M&JfromSDL

I had to deal with balcony [chain] smokers on my last Allure of the Seas cruise.  It was a awful.  Sorry you have to deal with it on your vacation.

7 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

There's no reason to wait.  Buy now and watch the price.  If it goes lower, cancel and re-order.  If at some point you are not comfortable with the price you paid, you can cancel for a full refund up to 72 hours before the cruise.

This!  

The drink package for my upcoming cruise was listed at $42/day when I booked.  I went back in the next day to purchase and it returned to $51/day.  Now it's back down to $48/day.  I remember buying, cancelling and rebuying a couple of times for my previous Allure of the Seas cruise without any issue from Royal.

Hump.  

I'm not on a Keto diet but like to have a couple drinks that are not terribly filling (read bloating).  My go to is Grey Goose L'Orange with soda water and a slice of orange.  The Grey Goose shot is only 69 calories per oz, no sugar.  

I've been getting this error since I booked my upcoming Freedom cruise a few weeks back.  At first it told me 64 were signed up, 2 or 3 days ago it was down to 16 and now it doesn't work at all.  Disappointing.  

9/8/19 Freedom of the Seas sailing has OV balconies for $600/pp.  As low as $550/pp with certain resident rates.

I was supposed to sail on the Empress to Bermuda back in 2001.  The day before the sailing we woke up to news there was a fire onboard and the ship turned back to Bermuda.  I ended up on Enchantment instead.  

That new Bermuda itinerary looks fantastic.  I think I know what I'm doing next summer.

The Air2Sea flight search interface allows you to select your own flights.  You put your dates, airports, preferred class of service and book.  Couldn't be simpler.

We just made this decision ourselves.  Went with Freedom out of SJ for the ABC itinerary.

I've been eyeing that Anthem cruise as well.  I ordinarily would not cruise out of NYC in January but the pricing is very attractive.  Add in the fact that it's an 11 day vs. 7 day and I think you have a winner.  The weather flying into NYC can be a little dicey so buy your tickets via RCCL Air2Sea and make sure you pickup travel insurance policy.

As was suggested, you can walk down Duval in the middle of the afternoon and find plenty of live music.  Do a search for some of the local musicians like Rob Benton, John LaMere on Facebook.  They usually post their schedules online.  

Willie T's 

Sloppy Joe's 

Green Parrot Bar

Irish Kevin's 

Smokin Tuna 

We live in Northern VA and usually fly down late Saturday for a Sunday cruise.  I doubt you'll have to worry about weather issues and an early morning flight gives you some contingency for delays. 

If it appears a snowmageddon is heading your way then you can always look into renting a car and driving to Charlotte as a backup.  We had to do that one year (went so far as making the rental car reservation) but it all worked out in the end.  

Thanks for posting your review.  We are eyeing a Canada/New England cruise and are following along!

I see they do not offer Vibe Cabanas on this ship.  Is that the case across the fleet?

Loving your review.  Mezcalito's is a MUST STOP for us as well.  We ventured out there a few cruises back and now we pick Western Caribbean itineraries just to revisit.  Crazy to read about the sea urchin.  This guy paid us a visit last time we were there:

On 1/28/2019 at 2:33 PM, laurabegorrah said:

If you have status on an airline, and NCL books you on that airline, can I assume you would be able to take advantage of your perks of status (ie: automatic upgrades, priority boarding, etc)?

Depends on the fare class NCL books you into and the airline's rules for that category.  For example, if you are AA elite and are booked into a Basic Economy fare class, you will still get priority boarding but are not eligible for upgrades.

I'm a bit of a creature of habit once I find something I like.  All of my cruising short of a NCL cruise have been on RCCL.  There's just something about the overall vibe on a Royal cruise that works for us.  We enjoyed our Getaway cruise a few years back.  As a matter of fact we came this * * close to booking another NCL cruise this fall but they seem to be playing games with the drink and dinner package promo.  

Do you get any say in the specific flights?  

I am planning to sail on Breakaway in September.  The airfare is free out of DC but I prefer to fly in the night before the cruise.  I also like to have control over my flights, seats, fare class, etc.  I can book through my TA for about $200/pp less if I forego the free airfare offer.  Between the higher fare and $50 charge to "deviate" I think it's probably a wash.

Smith and Wollensky

1 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139

I might actually try a Baltimore cruise if they swap Grandeur for a Radiance-class ship.  

I'm not much of a Western Caribbean guy but if I were looking for a couple no fuss no muss beach days, I'd go with Harmony on this one. 

We popped into the WJ one night for dinner on our Allure cruise last year and were pleasantly surprised at the offerings.  With such a diverse crew there are also great ethnic items on the menu in the WJ that don't make it to the MDR.  

I think once you get the Oasis-class bug out of you next month, the Freedom-class will be more appealing.  There are a handful of features I really enjoy about the Oasis Class (Central Park restaurants, Rising Tide Bar are a few).  But as a poster above wrote, the Freedom class ships just feel right.  Not too big, not too small.  Plenty to do and usually the itineraries are more interesting and competitively priced.  

One other suggestion is to book a "Flight+Hotel package" through your airline.  Even if you purchased your airfare already, sometimes you can go into the reservation and add a hotel stay to it and still get the same savings.