twangster

I've cruised in May several times. Last time was on May 5th. Very pleasant weather typically. Always a chance of a pop up rain storm coming through but that is always the case in the Caribbean. Great ship! Enjoy your cruise! If you are new to Oasis class this site has a ton of information to help you plan and get through the next 10 months.

Great blog! Thanks for coming back and updating it. Were you on deck leaving Juneau? Perhaps I captured your from Explorer as you sailed past. Here is Radiance leaving Juneau that night:

From your Alaskan blog it sounds like you had a great time! Your kids have no idea what they missed. I took my mid-20s son with me on Explorer to Alaska and he loved it. 2020 is anyone's guess. We'll have to see how Ovation does in 2019.

I'm hoping it does expand to other ships. If you want to dress up, dress up. If you don't, then don't. Takes all the hurt feelings away when some guests choose not to dress up as much as others think they should.

The Oasis class including Harmony never tender. The ship is too big.

In the Caribbean on non-formal nights that will likely be fine. They might get away with it on formal nights but then again... 'Formal' is more of a suggestion. It's a hotly debated subject with some folks loving it and some folks hating it. Shorts on formal night however might be pushing your luck.

Odd. For a US cruise and a Barcelona cruise I see a small price break of 5% when comparing the 1 device to a 2 device plan.

I wish all cruise lines would be more diligent about collecting the towels and charging for their non-return. That would solve the hog issue pretty quickly.

Terrible. Hopefully Royal will cancel this excursion and stop using this tour operator. Even if the husband went without being given the instruction to, that possibility shouldn't be allowed to occur and that is the zip line operator's error.

That is why I call and request the invoice. It's a temporary thing until they bring more functionality to the new website. I have 26 cruises booked right now, it hasn't hampered me at all.

It's a ride sharing service that allows virtually any individual to take their personal car and become a taxi like service. Understand it is someone's personal car and the app facilitates the transaction between you and the stranger driving it, charging your credit card the pre-determined rate. You never know what kind of car or driver will be assigned. The app requires an internet connection so coming from Canada consider if you will have a data connection while in the US to use the app. It's often much cheaper than a conventional taxi.

I often make bookings direct when I see particular cabin I want then I transfer them to a travel agent. I've made a dozen bookings over the last two months, some later cancelled, some transferred to an agency. In the end I always have a travel agent involved. Either way I call and have the invoice emailed to me. It's never been the issue that apparently it is for some. Here is a sample email I get with each payment applied (before transferring to an agent). This isn't the initial email from moment of booking, rather for an additional deposit I added after the initial deposit: I think you can create an account if you have never sailed RCI and you'll have "Pre-Gold" C&A status.

10pm - 11pm it will quiet down unless some loud group of guests hoots and hollers leaving a bar.

I like to walk. Old San Juan isn't that big if you don't have any mobility challenges. It's one of my favorite ports. I let my driver know so he could adjust head count and not waste time waiting for me but once the new San Juan portion was complete and we were back in Old San Juan I like to self explore a bit. If it's super hot outside or it's approaching back on board time staying with the bus might be smarter.

Welcome to the message boards! GTY can be assigned any time, right up until the day of the cruise. I generally like it when it takes a long time to get an assigned cabin because that sometimes indicates you end up with an upgrade or better cabin. I booked an Ocean View GTY and ended up with a balcony once. Which ship?

My Time Dining - You don't have to make reservations but like at any land based restaurant if you show up during peak dinner hours without a reservation you may have to wait for a table. I often make reservations ahead of time (before sailing) then adjust them on board to suit the day. Air2Sea - sometimes cheaper than direct, sometimes more than direct, but they have a limited safety net in the event of flight delays. Read and ask questions to make sure you understand how it works. Transfers - typically a ride share or even a taxi can be cheaper than the ship transfer service, especially for two or more people. Adventure in October so Port Everglades right? (Fort Lauderdale) Ride share is under $15 with tip, taxi ~ $22 from Fort Lauderdale airport. The ship has a cell tower on board they activate once away from land. For most cell phone carriers it's pretty expensive, especially the data services which is where most people get surprise bills a few weeks after the cruise (from their cell phone provider). If you understand how to turn of data roaming and avoid using it for voice calls the small charges for each text can be economical if you keep your texting to minimums. The general wisdom is to turn on airplane mode on board to avoid surprise charges from your cell phone company. TMobile $5.99 per minute for voice calls $0.50 to send a text, $0 to receive text Verizon $2.99 per minute for voice calls $0.50 to send a text, $0.05 to receive text AT&T $3.00 per minute for voice calls $0.50 send/receive text $6.14/MB data ATT does have different cruise ships packages some with limited minutes for voice calls and some unlimited. For example $100 for 200MB of data, unlimited voice calls and texting. Wifi plans on board are typically cheapest if purchased before sailing. On board the 24 hour pass rate is the most expensive way to go, buying "full voyage" plans are cheaper but not as cheap as pre-cruise. My phone and carrier support wifi calling so with a purchased wifi plan (called Voom) my phone works like at home in airplane mode and connected to the ship wifi. Be aware ship internet is over satellite and not as fast as internet on land. Voom (wifi) is often put on sale in the cruise planner. A recent July 4th sale saw many Voom discounts beyond the normal pre-cruise discounts.

Welcome to the message boards! Boardwalk balconies will be noisier during the day. At night after any aqua shows have ended the boardwalk will become quiet. The Central Park balcony cabins do tend to be quieter simply because there is no venue like the aqua theater that also plays movies or football games at times during the day. Central Park often has some live musicians in the early evening hours but after that it's just the cricket sounds they pipe in.

Or maybe they are migrating from an old antiquated system and they are deploying a modern fresh platform and they will eventually add it back as they have indicated. A buddy of mine use to be do outsourced work on the open source database in the back end. It was a mess. Given how poorly the migration to the new site went, I'm guessing they are taking all additional steps in this process a little more seriously than they took the first few steps.

Call the C&A desk. They handle these requests too.

A simple phone call. No sales pitch. It took 3 minutes.

I did. The details were buried in this live blog: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5195-independence-122117-9-night-christmas/&do=findComment&comment=51953 For the price it was a decent way to try something different. On the bus ride the driver narrated and provided many tidbits of information. That is why I will endure bus tours - because you can learn so much that can be used on future visits. Tip - avoid the seats over the wheels. The wheel wells curve up and into the rows of seats above the wheels making for zero leg room.

I am intrigued by the factor that the CD plays into this. To me the CD/AM is far down the list and not even a consideration or awareness of until I board. @Joe01 - a trend I've noticed on Carnival focused forums is how the CD on Carnival makes or breaks the cruise experience for many Carnival guests. You might possibly look into this and consider a Carnival cruise where the CD is much more important than they are on Royal. I've sailed Carnival 10 times and can confirm the CD has a more visible role especially on the pool deck.

No. The BOGO is specifically designed to fill the specialty restaurants on the first two days when most people haven't figured out they exist yet and they are lightly used. As such they are not flexible on moving the reservations to other nights when they tend to be busier.

I always take a photo of the code with my phone so I always have it with me. Sometimes I can remember it but more often than not I can't.

I don't think USCG does any enhanced inspection for ships leaving the region - that would be up to the equivalent organization in Australia when she arrives. It's more likely the local port employees and/or union have made it desirable to handle the boarding process in a single shift. Otherwise overtime would be involved if they made the terminal available starting at 10am and were still loading luggage close to departure at 10pm. The workers in the terminal are not usually RCI employees rather they are employed by the local port operator. Additional labor costs to staff the terminal for an extended boarding window would ultimately be passed onto cruise guests so I'm guessing it's in everyone's best interest to accept guests starting at 4:30pm. Given the infrequency of this itinerary (once a year) it may be more challenging to find previous cruisers who have experienced boarding for this cruise but ultimately that is who you need to hear from.