Brobbins246

I prefer the tea lights as well. They don't take up outlet space, which is at a premium.

To help prevent dealing with long lines at the slides (if they happen at all), board the ship early (11am-ish), bring swimsuits, sunscreen, etc in your carryon, and slide to your heart's content on embarkation day. The slides might not open until around 2pm, but you'll have time to take care of other things on the ship before then like registering your kids at Adventure Ocean. Not all the other passengers will be on the ship yet, bring swim gear in their carryon and/or realize the slides are open then. If lines are bad later in the cruise, at least you would have enjoyed them already by then. I'm not sure about formal night on your cruise, but I recommend looking for a Cruise Compass on the blog site for the same ship and similar itinerary. You'll see the suggested dress code for each day. Also, you can see what time the slides open on embarkation day. Have a great first cruise on Royal!!!

I already know that spa services are cheaper on embarkation and port days vs. sea days, but are the prices also any lower when booked through the Cruise Planner vs. waiting to book on board? I'm thinking about getting a pedicure on embarkation day to start the cruise off on the right foot (pun intended!). Normally I book everything ahead of time like shore excursions and drink packages, but I'm worried if I book this in advance, the day might end up too hectic and I'll have to skip it. But if I play it by ear and book on board if I have time for it, it'll cost more then. Thoughts???

So I looked into this, and I can do the Woodwinds drift snorkel in the afternoon, with an excursion they have from 12:30 - 3:45. It departs from Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino, south of the cruise pier. I'll take a water taxi to Kline Bonaire for a couple hours of beach time early that morning, and it looks like those pick up a little ways north of the cruise port. Is it best to reserve the water taxi in advance, or do they usually have plenty of space available? I'll be heading there straight off the ship as soon as we dock, so there might be a rush of people then I'm thinking? Also, if we're tight on time between everything, including grabbing lunch before snorkeling, how easy would it be to catch a cab from the water taxi pier to Divi resort? I'm not sure if we'll want to hoof it the whole way walking quickly in the sun.

+1 on this.

Double digits, congrats!!!! ???

I'd book it and if they weigh you that day (which I doubt they will), just tell them you were 250 when you booked it but must have added a few lbs during the cruise ?. I'd be really surprised if they turn you away.

Love the beach massages!! If you have any sand stuck to you, it's like an exfoliator too. ?

Island Marketing Ltd has been great in my experience. They have excursions in several Caribbean locations, with the web addresses named for the different places like this one for Roatan. https://roatancruiseexcursions.com/ You can link to their other locations thru each website.

I highly recommend this excursion company. We did the Wild on Roatan tour which was great. I'd trust them for snorkeling too. Even though we didn't snorkel with them in Roatan, we used this company for excursions in three places on our last cruise (Nassau, Costa Maya and Roatan) and all were very professional. https://roatancruiseexcursions.com/

@AshleyDilloGood suggestion, thanks!!

While I'm in Bonaire next year, my daughter and I would like to snorkel over the National Marine Park in semi-deep water off the side of a boat, not just from shore. But we'd also like to spend some time relaxing on No Name Beach at Kline Bonaire during the same excursion. RCI has a shore excursion that allows us to do both of these, but I'd like to see some other options with non-RCI excursions. All the others I see tend to be one or the other - like a single or double dip snorkel with no beach time (like Woodwinds excursions) or water taxi or excursion to Kline Bonaire with snorkel equipment, but you have to snorkel from shore. I did find that one of the water taxi companies provides off-boat drift snorkeling with beach time, but only once a week and I don't think it'll be on the day we're there. Do you know of anything else I haven't found yet? thank you!

Exciting!! I'll be on her April, 2021. Where is this work being done?

I can't say this from personal experience (yet), but I've heard that San Juan originating cruises will have the muster drill in both English and Spanish, which is really annoying to some who are already annoyed by the time that muster drill takes. That's all I've heard about Spanish language issues. But this isn't stopping us from taking a 7-night southern Caribbean cruise from San Juan in April, 2021. We plan on staying in Old San Juan the night before in a quaint old hotel called Casa Blanca. We'll be submersing ourselves in Puerto Rican culture before the cruise even begins, and I consider that a very good thing!! ?

Although there's no guarantee on when the ship will be cleared by port authority for letting cruisers off in each port, you should be fine for getting off within an hour of your arrival time.

My husband and son had some fun with the car and a ship photographer on Allure. We think it was some type of Auburn Cord. Replica only, not a complete vehicle.

In her obituary (I think that's where this was) it said she was a preemie with complications. I don't know if she was really having issues past that. Her special needs status prior to her death might have been speculation. Lots of preemies overcome their initial medical problems.

Now you can say you've been cruising since you were in your 30's! ? Happy early birthday and cruise!!!!

This made me giggle ?

The family and atty think this would have been prevented by a warning sign. If Mr. Anello was so visually impaired that he couldn't tell the difference between an open or closed window (not to mention all the other sensory cues we've talked about), would he have even seen the sign? Did they need a sign on every window pane or dangling at eye level for the open windows where there's nothing to adhere to?

Jetlinesimulationbahamas.com Highly recommended this in Nassau, about a 10 minutes' walk from the ship.

I highly recommend these luggage tag holders. You can also staple just the paper strips to your luggage handles after printing and cutting them apart, but I would never trust they'd hold up during all the handling. If you want to shop around for other tag holders, just be sure they're designed for Royal Caribbean tags. Some other cruise lines have different sized tags that fit different sized holders, so stay clear of those. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E4SQNU4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's possible, but don't count on it. If you had a late dinner time, it'd be more likely to have everything before getting ready for dinner. For an early dinner time, I recommend packing your dinner clothes and toiletries in your carry on bag just to be sure you have them.

You should be OK with that timing as long as there are no delays in clearing the ship for disembarkation. Do the self-disembark ASAP and catch a Lyft or Uber to the airport. I made it from Miami Terminal A to FLL with a similar flight time last year. Also, check your flight status before leaving the ship. In my case, even though I made it to the airport on time, I found out when I got there that my flight had been grounded, and I didn't get a notice. Sure wish I'd known that before rushing off the ship. Totally would have stayed for breakfast. ?

My inlaws did the Choccoben Mayan ruins excursion thru RCCL that's on Cozumel island. Not as cool as the mainland, but way less time and hassle involved. No ferry to the mainland. They liked it, and the pictures I saw were nice. Your little ones will probably handle this trip better before getting bored and antsy. EDIT - Choccoben IS on the mainland in Costa Maya, not on Cozumel. Sorry for the confusion. We went to both places on our cruise and I got them mixed up. If you're in Costa Maya, you won't need a ferry because you're already on the mainland. This one is much closer than Chichen Itza, which is why it's easier to get to, but not as impressive.