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AlohaLivin

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Posts posted by AlohaLivin

  1. On 9/11/2023 at 9:18 PM, sleepy425 said:

    😬 Prices are NOT good anymore (and haven't been for a while, I know).  But life happens and we have an extra child (we swore no more, but sometimes life as a foster family is unpredictable and in July we said yes to a temporary teen and now he's permanently ours).  Thankfully my husband was on Liberty last week and got him booked into a single cabin at Next Cruise.  The original price they put the cabin on hold with was so high....but then when he went to book it the price had gone down $1k!!!  So still a crazy amount compared to what we paid, but we don't have to leave our new son home!

    I emailed Crown and Anchor trying to get him added to our status.  I'm hoping they won't have an issue doing that.  And on Thursday we went and put in his passport application, so fingers crossed DCF did all the paper work correctly (I know he doesn't NEED the passport.  But we do prefer to have passports while cruising).

    If you see a frazzled mom trying to avoid 5 kids, be sure to say hi!

    I hope that you all have a great time (we were both adopted, congrats on your growing family ❤️)

  2. On 3/8/2023 at 2:41 PM, Christi Holland said:

    If we are wanting to see the city the historic side of things these are the only two I saw that fit that bill but both have bad reviews.  Can anyone help me out here?  Is it a long ride for nothing or is it worth my time?  This is our first time cruising so going on my own is scary for a first timer.   Can you just walk around close to the port and see the city and then go to the beach and stuff like that?  I love waterfalls and all of that but my husband has back trouble and can't do it or be on rocky ground so those are out of the question for us.  He needs easy.  

    Hi - I’m wondering what you ended up doing. To be honest, we always hate this port, I have never been anywhere in the world with people as aggressive as we found in Jamaica. That said we find ourselves going back in about a year and trying to figure out if you had again, we’re going stay on the ship as we usually do. The Historic Falmouth and Ocho Rios Highlights tour doesn’t look bad, but 5.5 hours seems pretty long for a few stops.

  3. I am so surprised that a post would be removed that suggested that it is unethical to share drinks with others from an unlimited drink packages. I thought that was just a basic truth. If I were going to find a problem with a post, I think I would take down the post suggesting that breaking the rules is  acceptable behavior rather than the post stating that it isn’t. But hey, that’s just me.

  4. 17 hours ago, SpicyCherry said:

    Oh so that's why my 🍸won't work!!! Your idea is a good one....I'll try it.

    I haven’t been able to determine why only certain ones are allowed. But if it’s disallowed it will wipe out the title you’ve used immediately. So if you’re going to try new ones make sure to  copy of the text before you chance it! I just went back and checked all the ones I’ve use of trips the last 5 years and these are additional ones to those above that are allowed:

    ♠️ (I use this for the casino 😂), ➡️, ⭕️,  ⚠️, ✅, ☀️, ❇️, *️⃣, ▪️, ⚛️, ❓, ‼️

  5. On 10/30/2022 at 6:02 PM, SpicyCherry said:

    Thank you so much @AlohaLivin for reminding me of TripIt....I've had this app for over 10 years and last used it in 2016. I resurrected it last night and am having a ball!! What is the biggest difference between the Free version and Pro, in your opinion?

    and @DixieNN

    Glad to be of help 🙂 We tried pro, but the free version is a plenty for us. The pro version gives you notices on flights, but so do the airline apps so why pay? As you can see from my example, I hope, I add various emoticons/icons to the titles of events to separate out categories of activities/items. I use⚡♨️❗☯️🌀✳️✴️♦️… etc. There may be 20 of them that will work and sadly I have no idea what distinguishes the ones at work and the ones that don’t. But I find it helpful to use one icon for all excursions, another for important notes, another for meals, etc. 

  6. 2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

    I agree with @ScooterScott22.  I think your idea of having your mother in a separate room is a good plan and I believe it will work well for you.

    Here is what she will NOT be eligible for:

    1.  Visiting the suites lounge, the Coastal Kitchen or the suites sun deck

    2.  Unlimited dining outside of the suite (unless you purchase the UDP for her) or free drinks outside of the suite (unless she gets a drink package).

    3.  Technically, she is not eligible for reserved seating in theater venues however, I have never had a Genie fail to include a limited number of non-SC guests to our reserved seating requests.  This is really a Genie-specific thing....could they technically refuse to seat your mother with the rest of the family ?  Yes....but would they ? No....especially since it's just 1 person.

    As for eating and drinking in the suite, as others have mentioned, it is basically unlimited food and drink (except for liquor and wine) to whomever wants it.  If your mother wants Starbuck's delivered for her along with everyone else's morning drinks, that will be no problem....just know that it will only be delivered to your suite, so she would have to come and fetch it and either drink it in your suite or take it back to her room.  It will not be a problem.  Same with any food delivered to your suite.  They neither know nor care who is eating or drinking in your suite.  They do not "count" so if you order 5 Starbucks every morning for a suite with only 4 people in it....nobody cares.

    Here is what I would recommend:

    1.  Purchase the UDP for her.  That way, she can join you for any meal, at any time as long as it is not in the Coastal Kitchen. ...and OBTW, if you don't want to miss filet night in the CK (usually night #1 but could be any night) just have it delivered to your suite and she can have one with you, if she wants !!!

    2.  If she wants to have unlimited drinks outside of your suite, then purchase her a drink package. If she is a liquor or wine drinker, then you will need the UDP but if she only really cares about non-alcoholic beverages (water, soda, coffee, fresh squeezed juice, etc.), then the refreshment package would work.  You will be able to order liquor/wine-by-the-drink for her, to be delivered to your suite any time.  Same with Starbuck's.

    Enjoy the GLS.

    Such good points! I have to wonder if @britinbrooklynrealizes that in setting things up as he has it will mean that the grandmother is the only one in the family who doesn’t get to eat at the coastal kitchen or go to the suites lounge or enjoy many of the other benefits that rest of the family has? I would think that could be a problem;  if I were going on a cruise with my family and everyone else was in a star suite while I was stuck in an interior I am pretty sure I would have some seriously negative feelings about that (particularly if I was expected no babysit 😤).  Maybe I missed something crucial somewhere in the story? 

  7. I personally would never withdraw my gratuities. That’s not fair, in my humble opinion, to all those people who get part of the  tips that we usually do,not see in person.   We do tip extra to the cabin steward and waiters at the end of the cruise. We also tip something with each drink and tip the concierges (Diamond Lounge/Suite lounge). I’m one of those who comes down kind of hard on the side of tipping because I think if you can afford a cruise then you can afford to tip the  people working hard to make you happy.  While I think that tipping in the US has gotten a bit out of hand,  with cruise staff I have zero issue with paying gratuities.

  8. We did okay with a 10:20 flight on a Miami cruise (similar distances involved) - we walked off the ship first and we had plenty of time (but we also had CLEAR and TSAprecheck. We had lots of extra time. But, cutting it that close is not our preference, that was an unusual situation.

     

    P.S. Getting the key or being in a suite will help ensure that you can be with the first group off.

  9. As others have said, you’re not going to be on board by 10. Recently the first time to even get into the facility is 10:30 AM (that isn’t boarding time). Even if you are a Pinnacle, have a suite, or have the Key you likely would be onboard at earliest at 11 or 11:30.  As has been noted by others you won’t have access to any room before around 1 (even in a suite) and your luggage will likely be hours later than that. Even when we do a B2B and are the first ones back onboard (say at 10-10:30) it’s not much of a situation of leisurely checking out the ship as crew is rushing around for the ship and nothing much if open. But your best chance of getting close to your fantasy, at least for a short time of time, is to book a suite, purchase the key, or do a B2B.  It’s just hard to conceive of embarkation day as being remotely leisurely and relaxed as there are a lot of staff and a lot of guests trying to get so much done all at once.

  10. On 10/17/2022 at 12:56 AM, Castle Cruiser said:

    After our previous cruise out of Miami, we had a flight late in the evening so didn’t go straight to the airport after disembarking. This time, we have the choice of two flights. The earlier flight has the advantage of a much easier connecting airport for the second leg of the journey home. It leaves at 11:45 am on a Saturday in March. If we self disembark early and head straight to the airport, is it likely we will be ok? I generally see flights recommended from noon on, and this is only slightly earlier, but is it too tight?

    The other option is later, and connects through a much busier airport which is notoriously unpleasant to connect through.

    It isn’t too early. We had one much earlier and we had plenty of time (we were the first group off bc of the suites, but the first walk-offs were very close on our heels). We were at the airport 2 hours prior to our 10:20 am flight. Don’t stress 🙂

  11. My guess is it anyone who tells you they played $20 in the casino and got offers is mad 🤣 You can get promo offers on each cruise based on how many points you accumulate during that cruise. You also get a free yearly cruise for being Prime status or higher in the casino.  Finally, you can also get comped offers and those vary dramatically as people above have noted, it is hard to know their analytics on for the comped offers. But I just had a deep dive into this with a casino host that I know well and some things that seem to matter are (a) your location , (b) how much you lost on your cruises in the casino, and (c) your average play per day. I have noticed people that seem to lose moderate to high amounts and are new to cruising may get extra offers (even more than those of us with many more points and lower losses).  But in the end, nothing in life is free 😊

  12. 6 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

    Lou Ann is the Suite Concierge on Grandeur and like the others is fantastic. She was the Diamond Lounge host and we miss her. 😥

    Wonderful news, thank you! Hopefully all will be in place by the end of Nov. It makes such a difference to have great concierges (as you well know!). I very much hope Shannon will still be there too since we are going to be going from diamond to diamond plus on the back to back on that ship and hope to have easy sailing with the quick change 🤞🏼

  13. 22 minutes ago, CrznTxn said:

    Just finished our sailing on Grandeur yesterday and can say that the rooms are smaller but do have lots of storage space plus we are rarely in the rooms. We had an Ocean View and it was just great. We love the atmosphere of Grandeur and all the art and finish treatments that are not on the newer ships (more wood and less stainless steel and metal). Salvador and Shannon, the Diamond Lounge host and C&A host) are fantastic and we love to see them each time. Less hustle and bustle and the Centrum is a great place to sit, relax and enjoy the music and entertainment. The Solarium is also much less crowded than the other ships and is large and covered. Plus the Park Cafe is right there with it for pizza, salads and light fare. If you are solo, I agree with @WAAAYTOOOthat an Interior would be fine and give you more $$ for use on the ship.

    We will be onboard for a b2b in a few weeks, good to know the Diamond concierge is so good! Any idea who the suite concierge might be? We are so ready to see Lady G again after two cancelled cruises on her during the shutdown!

     

  14. 6 hours ago, Zacharius said:

    Just because I'm a professional nit-picker 🙂

    Going to have to admit that I don’t spend a lot of time with professional nitpickers, but since this nitpick quoted me in particular I suppose that I should respond with a correction of your correction. 😂 In the cruise business all of these destinations are referred to as private “islands” (often both officially by the lines and in the common use by cruisers). Thus, in this case the definition is not a geographic one but a cruise specific one and therefore “island”is correct within that morenarrow vernacular (as evidenced by the highly  knowledgeable bloggers here at RCB when referring to Labadee). 😬

     

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  15. I have to be honest and say that I don’t scare easily, but it doesn’t bother me to go to Haiti (and this section isn’t really as if you were going to the heart of Haiti). And honestly, the livelihoods of the people that work at Labadie from close by villages have just been devastated by the pandemic so I have been so happy to have been twice in the last 8 week (it is my favorite private island by far.  

  16. It truly is amazing how much these prices having been jumping around recently. Sale, no sale, or during the same sale 🫤 We have a Casino comp 5 day in a balcony cabin that we added on to our existing 9 day in a suite during December recently and so I have been checking the key prices for the shorter add on. The price  has jumped around from 29.00 to 26.99 to 2299 and back in 2 weeks time. I have also noticed random jumping around on a lot of the excursion prices for the second leg (more so than normal). If you’re like me and like to hang on to your money, it definitely pays to check pricing on excursions and the extras pretty often ✌🏼

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