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1. This piece of art will be worth double what your paying before the years out. 2. This Invicta watch is a quality timepiece and you can’t find it cheaper anywhere but here. 3. You can only order two lobsters on lobster night.

That the ship will wait for passengers to finish their beers at the pier side bar.

That the calories on cruises don't count.

My neighbor (a Carnival cruiser) advised me to make sure I go to guest services and remove the tips because it makes the cruise too expensive. He also had some great ideas on sneaking alcohol onboard. I smiled and added another reason why I prefer Royal.

You have to get the dinner and beverage packages

Just show up and have a good time. There is actually a bit of prep to have a good time, such as reading these boards! Booking excursions ahead of time. Knowing how to handle reservations onboard.

Radiance of the Seas transited the Panama Canal old locks on 1 April 2022 (this year) so she will probably transit using the old locks (new ones are much more expensive from what I am reading on cruise critic). We are on the 20 October 2022 cruise and are definitely looking forward to this bucket list trip that was cancelled 2 years ago.

Years ago, I asked a travel agent how far in advance I should book a cruise. I was told it didn't really matter, but 6 months was probably good. I have since learned to book early, when deployment schedules are announced.

If they all followed their check in times there would be no "insane" lines.

"Don't go! Everybody I have ever spoke with who went on a cruise got seasick."

Matt, the comment I hear the most is "you don't need a Travel Agent to book a cruise and you will get a better price booking directly through the Cruise Line. I consistently get better deals through Paz my TA. Along with better deals I have an advocate who works for me and behalf not the cruise line should there be a problem. I am glad to say in my 69 cruises with RCCL there hasn't been a problem we couldn't work out. Great question. Bill

Coming up on 48 hrs and still no luck...maybe it's my bank hinting I should take a break from booking cruises for a while

I can't wait to find out what this was!

Thank you! Had her tested this morning at Walgreens - negative !

Cleared history on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning no luck. After Pattycruise' post tried again and it's working.

Our terminal experience in March was car to suites waiting area in less than 15 minutes. First check in time, no waiting at any point.

Yes! They are truly entertaining and he is sincere in his answers.

I don’t particularly like asking questions in that forum…but I do enjoy hearing others ask away. I really make the effort to attend and support the event just by being there. Especially depending on the Captain, HD, CD at the time…for example; I love hearing the interaction between Capt. Srecko, CD Joff and HD Tony Curtis on the Anthem. Though they provide good answers to the questions, they add quite a bit of comic relief. I even jokingly suggested to them that they advertise themselves as a comedy trio and perform in the theater. I also believe Capt. Srecko is excellent at understanding and answering the questions.

That’s a true scientific fact I just made up!

I know that Matt might take offense, but…. For first time cruisers, don’t book a short cruise. I have personally given this advice, and more often than not, I found that cruising wasn’t for everyone and those people complained that they wanted off after 2-3 days. I say go in a 3 night cruise and if it left you wanting more, spend the money you would have spent on a long cruise and go on another. Don’t hate on the answer, hate on the people who don’t like cruising.

Use the gym or running track.

Yep... I had a 1/2 hour to hour on edge that I had it yesterday... Not since on Edge, Safari, Chrome, 6 devices no love... Monmouth County...

Okay Okay Okay. Keeping in mind that I really wasn't at all sure how successful this would be and it is the first time, I didn't go to the "extreme value" side of it, I kept to the "or not" side. And I wasn't too sure how much the crew would follow thru or be honest about it but I did try to make sure that it was only available to those that read this forum. And I honestly don't know what went wrong with this experiment so I won't throw stones at anybody. But, the item was an item I picked up in Sitka, an Alaska Beer Can Koozie in the shape of a cowboy boot. Only a few bucks. So, stay tuned for my next cruise and hopefully for others to get involved in what could be a very fun activity for this small group of cruisers.

Today is the day! We are ready to go!

The JR on Anthem had the adult milk shakes when I was on in December. I had a few vanilla with Malibu rum shakes yum.

In CT here, white screen for 3 days now. I like the file change idea. Whenever our IT dept said we were getting an update that would have “no effect” on our user programs, we all cringed at how much would not work for days/weeks while they fixed what the update screwed up. Wasn’t supposed to do that!! And yet…

Yes. You can buy a "rest of cruise" package on any day. It will just be prorated for however many days are left.

Focus on the mention of "local pharmacies" and forget Quest. Endless reports of good experiences at Walgreens and CVS for starters. My family of 8 used both yesterday and all had positive experiences... but fortunately negative results.

We were in Liberty in January twice, I think it was $30 to start but for $60 or $90 or whatever the special was, that was all than two people could manage. I think that was 3 ipads and a bunch of sheets for 60 or 90. The increase was warranted, spend twice as much get 4x the cards, I can't remember specifically but going cheap was a serious reduction in the odds, so we split a package, my BIL won much more than his investment, we didn't win anything but had fun. Considering how fast we can lose at the casino, it seemed like a bargain to only lose $45 each over the course of an hour or two as a worse case scenario. Jackpots rose as the days wore on, so later in the week had better payouts at the same cost but it seemed to happen most days we just only went when convenient. Those were the mask indoors days so I spent as little time indoors as possible.

It's possible that the points have actually updated but are just not showing on the front page of your account (this happened to my SIL). There is a way to manually force updated points to show. 1. Log into your account 2. Click on your initials at top right and then on "profile" 3. With your profile open, click on my loyalty, which opens up a page showing your loyalty numbers for the different brands 4. Delete your C+A number and re-enter it and save. If the points have been updated in Royal's system, this should make them appear on the front page of your account.

One of two things. They made a change to one of their files that I believe caused the error. If you had the old version of the file cached on your browser, you may still have been able to use the site. Second reason could be due to how some websites deliver content regionally to make things load faster. You in Minneapolis would connect to a server closer to Minneapolis than say someone in Miami. If RC fixed their issue and put it out to the new servers there can be a lag in how long it takes for users to see the new version of the site. While it really shouldn't take that long that person in Miami could see the updated site before you in Minnesota would because the server closest to Miami already got the update, but the one close to you didn't yet.

Yes that is exactly what I meant. I am very much leaning into the "Disney gay" stereotype right now for content.

I typically avoid Royal Excursions - Generally, you can get a better excursion for less money on your own. A few exceptions: 1. Tendered Ports- In these ports, there can be severe delays in getting off the ship depending on the tender setup and size of the ship. The Royal excusions will always get off first. Sometimes the time difference can be enough to strongly consider the Royal excursion. 2. Long/ complicated excusions - I would not, as an example, attempt to do the Tulum Mayan ruins excursion on my own from Cozumel. There is a ferry/bus involved and the timing is difficult. The ship will wait for the late arriving Royal excursions, they will not wait if you self-booked excursion is late. Because of the distance involved in travelling from La Spezia to Florence, as an example, I think a good argument could be made for doing one of the ship excursions. There are also multiple tour operators that have private tours that will do the same thing. These are reputable companies that would not operate for long if they were bringing passengers back after the ship has left. I am on Wonder of the Seas leaving next Thursday leaving from Rome and I have a mix of both excursions planned.

wait ... THERE ARE COOKIES????????????????????????????????????/

FrHoffard giveth, FrHoffard taketh away too?

This little excursion into a fun activity seems to have failed or at least something went wrong. HOWEVER, I'm going to turn this into a cruising custom for, at least, me. Every cruise now, I'm going to purchase something of extreme value, or not, from local sources and hide it on the ship. I would also like to involve a crew member or two (I did give the crew on this sailing a healthy tip to follow through with this) with instructions of what to do. I'll also make up a clue that will take, at least a little, thought to cypher and locate the extreme value, or not, item. It's kinda like Geocaching or Ducking but with a take home prize of extreme value, or not. I invite anyone else to do the same on their next cruises. My next booking isn't until Jan 2024. BUT, my wife is already getting the bug to cruise again, soon. What the hell, we just got off the Ovation a week ago today. She needs an intervention. Oh, we're only 3 points away from Diamond status and she wants it so badly. I keep telling her that we cruise Star and we don't need a status other than that. But, I guess she likes diamonds In a day or two, I'll post what the item of extreme value, or not, is/was. Unless someone posts that they got it.

Thanks KristiZ, that's great info... Let's hope things haven't changed too much!!

I would say the opposite, I’m not saying don’t use a travel agent but they definitely aren’t necessary. The times I’ve used them it was me contacting them to tell them I found a better price.

To be fair, those aren’t really “advice,” they are plain false and dumb assertions. But yes, those are terrible assertions!

You should arrive at your assigned check-in time. Arriving early and ports not enforcing the times is what causes lines.

Oh wow I'm also in Monmouth County. Not working on Chrome or my phone which is a Pixel 4XL.

I had done an email to MBayley yesterday, no response. I dropped a note on his FB page today.

Learned from captain today: The smoke stacks are retracted a couple of hours before we get to verrazano bridge. On way back about 5-530 am we hit bridge. 20 people on bridge to help captain navigate ship. 2 captains per ship. 10 weeks to 2 months vacation. 5700 people on this sailing out of 6700 passengers. We took a detour through Bahamas before we hit Nassau because of Elon Musk and his rockets. This cruise director goes home tomorrow with us..his contract ends.

Oh wow, I hadn't check this thread out before starting my own that is now closed, opps, sorry. Anyway yeah I'm having this issue. Blank white screen. Tracking Oasis cruise for next May. I think the price dropped significantly too.

The shuttle bus is a ~10 minute ride. I suppose you could walk it but there isn't a lot to see on the road. It's 5.5 miles. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&mid=14wMpL7D-1JbSoYZt6jr5FfOwpuE&ll=57.091431313510576%2C-135.36448000000001&z=13 The trails around the National Historical Park are easy with minor elevation changes. I just did them a few weeks ago. I took the free shuttle and walked the 10 minutes from the shuttle bus stop to the Park. If you are going to look for more hiking in the area outside of downtown come prepared with bear spray and a cowbell or something that makes noise. Definite bear country.

Sorry, I was responding to the person complaining bout the Deluxe Beverage Package and forgot to quote them.

Mr. Bean, probably.

For us the best benefit to booking with next cruise is the up to $300 OBC. We booked with NextCruise and then had it transferred to our TA and ended up with almost $700 OBC between the two of them. But really that's it. NextCruise bookings don't have any cheaper fares, they abide by whatever sale is currently running and you don't have a dedicated TA once you get off the cruise to reprice or struggle with any Royal changes. It's really just the OBC I think that makes it worth it, to me.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say, "Deck 5" as it is the Promenade deck where the retail and fast food shops (generally speaking) are located, Every Royal Ship I've entered was on the Promenade deck.

They each need to go to RoyalCaribbean.com ….. then click on “sign in”. Then from the sign in page click on “create an account” That account will generate their C&A number.