RobInMN

Don't get me started on that. I am a huge supporter of legit service dogs, but this whole "emotional support" BS is just that.

I would love to see them do this again, maybe in like 5 years, however, it does not appear that they got the response they anticipated, so I fear the likelihood is rather slim. 😞

Then it wasn't a true service dog, and just some emotional support BS. A true service dog is a "working dog" and the owner would never allow anyone to pet it while it is working.

Allure is getting her Amplification End of February through mid April 2025. I originally thought that Playmakers was going to go where Sabor is, like they did with Oasis, but looking back at the original Amplification press release, I think it might actually be Portside BBQ. I also was assuming that Wonderland would go where the Diamond lounge is today, but the PR doesn't list Wonderland, so maybe it is Playmakers. Original Press-release: https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1403/new-amplified-adventures-on-royal-caribbeans-allure-of-the-seas-to-make-a-summer-splash-in-europe/

?????????? 2014 ????? Wonder's first cruise was in 2022. In 2014, the only 2 Oasis class ships were Oasis and Allure. I was on Allure in September. It's not the same entertainment as in 2014, but it's good. Chicago was replaced with Mama Mia. The ship is still a good ship.

When we did this in 2018, I think they said that about 2/3 of the people embarked/disembarked in Barcelona, and about 1/3 in Rome (Civitavecchia). As noted by previous responses, the ship is always full. If you look at the very end of the season, just before the Transatlantic back to the Caribbean, you will see a 7 night from Barcelona, and then a 4 (3?) night one-way from Rome (both ending in Barcelona, where everyone gets off (short any B2B's) and the TA starts. Barcelona is the "home" port. The sail away party and the cruise days are all in reference to Barcelona. When you embark/disembark in Rome, you will have a different colored Seapass Card (I think ours was orange), and you will be doing the second half of one cruise and the first half of the next. Your "sail away" party will be on night 4/5. In 2018, the phone app did not really work for the Rome passengers, hopefully they have that figured out now. When deciding which port to use, I think it really comes down to 2 questions: Which port would you like to spend extra days in Which port would you not mind seeing "...in a day" For some, that's extra days in Barcelona, and Rome in a day is fine, but for us, it was a no-brainer. As I noted in your other thread, we spent a week in Rome before hand and there's still things we'll do "next time". We felt sorry for anyone trying to do "Rome in a day", for us, that seems completely impossible. Keep in mind, when doing it "in a day", Rome is actually 1-1.5 hours from the port, so that takes 2-3 hours out of your time. On the other-hand, Barcelona in a day was plenty for us. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably do an independent tour and go into La Sagrada Familia, but otherwise, we were good. Some people put a lot of weight on the proximity to the embarkation port. If you are not spending any extra time in that port before or after, then yes, that can be a big factor, and in that case, Barcelona wins hands down. But in my opinion, if you are going to spend extra time in that city, then this should not be part of your consideration. Here's some previous discussions:

Like I posted in my response. No issue on Allure in Sept

We travel everywhere with a Firestick and a universal remote (and a 10ft HDMI cable, just in case). We had no issues using my Firestick on Allure in September, but I always use my phone to hotspot it's WiFi connection. We use Samsung Galaxy phones. You can not hotspot a WiFi connection on iPhones. This way, I don't have to try to get to the sign in page on any ship or hotel on the Firestick as it is not very user friendly to "type" addresses, and navigate web pages. So much easier on my phone. When not watching TV, Airplane mode and WiFi are on, Hotspot off, Firestick unplugged. When we want to watch TV, Airplane mode off, WiFi on, Mobile Data Off (just in case), Hotspot on. Plug in Firestick - Auto connects to the phone's hotspot. Anyway, as previously noted, just get a Universal remote. You will need this in order to change the input source. I also recommend a VPN. Not only is this handy if the internet gets routed through a foreign country, but some things like YoutubeTV are GPS locked. Most cable channels (including "recorded" stuff) are not available outside your home country via your home service provider and the local stations are not available outside your home area. without a VPN, if you try to watch a local network in another city, it will force you to that city's affiliate. Luckily, Firesticks don't have GPS's, and so as long as I have the VPN turned on, I have had no issues watching the local station (even though my home is the Twin Cities and the closes VPN city is Chicago). The other trick on the newer ships is that you may have to disconnect the wired internet connection and reboot the TV. When plugged in to the hardwired internet, it launches custom RCI software, which does not allow for the source to be changed. Unplugging and rebooting prevents that software from launching.

Personally, we much prefer Rome. Since this interports, our preference would be to port out of Rome and spend at least a week in Rome before or after. But that's us. That's what we did in 2018, and even with a week in Rome before hand, we still did not see everything we wanted to.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the point you are getting at with regard to the davits is that one of the requirements is that you can't have anything hanging over the vertical line of the hull or something? At least up to a certain height above the waterline. I'm sure you can give the technical specifications. If you'll not that on the Radiance class, which is a Panamax, the lifeboats and davits are completely within the hull and nothing is hanging over (below the bridge wings). So it might not even be just the davit and lifeboats, but doesn't Deck 5 and 6 (and any other higher deck that is below the requirement) break the rule just from the way they stick out over the hull? Voyager class doesn't have decks sticking out, and possibly not the davits, but the lifeboats themselves partially stick out. On Quantum class, while the lifeboats and davits are well within the confines of the deck, the deck itself (deck 5) sticks out far beyond that vertical hull line. So none of these ships could ever go through the Panama Canal? Norwegian Bliss is the current largest cruise ship to go through the Panama Canal. The lifeboats and davits appear to be fully contained within the hull lines and it does not appear that anything sticks out beyond them (at least not below the bridge wings). And apparently it just fits under the Bridge of the Americas at low tide. I think I finally found a reference saying that Bliss is 60m above the waterline and BoA is billed as having a clearance of 61.3m.

When you leave out of Port Everglades, there is a house on the north side that has one in their side yard! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Miami,+FL/@26.0951683,-80.1139615,54m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x88d9b0a20ec8c111:0xff96f271ddad4f65!8m2!3d25.7616798!4d-80.1917902!16zL20vMGYydjA?entry=ttu

Every time I see pictures of Meyer Werft's Papenburg building it amazes me. The fact that a ship the size of Odyssey (and CCL's Excellence class, NCL's Breakaway Plus class ships) is actually built indoors is unreal. The pictures in that link are apparently the smaller hall 5. The larger building hall is 504m long (482m of interior dock), 125m wide and 75m tall, with an 800 ton crane. Odyssey is 347m long and 49m wide. So the building is well over twice the width, and half again as long as Odyssey. Amazing. Not to mention the videos of the 22mile (36km) conveyance that ships built here have to do down the Ems to get to open sea. the Ems is not that wide in many places, nor is it really all that deep in spots either.

In Minnesota, we have a Montevideo, but it is pronounced MON-ta-VIH-dee-o (as in audio/video). A few years back, something happened there that made the national news, and it was funny hearing them pronounce it MON-ti-vi-DAY-o, as in the capital of Uruguay.😅

As a single individual, it appears the answer is yes. At least for the Royal Caribbean brand. I did not look up Celebrity. After 9/11, Adventure had 4 Godparents, a man and a woman from each FDNY and NYPD. Symphony was billed as the first "God Family", Alexa, Carlos, and their son Ocean (17mo at the time) PenaVega. Alexa and Carlos are actors. They shot the 2018 Hallmark movie Love at Sea on Harmony. And if you're still saying "who?", Alexa was in the Spy Kids movies. Spectrum had Godparents Angelababy and Huang Xiaoming (since it was designated for the Chinese market). Sources: https://cruiseaddicts.com/royal-caribbean-ships-by-age-newest-to-oldest/ (this has Navigator wrong, as it's the same list as Adventure) and this old CC Thread (has Navigator correct, but ends in 2009 with Liberty):

It's been pretty well established that you won't get the offers on a branded card. So no Delta, Hilton, Marriott, etc..

She's doing a 12 night from Miami to Barcelona Feb10-22. Her next cruise listed is a 4 night out of Barcelona on April 11. 6.5 weeks later. Then there was the 5 night one the OP talked about After that, I swear the next 7 nights was originally missing, but appears to be listed now.

I would argue that Icon doesn't really. It does not have anything equivalent of a 2BR GS. As far as I can tell, there are only 2 suites that have 2 true bedrooms, The Ultimate Family Treehouse (yes still only has 2) and the 1 Royal Loft Suite. The (Surfside) Family Suite has a sitting area with a couch/bed that they bill as suitable for 2 kids that can be closed off, and the Family Infinite Ocean View Balcony has a bedroom and a separate 2 person bunk room. Everything else just "couch sleeps 2"

Yes, people seems to focus on what happens in US ports, but truth is, it seems to vary by ship/port/country. Our experience in Amsterdam on Jewel was like yours. Pretty sure there was no "consecutive cruiser meeting" the day before. No "meet in a lounge and wait". No escorted off & on in a group. We just reported to the Theater where we receive our new SeaPass cards and an "In Transit" card, we then went to a security podium they brought up from the gangway room and security personnel scanned us out of the previous cruise on our old SeaPass, then into the next cruise on the new SeaPass, and we were immediately sent on our way. They did ask us to be cognizant of the crew trying to clean the public areas, and like you said, if we were in the same cabin, we could go to our cabin if we wanted to. I'm trying to recall if there was a B2B lunch. I think there was, but not 100% sure.

When we did the Western Med (Symphony's inaugural season), we specifically chose to do it out of Rome (Civitavecchia) so that we could spend a week in Rome before hand. And that still wasn't enough time. You will either need to pick a single thing to do in depth (like the Vatican), or do a "Rome in a day" quick drive-by of Rome's most popular attractions. Keep in mind that there is a a 1+ hour drive each way, so you have to account for that. Because there is so much and your time is limited, I would second what @Norwich Cruiser recommends. If anything, you will not be limited by slow or late people. Oh, and pre-book "skip the line" tickets for everything you can.

I enjoyed The Book as far as how they were able to show off the technology involved. As for the story? What story? I couldn't even hazard a guess as to what the story is supposed to be about. 🤷‍♂️ More interesting than fun.

AmaMagna uses LG(I think) TVs and some Apple TV system of some sort (I don't do Apple). The TVs are also mounted into a decorative wall. Since I didn't use the Apple thing, I can't really say if it had a streaming option or not. I always travel with my Firestick and a Universal Remote (so I can change the Source on the TV). I also bring a 10' HDMI cable. While I probably could have done it myself, I didn't want to risk dropping the TV, so I asked the front desk if someone could pull the TV off the wall for a minute. That afternoon the engineer and 1 other guy came and did that. I plugged my HDMI cable in, routed it down through the access holes and hooked up my Firestick. I then was able to use my universal remote to change the TV source to my Firestick. On the last day, the engineer team came around again and I unplugged my HDMI cable. They were honestly super nice about it. And we were on for 2 weeks, so maybe it was slightly less of a hassle. As long as it's not built into a wall, and not some ancient TV with no HDMI ports, I can't imagine that you wouldn't be able to simply plug into an HDMI port on the TV. But you may need a universal remote to change the input.

Most of the reason I need to plug anything in is for charging devices. Instead of plugging in multiple single-device charger plugs, I travel everywhere with this (recently replaced an older version that had no USB-C): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BX3V6ZZX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 And in Europe and cruise ships with: A few of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058EG0KC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 And a couple of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YDF8GCT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

This has been our experience. So a completely different show.

No. Post dry-dock, she has a 4 night on April 11th, and a 5 night on April 15th, then an missing 7 days before starting the Western Mediterranean itinerary on April 27th.

Yes, as @Ourusualbeach said, it's totally subjective. For some it's worth it at 4+ times that amount. For us, no it's not. A couple years ago, during COVID, we decided we wanted to experience it (cruised this last September). We waited until a new season of cruises were released and I went through almost every cruise of all the Oasis class ships, and as you probably realize, Galveston appears to be the least expensive. Allure is typically a "discounted" ship since she hasn't been amplified yet. When I booked, Allure was in Galveston. So I was able to book 4 adults on a 7 night, in a 2BR AquaTheater suite for $2100 pp on Allure out of Galveston. At the time I booked, I figured that the included WiFi, DBP, UDP, and gratuities was worth about $150/pp/pd or about $1050/pp per week (intrinsic value), so the cruise itself was about $1050/pp per week also. A tip for the Genie needs to be added on top of that. Everything else is subjective. It's definitely nice to have reserved show seats with your drinks waiting for you. Being escorted passed almost any line. Snacks & drinks waiting in your room every afternoon. Bridge and Gallery tours (not the same as the All Access). That's just the "standard" stuff. There's threads here where people talk about other things you can ask for (we didn't take any advantage of special requests), that can certainly add to the experience. We had a great time, our Genie was awesome! It was definitely worth what we paid for it, but at today's prices, I don't know if we'd be doing it again. But that's us. I just looked at Sept 2025. 2 BR AquaTheater on Harmony is 2x for an 8 night, and a just a bit more than we paid for a 6 night. A 7 night on Oasis is ~3600. These are actually better prices than I've been seeing on other sailings on other ships, some of which were easily 4x what we paid for the same room. So, if you'd like to do it, I'd suggest looking as soon as the cruises drop, so you'd be looking at 2 years out. The prices will never be cheaper. And be flexible on ship/departure port and date.