lovesthebeach2

Because I’m one of those excel nuts, I do know what we paid…..$2,400 for the 7 night cruise. It was not too long after 9/11 and not pleasant to cruise past the site which was still smoldering or at least it smelled like it, but it was also a holiday cruise for July 4th. Which Bermuda went all out for us with American flags and fireworks. Honestly even though the ship was very old and not at all like what’s out there today, it was without a doubt in our mind, the best cruise we’ve ever been on, not including the special destination places we’ve been.

I meant royal ships. Maybe Grandeur but not many since they’re currently building all large ships. I would love to do that cruise again and sail right into Hamilton and St George

Yes and the best part was cruising INTO the ports. No ships can do that now. They’re too big

Oddly we live in between Port Canaveral and Tampa cruise ports and many of our cruises are long ones to Europe or longer TA ones back to FL. When we cruise here we prefer Tampa port because it’s much less busy and parking is easier. Our last few cruise from Pt Canaveral the parking was crazy and we couldn’t even get into the garage.

We have also used vouchers at Rising Tide.

In June of 2002 we cruised for 4th of July on The Pacific Princess aka “The Love Boat” from NY to Bermuda for a 7 day cruise. They had moved the ship to NY from CA for the summer before selling it to another company. If I recall correctly the passenger count for that cruise was about 680! Although it was very old in design (it took us almost the whole week to find a sun deck we had seen but couldn’t figure out how to get to) it was the best cruise we’ve ever been on. aside from the best food we've ever had on any cruise, what made it so special is that being so small, we got to know everyone on the ship and by the end of the week it was like we cruised with a large family. Plus the cruise director (a British woman with blond hair) was fabulous. We all got to know her and she got to know us. Maybe that family feeling is why we love smaller ships. On radiance class ships it’s so much easier to see the same people every day around the ship and form friendships that can last beyond that cruise. That’s hard to do on a mega ship. Royal should think about that when building only mega ships.

Unfortunately everything has gone up considerably in the years post Covid. We stopped a McD’s recently for a quick bite and I noticed the little tiny plain burger that was .99 is now 1.99. That’s crazy….price doubled and portion was smaller. We rarely go out to restaurants to eat because it’s just not worth it. But we instead spend the money on cruises, because although they went up, comparing how much we would spend on land, it still is worth it to us to be on a ship on the water!

We know the layout of most ships and know how to get around too. But as I mentioned above in this thread, we love the Schooner bar and the casino empties right out to it on Freedom class. So for us, we rarely cruise that class for that reason.

I know I would be happy, I don’t like that the Schooner Bar is right outside the casino on Freedom. thats reason we don’t sail on that class much.we love Schooner bar but not on Freedom

I’ve not seen that yet. I didn’t criticize, I just said that we saw someone in the MDR having kosher meal once. That was not meant as criticism. Just an observation.

Years ago we were on a cruise and a gentleman and 2 young ladies (we assumed his daughters) sat next to us. Every night his meal came like you say, in a rectangle package with cellophane on top that he pulled back to open when it was served. Sorry, but it did NOT look or smell appetizing. The two girls are off the menu. We figured it must have been kosher.

Probably the only difference would be that some D lounges don’t have lots of seating to allow for extra guests. But now that drinks are loaded on the seapass cards it’s not necessary to go there for the daily drinks

there was no way for us to know where it came from

Ken do you know which week it will be on Wonder?

We were starving, (yes the lunch was so bad) so we ran up to WJ, ate, stopped for 2 glasses of wine for each, and carried them up to our cabin, showered, and never left the room again that night. 😴

We were on that same tour and there was no way we would have gone to the MDR. We needed to shower! I told our servers the night before that we wouldn’t be there, so they weren’t waiting for us.

So would I…. In a heartbeat!

But you could still use the OBC for those services and still have OBC left

We have smelled it many times while we were on our balcony

That’s too much entitlement by that group that now that affects other tables other than theirs.

On the occasional days that we have an excursion that returns around dinner time, we have found that the WJ is much easier than rushing to get to the MDR. Usually we come back tired and sometimes in need of a shower and full day excursions sometimes include lunch so we’re not starving. And although some may not agree, the MDR selections haven’t been any better than what’s available in the WJ on our past few cruises. And we always let our servers know the day before that we probably won’t be there, in courtesy to them.

I wouldn’t think either…..but you never know

We’re due a block on our 1st segment next June..I would love the unique block, we already have a Serenade block.

But do you think we will get the bottles of wine for our D+ that we get on cruises now? Because we wouldn’t even bring a bottle on then. We’re on 2 consecutive mini segments.

I guess that’s more popular in Germany? Our GEM car came with 2 regular USB ports.