HeWhoWaits

It's a YMMV thing and not just on Royal. Our recent Holland America Panama Canal Transit ended in San Diego. Customs came on board to do the clearances and instructions were to wait in your stateroom or a public area until your group was called to get in line. They were supposedly only allowing you to get in line once your group was called to the line. The first group was called to proceed to Customs at close to the scheduled time. Then no announcements were made for over 45 minutes, at which time they announced that all of the first SIX groups were free to depart the ship (not just go to customs, but to debark). Needless to say, the line for customs clearance was a complete cluster at this point. We ended up in line for about an hour when we should have been about 10-15 minutes had they followed their own published procedure. Similar to @Ajax586, my mother, who had prearranged departure assistance with a wheelchair, was forced to stand and walk through this process BEFORE being able to get her wheelchair.

Forget famous companies - the United States of America is the world's largest debtor (more than double the next highest, Japan).

1 - Competent IT 2 - Transparency in pricing 3 - Consistent application of policies and practices 4 - Better pizza (go learn from New York Pizza on Holland America)

But it's just pieces of sausage cut up and added to a cream sauce. It is definitely not prepared to match the flavor you can expect to find in the US (not even the places that I would describe the dish as "bland"). The biscuits are usually very good, though.

In the "every street blocked" scenario you propose, there is a good chance that Royal excursions will also be delayed getting back by the same situation. If that happens, you'd be good to go. Your plan to arrive back 15 minutes before the posted all aboard time is reasonable.

And save the $7.95 plus whatever gratuity you give the crew member delivering your order.

That expense (probably) already exists. His salary was in addition to what is (probably) paid for tailored meteorological data.

Assuming there are no issues with ship clearance, you should be fine. My rule of thumb is to book 3rd party no earlier than the first Royal excursion when docked and no earlier than 30 minutes after the first Royal excursion if tenders are required.

They're free to use on Holland America. There were even rolled up pool towels placed on each chair around the main pool every morning.

Mariner, June 2022 - still not received. Inquiry to be made on Freedom next month (when the next one is due).

Hasn't been our experience yet.

Since price is important in your decision, keep the current time and visit the Shore Excursions desk when you board. They may be able to switch your time (depends on availability at the other time).

5:15 is too early. 8:30 is too late. What's that do? It drives more people to MTD. What's THAT do? It requires adjusting the early and late seating times even earlier and later (although we're not seeing that one yet).

$69 for transportation to St. John and back. At least those folks won't get left behind if the transport is late getting back.

Similarly, if you need to book airfare be sure to get in there at 300 days prior to your travel date.

Some places don't even bother with the "tips" concept. Recently at the local market in Cabo San Lucas, there was an attendant at the entrance to the restrooms collecting 50 cents American or one peso (if you've got pesos that's the way to go) per person to use the facilities. Worth it as those restrooms were almost as clean as those on our ship.

I can't answer for @Traveling Mike, but my expectations for food on a cruise are better than a typical local restaurant but not necessarily 5 star. If it was better than I can cook, it would require expecting 5 star quality. The lesser quality isn't just a Royal Caribbean thing. We were recently on Holland America for a 17-night cruise and the offerings were frequently disappointing. Thankfully, if still hungry the pizza was far superior to Sorrento's.

Just like last summer when I had to bring my own cucumber from the WJ buffet to have a bar make me a "Cool as a Cucumber" after being told throughout the cruise that they couldn't because they had no cucumbers (at any of the bars).

FLL is only a couple miles from Port Everglades. You will be fine so long as there isn't a significant delay in arrival or ship clearance.

Question: What's a comedian's favorite way to eat eggs? Answer: Funny side up!

Apparently you've never been Rick-rolled.

My teacher told me not to worry about spelling because in the future there will be autocorrect. And for that I am eternally grapefruit.

Took me about 10 seconds to solve.

We just finished a 17-night Panama Canal cruise on another line (Holland America). They still default to providing a paper copy of the schedule daily. This may be in part due to the older average clientele (instead of being among the oldest 15% of people onboard, we were among the youngest 15%) and/or the fact that their app is less useful than Royal's.