Zacharius

I really didn't enjoy my first cruise, which was with Royal Caribbean. Why? Expectations were set too high...people kept saying how good the food was, how good the shows were, etc. etc. Got onboard and found the food just okay, and the entertainment just okay. Decided to give cruising one more try, after about five years, and again went with Royal Caribbean. Went with lower expectations, did more specialty dining (but aside from that just viewed the food as a way to get full, not a culinary experience), and skipped the shows. Have had a much better experience since then, and really look forward to my next one. 

People may say cruising isn't for everyone, and that's true. But also, cruising may be for you but your expectations were set too high, as mine were at first. 

15 hours ago, carlos1978 said:

Hi all fellow cruisers. My wife has the itch for another cruise, and she is currently 11 weeks pregnant. She wants to go on a cruise before the cutoff for getting on the ship and flying. That cutoff would be the first couple weeks of January. After alot of reading and homework, the only places she is "safe" to travel too are Bahamas, Bermuda and the USA. And tips or advise from others who have been in the same dilemma??

The further south Caribbean you go the greater the chances are. 

It might be worth grabbing an appointment/consultation with a travel doctor. He/she will have a better, realistic understanding of where, geographically, the risks may be compared to (a) random Internet sites (this one included), or (b) most other types of medical specialists. 

1 hour ago, Ray said:

Uk Gov website has all info needed for uk citizens travelling abroad to any location, visa requirements, vaccinations, even safety issues etc. We dont have to go to embassies to find out we use tje website.

I just presumed Australia would have the same, but obviously not 

I'm not saying that. Australia probably does. But my point is that China will have the definitive rules as to immigration policies of China. The Australian government will do the best they can, and they very well may have it right, but when push comes to shove and Chinese authorities are questioning your immigration status, it's better to have a Chinese government answer than an Australian (or British or American or Sudanese or whomever else's) answer. 

6 hours ago, Ray said:

Might Best checking the Australian Government website for exact details

The Australian government is not the best source for rules about Chinese immigration requirements. A Chinese embassy/consulate in Australia would be. But much like you wouldn't go to the Chinese government to ask about entry requirements for Australia, nor should you go to the Australian government to ask about entry requirements to China. 

On 10/18/2019 at 7:53 AM, twangster said:

All you need to do is ensure the license plate, make and model match what the app says should be picking you up.  If they don't, don't get in.

Not long ago coming off a cruise I was jumping in a cab after clearing through CBP at terminal 18 in Port Everglades.  A woman behind me threw her luggage in my cab's trunk and out of the blue joined me without so much as asking where I was going.  I could have been going home, to a train station, a shopping mall, an airport, a gentleman's club, etc.  She didn't care, she just jumped in the cab with me.   SMH.

On 10/19/2019 at 8:17 AM, RickinSTL said:

My wife works for the aerospace company too lol
 

I don't actually work for Boeing, but I do a lot of consulting with various aerospace companies and suppliers in the Seattle area. 

$297 really seems fair to me for a roundtrip. It could come down, yes. It's just as likely, if not more so, to go up. If you're comfortable paying $297, do it...if it's more than you want to pay, wait, but be prepared to pay $397. 

1 hour ago, Johnson84 said:

We are cruising to Alaska Aug/2020, right now flights to Seattle are $297 round trip, opinions if that is a good price or do you think they will drop more before than?

Where are you departing from? That makes a big difference. If you're flying from Spokane, it's an okay price. If you're flying from Boston, it's a really good price. 

I fly to Seattle a lot for work (work in aerospace) and Seattle flights tend to be surprisingly cheap. 

2 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

@Matt corrected me on that on FB Live.  

4 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

I was gonna type "foreign and non-US mainland  port" but it was too long, so I went for "overseas" port.

Makes sense. Just wanted to make sure. There are a shockingly high number of people who still think Puerto Rico is a foreign country

19 hours ago, PG Cruiser said:

I'm looking at ports overseas to sail from.  Right now I'm looking at San Juan, PR for a sailing on the Freedom.  I'm flying out of Jacksonville, FL.  What airlines offer good deals for Puerto Rico? 

Just to clarify, "overseas" is usually meant as a foreign country, and San Juan is in the exact same country as Jacksonville...

As far as "good deals" go, you'll just have to do your own search. Airline prices change all of the time, and unless you have a solid date picked, the best you can do is search for current fares in a similar time of year...but even that's no guarantee that they will remain the same. You have no nonstops, but the easiest would probably be to go via MIA (on AA), FLL (on B6; WN is stopping JAX-FLL service before your trip), CLT (on AA), or ATL (on DL or WN), as everything else would result in an even more drastic backtrack. 

You may also want to look at driving to Orlando and flying a nonstop from there on either Frontier, Spirit, Soutwest, or JetBlue. Could end up being a good savings and a chance to get a nonstop. 

51 minutes ago, Rene Desmarais said:

Will be flying out of Toronto as well..     My fall back plan would be Swoop out of Hamilton..On

If you're already willing to go to Hamilton, keep an eye out for Buffalo too. That extra drive can save a good chunk, so even if it's not the shortest of drives (plus border crossing), it may be worth it. BUF has nonstop JetBlue to FLL, and seasonal nonstop Southwest to FLL. No nonstops to MIA. 

2 hours ago, Rene Desmarais said:

Believe it or not if I was flying this Nov 2nd, my flights will cost more than my cruise..

 

People say this all the time, so it's believable, but it's not a good way to look at things. Airlines and cruise lines operate on completely different economic principles, and to compare them isn't fair. Airlines basically offer two things - seats and cargo space. Taking out the cargo space, which regular passengers don't have any access to, that just leaves the seat for purchase. Sure, some airlines may have other things to spend money on such as bags, seat assignments, early boarding, food...but in the end, it's mostly just the seat, so they need to get the bulk of their passenger revenue from that itself. Compare that to a cruise line where the base fare you pay is only one (sometimes small) part of the what they can get out of your pocket - excursions, drinks, additional meals, casino, etc. etc. For a cruiseline, the fare is basically a way to get you on the ship to spend more money; for an airline, the fare is basically all they're going to get from you. So, very different economics and expecting airfare to always be less than the cruise fare is not a good way to look at it. 

1 hour ago, ransrider said:

No need to use a site such as Expedia or Kayak to book. Once you see the price you are willing to purchase for, go directly to that airline to book. Consider applying for an airline credit card for the points and free luggage such as Delta. Also consider Royal's Air2sea program. Good luck. 

My recommendation is to always book directly with the airline when possible, unless there are huge reasons not to. I don't like having a middleman. Air2Sea often offers lower fares on one-way international flights, but rarely offers any deals on domestic US or US/Canada flights from what I have seen and heard, so unless you're flying in the day of your cruise and wanting that protection (which may or may not actually happen), you're basically putting a middleman between you and the airline for little to no savings. 

1 hour ago, Jim82Mac said:

Or our “local” airline Alaska Air. Far from a legacy carrier. But, they fly in and out of nearly every city in Alaska with an airport. 

Heck yeah, Alaska is a fantastic airline. My favorite North American-based airline, personally, and I've flown on a lot of them. 

54 minutes ago, MotleyCruiser said:

As an adult I still love Seattle BUT a couple grown up things that turned me off a little bit.  Airport is WAY outside Seattle and even a Lyft was pricey. 

Sea-Tac to Downtown Seattle is 13-15 miles, depending on what part of downtown. So let's just call it 14. To compare to others, it's not that far out:

Lower Manhattan to JFK is 20 miles; LGA is 11 miles, EWR is 14-15 miles. YYZ to Downtown Toronto is 16-17 miles. O'Hare to Downtown Chicago is 17-19 miles. LAX to Downtown LA is 18-20 miles, and Burbank to Downtown LA is 16-17 miles. DEN to Downtown Denver is 24-25 miles. Houston Bush to Downtown Houston is 20-22 miles.

I'll stop there, but with the exception of some ridiculously convenient exceptions (Boston, Washington Reagan, things like that) SEA is relatively close to downtown, and has a good rail link between the airport and city center. 

There's an Alamo located at Port Everglades. It's very convenient. I have never picked it up AT the pier, but I have certainly dropped it there (flown in the day before, picked up an Alamo car at FLL airport, dropped it next day at port, and they shuttled us to the ship). They may be the only one actually at the port, I am not sure. But it's really very convenient. 

18 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

Hmmm... that’s like partially doing an item on my bucket list.  I want to fully cross the canal, not turn back halfway.  Time to look at open loop cruises.  Thing is, airfares coast to coast cost the price of a weekend cruise.

Well, then you'll need to determine how high it is up on your bucket list. A weekend cruise is a weekend away...it'll be nice, but will you remember it the rest of your life? How about a trip through the entirety of the Panama Canal? 

1 hour ago, Dan Curtis said:

We are doing a cruise in January out of,San Juan, we ported out of their last year and really enjoyed San Juan, but the cheaper flights home left before you could get to,airport. We fly from cvg(Greater Cincinnati airport) where delta has the most flights, we turned points in 25 thousand points and a small 6 dollar fee for,one way on delta to,Sju. But return on delta was outrages, so,we are using United via,Houston for 220 dollars a peace, so the total for,sju and back will cost around 450 dollars, so you really have to be inventive to,port out of San Juan.

Last time I flew out of SJU (last year) it was absolutely dirt cheap...like $180 each way, each person from SJU-CLT-MCI. Yes, we did spend a night after the cruise, but it still came out ahead. Definitely can be worth doing the math of flights on one day, versus flights + hotel + meal on the next day. In our case, we still saved like $50 and justified an extra night of vacation, so it was worth it. 

16 hours ago, ellcee said:

Didn't mean to imply that two one ways were more expensive - just that I've never noticed a real benefit of booking 2 one ways for my flights.

Gotcha. I do it when schedules aren't good on the same airline out or back, or there's a substantial savings versus a roundtrip on the same airline (for example, Southwest charging $100 out and $300 back, but AA charges $100 back...I'll fly Southwest out, AA back, all other things equal...just an example). 

Duplicate post, sorry 

1 hour ago, ellcee said:

I have not found that to be true but I'll test it out again when I book my next trip. I also don't like certain airlines and will avoid them if at all possible.

Interesting. I live on the road, I book about 500,000 miles worth of travel per year for myself and colleagues. Much of that is domestic US, and we're always comparing prices. I almost never see instances of two one-ways being more than a roundtrip (for example, AA1234 ORD-DFW and AA4321 DFW-ORD are priced the same whether booked as a roundtrip or two one-ways). 

8 minutes ago, PurdueFlyer said:

last time did a SkyMiles award ticket going into SJU on a Saturday, and booked a one-way on Frontier SJU-ATL for $120 one-way at 4pm coming back.  it was a third of the price of Delta at the same time.  sometimes it helps to split it up, but not always. 

With domestic US flights, there's almost no instances where booking a roundtrip saves money versus two one-ways. The only concern is, if your plans change, there are two change fees to deal with. But that's a calculated risk that is sometimes worth it. I've done it plenty of times. 

My personal number one rule - no beer. RC's beer is too crappy to justify a drink package...just give me the hard stuff

(The only time I ever got a beer on a drink package is when I sprained my thumb and needed something cold to put on it, like an ice pack. A Bud Light aluminum bottle was the perfect remedy. I drank it, too, but that was a distant secondary benefit of the "purchase" of said Bud Light) 

For a more real answer - Tropical Old Fashioned. "Muddled cherries and pineapple stirred together with orange bitters and Malibu coconut rum". 

22 minutes ago, Srp431 said:

The prices I mentioned were per person and NOT a total for the 4 of us.

I'd be finding a way to drive to Puerto Rico

I don't tip too much beyond what is already charged as a tip, such as the 18%. I do tip the porters (something like $5 for two bags), and I do tip my room steward extra IF they have been particularly good (but my last cruise I didn't tip any extra, because he simply didn't do anything beyond basic room cleaning to deserve it). Don't feel like you need to tip someone just because you feel obligated...if they earned extra above what I am already providing them, I'll certainly do it, but I won't do it "just because".