Tatka

No we are not over cruising by any means. It is even more convenient than other types of vacations now. I have no desire to fly anymore, so we cruise from our local NJ, Baltimore, Boston ports. Since 2016 we switched to 5 a year and now sail from September to end of May/beginning of June and we camp during Summers (Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire). We cruised since 2003 with 8 lines and this year will hit 60 cruises with 29 with Royal. We been through weaker and stronger times for various lines. Ironically food now with all changes is still better than on our first Royal cruises in 2004 Splendor and 2007 Explorer.

I wonder how it worked pre MTD?

Question is… why traditional is at 5:30? If it was at least at 6:15 more people would be booking it rather than MTD.

Solariums on Anthem & Odyssey are identical and better than on Oasis. Issue is Anthem has adjacent family indoor pool which makes Solarium less crowded and kids don’t usually get there. Also during really cold weather family pool provides buffer between open deck & Solarium.

I think it’s done not to please north easterners, but because they don’t have another similar ship nearby to make this switch, but need to send Anthem to dry dock. Maybe it’s a temporary change. We have two cruises book for November 2024 and January 2025… Hey, we just returned from Enchantment… that Solarium is no match at all.

As much as I like some features on Odyssey, I’m not looking forward to her from Northeast. Odyssey lacks indoor family pool. Anthem is better in this regard. When there is indoor family pool: 1. less chance kids get to Solarium 2. it provides buffer zone in colder climate making Solarium warmer in all of its parts. We were comfortably walking to indoor pool area, getting towels. It was warm even if lounger was located closer to en entrance.

Did you check Anthem’s solarium at night ? It’s extremely beautiful

For us people from Northeast Anthem’s is the best… Solarium is a reason we started cruising every Thanksgiving and now in January. Her solarium is a destination of itself. We live there. I especially like it during holiday cruises when there are less couples and more families… Families mostly use adjacent family indoor pool area while we can find loungers in Solarium 🙂 Just returned from Enchantment today … Solarium is cute… but we like spaces near large windows more and they have mostly tables with chairs there. On Oasis Solarium was mostly good, but not good during rain. Roof isn’t solid.

Also keep in mind that in buffet (Windjammer) many dishes repeat MDR, and with kids it is easier to eat there. Especially if line is long in MDR

We always use MTD and never had issues (with Royal we used it on Adventure, Anthem, Enchantment, Grandeur, Explorer, Oasis, Freedom etc) It is only two of us so maybe it is easier to find tables for 2. Now times are a bit later (it was 6:30 the earliest on Enchantment last week) .. we showed up around 6:15 and were given tables very soon.

I never seen Hyperlink activities before and we cruise 5 times a year. Have not seen it on Anthem in January... Even though we do not have anyone in this category I think it is a good thing. Many people in this category feel lonely and do not know where/how to meet people.

Edge class of Celebrity for us is a hybrid of Celebrity and RCI. The best of both. Interesting innovative ships, great entertainment and wonderful food. Edge class has 4 included restaurants with various cuisine. French, Italian, Mediterranean and Steak House. They have same menus + special cuisine section.

We are on Enchantment… and this cruise skewed toward older crowd (12 dayer, smaller ship), but daily program contains various events for 18-25 yo.

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Interesting … Our last #9 cruise was in January 2023 and aside from short time of Dynamic dining in 2016 Silk & AIG were always MTD restaurants while Chic & Grande were for Traditional. We always do MTD and several times were seated in Chic or Grande, but it was rather an exception

Yes you can call, we do it all the time.

You realize you are discussing breaking rules. Read instructions. Keep in mind it may not work.

We kept cruising with 8 companies since 2003. 🙂 By 2016 we were Platinum, but started to cruise 5 times instead of 2 a year. Still we cruised not only with RCI, but also with Celebrity, Princess, Royal, Holland, Cunard, Norwegian... but more and more cruises were with RCI due to wonderful choices we have from Northeast. By November 2018 we were Diamonds. In January 2022 we became Diamond Plus a little bit earlier as we got double points during Covid. Since restart we had 10 cruises with RCI and 1 with Celebrity. We have 9 cruises booked, and many of then 9-12 dayers, Cruise more! Status is for cruising more. 😉

Loungers with umbrellas on several beaches, most food (there is a BBQ buffet and also kiosks with sandwiches and other fast food), several kids play areas, large Oasis free form pool. There are plenty of everything free. Not sure why people even complain. Nobody forcing them to pay huge amounts.

Is this at Emerald beach? I snorkel wherever it is possible, but never thought it existed there.

This is where we are going since 2012 mostly. Some people even walk there.

Is this that different from previous cruises? We do 5 a year (lately with Royal), so I pretty much familiar with their quality. Our last cruise was in January on Anthem.

Do you realize that tastes vary. We just discussed this night in a group for upcoming cruise and people listed what they liked. Do you think they have bad taste? I see two appetizers I like (Carpaccio and Minestrone), 1 entry (Sole, my husband will probably order NYC steak) and most desserts (desserts I do not order).

Nice. We cruise 5 times a year and some years both these sizes. For example last year Oasis and Enchantment. We just love them for different things. Besides on smaller ships we usually do 12 dayers to Southern Caribbean and on Oasis class itineraries are much weaker