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Customs times vary quite a bit, and can be a bit longer on TA repositionings. As far as the cost of a taxi, this article breaks down the costs via taxi, uber, and cruise line transfers, and goes over options for getting between several South Florida destinations. http://www.cruisehabit.com/uber-lyft-cabs-shuttles-how-get-and-your-cruise-easily-cheaply

You, Sir, have a very intelligent son!

thanks for all the info everybody....so I emailed RC about the mattress topper and got a response today that they will add a mattress topper to my bed....RC has been great to me...everytime I email them they respond back so positive and so far have been able to give me what I asked for....1) distilled water and electric cord 2)table for 2 in the MDR table number has already been assigned...3) mattress topper....thanks RC you are the best for me...41 days..YES YES YES

Oh you will enjoy your vacation for sure I have no doubt....I am ready for my next one and its over 6 mths away...so at this point I would be pretty much be willing to pay anything for a get away!...ha I always get the drink package and anyone I have travelled with in the past has as well so its not an issue for me...and I am watching for a sale on the package as well so let me know if you see one....I"ll owe you!....but I am not overly hopeful.

Well, now that I won't be buying the package, which means they are out two packages, and I'll be buying my drinks as I go and therefore will be much more mindful of the $$ I'm spending, they actually will be losing out. If there was a decent discount for both of us, I might consider it. At least now I'll be able to share whatever drink I get with my wife and not feel like the po-po are watching and waiting.

Day -4 Bangkok As this city exist in some of the south Asia Royal Caribbean routes I think it fair to writeabout it. As I wrote before this was my first visit to Bangkok, the reason for stopping two days in Bangkok was mainly due to the fact that I could not found a direct route to Hong Kong with the award miles but found out this route to work nicely for us as it also a good city to buy some cheap T shirts for the cruise J (One can identify me on board by the shirts with the elephants and I love Bangkok 2 $ T shirts) We landed very early and I arrange that we will be greeted at the gate by the hotel representative who took us with a buggy car bypassing the immigration lines, I took this idea from Episode 183 - Making a memorable Royal Caribbean cruise , while passing the long lines I could not avoid quoting in My head Mel Brooks “It’s good to be the king” For hotel we took the Grand Sheraton (using reward) which is very nice located on Sukhumvit road and 2 minutes from the MRT (local subway). The Funny about the Sheraton reward program is that much of my points did not came from the room staying but from the fact that they give you allot of points if you decide not to use the daily clean service (and not replacing towels), you can actually do it up to 3 nights every time. They call it the Ecological choice, since I practice all my childhood (and my spouse will claim it continues also this days) not to make up my room I became very good at that and for sure I don’t mind to get some reward point for it. Now only if I knew then to explain my parents it was all Ecological choice …. Here is a picture of the hotel very nice tropical swimming pool. After settling down we started to walk around to the nearest mall for some shop browsing and eating early launch, we picked some local restaurant and order a Pad Thai and Green Papaya salad. Since we are after all in Th ailand we went for a foot massage , which was very very good and cost around 10 $ for a full hour. Regarding the Sukhumvit road, this is one of the famous tourist roads and many chain hotels are located very close to. Not sure I would take small kids to stroll around this street unless you want to practice your “bee and birds” talk and try also to explain them what are all those plastic replacement body parts which are presented on every second stand (and no , I ddont meant they sell prosthetic arms and legs).Every second other stand on the street also sell many different famous prescriptions drugs which I can guess are authentic as three dollar bill. You will need to forgive me for not uploading pictures from the street as it is a family prove site and also I had the feeling that if I would try to take picture over there I might find myself staring in one of the next episodes of National geographic,” Locked up abroad” describing the Thai jail daily routing and talking about my only friends over there there,a rat name Pinchi and a trained cockroach. Tomorrow we will catch a flight to Hong Kong.

Happy to report that after complaining and escalating to supervisors and their supervisors and being on hold forever they finally took off the gratuities. It's very sneaky and shady though because if I was not so Type A and check my account info regularly I could have totally missed it. They basically just tacked it onto your account and if you are not paying attention to your final balance owing it would be easily overlooked. Makes me wonder how many other people out there had it added on (without credit back) and if they don't call and complain would it just be left like that?....

I think FLL is an easier airport, but if MIA is significantly cheaper, go for it.

I hate to be skeptical..but they are a business..and ur damn right with all the cancelled cruises and donations that's eating into their bottom line! Were they going to do this anyways?....prob so....however, what a great time to slip in this extra cost when everyone is praising there hurricane relief efforts. Just sayin.......

I don’t understand why they don’t sell something like a 10 drink card that can be used by either person in a cabin. That way if you want a glass of wine each night with dinner you can just “clip the card” each night until there are none left. You buy 2 cards if you want 20 drinks between you. By card i mean a virtual card assigned to your Sea Pass account. i don’t drink but from the pricing I see for the deluxe drinks package that is some serious dollars even for just one person let alone two. maybe they should also consider a cabin drinks cabin that is a bit cheaper than 2 single drinks packages (a bit like voom for more than 1 device)

It is this line that seems to be interesting I don't normally drink alcohol and would actually prefer a coke or a mocktail to a beer and cocktail most days. If this is the case does this mean I do not have to purchase the Delux package and can get the Replenisher package instead? Surely if this is true then the whole policy is almost a farce?

Those donated generators don't pay for themselves. Timing to release this policy change was very calculated. No such thing as a "free" lunch.

Hey be thankful that you still have hair! If a fly landed on my head then he would slip off and break a leg!

Hi, In that case then I think the 40% off sale that is on now is the best I have seen over the last few years. I find 30% off with onboard credit is usually the next best offer. Usually the 50% off one traveller is the most expensive relative to the other prices. I can't help you with when the best month to book is as I just check the price whenever a new sale starts to see if it is cheaper than what I have currently paid. That is why I have rebooked our South Pacific cruise 2 times already. It was originally booked under the South Pacific Sale, then the 30% off sale and now the 40% off sale. I don't think it will get any cheaper than it is now but I will continue to keep an eye out. There is a chance if the cruise is unpopular then the pricing may come down more to move stock. We only book ever for 2 so I am not sure how the pricing changes for more people than that.

Well, screw 'em. Now I won't be purchasing the package, and will be all too cognizant of my purchases, thus enjoying my cruise less.

Actually, you get a double benefit by cutting out the alcohol for a few months ahead of time. You get the up-front benefit of the reduced calorie intake, but you also get a secondary benefit that your alcohol tolerance quickly goes down. So when you finally board the ship, that lava flow or glass of scotch or pint of beer suddenly hits a lot harder. Now you're drinking more slowly. Slower drinking = fewer drinks a day = maybe no need for beverage package at all!

OH yeah, one other benefit of stopping all the alcohol intake prior to a cruise is think of the potential savings in money. That savings can be used for to pay for your drink package on board on your next cruise!

I'm sure I am in the minority here but I usually LOSE weight on a cruise b/c the food I eat is so much better for me than the junk I usually eat at home. While I probably eat more often on a cruise than I do at home, I definitely eat BETTER when I am on a cruise. Not to worry about me wasting away. I put it back on in RECORD time when I get home !

I wold but I promised my son zero sodas. Mainly drinking PowerAde Zero. He did agree that an Jack Daniels & Coke is not a soda however!

I do not diet pre cruise, but I also am in the gym regularly as well as taking the steps as much as possible to try to keep off the weight. This next cruise I am going to try something new and add in a few protein shakes rather than snacking. I know that I am on vacation but I do not want to pack on the needless pounds either! I feel that if I cut some of the indulgence out and make sure that I am actively burning calories that I can manage to keep the weight gain down to a minimum.

I am dieting/exercising and while I am not doing it because of the cruise, we (my son and I) are using the Cruise date as a "marker". His original goal was for me to reach 220 by the cruise. I now think that goal is iffy as the rate of decline has slowed. Still I have lost 32 pounds so far (need another 30 to reach 220). We are also working out at the gym and doing pull ups so we can conquer Liberty's climbing wall together. I sure miss my cokes......

John, we just did this 2 weeks ago. We took the ship's bus service from the port to MIA but probably next time I will just do a taxi. Thanks Raye, I started thinking back, last time I cruised out of Port Everglades was 2012 so I'm a little rusty...

I totally understand your concern - its always a total crapshoot if you end up with compatible table mates. My wife and I have only been seated at a four top once before, all others were six tops and up. Luckily the other couple at the four top was very nice and we had an enjoyable time talking with them. Our last cruise we sat at a 12 top and we ended up pairing off as two groups of six.... and the two groups never said a word to each other. It wasn't awkward, we just really had a lot in common with the other four people at our end of the table and it was nonstop conversation! My suggestion, see what you get and you can always get it changed after the first night. That is especially important on a longer cruise - we have been lucky and only had one cruise where we could not STAND the obnoxious drunks we were seated with and asked (insisted) to be moved to another table.

100% had this happen. I prefer a bigger table with more people but I'm the more the merrier type and love to get to know new people on cruises. Saying that - I work in NYC and avoid people like they have the plague in my regular life.

I've always been when I book - what size table I'd like and if I'd like first or second seating. My friend and I prefer a sharing table of 8-10 but note that your table mates may not show up! Earlier this year we were on a table for 8 and there was only one other couple on the table and they didn't come to dinner every night

You can call prior to the cruise and see if they can help, sometimes they can, sometimes not. On boarding day we go to the dining room and find our table, mainly so we don't have to hunt at dinner time but also see how big it is. If you do this and its not to your liking, the maître d' will be around for you to ask if something can be done. I would do this as early as possible since there is usually a line wanting to change tables.

Unofficial...check Fan site....check

Sure, but 1) who are you? A bit of preamble would be in order. Entering kicking and screaming and what should be expected on our end? 2) Where was your good? 3) Honestly, I do see this as a FAN site. Some may disagree with me, and that's fine. But I do think the majority are fans here. See, if you entered by saying, "I'm a fan, I love Royal Caribbean because, blah, blah, blah, but WHAT IN THE HELL ARE THEY DOING TODAY?" it's likely I would have reacted quite differently. 4) No one here works for Royal Caribbean, as far as I know. Maybe there are lurkers that do. None of the people that run the website do, that much I know. How are they in the know? By keeping themselves in the loop. That takes time and effort. Others can come here FOR FREE and benefit from their "hobby" and they gladly share their time and effort FOR FREE. So, showing some appreciation should be in order. Thanks for listening.

Zero. If your cruise ends up being cancelled or shortened, RC has shown with other sailings affected by the hurricanes they have provided the option of refunds or future cruise credits. I think what some of the responses boil down to is a response to an initial post that seemed a bit too alarmist. I think there's plenty of posts you can find here where we have called Royal Caribbean out for poor decisions/ideas, but the fair thing to do is look at each situation holistically and on a separate basis. I think we can all understand your anxiety related to your cruise happening, but as you stated, Adventure is slated to return to regular service on October 7. The bottom line is I believe your sailing will depart as scheduled, and odds are you will have a great sailing. Your departure date is far enough into the future that the impact of Hurricane Maria and the issues at hand today will be likely resolved to a point that it has little to no impact on your vacation.

I can understand your frustration...you planned what looks like a great vacation and are eager to get it started, but things are kind of up in the air with what the situation will be like in a few weeks. Your cruise is not for another 3-4 weeks. A lot can change between now and then. The Port of Key West has already reopened. In Royal Caribbean's defense, I'm not sure what you want them to do that they reallistically can do. They cannot predict what the state of affairs will be in a few weeks, nor can they give you any 100% reassurances that your cruise will or will not occur. My advice is to take a step back, and not worry about things until you're much closer in. Perhaps 1-2 weeks away you can start looking around at the state of the airport, hotels, and the port itself. With a mid October cruise, you're just too far away to start worrying yourself over this. That's just plain false.

{sarasm:ON} Great first post. {/sarcasm:OFF}

I continue to be disappointed by the complete lack of dark beers but am adding that Hennessy Black Bull to my list of drinks to try!

It appears that you already KNOW what to eat and what not to eat. As dining should be, moderation in everything. You don't need to order extra appetizers, two entreés just because they are available at no charge in the MDR. RCL offers sugar free desserts and they are plainly labeled on the menus and at the buffets. If you feel you have over indulged, they head upstairs to the walking track and hit it for fifteen twenty laps. Bon Voyage and Bon Appétit!!