RobInMN

This is a crappy picture, but I took this from the airport transfer bus post cruise leaving Civitavecchia after a Western Mediterranean cruise in 2018 On the left is Symphony (ship we were on), which was the largest cruise ship in the world at that time, and right next to it, Sovereign (of the Seas), when it was owned by Pullmantur, which, as you pointed out, was the first "mega ship".

Same. We did the 2 week Grand Danube, which is really just a B2B. The first week had a large group cancelation, and there were only about 60 some passengers. I think everyone was upgraded to consolidate onto same floors, for some it was their first Ama. Next week was something like 120ish. We weren't originally upgraded on the second week, but the cruise manager made a call, and we were allowed to stay in the same room. We checked before unpacking because as nice as the cabin was, our original cabin was plenty nice, and we would have preferred to keep that one rather than switch cabins half way.

We always travel with a Firestick (Roku should work also). Just need an HDMI port for that. Also a universal remote so you can change the input. Use a VPN and you can access any of your streaming content. Not sure if you can store pre-recorded stuff on the Firestick itself an watch it with some app, never tried, but you could look into it.

You should look at the reviews in post #6 If you just look at it as a walk, then yes, you could technically do those on your own, however, Ama always hires local guides that are very knowledgeable. In our opinion, they have (with 1 exception), been excellent. Even the one that pissed us off, it had nothing to do with his information, it was his time management. Anyway, There are almost always options to suite your interests, including a biking one if that suites you. Many of the walks have a gentle and an active option, and a number of the ports have hikes. Some of these will go to the same place the bus does, some to unique locations. You always have the option of doing your own thing. Yes, more limited than ocean cruises, but you won't go hungry. AmaMagna has 2 options for breakfast & lunch, and 4 for dinner. there's some mod afternoon in 1 (never checked it out myself). Yes, there's times there isn't anything available (maybe room service??), but it's pretty limited. For our tastes, AmaMagna is a bit more upscale food-wise, but that's on us, not them. We will not ding them because they don't exactly cater to our more pedestrian tastes. That said, we were never disappointed in any of our meals, just more limited in what appealed to us. We ate a lot of the same things and liked them every time. Skip excursions if you want, and again, you can always do your own thing. We do these to see these countries and places we'd never visit otherwise. But no, we don't feel that way. There's enough down time. We hung out in one of the lounges often. We haven't done those others, so can't compare. But AmaMagna is amazing. We were upgraded to an SA(?). Unbelievable space. Storage for days, and probalby the nicest shower we've ever had on a vacation (river, ocean, or hotel). To be honest though, we dont' really hang out in our room. But the space is nice for getting ready in the morning and before bed. Once on another line. Like I said in the previous answer, we don't really hang out in our room, so I am not sure if it would bother us that much, especially on AmaMagna.

We agree. The Ama Brasov extension goes to Peles. It's very cool. As I noted in my review post of AmaMagna's Grand Danube, Peles Castle was used in the Netflix "A Christmas Prince" trilogy. Also, in the next town over, Busteni has a Billboard proclaiming another large mansion there as being the exterior location for Wednesday's Nevermore Academy.

I'm the other review that @CastleCritic linked to. I can add one addition item from your list from a different cruise a long time ago. Back in 2005, the river cruise we went on did go further than Giurgiu. I don't know where we actually docked at (probably not the delta), but we did an all day excursion to Constanta. Some things we did on the way that I thought were cool was a archeological/history museum, an excavation of a Roman market with an impressive mosaic floor, and once to Constanta, we stopped at the old The Casino of Constanța. Didn't go in, but it's a neat building. Up to this point, the vast majority of our stops was a lesson in why communism failed. Some places barely qualifying for what we might consider a "second world" country, with Vukovar being the "worst". To be honest, back in 2005, some of these stops were depressing. Once we got to Constanta, we were back to first world. Modern, vibrant. It's a large shipping port, and apparently a resort destination. Where we stopped for lunch was technically Mamaia. It's a long (5 mile?) narrow strip of land separating the Black Sea from a lake. There was a water park, lots of condos and hotels (we had lunch at one hotel), and beaches all along the sea. Shopping etc. Sort of reminded me a bit of South Beach or Padre or something. We took a short gondola ride down part of it. To circle back to Vukovar. We were very happy to see the progress that they've made. They've still got a ways to go, but they defiantly seem to be on the right track.

Completely agree. We've technically done 3 with Ama, but to us it's 2, because one was a B2B. And we are currently looking at Amsterdam to Basel (or reverse) for Spring '25.

For others like me that don't do FB, I found this number: 281-804-5901, and sent a text. Lori didn't see it for a couple days, but responded back and I was able to get set up with one of the drivers who contacted me herself shortly after. This is for a cruise in September, so I don't have a review to report, but hear nothing but good things.

Forward, right behind the Solarium. On top of the forward elevators. Deck 17, but entrance is a staircase on on Deck 16 Here's a video

Seriously, first we had Greece, now we have Liberty. Like the ship or port matters. What about on Jewel on a sea day in July above the arctic circle for MDT arriving at 7:00 PM?

In my opinion, the main reason to do a Baltic cruise is Saint Petersburg. But as long as Putin is being an A***H***, that's off the table. RC doesn't have any Baltic cruises in '24 (UWC hits a some of the traditional stops). Are other cruise lines doing Baltic minus Russia in '25?

January of 2022. But yes, all those things affect the price. however... This! I don't remember the prices of other things we looked at, but nothing compares to the prices we are seeing now, even on the furthest out cruises that just drop. I want to say maybe other dates on Allure were up to $1000/pp more. Other ships maybe $2000/pp more? BTW, we specifically went searching for the cheapest 2 BR Aqua Theater suite we could find (didn't want anyone sleeping on the couch in the living area) in the late Summer/Fall. This is not easy given the RC website search capabilities. Even if you look at the starting suite price, the different suites on the different cruises do not go up the same amount or same percentage from the base. You have to select each cruise, enter 1 room, 4 people, Suite, and then you can see the prices for each one. Just because a cruise has the cheapest "suite" price, doesn't mean a specific suite class is the cheapest on that same cruise, might be a different cruise. But yes, on any given sailing week, Allure was the cheapest of all the Oasis class ships, and September was the cheapest month.

I was able to book the 2 BR Aqua Theater suite on Allure, Sept 10th at 4 adults for $2121/pp. Our first Star Class. And at current pricing, probably our last.🤣

Currently have Holy Land on Odyssey booked for 22-OCT-2024. When the rumor was posted, I got pretty excited about may switching to the Rome to Dubai leg as it leaves just the next day. But man, at those prices, I think we may be better off sticking with the current cruise. Ouch.

oh right! forgot about that!

Yes. 2 "in-house" productions. I was drawing a distinction between know Broadway caliber shows and in house productions. It appears that beginning with Wonder, they've stopped going that route and doing all in-house productions, which is too bad, because they made a huge deal about doing these big Broadway shows at sea for many years. We saw some Effectors show on Odyssey and thought it was terrible. All special effects and zero substance. Absolutely cheesy.

The true Broadway shows are on the Oasis class. Of those, I would say Hairspray on Symphony. We also really like the water show Hiro. Avoid Oasis, it has Cats! The Oasis class (other than Wonder), usually has 2 shows. One broadway, one exclusive broadway-like show? Plus they all have a water show in the aquatheater that is usually very good. Found this list from 2022: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/which-shows-are-on-which-royal-caribbean-cruise-ships Oasis: Cats Allure: Mama Mia Harmony: Grease Symphony: Hairspray Wonder: No actual Broadway show?

If you are a Hoosier in Illinois, I'd think you'd' be looking a Big Ten game. Big Ten has shifted from ESPN to FOX. In the first 4 weeks of the season, I only see 3 games scheduled on ESPN/ABC.

From my experience, if you are looking for a specific game, I would not necessarily count on it being shown, especially for college football. They are very limited in what they have available to show. For instance, on Freedom a couple years ago for college football, they were only showing ESPN channels, which included the ESPN SEC channel and ABC. If your game was on CBS, NBC, FOX, one of the Fox Sports channels or the Big Ten network, they not only wouldn't change the channel, but said they didn't even have the ability to change to any other channels. I don't think it's always the same as to which channels they show, but the number of channels seems very limited. There's been threads on here that have discussed the service they use that get into the technical and licensing details as to why. I ended up watching the game I wanted on my phone.

While they do like you to sign up ahead of time, I am convinced it's just to get some sense of the number of guides they need for each excursion before hand. While I've only been on 3 cruises (sort of 2, as 2 of those were a single B2B on the same ship), the experience that we've had with picking up your colors, is that there is no accounting of who picks up what color. You could change you mind at the last minute, and in my limited experience, I am positive that people have done just that based on the current weather. Interesting that you turned yours over to the guides. We have never handed our color tickets over to the guides. On all 3 cruises, we were asked to return them to the reception desk when we returned. There's a box with a slot in it for doing so. A couple times, I return my previous tickets when I picked up my new ones. Oops! Yes, each tour has different colors. If there are multiple groups doing the same tour, they will also have different colors. If there is an "Active" version, that is usually Red, and if there is a "Gentle" option, that is usually Pink. The colors correspond to the Lollipops and coach signs, and which channel your Quietvox device should be set to. I don't think anyone was prevented from doing an excursion that they wanted to.

July 25th, 2017. Explorer of the Seas. Which is not that much smaller than Quantum. Don't recall which glacier. Not the best pictures of the glacier but does show how close we got to it.

Delft is very close to the Hague. If you are into tastings at all, we highly recommend visiting Van Kleef Distillery. We went there with friends of ours before our cruise last Summer and had the best time. We were the only English speaking people for that particular tasting, and the owner took care of us personally. Our friends do lots of tastings from wines to whiskeys, and they said this was the best one they've ever done anywhere. Anyway, I agree with @gumshoe958. Totally walkable from the Central Station to the port. You should be able to drop off your bags fairly early. We stayed next door and I think we took our bags over about 9:30, and then an easy walk to the city center. Note that if you want to do the Anne Frank museum, you need to buy tickets before hand. They go on sale on the Tuesday, for the week 6 weeks later, so they are probably on sale now. We did the museum + introductory program and would recommend that. While walkable from the port (< 30m), I would probably recommend an Uber for that to save time.

We feel exactly the same way. Just to be clear. I'm not starting any rumors. I have no insider info. This is purely a wishful guess on my part. But it does seem like a realistic option.

Yes, among many other changes. https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1403/new-amplified-adventures-on-royal-caribbeans-allure-of-the-seas-to-make-a-summer-splash-in-europe/ And also yes, COVID postponed all Amplifications that had not been done yet. Some people are thinking that the Amplification may happen Spring 2025. She's going into dry-dock and right now, it looks like she may be there long enough. It will be interesting to see if they stick to the original plan or if they'll change any of them.

While that was in the original Amplification plan, I think it's run it's course and there's at least some chance that they may not put the Bionic Bar in. However, I am positive that the Champagne Bar is not long for this world. My guess, they might replace it with the Pesky Parrot like on Utopia, if there's enough space for it.