beachbuzzard

To elaborate on the weight limits - it's 230 if you're under 6' and 250 if you are 6' and taller.

For me, I'm just under 6' and weight in the 240s. My first trip I did it on Anthem - they saw my weight and I said I'm 6', so they let me go without a height measurement. I was easily one of the best in my group of 10, being able to fly for good stretches on my own without help.

On my 2nd trip on Anthem, they were more strict and had to check my height - they wouldn't let me fly, even though I'm still the same height and weight as before, because I'm just under 6' (like 5-11 1/2"). I told them I aced it the previous time but they didn't/wouldn't/couldn't budge.

I vowed I'd get under 230 for my next cruise but it's coming up in a few weeks and I don't see it happening. Stupid beer!!

We Will Rock You for sure does not have an intermission. We just saw it last week for the 2nd time and enjoyed it as much as the first. The total run time was just under 2 hours. And as someone above mentioned - do not get up and leave after the first set of ovations. Sit tight!!

The dining room was not a good experience for us I felt like it was completely disorganized unfortunately and we found ourselves paying to eat at specialty restaurants or just eating at the buffet.

We are just off of 5-nights to Bermuda and our MDR experience was the best we've had in years. It was also the first time in a while we didn't have My Time and I think that helped - we were downstairs in Grande and had a late seating. But the food was good (I'll give it a solid B) and our service was amazing (easily an A). Could be we hit a high performing staff combo, but it was a refreshing change of pace for us. Five nights and ate ALL five in the MDR?? Unheard of!

If you want a WOW band, they were selling them on Sail Away day in Boleros. We actually had them from a previous cruise on Anthem so they exchanged them (you can keep the same one's if Muster Station is the same, otherwise you have to exchange) - but the guy told me they may be stopping exchanges. I like the WOW band but not sure it's worth $5 each cruise. So they will probably slowly go away.

If you don't get all the shows or activities you want booked prior to boarding, you can go to the Theater on Deck 4 on Sail Away Day and they have activities people doing bookings there.

Things that require booking (besides specialty dining) - SHOWS: We Will Rock You and Spectra's Cabaret. ACTIVITIES: Northstar, IFly and the Escape Room. You do not need advance booking for all of the other shows or for the rock climbing wall, bumper cars or wave-rider.

We are also on board - we were at Sorrentinos having some late night (early morning) pizza that we didn't really need when the "Oscar-Oscar-Oscar-port side" call came over. I knew immediately what that was and said to my wife let's go upstairs to our cabin on Deck 7 to see what's going on. As we approached the port aft elevators we saw crew members running out the doors to where the lifeboats are. When we got upstairs, there was a ruckus in our hallway about 5 cabins down (we are in 7224 and project the family to be in a cabin between 7212-7216) - it was the family - the wife (we think) wanted to go back outside to watch rescue operations but they wouldn't let them in the cabin. There were some other words said - we thought security accused someone of "pushing" the victim - maybe the father - but it's unclear if they meant a physical push or a fight which emotionally "pushed" the victim to jump over.

When we got in our cabin, they were releasing the port side rescue boat just below and left of us. It took them a few minutes to get the boat down and they immediately zoomed over to a beacon (life ring?) out off port side aways. The water was somewhat choppy and it was pretty dark (some cloud cover at times and littl if any moon light). The rescue boat from starboard side was visible to us about 5 minutes later. We stayed up as the ship went slowly back and forth - turning 180 degrees every 10-15 minutes or so.

I did see the video this morning. Tough to watch. Tough night. Not a ton of sleep, although I got more than my wife.

Alex

Just my two cents, but based on my experience on the Millie and what I am hearing from others, the bar service leaves a lot to be desired. I asume that since they sell drink packages, it is not in their best interest to have a lot of bar servers. I have never been on a cruiseline that made it so hard to get a drink. We faced this problem every night at dinner (I did not have a drink package). Drinks that were ordered toward the beginning (you had to get the maitre d' to find a server for you every night) was not served until dinner was virtually (and sometimes, literally) over. If you like a cocktail with dinner, I would suggest that you stop and pick one up on your way to the dining room.

While on the pool deck, it was also virtually impossible to find a bar server. On RCI they are everywhere, but RCI does not offer a drink package, either. Just something to factor in. You will need to serve yourself.

Excellent points and we noted this also. We got pretty good service at dinner (must just depend on the servers), but at the pool? If you're thirsty and there is no server in sight, go to the bar. We even tipped a few extra bucks here or there in the hope of getting some servers to stop by more often. Forget it, it rarely worked. On RCCL if you're needing a drink almost anywhere on board you can look up and there is sure to be a server within sight - they are everywhere!!!

With what you alluded to above. If I wanted to get a coke at 2AM, where would I get one that is not room service? A soda dispenser. My gut feeling is no. So if I am thirsty late at night, then I will have to pay for it, even with the package is what your telling me.

I just mentioned this in my post above - get an unopened soda or water at a bar before you go up to your cabin and store in the fridge. It's there for you whenever you'd like it!!

Alex

Well, we are just back from 12 nights on Silhouette and the jury is still out on the drink package for us. We had the classic packages (we drink more beer and vodka drinks than anything else) and it is close. We chose to keep track, my wife made up spreadsheets and we did our best to recall what we drank from the package each day. I'll report back with the exact findings. One thing for certain - if you don't drink quite a bit I don't think you'll find it a good deal. After 12-nights of open bar, I think my body is going through some sort of DTs. I'm on a long drying out period right now!!! :D

Some points that I know have been made but get asked often so I will update based on our experience on this cruise:

*Labadee. We were able to get drinks at Labadee off the package no problem. That is an added PLUS when you consider a package.

*Price overages. If the price is more than your package covers, you are charged the difference on the Premium package ONLY. Not on the Classic Package. If we wanted to buy a beer over $5 or drink over $8 we had to pay full price (so we didn't).

*Ordering two drinks. If the bartender knew you were going to sit there and drink both drinks (shot and beer perhaps?), he or she would give you both. If he didn't know then they might restrict you to one drink.

*Room Service and Room Fridge. Neither are covered in the package. I didn't quite understand the fridge thing (does a beer in the fridge cost more than a beer from the bar??), but once we asked and learned that we just never touched the stuff in there. Nice thing is there was extra room in the fridge and it was cold, so we could order and unopened coke or water and store in there for our own use in the cabin.

Alex

I like formulas. Good job.

Everyone should note the big jump between 7 and 8 cruise credits. Those of us with 8 or 9 cruise credits just made that extra 10 point bonus because the formula jumps from +3 to +13. Sweet! I guess that was to get us as close to diamond as we were before. I'm going to call this the Emerald Conversion Bump. :D

Ok... thanks to everyone with info about this in this thread. I had no idea about Nextcruise until now.

Here's another question for everyone and I didn't see it in the terms/conditions:

Because we didn't know about NextCruise, we just booked a 5 day cruise for February a few weeks ago. Can we still take advantage of NextCruise somehow? Should we cancel and rebook with a NextCruise reservation? If we cancel now, can we just book a NextCruise on the ship in a couple of weeks and then assign the cruise on the ship or after? If we try that, will there be an issue with us previously having held a reservation for that cruise?

Thanks in advance for any info...

Alex