Brobbins246

Thanks!!!!

Is there a cost involved for trivia on board or do you just show up and play? I know bingo definitely has a fee, but I haven't seen this answered for trivia. TIA!!

IME the app has been very hit & miss so far. One day it showed me all the on board activities for days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8. No day 6. ? Then it came back on another day. Another poster here said her app was telling her disembarkation would be on one of her sea days. That'd be a long swim to shore. It seems like we need to take info on the app with a grain of salt and think of it more like bonus info when it's working, but be prepared to live without it from time to time.

I can see my family's set sail passes in the app, and we're 54 day out. Did you already check in online? Are you logged into the app with your upcoming sailing? If yes on both, you should see it under the person icon on the app:

Here's a good timeline I found: http://cruisediva.com/things_to_do.htm

Here in Michigan today the entire state is pretty much shut down. Vegetating inside my house avoiding the negative 45 degree wind chill outside. ?

Thanks everyone! We decided not to do the dolphin excursion afterall but I appreciate the replies.

I know this might vary by ship, but does anyone know how much single photos on the ship cost? I'm not planning to purchase a photo package but will probably buy a few individual ones onboard. If it matters we're on Allure for a 7 night cruise and the online package price is about $250.

And don't forget to keep anything you'll need for the next morning in your room like a change of clothes or you might have to disembark in your PJ's. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

If you're sailing out of the new Terminal A in Miami, there's a parking garage right at the curb there. A little pricey but you can't beat the convenience.

Only if he had died or broke his reproductive equipment. And judging from how his legs were flailing and how he said he had trouble walking afterwards, the latter is very possible.

Southwest Mich. just north of the Indiana border near South Bend. So...go Irish!!!! ? (sorry!!!) Lol

Thanks everyone for all the info. I'll allow plenty of time.

Yep, Android girl here. I'll chalk it up to that.

That isn't working for me. Nothing happens when I swipe left or right. ☹

Most of the room TVs are mounted in the wall blocking the USB ports. If you have a suite with stand alone TVs like in a livingroom or hotel room, that would be the only way to access the ports.

Also your meeting location should be somewhere on the ship like one of the clubs or theater so you won't have to disembark on your own and find your group on shore.

I've heard that Costa Maya can take quite awhile to walk from the ship to outside the cruise port because of the huge shopping/swimming/dining area right off the pier. We're doing a shore excursion through a 3rd party operator in Costa Maya, and we need to taxi into Mahauhal by a certain time. Assuming we don't stop for shopping or anything else along our way, about how much time would you suggest we allow for making our way down the pier and through the port area to the taxis? I'm wondering if we're talking more like 5 minutes or 30 minutes. thank you!!

My son has cochlear implants, which include external parts similar to amped-up hearing aids that have to be charged and electronically dried out each night. They're wall-powered (ie, the USB charging hub won't help us with this), so we were able to request an extension cord to have additional plug options in the room. And we have parents with CPAP issues, so the special needs department knows us well already.

I haven't been on a cruise since 1998 (and it was also RCL), so I can't speak from recent experience, but from what I've read while planning my cruise this past year, not everyone gets or uses a lanyard. It seems a lot of people are moving towards cell phone wallets or cases that hold your SeaPass and other flat essentials. Or when you say, "does everyone get a lanyard," if you mean "receive" a lanyard from RC, like at boarding, I don't believe that happens at all. I haven't seen anyone mentioning that. Dining on RCL has these options: "Traditional Dining" in the main dining room where you can select the early or late seating for your entire cruise and usually have the same wait staff and table mates (if any) throughout the week "My Time Dining" in the MDR where you can show up whenever you want and request a table on a walk-in/stand-by basis, or you can also reserve specific times for each night of your cruise through the cruise planner, like booking activities. Specialty dining are the non-complimentary restaurants where you either pay through a flat-rate cover charge, a la carte pricing, or through a dining package. The Do or Do Not Bring list is probably very similar for RCL as for other cruise lines. The biggies on the do not bring list would be fire hazards like extension cords, surge protectors, clothes steamer/irons (hair curling & flat irons are OK), space heater, coffee maker, etc., and any form of alcohol with the exception of two 750ml bottles of wine or champagne allowed per stateroom. You're also allowed to bring (I believe) 12 bottles of non-alcoholic beverages on board such as soda, juice and bottled water. For more first timer tips, I'd recommend scanning through this link if you haven't already. Have fun planning and getting hooked on RCL!! https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/getting-started

I've noticed that a lot of early morning shore excursions (the ones booked thru RC) have start times that are earlier than the port arrival time. For instance, my cruise in March arrives in Roatan at 8AM ship time, but there's about 10 excursions with a 7:30 AM start time that day. I'm confused what everyone does for 30 minutes before the ship docks. Maybe even longer for time to get the gangway down.

To be fair, we're all trying to think of new things to do while docked in Nassau.....

Whatever OBC is offered at the time of booking is what you'll have unless you reprice and rebook the trip when it's offered later on. But if the price of the trip is higher then, it might cancel out any OBC compared to the price you locked in already. You have to do a mock booking on the same room type you have to see if the bottom line is better than your current deal or not. If you booked with refundable rates, you also have to go all the way through putting the travelers' names, birth dates, etc. into the mock booking to be able to select the refundable option. Likewise, if you book with OBC and reprice later on to get a better base rate or sale price, you'll lose the OBC you already have if it's not included in the new rate.

Also if you book any 3rd party shore excursions during the planning process, I recommend doing the credit card foreign authorization thing before charging your deposits as well. Find out what country the charges will come from (for example Cayman Islands for Island Marketing Ltd charges) and give your cc company their name, country of origin and amount you'll be charging. I didn't do this before putting three deposits down on the same day, and as the charges started hitting my account, my cc rejected them and sent me an alert to call and authorize them. I then had to contact the excursion company again and have them resubmit the charges. Major pain in the a$$ that could have easily been avoided.

Southwest flies nonstop from Chicago Midway to Ft. Lauderdale if those cities work for you. That's what we're doing for traveling from our home in SW Michigan to Miami.