shipshape sam

We hope for Samba's to be there on Radiance in November and Allure in December. We were on Allure of Seas in Dec 2010 and went to Samba's twice on that sailing.

We were on Mariner of seas this past January and there were a fair amount of kids. We did not have any issues with kids as we had a 7 year old girl and used the kids area. We have booked Radiance of seas and they have no slides on the top decks, thus even less attraction for kids. Clearly, you still need to look at literary and what else is important to you.

Sure hope Sambas is still there. We booked Radiance for a November sailing and one of the 5-6 features was trying Sambas that we looked forward to.

I can see why some are not happy with losing a port of call. Labadee is not just any port of call either, it is a neat private island. We are the opposite, we would welcome another sea day. All this in the context that Haiti is a dangerous place to go right now and Royal Caribbean did not create the situation. We have our Labadee moment of truth coming up later this year.

We had the painkiller after lunch a couple of days from the Seaview bar. Loved the cover area and also the area open to watching the wake.

Each bar has pluses and negatives depending on your point of reference. For a quiet, very small bar, we loved Half Moon. Only 5-6 seats at the bar, but there are a number of tables for 2 down the hallway next to windows. These tables for 2 are across from the exclusive CO dining room heading aft. We liked Half Moon when we wanted to stay for some time and just enjoy talking between ourselves/other bar seat mates and talking to the bartender. This was our go to pre dinner drink and post dinner/entertainment nightcap. They make some interesting drinks. Bilboard bar is neat as it is in the entertainment area and thus you get to hear the music when they are playing. Lots of seating and I think about 8 seats at the bar itself. On our sailing, they had a number of bartenders and due to the larger crowd, were busy when we were there, thus we tended to choose a table for 2/4 and have a wait staff person take our order. This was our bar for show drinks. Never sat at Ocean bar, but did walk pass it. The bar seating seemed to be full most of the time with some people standing next to the bar seats. Taramind has a very small bar. Bartender was customer centric and gave us some guidance to trying something we had not tried before and we did enjoy the restaurant once and you are looking aft Enjoy your cruise and let us know your favorite bar area. We loved the entertainment area with great music every night, either Rock and Roll, Blues, or two pianos with themed music or requests. We have booked Rotterdam again.

When we were on Rotterdam in March 2023, the two pianos were NOT dueling and not very responsive to requests. They had musical themes for the night/set. We actually liked to sit on the piano side (Onboard something) and listen to the pianos and then listen to the rock music set across the large room/space.

Limited items. Also it seemed limited in Logo apparel too.

We used self laundry on Coral Princess on an Alaskan southbound inside passage in 2003. It was great as we got on early and did laundry on embarkation day while in Seward which we had planned to do. We also have used onboard laundry service and HAL has been the best for us with prompt service times. Celebrity not so much and have not used on Royal or Carnival. We have also washed a number of items in sink and dried in shower or on back of chair while in port if on a warm sailing. A lot of shirts are quick dry items. Now days, we plan for using laundry service and if no free laundry offered. we will pay. We found that on Princess it was frustrating to go back and forth hoping to time it right and get a washer and we have seen both dryers and washers sit with someone's stuff for way too long. Also, if I remember from 2003, laundry is not on every deck with cabins which puts more demand on facilities. As mentioned, we would rather be doing something else. 🙂

Mine worked in Safari this time, but have a number of websites I open with Chrome if I do not want to waste my time.

Language says: Did you know that Celebrity Cruises®, Royal Caribbean International®, and Silversea® are all part of the Royal Caribbean Group? For this week’s Power Up Activity we want to hear from you about status matching across brands. I like idea of Weekly!

Great! Enjoy your new status on, we hope, a soon to be Celebrity cruise! 😄

Recently, our HAL cruise for early 2025 deleted Key West and added Jamaica. I was bummed out!

Back from Coco Cay last Friday Feb 2,2024. Turned out to be a great day, but water was real cold. I got as far as my ankles and chose to not get cold. Not many in pools or beach water. For whatever reason, we did not get any sense that it was crowded in any area. Obviously, we did not go to every area, but the balloon ride as one example, was being discounted to around $70.. Good news is with dock you don't miss Coco Cay due to moderately higher seas or mild/moderate winds. We were in Coco Cay with Icon of Seas and she is big! We were on Marinor of Seas.

Thanks for all the info. Been at least 5 years since last Royal Caribbean cruise, but now with granddaughter, we will be sailing more Royal Caribbean cruises.