To cheat or not to cheat....on our favorite cruise line.

This is a real dilemma for us.  Do we try another cruise line or do we continue to be exclusive to Royal Caribbean?  It's no secret we love Royal Caribbean.  It's the only line we've sailed on for the last 17 years.  We've got a lot invested in Royal Caribbean at this point, finally making it to Diamond Level of the Crown & Anchor Society.  Still, there is always that temptation to try another line.  This may be the time to do it as getting to the next Crown & Anchor level, Diamond Plus, will most likely take several years.

What draws me to other lines is the same thing that drew me to Royal Caribbean in the first place, the ships.  Royal Caribbean has been at the forefront of innovative ship design since the line's inception.  I absolutely love the Voyager, Freedom, and Oasis Class ships and I desperately want to try a Quantum ship (come on RCCL, get one down here to Florida already!).  That being said, there are some other interesting ships in development without the Crown & Anchor on the stack.

Currently, the most intriguing line is MSC.  They seem to have come out of nowhere and are making a play to go against the big boys of the industry.  They have several new builds in progress or in the planning stages, some of which sound amazing.  The first of those will be the MSC Seaside which looks very cool.   MSC also has a current offer to match whatever level you are on another line's loyalty program.  I've already taken advantage of that while it was available.  You can sign up for that loyalty match even if you are not currently booked on MSC.  Even if I never go, it's worth the 5 minutes it took to sign up, just in case.  I have family that has gone on MSC before and they have had good things to say.

MSC Seaside video:


Another option is NCL.  They have some interesting ships and features that are tempting.  They also offer some very nice incentives such as free specialty dining and free drink packages on some sailings.

Finally, there is Celebrity.  I've been on Celebrity in the past, the last time was 1998, but never on any of their more modern ships.  The plus is that they are part of Royal Caribbean so they match your loyalty status level.  The downside is that their programs are still separate even though they are technically the same company.  So points you earn on one line do not add to your total on the other.  Celebrity has some existing ships that interest me, the Solstice Class of ships in particular, and they have plans for a newer class, the Edge Class,  that will incorporate some very unique and innovative features into it's design.

Celebrity Edge Video:


I'm not entirely sure what we will do.  We will continue to sail on Royal Caribbean no matter what happens, as it is still our favorite cruise line, but there are always other fish in the sea.  The competition is heating up in the cruise industry, and that is a good thing.

Next Up - Explorer of the Seas - May 2011

Well that didn't take long did it.  It's barely been a month since our trip on Liberty of the Seas and we've already booked our next cruise.  We'll be taking a 9 night  Bermuda and Caribbean cruise on Explorer of the Seas from Bayonne, NJ which is less than an hour drive from home.

Now, we had every intention of booking next year on Allure of the Seas but this was a better deal and no long 2 day road trip to Florida.  Sounds familiar doesn't it?  This year we had planned to go on Oasis of the Seas but found a much better deal on Liberty.  Some day we will get to go on one of the Oasis ships.

This will be our second 9 night cruise (first was 2004 on Voyager of the Seas) and our second trip on Explorer.  Our first on Explorer was in 2001 during which my beautiful wife and I were married onboard.  That was a great cruise.  We will also be staying in a Junior Suite for the second time on Explorer.  We're hoping to start maxing out our Crown & Anchor points (suites count for 2 credits) so we can get to 10 cruise credits and become Diamond members.  This will jump us from 6 points to 8.

This will also be the oldest ship we've been on in a long time.  Explorer of the Seas turns 10 years old next month but from all I've heard, she is still in great shape.  That's good news.

The itinerary is pretty unique as it leaves from NJ and stops first in Bermuda.  We haven't been to Bermuda since our 1998 trip on Celebrity's Horizon so that will be a nice change.  After that we stop in St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and San Juan.  Should be fun.

241 days and counting!

Cool Pics Of Oasis of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas In Cozumel

Check out this post from Royal Caribbean CEO and President Adam Goldstein's blog for some pretty cool aerial photos of the two ships docked side by side in Cozumel.  It's really unbelievable how much bigger Oasis looks compared to Freedom.  I don't think anyone is going to surpass the sheer size of the Oasis Class of ships for quite some time.

Here is one of the photos that best shows the size difference.

Countdown to Liberty

25 days to go until we're onboard Liberty of the Seas.  Getting pretty excited now.

A bit of a letdown though today as we found out some unfortunate news.  We are unable to book reservations at the specialty restaurants until we get onboard.

Let me explain.......

We thought it would be a great idea to go ahead and book our reservations ahead of time via Royal Caribbean's website to save some trouble and get the days and times we wanted.  Unfortunately, Royal Caribbean feels that when you book a "reservation" you should have to pay for it immediately.

I was completely unaware of this until I had everything selected and the website asked for my credit card info.  Now I've never tried this before so I was both a bit surprised and confused.  A quick call to a Royal Caribbean pre-cruise planner confirmed that any reservations for specialty restaurants or excursion bookings are charged immediately to a credit card and not put on your onboard account.  So there you go....a quick FYI for anyone who didn't know this already.

Now this wouldn't be a big deal normally but we have a nice big bunch of onboard credits we want to use for things like this so it looks like we will have to take our chances and wait until we get there.  I don't know why it can't just be added to your booking and show up on your onboard account.  Oh well, not going to stress about it.  It's not like we're going to starve.

Changes

Trying something new for the look.  Nothing too drastic.  Just got bored with the old look.

Decisions Decisions

It's that time again.  Time to book another cruise vacation.  We usually shoot for the end of August because we have a son still in school and it's the cheapest time of the summer to go.  By the time we go this year, if we go, it will be 4 years since our last cruise which was on Freedom of the Seas.  How time flies.

There is a problem however.  My focus for this year's cruise has always been to book a trip on the Oasis of the Seas.  I've been following this ship from early design through construction and completion.  Over that time my excitement and anticipation have continued to grow and I fully expected to be taking a cruise on this magnificent ship this summer.  Problem is, I've apparently waited too long.  Usually we do book early, especially for a new ship like this but I never expected that the week we were looking at would be completely booked already.  Unfortunately that is the position we are in now.  I guess I underestimated how popular this ship would be.  What to do?

Now we're left with a big decision.  I'd still love to go on Oasis but I can accept waiting another year if I have to.  Regardless, we are going on a cruise this year.  The question then becomes, if not on Oasis, what ship do we go on?  It's no secret if you've read any of my blog that I'm a bit biased toward Royal Caribbean.  They are by far my favorite cruise line and I am very loyal.  Because of that, my first choices for an alternative to Oasis would be another cruise within the RCI fleet.  Plus, the wife and I have the Royal Caribbean Visa card with lots of points waiting to be cashed in.  However, I also have a love of the newest, biggest, most innovative ships regardless of line, so that has influenced my choices as well.  Based on all that, I've managed to narrow it down to a few options during that same time frame of late August.

With all my criteria in mind, I immediately started my search, first within Royal Caribbean.  A couple of options are looking promising at this time.  There is the option to go on another Freedom Class ship with Liberty of the Seas available and affordable during my vacation window.  Kind of a been there, done that with regard to the ship as we've already been on Freedom, but we did enjoy it a lot.  A major case of been there, done that with regard to the itinerary but that will be the same for most of our options if we insist on staying with a Caribbean cruise.  Nonetheless a viable option.  The second and most interesting option within RCI is Serenade of the Seas.  We've never been on a Radiance Class ship but we've always wanted to give it a try.  Not the newest ship, launched in 2003, but still nice and a bit more intimate than the larger Voyager and Freedom Classes.  The itinerary is also different.  There are two Southern Caribbean routes to choose from in our date range which feature some new stops we've never been to, so that's also a plus.  So, new ship and new stops, win win.  The major drawback to this option is that we will need to fly to Puerto Rico which is where the ship departs from.  Not only does that add big time to the total cost of the vacation, but it also adds the frustration and hassle of flying.  Those are both negatives in my book.

Time to look elsewhere.  For the next option, I didn't have to look far.  Still within the RCI family, Celebrity is another option.  I've been very interested in the new Solstice Class of ships they are building so I took a look at what they had to offer.  Found a couple of nicely priced options on Celebrity Solstice from Ft. Lauderdale to the Caribbean.  Nothing new on the itineraries but a very new and innovative ship.  No real downside to this choice as we can use our status as Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor Paltinum members to get the same level of benefits in Celebrity's Captain's Club which we are also members of.  We can't, however, use our Royal Caribbean Visa points toward the Celebrity cruise which is a minus.

The only other option that really caught my attention is the Norwegian Epic.  I found a reasonably price cruise that would work for us leaving from Miami to the Caribbean.  This is a very interesting ship which has some really innovative design elements to it.  I've also always been tempted to check out NCL's "Freestyle" way of doing things.  To me this ship is second only to Oasis of the Seas in level of innovation and excitement.  The only real downside to this option aside from the fact that it's outside of the RCI family is that it is simply the ugliest ship I have ever seen.  Yes, even uglier than their other abomination, Pride of America (same designer?).  I imagine they felt that the exterior wasn't as important as what they can pack inside but wow.  It's obviously a form follows function type of deal but I really think it will hurt their bookings.  I for one am really struggling with the decision simply because of the fact that the ship is not asthetically pleasing on the outside and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  I absolutely love all the stuff they can pack into a modern cruise ship but they should still look good on the outside even if the focus is on what's inside.  Royal Caribbean has been packing their ships with lots of innovative stuff but the ships themselves have never looked odd or ugly in my opinion.

So there it is.  Sometime in the next month we will hopefully be making our decision on what cruise to take.  It's not going to be an easy one.

Happy Holidays

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy healthy holidays and new year.

Thanks for reading.