cruisinghawg

2 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

How do they bypass the Homeland Security Checkpoint at the Eisenhower entry? Everyone has to present ID, cruise ticket & passport. I would imagine an entire bus load would be time consuming. As for walking in (as the OP stated), it’s not possible as the Port is secure and there are petroleum assets and critical infrastructure to contend with. It’s much easier just to drive your vehicle in and park it next to the ship (see pic):

They do not bypass perse but have their own lane. In other words they do not get in the lane with the cars. The bus pulls up and shows a pass or something but we have never pulled any paper work out to show the check point. 

1 hour ago, tonyfsu21 said:

You will be denied entry into the port. I’ve tried, I live 1/4 mile from the entrance and it’s a homeland security issue.

This is the hassle. We use PNG also and they are very efficient even with a large group. Drive in they unload luggage to their bus and off you go. They drive straight through the Home land security check point and drop you and the family at the luggage drop area. When you return there is usually a bus sitting waiting for you. 

The way you are looking at doing the drop off and check in will take more time. PNG are very good at what they do.

I will keep money aside also. RCCL stretched 2 ships in the 80's, the Song of Norway and the Viking Serenade. The Sun Viking was not as a new build came out named Song of America. It looked like at the time that RC noticed that "bigger was better" as the cruise industry grew. Not to very long after that the mighty Sovereign of the Seas came out.

Interesting

Sun Viking

Okay DW just informed me that we may have gotten those points based on 2 sailings with Celebrity. So if you have sailed on Celebrity maybe this is where the extra points come in.

10 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Holy cow, now I'm learning something. I'm looking at it right now and it a cruise on Explorer 5 nights to Bermuda in a regular balcony June 3rd to June 8th and it just says 2 points. That is baffling because if you count up the actual points next to our 4 cruises it comes out at 34 points, yet somehow I have or we have I should say 59 points. 

Anthem 9 nights ,9 points Explore 5 nights, 5 points, Explorer 5 nights, 2 points, Explorer 9 nights 18 points. Does that not come out to 34? Maybe they screwed up all along and fixed it. I'm confused as the title of my thread says. Confused but hey happy, I'll take it. 

Huuuuussssshhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not say a word

4 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Well I'm not totally following but that makes some sense then. Our first 2 cruises were in the old system. The first was 9 night in a suite, Grand suite to be accurate. We booked a year or more in advance. That cruise in my account says 18 points earned which always confused me. The other one in the old system was 5 days in a regular balcony and for some reason that says 2 points earned. None of that makes sense to me but maybe your trained eye or experienced mind can explain it?

Yes I did a lousy job with my explanation but you see through my bumbling attempt. LOL The 18 points make sense, double points for suite, but the 2 points is completely baffling as it should be 5 points. Which could possibly mean they went back and corrected the 5 night cruise plus gave you the 14 bonus. Strange to say the least but congrats!!!!!!

If you sailed with RC before the new C&A program was instituted they gave you 14 points. We started cruising on RC in 1990 and had several cruises with them through the 90's up to 2000. Took some time off then went back in 2003. Somewhere in the very late 90's or early 2000's the C&A program changed. If you could prove that you had sailed with them before 2000 then you received all those points along with an extra 14. Not sure this is what happened but perhaps those extra points were over looked.

3 hours ago, FManke said:

We ate at Giovanni's last week on Serenade. It was fantastic! Well worth the $24 we paid, so it would be a steal at $15.

We enjoyed Chops, we paid $30. To be honest, I'm not sure it's worth the $49. Just my opinion.

I agree $49 is not worth it to us either. But getting 1NDR for $15 the adding another $15 to make it $30 seems reasonable to us. This is what we will try do when we get on board. We have booked Chops for lunch for $19 each with a reduce menu.

15 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Wait, Chops is $49 pp on Oasis? It’s $30 on Freedom. Talk about a location upcharge! ?

Welcome to Oasis class!!!!

We are on Oasis for this Thanksgiving. Okay this is our understanding of 1NDR. We paid 15.00 pp for either Giovonni's or Sabor, as these are the only 2 we have been told do this on Oasis. We have also read that for another 15.00 pp we could upgrade to Chops. Since Chops is 49.00 pp it makes sense to us to explore this for 30.00 which is a 40% discount. Does this sound right?