HeWhoWaits

If you see an excursion you like at a price you're willing to pay - book it. Then keep an eye on pricing during various "sales" (and random checks when no "sale" is announced) - you will often find an opportunity to cancel and rebook at a lower price. We have rebooked the same excursion as many as five times when the price keeps dropping. Worst case scenario - the price you were comfortable paying when you first booked is the best price you find.

When a group "takes over" a table that I was using by myself, I just pull up a chair, sit down, and start eating. "Oh, sorry. Didn't notice that you had joined me."

The story was pretty lame, so you're watching it correctly.

If you travel with someone under 18 for whom you are neither parent nor legal guardian, you must have documentation that they are permitted to travel with you. This is true for grandparents taking a trip with grandchildren but not the sandwich generation as well as for your situation. Best to have it signed by both parents and notarized.

You'll be allowed in with much less than a collared shirt and a tie. I don't recommend barefoot and shirtless, as that MIGHT keep you out (with the lack of "requirement" enforcement these days, you never know).

Saw the same thing on our 2012 Rhapsody cruise in Alaska. There was no way to avoid the heavy seas - made for some great fun sitting in the solarium watching the waves crash back and forth across the pool while we partook of our favorite adult beverages.

When the system changed to points per night rather than points per cruise, you one point from 2008 became eight (7 for the "typical" cruise plus an extra point for up to three total cruises). Your status accumulation reflects this even though it still shows up "wrong" in your previous cruises page.

"Formal Night" hasn't REALLY existed for quite a few years.

Early seating is too early for me, late seating is too late for my wife. MTD is the happy medium, but we prefer to ensure that we have the same wait staff every night. That requires reserving a similar time every day which often means the same times as early and late traditional seatings (the MTD reservation options for intermediate times fill up almost as soon as they appear in the cruise planner - miss it by a day and you're stuck with early, late or take your chances each day).

If that's the way you approach the survey, it would be better to just skip it. Rating all 10s doesn't do anything to improve the areas that can be improved.

Spray it on in the smoking area on deck. Might help the aroma in the area.

100% agreement on this. I default to a 7 out of 10 if you do what I expect. If the survey had 100 questions, it would be (pleasantly) surprising for me to give as many as 10 of them a 9 or higher. My favorite thing to do with online surveys that ask a range of "highly satisfied" to "highly dissatisfied" is to answer the follow up question "Please tell us why you were not highly satisfied" with the following: You should be happy with a rating of satisfied. That means you have done at least what is expected. This is the real world, not an "everybody gets a trophy" utopia. A rating of highly satisfied requires something special - which may become my new expectation - and chances are very good that your next rating will be neutral at best because you won't be able to meet that higher level of expectation.

If this is true, why have we never been contacted when we gave a less-than-stellar rating with a comment about why we did so? If the feedback is important, they would seek additional information about the situation.

She is more likely to be asked for separate identification in the casino than for obtaining alcohol. Our son turned 21 just 3 days before boarding a cruise in 2012 and his age was never questioned at bars but he was "carded" multiple evenings in the casino.

Liberty's suite lounge has great windows and access to a outdoor terrace with comfortable seating. Made the interior room suite lounge on Freedom a huge disappointment by comparison.

We have never skipped a dinner in MDR. Sea day lunches and a couple breakfasts per cruise are usually on the agenda as well.

The Cruise Planner only "knows" what was purchased online through the Cruise Planner. It is not programmed to differentiate passengers by booking status.

Last October on Grandeur, we actually got more NFL games on the in-room television than we would have gotten at home - doubleheaders from both CBS and Fox. The best benefit was the ESPN Caribbean broadcast of the Sunday Night game - they were able to air the video but not the audio. No Cris Collinsworth made it much better viewing.

The worst is when the ice cream machine is on the same side as the smoking-permitted area. What genius came up with THAT?

Totally agree. Nearly half the pool deck is effectively off-limits for me due to smoke aggravating my asthma.

As part of your decision about whether it's worth the time and effort, check the flight schedule into the airport for the day you're in port. The more planes scheduled during the time you have available may sway you one way or the other.

With the size of new ships, there is room to plan two separate casinos facilities - one smoking, one non-smoking. The first ship to try this would determine whether there is a market for the concept going forward.

Other than the inaugural year part for Monarch - same for us!

It is FAR from dark at 6:30 a.m. in Alaska during cruise season. Sunrise will be about an hour earlier than the scheduled excursion.

You can change this to Royal Caribbean has the exact same food every day if you're talking about breakfast. If you're really lucky, there might be enough folks of Indian descent on your sailing to get ONE item that changes daily.