wdwkings

To stick to the question, you can linger and take your time so you don’t have to rush out the second the massage is over. But the flip side is you will not have unlimited time, coupled with the fact that the spa area is not in normal operations, tours and “looks-Lou’s” checking out the place are happening that day so it is not as relaxing or private. I have done at least one massage early after boarding and found it to be pretty close to the normal. As long as you understand some of the possible limitations, it would be a relaxing way to kill some time as you ease into vacation mode. As stated above, the massages on the ship are not quite equal to spas on land. Mainly the difference is cost since you are a captive audience. If I had to do a direct comparison or rating overall the cruse product would get a solid C+. It is good, definitely above average but not great. Still a nice way to enjoy vacation time.

We did Freedom a few years ago and I looked back at my data to confirm . Only did treadmills since the track is pretty short and not as conducive to a run. It was a 5 day cruise so was able to get in 10 miles the day of embarking and 12 after. Shorter runs might work but there are some tighter spots/corners that can interfere with steady pace. Really the Quantum and Oasis class allow for more steady run. If you are looking to go longer or specific paces the gym and treadmills work best on Freedom and they have a nice view from the top front of the ship.

Hi Ken, who is a traveler from Missouri. Very late in the game? Not really, we’ve looked and the latest you can book is the last week shortly before the passenger manifest closes so you still have plenty of time. You stated March, but didn’t specify which week. That could vary quite a bit as far as the demand and the number of kids on any given week. Historically March is a little bit lower for overall demand as well as number if kids, but you have to factor in the school breaks. If you pick dates when there are no school breaks you are good. Most breaks at at or near Easter but will vary. In the last few years trends have not held very well and you’re seeing more kids throughout the year. Expect more kids compared to a few years ago, but it will really depend on if you are near any of the school break periods. Easter falls on March 31 so that week will likely be heavy with the children.

Just sharing some logistics about rental cars and FLL, (since it is one of my least favorite airports). It is in a central area in the garage and requires a walk or shuttle to get to the terminals/taxis/Ubers. Sharing so you can plan your timing and logistics accordingly. If you have to use the FLL airport as the drop off location, I would drop the rest of the family and bags before the car. That way only one person has to deal with the transfer from the rental center to the taxi/Uber with minimal baggage. It is an easy ride over from the airport but that extra step will take a little time. There are a few off airport rentals that might work, you might look at those options to avoid the airport. I believe Hertz, Sixt and maybe Enterprise have off airport sites that you might want to check out. I believe some might have a shuttle to the port but if not an Uber from there would also be possible.

Late night dining should only consist of very specific cuisine and can vary geographically - White Castles, Whataburger, Jack in the Box, etc. So hot dogs don't seem too far off the mark. 😀🍺🍺 🍻🍺🍻🍺🍔

Can confirm that the Quantum did not offer 24 hr/overnight tender operations on our overnight in Lahaina this spring. Service stopped at Midnight and started back up at 6 am.

If you watch then you "have been" to Fishlips, that is where the Webcam is located.

Try contacting the tour operator directly or booking outside of the ship's excursions. Sometime, not always, the restrictions are not from the operator themselves. Usually the guidelines are no different but in some circumstances there can be variances in times available and other restrictions that the ship's excursion placed not the operator. Edit: Granted there are risks involved, getting left behind, pay your own if injured, etc. but an individual would have to assess the risk they willing to accept.

Just options but to add variety, you can still do the "test run" the day before but there are other options that are open later than Grills. You can try Rising Tide (lots of beer options) and Fishlips. If planning to do Grills, we probably would do Fishlips the afternoon before, get the outside seating and you can watch the sail away (if there are ships in port).

@Sun Lover as long as you don't mind sitting and waiting, it makes sense to drop the car earlier and have him shuttle or Uber over to meet you and the group. You had mentioned one in the party might not do so well with the duration of the wait, but that seemed more if they were required to stand. We live in the area and there are some seating areas to the left as you approach Terminal 1. I would suggest dropping the checked baggage and the group, do the car return, and the group can head over to that area or to Grtills to sit and have a bite to eat and coffee (or mimosa). He can shuttle or Uber over to the restaurant.. We had to do an early drop off due to some schedule logistics with our ride for one cruise and were at the port by 8am. There was nothing really happing yet. I did check with the porters and gave a decent tip and I was a little surprised but they took the bags that early. We found a bench and sat in the area with the small booths and mini-park but it can get warm. There are some other places like FishLips and Rising Tide to eat but I think that Grills is the only one open early and it is closest. If you are not at terminal 1 sorry for the long explanation.

We have experienced suites (lounges, sundecks, etc.) on Royal, Holland, MSC YC, and DCL. Directly comparing each to Royal - - Holland really felt like sailing on non-Royal Suites ship with RCL. They have a lounge, no dedicated suites sundeck, and they do some dining options at breakfast but no suites dedicated restaurant. - Disney is a little closer to Royal since there can be dedicated decks for suites on some ships and the lounge is nearby, others it is a little walk. There is typically a suites sundeck and it varies from ship to ship with some being pretty nice. They do not do suites dining. - MSC, as others mentioned, is a nice suites products especially when considering price. The rooms might be a little less in some cases but the Yacht Club experience is pretty nice. The suites sundeck and pool area was far superior on our sailings. The lounge and suites dining wins out over CK if you factor in the whole package, if you took some specific detials of an Oasis class CK, they win out on some. Based on that a real way to tell if it is good or worth the cost is if we will consider them in the future. We have two Royal cruises still planned, likely will only do Holland if there is a good deal on an interesting itinerary (since they have a little more variety), Disney is too limited and not for their prices so not likely, and MSC is a good possibly for a future YC sailing.

The OP last commented 13 hour ago and there is some clarification that might help. In the initial post it was stated that the start point was Sydney, but mentioned stops, in Hawaii and Vancouver among the details. Assuming that the itinerary is boarding a ship in Sydney, and disembarking that same ship in Seattle, there is no issue, even with stops in Hawaii, or Alaska. Concerns do develop if there are any ship changes, "layovers" or such. If the stop in Hawaii was actually disembarking and staying for any amount of time (changing ships on the same day even), then the embarkation is now Hawaii and a disembarkation is Seattle and that is a violation. Another area of concern would be any change of ship or stay in Alaska, since Hawaii to Alaska or Alaska to Seattle would not be allowed. Conversely, a change of ship or stay in Vancouver would be allowed as the origination is outside of the US. It appears that you might be doing some kind of side to side, stay or change in Vancouver (it was mentioned "not boarding in Hawaii") so this should be fine. Since the OP was vague about the full itinerary and someone could be changing ships at some point, stating the PSVA doesn't apply might be an overreaching statement. It is true that PSVA does not matter in most cases when starting outside of a US port but individual itineraries have to be looked at in detail. While it seems on the surface that the cruise is fine with a start in Sydney and end in Seattle, the proof is in the details.

We have had the overnight three times. It may vary by port but all three times the "early" departure was allowed.

The most important factor for any upgrade situation is if the ship is sailing full or near capacity. Unless there is a lot of room inventory don't expect much movement even with Royal Up. You stated that your sailing next month and that does work in your favor some since there are less families due to the school schedule. Still the Med is a pretty popular route so it could impact overall inventory. Historically your C&A level and casino tier could help your chances at scoring an upgrade. You stated you were Prime but did not mention your C&A level. The higher you are in both programs, especially when compared to the rest of the people sailing, the better the chance for any upgrade situation. With the Royal Up program in play don't expect any upgrade. I'll say that Royal still can do whatever they want as a company and it probably will not happen unless you submit a bit but I'm not willing to say "never". There could be some weird one off circumstance that they choose to do an upgrade for someone but still not very likely, one of those 1 in a million situations. (Really wanted to post so I could make a Dumb and Dumber reference, LOL)

First I'll share that we love the two story suites so we are a bit biased. At $800 to jump to the CLS it would be a "very likely" in our minds. The big win is being on deck 17. The proximity to CK and the lounge is a huge bonus. I like being able to head down there and grab a snack, especially in the morning for coffee. If that really is not a factor for you then rate that accordingly. If you have not done a loft suite before then you might want to try it, they are pretty unique. The only thing is if you are paying and not doing Royal Up, factor in if it is a side or rear facing Suite. We would prefer a side facing but did get a CLS that was rear facing on a Royal Up once. No complaints since it was a "win" and it wasn't really bad but some folks that might be a deal breaker. Good Luck and have fun either way.

1- For breakfast and lunch, no issues with dress code. Some dinners you might feel a little underdressed, so that will be based on your comfort level. 2- The concierge will email you a week out and feel free to request your dining reservations if you want. Depending on your itinerary and if you have sometime specific in mind for certain days, it might be helpful to get that done ahead of time. I have a sheet that accounts for all possible Star/Sky suites at capacity and Symphony has one of the highest possible guest counts. I'm not saying it will be this full, it is just possible. 3- The Seafood Volute usually is pretty good.

Lots of good opinions here and I'll share we have done a few with long stretches or multiple sea days. Our last cruise had 6 straight, we have done a TA and one 14 day cruise with only 4 port days so we have adapted and like those relaxing days. If you haven't done it but feel ok with cruising, you should be fine as there are still quite a few things to do on most sailings. You may find it is not for you. Since you have some experience, it could be beneficial to have a plan (brining a book or something that might interest you) for your down time.

As mentioned above the odds are pretty good that you can find some availability for dinner, if you have some flexibility it will be more likely. There are a couple of things that might influence how easy it is to get a reservation. First if your not sailing on the Oasis or Quantum class your Jr. Suite will not have access to CK, LOL🙃 Just kidding there, but really the itinerary could impact the number of spots that are open for dining. The worst case scenario would be a itinerary that has a high number of pinnacles and have the suites at or near capacity (families traveling and less couples). The good news is those two things shouldn't align often. Families will usually be together on summertime, more routine Caribbean cruises. And although they can be on any cruise, Pins will have higher ratios on the more unique sailings. So many factors that are not really known, like how many specialty dining packages are in use in the suites and other things but expect it should be possible. Just a few things to consider, happy sailing!

HI Faye!!!!!

Part of the reason of my post was to share about the three verandas, some feel that those specific suites are lacking because of the inside square footage being smaller. We liked it with the extra deck, as it seems you did, for the extra views in Alaska. We have the same room booked for a future saling but it is over a year away so not 100% certain that it will happen. The other reason is the shear amount of bad information that is out in the internet, including the possible confusion related to the original posters question bout the youtube video. You can call it what you want but trying to help anyone that reads through the thread. There is a Star Loft suite on the Oasis class and it is a Star class but the three lofts I mentioned are the only ones that are Star class on the Quantum ships. Happy sailing!

We have been in the side facing Grand Loft Suite on the Ovation and although a little smaller than the middle Grand Loft Suites, they are still in Star Class. The three category of Star Class lofts on the Quantum class are the Royal Loft, Owners Loft and the Grand Loft Suites. Any other suite on those ships are Sky class (or Sea Class). We did the three balconies for the Alaska sailing and having side and rear facing balconies, including the upstairs, was great. We could get out quickly and see lots of scenery and wildlife from multiple spots. We did have some soot, but it wasn't too bad. We also used a towel to wipe the rails on occasion, so it is more common.

The room in the video (10322) on Quantum is a Sky class room. This is likely a one off situation, that the gentleman that posted the video did not mention. It looks like he is giving a tour of the room and not really discussing Star class. Likely this was a "perk" that was extended to the guest in compensation for some changes. There are reports, that a travel agent I know verified, of Star class room bookings that got messed up and those guest were booked into Sky class rooms but still got the genie service. Likely they received all of the perks of star class and maybe some other compensation. We had a similar situation on a Star class booking out of Sydney that got switched to Queensland (but ended up being cancelled due to COVID), so although rare, it has happened in the past. Moral of the story (this post) don't expect a genie in that room.

it is easy, demand for the product. The more ships in port and the larger that those ships are, the more demand for the excursion. Very simple logic of supply and demand. Only so many helicopters, a specific number of seats on each aircraft and only so many pilots to do the excursions, so once they are booked, they are gone. Each cruise line will book a number of spots because they know that if they have 4,000 guests on that sailing, then they can expect a certain number of guests based on historical data from prior sailings. They will lock those excursions in place, even if no one has purchased that excursion, yet. It is basically locking the reservation in place for the cruise and locking out the general public, or a direct booking. I'm always a fan of booking directly and we have done that on a number of occasions. Coming into Juneau at 1 pm, especially if there are lots of ship/people there for the day, decreases a single persons ability to negotiate a spot and price.

We booked directly, don't know which one since my wife did that, and it was great. We were the first trip of the day. The cruise line excursions used the same company but were later. The issue with your port day is that you don't arrive until 1pm. That later arrival might impact availably to book something. Before going down the rabbit hole of looking at booking directly, I would check how many ships are in port. If there are a number ships in port that day, definitely book with the cruise line,

There are lots of reasons that a cancellation might happen. Unbelievable amounts of cancellations happened a few years ago and we had at least three. even further back I heard that Costa cancelled itineraries on their Concordia ship. 😶 Just kidding about that to some degree. In reality there are three things that impact possible cancellations - ship issues, business issues, or hotel issues. Hotel - a sailing is booking a hotel essentially so there can be limitations on accommodations. At times charters impact some sailings. These should be the easiest to get notification and some kind of adjustment but likely there may not be much in compensation. Business - in the end the cruise line is in business to make money. If something doesn't make sense a company can make changes to itineraries. There are many things that might change where a ship will stop, usually they do not impact a full sailing but it is not unheard of. Sometimes changes can happen very late but that is usually to a single port, a major change usually happens further out. Again, it is likely notification and changes happen further out. It is unlikely to get major compensation in these cases but it is likely to get some and your travel agent might be able to negotiate a better deal if they are knowledgeable. Ship - these are typically the latest notifications and most problematic. Anyone who owns a boat knows that things happen, even to these big ships. While usually it is not common, things still happen. Even a working ship may have other issues, inspections can be failed, that might change a sailing. Expect minimal or late notice on ship issues. Compensation is usually going to happen but the cruise line will try to minimize what they do offer.