LilBlackDress

No video... but Cruise Deck Plans has plenty of pictures 

4 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

- The best of the best, cream of the crop balconies are aft-facing.  They're larger than a standard -balcony; take a look at a deck plan and see.  Hump balconies (midship) are also great.  The extra size is great.  

I was going to talk about the Aft-Facing Balcony as well but they have a balcony on Allure. Unless they really splurge, that is not possible 

On 7/30/2023 at 5:37 PM, BirdTravels said:

 

1. I've read online about putting up a hammock.  Any advice on this (pro or con)?  Are the balcony supports strong enough to hang it?

Don't do it. I am goin g to assume that you don't have a hammock in your bed room at home, so don't waste your time on a ship. 

 

2. Are the curtains dark enough to not wake me at the crack of dawn?  Remember ...  We are used to inside staterooms?  Or should we just embrace the balcony sunrise and leave the curtains open all night!  What do you do?

Curtains are black out curtains. Less light that at home. 

 

3. Are headphones suggested or can we play music at a reasonable volume?

No music at all on the balcony. Use your earbuds if you need to. 

 

Any other advice for a balcony newbie?

The vast majority of people who get balconies spend very very very little time on them. Maybe a few minutes at sail away. Maybe a few minutes arriving/departing ports. You are likely not going to spend any more time in your balcony room than you did with your 10 previous inside rooms. 

WOW!!! 
What does a hammock on the balcony have anything to do with your bedroom?? I don't think my furbabies would be happy with a hammock in my bedroom!
I used to have hammocks in my backyard and have considered getting one for cruising. 

I spend more time on my balcony than I do in the room. I pay for a balcony because I enjoy the balcony!! I don't know anyone that doesn't spend time on their balcony... except now I can say I know of one person who wouldn't spend the time enjoying a balcony. 

To the OP As others said they are blackout curtains... WAY too dark for my taste but that is my personal opinion... I leave the curtains open all cruise. 

They won't make you take down the hammock unless they are power washing. 

Please use headphones... other cabins around you might like the same music, but they might be napping and don't want to hear it. 

Advice DO NOT SIT ON THE RAILING! Especially to take a selfie. 

I like lobster but the "Lobster Night" lobster is not all that!! I definitely wouldn't miss it if I didn't get it on a cruise. 

If you want a good lobster lunch or dinner look at one of the ports or a specialty restaurant. The specialty restaurants' lobster on most ships is better than the included lobster but not as good as other restaurants 

25 minutes ago, jonyboy said:

New to RCL.  Can anyone tell me what the difference is between Main Dining Room 4, Main Dinining Room 5 and My Time Dinining Room?

One deck is normally for Traditional Dining same table, waitstaff, time, early 5:30 or 6, Late 7:30 or 8 depending on the ship
The other deck is My Time Dining, you can male reservations or just show up during open hours and wait in line... 

I have also seen a lot in WJ vs the MDR.
That being said, the few times we cruised with my BiL(he has Celiac Disease 100%GF)
Every night in the MDR they would bring out the menu for the following night and he would place his order, including a couple of desserts 🙂 

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Anyone sail out of Everglades recently? The earliest slot was 11:30 which seems really late. 

Really late?? The first time slots are normally 10:30
If you will be turned away if you show up early depends on the personnel working that day. 

On 7/20/2023 at 7:37 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

Per bartenders on Freedom at Schooner, Boleros, Lime and Coconut and Casino bars, 100 percent of the them stated they prefer cash over candy. Granted this is a very small poll, but that is consistent with what I have heard on my previous 66 cruises. 

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why not both?

 

On 7/21/2023 at 12:58 PM, pilot said:

I think what most of us are saying is…you are spending a few bucks for the candy, instead of buying the candy, they would probably appreciate the extra cash instead. 
 

Remember these hardworking people are working months at a time, far from home, for money, not candy. 

I run Bowling tournaments every Saturday and Sunday. We used to spend $20-$30 for candy per tournament!! Now I buy it in bulk.
The chocolate, peanuts, pretzels etc that I bring with me to share with the crew is from the tourneys, 
Before I started bringing the candy, I gave a cash tip on top of the Pre-Paid Gratuities... I didn't lower the cash tip and add chocolate in its place!! 

On 7/21/2023 at 1:13 PM, Mum2Mercury said:

Did you ask them the right question:  "Would you rather have money ... or the same amount of money PLUS a small candy bar?"  

We heard you, but realistically anyone who brings candy is bringing a bag of $3 mini-bars.  Divided between this and that crew member, it'd be maybe .40 per bar.  Would you really say to your cabin steward, "I pre-paid my tips, and here's an extra .40 for you."?  That's the reality.  

My DH would eat the $3 bag of candy before we'd see the room attendant  lol
OK, he is not that bad, but as I said above, I buy in bulk 🙂 
 

I always have a tray of mixed chocolate minis out and let my Room Attendant know they are welcome to have whatever they want... Pre-Covid they might take a few pieces a week. After the restart, I was getting asked if they could take some for their roommate or friends. 
Our first cruise, post covid was the 2nd sailing after the restart... They went through 8 lbs of chocolate. 
On our next cruise in Feb, the crew was able to get off the ship in some ports so the craving for sweet and salty wasn't as strong. But I still offered it and they did take some

It has been a while since I sailed out of Port Liberty... 
Most of my family stayed at hotels in Elizabeth NJ. Some included transportation from the airport and the Cruise Port and some took ubers/lyfts 

We are also mid 50's, an empty-nester couple and we were Diamond on Harmony, D+ On Symphony, 
I didn't mind Harmony and Symphony. I didn't find it too crowded but I also did not spend a lot of time around the pools... The solarium and central park were nice places to just chill. 
The Broadway shows I could take them or leave them... I wasn't a huge fan of Grease but it may have been because both leads were under-studies 😕 
Loved the Aqua Show and Ice Skating shows! 

My DH Loves Oasis Class. He hasn't really said why, but my guess is the Specialty Dining and the Aqua Show. 

I am happy we did Hatmony before Symphony only due to when we went on Symphony. It was the 2nd sailing after the restart and there were only 1127 passengers out of a full capacity of 6400 I think. It was as if we had the entire ship to ourselves. The only time we really saw people were at dinner and shows. 

Depending on the ship it can be used at Cafe Latte-Tudes or Cafe Promenade

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

No it doesn’t. I have bought the UDP on Freedom and Harmony in the last month. On both cruises we were only charged $15 per person at Izumi with no additional gratuity, although the receipt you sign does have a line where you can add an additional gratuity. 

Same 

12 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Oddly enough, the one that had grand cayman is like $650 more than the one with Coco cay. 

12 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Not sure I can justify the extra cost to go to Grand Cayman over Coco cay unfortunately 

$650 for an additional 3 nights...  If you can't justify it, I am not sure why its an option. 

Sounds to me like you had made uo your mind before you posted 

3 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We did the Panama Canal RCI itinerary (full transit) last October and we also did Cartagena on our own. Took a taxi from the port (which we loved with all the bird/animal exhibits) to the walled city and back. No concerns at all about feeling safe.

 

In Costa Rica we did an amazing tour with "Thumbs Up Tours" with our roll call. This was just amazing.

I could have spent all day at the bird/animal exhibits!!

Another vote for Lobster Thermidor
The Fried Cheeskake!!
Since we had the UDP we got the fried cheesecake to go a couple of times 😄

I have been to all the ports listed, I really enjoyed the 11-night itinerary (1st one listed) when we did it in 2020 before the shutdown... 
As much as I love Curaçao, I would pick the one with Grand Cayman. It's been several years since I was there. 

I have no need to do private islands. Been there done that and there is only so much to do. All the other ports, no matter how many times you go, there is always more to see!! 

As far as the comment from @Mikamarii "My concern with the 11 nighter was that we read several reviews that suggested only doing Costa Rica, Panama and Columbia with organized tours because of crime in the area."

We did Columbia on our own and had no issues, never felt like we were in danger. And I am overly cautious at new ports... 
Costa Rica was with a 3rd party vendor that I booked through our roll call. I never found their website or reviews on them, but again never felt any danger and never saw anything to suggest there might be. 

Panama I have always wanted to go on a Panama Cruise and we did an excursion that went through the locks thru RC. 
 

4 hours ago, sargemrs said:

At the risk of being “flamed” wondering if RCL is stricter than NCL in regards to small steamers?  I took mine on 5 cruises with NCL and never had a problem.  We dress up formal the 2 formal nights and dressy casual the other days and hate to be wrinkled!  I’m scared of irons (ships) because of the unknown quality but don’t relish my little steamer getting confiscated!  Before you judge I’m VERY dutiful and NEVER leave it unattended and cool, and put away before leaving the cabin.  Just opinions as I know it’s up to the X-ray scanner or whatever they use.  For anyone who cruises NCL and RCL.  

If you don't want to use the ship's laundry services, (I have used them several times for pressing when sailing in a suite) Your best bet is to bring some Downy Wrinkle Releaser (Trial Size). Spray the clothes, and hang them in the bathroom with steam. Use a hair straightener for touch-ups... 

1 hour ago, helloxxannie said:

Hi! I had my embarkation wedding in January (thanks @RobInMN for sharing my post!)

 

According to their wedding department (a company called The Wedding Experience) there is only one embarkation wedding slot available from what they told me! We had ours in Dazzles on the Harmony of the Seas.

 

Communication with the wedding department is horrendous so you will definitely have a hard time getting a hold of them. My suggestion is to get a Travel Agent that is well versed in cruise weddings - especially Royal Caribbean. This will save you a LOT of headache. I can recommend mine to you if you're interested, she was an absolute rockstar!

 

Happy to answer any other wedding questions you may have! 

We got married on Indy in 2009. It was a nightmare back then too!! Royal Caribbean was doing it in-house, from what I heard, for about 5 years and then went back to TWE 😞

I have told my friend about the endless nightmares I went through with them.
They canceled my flowers and cake 2 days before the wedding. The reason was they were no longer able to use those vendors. They said they could provide me with one of the "Happy Birthday" cakes and write Happy wedding day.
At the reception, they "gave" us and our guests champagne because they couldn't get ahold of anyone to confirm I paid for the open bar for 2 or 3 hours(whatever it was). 
That was just the tip of the iceberg! I could go on for days!!! We finally got a partial refund approximately 8 months later, along with an option for them to do a private vow renewal at a discounted rate LOL ummm HARD PASS

I just read part of your Wedding Thread... and I had given you the advice to print everything out  LOL 

I am really trying to talk my friend into a destination wedding or local and then go on a cruise with or without their guests! 
I am also questioning if they really did drop TWE for any length of time. I am beginning to think it is just a standard line they tell people 

2 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Email Royal for the best answer. 
 

 

 

 

planning to get married twice on the same embarkation day? 

Asking for a friend... 

Royal Weddings is as wonderful as Royal Caribbean customer service representatives. Ask the same question 3 times to different reps and get 12 different answers. 

Was hoping someone who has one booked might have the contract to confirm one way or another 

Strange Question... 

I know things have changed several times over the years... back when I got married on the ship, they allowed two or three embarkment day weddings. Is that still the case or is it only one embarkment day wedding?

I searched the website but that really didn't have any information.

Thanks in advance

We did Little French Key and AJs Sloth and Monkey 

Little French Key

]

2 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We had JS 1100, a corner aft, on one of our Alaska cruises and we saw dahl's porpoises very, very close to the ship, jumping in the water.  We would not have been able to see the ones alongside the ship if we couldn't look straight down.  We did see others playing in the wake behind the ship too.

I love JS 1100!! 
It will be hard for me to book a Radiance Class cruise and not get 1100! 

11 minutes ago, LT4221 said:

Since the baby is in a crib he didnt need a designated sleeping space (bed/pull out couch) and the 4 person room was the same layout but with a couch instead of a chair, but significantly more expensive due to it being a 4 person room 

Makes sense... 
I just know some people have turned the sofa with the opening against the wall to make a makeshift bed. Wasn't sure if that would give more room or not but if it is the same size room, it wouldn't matter