RobInMN

and a tub instead of the tube shower

To summarize, for the ships themselves, ignoring Itinerary: Oasis > Freedom/Voyager > Radiance > Vision Especially for college age

Just had to turn this into a MDR attire thread didn't you? Formal is the same as every other night - You do you. You want to dress up and have pictures taken, go for it. If you want to wear shorts and a t-shirt, that's fine also. Just no swim wear. Waiting for all the people bemoaning "how it used to be" and "I think it should be how I want it" responses: This thread's going to pick up now

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read here, it sounds like it usually comes out towards the end of the cruise if liquor sales are lower than expected.

That's true, but didn't sound like it applied to the OP.

Officially, "no!" You will get responses from people that will say they do it, and it's no big deal. But to do so, you have to open the doors that they have explicitly closed for a reason. The hallways are also a disaster and not in any condition to be traversed by random passengers. There's room steward carts and dirty bed linens and towels piled up and multi0colored laundry bags all over. We did Star class once, and it was in a 2 BR Aqua Theater suite. As part of Star Class, the Genie will escort you to your room ahead as soon as you board. For us, that meant the entire length of the aft hallway. That's the only reason I've seen this. Even with our Genie escorting us, I felt guilty for potentially being in anyone's way. Don't do it.

They must be afraid of those NCL interlopers making the swim from Great Stirrup Cay. 🙂 After saying that, I was curious, and assuming someone could actually make it to the western point of Great Stirrup Cay, it looks like it's only about 1000 feet (~305m) to the rocky out crop on Little Stirrup Cay's (Coco Cay) north eastern corner. just under 1/2 mile (~762m) to the NW corner of the beach. Fins and a snorkel, and wouldn't necessarily take that strong of a swimmer if someone was determined to do it. 😄

Yes, Jewel was doing these. When we went in 2022, it was a rotation of 3 12 night itineraries. Arctic Circle, Iceland & Ireland (we did these 2 B2B), and I think British Isles. While I haven't looked at the itineraries since, I believe they did the same essential thing last year and earlier this year. Did Jewel go back to the Caribbean earlier than in the past? My question was more in the sense of Southampton doesn't seem to be that much further than Amsterdam for the purposes of servicing Norway (and Iceland). Could they still do it in 12 nights like today?

While I completely agree with that for Oasis and Icon, Radiance and Vision class ships are most definitely not "destinations"? 🙂 That also seems to ignore Project Discovery.

This has been discussed a few times. The general consensus is that they charge for it to minimize the mess. Think of the family/group with multiple young kids. If one kid wanted popcorn, they'd all have to have popcorn, and half of it would end up on the ground. Pretty sure they charge the minimal amount they do just to give you pause and think "do I really want this" and "you can share". Hopefully resulting in a much higher percentage actually ending up being consumed rather than spilled/wasted. BTW, find your thread very entertaining.

How about Southampton? They do other fjord cruises on Quantum class ships from there, why couldn't they do the Arctic Circle, other Norway cruises, Iceland and the other northern cruises they did out of Amsterdam from Southampton?

According to Cruise Mapper, Symphony is scheduled to be in Nassau today. So I think that confirms it. Harmony is doing Western Caribbean out of Galveston and was in Honduras yesterday. You should check out Cruise Mapper's live ship tracker. Might have answered that before posting 😉 But it was a fun exercise!

Not sure about uniform pieces, but crew area videos have shown where they do their own laundry. Basically a compact laundromat of all stacked washers & dryers. Can't recall any of them have said if it was free or not or if they have to supply their own laundry soap.

While I was leaning that way, can you explain how you are so positive?

There should be a Space Center Houston and Airport Transfer. We did that after our Allure cruise last September or off Galveston.

Thanks for that correction. Any idea if that's happened since? or have all the Voyage and Quantum class ships gone the "long" way since?

Agree. The "Hidden/Secret" area off the running track in front of the life boats, as well as the life boat layout (4-2-3 vs 5-1-3) also eliminates Oasis. I am leaning toward Symphony, but nothing I can pinpoint conclusively

I was going to suggest wedding was an option also. I have read that you can have embarkation day weddings where non-sailing guests are allowed onboard for the wedding but then must leave when the announcement is made for guests to disembark.

While anyone who's read my comments knows that Grand Circle is not my favorite (nothing to do with crew - they were great), we did a Christmas Market cruise with them with my parents and my sister's family. Anyway, there were a couple places where they did have a shuttle, but I want to say that there were a couple places where the markets were too close for a shuttle, but just far enough away that the CM's said something about arranging for some transportation for those that needed it. To be honest, didn't apply to us, so I didn't really pay much attention and could be wrong. But if GC does something like that, I would imagine most others would?

Other than the UWC, I can not recall a RC branded ship going around the tip of South America. As far as I know, all the Quantum and Voyager class ships that have serviced the Pacific have all come from the Atlantic via the Suez. I thought I had always heard that the Straight of Magellan was the more dangerous route (Samali Pirates aside), making the potentially longer route more attractive.

Suez Canal or around South Africa, Indian then Pacific Oceans.

Discovery class would not necessarily be built at the same ship yards. Is there just the 2 (Turku and the one in France) that can build Oasis & Icon class? A Discovery class that is no larger than a Quantum/Quantum Ultra can be built at the Meyer Werft Papenburg shipyard

I know that would make @billaraneta very happy!

What I find slightly odd is that some RCL ship classes skip 13, others don't Radiance, Voyager, Freedom, and Quantum classes all have 13 Oasis and Icon classes skip 13 Vision's highest deck is 12

There's a few threads where it's discussed whether Rome or Barcelona is better home port. All of your points are valid, but for us, I would still chose Rome every time. Well, maybe if I did Rome enough, eventually I might try Barcelona. 😄 There are pluses and minuses for and against each port, and it just depends on which pluses are more important to you. For instance, if you fly in the day before and don't plan on spending any time in the home port city, then Barcelona is the clear winner. If you are going to spend extra time before or after, then it just comes down to which city interests you more. Whichever port you chose, the other port is the port that you do "in a a day", and for my preferences, I could never do Rome "in a day", but Barcelona "in a day" is plenty for me. Others may have the opposite preference. When we did this in 2018, we chose Rome, and spent a week in Rome before, and it was not long enough.