Zacharius

If you don't mind sharing your date and route, I would be happy to see if I can find anything.

I'm a Hilton regular, so I am usually at either the Doubletree right near Centraal Station, or the Hilton Amsterdam a bit further south. Both are good, but I particularly like the Doubletree location. I am not 100% sure of the cruise terminal location since I have never cruised to/from Amsterdam, but I believe it's pretty darn close to the Doubletree. On a more boutique front, I have also stayed at Hotel The Craftsmen not long ago and it was quite nice and a good location.

They will do their best. They are not going to schedule new flights, and if there are 10,000 people trying to get out on 8,000 seats, some people are going to be left out. These are just made-up numbers, of course, but there's no 100% guarantee they're going to get you to your cruise. They'll say they can, but when push comes to shove the fine print shows there are times when they just won't be able to. That's the minority of the time, but just something always at least be aware of.

I imagine most of the places tourists go in Nassau would see more "Cuban" cigars rather than Cuban cigars. Places Americans tend to frequent are known for having fake Cuban cigars that are actually Dominican, Nicaraguan, Honduran, etc. They know a lot of Americans will pay a premium for Cuban cigars but not actually know they're fake. Not saying you can't find real Cuban cigars even in the touristy parts of Nassau, but buyer beware.

Ahhh good ol' business models...jack up the price and then put it on "sale" a few months later. Time tested, CEO approved.

Absolutely, I have a friend who was there a few days ago on Carnival. I always recommend that if there's a place you absolutely 100% want to visit, a land vacation to that place is the best choice.

That's pretty much exactly what I had in mind

In true American fashion, everyone has a little money shooting gun and they shoot the cash tips at people

I may be opening a can of worms here, but that's how I roll...sounds like that's something the cabin attendants should be bringing up with their employer or, if it exists, bargaining group.

I've been flying several times each month since the start of Covid due to my essential work. International and domestic. Still haven't had Covid (knock on wood), so I continue to have no concerns flying. To me, this is a no brainer.

I throw a little extra tip at my stateroom attendant if they go above and beyond. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't...last time, my guy did the bare minimum of keeping the room clean, so he didn't get any extra. The time before, the guy was amazing and got extra. So it really depends. As far as anyone else goes, I never really form attachments to individual venues or employees, so I don't usually tip extra. We almost never eat in the MDR, which I understand is a location many others throw some extra money down.

Yeah, this is impossible to really answer without more info on when and where. Transatlantic in April is different than Caribbean in June.

So the price was actually average

Are you typing in specific dates in the google search?

Good link. So they're recommending the Filipino passport but not requiring it for US permanent residents. I would say even carrying an expired one would be better than carrying none at all. I would never feel comfortable leaving the country without a passport, but that's an entirely different conversation.

Unfortunately this isn't a question I would trust to a random message board. The odds of someone knowing the 100% correct answer is small compared to the risk of getting it wrong. Going straight to the source (first Royal Caribbean, and then any diplomatic missions if needed) is my recommendation. And get the response(s) in writing.

I once misconnected flying from Hong Kong to Kansas City via JFK. Cathay Pacific gave me two options - they could put me in a car to Newark and a United flight that night, or overnight be at JFK and put me on the American flight the next day. I definitely decided to just wait the night rather than trudge from JFK to Newark at 4pm on a weekday!

The issue is the inconsistency in my mind. If I get an Uber from Lower Manhattan to Newark, sometimes it's 30 minutes (rare, but it has happened), sometimes it's 60 minutes. And again, that's just from Lower Manhattan, not LGA. It can be the same day of week and time, you just never know and are at the mercy of the lights and the bridges/tunnels.

The only other airline flying out of MDW that also serves EWR will require a connection - Delta via Detroit, Atlanta, or Minneapolis. So the 45-60 minutes saved by avoiding ORD would then be eaten up (and then some) on the connection. So that's a poor choice in my book - might as well just get up to ORD and get one of the (more-or-less) hourly United flights ORD-EWR. So yeah, if your flights are truly free and you don't mind the time sitting in traffic to get from LGA to New Jersey, it may be worth it. But definitely do some research on costs to see how much of that free flight is then spent on ground transportation, and don't forget to weigh convenience in to that...maybe not a direct expense, but an expense nonetheless in my book.

I would love a smaller ship like that. 57 ports is plenty of time to get off the ship for me, and then when onboard I can do some work, watch movies, read books, look out at the world go by. I would hate a mega-ship for a cruise like this.

May I ask why Southwest is your "best option"? I know there's a million things that go in to choosing air travel from the myriad of options, but "having to fly in to LaGuardia to get to a place near Newark when one of the largest airlines in the world has their largest hub in Newark" would be a count against Southwest being the "best option" in my book. I don't fly United often, but their Newark hub is awfully convenient both to the port and to Manhattan itself.

Eh...flying through London wouldn't be #1, but it's not bad. I am an AA/BA frequent flier so I go through LHR a lot, even to/from Schengen. It adds a little hassle, but if it resulted in an easier or cheaper trip, or a better product, I wouldn't rule it out.

There are also Trans-Pacific and repositioning cruises which are one-way trips.

No. This argument has always made me scratch my head. I don't rely on other people dressing or not dressing a certain way to enjoy myself. For example, my wife and I go to Capital Grille each year for our anniversary. We wear nice but fairly casual clothes - higher-end jeans/nice shirt for me, dress for her. But we live in a fairly casual city, and it's not unusual to see people roll in to Capital Grille (easily a $100-$200 per person dinner) in shorts and a t-shirt. What they're wearing has no impact on the enjoyment my wife and I have at our dinner.

I just like showing off my tattoos, of which I am very covered on both arms and legs