mk-ultra

Good news for us GE folks. Mine was a few months from it's 2nd renewal. I filled out the online form as usual and used AMEX to pay the $100 (so free to me). It's been stuck in the "Wait for Conditional Approval" step for almost two months now. Because of the delays, they've extended a grace period past the expiry date as long as you've filed for renewal and paid the fee. After a bit of digging around (idiots didn't put it in their FAQ section about it) -- looks like it's good for an additional 24 months.

The slightly weird sounding overnight in Vancouver with the really early AM departure is to allow people to get aboard. It pulls out at 0330 the next morning to catch low tide -- which is needed for a Quantum class ship to clear under the Lion's Gate Bridge.

We stayed at the Courtyard Anchorage Airport since it was simple. It's about a 10 minute ride to the train station from there. Just looking for a place to crash.

Blog away! User contributions are what make this forum work.

Even if you don't need an accessible cabin, Royal's Special Needs department can help you out with your questions: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs

Typical reason (from a network engineering perspective) is to, on a per-client basis, only give them a fair chunk to ensure everyone gets a slice of the available bandwidth. It's a very finite resource, so there are definitely legit reasons for doing it. It's typically called QoS (quality-of-service). Network engineers hate having to "QoS" a site. It usually means there are too many bandwidth consumers for the available bandwidth. Doesn't make anyone happy.

Yuppers. I was on Navigator in Dec/Jan and it bounced between time zones.

As end end-user on a ship, you'll never know if it's QoS (throttling) or just variable satellite service. I'm excited about Starlink on ships since it has a lot of potential, but the constellation is far from complete. My latest cruise on Navigator was Starlink, and the service varied wildly over 7 nights. o3B was rock solid in comparison (until you pushed the latitude past 40N/S).

Couldn't agree more. Ensenada gets poo-poo'd (mainly because of downtown), but wow -- get out in the wine country in Valle de Guadalupe and it's super nice. High end wineries, excellent food, local cheeses and olives. Very worth doing a grub & wine excursion out there. About 45 minutes from the port. Because of import taxes, those of us in the US don't really have access to Mexican wines.

[nerd warning] Your company or personal VPN success is going to vary by protocol. I've never had an issue using SSL. Years ago, IPSEC or L2TP occasionally tripped me up onboard over WiFi. Haven't run into that problem recently though. Usually fully connected for work, including enough bandwidth for video conferencing like Webex & Zoom. NB: that does vary with latitude. If you get too far North or South (+-40 degrees either direction) I wouldn't count on solid internet. Starlink is still being built out. Ships are cutting over because it is less expensive than O3b. Not impressed so far shipboard. Very good, when it works. I'm still team O3b until Starlink finishes their constellation.

Not my content: Source: https://www.cruisehive.com/the-best-ways-to-enjoy-royal-caribbeans-labadee-haiti/24136

Icon is definitely going to be more expensive. Sparkly brand new ship, which always demands a premium price. Especially for a Christmas cruise. Those are expensive on any ship. Both Wonder and Symphony are great ships. Wonder also comes with the "new ship" pricing. Personally, for me it would come down to itinerary. I default to slightly older ships, and CocoCay is definitely a nice stop.

On Quantum to AK in May. Pretty much already booked everything I want, but the SeaPlex trapeze school looks amazingly fun. It doesn't show up as a bookable on-ship thingy. Wondering if I just go to SeaPlex and book, or is it a get-in-line thing? First time on a Q class.

Oh man.... this is the one, really good C&A benefit I've been waiting for. Just broke past D+, and that 150% instead of 200% is actual money in the bank. "Post COVID", I'm back to ~4 cruises a year, averaging 21 points each. So... 1.5 - 2 years.

The "post COVID" price hikes are pretty astounding. I used to be able to snag an Oasis-class L1 loft cabin for ~$5600 if I purchased early and paid attention. They're now like $15K. Ouch, indeed. A GS for my upcoming AK cruise was ~$6800 with all of the various discounts; like being old, D+, a degenerate casino player, and a shareholder. I'm not a cheap date, but they're pricing me out. Tempted to switch to land vacations until normalcy returns.

Unless you're already going to play in the casino regularly, there's no reason to try to "chase" Casino Royale benefits. They're not really a worthwhile proposition. They're more like softening your loss. Nice to have if you are indeed a regular player. The only predictable points come from playing a machine. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/how-do-i-earn-club-royale-tier-points For table games like blackjack, your points are supposed to be based on average bet X time played. Mileage varies wildly with that. It's up to the dealer to update the player's bet tracking on the little panel to their right. I get one or two offers with a $500 "cash equivalent" (Royal calls it Trade-In) value each year and definitely use those... and the usual list of "free" cruises I don't bother with. You can track your offers here: https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/PlayerLookup.asp

Nope. No drink package. On Oasis and Quantum class ships, WiFi is included in a suite (but not on other classes). No ship (unless you're in Star Class) includes the booze package.

LOL. Ditto. Now the app is showing the "Boarding" icon at the bottom for May 8th cruise. Clicking on it shows my Sea Pass data for my previous December 30 trip. Go Royal IT!

Dropping back in to report on my Private Journeys inquiry. Reply I received was: Sounds like it's more for just getting private transportation on the stock excursions vs. something boutique/curated. The PJ team is really small, so I think I'll default to researching some possibilities to book on my own.

I've found bet tracking to be extremely variable in accuracy at table games. As @WAAAYTOOO said, it's best to buy-in with something like $1K. That will get the attention of the pit boss and after a night or two, possibly a visit from the casino host. You don't have to spend all of it, but time on table X average bet is supposed to be the metric. I'm Prime, played blackjack exclusively on my last 7 night cruise, $1K buy-in every time I sat down, 2-3 hours a night. $25 average bet, spreading to up to $400. Checked my status when I got back at: https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/PlayerLookup.asp My points had reset to zero since I hadn't cruised in a while. 1081 points for that cruise. That's kinda pathetic. Then again, up at the end of the cruise

Ouch. Hadn't considered that one. Excellent point.

Con: Air2Sea is essentially your travel agent for the flight. If you need to do swift modifications to your flight(s) because of some unforeseen problem, you need to go through them vs. just fixing it with the airline directly. It's like booking a fare via Expedia, Hotwire, etc. For domestic (US) flights, if you feel confident about your airline booking skills, I've never seen any reason to use the program. No real savings and often more expensive than booking directly yourself. For international flights in biz or first, I've seen some pretty good deals; tempting, but have never used it. For me, it's not worth having a middle player between me and the airline. Use Google Flights to see if there is actually any cost savings using Air2Sea: https://www.google.com/travel/flights

L1 (side cabin) CLS every time. I haven't done it with a party of 3, but damn is it a nice cabin in a perfect location to hit up CK/Suite Lounge, pool and WJ for a quick bite. Absolutely my favorite out of any of them. The suites area on deck 17 is also low-traffic with no noise coming from above.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/perfect-day-cococay/coco-beach-club I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it's known for having the best food available.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Maya as much as I did. Like you, I thought the food there was faboo. That was a welcome surprise I wish I'd thought to do Catalina -- that's been on my list for a long time. I went there once as a kid with my dad, but hardly remember it. Good call. All booked for Alaska. I did one thing new: pinged Royal's "Private Journeys" folks to see what they can line up in Juneau. I've never tried that service before. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/privatejourneys/