BSQ

Former jaxvillian and did a B2B last year in December. Weather was plain ol weird. The first cruise was super windy, and once the sun went down, brrrrr! We were delayed leaving because of the winds and tides. The ship was cold too. Coming back to JAX we got fogged in. As in dead stop. The second cruise it was much warmer for sail away. Bahamas was perfect both trips. :)

I've been in both, though freedom was pre 2.0. Since I'm not a fan if sea days I'd go with the Freedom - I also really enjoy a beach day at HMC.

I do like the sunshine for shorter cruises, but if lounging by the pool or in the serenity area is your thing in sea days - those areas felt a lil crowded to me.

I also like the ease and distance between port, hotels and ship out of FLL over canaveral.

Sunshine sails from Canaveral so overall, nod goes to Freedom

Influenced by Martinis, read with caution

Using your categories

Ships - eh draw

Rooms - Carnival

MDR - Royal

Buffet - Carnival

Speciality Dining - n/a

Pools - Royal

Activities - draw

Service - Draw

nightlife - Carnival

Entertainment - Royal

How I compared them in my recent review:

Embarkation – Royal

Muster Drill - Royal

Main Dining Room - Royal

Buffet - Carnival

Buffet Service (busing tables) - Carnival

Bar Service - Carnival (hands down, no contest)

Bartenders – Carnival

Martinis – Carnival & Me (I learned from the best )

Soda package - Royal

Shows/entertainment - Royal

Promenade Deck - Carnival

Port Shopper experience - Royal

Overal Ship Décor – Royal though I missed the gaudy a little

Staterooms (space utilization) - Carnival

Adult pool area - draw.

Stateroom Stewards - draw

Excursion desk - draw

Guest services - draw

Senior Officer Visibility - Royal (the officers were everywhere)

Debarkation - Carnival (especially luggage handling)

Private Island - Half Moon Cay (though there was better snorkeling from shore at Coco Cay)

I thought both lines have delivered the vacation experience I was hoping to have on each sailing, and can't say I'd choose or recommend one over the other. It's simply finding the best fit for your own vacation style,

Ah. I see you encountered "the fifteens" on your cruise too.

I was just thankful they didn't debark with us. They had a separate area to go through,

Thanks for the review and I enjoyed the pics of your door decs. No prob in finding your cabin! :D

Thanks!

LOL on door signs. I taped some of the fish to all our new cruisers doors and said "at 2am after a few drinks, you'll thank me for doing this."

Our next door neighbor also commented that the Sr Frogs Banner helped her find her room too. LOL.

The teens traveling with us got a kick out of the pictures - who really ever thinks their parents were young after all?

Influenced by Martinis, read with caution

LOVED this review

:o aww gee, thanks!

Awesome review- I loved every word..

We ( wife Daughter Son in law grandson & granddaughter) in Jan..

Will be our first time on this ship-looking forward to it..

Thanks again for the cool review

Thank you! Hope you enjoy your sailing.

Thank you for the review. Excited to be sailing on her in December. Looks like a great time. Your story of your friend brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

You're welcome. Sometimes the story tells itself. :)

Thank you for taking the time to write your review and post your pics. I really appreciate it and enjoyed it! :)

You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.

I saw the pics! Argh! We were down in June and hoped to get some soft opens in art DA; massive fail there! We did stay at CB though; in one of the original little nemo rooms with that wallpaper. I'm deciding between ordering the all inclusive N/A drink package or the premium. I don't drink too much with any of the kids sound, but this time it's just myself and my 17 year old so considering whether I will drink the differences with of rum and boat drinks. I know I will kill the coffee and bottled water. Is Starbucks (lattitudes, whatever) included in the premium coffee package? I can't find a confirmation anywhere.

Sorry, I can't help you on the drink package. All I had was the soda cup, and two of my friends had the beer and wine package. Even when I drink a lot for me on a cruise, I don't break even on the price of the drink packages and am definitely not versed on Royals.

Kudos to Reyno. He is the best!!!!!!!

He is indeed. He had also stopped by before the party to make sure everything was ok, and afterwards as we were leaving fit dinner.

Everything was put away and my friends returned to their suite for the evening with my teddy bear surrounded by party streamers and a bottle if wine - it looked like he ( the teddy bear) had quite the after party.

:)

Influenced by Martinis, read with caution

 

Cheers to you and your friend!

Thank you Maureen! :)

Really fun and poignant review! Thanks!

you are too kind, thank you!

I stayed in this cabin on the Liberty, but it was in 2008. So things may have changed. On my sailing it was an upper/lower.

this is what I wrote about it at the time ...

CABIN

 

1A #8357. I was traveling solo, and this room was spacious. Truthfully they could have had two beds on the floor in there just fine, but whatever. It took some getting used to sleeping on a twin bed. I’m a little on the tall side, and usually sleep diagonally on beds. I only smashed my knuckles into the wall once whilst trying to flip off the comforter. (as in remove, not give the bird).

 

 

I liked the layout of my cabin, and thought it was plenty roomy. I did have plenty of hangers … but if I’d been traveling with someone else there would not have been enough. One might conclude I may have slightly over packed. Truthfully there were only a couple things I didn’t wear, but I had more vacation yet to come after the cruise. :-P

 

I had plenty of room on the shelves in the bathroom for all my stuff. The hair dryer, though small, was actually pretty good. Not as wimpy as I’d expected. I did bring my own simply because I need a diffuser. ...<snip>

I have also stayed in chins where people swore up and down the beds could not be converted to a king (because that's what carnival's site told them) and reality was they could be. GO with the pictures you've seen. That's what I did with my 4Js (1004, 1003) and in the end the pictures were correct.

Glad I found your review! Fellow career retailer heading out on the Enchantment in just over a week. Vacay starts on Thursday on the Gulf Coast then moves on to Enchantment then to Diagon Alley. We are staying in the OV on deck 3 as well.

:D enjoy your vacation! the "season" is rapidly approaching! I had wanted to go to Univesal more than WDW but we were there the weekend Diagon Alley opened. The crowds looked worse than a Florida Wal-Mart during a Black Friday early Bird Special run. :eek:

Loving this review! I sail on enchantment in October with the bf who's a newbie at cruising. I share your love for cocktails so this is quite helpful as far as where the best service is and drinks to avoid!

Thank you! I hope you enjoy your sailing! The R Bar didn't live up to my expectations. Avoid the Schooner Bar when the piano man is playing. He's not bad, just way too loud for that space.

Want to mention that we had very good MDR service on our Enchantment cruise in March.

 

Also enjoyed the Park Cafe for lunch- for a lighter lunch.

Glad we had similar experiences with these two venues!

Quick Comparison Royal vs Carnival

Since this always seems to be a hot topic or an often asked questions from cruisers who sail one line or the other, I thought I’d give my view on some comparisons. I went in to this cruise expecting a pretty comparable experience. In the end I felt like there are some things where Royal excels over Carnival, and others where Carnival excels over Royal. Will I sail Royal again? Probably. If there’s a ship I’m curious about, going some place I’ve never been and the price is right – sure.

This is obviously from my experience on this one Royal Cruise and I’m sure could vary from ship to ship.

Embarkation – Royal

Muster Drill - Royal

Main Dining Room - Royal

Buffet - Carnival

Buffet Service (busing tables) - Carnival

Bar Service - Carnival (hands down, no contest)

Bartenders – Carnival

Martinis – Carnival & Me (I learned from the best :D )

Soda package - Royal

Shows/entertainment - Royal

Promenade Deck - Carnival

Port Shopper experience - Royal

Overal Ship Décor – Royal though I missed the gaudy a little

Staterooms (space utilization) - Carnival

Adult pool area - draw.

Stateroom Stewards - draw

Excursion desk - draw

Guest services - draw

Senior Officer Visibility - Royal (the officers were everywhere)

Debarkation - Carnival (especially luggage handling)

Private Island - Half Moon Cay (though there was better snorkeling from shore at Coco Cay)

And this brings to a close my trip n ship of this sailing. If you've made it to the end, I hope you have enjoyed our journey.

 

Cheers to Friendships!

 

Last day! :( The door decorations have come down, our last breakfast on board eaten. Soon we would be going our separate ways. I was in one of the last groups to debark, and while it was a little congested getting to our luggage and waiting for it to be put on the carousel, going through customs went quickly.

Even for me, miss no passport and photo copied hospital birth certificate.

A short walk back to our cars, load em up, and I would be staying one more day near Disney since my not quite into details friend missed all our planning meetings and thought we were coming home on Sunday. (He also thought we were going to Cozumel). He also overpacked a bit with a suitcase that was nearly as big as my car!

it's a good thing I'm a logistician.

Attitudes properly adjusted, it’s time to head home.

If you know the 80's you'll get this reference ...

At the end of the final production show, we realized our time together was coming to a close. As one friend whose husband is new to the group told us “he says we’re just like St. Elmo’s Fire,” tears were in her eyes. We know we are blessed to have such a long time friendship. Most people go their separate ways after college. We’ve done that, and we have had a few years where we’ve not seen eachother. Four years ago I moved briefly back to California. That’s when we realized we need to be together. Through all life has thrown at us, without our friends, we’d never have made it through.

Today’s lesson, make sure your friends know they are a special part of your life.

The rain and wind kicked in about 2pm . After that it became a lazy afternoon finding shippy things to do and bar hopping. (mostly bar hopping)

At our final dinner, we sat as a girls table and a boys table. The girls are the planners, the boys come long cause we invite them. :) Plans were put into place for our next big vacation, and some smaller ones.

I may have tried to see if the boys were further along at solving the toothpick puzzle than we were (they weren't girls rule!)...

Later that night, as we were gathered in a bar having non-pink drinks, the head of Guest Services was walking by our table and asked us if we were enjoying our cruise. (yes) and asked us if we were celebrating something special – we still were wearing our pink leis and beads.

I said yes, we’re celebrating our friend being a breast cancer survivor!! She asked if we were her Royal Suite Guests, and then took time to chat with us. She relayed how personal it was for her to sign the banner, with a lump in her throat, she shared with us as her mother and two of her aunts had all been affected by breast cancer. Quietly she walked over to the bar, and covered our round of drinks.

Thank you to every single person on board the ship who helped make Pink! night one of the most special moments imaginable.

The girls all arrived at the appointed time (without the boys since they came back from Senor Frogs muy happy and muy sloshed), to find out our concierge Reyno, had made everything perfect and beautiful. And then I saw this taped over the TV in the livingroom…

Reyno had taken this sheet of paper around to every department head on the ship the night before, and everyone had signed a note of congratulations and celebration to our friend. Pass me a dang tissue, just thinking about it, I still get emotional. This one man, with one simple gesture, captured the essence of why we were on this cruise. Whether I sail on Royal Caribbean again or not, I will never forget how they helped us make this moment special, and the memory will be with all of us forever.

What I did not mentioned at the start of this, is the planning for this cruise started on the night one of our friends had gotten home from the hospital after having had surgery to remove breast cancer. Her diagnosis a few weeks earlier had leveled us, and brought us closer together as friends. It had been a long year of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She received her clean bill of health on Valentine’s Day of this year, and is doing well. She is my bestie and and one of the strongest, women I know.

A couple months before the cruise I had sent a note to everyone except her suggesting we all wear pink one night to honor our friend and celebrate her victory.

The plan was in motion. Two weeks before we left the e-mails, texts and pictures flew. One thing we have always done well is plan events.

Not wanting her to feel left out, we packed pink leis for the girls and mardi gras beads for the boys. Decorations, balloons, and streamers went into our suitcases. One in our group was staying in the Royal Suite and had offered her suite as our gathering place. She had mentioned what we were doing to her concierge, I actually don’t know the details of what she told him, but we’re told not much. We requested some pink champagne, and pink lemonade and some crackers for our fruit and cheese baskets.

please note, I am sharing this next part because it is part of my story. YMMV in planning any celebrations on board any ship.

Our taxi driver retuned for us about an hour later, our next stop, the girls headed off to the straw market and the boys headed off to Senor Frogs. The boys have a history with Senor Frogs. This had the potential to go very very wrong. LOL.

Once in the hot stuffy straw market with row after row of the same cra … err stuff, suddenly Senor Frogs was sounding kind of good. Instead I headed back to the ship, because we had a special celebration I needed to get ready for.

Let me grab a couple tissues (reaching in bra), this is an emotional story for me to tell.

a lil snack from Hard Rock

A little more walking around. Probably should have skipped the appetizer we shared at the hard rock. Oh well. Time to head back to port to rendezvous because ...

time to meet up for lunch.

We took a taxi over to the Fish Fry and had a nice family meal. I had jerk chicken. It was a little spicy but not overly so. Everyone commented that their food was good. We all got snack plates, which left us wondering if these are snacks, how the heck big are the lunch plates! Give us some icy cold beers and it was an afternoon well spent.

Quite by accident we kept meeting up for breakfast. The girls would sit at one table, the guys at the other. I dunno why, but we seemed to do this a lot. Guess we all really just needed to connect . We'd been through a lot in the year or so leading up to this vacation.

Sometime in the early morning we docked in Nassau. It started out a rainy morning but the showers passed quickly. Leaving behind and incredibly humid afternoon. We had no plans for Nassau. Two in our group when off to Atlantis to swim with the Dolphins, and other than that we would be heading to Effy at 11am for a drink discount and then meeting up as a group in front of the pier by the taxi stands, to head to lunch at the Fish Fry.

From vague recollection, I took a smaller group on an abbreviated walking tour of the town, winding back to Effy for our shopping experience. We received a gold star sticker on our sail and sign cards, which gave us a 25% discount on drinks at the Schooner Bar or Boleros for the remainder of the cruise. Since we had a sea day coming up, this was worth the 20 minutes we spent at Effy. And it was air conditioned. We briefly split up for a little solo shopping. Rendezvousing again to head over to hard rock (we collect pins), and being all hot and everything, we needed to rehydrate.