wreckem2013

We did Resorts World Beach Club when we were there over spring break on Serenade. Had really nice beaches, but drinks were massively over priced and food was so so. Would probably do it again and just not drink.

Margaritaville is way overpriced for what it is. Then again so is Atlantis. The Baha Mar water park is probably the best bang for buck of the three.

$219-$240 is the normal price. Booking directly through Atlantis is $250 a person. $50 was clearly a pricing error and almost everyone booking knew it.

They make these things called salt water generators(aka salt water pools) that make maintaining chlorine levels easy without pucks or liquid chlorine. I only have to add one chemical once a week, about a pint or so of acid to keep the ph around 7.4. It’s easy to maintain a pool even if you use traditional chlorine methods as well. Troublefreepool is a great resource for building and maintaining pools.

The only way you get 8 pieces is to make a reservation on board and do all carte. Booking in advanced or with UDP, or doing prie fixe you get 4 pieces.

Originally I was supposed to Europe in 2020 and Alaska in 2021. This is the primary reason why I’m doing an Alaskan B2B this year and a European B2B next summer. Once Denali is fully open I plan to do a one way north and then do a self arranged land tour of 7-10 days.

It’s been 5 years since I’ve been to Alaska but I wouldn’t say there are a lot of kids at least not anywhere near what you would see on a summer Caribbean cruise. It didn’t seem like there were that many 5 years ago on Radiance or the year before. And those were around Fourth or July. Is going to have more than Celebrity? Yes. But I wouldn’t assume it’s going to be overrun with kids. Alaska is expensive. Cruise tours and excursions especially so. Add on expensive airfare with two one way legs and the inability to drive to a port. Plus Radiance is also an older and smaller ship. I would bet the Seattle round trip cruises on quantum class are likely to have more families than Radiance one way itineraries.

I guess I am just going to hedge my bets and rearrange my plans to do the Whitepass Railroad during the north bound leg where Radiance is supposed to be at the Ore Dock and flip my Chilkoot hike and kayak/float to the southbound as that option would be accessible from either Skagway or Haines. I’ll hold off on booking the excursion for the southbound leg until Royal figures out what they are doing.

This I has been confusing for me. When I originally booked my back to back it had Skagway and Haines on the same day on southbound leg. Now in the app it just has Haines. It still shows as being docked at RRF in Skagway that day? Do you think this is just Royal hedging? Right now it says 7pm-12am for Haines with Radiance being the only ship docked that day day. Will we probably be in Haines all day instead?

Is this why the second leg of my back to back shows both Haines and Skagway? First Leg says ORE second says RRF?

With Icon not doing any European sailings why wouldn’t they keep Utopia in Europe for the summer season? Why would they do a mid summer TA? I believe they have had two oasis class ships in the Mediterranean at the same time before.

Food to me is the same as before. Just less options. I think the issue is staffing(kitchen and wait staff) is causing much higher rates of inconsistency which is why more and more people are complaining. Misfires leading to complaints were not as frequent before Covid compared to now. This final comment might offend some but the MDR and buffet are better quality than at least fifty percent of Americans eat on a daily basis.

It appears grilled chicken and a vegetarian indian dish are available upon request every night now.

My first block comes this week on Serenade.

After the governments fiasco of the Grand Lucyan and canceling Royals bid to buy it, I don’t think the government there really wants to screw up another Royal Caribbean project.

It’s very much your mileage my vary. Some ships will try and refuse to accept a coffee card from another ship others won’t. As for punches, generally 1 shot = 1 punch but how enforced is that? Depends. On odyssey one barista would do 1 punch per drink and one would do 1 per shot. Iced drinks are all grande so all double shots. Expect 1 punch per shot and if you get more then that’s a bonus.

To me Odyssey was superior in almost every way. We were on Odysseys Thanksgiving cruise and Allures Xmas cruise. Odyssey has a full teppenyaki and not a cramped couple tables, wonderland, the best playmakers in the fleet, etc. It has the music hall which is a superior venue than what’s on Allure. Allures technology is significantly more dated and you can tell with the sound system in schooner bar. I think people they don’t like Quantum and Quantum Ultra don’t like the esplanade layout vs the promenade layout but to me it works better. People don’t like change. I went on Odyssey first and going on Allure second was a bit of a let down.

It was a serious question they are asking because almost all the plants were killed when it docked in Galveston for the Xmas cruise. It was in port with temps in the teens and windchill in the single digits. Good to know that they have gotten it back into shape.

This is the problem with food. Everyone’s tastes and opinions are different. I much prefer Giovanni’s Kitchen on Odyssey and Wonder than Giovanni’s table. The food in my opinion is far superior. The options are completely different but the food is far better. Take for instance the meat and cheese tray, the one offered at Giovanni’s table is disgusting in comparison to the one offered at Giovanni’s Kitchen. I won’t eat at Giovanni’s Table for dinner anymore after having the worsy food I’ve had on a cruise during my Xmas cruise on Allure, but sign my up for Jamie’s Italian or Giovanni’s Kitchen. I’ve also never had a problem in Chops. Honestly until my Giovanni’s table experience at Xmas I’ve never had a problem with the quality or food at any specialty restaurant.

RoyalUp upgrades can be allocated at anytime. The one time I actually was upgraded with RoyalUp it was allocated around 30 days out.

Victor Bodden Tours is my recommendation.

My March 11 on Serenade is still around $140 and Beach Club is $250 a person. I guess it’s the Lagoon for us.

If you have UDP or prebook you only get four pieces per sushi roll. Only way to do a la crate and get 8 pieces per roll is make a reservation at the restaurant(not on the app) once you board. It’s been like this for a few months now.

UDP reservations are first come first served.