xtremegk

Late August? We're on Icon, scheduled to be at CocoCay on Friday the 30th. We were supposed to be there solo, now guessing Indy will be joining us, similar to plans for July & Sept.

Which cruise in August?

Stayed there one time. Highly disappointed.

Very late to the party... Where do you stay in Cleveland? I fly in/out of there for work fairly often and struggle to find a decent hotel close to the airport.

If you find the RoyalUp process stressful and you're content with the cabin you have, don't bid. Save yourself the stress. Me, I'll continue to bid almost every time, despite being 0-for-275902592752109u359207 with RU.

Maybe I'm the ignorant American here...but why would EU rules apply to UK residents on a cruise booked in the UK and departing the UK? I thought Brexit was about leaving the EU...

I sailed on Grandeur from there to Bermuda in 2008.

Unfortunately all too familiar with this as I work in an industry that follows federal ICS structure during major events. We have to bring in contractors every time due to the sheer volume of work needing to be done in a shortened period of time.

Lack of incident command? It's been more than 24 hours since the ACOE announced they were in the incident command role.

Army Corps of Engineers is already on-site and tasked with clearing the main shipping channel (Federal channel). Army Corps of Engineers is supporting recovery operations following Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse > Baltimore District > News Releases

Not a space shuttle, but not just any ordinary spacecraft -- Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule the flew John Glenn on the first manned orbit of the Earth, splashed down just off Grand Turk. There's a replica of the capsule at the airport.

We were on the 9-nighter with you this past August. Snagged one of the deck 7 ultraspacious balcony cabins at the very aft for $3800 for 3 people. Booked that the day it opened, so a tremendous deal considering what things were selling for last year. We booked our 2025 cruise as soon as they opened last month...ultraspacious balcony on the 9-nighter for 3: over $12,000. In fact, our $3800 from last summer couldn't get us on the ship, period. Right now, looking at $5600 for a cabin that sleeps 3. We settled on a 7-nighter on Symphony and went all the way down to a Central Park "interior" as we found we spend so much time out of the cabin doing things that we'd rather save on the room. Cost us about $3200 for that room.

Apologies for resurrecting the veer off topic...but we sailed Oasis this past summer and left the port area in Nassau. On Oasis's 9-nighter, it was Emancipation Day when we arrived in Nassau, so it derailed some of our plans (the pirate museum, for instance, was closed). We walked over to the Queens' Staircase, then down to the Bahamas Rum Cake Factory. Never felt unsafe. The infrastructure is in rough shape (sidewalks were more like stepping stones in many places), but that's not surprising. We do live along the Jersey Shore, about an hour from NYC. I worked in Manhattan for 10 years and we still go up to the city a few times a year. Hard to compare the two, but I feel like general safety awareness is the same for either.

Anyone have any idea when December 2025 cruises will open? I see up through October for most ships. Most other lines are already available to book holiday cruises.

Generally, they just sail very slowly, occasionally in circles between the ports.

Seeking opinions from people who have stayed at one or the other (or both). DW, myself and DS (will be 6) flying down for one night pre-cruise. Will be there early enough to have the afternoon to go get wine (they do sell it at Whole Foods and/or Publix, correct?), muffins for the next morning's breakfast and then have a little fun for the little guy. Interested in hearing about the area, easy activities and dinner options nearby (we're easy to please, so something as simple as pizza for dinner works for us). Can get the Hilton Miami Downtown for minimal points + $180 cash + $25 taxes (bay-view room). City-view room at the Intercontinental would run me $188 + $40 taxes (and looks like there's a roughly $40 resort fee). Trying to weigh whether the Intercontinental is worth the extra $$.

With self-assist or an early tag time, you should make it comfortably. EWR is an easy ride from the cruise pier.

100% they shouldn't, and I don't think they will. But there are unfortunately a lot of companies that settle just about everything that comes their way (without admitting fault) to just make stuff go away. It contributes significantly to the litigious society we live in because there are companies that will settle lawsuits they should fight. I worked for physicians previously...the number who were advised by their malpractice insurance companies to allow negotiated settlements that don't admit fault for every suit against them was insane to me.

I guess Royal shouldn't dock at CocoCay since getting to a hospital from there requires a wait for a medivac. I feel bad for this family, I genuinely do. But they are only going to be hurting more when this lawsuit (at least against Royal) is dismissed. Probably hoping Royal settles to make it go away, but I can't imagine a company as large as Royal just settling every lawsuit.

Appreciate that update...but it in no way answers the question I posed. This redeployment goes through March 2025 and does not include 2025 holiday cruises. As for the short jumps, much of that is down to port opening/closing times (the authorities have to staff when the ship is there). Not too different with some islands in the Caribbean (St. Thomas and Puerto Rico are very close to one another, for instance).

Does anyone know when MSC generally releases their holiday cruises? Interested in 2025, but they've only released through October (with the exception of Seascape). Most other lines are already open for booking.

We're from NJ and had a similar debate recently booking our cruise for summer 2025 -- 9 nights on Liberty to Bermuda & the Caribbean or 7 nights on Symphony to the standard (for NJ) blah ports. It really comes down to what you put an emphasis/priority on. Symphony has a TON to do, new stuff to see and experience every day, far more dining options (especially if you like to try specialty dining). Liberty offers a far better port experience. For us, CocoCay is a fantastic stop, Nassau has fine new port area and Port Canaveral has enough (albeit still limited) options that when added to the superior ship makes it our choice. And if you're questioning if you have time to take a shuttle to PC from Orlando --- if you're not looking to go to Disney and get your money's worth out of the park, you should have plenty of time to take a shuttle and shop/eat/etc.

Liberty, Freedom, Explorer and Voyager have not been released for March-April 2026 at this point. Liberty & Freedom were both on the list for the short Caribbean deployment (next week) and Explorer was listed as "other Caribbean," though I'm sure people much smarter than I have figured out clues by now.

This was our dilemma this week that we batted back and forth for more than an hour when the deployment dropped. If it were just my wife and I, we'd be on Liberty's 9-nighter out of Cape Liberty going down to the Caribbean. Yeah, we've done a lot of the ports before, but it's been a while since we've done San Juan and Bermuda (though we're doing St. Maarten this summer on Icon). But what our son wants wins out...so we're doing the PC/Nassau/Coco run on Symphony. Better food & activities for the youngins. Kid's too spoiled with Oasis this past summer, Icon next summer.

We did Oasis's 9-nighter out of Cape Liberty this past August for $3800 for 3 of us in one of the deck 7 ultraspacious balcony rooms (booked it day it opened). Granted, that was a steal compared to what cabins were selling at just a couple months later. A late August 2025 7-nighter on Symphony would cost us over $4k for a standard low-deck oceanview. More than that for a Central Park balcony. Her 9-nighter in July 2025 is $6k for a Central Park balcony. That's insane to me. We considered jumping over to Liberty for her late August 2025 9-nighter -- panoramic oceanview up on deck 12 for $4100. But we did Oasis last summer, are doing Icon this summer (in an oceanview balcony for about what a Symphony CP balcony would cost us in 2025) and going from that to Liberty just feels like too much of a change with a 5 year old. Symphony has too much more to do. I've got a courtesy hold on a 7-night Symphony and we'll probably do it...but it's really making me think about other lines. We can get a balcony on NCL out of NYC in summer 2025 for under $4k. MSC just released their summer 2025 from Brookyln and they're even less: their equivalent of an ultraspacious balcony (with a nook with bunk beds) -- an aft balcony, at that -- is more like $3500.