Brobbins246

That no matter how much you pre-plan (and erroneously rely on the RC app if you have it for your trip), you still need to check the paper Cruise Compas onboard, every day of your trip. I had everything planned in advance, including activities I found on the app with dates & times, so I didn't pay any attention to the Cruise Compas in our room. The app had been wrong about when ice skating was open (shocking!!), and we missed being able to do this because I didn't check the Cruise Compas. My kids were pretty bummed after planning for 6 months to ice skate in the Carribean.

Hi!!! Welcome!

(1) Not on the cruise yet, but flying to Miami to start the trip; (2) Leaving Nassau; (3) My silly boys on Allure

Another thing to consider is balcony availability and price on the land side for either cruise, if that's important to you.

Is that their fiscal year?? Most of us operate on a calendar year!! ?

When I've gone to banquet dinners, I've seen people tip their chair towards the table as a way of marking that chair as "taken" while they mingle or dance before sitting down. This might become a tripping hazard in the WJ, and someone could always place it back on its four legs, but you could try it.

I'm not sure how it works for loading money into your (or your brother's) account pre-cruise, but if you both booked with a travel agent, I'd recommend seeing if the TA can arrange that. Or early in the cruise, sneak off to customer service with some cash and ask them to apply it to your brother's acct.

+1

Try Island Marketing, Ltd at https://roatancruiseexcursions.com/excursions/. My family of 6 did the Wild on Wildlife excursion which we made into a private tour. (Loved it!!) You might be able to do that with four as well. I recommend emailing them thru their site (great response) and explain what you want to do. They have separate excursions to the monkeys/sloths (Daniel Johnson's) and ziplining that they could possibly combine. I had some special requests for our tour that deviated a little from the regular tour, and they were very accommodating and made sure we'd have enough time.

Sorry I'm out of the loop on Cats, but what didn't people like about it? Was it just a bomb on RC or do lots of people dislike it in general? I've never seen it, I just know that song Memories was in it.

As all others have mentioned, there are some risks in using 3rd parties, but I can give a big thumbs up to Island Marketing, Ltd. We did private tours with them last Spring in Nassau, Roatan, and Costa Maya and all were wonderful with no problems. Their web address is (location name)cruiseexcursions.com, like https://jamaicacruiseexcursions.com/about/ . You can link to all the different locations they service through each website. One tip - before reserving online and charging a deposit to your credit card, let your CC company know you'll be making an online international purchase, or if your CC is like mine with security features, the charge will be rejected at first, and you have to have them run it through twice.

If I recall, the SW wanna get away rates go on sale at around 7 or 8am eastern time on the day they're released. I'm a fan of those rates, and do my own online check-in 24 hours before the flight to the cruise port (to get a good boarding position), but I spend the money on the Early Bird check-in so I don't have to worry about it while I'm on the cruise. SW does the check-in automatically for me more than 24 hours out for the flight home.

Try some funny and casual poses to mix things up so they're not all serious, dressy and posed. Also, the digital download is great for creating a photo book online, which you can add your own camera shots to. You can't add your own pics to the photo book RC sells on the ship. We came home from our Allure cruise with about 80 (great) professional shots and 1400 of our own shots (6 of us taking pictures). It took some time, but I narrowed that down to about 300 pictures in a bound photo book I created online.

@twangster with all your wonderful advice and info you provide on this site, the Karma gods are rewarding you! Not to say that anyone who wasn't as fortunate deserves whatever they ended up with! In fact, I think @Matt got a shortened trip that he cancelled if I read that correctly.

Like the others said, you'll be fine getting off and on the ship without a passport, but make sure you allow plenty of time to get back on. If you miss the all onboard and the ship leaves without you, it won't be pleasant dealing with that without a passport.

Hey, it is the fun ship afterall! ? Maybe they think that'll add to the excitement.

Yes, just be very careful to make sure you get back on the ship on time. If you get stranded on the island you'll be screwed without a passport.

I've only done this once so far, and didn't do anything special to protect the bottles. I waited to buy my wine until shortly before I boarded the ship rather than bringing them from home and handling them through airports. I have a hard sided carry on bag, and put them inside for getting through security and boarding, and had no issues. I realize I was probably lucky, but just limiting my time and handling with them helped.

All of you complaining about this situation need to review your travel insurance policies to check your options for trip interruption. You did get travel insurance when you booked a Caribbean cruise during hurricane season with flights involved, right??? Of course you did. You sound like responsible, intelligent folks.

Walking into the wind on the pool deck during high winds ?️?

I haven't been to these islands yet, but will be on my next cruise, and from what I've seen on my research, that appears to be correct. Aruba and St. Maarten - nice sandy beaches, Curacao and Bonaire - more rocky/broken shell beaches. Bonaire has amazing diving and snorkeling just off shore by boat. Curacao is great for land/town exploration.

My family of six did this on Allure last April and was disappointed in the tour. There were at least 25 people in our tour group, including a couple in wheelchairs. There was only one tour guide who didn't speak loud enough for anyone in the back to hear (not that she didn't try) and the cramped quarters made it really hard on the wheelchair riders to get around. We had to wash our hands at one point, but no one worried about hair nets. I'll never forget seeing this girl in front of me with long bushy hair dangling over the bread dough machine. The brunch afterwards was decent, and it was nice to eat in another area of the MDR than for dinner.

I like to buy one Surf & Stream access (with the soda package for my husband's Diet Coke addiction) and enough Surf Voyages (the non-streaming one) for the rest of us. This way we all have at least basic internet access for using wifi apps to communicate on the ship and check emails, etc. If any of us need the streaming access for other more advanced things, we share it one person at a time.

I was so confused by the title...."fly into Melbourne or Orlando?" The only Melbourne I've heard of is in Australia which isn't very close to Orlando. Lol ?

My MIL & I each had ours in a checked bag at embarkation. The bags didn't get pulled to the naughty room, and our stateroom attendant never said anything when she saw them in the room. My MIL ended up not using hers, which is how we ended up with a second one.