twangster

The trial was short lived. It's expanded to many ships since then. It's pretty easy for them to implement, I'd assume it's already being provided on your ship.

The pier tends to be the long walk, the taxi stand is 5 minutes through the port area. From the ship maybe a 10-15 minute walk to the taxis.

That sure beats Canada where only 17.5% claim to be able to hold a conservation in two different languages.

The computers are pretty locked down - web browser only that resets every 5 minutes when idle to wipe out any cached data. My question would if if the USB ports are locked down or not? Most of the ones I've seen don't provide access to the desktop or any file utilities to perform a copy. They are locked down to just allow the web browser to function. To be fair though, I've never tried to access the USB ports.

Most Mariner cabins have two 110v outlets (North American style) and one 220v power port (European style). They can't add extra outlets in a room. I bring a plug adapter that allows me to use the 220v power port as well as the 110v outlets. https://shop.cruisehabit.com/products/2-to-1-eu-to-us-power-adapter-gain-extra-outlets-in-your-stateroom?variant=37171684299 Note this doesn't change the voltage from 220v down to 110v it just makes the 220v appear on a North American style outlet. Consequently anything you plug into it must be capable of accepting 220v. Many but not all modern devices are ready to accept 220v. Phone charges, CPAP machines, laptop chargers, etc. Many (but not all) of them can be plugged into 220v outlets. This can free up the remaining two North American outlets for other things. Before using an adapter like this, make sure your devices can accept 220v.

When i first learned to dive 35 years ago it was all instructor led and required many hours sitting a classroom. When i got my daughter certified in 2013 I went through it like I had never dived before. Much it it now is done on a tablet in an app at home replacing the tedious hours in a classroom. The two pool dives done at home or if you do it on the ship are done on sea days and early in the day typically before pools open to the public. I don't know if Royal will do just the two open water check dives to complete it. I know you can often make arrangements with a dive shop in a Caribbean country to do the check dives but that's something you work out directly with the dive shop in advance.

I see. It's true, I didn't factor in the 0.001% I'd earn in my bank account... 🙂

Ketchikan isn't normally on the Seattle itineraries for Royal like it is for Celebrity. For whatever reason, Royal only goes there on the one-way North/South runs on Radiance Class.

Two OBC pitfall scenarios to watch out for: 1. Celebrity promos often include OBC per guest. I had a situation where my +1 couldn't come at the last minute. Her OBC was lost. Had there been no OBC but lower fares, it would have been a better outcome. 2. Had to cancel a cruise at the last minute without a covered reason for insurance purposes. With an OBC component in the effective price, my losses were higher because i still had to pay (and lose) the higher base fare without an opportunity to offset that with OBC. You can argue these are remote possibilities yet if you cruise enough it can happen. Both have to me.

Only for you 🙂

Hmmm. Need option 4. Lowest effective final price of cruise regardless how its derived. To me I don't care if how it's presented, what is the final price? Fare $3,000, OBC $100 = final cost of $2,900 Fare $2,900, OBC $0 = final cost of $2,900 Fare $3,500, OBC $500 = final cost of $3,000 <- bad deal and this is often what I get at NextCruise (a bad deal with lots of OBC).

Fixed.

What are you talking about? All of my pictures are here... Just Kidding - finally fixed them 🙂

They gather people in the theater to be ready to disembark as soon as possible. If they try to gather people at the published arrival time some people are always late. By ‘starting’ an excursion before the publushed arrival time it better ensures everyone is there and they can stream groups off as soon as the ship is cleared without waiting for the inevitable stragglers In some cases where tenders are involved at some ports the ship might have an 8 am ‘published’ arrival time, excursion tenders can run before those open to other non-excursion guests.

Just wait until it's your turn to pay for the next wall.