RobInMN

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.

We did the Grand Danube. This could be booked as a single cruise or as individual cruises, so essentially a B2B. We also booked the Pre and a Post. We ended up having the same CM the entire time (and she was awesome!) There were local guides as well. That said, after the first week, some of the people only on the first week had a post, and prior to the second week some of the people only on the second week had a pre. Also, after our cruise, there were actually 2 post options. Obviously, 1 CM can not do all of them. I can not confirm personally, but the way it sounded, there were other AMA CMs with those people on the other pre/post optional packages. We've only done the 1 AMA cruise where we did a pre/post, but from how it appears to me, and from talking to our CM, I believe the way it normally works on AMA is that a CM will do a 1 week cruise with the pre & post packages (if the cruise has them). then they will have some time off (week or 2?) and then do it again. if you were to stay on the same ship for multiple B2B cruises, you'd probably see 3 different CMs over the course of 3 weeks. Our CM went from home to Prague, where she was with us for 3 days. She was on the ship for 2 weeks, then the Brasov/Bucharest for 4 days. Her husband actually met her the last day in Bucharest, and she was going home after.

Still looks better than the Norwegian Epic, That thing is absolutely hideous.

See my post above (quoted below). I think the captain just misspoke. They would not do 2 drydocks in a year, and there is nothing in her schedule that would remotely suggest one.

We put our pre and post cruise excursion gratuities for the Cruise Director/Manager on our account on the ship when we did all our gratuities and the end of the cruise and then had that charged to our CC

Obviously the original Amp plan was for a Bionic Bar, but I completely agree about the BB and it shouldn't take much to change that plan to a TikiBar like on Utopia. Pretty sure the plan for the Diamond Lounge is for Wonderland.

Yes, almost all. But there are occasional ones like the Mozart & Strauss concert in Vienna. That was an additional cost.

1Password also quit auto-filling

Don't get too stressed about selecting. If you've never been on an AMA cruise before, I am pretty sure the picking of excursions before hand is just to gauge interest for lining up an appropriate number of tour guides for the different options. You are not locked in and can change your mind at the last minute. When it comes to getting your colored ticket, there is no verification that you are doing what you may have selected pre-cruise. At least for the included ones. The optional ones with extra fees could very well be different. I have no idea.

Only because the OS won't let you enable the HotSpot when airplane mode is turned on. By turning off Mobile Data, it can't use your cellular data connection for the hotspot, and it will force it to use the WiFi. It might use the WiFi anyway, but I'm not risking it. 🙂 BTW, they aren't calling it tethering. I believe there is tethering, but that is something different. This is actually hotspotting your WiFi connection.

I have this one, but any remote that you can program should be fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088Y2JFHB/

If you have an Android phone, specifically Samsung Galaxy models, you can WiFi hotspot your WiFi connection. Apparently this is not an option for iPhones. and I can't speak for other android phones. Might be a good idea to set up your WiFi hotspot ahead of time. You can't have Airplane mode on, so turn that off. To make sure you don't cellular roam the hotspot, I turn off Mobile Data. Then connect other devices to your phone's hotspot. I've done this on a number of cruises and other trips now, including using my Firestick. We travel with a universal remote, so we can program it to whatever TV the cruise ship or hotel has (Mostly Samsung and LG) so that we can change the input source. Not all TVs have a button. On newer ships (like Odyssey and newer), you may have to unplug the TV from the wired network, and then reboot it (unplug it and back in). This will prevent the custom home screen launcher app from running which can block you from selecting an input even with a universal remote.

@UDChE89, what a beautiful day! When we were there, it was a bit overcast. But maybe a little nicer than when @CastleCritic was there. Agree! We loved Prague! And while I was also not a fan of the Kromwell, The Brasov extension was worth it. Speaking of Vukovar. We visited in 2005. And here's a comparison to 2023: My full trip review if you're interested:

ok, we're 11 pages in of discussing Cats! I think it's time for: (sorry, It's all I can hear in my head any time I hear of Cats!)

I do not believe that Royal has put anything out there publicly yet, but there have been various posts in different threads where people have posted things. And when I was on allure in September, the Allure Hotel Director strongly implied it during the Top Tier event and specifically stated that Sabor and Champagne Bar were both going to be replaced, which is part of the Amplification plan. Then later, 2 Genies specially said "amplification" during the bridge tour. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe that people have said that a 6.5 week dry dock is 1-2 weeks longer than a normal dry dock should be for that age of a ship. Keep in mind, when the dry dock was cancelled at the beginning of COVID, it was only 5(?) weeks out. Most of the materials (like the Ultimate Abyss) would have already been manufactured and likely at the shipyard waiting. Some things (like thousands of Samsung TVs), could possibly have been sold (presumably at a huge loss), but there's probably a warehouse somewhere in or near Cadiz that is storing a lot of stuff for the amplification.

It's already been confirmed that Allure is going to be amplified early in 2025. This is the Amplification. This thread was just updated 2 days ago: And tidbits in multiple posts in this thread.