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Eve: Here ya go, one champagne cocktail. Adam: Oh, thank you. Eve: I thought only hookers drank those things? Adam: Well, I know Mom sure likes 'em.

I'd say mine is going to be the first drink I have on my very first cruise! (Non alcoholic, of course)

My wife loves the Miami Vice. Half Pina Colada, half Strawberry Daquiri, All tasty. Don't have a particular fave myself.

I know! I've printed in B&W too! Some of the people on the crew said that they preferred it in color when I took the behind the scenes tour! I should have included that!

BBC! Baileys, Banana Liqueur and Colada mix.

Interesting. Many ships do start out in Southampton before moving elsewhere. However, a Quantum class ship would have a longer sailing window out of the UK as it's a good cold weather ship. It would also be a good response to MSC's new builds as their Oasis-like clone is set to sail from North America (likely Miami) in 2019.

Miami Vice sounds pretty good, I think my wife will like the combo. I will suggest she tries it on Navigator in August.

Well, if we had to go by volume drunk, I'm sure I drank a trough of the Liberty's coffee. Margaritas were mighty good tho. pops

I don't know, but I'd like them to run a contest to see how many days the site can go without it crashing or freezing up!

Hey Grubby, I share your enthusiasm on your up coming cruise, only mine isn't until next March! My wife says I'm starting to get on her nerves! I recommend you buy these cruise luggage tag holders: http://amzn.to/2thOxmj. They are fool proof and very durable, can be used on more then one cruise!

Hello Everyone, Just wanted to share something I learned last week regarding getting my American Express Platinum benefits added to two of my upcoming cruises. After debating the merit of the annual $550 fee, I decided to get the card earlier this month to take advantage of the airline benefits and now monthly Uber credit. After trying to find out whether or not my regular travel agent could add the benefits since Amex only advertises they work by booking through Amex Travel, I just asked my travel agent to try and see what happened. I had previously booked a cruise on a Memorial Day sale for Oasis of the Seas sailing next February so my travel agent was able to refund my $500 deposit from my previous CC and then charge it to my Amex Platinum without changing my previous booking rate. I had no idea you could retroactively change the deposit like that! My travel agent then also used the benefit to apply to a cruise I was booking then for a Navigator of the Seas sailing in November 2018. Couple things I learned: OBC in the amount of $100 - $300 Shipboard Credit per stateroom for sailings 5 nights or longer (depending on category booked): $100 for inside/oceanview, $200 for balcony, $300 for suites plus a complimentary bottle of wine or champagne no matter which cabin category. Your travel agent should have the ability to log into an Amex system to get a tracking number to apply the obc to your cruise, and can even be done retroactively to a cruise deposit previously booked provided you are not past final payment date. Amex benefit is not combinable with many promotions. For my Oasis sailing I lost a $50 obc from Royal Caribbean (but kept the other stuff from my travel agency), but I got the $200 obc for the balcony cabin (boardwalk category) instead for a net $150 gain. Amex benefit is not combinable with C&A balcony discount so I lost my $100 balcony discount on the Navigator sailing, but again gained $200 obc for a net $100 gain. I was able to see the Amex $200 obc immediately in my cruise planner for my Oasis February sailing. Do the math to see whether the benefits lost are less than the Amex obc. Hope this helps shed some light on how the American Express Platinum benefits might be able to work for you since there's really not a huge amount of information on other forums. Daniel

If you are going on a Cruise to Europe or the Canaries please feel free to ask any questions and I will try to help and if I don't know I will try to find out for you. Obviously I haven't been everywhere but I will do my best. Ships, ports of call , UK airports, shore excursions etc.

That's really cool, my wife and I keep looking at one on the Indy around April coming to Southampton which we would love as you get a couple Caribbean Islands plus I think about 6 days straight at sea and a couple of ports of call after that which would be great as I love days at sea as you get to chill out and do loads on board .

We just booked our first transatlantic cruise!! April 5-20th on Brilliance! I have always wanted to go to Ireland and hubby said go for it.

Brian is right. Just book for 1 person.

Just book it for one person. One reservation can have 3 other people in it with you. Actually, I think the number is up to 6. At least that's what the cabanas say.

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised. Amex only advertises this benefit through their travel agency, but my TA explained that most agencies have a system they can log into to get the Amex obc applied. The trick is just figuring out whether that makes sense given the other benefits that are not combinable. Given I only take about 2 RCI cruises a year and combined with all the other CC benefits I'm a lot more comfortable with the $550 annual fee now. Definitely not a CC for everyone but if you fly a lot and use Uber regularly, it can make sense. https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/platinum/

Thanks so much :) We are going with the tux because he doesn't currently have a shirt and tie that anywhere near matches the dress I'm wearing (woman problems lol) and by the time I buy those two items it will cost me the same as renting the tux. We also won't have the added weight of the suit in our suitcase :). We are celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary as well. We don't get to dress up too often so it will be fun. @DocLC

... I mean ... that's not the WORST idea ...

Monday, September 4, 2017

I don't always use IE, but when I do,,,I was also having problems. (That sounds like a TV beer ad) IE will not let you select which cookies to delete so I just deleted all. That seemed to fix it for me.

But we got Snapchat goggles doe......IT dept needs major help

This really stinks. Sorry it's happening to you.

I emailed customer service. I'm sure I'll get a clear explanation.

FWIW, it still isn't perfect but I have the best luck with IE. ... Royal's site is literally the only thing I use Internet Explorer for.

Labadoozie is better!

We had a similar access problem. We received error messages about reservation access being unavailable, after our local (USA) travel agent major some changes in conjunction with RCCL that we requested. Spent hours and numerous calls to RCCL phone #. They would say that they can "see it" and it should be accessible to me, and they "reset" it several times. Finally after several days and calls to RCCL and our agent, it was working again. I can't prove this, but I believe there was some issue with our agent not fully logging out or incorrectly disconnecting from our reservation, may have been the problem. Yes, we tried all the cache, history, and memory clearing on our end as well, to no avail. So see if your US agent can open the reservation again, and then fully log out from it, and see if RCCL tech support can "reset" the access permissions. Or yours may be an entirely new IT mystery (things can get blocked easily when the IP addresses of different countries and firewall rules get involved. Good Luck.

Try opening your browser in Private/Incognito mode and then logging in. https://www.howtogeek.com/269265/how-to-enable-private-browsing-on-any-web-browser/

Thanks DocLc, shame about the freestyle machines but not the end of the world. As for Sabor hopefully he will be ok with that as he is a bit of a plain Jane where food is concerned.

No Freestyle machines on the Navigator. A list of the ships that have them can be found here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/20/coca-cola-freestyle-machines-royal-caribbean Sabor caters quite well to all tastes. The barbacoa might be a good choice for someone who doesn't want something spicy as it was more sweet than spicy. Dinner if the items can be requested less/non spicy, too.

Ok...so jealous! What is your blog site again? Jane

Ok...that was the most amazing 2 episodes. I loved their shows and want to watch more. These were incredible at showing the pluses and minuses, and in fact did the same ship and cruise we are looking at, including the 3 day pretour. Gotta say that i may have to do a day at disney! Thank you so much...these and the river cruise podcasts have been so much fun to listen to! Jane

I like to try new things on board. My fav would have to be a Texas Collins I had on Freedom in the R Bar (I think).

Hi Geema, my wife's favourite is a pina colada and mine is a B52 , I know it's not very manly but I love the taste

Good answer! Our next cruise is Oct 20 2018 on Brilliance of the Seas

I just booked our airfare for January. Before doing so, I called RC and asked about time for luggage valet. Was told anytime after 11:30am so our flight...with Southwest...is 11:55am.

We love Johnny Rockets it ticks all the boxes. Fun , great burgers and shakes and for $6 what more could you want. Oh and one other good thing is that if you want to chill on your balcony you can get take out .

We enjoy going towards the end of the cruise. I'm usually craving a burger by then and JRs fills the bill. Can't beat the milkshakes.

Good news Wine, beer, and soda is free flowing at dinner and lunch on Viking. While the pre cruise package is pricey, we felt it was a good value since it included transfers and tours and good hotels plus the move your bags such. The one bad thing about Viking they require payment is full 30 days after booking, so it you book a 2018 cruise you have to pay in full now. We never purchased a mix drink but I think the price is reasonable. We went the last week in May and it was hot and crowded already, going in the Spring or Fall you will have a cheaper rate and less crowds. We loved Paris and the whole trip on the Seine. I am going to listen to the link, thanks for posting it.

You rub them on your body. They have the ability to soak up water, so they take the water off of your body and into the fibers of the towel. They do a good job drying you off. Sorry, couldn't resist.

People like that fall into the PITA category and should not, I repeat NOT, be afforded any social amenities (hello, how are you, enjoying the cruise, etc) but should be dealt with the same rudeness they openly display! PITA stands for pain in the ass, got no use for them at home and definitely not on a cruise ship.

I saw no honeystung chicken on Anthem 6/22 to 6/27. And yeah, last cruise night, I was annoyed at a woman who was standing in front of the caribbean food selections at the WJ, her plate resting on the steel bar while she was eating shrimp from her plate for 4 minutes as he 14 year old child wandered around her. She saw people waiting to get to the selections, but would not move. Wasn't even looking at the caribbean food. Just standing there with vacant eyes eating shrimp. Shrimp wasn't even at that bar!!!

@mom2mybugs You can bring your own wine onboard, so that's one option to consider. Check out this discussion of Viking River Cruises:

I use EZ Cruise every time we sail from Galveston. It doesn't get more convenient or affordable than that.

Yep, traveling with food allergies can be a bear. I have to say, though, I have found that all of the restaurant staff on RC was totally on the ball when it came to working around mine (Shrimp, nuts, and, of all the things to be allergic to on a cruise ship, chocolate). DocLC is absolutley right... But moreover, be your own advocate. The TA let them know about my allergies, but the MDR servers still double checked, and if they hadn't I would've spoken up. Our server and the chef even went so far as to go over the menus for each night with me to make sure I had something that worked for me. Even the chef's table was worked around my allergies, and I still got the full experience... Outstanding.

Pets ? Your TA gives you pets ? I need to change TA's....

We had that happen once. I learned the lesson to always bring a copy of the confirmation letter that BoA sends once the transaction is complete. Of course, ever since I started bringing the "proof" we've never had another problem ! Typical. We've had nothing but good experiences (except for that one time). Use of that card onboard has netted us thousands in OBC over the years. I caution anyone who is thinking of getting this card....you canNOT carry a balance on this card. The interest rate is VERY high but if you use it to pay for cruises and cruise expenses, it is extremely beneficial.

We went once for food on Freedom, not expecting a gourmet burger, so for what it is, it's good. There's no singing and dancing (that we saw). My wife loves milkshakes (they were free with our C&A discount), so we went back just for that later in the week. We had no issues with food. Sounds like firegal ended up with a lazy worker, which is too bad. We met a worker from Russia who loved working on the ship, and was trying to work her way up the chain, so she had to work at each restaurant to get the experience needed. We ran into her in port one day and chatted with her, then went back to JR on our last day to say goodbye. She cared about her work, and the customer being satisfied.

I've been to Mr Sanchos. Can't wait to go back. That's my review. I was a bit anxious as it was my first "non RC" venture, especially regarding the return to ship. When we left to get back to the ship, there was a line of taxis that had to be at least 50 or more. All modern, all air conditioned. Service is amazing. Again, can't wait to go back in September. ?

No need for all of that at the port in Cozumel. All of the prices for popular destinations are posted. Don't know how recent this pic is (its from Google image search) but it is similar to what we saw Christmas of 2015.