xtremegk

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.

These prices out of Bayonne...holy Toledo.

I agree with @OCSC Mike -- Miami or FLL would be more likely. Star is already doing the 7-nighters and Adventure + Utopia = a lot of capacity already dedicated to PC.

Symphony would be back in FL at that point, with Odyssey doing the Cape Liberty winter. Allure would also have returned (refurbished) from her summer in the Med. With Utopia doing the shorts (possibly with Wonder), would believe these two will be doing 7-nighters. Seems to me these would open this week or next.

I'd expect much of the same. For Symphony out of NJ, mostly 7-nighters to PC, CocoCay & Nassau with a 9-nighter thrown in. In FL, Wonder likely continuing her current rotation until Star arrives. Not expecting anything Earth-shattering. Biggest question marks and changes I've been able to piece together: the Boston season looks to have question marks as to where ships go, and Liberty looks to be switching back to the St. Maarten group for its 9-nighters out of NJ rather than the DR runs it's doing this summer.

Interesting that there's no test load for the Northeast cruises...

When the initial schedule came out, travel agents were privvied to the ships (see page 21 of this thread). That would appear Anthem would be the ship...however, I think everything is up in the air until we see what Royal announces regarding Anthem heading to Asia and how she goes about getting there. _

To be fair...there isn't much else to talk about on the deployment thread (for another couple of weeks).

4 nights solo in a JS would be my plan, especially if I have to build around a work schedule. I needed 8 pts to get to Diamond in 2022, with a 9-night Oasis cruise already booked in 2023 that I wanted to avoid buying the drink package. My wife jumped on board with me taking a solo 4-nighter to get the points needed...then decided after I booked that it sounded like too much fun, so we booked a cabin that could sleep 3 for her and DS. We hardly touched the solo cabin during the trip, but got the points we needed for the Oasis trip last summer.

If you're talking about the most direct way from EWR to Cape Liberty, you won't find anything besides a Starbucks and a Lidl (combination I did for breakfast while picking my folks up at Cape Liberty this month) -- it's highways that connect the two. If you notify a gate agent when you deboard the plane, some airlines will hold your bag in their baggage office, located in the baggage claim level (that's where most unclaimed bags end up immediately anyway). With the new Terminal A open, there are likely to be decent breakfast options in the terminal (on the secure side) regardless of which airline you're flying. And to state the obvious, you'd be much better off flying in the night before. EWR is notorious for delays, especially as it gets into the summer season. We don't need storms to create the delays either, congestion and air traffic staffing cause as many delays around here as weather.

It's not so much a COVID rule I was concerned about, but more if they just don't have the staffing those weeks that they do during the more popular family travel times (ie summer) and have to cap AO at times due to capacity for staffing reasons.

How about kids club? Anyone have experience there with needing reservations or reaching capacity?

We sailed Adventure to Halifax in 2022, loved it. Gave my wife our 2025 options based off what we can see from here, with a Halifax/Bermuda B2B on Liberty as one of the choices. She's leaning Symphony or holiday cruise on Odyssey.

Previous to 2024, St. Maarten was common on the 9-nighters out of Cape Liberty. I've taken summer 9-nighters that did St. Thomas/St. Maarten/San Juan and San Juan/St. Maarten/Labadee in addition to Bermuda. For some reason, they decided to focus more towards the DR next summer. Liberty's frequency of 1-2x per month and disappearing from the St. Maarten schedule in the fall (when they switch the 9-nighters to Canada/NE) are also consistent with Cape Liberty. If you go back to page 21 on this thread, @Ourusualbeach had the list of ships provided to TAs in each region (original post removed, but still quoted by others). Shows FR in the short Caribbean launch and LB up our way. No real surprise, they like to keep consistent rotations up here for at least a few years before moving ships on.

Starting our planning for our next set of bookings and an idea we're considering is a NYE-week cruise out of Cape Liberty. Concerns we have that I'm hoping those with experience can address: 1) Adventure Ocean...does it typically end up requiring reservations during the holiday week cruises? Our son loves to go for the evening session after dinner, so this is a consideration we need to have in mind. 2) December cruises out of Cape Liberty...realistically, when have your kids started to partake in the pool/Splashaway Bay? Is it basically embarkation day + 1st full sea day down that you've "lost" + last full sea day coming back? Appreciate the insights from those who have done these!

Royal's pricing has our considering our options. We're looking at 2025 out of the Northeast right now, where NCL already has itineraries and pricing available and open. We'll see what MSC pricing looks like and what RCI has come February. BUT, as we discuss things (multigenerational trip, so my parents are involved along with my family and kids), there are other aspects of loyalty that come into play that aren't necessarily monetary. Sure, the free Diamond drinks make a difference...but there's also a certain value to the devil you know vs. the devil you don't. We know Royal, we know how easy everything is with linked reservations, we know how easy it is to get our preferred dining times, etc. Maybe it's just our personalities -- having the ability to each do our own thing, roll with our style, but still have some structure and ability to plan around a set dining time where we all eat together (with the incredible service we've always received by having the same waitstaff every night)...but at the end of the day, maybe we will spend a little more to stay with Royal in 2025 rather than jump ship. All that said, Royal's pricing has made us start looking at our options and consider what else is out there. And at some point, "a little more" reaches its limit.

Volume 25

Yeah, hard in the summer -- only so many places you can go from NYC in 7 nights or less.

NCL is posted out of NYC through October 2025.

The bunk beds vs the couch (and the space saved by not opening the couch) would sway us to the 1A. JS doesn't have enough perks to add additional value in my eyes.

Longtime RCI cruiser looking at trying out MSC (RCI pricing is going insane). Any idea when MSC summer 2025 itineraries from NYC are likely to go on sale? RCI puts out a deployment calendar well in advance.