RamblingRandie

I am also looking for flights for a Miami cruise in March of 2024. My preferred airports do not fly into Miami. And the times for the flights to Miami and the airports I can fly out of are real bad. I have been thinking of doing the same as you. Fly into FLL, stay at hotel in FLL and get a transport to Miami in the morning. 

4 hours ago, MoBrien said:

So the update is that we woke this morning from an email from Royal to find out we have been upgraded to a Crown Loft Suite.

I'm so excited for you. Have a great trip!!!

18 hours ago, Ray said:

No sleaveless shirts???? is that just for evening meal or ALL meals in MDR

All meals.  Last month we had 2 friends turned away on two different days for breakfast because they had a tank top on.  

Just to pass on, men are not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts.  So tank tops or muscle shirts not allowed.  But I didn't see them turn away most everything else.  Their website suggest the same thing. 

Have a great trip.

26 minutes ago, ellcee said:

These Windjammer pictures are making me want to skip the MDR for dinner..too bad my travel mates are stuck on the MDR at a time that is too early for me on vacation (first world problems).

I've been thinking the same thing.

Have a great trip. Harmony right now is on my bucket list of ships to sail on. Unfortunately unless I win the lottery it will be a few years.  So I will just have to live vicariously through you.

Thank you for the awesome review and photos. Looks like you had a great trip.

Loving the live blog and your scopes. Looks like you are having a great time.

I agree with above postings.  You can use a debit card, but it does create problems with the holds.  I recently tried to explain this to someone I was cruising with who didn't heed my warning and their account ended up overdrawn.  It all worked out in the end but it took awhile for the holds to be removed.  I always recommend a credit card or cash.

For the drink packages, you will need your seapass card to order.  When you check in at the pier they will give you your seapass card and it opens your room door and it works like a credit card on the ship if you want to purchase anything in a shop or restaurant.  One of you can go up with both cards to order 2 drinks. But you will have to have the card when you order.  I hope that makes sense.

I almost booked a cruise 2 weeks ago in the NextCruise office.  I decided to wait since it was going to be for at least 2 years out due to financial reasons, and who knows what will happen in that time. Fast forward to today and I found out the price has gone up several hundred dollars, and that is for the non refundable rate.  If you want to find out what the refundable rate is, you have to go all the way through the booking site and enter all of the cruisers information before given that option.  So now I have no plans to book a cruise til last minute as I don't feel there is any benefit anymore. Here is to a lonely couple years with no countdowns to look forward to.

I always have the maps channel on. lol. It's around channel 14 I think. I could be wrong.  I always want to see if there are any islands around. And having a balcony you can now run outside to see. lol. Have a great trip.

3 hours ago, Boston Babe said:

Thank you for your timely update! I literally told my husband, we really need to think about the Scooter as I think it will be more of a burden than anything else. We are on a smaller ship (Grandeur) and only to Bermuda.  He just had 2 cortisone shots today into his hips, so that and a cane I am hoping he will be just fine. I mentioned the elevators and dining areas to him too so you just reaffirmed that.  Our stateroom too is almost across from the elevators. Do I take it you didn't have an accessible room as we don't either.  All in all I do hope you and your family and mother in law had a fabulous time!!  

My mother in law did not have an accessible room.  We were on Freedom so it was a lot larger than Grandeur.  And our room was halfway down the aft hallway.  I insisted she get it for this reason. Have a great time.

14 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

...as long as your OBC is the refundable variety.

Oh yes. I meant if you didn't have any OBC.

If you don't use all the cash in your onboard account by the end of the cruise, go to guest services to settle your account and they will refund you the money not spent.

I just got back from my cruise and wanted to give you an update on how my mother in law fared with the scooter.  I see a few others have answered since I left and all their information is correct from what I observed.  As described above, her scooter was waiting in her stateroom. She did not have a handicap accessible stateroom but it did fit in the room. If possible I would recommend getting that room.  She could not get the scooter in or out without someone being there.  Our stateroom attendant did let her leave it parked out of the room for this reason.  I would assume, but am not certain, that with the handicap accessible room there would be a way after sliding in your room key to have an automatic door opener. But I have no way to know this for sure.  I just think it would make sense. 

You can get just about anywhere in the scooter, but as stated, you cannot bring it inside the shops or restaurants. It must be parked outside and you have to walk in.  The biggest issue we had was when trying to get off the ship.  You can't take these scooters off the ship.  So my mother in law would drive it down, then she would have to park it in a hallway and get off the ship herself.  There were no wheelchairs waiting except in Labadee.  In St. Kitts she went with her other son. I know they had some issues getting her to the excursion meeting point.  There may have been someone with a golf cart driving back and forth if I remember right.  In St. Maartin they had a tram that went from the boat to the meeting point for the tour buses. But you had to wait for it to come.  So make sure you get off in plenty of time. She didn't get off in San Juan at all as we were just walking around.  Labadee was the easiest port as they had people with wheelchairs waiting right at the ramp. They took you down and through the arch.  You did then had to walk over to where the tram would come, but my husband was able to pay the golf cart driver who was there for Pinnacle and Suite guests to drive us to Columbus Beach. It was my first time there and had heard it was not rocky and it was beautiful and she had no problems getting in and out of the water.  Then we grabbed the other tram car back and when we were dropped off at the beginning of the route there were tons of guys with wheelchairs waiting there also.

The other issue was getting the scooter back after getting off the ship.  When you leave it in the hallway they take your name and room number, then they drive it off site.  Every port we ran into confusion with this. She would get back on board and no one would know what she was talking about.  My advise to anyone with mobility issues is make sure you have plenty of time when getting on or off the ship or even if you need to take an elevator somewhere.  Because during peak times like dinner, it is hard to find one empty enough to pull a scooter into.

Hope this helps.

Have a great trip. I will be on Freedom the same days you are on Symphony so I will have something to read when I get back.

I agree with Sorrento's being a Jersey pizza snob myself.  Awesome review. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

So I have been on 8 previous cruises and I have always been told to leave my passport on the ship because you don't want to lose it.  I've also heard if you miss the boat that they will go into your safe and remove your passport and leave it with a pier agent.  I have never stressed about it because so far I have always either done a ship excursion or just walked around the port.  But recently I have seen a lot more chatter about this topic and people seem very opinionated on both sides of this debate.  So I wonder what everyone here does? 

HaHaHa.  I've see the Ventriliquist twice now.  Once on I think Explorer out of NY in 2014 and last year on Allure.

My mother-in-law rented a scooter for our upcoming cruise leaving this Saturday. She has been having some mobility issues also. I will see what I find out and let you know after the cruise. I know she didn't get a handicap accessible room so she told me she had to get one that had max width at 18 so it would fit in the stateroom. So that may come into play for you depending on the room you have.

Have a wonderful cruise.

14 - RamblingRandie - Freedom

I agree. Last cruise we were asked by our wait staff to make sure we gave them all 10's. I didn't feel like they were bad but also didn't think they deserved that high of a rating. I indicated on the survey no one requested a high rating, but I didn't feel right doing that either.