Tatka

Is this a serious attempt to familiarize me with how capitalism works? 🙂 JFYI I’m originally from another country which ceased to exist and where everything was for man, everything was in the name of men. You as a customer better have companies carefully calculating profit, but competing. I am on my cruise #30 with Royal and 61st overall. To me the key is they provide overall product we as customers want to spend money on. While I agree with your general idea, lines do compete. They include something they may or even certainly lose money on. It’s just like our neighborhood store selling rotisserie chicken cheaper than most surrounding stores sell raw chicken.

What a sophisticated way to describe work of successful business who millions people appreciate! Money extraction. 🙂

I agree… I understand why Quantum was built as she was built. They are perfect for colder weather. We should see how Odyssey will work in NJ.

I don’t need to eat after 9 pm, and on rare occasions when I do, there are other venues.

We LOVE this class for sailings out of New Jersey as it has amazing Solarium. Odyssey's second after Solarium pool is outdoor too, so it is better for Caribbeans if you do not need to sail from colder places. For sailings out of Florida Oasis class may be better.

We tried new menus 4 times now. Remember... quality also depends on ship/cooks.. to some extent. I often order escargots. In some reason RCI does them better than X. My favorites (I do not order desserts and not always entrees) Welcome Aboard - Tomato Soup, Maryland crab cake French - Squash Soup, Calamari, Seafood Linguini Mexian - Poblano Soup, Chili Lime Salmon Caribbean - Tofu + Avacado, Coconut Shtimp, Garlic Tiger Shrimp Italian - Carpaccio ... Do not remember what else.

6 times since 2021... and no aerialists. I think this was a subject of complains. I am OK either way.

We watched show about 9 times. We thought Terry was the best (there was somebody else in 2017 on Thanksgiving)... until this Thanksgiving. New guy was at least as good. It felt that he is invested more in this show.

Majority of Anthem's inside rooms have virtual balconies. On Odyssey only some have and they cost extra.

We do 11 days Anthem (next year Odyssey) Southern Caribbean cruises out of Bayonne, NJ in January and 12 days Vision class in March out of Baltimore

I can understand OP. We hated Anthem the first time around in 2016. It was so different … took some adjustment time. Over the next 10 times we fell in love so much with her it’s tough to let her go. I am reading this review with an interest as in 2024 Odyssey will be sailing from NJ instead of Anthem and we are booked for 2 cruises. I’m 100% Solarium person on this class… and are worried a bit for Family pool situation as Anthem has one with a roof.. but on Odyssey no roof… so for Thanksgiving and January cruises it will be interesting. Thank you for this review. We love AC islands for prettiness… but both especially Curaçao are amazing for snorkeling right off the beach.

They are still in comparison to similar vacations, also when you check how much tickets for entertainment… prices in restaurants are now. Still the best value.

When you buy internet on board for many days in a row you also get discounted price per day. More days you buy, more discounted it gets. Then you can apply amount of 1 or 2 days you get as D or D+, but only one per person

I am lucky as my husband very rarely even uses it. i need it all the time. We figured out that unless price goes under $15 per day prepaid and it’s a longer cruise, it makes sense to buy it on board using our 4 days. I use one login with mine 2 days and then another login with a discount of 2 days for the reset of the cruise . In ports he uses our T-Mobile unlimited data to browse intermet (including open decks of ships)

I’m not sure Emerald offers any meaningful perks over Platinum. They start from Diamond

They can start about American workers… working on low paid jobs…. not even on minimal wage. I seriously have no idea how they survive with our real estate prices, rents etc … This conversation would be an equivalent of feeling sorry for someone making $10k-15k with almost no expenses while working long hours. Yes, it’s tough (who likes to work hard?!), but there is a reason.

I cannot imagine MSC being better... I like just about everything about them, but food was probably the weakest out of all lines including Carnival and NCL.

We cruised with Royal several times per year up to Covid and 14 times after. Before the end of January 2023 menu was the same, and then new menus came to play. Themed menu for every day, Classic selection was removed and some other changes. I think most dishes are still there. As I said quality really varies from ship to ship with the best on Anthem out of Anthem twice, Enchantment and Liberty twice. If something is not enough please order more... I am trying to stay in shape so on some nights I do not even order main entree, only several appetizers. Royal lost about 22 bill and kept losing up until the end of 2022. Hopefully they will regroup. I am fine as is, but some people are upset, although later I hear less complaints.

People are conservative and cannot leave line they are complaining about because they are proud to be LOYAL whatever this means. LOL.

Menus are more limited now, yes. We are ok with it. Quality varies in quality from ship to ship. We sailed on 3 since menus changed.

With all due respect... Keep in mind crew does not live in US, so salary they make about $1200 (now probably $1500 a month), to around $2500 or more for customer facing crew are good money. I know it is difficult to comprehend, but in many countries $500 could be a very good unprofessional salary. Realestate, childcare, healthcare etc could be free or very low. Note: I am originally from one of countries crew is hired (probably less now). People were buying 1-2 room condos unless it is in their capital after several contracts. In cash. With a war I hope they are still standing, but still...

We usually do 7,9 and up to 14, but we had several 4-6 cruises. They are more saturated with events/entertainment, usually younger crowd. You start partying right away, (in a good way. We are not party crowd)

This is incorrect. To make people want to sail on older ships.. with less all kind of parks etc.... Cruise lines pick better itineraries and try to get better crew. Of course everything is subjective and there are more factors involved. For example from which port ship sail. If they sail from the port which other ships cannot sail then it is important what other lines sail or use price variations. But lines know that not all people will sail with another line or fly to the different ports, We found the best combinations. We sail 4 times from Northeast Bayonne (Anthem several times, Oasis class, Freedom/Voyager class) and once from Baltimore on older Grandeur, Enchantment, Vision. This combination works better than others.

When everyone will completely abandon this rule they will return to priority by level and I will stop waking up at 12:01 am to book the first time slot. 🙂 I think embarkation is better now with time slots.

We had fun singing Saantaa Luuciia, Santa Lucia. 🙂 We had different music on different nights. If anything it was a nice addition to my YouTube videos,