LetsTryThisPlace

If you can afford a B2B2B you can afford some new underwear 
Reminds me of a "tip" a helpful cruiser was trying to provide in another forum.  You know how when the time changes during daylight savings time and they tell you to replace the batteries in your smoke detector?  Apparently this cruise discards their underwear when they cruise and uses the opportunity to acquire new ones. 

Welcome to the message boards!
Anything you book in the cruise planner has to be paid immediately.  Up to approximately four days before sailing you can cancel anything booked in the cruise planner for a full refund.   At least that is how it has worked up to this point.  I often purchase Voom, excursions or drink packages then when they go on sale I refund them and repurchase.  I do this often. 
For example I've done the zip line at Labadee on three different cruises.  Each time I bought it, then when it went on sale I refunded it and bought it on sale at 20% off.  Last sale event (before this weekend's sale) I had bought Voom for the Royal Caribbean Blog Alaska Group Cruise in June but that sale dropped the price so I refunded it and repurchased at the cheaper price. 
In the the cruise planner at the very top is "Order History".  You'll find any purchases you've made there and can cancel them right from there.  You can call and do it over the phone too.
Like many things in life prices do tend to move upward over time so buying when you see it at an affordable price for your budget is smart.  If it goes down, refund and repurchase, if it goes up you've got the best deal locked in. If you simply change your mind, refund it.  

I would love an RC Blog one @Matt 
It just occurred to me after I posted the last message that we might get WOW bands in the Family Junior suite so my kids might not need the lanyards.  I have Disney ones, but it would be weird to wear those.  It wouldn't be @twangster approved lol

It's been my experience that when you book through a TA, they usually send something to your cabin. Everytime I celebrate my birthday, I always get the cake & champagne with a singing choir at the MDR from my TA. Pretty awesome and embarrassing! ??

It's not an unusual for a cruise director to ask the audience during the welcome aboard show.  Someone always cheers when they ask if anyone is celebrating a divorce.  Sometimes its me.  

? One of these things is not like the other... ?

You can refer to a past Cruise Compass, which will give you a ballpark idea of what time shows typically are. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass

P.S.  you won't want to decide on pizza.
 
 

Welcome aboard, Merissa !  melski94 has it right ! Make your dining reservations with your entertainment schedule in mind and if you need to make a change just be willing to be flexible and all will be well !  Just remember, you will NEVER go hungry on a cruise.  There is always SOMEwhere to eat (as long as you're not expecting lobster at 3AM).
To me, that's part of the fun.  Do your best to anticipate what you will be doing but don't be afraid to deviate, throw your schedule overboard and make a whole new plan !  That's what MTD is for ! The impulsive ones among us !

This will be our second B2B on the Allure. We did a B2B on the Jewel in 2010. Our first cruise, ever, was a 7 Day on the Navigator. After that cruise we decided that seven days was just not enough time. So from then on we only selected 10-14 day cruises or a B2B. For us, it's the only way to go. Mind you, we are fortunate enough to be able to drive from NC to the port in FL so we don't have to do the baggage dance at the airport. Plus, we get to bring home LOTS of duty free booze! The problem I have right now is that my wife is talking about a 3 week B2B and I am starting to like the idea.  Guess I'll have to break open another barrel of money!

Yeah, before you know it they’re gonna start charging me to play at the casino!
Oh, wait...
 
 
?

For the tickers, I’ve found they don’t correctly update the countdown clock that’s part of the image. Not sure if this is an issue with how the software for these boards works (it might immediately download the image and save it on the server to reduce bandwidth usage), or a bug in the cruise-ships.com software that generates the image.
I basically gave up on the countdown images, especially since they take up a good bit of space. Now I just add extra text lines to my signature in small font size, listing upcoming and completed.

Ya, they have another 30% sale on drinks and internet :) I swear the internet is the same as it was before.

RCI HQ actively participates in bring your kids to work for a day concept.  Often, they also let the kids do the work too.  Explains a lot.

Oasis on 2-11, 9 days and counting. Just Dad and my 5 year old girl! I'm as excited as she is.

Hmm...let  me see what excuse I can come up with...2001...I had just started teaching (and did I mention that you don't learn much in teacher's college), so more like flying blind while teaching and I was trying to plan a wedding for about 350 guests.  I basically watched nothing from 2000-2002 except for the kids that I was responsible for at the time.  But I will do some YouTube searching this weekend.  Life is more calm now ?

To paraphrase The Tick (animated one, not current Amazon show):
”Foreign Exchange spreadsheet... boring... losing... CONSCIOUSNESS” ::thud::
I work in the financial industry and I’ve even had to write a UI for an FX Exhange system, but the actual mechanics of FX and how to optimize currency conversions? Well, let’s just just say it’s a good thing I wrote the system’s user interface and not the underlying services and back-end interfaces to actually do the legwork. ?

Move west down the 401.  Great thing about border cities are that all American shopping is super close and flying out of a US airport of more convenient.  I still need to retire and move to Florida though.  Long term goals lol

Whoops! so sorry all the data I typed up was me... though there is a likelihood I just havent found the posts that @gears may have posted that gave similar data. 
My degree is in something completely useless ...I just LOOOOOVE spreadsheets and im visual so it helps both in comparing side by side as well as historically. 
its kind of a 2 parter... Royal Caribbean Gift Certificates are charged in USD funds, whichever route you take..
now with regards to HOW I pay, whether its certificates or a TA or RC, I use a zero conversion credit card. I find it more favourable than a designated USD credit card. 
I have a USD CC but in order to pay that, you're eventually going to have to draw that amount from a Canadian source to pay off right? Even if you have a USD Bank account  sadly (at least in the case of the card/ account I use) their FX is still MORE. For example, supposedly a borderless plan enables you to have a more "favourable" exchange rate... and dont get me wrong, it still does....
using the same example I did above: 
Example: 10,000 USD as of Feb 1/ Feb 2 at 10:01 am EST
0% conversion= $2,334
CDN bank to US account in CDN bank =  $2591
2.5% Visa Conversion(was a live rate)= $2,642
2.5% Masterccard Conversion (rate from previous day) = $2,617
CDN Bank to US based bank = $2760
Borderless = $2,703
=-==-=

I hope you do :) 

Welcome to the boards!  You'll be getting on with excitement just as we'll be dragging ourselves off!  We are the sailing right before you.  I'm thinking of live blogging it this time so if I do, ask away while I'm on board.  If not, you can still message me. But read @twangster's blogs.  They are so informative!

I posted my slightly nuts method on the Conversion rate for non US Cruisers ...I'd retype it but its wicked long . 
But for you @LetsTryThisTech if youre ever in an area with tons of snowbirds...say Florida , pop into any bank, ask if they have familiarity with dealing with Canadians, and they should happily open you one... just bring your SIN if you don't have an SSN and valid proof you're Canadian ( I say that because I dont know what stuff they expect from someone living in the Cayman Islands lol)
 
 
 

So excited!! Nothing I love more in life than vacationing with the ones I love!

Perfect example is the MSC Seaside right now.  Charge for everything, bowling, F1 Simulator etc.  Or you can buy a "Fun Pass".  Zip line was free for the first 3 sailings but now there is a charge for that too.  Reason?  Crowd control.  Like @WAAAYTOOO said, this all leaves me with a bad feeling....

Royal Caribbean may have their own math system. You missed nothing.