnad the whole bit about buying it on board or buying it in port that RCCL holds it until the last day and then you pass thru customs with it...how about getting it home on the plane...with all of the new post 9-11 non sense about bringing liquids on the plane how do you get around this one...i have seen the way these airlines baggage handles toss bags from the plane to the luggage carrier and down to luggage claim...i think that every bottle would be broken and destroyed by the time it came around on the baggage carosel...CAN YOU BRING BOTTLEs OF BOOZE ON THE PLANE NOW...anyone out there recently just got off a cruise that has brought back bottles...how did you get them home... maybe i'm worring about nothing...reassure me...thanks

No, you can not bring it on the plane. You will have to check it or maybe you can find a way to have it shipped home.

If they do catch you, they will simply confiscate the contraband item! If you want to bring it, put it in your checked luggage and lock it. They don't open locked, checked bags.

I would just try to hide a bottle and not put it in water bottles. That is what pisses them off. If you have it in a regular bottle, you can just say you didn't know. If you have it in a water bottle, you can't say that. And then they COULD not let you board. They probably wouldn't go that far, but they could.

I would order it now, and here is why. When Carnival decided not to allow hard liquor to be delivered to the ship anymore, the pending orders that had already been placed were still allowed to be delivered. But it was stopped for all future orders. So, if you order now, and they decide to stop it in the future, you will still get your order. But if you are cruising in January, and they stop it next week and you have not placed your order yet, you will not get to.

We are cruising in January as well, and we have already placed our order.

Can someone who has used Well Wishers or Just Because in Miami tell me what they paid for a bottle of rum?

I paid $36 for a 1.75 litre of Malibu Rum with wellwishers

try "just because of you" everything they do is custom, tell em brian from Dallas told you about em

But, do they deliver hard liquor as well? Well wisher delivers everything...not just wine and beer. That is why I used them. And they deliver to most major ports too.

thank you...very informative. Ill probably call within the next couple of days! i will probably get a few things, though more for my friends who cannot buy onboard. They will still deliver it to us and let us have it if we have 2 ppl underage in the cabin, correct? i mean they have to...cuz that would be like them not giving an adult a bottle of alcohol or beer or whatever because they have a child staying in the room with them..same thing, right?

Yes, they will still deliver to you as long as someone in the stateroom is over 21.

I think we gave them 4 or 6 weeks notice. You should order now. I will try to make a long story short.

Carnival used to allow this too. But they have since stopped letting them deliver anything but beer and wine. They sent a letter to wellwishers and told them not to take orders for hard liquor anymore. Those that had already placed orders, no matter how far in advance their cruise was, were still allowed to get their liquor. It was only for future orders. This is the story that wellwishers told me about carnival. Moral of the story....get your order in before RCI follows suit. It is only a matter of time.

We did not order beer as we are not big beer drinkers. But, wellwishers prices on beer are better than the cruise line. So if you like beer, I would order some from them.

also forgot to mention that i am very happy about this because on my freedom cruise 1/14/07 we wont have to smuggle alcohol onboard...2 of us will be 21 and over...the other 2 will be 20...so if we get some alcohol delivered to the room in such a way, my underage friends will be able to drink a little in the room without having to even try to buy from a bar...Thanks guys..this was a lifesaver!

Enjoy and have a great cruise! I recommend getting some coconut flavored rum and bringing some fruit juices on board with you. It was delicious. we got some guava and passion fruit juices and mixed with the rum.

We used wellwishers. They were great.