MagicNMe

'Book' your dinner times with the MDR host/hostess running MTD each morning, take your compass downstairs with you, and circle the showtimes you're interested in making.

These folks definitely know the flow of dinner schedule and your waitstaff better than anybody, and should be able to find the perfect time to accomodate you.

Let your wait staff know when you're seating that night you're trying to make the X:XXpm show, and they've in my experience been really good about keeping dinner to just the right pace.

:) Hope that helps!

My first cruise was on Explorer of the Seas in Jan 2004, right before going back to my second semester of college. Mom won a heap of TA change through a cellphone camera contest, decided to take us on a cruise! We did a Western Caribbean 7-day... but that wasn't even the beginning of mom's lucky streak! Before we even set sail, mom played Bingo and won an upgrade to the unbooked Royal Suite :eek: Talk about WOW'd! We had a fantastic time.

We keep going back to RCCL because there's something for everybody and we get to see new destinations each time. I enjoy spending time with my sisters and never feeling short on good food or entertainment. We stay loyal to Royal because the service is always great and the ships amaze us.

I also recommend taking the Jitney Bus down to Fish Fry/Arawack Cay! We had a fantastic grilled seafood combination platter at one of the seafood shacks there- super friendly and fresh, very local and relaxed!

Adastra Gardens and Zoo is a pretty easy walk up the road from there, and a nice day visit

Excellent!

Time to watch Meryl Streep sing and chill with Baymax

When I was in Nassau we hopped the jitney bus for a buck fifty to Arawack Cay/Fish Fry for lunch, and had a steady free wifi connection at one of the lunch spots there. Hung out for a few hours, had fantastic conch salad, grilled lobster and daqueris.

:rolleyes: Welp, guess I will now make it a point to bookmark this thread quality control the French Toast in both the WJ & MDR on Liberty's May 30th sailing and report back with my extensively detailed findings.

Thanks, cruisecritics. You never fail to give me little details to put to the test.

I was on the Majesty for Halloween 2013, in Key West that night.

Some people dressed up, others didn't, there was a huge spiderweb and other decorations around the centrum, I think a costume contest? Pumpkin carving demo, kids activities (although there wasn't many kids on the sailing overall). We had a really fun time. Our cabin steward decorated the towel animals with our masquerade masks the entire cruise, mom and dad dressed as pirates.

Sailing Liberty out of Bayonne on the 30th this month! :) Glad to hear boarding's a smooth affair. Did you get a great view of the NYC bridges?

If RCI's offering the Bonfire excursion in Bermuda on your cruise, can you find out exactly what it entails/is included vs. walking over to Snorkle Beach on your own?

What's the crew's overall vibe?

Once again Navigator was with us along with an unknown garbage skow.

 

:rolleyes: ZING!!!

You sign a liability waiver, but it's included in your cruise fare, yup! Free!

Ladies' pampers party! A fun time?

Well that 'Depends'! :rolleyes:

Ever see an onboard activity title that made your eyes pop with What On Earth Is THAT?!? factor?

(In honor of finding a 'Champagne Botox Party' on Rhapsody Day 4's Compass.)

Now is that a mingle for facelifted singles? A spa package hard sell? And why on earth are they holding it at Chops Grille at 2:30 in the afternoon?! :D

This day 4 cruise compass is a HOOT!

Of all the vacationing activities....

2:30pm Champagne Botox Party, Chops Grille

What?! :o

I was so glad I had the drink package as I tried the Lav Daqueri. It was horrible, like nothing I ever had before. Maybe the bartender made something else. But it was bad couldn't even drink it. But it did look pretty. lol

Oh no, that's disappointing! :eek:

One of my fav ice cream shops that still uses old-fashioned flavoring syrups has made me an aweome Lav/Vanilla soda, and I make Lav Lemonade at home for myself all the time, so I was stoked about this!

Maybe I'll just ask for an extra hit of the syrup in a lemonade and see how it stacks up first.

That's what I thought! What's on the second floor now?

:rolleyes: You forgot poll option 3: 'To provide return cruisers with lively, if ever-stale debate on CC!'

:o Sorry to hear about all the 'issues'! Free strawberries sure are rough issues.

On our family's very first cruise together in 03', mom won the Royal Suite in bingo before sailaway and unbelieveably, we found ourselves with a jacuzzi and self-playing piano....

And minor mishaps of reservation mixups until the end of the cruise, including the younger sisters not understanding that minibar stuff isn't 'free'. Ah well, some upgrade confusion will never change!

Glad to hear the jammer's still a sweet setup, and can I ask where on the Ship Sabor's been put in? It looks like what used to be the nightclub.

Wow, such drama! Can't wait for these details.

Grab a chair near the flowrider and watch the wipe outs!

Otherwise I check out what's going on in the cruise compass. The combined efforts of my family make us a pretty good 'Name that Tune' team in Schooner, and sometimes there are fun demos going on.

Love your 'loading baggage' pallet of Coors pic, Bill.

This review is gonna be one of the funnier ones, thanks for bringing your sense of humor along on the vacation.

Congrats on your upgrade fairy!

Yeeeaaaah I really wanna try a Lav daqueri, so I guess I better get my $13.80 ready.

I wonder how many smart alecs have tried to order off the 'classic pricing' menu :rolleyes:

:) thank you SO much friend, your cheap drinks report gives me the budgeting casual cocktailer hope!

Also WOW, whisky cake, I hope they do a similar demo on my cruise that sounds like my barrel of Jamy joy.

Boleros mojitos are my faves, so I will be sure to hit the 1/2 price 'happy hour' when I'm on liberty next THIS month! (I can't believe I'm so close!)

You might wanna stick to the promenade-level bars on the center of the ship, it's all interior, you won't feel any pitch and rolling or see it like you would on the pool deck, and between people watching, great music and games to enjoy, it's very very easy to forget you're on a moving ship!

I'd recommend the pub, which is close to the middle and usually has some kind of folk guitar/singalong style entertainment. The On Air Karaoke bar is also on Freedom, just before the ice rink entrance. There's usually a lively piano crowd at Schooner bar, too! Finding something to sip on there and forget your worries should be easy!

Seconding avoiding Olive or Twist/The cocktail bar up above the Sports Deck. This was actually where a friend and I went up on purpose one night could really FEEL the rocking motion. Especially because the H20 Zone kiddie pool is lit up and the foot and a half of water would be sloshing back and forth sort of hypnotically, like one of those fancy water-filled desk paperweights. I actually wasn't scary or nauseating so much as a rhythmically relaxing light and water show, after a few Jameson & Gingers!

Overall, there's really no reason to be nervous about the state of the waves. RCCL designs some of the biggest passenger cruising fleets in the world, and keeps the fleet in ship shape. The captain's ultimately a responsible guy, and will make the final calls to assure the smoothest sailing possible! Pay attention to your muster drill, and know that the whole crew on board is absolutely dedicated to your safety on top of helping you have a great vacation.

Enjoy your time aboard!

:) I know, doesn't that sound lovely?

It's a 12$ cocktail that's only available at Schooner, I think!

Here in Philadelphia we have an old fashioned ice cream shop called Franklin Fountain which still uses plain soda water from an antique fountain- then has a big line of flavored syrups against the back of the bar counters to choose from! Lavender-Vanilla is one one my favorite combinations there, so the thought of adding rum to that sounds like a really unique idea!

From the drink book:

"Lavender Daiquiri-

Bacardi Superior Rum with the addition of lavender syrup to give an elegant floral finish and a contemporary twist to this classic."

From the lack of an Island Oasis mix involved, I'm guessing it's served the traditional way in frosty glass with cracked ice instead of a frozen/blended.

I was a server at a sports bar during the last M vs. P fight, and our place was wall to wall packed with a 15$ cover. While I generally hate the atmosphere of working fight nights, it was one of my most lucrative shifts EVER on the job.

Whether the majority of the cruisers care about this or not, my guess is there probably are people who obsessively follow this sort of thing and being able to watch for free while on their vacation was a big deal for them. Sort of a special interest big deal, yeah, but I'm guessing enough guests asked at guest relations for the CEO to make an important call?

Lots of RCCL staff & crew are Filipino, too, and most of my online friends from the Phillipines- even the ones who greatly disagreed with PacMan's politics, were interested in seeing the outcome of this match. From what I understand, the guy is kind of a huge deal of Political & Sporting celebrity there.