Tatka

8 nights No flights Itins are pretty much equal I like all ships, but Odyssey is newer and more interesting IMHO. LOVE Solarium Easy choice

People on any ship which has The Billboard Band (Cancun) will have amazing time!

Of course with aqua show Oasis class is unmatched, but we recently sailed several times on Liberty and were amazed at talent level Broadway show: Saturday Night Fever - made after famous movie with Travolta Cirque de Soleil type of show: In the Air Ice Show: Encore is the most interested and talented show we saw out of all ships. Schooner bar performer: Dafydd Hughes ... well I think if he had solo concerts on land he would gather huge crowds. Extremely talented. Bolero's band: Son Del Rio is also very good. We liked them on Enchantment in March, but their new lead singer is even better

We did not like Anthem until we learned how to cook it. We LOVE Solarium. Library is OK . It is above two70 and not worse than on any other RCI libraries... Not many books anyway.

Park Cafe has a schedule. So it may close at 6 and then open for sometime later. I think it is finally closes at 1 AM.

We are approaching #30 with Royal (61 overall with 8 lines) and never witnessed anything like that. Yes, some people could overindulge (maybe saw a couple of them)... but it is not something usual. Even on Carnival we have not witnessed this. Let put it this way, nothing different from several cruises from UK, Hmmm from what I know many people in Europe think that people from Britain often have party attitude. I do not think it is related to the length of vacation...

If not for hurricane Lee we would’ve been in St John, NB today… https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/aim-fire-saint-john-1.696633 Saint John asks residents to stay inside as fire at AIM's metal recycling plant rages on Smoke from pile of compressed cars leads to closure of 3 schools across the harbour from plant Saint John residents were asked to take shelter from the smoke or wear masks Thursday as a scrapyard fire raged on by the harbour on the city's west side. Crews have been battling flames at the American Iron and Metal recycling plant since early morning. Three schools across Saint John Harbour have been forced to close because of the smoke, and people living near it were advised to stay inside. "There's quite a bit of smoke in the area," said Saint John Fire platoon chief Ed Moyer.

On our first cruise after restart on Celebrity Edge in July of 2021 we did have to show test results or wear masks. Only vaccination cards… then it was masks all the way till March 2022 and tests till November 2022.

We sailed 10+ times after restart and each had 2 COVIDs. One time together and then each of us had it separately on/right after different cruises in 2022-2023. We work from home and have extremely limited interactions with other people so yes… it was from cruises. It may happen. After each of our cruises we read in groups that some people contracted COVID. We treat it as something that always may happen, but no different than other diseases when sailing with several thousands passengers. Cold, flu, Noro etc.

You should see the emotions when ships are sent to NE/Canada instead of Bermuda or Bahamas. 😉 We are on Liberty now … missing St John and cutting time in Halifax buy several hours. We are good as it’s out 8th such trip, but I feel for folks from Germany, UK or our other states… aside from those changes we had some bad weather in many ports. Sailaways from ports are usually spectacular, and this time around foggy or rainy. We did get to see beautiful Bar Harbor as a port for the last time though. Showers here and there, but at least not rain as it was predicted.

JFY.. on all 12 cruises post reopening there were people with Covid. Oasis,Anthem, Adventure, Enchantment and Liberty. We had it 3 times between two of us. Once together and 1 each of us separately. And once we had bad Noro. I wouldn’t make any conclusions based on this.

We had a very good quality of Wi-Fi on Enchantment (March) and Liberty (May) and not so good on Anthem (January). Oh Anthem it was strange. Connections dropped fast and you had to reconnect often. It was especially strange as Anthem used to be my go to ship for work.

We stopped there three times. First time we had ships excursion: Martha Brae river river rafting. One of the most beautiful excursions we ever done. Area is beautiful, river… very relaxing. I really recommend it also because it’s pretty close to the port. On the way back we visited some nice church Second time it was ship tour to Dunns river falls. Also beautiful, but maybe not for all ages. We (2 45 yo + 25 yo enjoyed it a lot) Third time I decided we need to be more adventurous there as we always do in other places. We left port area to catch a taxi. Town outside was very rundown and sketchy .. and I even started feeling a bit scared (my husband laughed at me and my so called adventurousness). He asked me not to worry, negotiated good taxi price to Montego Bay and off we went. Overall a very good experience. I probably shouldn't have worried so much as there were many policemen … Rundown doesn’t always mean dangerous.

Only one internet on board. If you need it for every day I recommend buying it as a package before. Daily cost is about $28 a day, which if you buy for multiple days will be on average $21 for longer cruises. If you have D or D+ discounts (1 or 2 days… or 2/4 days for a couple) you may save save something on shorter cruises, but if not precruise packages are cheaper

What is correct amount considering that most crew does not live in EU? RCI just like most other cruise lines collects autobiographies separately because they do not count toward profit so they are not subject of taxes. This allows to pay higher salaries to crew than if it was a part of fare. Win-win for cruisers too IMHO.

As I said rules must be checked. Cruiselines even offered packaged lunched. So I proposed checking rules. Just taking food from the ship if it is not prohibited is not smuggling by any means.

Vision class insides don’t have fridges.

I hope The Billboard Band (Cancun) returns even though we sailed with them twice in 2022 and 2023. They are so amazing and energetic.

But why? It is like somebody is asking if he/she can sing karaoke. And opinion: I never understood people who want to sing karaoke, when they can dance? 🙂

Only Spectra's requires reservations, but it is shown so many times during a cruise you can get in. Do not forget there is a second floor (a balcony) of two70 which is less popular. There are no new shows that I am aware off.

Why do you need to understand other people preferences? If action breaks some laws or rules it is one thing, otherwise it is a pure judgment of other people preferences for which they can have perfectly reasons. For example tight time and wishing to fit more things into it. Some people do not understand why others travel in inside staterooms, others why people travel in balconies. Some people do not understand why people cruise or do not cruise. 🙂

Smuggling off? What a wording… Unless there are specific rules against it… it’s not smuggling at all. And yes, there are prepackaged food one can take off the ship and some excursions offer.

As embarkment gift in your cabin. Not in DL.

It is only natural that with higher number of cruisers reach level benefits cannot be at the same level. Can you imagine overcrowded Suite Lounge with all D+ ? We are completely fine with it. We just take d'oeuvres and use our drink and find some place near large windows. In VCL for example or somewhere else. We do 11 dayer to Southern Caribbean in January, 12 dayer to Southern Caribbean in March, 7 dayer to Bahamas in May/June, 9 dayer to New England/Canada in September and 7 day cruise to Bahamas on Thanksgiving.

In comparison to Royal even most mass market pales. Luxury and near luxury lines have different priorities. I never sailed on Viking, but many of my friends and family do sail.