spiralqueen

I'm trying to do a preliminary info gather for when I will be there in 2020. Which tour company did you use?

Out of curiosity, what makes you not include #8 in your next time you would book list? Too close to the open chairs?

I have 4 booked right now, all of which I'm super excited for in their own way. A 7 night Eastern Caribbean on Allure in mid-May where we'll have a JS and the Key which I'm super excited to try out (crossing my fingers on Coastal Kitchen availability!!) A 7 night Bahamas November cruise on Grandeur that will fall over Thanksgiving 2019 (excited for no flight costs and to experience the crew that so many people rave about) A 7 night Western Caribbean sailing on Harmony May 2020 in an ultra-spacious balcony room (reservations already made at Maya Chan and beyond excited for it!) An 11 night Southern Caribbean sailing on Anthem January 2021 (a Southern itinerary I don't have to spend money to fly to that takes place over my birthday? Don't mind if I do!!) I considered looking into another Thanksgiving cruise in 2020 because my family really enjoys them now, but that's quite close to the longer Jan sailing and I'd rather save my vacation days/good will at work.

I will forever be thankful for whoever it was on here who said that when they check in and get their set sail pass they print it as a PDF so they aren't at the mercy of Royal's website working on the day they need to print their documents. I now have set sail passes and luggage tags/e-docs safely PDFed in my google drive which is one less stress for me later.

Agreed on me thinking this is buggy IT vs malicious blocking. I've seen mixed results for my booked CocoCay cabana showing up in the cruise planner for my November cruise. Most of the time I can see it to keep an eye on price drops but a good 1/3 of the time it's hidden. For even MORE puzzling fun, I can often get it to show up if I approach the menu from a different way. For example, I might not be able to see it under the excursions tab, but if I go through the Perfect Day link I can see it. Very odd and counter-intuitive.

One thing I’d recommend doing unless you like obsessively checking yourself (like me, hi) is joining a rollcall/group for your specific sailing on FB or cruise critic since there will likely be someone who will post to let the group know when entertainment is open for booking. On Harmony, you likely won’t run into TOO many issues getting spots you want for entertainment ahead of time with the only exception of the comedy shows which fill up much quicker than other shows due to the small venue size. Even though it tends to fill up, it’s not like it’s within the first day. I’ve noticed that for my May Allure sailing it took about 2 months after entertainment opened for the comedy show to fill up.

I also have a Travelpro spinner suitcase and I will never EVER go back to 2 wheeled luggage again. The 4 wheels make such a difference in being able to easily navigate with it and I love that the travelpro has this thing called magnetic wheels (I think) that basically keeps the luggage on course while you are moving with it. “Patent-pending magnetron system has self-aligning magnetic dual wheel spinners that make the bag roll straight” The one I got is slightly cheaper than the previously linked one but still very good quality. Travelpro Crew 10 21 Inch Expandable Spinner Suiter, Black, One Size https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KY7C7H8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_6SbQCbPN7VNTT

Will do! I’m going to attempt to live blog the trip and I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for him and report on it.

Had you only partially checked in your party? The same thing happened to me recently and I assumed it was because I checked myself in as soon as it was available but had to wait about a month before I could get my parents to send me pictures and their preferred payment method for their accounts. After I checked them in my expedited check in designation disappeared. My current uninformed hypothesis is that there’s a certain number of people who get that status and everyone after that doesn’t have the option. I’ll be curious what others who might have actually information have to say.

@Lovetocruise2002 Uh oh, the Lulubot is glitching! ?

If you are buying the wine in PA I’d recommend looking in the local section of your state store as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some honey wines there. At least the ones near me have a section toward the front devoted to PA made wines and liquors.

I don’t have any input for the menu since I’ve never been, but if we are sharing Chef’s Table promos we saw, this was posted outside of Chops when I was on Enchantment this past November.

Twangster very clearly doesn’t work for RCI as there have been multiple times when he has been less than thrilled with them and their actions and has voiced that here. I understand your frustration and it sounds like a very stressful and confusing ordeal that I would never want to experience. Thank you for posting and sharing this. I don’t want to minimize your continued frustration with Royal, but please understand that @twangster was just trying to help and, like you, share information for others if they find themselves in the situation. It is definitely your prerogative to not do any more business with Royal and I do wish you luck and hope your future travels go much smoother!

Has anyone had any experience with either Jimmy Rhodes or John Blair?

I’m very sorry this happened to you! I really wish you luck with getting him back as he looks very loved. To help us give you helpful advice, can you please let us know what things you have already done? (Who was called/alerted, etc)

I would check with your online cruise planner just to be safe, but my bet is on the app being wonky. It’s fairly notorious for having wrong information in there - esp when the sailing is far out.

Even though I mentioned earlier that I had my TA do it, I wholeheartedly agree with this having seen how easy it was. I genuinely felt silly asking her to do such a simple task once I realized that I would have been able to do it myself in literally 30 seconds. For future OBC uses I will definitely just handle this myself by forwarded the redemption code to Club Royale along with my reservation information.

The only way it wouldn't be that easy from what I understand is if your TA does bookings by giving group rates. I can't remember where I read this, but I could have sworn someone mentioned that you can't apply the OBC to group bookings.

You are my new favorite person for pointing this out! For some reason it never occurred to me to look for a camera upgrade app.

Since I said I’d be interested in comparing prices, it’s only fair I actually share the ones I’m seeing. A will refer to adult pricing and C to child pricing. I’ll only break them out if the prices are different. All these prices are for 2019 Thanksgiving week on Grandeur. Full day water park and zip line package - $99 Half day water park and zip line package - $89 Thrill water park half day pass - $39 Thrill water park full day pass -$44 Thrill water park cabana and full day pass - $499 Perfect day CocoCay zip lining - $79 Oasis Lagoon Cabanas - $399 (have seen a low of $319) Chill Island Cabanas - $399 (have seen a low of $329) Floating beach mat -$18 Cococay all day snorkeling at your leisure - $37 A, $22 C Cococay wave jet tour (driver) - $104 Cococay wave jet tour (passenger) - $38 Parasail adventure tour - $99 Stingray city Bahamas - $59 A, $49 C Swimming pigs tour - $109 A, $79 C Kayak adventures - $43 Kayak adventure and snorkel combo - $72 A, $57 C Right choice glass bottom boat tour - $42 A, $33 C Reef snorkeling and sandbar getaway - $54 A, $44 C Certified scuba dive without equipment- $57 Certified scuba dive with equipment - $68

I think for Coco Cay it’s a combination of time of year and also ship size. My November Grandeur sailing is going to CCC and I was able to snag the Chill Island cabana for $329. I’ve seen the Oasis lagoon ones go down to $319. I’d be interested in comparing the prices with knowing time of year and also ship to see if that really does makes a difference.

It SAYS it has to be booked through casino royale, but for the time I used it, I forwarded the redemption code email to @michelle who had already booked my trip and she had them add it on to the itinerary without issue.

Well in order to communicate digitally on your ship, yes. But many people who like to unplug but still communicate will use notes on post-it's in the room, a dry erase board on the door, or predetermined meeting times (ie: let's all meet by the elevators outside the WJ at 12:30 for lunch) as examples of things you can try. There's lots of articles from people online with tips on how to get in touch with other cruisers that don't involve texting or calling.

@EasyE I’d personally recommend going into any full liquor or wine store (so not just the wine aisle in the grocery store) and asking the employees to show you where the fruit wine is as what you are looking for would be considered. Here’s the fruit wine selection of a Ft Lauderdale wine store to get you an idea of options to look for.

Which state are you in? Or, I guess a better question is which port are you leaving from. I’d imagine availablity varies by region, but I’ve seen some really nice fruity wines in both PA and MD. A lot of times it seems to be more local vinyards that have interesting fruit wines that are basically delicious adult juice. I’d probably start in the local section of whichever liquor store you end up in.